#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Roland hits the road taking 2023 elections

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

10.10.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Roland hits the road taking 2023elections Virginia's Our Voices, Our Vote Democratic Candidate's Forum  #RMU LIVE from Suffolk, Virginia, for another special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered "Our Voices, Our Vote" Town Hall powered by Virginia House Democrats and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.  On Monday, we were in Virginia Beach, where we talked to candidates from there.  Every seat in the state's General Assembly and the House of Delegates is up for grabs. Roland Martin will talk to candidates running for some of those delegate seats tonight.  We'll discuss various topics and the importance of voting in your state elections.  Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Brought to you by AARP and the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No, no, no. Intro, no. No.

23 coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. We are live here in Suffolk, Virginia, where we're going to have the second of our forum talking to candidates who are running for the statehouse here in Virginia. Crucial election taking place next month. And so we'll talk about the issues that matter to African-Americans and how critical it is to get the vote out. Also, we'll tell you, one of the three survivors of the Tulsa race massacre has passed away. We'll tell you exactly who that is. And also, Bowie State, they've canceled classes. This, due to the shooting on

campus, we'll tell you exactly why. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, Unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's rolling, yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah, yeah It's Rolling Montana, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah Rolling with Rolling now Yeah, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's rollin' Montana Montana Hey folks, welcome to Southfolk, Virginia. We're here at the Baum Church here for our second focus on this election, crucial election taking place in Virginia, where Democrats are for vote shop, regaining control of the House.

That will lead to the first black speaker of the House in Virginia history in Representative Don Scott, my good alpha brother. And so we've been talking to candidates. Yesterday we were, of course, in Virginia Beach. Next week we'll be in Fredericksburg. We're going to be in Petersburg and also in Richmond as well. And so this is a five-city tour that we are on, taking the show on the road, similar to, of course, what we did in Georgia in the races of us now, Senator Warnock and Senator Ossoff. And of course, that took place in 2020, but also last year in 2022.

And we'll be doing, of course, a lot of this in 2024. A significant number of elections taking place next year. But right now, of course, you have all of the House seats in Virginia up for reelection next month. And so everyone is focusing on this because this serves as a precursor. Folks will be looking at turnout intensity for the 2024 election as well. In a moment, we're going to get to that. But first, the leadership of Blue State announced today they are canceling classes all week to allow for students to deal with

the mental health challenges and the wellness issues after the shooting that took place last week on campus. This follows, of course, the shooting that took place at Morgan State. And so this announcement came from university leadership. They're actually canceling those classes. Also today, Morgan State officials released a video, a photo capture of several individuals of interest in that particular shooting. $9,000 reward is also being offered by Morgan State officials, leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible

for that particular shooting. And so obviously folks are on edge there. Two HBCUs in Maryland, Morgan State and Bowie State, as a result of those shootings. And so we'll be, of course, watching that story play out as well. Folks, some sad news to report. One of the three survivors of the Tulsa race massacre that took place in 1921, he has passed away. We spent a lot of time, of course, in Tulsa for the 100th anniversary a couple of years ago. And we always, of course, love to be around Hughes Van Ellis. Everybody called him Uncle Red. He was the youngest survivor, barely one years old when it took place.

Of course, his sister is also one of those survivors. He passed away in Denver. Y'all might remember we were there in Tulsa covering that. And he also, let me know, Control Room, y'all have the video. He also was very much, he was very much on the Tom Jordan Morning Show crews every single year. We're going to talk more about this tomorrow, but it was always hilarious because here was Red, who was at that time in his late 90s. Here he had 70-year-old daughters at three o'clock in the morning running around trying to ask where their dad was because he was always on the dance floor. And so tomorrow I'm going to show y'all some video of Red. It was about three o'clock in the morning and he was getting it on the dance floor. He was a favorite of the ladies as well.

He always had three or four around him dancing. I was like, Red, look at you. I said, yeah, you're pulling it. But this was a video after the march we covered a couple of years ago that I sent to Tom Joyner. All right, go ahead. I'm going to see this. Go ahead and talk to him. Say something to Tom.

I'm going to send this video to him. Tom, you on the crew, I'll see you November 6th. All right. I'll be there. Dancing. Dancing. With all the women on the crew. With all the women on the crew.

We will have more tomorrow recognizing the life of Vaughn Ellis. And so, so many folks missed him. I did call Tom Jordan last night to let him know. And he definitely, he always, he got a big laugh at those stories. Again, his daughter's coming up to him saying, you know where my daddy is? He was like, I don't know, at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. So we'll have more of that on tomorrow's show. Got to go to a quick break.

When we come back, we'll talk about what's happening here in Suffolk, Virginia, getting ready for this election. Early voting has already started in Virginia. It's still not late for folks to actually register to vote. So please be prepared to do that. You can also be requesting your absentee ballot as well. And so we've got to make sure that our numbers get up. We've been talking about Louisiana. The numbers are way too low in Louisiana. You've got an African- that our numbers get up. We've been talking about Louisiana.

The numbers are way too low in Louisiana. You've got an African-American who's on the ballot there. That gubernatorial race, the primary, takes place on Saturday. And so Sean Lewis, who is in the top two, he could advance to the runoff in, of course, November. But again, the black vote can play a critical role, but in far too many places, we're not seeing African-Americans who are focused. Also, the Mississippi gubernatorial race taking place as well,

where you have the Republican Tate Reeves, who's been completely ignoring black folks, facing Democrat there as well. Again, too many of our folks are not in position to vote. We've got to be maximizing our numbers. So we'll talk about that when we come back right here at the Baum Church in Suffolk, Virginia, right here on Rolling Rock Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly

violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what i call white minority resistance we have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at every university calls white rage as a backlash.

This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. 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 Blackstar Network. What's up, everybody? It's your girl Latasha from the A.

And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Put aside feet. All right, folks, welcome back to Suffolk, Virginia. We are in our second stop in the state. Of course, leading to the election that's taking place next month. It is a critical, critical election. It is at 52-48 right now in the House in Virginia. Democrats want to take control. If so, they will get the first African-American speaker in Virginia history in Don Scott. Joining us right now

is Delegate Cliff Hayes, Chesapeake. Glad to have you here. How you doing? Glad to be here, Bro. Roland, and we're glad that you are the voice and bringing our issues to the table. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Let's just talk about, I laid out what is at stake. Democrats control the Senate here in Virginia. Republican controls the House. Obviously, Glenn Youngkin, Republican, is governor. Explain to folks here and those watching, again, what happens if Democrats are able to take control of the House in Virginia?

Well, Roland, thank you for that question. And for all who are listening, just know this is a high-stakes election. If you care about your HBCUs, that's what's at stake during this election. If you care about health care for everybody having access to affordable quality health care, that's what state. If you realize that Virginia is one of the easiest states to vote in today, recognize that that came because of Democratic power and control in the House and the Senate in the top three positions. And guess what? This session, the various bills, the various measures that allow for easy access to voting were all put forth to be rolled back by the Republicans in the House this session. In fact, they all passed out of the House.

But were it not for a Democratic-controlled Senate, as we call it, the big blue brick wall, we would be looking for all of these measures to be rolled back. All of that is at stake and more. Criminal justice reform is at stake here in the commonwealth of virginia if we do not raise our voices and vote guess what access to health care for women your conversation between you and your doctor and your health is at stake here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

All of those things are at stake and more. You talked about voting. I mean, you have this issue now where the governor, they're trying to explain how in the heck all of these people ended up classified as felons, which prevents them from voting. How many people were you talking about? It was over 470-some thousand folk had been purged from the roll. 470,000? People have been purged from the vote, voting rolls. Now, let me just say this.

You've heard about this stuff happening elsewhere, right? Far, far away somewhere else. But let me just say, pay close attention to what's happening right at your doorstep. This isn't some fairy tale or story that we're reading about or a movie. This is real legislation and policy coming your way. And it's up to us to raise our voices, vote, and make sure that your personal freedoms are protected. Too many people have fought, died, bled, all of that, so that we will have the freedoms that we enjoy today. We cannot, we cannot allow this clock to be rolled back. Well, and on that particular point, as I said last night as well, I mean, this literally is part of the Republican Party

strategy across the country. The purging of voters, we see that we've seen the exact same thing happen in Florida. We've seen it happen in Texas, Ohio, other places as well. We see the limiting of ballot drop boxes, some places are getting rid of them, even shrinking early voting locations down to just one location. And so that's one of the things that I sort of walk folks through. I mean, my home state of Texas, there are 254 counties in this most recent legislature. They passed a bill that said the Secretary of State could actually because of irregularities could

overturn election results but it only applies to one county in the whole state which is Harris County the largest concentration of black folks in the state and so that's so that's literally the type of things the Republicans are enacting when they have control of the House, the Senate, and the governor's mansion. Even in Chesapeake, which is just a stone throw away from here, we had two communities with the largest block of African-American votes. For this early voting that we've created opportunities to vote. Guess what? The local city council in conjunction with the electoral board locally do the math. Whatever top position in that governor's seat gets to have the control of your local electoral boards. So that being the case, they make this decision to get rid of early voting at two African-American priesthoods,

which by chance happens to be the largest voting blocks in the city of Chesapeake. They can say what they want about why they did it. They talk about waste of resources and money. But we know our resources matter also. But again, one of the things that I'm always talking about, how you connect the dots. A person doesn't fully understand that if you didn't vote in the gubernatorial election, not understanding they have control over those boards. And so that's a perfect example of the kind of power that exists that people don't realize. So if you say, well, I'm just going to ignore the governor's race, but then you get mad

because they got rid of an early voting location. Well, that's what happens when you don't vote. Absolutely. And this goes on and on when it comes to education. Also, Roland, the Republicans were in control 20-something years, 20-something years, and they didn't do anything for education, in my opinion. But it was when we took over control of the General Assembly, all top three, as well as the Senate and the House,

we began to flow resources to our public education K-12 system. And that now is at stake as well. What would you say to the person who might be in this audience, who may be watching, who may see this on social media, and that person is saying, I just don't see the value in voting. I'm not seeing it in my neighborhood. I'm not seeing it in my community.

Why should I even expand any energy in doing what you say? Well, listen, let me just say this. If nothing more than you just watch the criminal justice reform that took place here in the Commonwealth of Virginia when the Democrats were in control of the House and the Senate, we ended up with Breonna law for no-knock warrants. No longer can public safety and police just go up to your house and bus up in there without a warrant, without knocking. That can't happen anymore. So no-knock warrants have been abandoned in Virginia? In the Commonwealth of Virginia. Okay. Criminal justice reform. You find a bad apple in your local police department and they're just wreaking havoc. What they were doing is

wreaking havoc on folk. They get caught, then they're able to resign and then they pop up and show up in another community getting hired as an officer somewhere else. no longer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. If you are investigated by what some bad action or participation or lack of participation in stopping someone getting mistreated by a law enforcement officer, and you're an officer also, then your accreditation gets taken away. And guess what? You can't get hired somewhere else unless you get accredited. And if that accreditation has been taken away, you're in a database that your accreditation was taken away. And if you apply somewhere else, all kinds of red flags go up and you don't get hired anywhere else. That's what happened here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The third thing I want to mention is for these silly stops.

And I don't know about y'all, but I've been stopped and pulled over for things that should not have happened. Like a police officer telling me that I was driving too slow. I said, I was trying. I saw you. So I decided I was going to put. I said, I saw you, so I decided I was going to put my car on cruise control so I wouldn't go not one mile over the limit. Well, you driving that slow could be a sign of you being intoxicated. Listen, y'all, that kind of subjective behavior behavior because you have a air freshener hanging on your

mirror or the old taillight busted out because we know the story we know the history of how sometimes those taillights get busted as an excuse for why someone actually pulled you over. 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

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And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. All those types of things rolling when it comes to traffic stops, etc., is why, in terms of criminal justice reform here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, that's at stake.

All right. Delegate Cliff Hayes, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks so much. Appreciate you. Folks, when we come back, we're going to talk to several of the candidates who are running, get their thoughts on a lot of issues. We'll do that, but don't forget, as I said,

we're here with the Virginia House Democrats and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus for this discussion with the various candidates. As I said, folks, again, you have early voting that's taking place right now. You don't have to wait for election day. You can actually vote early now. Also, if you have not registered, you can also do so as well. And so there are a number of places where you can register in this state. So we encourage you to do so. And if you're not in Virginia, again, check your status to see if you're eligible.

Make sure you have not been kicked off the rolls. We have seen so many examples. I've had people actually email us and say, thank goodness I heard you encouraging me. I checked and realized my name wasn't there. And so we see this happening all over the place. And, again, there's so many times that the presidential election gets all of the attention. And so we already see people today talking about 2024, but you can't get to 24 unless you get out of 23. And so there are elections happening here in Virginia, not just statewide elections, but there are local elections.

Like other parts of the country, there are school board elections. said we have elections in louisiana and mississippi as well and so it's critical and of course you also have kentucky uh where you have the folks at until freedom the pope was campaigned and mobilizing organizing because you've got the black republican attorney general daniel cameron who refused to do anything in the beyond the taylor case who's running against a democratic there as well in untold freedom, doing all they can to make sure Daniel Cameron loses. And so it's a perfect example.

There are individuals who might look like us, but who are not speaking to our interests and our concerns. And so if you can, I don't care what anybody says, you give me somebody white who's a conscious, who understands our issues versus somebody black who wants to ignore black people, I don't wanna see that person in so i'm very clear about that so make the effort to check your status be sure to get registered but also you should be reaching out to everybody who's in your circle you've got family members friends fraternity brothers

sorority sisters link members prince hall m Hall, Mason, Eastern Star, all kinds of different people. You should be asking every single person, are you registered? Brothers, if you dating a sister, check and see if she registered and say, we ain't going out unless you registered. And the same thing for sisters as well. Because as I said, when you look at our numbers, if African-Americans are voting anywhere at 65, 70, 75 plus percent of our voting numbers, we could actually win numerous elections all across this country. But in too many places, it's 30, 35, 40, 45 percent. That's simply not going to do it. And so we absolutely encourage you to do all of that. So we're going to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk more about that. Don't forget, you can also support us in what we do. Be sure to get our Black Start Network app.

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Right. But thoughtful change is real good fertilizer. And that's what has been so beneficial to us. But you also were not afraid of the pivot. Well, I'm a black woman in business. Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in.

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zill is rolling at rolling s martin.com hi i'm joe marie payton voice of sugar mama on disney's louder and prouder disney plus and i'm with rolling martin on unfiltered clap all right folks welcome back to the bomb church here in the South Virginia. We're glad to be here for our second forum with Virginia House Democrats and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. And so glad to be here. Oh, and so glad to have folks here. Glad to see all of you here on this evening for our conversation. Also, I know the Republican trackers y'all in here as well. So feel free to go back and tell your party and your candidates if any of them want to talk about black stuff, they can come on

my show too, as if they're not scared. So I know y'all in here. And so I ain't scared of none of y'all. And so, so all y'all gotta do is email, and I'll be happy to have your cannons on the show. Now, it ain't going to go too well for me if they start lying, but I'm just letting you know I ain't scared of them. So because, you know, yesterday, like, you know, they got some trackers. I said, man, I ain't scared of no trackers. That's why Fox News won't call a brother. Let's bring up folks at House District 84, Nadarius Clark. He's running against Michael Dillender.

Nadarius, come on out. He made history two years ago when the then 26-year-old from Hampton Rose became the youngest Democratic delegate in Virginia history, elected to the General Assembly, also the first African-American to serve in that seat as well. How you doing? Doing good. All right. Good seeing you. Good seeing you. All right. So first of all, I opened the show talking about the two shootings at Morgan State and Bowie State, and gun control is one of the issues that you really are focusing on. Yes, sir. I had the privilege of serving on a public safety

committee and also the gun laws committee as well with my colleague here, Delegate Jenkins. And this session and last session, it was pretty brutal because the other side didn't even allow for a debate when we was to put forth bills like common sense gun solutions to like, if you have a minor in your house to make sure you have a safety lock boss, to make sure that you're taking safety courses when you buy the purchase of a firearm. You know, simple guns, solutions that weren't even heard. They wouldn't allow any debate? No, no debate. And actually, while we were debating, there was a shooting that happened right on Broad Street and a man was killed in broad daylight. And while I debated the other side that we are doing nothing to combat this gun violence solution as they defunded gun violence prevention by 60 percent last year they continued to allow one law to pass out of the

house and that was to allow more guns in more places they felt so when you say they defunded gun violence prevention explain that yeah so a lot of times we have community organizations that go out and they uh you know their boots on the ground they're involved with young people and giving them opportunities and they're also their their grants and money and funds that help those organizations to exist and to do the things that they do and sadly a lot of those uh organizations won't receive funding because of the defunding oh so republicans how they do believe in defunding yes gotcha all right just checking um and see this this is one of the things that for me makes no sense how can somebody be against literally having safety boxes uh we see these stories all

the time of a child uh who is shot or killed and they get access to a gun and they shoot a brother or a sister or a classmate. And so to me, this is an absolute no brainer to be able to say, hey, lock your gun up. Right. And it just baffles me because, you know, certain rights, they're perfectly fine to infringe on when it comes to our right to vote. Like you said, they're trying to take away the absentee drop boxes and other methods that Democrats have fought so hard to fight for. We have seen, you know, both this session and last session, they'll try to repeal everything that we did to make sure that you have the right to vote. But yet they are doing nothing to combat this gun violence you're saying.

And here's the thing for me. First of all, I shot a gun one time and I was like, this is it? I'm like, this is about the most overrated experience I ever had in my life. It was a machine gun at the FBI Citizens Academy. And I was like, man, I'm going to play golf. Y'all keep this stuff. So I don't, look, that ain't my thing. But the reality is you are a gun owner. What often happens is in these debates, Republicans often try to tag Democrats and saying, oh, you hate guns. But there are Democrats who are gun owners. And you're simply saying if you own a gun, there should be some safety behind it. There should be courses actually taking it. It's amazing to me how we would make these requirements for so many other things as opposed to the one thing that kills more people

in this country than anything else. Yeah, right now the number one cause of death for young people is guns, and we need to do something about that. You know, like I said, they allowed a bill to be passed for explosives and firearms to be allowed at rest areas. That was their great plan this year to combat gun violence, to allow more guns and bombs now at rest areas. Let's talk about, for a lot of people who don't, explain red flag laws. Explain what that is and why you support that. Yes, red flag laws. Red flag laws is when someone has been deemed a threat to themselves or to someone else,

whether it's mentally or physically, if they're being an abuser or something like that, a judge will have to deem that that person isn't viable to have that firearm, and they will come and confiscate that firearm. That law has been tried to be repealed time and time again since it's been. So if you're a woman and you're being abused by a boyfriend or a husband last thing you want is that person to be able to get a gun yes and gun rights and gun rights folks they hate that they hate that they hate red flag law they want to get rid of even that yeah they want to get rid of it all explain trigger locks trigger lock so trigger

locks is all of is another thing that we've been pushing along with ghost guns and 3D printing guns as well because there's so many ways, sadly, that you can make these weapons of destruction. So we're trying to make sure that we include universal background checks, that we do have these trigger locks, that we do have safety drop boxes as well in people's homes that have minors at home because we see time and time again in Newport News in Norfolk, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds taking guns to school, shooting their teachers, shooting each other. And we have to do something about what's happening. One of the things that you do support that is always a contentious one with fellow Democrats is the issue of school choice. I've had some folks who come to me and they say the exact same thing. They're like, man, I don't understand why you support school choice. But it's interesting because I went to magnet schools growing up, and I'm like, that's a separate form of education compared to traditional schools.

And the position that I've always taken is I support every form of education, public school, private school, traditional, charter, magnet, homeschool, online. I don't care how you get taught. I want you to be able to get taught. So explain, so when you say you support school choice, what does that actually mean? What do you actually want to see in Virginia? Yes, I'm a product of public schools and private schools. I graduated from Virginia Union University and also I see Norcombe High School. And I ain't never went to private school, all public.

What was the private school? Public first grade all the way through college? But what I believe is one, we can't divert public funds to fund private institutions. We have to make sure that we fully fund public schools first. And any dollar that's taken outside of public schools to fund a private institution is harming our public schools. We know in Virginia, there has been a historical defunding of public schools. The last 23 years out of the 24 years that, you know, the Republicans had control of the House, the last 22 out of 24 years. So the reason why we don't have the funding that we need is you've got to follow the money

and follow who's in charge. And they have made sure, they made it their their business that we have crumbling schools with infrastructure. They don't have the mental health resources. They don't have the after school programs, you know, and these are things that we have been fighting for. We fought for teacher raises the last two years. I wrote the bill for teacher pay to bring it to the national average. And this year we made record investment in public schools as well. But that's thanks to the Democratic stronghold that we have in the Senate. A couple more questions for you. So what is your biggest priority?

If you were able to go back to the General Assembly, if someone's out there saying, hey, why should I send you back? What is your number one priority? Yes, well, I wish I could name all ten of them, but I'll stick to my number one. You ain't going to name all ten of them. We ain't got that much time. And you can name three. Okay. You ain't going to name ten.

I can work with three. Number one is medical debt relief. I had a bill for medical debt for the statute of limitations. A lot of times we don't know that in Virginia, state-funded hospitals have no statute of limitations. So you can go for a life-saving procedure, 10, 20, 30 years, you're getting a garnishment. And we know that medical debt is the number one cause for homelessness. So that is something I have been tackling. That bill actually passed the House and the Senate. But it's fighting the bill, though.

So what does it do? It makes sure that we actually capture all medical debt in a three-year window, and you cannot no longer get garnished or leaned or come out. So you say capture it three years. But let's say you have it and you don't pay it off in three years, what then happens? It will drop off. It will not affect your credit score or anything like that. Got it.

Okay. Yes. So number two is education. We have to fully fund our education. We have to make sure our teachers are paid what they deserve. Okay when we hear fully fund, what does fully fund mean? Yes that means infrastructure. We need to make sure a lot of times we have crumbling schools. You go in there the bricks are falling off. We don't have the resources we need. So we need to make sure that the infrastructure for schools to be built To make sure that that we can attract and retain teachers that were also bringing mental health resources into our school I'm a mental health counselor so I've always taken seriously that we make sure that we combat when I go to these high schools and middle schools and I talk To students and they're telling me that they're doing these active shooting drills and I asked them

Well, how how do you feel about it? And do you feel safer? They said no We're just more aware that we can be shot in our school at any time. So we need to make sure that we address these concerns and that we see houses pulling on their psyche coming out of COVID as well with so much learning loss that is happening. We have to make sure that we put these funds back where they're needed. Now, I want to stay on that because, again, your opponent supports school choice. And so define that. Is that money going to private religious schools? Is it going to private schools? And so what's the distinction between the both of you? Well, he sits on a private school board. He does claim that he's a school board member. He sits on

a private school schools board, which is very different from an elected position. And he does support fully funding private schools with public funds. And so what about charter schools? He supports charter schools. Do you support charter schools? I support charter schools, but not if it's going to divert the money from public schools. I believe we have to make sure we can't give up on public schools and say, let's go to this. But public charter schools, they're go to this public charter schools. There's still public public charter schools. I'm open to the idea. Long as we still don't take away from the schools that still need the funding.

OK. And of course, you mentioned you mentioned mental health counselor. That's that's a obviously a huge issue that we're not seeing a lot of cities, counties and states really focus on. People talk about it, but they're not funding a lot of cities, counties, and states really focus on. People talk about it, but they're not funding that particular issue. We've seen a dramatic increase in the need for mental health resources over the past several years. Yes, I actually wrote a bill for mental health as well to make sure that we're combating workplace safety and things like that. But my bill for mental health was if you work in mental health in Virginia as a profession and you work for five years that we will forgive your student loans from Virginia so that way we can attract and gain more people to work in this field because a lot of times

as myself and school board member Jenkins we both work in a mental health field and a lot of times you know the workload that we, you can't give the care that you need to everyone because you're just so overworked. And we need more people to get. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg

Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working

and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building

your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. In this field, but we also need to make it attractive. All right, cool. And there is Clark. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, thanks a bunch. All right, folks, we're going to go to a break. We're going to come back and talk to another can. Don't forget, October 16th is the deadline to get registered to vote in this year's election.

And, of course, those who register after this date through election, they could cast a provisional ballot. We don't want you to do that. We want you to cast a real ballot. So please get, make sure that you're registered by October 16th. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is October 27th in Virginia. And so you can request that through the mail,

fax, or online. And of course, the last day of early in-person voting is November 4th, and that's also the deadline to apply for the absentee ballot. So early in-person voting is going to end at 5 p.m. on November 4th. And so, please, we want you to remember that date. One more date to remember, November 6th is the last day a voter can request an emergency absentee ballot. And then, of course, the big day is Election Day on November 7th is the last day a voter can request an emergency absentee ballot. And then, of course, the big day is Election Day on November 7th.

And so please respond accordingly if you can. All right, folks, got to go to break. We'll come back. We'll chat with another candidate about their priorities. That is coming up next right here. I'm Roland Martin on the filter on the Black Star Network, live from South Fork, Virginia. Back in a moment. All right, in a moment.

All right, make it work. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we meet Ricky Fairley. She was given a death sentence by her doctor 11 years ago. But for Ricky, giving up was not an option. She declared war on her disease, turned her entire life upside down, and won the battle. I know that God left me here to do this work. And when you talk about faith, faith is what got me through. I mean, I had to relinquish my faith and give my life to God and say, OK, God, what have you got for me?

And He gave me my purpose. And that's why I'm here. Her amazing story of strength, balance, and survival here on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. Coming up next on The Frequency right here on the Blackstar Network, Shanita Hubbard. We're talking about the ride or die chick. We're breaking it down. The stereotype of the strong black woman. Some of us are operating with it as if it's a badge of honor.

Like you even hear black women like, aspiring to be this ride or die chick, aspiring to be this strong black woman at their own expense. Next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A., and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories,

politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Pull up a chair.

Take your seat. 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. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Suffolk, Virginia, for this electoral conversation.

We are partnering with the House Democrats as well as the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. This is the second of five stops. We were at Virginia City, Virginia Beach last night and here tonight. And, of course, we're going to be in Fredericksburg,ersburg and also in richmond so certainly looking forward uh to these conversations welcome right now in house district 89 uh karen jenkins uh she is running against baxter ennis all right y'all so karen calls herself a self-proclaimed country girl. She's a mental health professional, school board member, living in this city for more than 30 years. And she believes, of course, in investing in schools and lowering various costs as well.

So I got to ask you this here, Karen. So you are a mental health professional, and your opponent probably needs your expertise because you're running against an election denier. Absolutely. That makes literally nothing. He lost. Take the L. He lost. And here's what's dumb to me about these MAGA people.

That's how dumb they are. Okay? Now, I ain't got a problem they are dumb you got to be dumb to say he lost but everybody else won but you denied that election when it was the exact same election yeah we need some help we need some help like you said um you know that's what we're facing today. And that's that's the reason why I'm running, because we need people that, you know, that's going to run and be in Richmond. They care about people that want to make sure that we do things that make sense for everybody. And so, you know, that are saying and people that are sane that's right but um you know i can help them out while i'm in the general assembly they can come to my office i'll be there i mean it i mean no i mean we we have we have reached a point uh where literally these folks

believe everything uh is rigged everything is a failure oh except if they win now they win oh everything is perfect was all good everything went win now they win oh everything is perfect was all good everything went accordingly uh but see that's still what just cracks me up uh because when when trump was complaining about losing in georgia all those other republicans who won were going our race was fine and it was the exact same ballot absolutely absolutely and so you know that that's it's it just doesn't make sense, like you're saying. And so we need people that accept whatever happens. They need to accept it, and then we move on.

And, you know, if you can run on what you've done positive, what you've done to help people, maybe that will get you a little more votes instead of trying to beat everybody else up that you're running against. If you're not happy with what you've done all your life to help people, maybe you just should not run and just continue to work on making progress. That's the only thing I can say. Or go see a therapist. Or go see a therapist. Yes. I have openings. Baxter Ennis, she has openings.

All right. You sit on the school board, and we have seen these vicious attacks from the right dealing with CRT, which they can't even spell. The burning of the burning, excuse me, some of these people actually burning books, the banning of books. And then you have these folks who want parents to act as if they should be taking over classrooms and teaching students, allowing teachers to do what they do. So from your perspective, the school board member, what are you seeing in terms of how folks should be approaching public education? Well, number one, we just need to put our children first. And I think that's what's happening. We're forgetting about the kids, you know, the students that we're supposed to be teaching.

And we have parents coming to our school board meetings and they're attacking us who don't even have kids in school. You know, they're not even living in our district. And so it's just like it's a script. You know, they come and they say, oh, it's a script. Absolutely. And so they come to our school board meetings and it's just a, you know, a rehearsed attack. And we say all the time, what about the kid? Where are the kids in all of this that you're you're doing? Because that's who we're supposed to be focused on.

And I'm just I'm just upset because they waste time coming to do this. And our children are watching on our school board meetings, and they're confused because they're not complaining. It's the parents. The students are happy. And they're happy with what they're doing. And we have counselors like myself who work in the schools every day. I see them when they get off the bus, and some of them are already at a certain level because of things that happen at home. So you need to take care of things at home and let the teachers take care of things and the administrators in the state legislation, which is where you want to be? Absolutely. We need to make sure that we are writing bills and we're passing bills that provide the equal pay for our teachers. Our teachers do more than just teach.

They're actually counselors as well. They're, you know, we don't call them parents because they're not their parents, but I see they do far more. They feed, they bring clothes for students that don't have clothes, so they do a whole lot. So we need to make sure that we are putting bills in place to make sure that our teachers are taken care of financially, make sure that we are putting bills in place to make sure that our teachers are taken care of financially. Make sure that we have programs that help them mentally. I mean, everybody needs a counselor every now and then. Everybody needs a counselor every now and then. Because there's so many things going on right here, right here in Virginia, right

here in that area. And there's nothing wrong with seeing a counselor. So we need to make sure that we have things in place for our teachers. We need to make sure our administrators, that they're fully trained, our teachers continue to get trained. Make sure our teachers have policies that our teachers can take a break during the day. Make sure that they can plan for the next day. These are the kind of things that we need, and we need more mental health bills, just like soon be my seatmate, Delegate Clark, and my husband, Delegate Jenkins, have done that, soon to be senator. Yes, we need to make sure those things are put in place.

So what specifically, and so what, you know, in terms of as someone who is an expert in this area, how can lawmakers help people who need assistance? As far as schools? No, as far as mental health. So what we need, we need more mental health counselors. We definitely need that. And we need to make sure that we compensate them for what they do, the hours. And what I have found out when I first started this

over a decade ago, our persons that we see, they had a lot more hours that we could see them. Now it is cut down where we, how we say units or hours, 160 hours we could see at a time. Now you have to ask Richmond if we can get them for at least 60 hours. So it dropped from 160 to now 60 hours. So they are making it very hard for us to even see our individuals that need our help. So we have to wait to see, you know, if they're going to get approved.

So we need to make it easier for our individuals to be approved so we can see them and help them, whether it be kids, because I see children from pre-K to adults. So it don't start just when you're an adult. I see them from four-year-old all the way to high school, and I see them as adults as well. So we need to make it accessible and affordable. And when you say affordable, what is that going to cost? And so as you're thinking forward, if you get elected, how much needs to be allocated specifically for mental health in this state? I can't even put a number on it, but what I'm saying is we need millions of dollars.

We need millions of dollars to make sure that all of our people from whatever age are eligible, where it's Medicaid, Medicare. We should not have anything that's blocking that or stopping them from getting the support that they need. Let's talk about, you talked about lowering costs. Look, there are a lot of people out here who are hurting. Even though we see the Giles reports in terms of we're still near record low unemployment, there's still a social safety net that is needed, that's provided by various states, and we see that's also under assault. And so what are your priorities in that area? Well, my priorities, we need to make sure, number one, like Delegate Clark said, that, you know, medical bills, medication. You know, I'm wearing my, this is heart, cancer heart and

my mother right now is on hospice at home. She has cancer. And before she became diagnosed with this, it was so hard for her to pay for her medicine, get her medicine. She also has asthma. And one asthma puff was $300, $400 a month. Now that she's on hospice and they've given her You know a few weeks or whatever to live all her medication is free. I believe that's backwards that is backwards. We should Do things to prevent? Instead of oh well you only have a month or a few days so medical Assistance we need that for our prescriptions We need low cost on that most definitely. And we just need to make things available at high cost with gas. People, you know, we used to say, you

know, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul. Well, now we're robbing Peter, Paul, the grandma, the aunt, and everybody just to make ends meet. And we live in America. People say, we're coming to America. It's the dream place. Well, a lot of people are having nightmares because they can't afford it. So we don't want to have people make a choice between paying for their medication and paying their mortgage or rent. We don't want that.

Especially in a state with a significant surplus. Absolutely. Most of that money came from the federal government, so New Yorkers should be thanking Biden and Harris for that money because that's where it actually came from. federal government. So New Yorkers should be thanking Biden-Harris for that money because that's where it actually came from. Absolutely. Absolutely. We should. And, you know, it's just a thing that we should

give credit where credit is due. If something is good, because I'm all about serving the human person. I don't care who you are, what you are, what color. I serve the human part of the person. So if I'm helping you because you are just a human being and The people in an office that have been just accept that it should not matter who we are what color we are

What what you know party we are if we're here to help you we're here to help you and that's what we do All right, then two more what What are your priorities? My priorities are education. That's number one. Education, we need to make sure that every single child have access to a world-class education with nothing cut out. Everybody needs a world-class education. Two, we need to make sure that women's rights to choose are here. We are strong enough and smart enough to make our choices with the help of our doctors. We don't need any politicians coming in the room to say this or that. No, we are smart enough to do that. And the economy.

The economy, like I said before, we just need to make sure that we're able to survive and we're able to put some money in the bank and save it and live a good life. That's not asking too much. All right, Karen Jenkins, well, we appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Good luck in the election and again, be sure to hook your opponent up with some of those mental health services. Thank you and I'll see you at my inauguration in January. Uh huh. I'll see you at my inauguration in January.

Alright. We appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Alright folks, we're going to go to a break. We'll come back and we'll chat with more candidates here at the Baum Church in Suffolk, Virginia. Don't forget if you are watching in Virginia, you can be sure to get registered to vote. October 16th is the deadline.

Of course, if you're not in Virginia, check your status no matter where you are. Deadlines are fast approaching. We've got elections, critical elections coming up in Kentucky, Mississippi, in different places, in Louisiana as well, and other places too. So remember, there are elections every single year

and that's the one thing that really drives me crazy because people spend so much time on the top of the ticket not realizing they're more impacted by school board races. And we have to be involved in that because you've got those nutcases with the Moms for Liberty. Oh, you're Republican trackers. I said nutcases because they are. And so they're literally taking over school boards. And the first thing they're doing, they're firing, in many cases, black superintendents. They're firing other folks as well. They're changing the curriculum because they want to control the education of our children. And many of these places, especially South Carolina, are predominantly black school districts, and they're taking over. And so we have to understand

what is going on. And so when we don't vote, we are allowing those folks to be in control. So even if you sit at home and sit out an election, then you're actually making it easier for somebody to control what's happening in your city, in your state. And so you've got to be involved in this. And so please do so. So be sure to get registered and then cast that ballot as well. Going to break. We'll be right back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we meet Ricky Fairley. She was given a death sentence by her doctor 11 years ago. But for Ricky, giving up was not an option. She declared war on her disease, turned her entire life upside down, and won the battle. I know that God left me here to do this work. And when you talk about faith, faith is what got me through. I mean, I had to relinquish my faith and give my life to God and say, OK, God,

what have you got for me? And he gave me my purpose. And that's why I'm here. Her amazing story of strength, balance, and survival here on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. hatred on the streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what i call white minority resistance we have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history.

Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning into... Roland Martin Unfiltered. 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars, Marcus King, John Osborne

from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Sh Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real

from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working

and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. All right, folks, welcome back to the Baum Church here in Suffolk, Virginia. Glad to see everybody here.

Y'all good? All right, then. Glad to see you here. We, of course, are talking about the 2023 election. It is a crucial election here in Virginia. Right now, Republicans control the House 52 to 48. Democrats control the Senate. Of course, Republicans control the House 52 to 48. Democrats control the Senate. Of course, Republicans control the governor's mansion with Glenn Youngkin. And so the legislature,

of course, General Assembly, they're the ones who actually set the agenda when it comes to passing bills. And so if Democrats are able to take control of the House and the Senate, first, it would mean the first African-American speaker of the House in Virginia, in Delegate Don Scott. That would be, of course, critically important. Delegate Scott was with us yesterday and made clear that if he is in charge, trust me, he's going to make sure that African-Americans' needs and concerns are taken care of, long neglected in this state, not just by Republicans, but also by Democrats. And so that's important. And so we look forward to that. But also when you talk about the priorities that are critically

important, especially with HBCUs, we'll talk about this in a minute, the Biden administration sent letters to a variety of states saying they should be funding HBCUs across the country. They say between 1987 and 2022, public HBCUs are underfunded by the tune of $13 billion. And so that's what's happening. And so that's one of the issues that is also on the ballot. All right, folks, before we get to our next candidate, here's a video that was put together by the House Democrats in the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. We want to share with you, so check this out. Ladies and gentlemen, we are not only a target based on the color of our skin,

but by the power of our voices. Our voices were constructed by crossing that bridge on Bloody Sunday, being brutally tortured for a seat at the Greensboro Sinning Diner, rightfully marching down D.C. for an equal job and freedom back in 63. We know the march is not yet over. We know the race is not yet won. It's time to stand up. It's time to fight. You need to put on what you, you need to say what you believe.

You need to show up. You need to stand up and fight. You need to knock doors, raise money. Don't just give your time, give your energy, give your resources, give your opinion, give your energy, give your resources, give your opinion, give your voice. Not just for people in our Commonwealth, but for the entire region. I have not backed down. I have doubled down.

With your vote, we will no longer sit within the shoes of our volunteers. And if you're pro-life, you are standing there with black folks when their kids are killed by cops. You are not silent. So if you're pro-life, you're standing there with black folks when their kids are killed by cops. You are not silent. So if you're pro-life, be pro-life from the womb to the tomb, but not just in the womb. We will open doors that no man could ever close.

Our vote will make an instant shift in the atmosphere. We are the leaders of change. What do we need? The liberation. When do we need it? Now. We must understand the politics of change. What do we need? The liberation. When do we need it? Now. We must understand the politics of our community. And we must know what politics is supposed to produce.

We must know what politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature, we will always be misled, led astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn't have the good of our community at heart. Our lives depend on this vote. Change is more than a campaign ad. It's a movement. All right, folks. Great job with that video. Let's now bring out Clint Jenkins. He's a Democratic

candidate for Virginia's 17th Senate District. Clint, come on out. How's it going? All right. So Clint running against Delegate Emily Brewer. So you're currently a delegate? Yes. All right then. So why did you decide to run for the Senate? Well, we've accomplished quite a bit of good work in the General Assembly, supporting teachers' pay, criminal justice reform, rental assistance, making sure that we gave extra funding for our police officers. And I just think we need to continue that work in the General Assembly, especially with women's reproductive rights being on the line.

One of the things that would happen, of course, when you ran in 2019, your district was also flipped. And one of the areas that is huge in this state, also support for veterans, which you are. So let's talk about that because, look, that's a huge voting bloc in this state. Yes, definitely. Veterans are very important. One of the things we just did in the General Assembly was we introduced and passed legislation that would free up veterans on retirement pension.

So now, regardless of their age, our veterans' retirement pension will not be taxed. Also. Taking some veterans in his room, huh? Okay. All right. And I'm a veteran myself. But the other thing that we did, we introduced legislation that required the state of Virginia to do research to find out what other states are doing so that we can improve the amount of the quality of services

that we are providing to our veterans. All right, then. Being a veteran, your opponent does not support gun control legislation. And it has to be maddening to watch individuals who literally want to carry and use weapons that are used on the battlefield across the world by our military, but they want to walk around with those same weapons here in the United States and say, oh, no, no, I'm just doing this for hunting. I mean, I always say, if you need a gun like that to hunt, you can't shoot. So you should just give up hunting. Yeah, and I agree with you. A lot of persons don't realize that an assault weapon is a dangerous tool.

When an assault bullet hits you from an assault weapon, it doesn't just hit and stay right there. That bullet can hit one spot, travel through the body, or keep on going through the body and hit another person. An assault weapon is not a toy. My opponent did introduce legislation to allow persons to carry assault weapons on the street, which is nonsense and is dangerous. Introduce legislation

that would allow persons to carry legislation on the streets. An assault weapon on the streets? For what? That's a good question. I haven't been able to answer that one yet. And the thing here, I mean, if you serve in the military, you are trained to use those weapons. Trained.

They want folks walking. No training whatsoever when it comes to these weapons. No training, no discipline. As a matter of fact, we are even trained that when you finish using your weapon, not only do you clean it, but you properly secure it. You make sure that it's secure so someone can't come behind you and take your weapon and harm someone else. But during the General Assembly, my opponent wanted to do away with lock boxes, wanted to do away with the requirement to require persons to properly secure their weapons.

Now, look at the number of youth out there that are being killed by weapons. I read an article Sunday that said gun violence among persons under the age of 20 has increased to 87 percent. The only thing topping gun violence among our youth under 20 years of age is car accidents. Wow. And again, you understand why those weapons have been created, how they are used, and to have folks who want to represent us politically say, oh, absolutely, let's let anybody carry those weapons on the streets of Virginia and the streets of

America. Yes, there are some folks out there that are truly confused. They confuse sports with endangering other person's lives. They can't relate to it. They're detached from those types of things. You're also a small business owner. What kind of business do you own? Real estate. Let's talk about that because for a lot of African-American business owners, they would love to participate in the greater economic pie. But when you look at whether it's this state or others, a small percentage of contracts go to African-Americans. And so what do you want to do to increase that? Well, you know what?

Not only am I a real estate manager, but once upon a time, I was a contract administrator for the government. And it was my job to make sure that persons received contracts and they were distributed fairly out there in society. So I made sure that persons had the proper training, the proper skills, and I took those tools and went back to the community to make sure persons knew what the criteria and the qualification was to get those contracts. Now, one of the things about government contracts is a lot of times you need a mentor or a tutor to get you into the program.

So I was instrumental in working with HUD zones and small business zones to make sure that I took those resources out there, the education requirement out there, to train and teach persons so they can get those governmental contracts. And so if you go to the Senate, what do you hope to do there? Because we look at the disparity studies. The numbers are dismal. And if we're not receiving contracts in the private sector, which we also know is the case, and if we're not getting them in the government contracting, then you're not able to build capacity, able to grow. If you're able to grow small black-owned businesses, those people are able to hire more people.

That now impacts economics in the black community. You know, one of the things that I did and I will continue to do, during the pandemic, businesses, small businesses were impacted tremendously. And I walked the street from business to business to find out where they're getting those loans, where they're getting those grants to assist them to stay open. So I was able to connect the dot with the small business to find out what was happening to help them get the state funding as well as prevented them from getting the state funding. I was able to connect those dots and try to mediate to eliminate some of those issues that were hindering them. Now, when I go to the Senate,

I will continue to educate persons. And prior to COVID, I had put together a program that required the state to come into the locality to provide training, to help persons put their paperwork together and get whatever tools necessary to be qualified to go out for those small business loans. And I will continue to do that. Let's talk about health care. I mean, that is another significant issue when you start looking at the top two or four issues of folks all across this country that's in there. And so it's one of those issues that, again, when you look at what's happening on the state level, there are a lot of people not making lots of money, those people who are definitely who are the working poor.

But then you also have people who are even middle class who are still being impacted by health care. What can the state of Virginia do if you are a state senator to help Virginians when it comes to health care? I'm a boots on the ground type person. I like walking in the community, seeing what's going on, different churches, civic leagues, just learning what some of the issues are. When I was elected in 2019, the very first piece of legislation that I introduced, there was a group of persons out there between the age of 19 and 64 that did not have dental care and Medicaid. I introduced legislations to make sure that bracket, that gap was closed. So if you had Medicaid, regardless of your age, you had dental care. And now, it is my intent to continue that. We were able to cap the price of insolence and now what I'm working on is out there

there's still a group of people out there that do not have health care. So we're working to get with the insurance providers to find out what that gap is, what that roadblock is. We're bringing team partners together to find out how do we fix that to make sure that persons out there have health care. We're going to fix that problem. All right. A couple of more questions for you that also jump out.

We talked about several times tonight education. And we talk about full funding. We talk about increasing times tonight education. And we talk about full funding. We talk about increasing pay for teachers. But I do want to talk about this constant attack on teaching black history in our schools. Folk passing bills to say if a white student feels uncomfortable that teaching has to stop as if everything in history makes you feel good. It doesn't. And just your thoughts on the literal assault that we have on truth and information and also teaching all of American history that's happening right now in this state, in this country? Look, knowledge is power. And if you don't know where you come from, how are you going to know where you're going?

And if we don't know something about our past, we are doomed to go into that same old circle, repeating the same old stuff over and over again. One of the pieces of legislation that I was fortunate enough to carry during the General Assembly was legislation that required all of our teachers that taught history and social studies to take classes in African American history. That way it could be taught correctly. I carry that legislation, and you can rest assured that as we work to fully fund our education, Delegate Clark said earlier he carried legislation to increase teachers' pay. It was killed. And by the grace of God, I

put together a team of partners there from VEA, our Suffolk superintendent for schools, Karen Jenkins on that committee. And we sat down and we rehashed that legislation and reworked it and worked it. And when it went before the General Assembly, it passed the House, it passed the Senate and the governor signed it and now when it comes to teacher's pay, they're going to do a study and in 2020, in 2024, we would know what those numbers are, what it takes to increase our teacher's pay and what it takes to put money in the budget to fully fund our schools for construction, support staff. Well, we've got that through.

Last question here. You serve in the U.S. Army. And when you listen to the, when you hear these election deniers, when you hear these people talk about, oh, how our troops are fighting for our way of life and freedom, but then they turn around and are trying to stop folks from voting, how does that make you feel? You know what? The persons are watching the news, and they're seeing what's going on there in Israel.

And when you reflect on things that are going on around the country, and even when you watch a military movie, soldiers, when they're putting their lives on the line and when they're giving their lives, and they come back and realize that someone is trying to hinder you from taking part in the fundamental right, the right to decide which way your company should go, how resources should be distributed, whether or not streets and roads should be repaired, whether or not a person should receive assistance. 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 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Financially, medically, or whatever, to take away those fundamental rights that you're giving your life for, it's a painful experience. All right. Well, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a a bunch we're going to do this here um first of all give it up please give it up so we thank clint jenkins so we come back i'm going to take some of y'all questions

uh and so we'll do that when we come back from this break uh don't forget folks we have some critical deadlines coming up first october 16thth is the deadline for you to register to vote. If you want to cast a ballot in this Virginia election, please check your status. Do not assume you're registered. I tell my viewers all the time, look, I register every year. They ain't going to try to sit here and mess me over. And so you have an effort. And also let me correct Delegate earlier. There were 10,000 folks who were classified as felons who were improperly by the state. But we've seen how in other places as well, there's been hundreds of thousands of people.

So we've seen this happen all across this country where people are being purged from voting rolls. And so first, check your status. Make sure that you are registered. happen all across this country where people are being purged from voting rolls. And so first, check your status. Make sure that you are registered. Do not assume that you're registered. Go online and actually check it. And if you want to be sure, just go ahead and just register again. If you moved, if anything changed, just do that. Make that way.

You're done. And there are no problems because the issue when it comes to provisional ballots, they aren't always counted. And so we want to make sure that your ballot absolutely counts. We don't have any meetings and other kind of drama going on. And remember, that was it. That was a tie in a race in this state. And they had to decide. It wasn't a corner flip. They said it was really the selection out out of a name look that shouldn't be the case and this is where we have to be using all of our votes and so i don't care where we are and so if you're sitting there you're sitting in this audience or you're at home

uh you're listening it doesn't matter hit all the folk that you know and ask them and it's simple y'all text back and forth you're're on social media. Nobody in your life should be in your life if they are not a registered voter. So that's the first thing. Early voting is taking place right now. And so you can register now and you can cast your ballot. Don't wait till the last minute. Don't sit and wait till election day. You don't know if it's going to be raining or cold or whatever. Man, get that thing done now and get it out of the way and cast your ballot. Again, that's critically important. So we want you to do that. And so please check out, check all the deadlines and get this thing done,

because I absolutely believe that African-Americans, if we can get our voting numbers up. Let me give you two examples. When Harold Washington was elected the first black mayor of Chicago in 1983, 85% of eligible black voters voted. That's how Harold Washington won in Chicago. When Andrew Young ran for Congress the first time, he told me that 72% of all eligible black voters in Atlanta voted in that election. That should be the norm for us. It shouldn't be a special situation. Because I can tell you, and I do this all the time, if you look at the numbers in too many places, black voter participation, depending upon where we are, goes anywhere from 35 to 50 percent. You look at some of these city elections where turnout, the total turnout, is 10, 15, 16, 18 percent.

And so if black voter participation is around 70, 75, 80 percent, we could absolutely determine who the state rep is, who the state senator is, who the school board member, the city council member, who the governor, the statewide offices are. And so we're seeing how a lot of these elections, they're very slim margins. And so we have to understand that. And so people need to understand, you can't make the assumption that,

oh, they got it, the polls say this here, there's no poll I pay attention to. There's only one poll that matters and that's the one on election day. I can show you a whole bunch of people who thought they were going to win based on the poll and they were sitting behind at home come inauguration day. And so we don't want that to happen. And so please, we want you to check your status. If you if you're straight, fine. If not, go ahead and get registered and be sure in position for the election. I will be right back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network right here in Suffolk, Virginia. Back in a moment. All change is not growth. Right.

But thoughtful change is real good fertilizer. And that's what has been so beneficial to us. But you also were not afraid of the pivot. Well, and I'm a black woman in business. Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in. I still am a black woman in business.

Being afraid of the pivot, being fearful of change is not what got me here. Respectful of change, respectful of pivot. Yeah, fearful? No, uh-ens, 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. Coming up next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network, Shanita Hubbard. We're talking about the ride or die chick. We're breaking it down. The stereotype of the strong Black woman. Some of us are operating with it as if it's a badge of honor. Like you even hear black women love, aspiring to be this ride or die chick, aspiring to be this strong black woman. So at their own expense.

Next on The Frequency, right here on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. Louder and Prouder on Disney+., and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Alright folks, welcome back to the Baum Church here in SoFort, Virginia. Glad for you to be with us. All right, so we're going to take some questions.

So here's how we're going to do this whole thing right now. So I want people just to understand. So here's the deal. I'm going to have the three candidates come on up here. So y'all just stand right here. Three candidates come on up. And so if you've got a question, I don't want a long line, so I'm going to take three three people at a time. And so I'm gonna step down right here because I don't want anybody tripping when you're trying to get sued. So I want you to come on up. I'm gonna come down the bottom step. I'm

gonna ask you a question. I have rules. Okay. My rules are real clear. I don't need you holding the microphone. Okay. I don't need you touching the microphone. I don't need no help holding the microphone. So keep your hands to your side. Okay. Uh, I want you to ask a question. I don't want no sermonette. I don't want no speech. Uh, and you ain't running. So we are not trying to hear from you all doggone day. Uh, and so, uh, that's how we're going to do this thing. And so let's go ahead and get started. And if you go long, trust me, I will cut you off because that ain't a problem. All right. So who wants to ask a question?

Here we go. All right. Step on up. Come on up. Come on. Give us your name. Where are you from? Nakia Miller.

I'm from Hampton. But I have Houston roots. Okay. All right, then. What's your question? Will the three of you support the abolishment of qualified immunity, and will you set the expectation that your colleagues do the same? All right, cool.

All right, so who wants to answer that question? Any thoughts on qualified immunity when it comes to criminal justice reform? Who wants to answer that question? Thoughts on qualified immunity when it comes to criminal justice reform? Who wants to answer that? There you go. Y'all grab the mic. There we go. Well, first, thank you for that question. And yes, that is something we have to tackle for qualified immunity to make sure that we can hold everyone accountable when it comes to protecting our communities. A lot of times we've seen, you know, in Virginia Beach and different cities that sadly people have lost their lives by the hand of police. And we need to make sure that we can hold everyone accountable to make sure that we can ensure everyone's safety. Thank you again, as Delegate Clark has said for that question.

We have done a lot, extensive research on that issue. That was a big issue pre-COVID. And we, believe it or not, we're going to make sure that there is accountability when it comes to police officers and their performance. Just like the medical professions, just like military and everyone else has to be accountable. We're going to make sure that our police force our emergency responders there is accountability i agree with that and i just want to say that we just need to make sure that everyone is treated fairly so what whatever um you know consequences is for one the consequences for the other person too. So everyone, like you said, everyone

will be held accountable the same way. There's no special, I don't care who you are, if you did this and you got these particular consequences and another person, persuasion, did the same thing, everybody will be equal. As you mentioned,

the Virginia Beach shooting and we were at the church yesterday where one of the victims actually attended. And so I'm curious, the three of you, do you support the state? The family's been requesting some $40 million, those families. So do you support the funding going to those families who lost their lives in the Virginia Beach shooting? Yes. No amount of money can bring back someone's life. And it's a tragedy that, you know,

like the loss of life has continued to happen and accountability hasn't been there. I've been, I actually met with that family several times. I spoke at different speeches at Norfolk State of Brown bringing awareness to this issue. And I believe they should definitely be compensated. But again, there's no figure you can put on loss of life. All right. Question. Come on. I'm Christopher West from East Suffolk Garden right here in Suffolk. My question is, those people that were purged from the voting ranks, will they ever be restored

or can they in time to vote? And is there anything you can do to get the young people, you know, hold a townhouse or something to get the young people involved in voting? So you can tackle the first one. Go ahead. Thank you for that question. Absolutely. It's just a shame. That's a crime in itself to have them not be able to vote.

And we need to do something. And if we have the majority of the Democrats in the House and in the Senate, we'll make sure that we can do things just like they did it before. We can do it again and get their rights back. And what we need to do and what we've been doing, I know all three of us, educating our youth is so important. They don't even know why they should vote, what they should vote for. So it is our responsibility to have those town halls and just have something for them. If it's a dance or whatever, we have to attract them there first.

We have to get them there. So we can't just say we're just going to bring you there and talk to you. We have to make it attractive to them, get them there, and then teach them. I agree with her 100 percent. One of the things we've done with our youth is we allow them to come to our office and volunteer and be involved in the process. But we need to go beyond that, and we need to open up our communities and allow them to be involved in our civic leagues, more engaged in our churches and help them to find their space so they'll feel comfortable and they'll bring more youth into our activities and in our programs.

Awesome. And to piggyback off of what they said, one, we got to meet the youth where they are. We have to educate them and let them know what's on the line. You know, so many times we don't know how legislation works and the moving pieces of it. And, you know, this year we was able to bring hundreds of high schoolers to the General Assembly so they could see firsthand what we do and ask questions and be involved. And that's what we have to continue to do. Just yesterday I was knocking on doors out in the community. I met an 18-year year old, never voted before. He said, I'm going to go and vote for you for the first time.

I have the opportunity to vote. And I'm so glad you came to my house. Well, I think, first of all, we talked about connecting the dots. I mean, we I spent a lot of time on the show talking about that because there are a lot of people who they want stuff done, but they really have no clue about politics. So they could be talking about something that's the job of the school board, and they think it's the state rep. Then they can be talking about something dealing with a road, and they try and talk to a member of of Congress and that's really the county person and so that's probably one of the biggest things that we spend a lot of time on on the show really trying to educate people to understand the mechanics of politics and understand that that this one person at

the City Council person can't do everything because there are certain roles of a county official, a state official, and a member of Congress. And one of the things that I've said that we should be bringing back the citizenship education classes, if you will. You often saw those things in the 60s. Rainbow Push did that for a very long time in Chicago. They still have their Saturday meetings. And that really should be a part of all of our churches where we literally are walking people through and explaining to them public policy. That's probably the one thing that drives me crazy when I hear people, I get it all the time when folks say, well, what is this person going to do

about HBCU funding? And I'm like, they're not a state official. And then when they say HBCU funding, you went to a private HBCU. Okay. They don't understand that the obligation for the state ain't the same for a private HBCU as it is for a public HBCU. And so some of the people just really don't understand the reality of it. So I think that's also a huge deal, trying to get people to understand the basic understanding of politics and what that entails. And so hopefully more organizations will do that

and don't just do it during the election season. I think that has to happen as well because I think one of the greatest mistakes that many of us do is that when the election is over, we go home. Not realizing that the election is the end of one process and the beginning of another. And so when the election is over, then that's when our job is now to go make the folk do what they said they were going to do. And I witnessed that and saw with my parents growing up. And that's the thing. When we check out after the election is over, we can't check back in and say, well, you didn't do anything for the last four years. Well,

you didn't show up to put pressure on them, then nothing was actually going to get done. And so that pressure has to be happening on a constant basis. And yes, people have jobs and they have families, but I can guarantee you there are other communities that are putting that pressure on. And then we're wondering, well, why did they get certain stuff? Because they were showing up to the council meeting, the state meetings, the school board meeting, the county meetings. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This has kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org,

brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Do that as well. So a question. Hi, my name is Ebony Wright and I'm a resident of Suffolk. I'm a Navy veteran, and my husband is a retired Navy chief. I understand that the legislature passed a bill recently to reduce taxes on military pensions. I also understand that a lot of the revenue that comes into this state, a good portion of that is revenue from pensions. If you are in a position, when you go back, is there a way that you can reduce it to where we can be like states like Florida and Texas that we don't have to pay state taxes on our pensions? And if you can't get to 100 percent, are there other ways that you can provide benefits for those who have served? Thank you for the question. One of the things, the first step when that piece of legislation came before us, the governor killed it. And then the governor took it for himself and resubmitted it, repackaged it as if it was his. But because Democrats understood the importance of it and how it

impact our veterans, we massaged it and made sure that it was passed. Not only did we do that, but as I mentioned earlier, I introduced legislation and co-sponsored legislation to make sure that Virginia looks at other states to see what they're doing and what we can grab from them or learn from them to improve the programs that we offer here for our veterans. Not only did we do that, but we did a number of things for our veterans. But one of the things that really stands out in addition to your income was a lot of times veteran spouses come to this area and they're looking for employment. If they're in the education arena, we minimize the requirement, the standard, so that they can get into the school

system. They wouldn't have to go through all those tests and everything and get into the school system and start teaching earlier. Anybody else want to answer that? Anybody else? Okay. All right. Cool. Better up. Matter of fact, let me see if my Astros won. Let me check. We were up five nothing. How do we check? All right. What's your question? Good evening. My name is Reagan Riddick. I'm from Chesapeake, Virginia. My question is, what is the most vital aspect that you all will do as soon as you're elected when it comes to critical race theory to make sure that it's not taken away? I have gone to both private and public school, and both institutions made it sure that it

was important for me to learn about myself and my history. So what are those things that you would definitely do as soon as possible when you guys get elected? The first thing is this here. First, critical race theory is literally not being taught in schools. It is a legal theory that's being taught in law schools. So it's not even being taught in undergraduate schools. We're taught in law school. So understand what the right did. And I will say the white right.

So here's what they did. It was by design. Christopher Ruffo is a hard right guy. And he put the tweet out. Their goal was to lump anything dealing with race under critical race theory. And so that's why you see the attack on critical race theory, attack on affirmative action, attack on DEI, attack on, I mean, all of that. So that was the whole goal. And so by doing that, understanding how a lot of those folks on the right are not smart.

So what they did is, oh, critical race theory. So you mix the race, CRT, CRT, CRT. You have people who were showing up at Virginia school board meetings yelling critical race theory, and superintendents were saying, we don't teach critical race theory. Now, here's the crazy thing. I've run three black newspapers. I was with Tom Jordan Morning Show, Savoy Magazine, Black America Web, TV One,

Major Broadcasting Cable Network, Ebony, Essence. I ain't hear about critical race theory until last year. You won't get blacker than me. So I worked at all of these black media outlets and had never heard of critical race theory until these folks start losing their mind. And again, and then, and again, I've talked to Kimberly Crenshaw, who is one of the folks who created the phrase. It is a legal theory taught in law school. Now, it doesn't mean this is where I want you to answer the question. It doesn't mean, and again, this is what they purposely want to say, the teaching of black history in schools is the same as critical race theory.

It's not. It's not. But that's really what the target is. Well, how do we make sure that we're having real conversations about all of American history and not this fictionalized version that we've always seen, especially in a state where these fools still celebrate one of the greatest traitors in American history, Jefferson Davis? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And as I said earlier, and I thank you for clarifying that and making that very clear, that critical race theory is not taught in public schools. It's not taught there. made sure that all of our history teachers and social science teachers teach African-American history correctly. When it's time to renew their license, they are required by law and policy to go back to school and take another course in African-American history to make sure it's taught correctly. But that's just not African American history. It's also a history to deal with Korean history and other histories out there as well.

We've taken those steps to make sure that those things happen. But another issue that we have that is hindering that is making sure that school systems are functional, making sure that teachers have proper funding. You wouldn't believe it, but in Southwest Virginia, down in Brunswick County in Emporia, they have educators coming in for Europe that teach schools because they can't find qualified teachers that are willing to take the pay that's being paid down there. So the key is making sure that we are funding education properly and to making sure that the structures are holding up. So thank you for the question.

And the thing here, Karen and Ares, you can answer this here. I mean, again, you have a, and I have no problem saying, you have a lot of white folks, white conservatives in this state who want to deny the reality of race in Virginia. Who want to deny what took place, not just all through slavery, not just during Reconstruction, but the 92 years after Jim Crow. You cannot ignore that reality. And you have folks who are still living, who are active participants in the Black Freedom Movement, in the Civil Rights Movement, battling against Jim Crow. And they don't want folks today to even know about that. When you see them want to toss out of books by authors that are dealing with history and even when you have again this total whitewash of even Dr. King because they will they don't want people to truly know all of him only

again this is what I call the civil rights mascot sort of view that folks have that is a huge part that we still have to deal with because if all Virginians don't know about all of this state's history, then they'll be walking around utterly clueless. Well, I just wanted to piggyback off of what Delegate Jenkins said is that one, first we have to understand elections have consequences. And right now we're dealing with the consequences of the last election. The first thing that this administration did was to gut DEI. They said that we cannot guarantee equity here in Virginia. So they said, we're going to rename it and say

opportunities. And when they put out these different book bandings, when they said that they're not going to teach critical race theory that's not being taught, even when you look at Alla White County, their school board passed a piece of legislation that they won't teach systemic racism. It is no way that you can properly teach and educate our students without learning about the good, the bad, and the ugly. That's what made America. So when we talk about Jim Crow, and we talk about redlining, when we talk about the war on drugs, we talk about all of these things that have impacted our communities. And now you're saying that you're going to act like they don't

exist. So that way we can't, when we say systemic racism is still here and they keep denying it and denying it. We know what our ancestors went through. When my grandmother had conversations with me to tell me that when she walked down the street that she had to keep her head down, she couldn't look across the street, or she can go to jail, she had to use different water fountains. This is history. That is American history. That's the ugly part of it. And like Delegate Jenkins said, if we don't know our history, we are going to be bound to repeat it. And that's what they want. They want to rewind the hands of time. They want to send us back to when they thought America was great. And for us, it hasn't been great yet.

And we're still trying to build that picture of the American dream. Karen. Yes. I just want to, you know, everything that both have said is true and is vital. But I just want to say, you know, they want to erase our history. Is it because you're embarrassed by it or what happened? So what I propose is don't erase the history, but show how we have improved, how they have improved since that part of our lives. But it's so many here, right here, city, Suffolk, wherever, that's still in that same bucket.

And I always say I'm trying to serve the human part of a person. I don't care whether you're black or white, red, green, whatever. It doesn't matter. I'm trying to serve the human part of the person. And if you get that in your head, that our blood is red just like just like your blood you know we hurt just like you hurt and so and words hurt you know we said you know sticks and stones may break our bones but words whenever that is a lie words do hurt and yeah such as black man invented the procedure that helped save those lives when it came to that same red blood. I'm sorry, we can't teach that.

I'm bad. I'm sorry. But, you know, we just need to continue to show ourselves friendly. I have people. I work in Al-Awa'i, so I know what you're talking about. And so, you know, I have been to houses where people say, you know, you're the first black that we've ever let in our house. And, you know, and I'm like, oh, okay. And they was like, but I showed them who I am. I'm a human person.

They're a human person. And they were okay. So it's just don't be afraid. We're good people. And we come from good stock. Most of everything that we use, we invented it. So, you know. So, you know.

Not all them good though I ain't trying to go to some folk house who can't season chicken alright and no raisins in a potato salad alright gotta go to a break we'll come back and we'll take more of your questions folks we're here

at the Baum Church in Suffolk Virginia focusing on this election that's coming up. Actually, the election is actually happening right now. Early voting is taking place on election day, September 7th. So more questions here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network.

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on the Black Star Network. Hi, I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. I don't say I don't play Sammy, but I could or I don't play Obama, but I could. I don't do Stallone, but I could do all that. And I am here with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back. Our final segment here at the Baum Church. We appreciate our host having this event here, partnering with the Virginia House Democrats as well as the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. We've got three of the candidates here. So any other questions? Literally, we've got about five minutes, actually about four minutes, for questions.

Come on up. Come on up. So we'll take a come on. Come on down here. We'll take your question. All right, here we go. What's your name? Question. You didn't get the rules. Put your hand down. I don't need help. Got it. My name is Randy Darden.

And you have all the Democrats here. And I just wanted to say, July the 17th, that's when y'all approved the marijuana bill. Correct? Am I correct? Oh, it was last year. Legalized. Y'all did that, right? That was y'all. Huh?

Okay, to the bill. First of all, explain what the bill was. Go ahead. So in 2020, when the Democrats took over the legislation, they passed multiple bills for marijuana legalization and the decriminalization of it. So there's normally three parts of marijuana, of getting it legalized. So you have to decriminalize it, then legalize it,

and then work to make it recreational. That's the part that we're kind of still in a gray area with. So the first part was? Decriminalizing. That happened. That happened. The second part? Was legalizing it.

That happened. That happened. Gotcha. And the third part? Is recreational. And that hasn't been actually approved? No. Got it.

So what's your question? The streets and the roads, mine's forever. I don't even know what that means, bro. So I don't even know what that means. So that makes no sense to me whatsoever. But it makes no sense. But let's do talk about the third part because what we are seeing all across the country, we are seeing billions of dollars that people are actually making through the recreational use

of marijuana. And unfortunately, the people, the problem with that is that in many of these states, they are preventing individuals who may have been arrested and went to jail for marijuana for being a part of it. And so a lot of them are black. So folks who went to prison for marijuana can't now earn legal money for marijuana. And other people are making billions of dollars. And so since it hasn't happened, what do you do to make sure that those folks who were impacted are getting a fair shake when it comes to being participants and getting a potentially one of these licenses? Yeah. Well, first we need to make sure we bring it full circle. We need to look at that. We're

clearing these records from people that, you know, been to jail because of this was a war on drugs, a war on the black community when this happened. So we want to make sure first. 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.

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Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We go back and undo the wrongdoing of clearing the records. And then we need to also look at, like you said, the money, all of these millions of dollars that's going to come in for revenue. We need to make sure that that money is going to go back to the communities that was affected the most, to make sure that we rebuild and put that money back into infrastructure, into public safety, into our public schools. We need to make sure that the communities that was decimated by the war on drugs are

going to receive some of these funds and also that we can participate. Maybe we need to do a disparity studies to make sure that all people, particularly black and brown people, can. Well, I think what Virginia should do is what Maryland didn't do, what the New York caucus did. They held it up to make sure that African-Americans were getting fair share of licenses. And so that's what happened. Because then again, when you have the numbers at the end of the day, it can't pass without the Black Caucus. And so the Black Caucus has made it a priority to make sure that African Americans are getting a fair share of the economic benefit if the recreational use is actually passed. Go ahead.

And I agree with you 100%. when we legalized marijuana, we slowed that process up to give African Americans or minorities an opportunity to organize and get their business in order so they could take advantage of the opportunity when it was opened up on the market. Because we're talking now, it's a multi-billion dollar industry in this country and we ain't making the money off of it. All right, come on up sister with your question. All righty. My name is Olga Baker. I mean,

Olga Baker Bloom. How you know your name? I'm just saying. We said your name twice. How you know your name? Don't you try to blame it on me. Let be blaming it on me. Yes, your name. Okay, go ahead. The question that I have is, when they rezone, how do people know which precinct to go to? Because last year, when it was time to vote, my mother and I always take my mother. We go and vote early. Well, I checked, and her voting precinct had changed. That's called Republican voter suppression. But I'm just like, how do you find out? Because she's 83 years old.

She's not going to wait down Hozier Road. You see what I'm saying? It's done on purpose. All right, so. You know, who does. First of all, and also where the locations are. Go right ahead with the answer. This is our last answer.

Right. After the rezoning, redistricting, the state, the electoral boards, they're required to send out notices informing persons where the new voting polls are. And that was done, but sometimes we have a tendency of ignoring it and think it's just junk mail. But we need to pay attention to what's going on with that. But not only that, we also have the option of going online or calling the voter registrar's office and find out exactly where our voting precinct is,

our voting place is. Now, one of the things that Bob Henderson in Suffolk, Lake Kennedy in East Suffolk Garden, their voting precinct was less than a quarter of a mile from their house. Yes. However, city council moved that polling precinct approximately two miles from that community. And a lot of them still go to the old polling place because for more than 20 years, that has been their location. And so that new polling place hasn't registered yet. A lot of people have missed the mail and didn't read the mail. So that is a process that we need to do is to go back and reeducate that community. Here's the catch to it.

Which side of the street goes to here and on the other side of the street or my neighbor goes somewhere else? That's not good stuff, but that's what's happening inside of the black community. Well, let me say it again. The person who wins the gubernatorial race controls those state boards. And so, again, we can't complain about the bottom. We've got to also realize the amount of power that exists

in that top spot. A lot of people just totally overlook that. Let me thank all my candidates. A round of applause, please. Let me thank the Baum Church as well. I appreciate it. Virginia House Democrats, Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. Folks, we're going to be here. I can't see the monitor here, so I know what's going on. Monday, we're going to be in Fredericksburg, Zion Church of Fredericksburg, 2222 Emancipation Highway, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

We're going to be there for our next forum, again, 6 p.m. Eastern. So we look forward to being there. We've got candidates there. We've been taking questions from various people. So looking forward to having the conversation there as well. Cannot wait. And then we're going to be in Petersburg October 23rd. And we have not set the date for when we're going to be in Richmondersburg october 23rd and we have not set the

date we're going to be in richmond so let me thank all of you for being here i appreciate it let me thank all of y'all as well for taking your time out uh to come uh to ask ask your questions to listen to the candidates thank you so very much let me shout out all the alphas who are in the house glad to see the brothers uh if you're not an alpha, that ain't my problem. All right. So, all right. Hey, baby, I'm an alpha, don't make everybody. I told you. Everybody, all right.

See the Zetas. I got you. All right. But I ain't no Zeta. So, I ain't no AKA. I ain't no Delta. Look, I shout out my group. You want to shout your group out, get a show. All right,

we got to go. Don't forget the election. And I know I ain't shouting out no omegas. Y'all know that. That's the fly away symbol. That's all that means. Don't forget the registration deadline is October 16th for you to vote. Please, please, we need you to vote in Virginia. We need that to happen. These are the critical dates. You see it on the screen there as well. We need your participation, folks. I'm telling y'all, believe me what I tell you. And I want everybody to vote. I want people of conscience voting as well. But I'm talking to black folks. Our numbers are what they are. African Americans make up some 20% of this state. But if you look at critical areas, if we are voting, if we are voting at 65, 70, 75, 80, 85% of our numbers, the elections will be blowouts. That's real. So everybody here, I don't care if you're Greek, non-Greek,

I don't care what church you go to, what denomination, use your power of the groups that you know. Tell your friends. Don't let nobody come to your house to get no plate. If they come, y'all think I'm lying. Y'all should be checking at the door. Are you registered? And it's so simple now.

You can go online and check their name. So if they lie, you can just say, no, you can't come in my house. You should not let anybody at your dinner table who is not voting. If you're at work and your friends want to go to lunch, you should be checking voter registration at work. And if they're not registered, you say, I ain't eating lunch with you. Y checking voter registration at work. And if they're not registered, you say, I ain't eating lunch with you. Y'all think I'm lying. That's right. And so I don't care. Don't do no dates. Don't go out with nobody if they ain't registered. So that's how we got to do this thing. So please do that, folks. Hold folks accountable. Folks, I'll see y'all

tomorrow from Washington, D.C. We'll have a great tribute to Uncle Red, one of the last three survivors of the Tulsa race massacre who passed away yesterday at the age of 102. We'll honor him on tomorrow's show. Look forward to that. Folks, thanks a bunch. Don't forget to support us here at Roller Martin Unfiltered. One, your resources are critically important, so you're checking money over at Appeal Box 57196 Washington, D.C. 20037 0196. Cash app is Dallas Sound, RM Unfiltered. PayPal

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Holler! Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Support this man, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. I support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. I love y'all.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes

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