#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Roland On The Road Talking 2023 Elections, VA Voter Restoration Lawsuit

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

10.23.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Roland On The Road Talking 2023 Elections, VA Voter Restoration Lawsuit  We're LIVE from Petersburg, Virginia for a special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered "Our Voices, Our Vote" Town Hall powered by Virginia House Democrats and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. I'll talk to candidates vying for one of Virginia's General Assembly and House of Delegates seats. Glenn Youngkin's administration changed Virginia's restoration rights system for formerly incarcerated people, and the state's NAACP says this new system is secretive and could discriminate against people of color.We'll talk to the executive director of a grassroots organization fighting to help get everyone to the polls.  I'm not the only one sick of folks using their social media platforms to tell people not to vote.  We'll show you how one person explained how dangerous that message is and how everyone should research Project 2025. 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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastain. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg 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 of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. We'll be right back. Make sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rollin'. Be Black, 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 Today is Monday, October 23rd, 2023. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. We're here in Petersburg, Virginia, where there is a crucial House race that could determine whether or not there is Democrats control the house. We talked to several candidates here about those races and discuss how critically important it is for black voters who turn out in significant numbers in this city where they make up a large part of the population but are not voting at our numbers. Also, Republican Governor Glenn Young can change the rules when it came to formerly incarcerated folks. We'll talk to an NAACP. The NAACP says it was discriminatory, we'll talk to an N.W.A. The N.W.A.C.P. says it was discriminatory.

We'll talk to a grassroots organization about efforts here to get those formerly incarcerated their right to vote. Also, Gary Flowers, longtime radio host here in Virginia. We'll chat with him about these critical races as well. Plus, on the national level, Democrats are seeing significant erosion among black voters. What must they do to reach those African-Americans and get them to turn out in big numbers? We'll discuss that and more right here. It's time to bring the funk. Roland Martin, I'm coached on the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it blips, he's right on time.

And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Robroyal. Yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin' Martin, yeah

Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin Martel Folks, we're here in Petersburg, Virginia, partnering with the House Democrats here, focusing on critical races across this

state. All statewide offices in Virginia are up for election in November, and African Americans will play a critical role in electing folks. That's if we actually show up. And so early voting has already ended, but they've expanded this here in Petersburg. I'll explain that a little bit later. But again, when we talk about our power, you heard me say this numerous times, that it's one thing to say you represent 20, 30, 40, 50 percent of the electorate. Then the question is, what is the actual turnout? And so percentages don't mean anything if you're not actually voting your power.

Folks learned this in this area when an African-American was running in the most recent election, but rural turnout was a lot higher. Turnout in Petersburg was not. As a result, that candidate lost by some 200 votes. And so now you have battles being drawn all across this state. If Democrats pick up three seats in Virginia, just pick up three seats, a flip three seats, Virginia will get its first black Speaker of the House in state history. That says a whole lot. And so when we talk about your vote matters for African- that is the actual case when we go to the polls and not just as individuals but a call upon our neighbors and friends and church members and fraternity and sorority brothers and

sisters and folks who were links and who were Eastern Star and Prince Hall Mason you name it because again having us register is one thing but we have to also turn out that's a whole another thing and but we have to also turn out. That's a whole other thing. And so we're going to be talking with several candidates who are running. We'll also be talking to folks who follow politics here in Virginia about this very issue. First up, I want to bring up our first candidate, Destiny LaVere-Bowling, Democratic candidate for Virginia's 80th House District. Come on up.

Yeah, your turn. Let's go. So, Destiny, how you doing? Doing well. How are you? All good. All good. So, first of all, how's the campaign going thus far? It's going well. I don't have an opponent, so even better. Well, that's it. It's very good. But still, folks need to hear from you in terms of what you want to focus on and what do you want to focus on? And that is going back to the state house. Yeah. So I originally started running in June primary. I had a heck of a primary. And I look to Henrico County. I want to make sure that our constituents there, I being one of them, are able to get accessible and affordable health care, and that means lowering the cost of prescription drugs

and also streamlining the process for family members to be able to get the certifications needed to become those home health care aides so that they can care for their loved ones in the time of need. I'm also big on making sure we have access to affordable and strong infrastructure on rural broadband. That's a big thing. I'm a country girl, and so that's really important to me to ensure that we have access to that because now Internet is just the basic human right, in my opinion. And so we need to make sure that we have access to that. I want to go back to the home health care part.

Absolutely. Because if you look at across the country, a significant number of jobs are being created in that space. That's been the case really for the past decade. It's only going to increase as baby boomers get older. And then Gen X all of a sudden then begins to hit 60 plus. That's right. That's right. And it's critical. So for me, I was a sole caregiver for my grandmother who had dementia, who recently passed. And I saw that in Virginia, the system to navigate it to just get the basic needs that one may need is just too difficult. When you're already seeing your loved one decline in their health, you can't go to Virginia Department of Health and call your local Department of Social Services and talk to nursing staff and try to find home health care. The system is just too convoluted. And so that's something that I'm really going to work to improve. And as I said,

this is also go right ahead. This is also an economic piece because, again, this is an opportunity for African-Americans to create businesses in that space. Absolutely. The small businesses for African-Americans, we know here in Virginia that we are strong in that and that we can be stronger. And home health care is a great avenue for us to improve our small business ventures. And so I'm hoping that once I'm elected, all of us across the state are going to join together and ensure that we have the opportunities needed so that we can bring back some strong jobs and great small businesses. You were talking about rural broadband, and there are a lot of Republicans across the country who are making announcements and sending out press releases touting the millions coming to their area, but nearly all of them voted against it in Congress.

And so it's quite interesting to have folks taking credit for stuff they never supported. That is just the Republican way of things. That is what they do. And so for broadband, we know the Biden-Harris administration has given us that infrastructure money. And in my district, Henrico County, we had a little over 400 addresses to this day that had zero access to internet service. I'm talking about families that have small children, elderly folks who can't apply for those social services or fill out things

for their retirement, something like that, because they didn't have internet access. They had to wait and go to a McDonald's or a Starbucks or drive into the city to get help. And so luckily, our board of supervisors are amazing. And they went for the VATI grant program and are now getting that money and ensuring that those residents have internet access. And that is what I'm hoping that other localities across the state are doing and will continue to do and the state's going to make it easier for them after that grant money is distributed. But let's also talk about because we talked about rural unfortunately when

you look at mainstream media whenever you hear rural voters that really means white and whether it's Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, many places when you talk about rural voters we also talk about African Americans. You better believe it. And I'm from a small area. I'm from King George County, Virginia, right in the northern neck. How many people? Now, I don't know how many people now.

I can't even tell you. Well, you were there, what, 400, 500? Just messing with you. No, it was a little bit more than that. Add a zero. Add one more zero. Y'all had more than one traffic light? Right, just a little bit.

But my graduating class was under 300 kids. Right? And so I'm talking about that kind of small. Yes. In that kind of rural. And I was used to being the only little pepper flake in a class of all white kids. And so we are talking about African Americans in the rural areas because we are the farmers. We are those that provide and pay taxes in those areas.

And so we need to include those folks as well. What do you say? I'm going to play a video a little bit later. There are a lot of folks who are commenting on what's happening in Israel and Gaza. And they're commenting on people at some point, especially disappointed with President Biden, saying I'm not going to vote at all. And I remember I had somebody over the weekend. I had to school them because this brother was talking about checking out of the process is not for us. And I literally said, that's about the dumbest thing in the world for you to say.

I said, because you're paying taxes in a system that you want to check out of. So therefore, you're going to let those who oppose everything that we support to be in complete control. I said, that's pretty dumb to me. And so what do you say to that person who is watching or listening who says, you know what, I just don't believe in any of this and it doesn't matter? But it matters because all of the laws that legislators, like whom I hope to be in a couple weeks, we make decisions on our everyday lives, right? We're doing taxes, health care, public education, women's health care rights.

All of those decisions are being made in the statehouse in Richmond. And so, yes, you do need to get out and vote, exercise your right, because it is a right. And my grandmama fought hard for it, and so did a lot of us in this room. And so we're going to make sure that we keep it, we protect it, and that we use it and use our voices because a vote is your voice and everyone needs to know that. And when we talk about, because I'm a firm believer and I say this all the time, how we have to connect the dots. So there's somebody who, again, watching and listening, not really understanding what a state lawmaker does, what a county executive does, what a city council member does. And so nearly everything we talk about we want.

Government plays a role in it. lines, they don't pay any attention to tax finance districts, pay any attention to R&D grants and tax incentives that states and counties and cities actually give to corporations. So it's not just, oh, this company just somehow got it all done on their own. In fact, even when you have a major company come in, the state is building roads and access ways to that facility. So your state dollars are still impacting that. Yes. In my district now, we have a new Amazon facility, and they have redone a place that has gone overlooked and underfunded.

They have now built up a brand-new shopping center. I've got lights next to my house, new paved roads. Before, it was potholes and unpaved and unsafe. And who paid for that stuff? I did. Right. And so did the rest of the people in the county. So and unsafe. And who paid for that stuff? I did. Right. And so did the rest of the people in the county. Right.

So people understand Amazon didn't pay for that. No. Those were incentives the state gave to them to build their city. That's right. We'll build the infrastructure. Yes. And that is important. We pay our tax dollars.

Y'all agree with that one, huh? You're like, oh, yeah. Come on. We pay our tax dollars and we live here. And so we need to care about where we live. And to care is to vote. And it is to hold elected officials accountable. When you vote for them, that means you go to their office, you make the phone calls, you email, you knock on their door because guess what, we are your neighbor.

And so you need to go and have those conversations and let them know what you need and how you need it so that we can get it done. That's what I call the process after. I say the election is the end of one process and the beginning of another. And I think what often happens is, and I hear this a lot, people in our chat rooms when I travel around the country, they say, yeah, but I voted. I'm going, yeah, but that's not enough. I say because trust me, there are other people, they are going and they are making demands. They are asking of things.

They're showing up at committee meetings as well to make sure these things get done. And as somebody who covered city council, covered county government, I was in those meetings. And a lot of times the only time I saw us show up, we were pissed off about something. Right. Right. And we can't wait till we get tired because the secret is black people are always tired. Right. And when we're tired, we have to do something. We don't just go home and lay down. So we do need to show up to those meetings, whether it is at the General Assembly or locally. I don't care if it's your civic association or the board of supervisors or school board meetings. You have to be there because your voice needs to be heard and not just when something goes wrong or when you feel unheard. You need to be there because things are happening with and without your knowledge.

And you should be there to hold elected officials accountable. What else? A couple of things that you will make a priority going to the State House. Yes, so I work for labor unions. I'm a union member myself, and it is crucial that we support and bolster our apprenticeship programs. That is another way for members of the black community to get jobs and navigate our way to success in the Commonwealth. So I want to do that and make sure that we protect the minimum wage increase that we've gotten. There have been several attacks over the years to decrease that. But we're going to protect it and also increase it because we know that the cost of living is going up

and our wages need to go up with it. So that's something else that I'll do. And, of course, public education. I'm a former teacher, and so I understand what parents, teachers, and our support staff are going through. So making sure we get those reading and math intervention specialists is my top, top priority, of course, aside from the rhetoric of paying our teachers more, which we already know. Teachers are more than teachers these days. They are counselors. They're the parent. They're the security guard. They're the lunch lady. They're everybody. And so that is another priority of mine. Uh, but I won't go on to the

union point though, but here's what also has to happen. Uh, and union folks have been upset with me for years about this. I don't care. Uh, and, and, and a lot of times politicians talk about apprenticeship programs. The problem for me is there are a lot of black folks who are already highly qualified and skilled to do many of those jobs. It were frozen out. When I was in Chicago, they estimated upwards of $10 billion that should have gone to the black community didn't go to the black community because we were frozen out of those labor unions. And so those same labor unions want black state lawmakers to vote for these initiatives. But I want us to have more than $15 an hour jobs. those same labor unions want state black state lawmakers to vote for these initiatives but i want

us to have more than 15 an hour jobs i'm talking about the 50 60 70 80 000 real jobs and so they're skilled people and so that to me has to be made a priority if those unions are coming to you saying hey we want your support i'm saying be asking more than just for apprenticeship jobs oh absolutely i agree and i only harp on apprenticeships because I've seen what they do. The apprenticeship programs that I work with at my job, they are the ones that you work, you earn while you learn. That's their motto. So while you're getting these classes and getting the certifications, you're being paid.

Not only that, you're enrolled in a pension program. I'm talking kids coming out of high school, 17, 18, already having a pension program ready for them, and the health care benefits, something that we know as black or African Americans here in the Commonwealth is very important. We have to take our health seriously. So when there's an opportunity for them to just come out of college and go the more informal or nontraditional way of education and get the job and certification that they need, we need to ensure that we are supporting that. All right.

Debsley Bowling, give her a round of applause, please. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Folks, as I said, October 16th was the deadline for you to register, but you can still register through election day, but you'll simply be using a provisional ballot when you do go and vote. Now, remember, the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is October

27th. So you only got a few days left when it comes to that. If Virginians can request an absentee ballot through the mail, fax or online, November 4th, of course, is the last day of early in-person voting. And the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot in person, early in-person voting will end at 5 p.m. And November 6th is the last day a voter can request an emergency absentee ballot. When we come back, we'll talk to another candidate here later in the show. Again, we'll be talking about how critically important it is for African Americans to maximize our numbers. Even in areas where we don't have a high percentage, if we maximize our numbers in those areas, we could literally determine elections. You're watching Rolling Button Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network live from Petersburg, Virginia.

Back in a moment. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. We hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on everybody's business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,

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

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

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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 shine down got be real from cypress hill nhl enforcer riley cote marine Corps vet, 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. Peace, I'm Faraj Muhammad, host of The Culture. And brothers, we need to talk. There's been much discussion about the state of the black man in our community, whether it's in politics, education, or in the home. My brothers, we are struggling to lead the way, which is why The Culture will be hosting the Black Men's Summit,

where we'll be redefining and celebrating Black manhood. This special series will kick off on the 28th anniversary of the historic Million Man March on Monday, October the 16th at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. I'll be talking to some of Black America's most prolific, dynamic, thought-provoking Black men activists, scholars, and leaders about our role, our power, and our future. So tune in and join the conversation as an online culture crew member for the Culture's Black Men Summit, redefining and celebrating Black manhood. Starting Monday, October 16th through Friday, October 20th, 4 p.m. Eastern Time, each day, right here, exclusively here

on the Black Star Network. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach and host of Get Wealthy. Let me hit you with a few numbers. African-Americans spend nine times the amount on ethnic beauty products and yet only own 1% of the beauty supply stores. It's an $18 billion industry. On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to learn and hear from a woman who's turning this obstacle into an opportunity. We literally take you from A to Z

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This is Essence Atkins. Mr. Love, King of R&B, Raheem Duvall. Me, Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you watch. You're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Folks, welcome back to the Petersburg Public Library. We're in Petersburg, Virginia, focusing on the upcoming election here in Virginia. But you don't just have elections happening in Virginia. They're happening all across the state.

We've got a critical gubernatorial race in Kentucky where Daniel Cameron, who is the Republican, you know, he's the brother who did nothing when it came to Breonna Taylor. He's trying to become the governor versus the Democratic incumbent, Brashear, who actually restored voting rights for formerly incarcerated folks in that state. That is not a hard choice, and it ain't Cameron. Then, of course, you have the race in Mississippi as well, where you have Republican Tate Reeves who is trying to get reelected.

Presley is a Democratic opponent. This is the same Tate Reeves who admitted by saying that he refused to give Jackson, Mississippi any funds when he was state treasurer, and they refused to fund many of their initiatives. And so that's a very close race there. A lot of people keep their eyes on that race there. Plus, there are a lot of other local elections happening. So race there plus there are a lot of other local elections happening so no matter where you are do me a favor and in fact uh you know i still i'm still registered uh in texas uh and there is a on the ballot there's a proposition uh about raising uh taxes to fund a pay increase for teachers and so but folks who are watching and

understand when we talk about these elections, we're not just talking about governors, state senators, state rep. We're talking about school board races. We talk about propositions. We talk about bond initiatives. And so we must make sure that we're actually reading these ballots, voting top to bottom, not ignoring races, because I keep saying all the time we talk about about down ballot races. Well, people don't realize when you're complaining about the criminal justice system, you're likely talking about DAs and judges who are at the root of that particular issue. We're talking about why we don't have schools being funded. Well, typically it's because a lot of us are skipping over those ballot initiatives, those propositions that are on the ballot as well. And so please make sure that you're educated no matter where you live about what is happening in your area. So check right now if you have local elections. I know lots of people, they say, I don't watch the news. I don't feel like it's just, it's too much bad stuff. Well, then when stuff happens and you go, oh my God,

I didn't know. That's because you're spending more time watching the Housewives show and then watching the Zeus Network than actually watching stuff that's actually critically important. And so also make the effort to tell your friends and family members, can't nobody eat at my table if they ain't registered to vote. Straight up. Any family member who even comes out of their mouth, I'm not voting. I'm just letting y'all know. Hashtag team whip that ass will show up. Just letting y'all know how I was raised.

Because mom and dad have been voting. They just retired from being election judges. Did it for the past, you know, 10, 20, 30 years. And so, again, that's how I was raised. And so it's in my DNA. So we don't play around when it comes to elections. All right, let's bring in our next candidate right now, Deborah Gardner. She is running for Virginia's 76th House District.

Deborah's a single mom, small business owner, former social worker as well. What kind of business? I have an executive position. Turn the microphone on. I'm about about the coach you turn that microphone on you got it let's flip the switch up yes there you go all right what kind of business is it it's an executive coaching business all right gotcha so if you are elected what are you what will you do for small businesses what I will do for small businesses? What I will do for small businesses, especially here in Virginia, is make the process a little more easy for them to navigate. I'm actually a macro business,

which is very, very, very small business, but I have to jump through the same hoops that larger corporations have to jump through in the county that I live in, in Chesterfield. And that is a deterrent to small businesses thriving in our county and in Virginia as well. Now, you graduated from North Carolina Central. And so what is your plan to grow and expand our HBCUs in Virginia? Well, I am a proud graduate of North Carolina Central University, and my plan for that is to make sure we continue to fund those public HBCUs and to be able to get our children more interested in going to those schools.

You know, sometimes we act like we have to go to these Ivy League schools or some of these big Virginia schools, but we can just go down the list of all the important people who have graduated from HBCUs and I'm a very proud alumni of an HBCU. You serve on a number of different committees dealing with substance abuse and drug abuse and mental illness is one of the issues that a lot of people keep talking about, especially in this state.

You'll have these mass shootings and those who love the NRA will talk about, oh, mental illness is a problem. But then they turn right around and refuse to fund mental illness. And so speak on that in terms of what you want to accomplish in the Virginia House. While some people are in crisis and mental crisis when they actually commit those shootings, that doesn't mean that all these people have mental health issues. Some of them just evil. Some of them, and I also worked in the prison system,

and I've actually walked down death row, and there are some bad people in this world. And I think Republicans take the easy way out by saying with these shootings, we need to add more money for mental health. Well shootings, we need to add more money for mental health. Well, we do need to add more money for mental health, but we also need to get some of these guns off the streets. Speak about speak about that, because it's a constant battle. And you hear these people talk about, oh, this is a gun loving state. But this notion of unfettered access to guns is just completely nonsensical to me.

Yeah. And how many of you, I'm from rural North Carolina. My family had a family farm. We had members of our family who hunted. But how many of you need an assault weapon to shoot baby? Not many people. That means you can't hunt. That's just that if you need that, you just can't hunt. You're right. And so we need to make sure, and especially in

Virginia, we're open carry. You can go in the grocery store. Many of you, especially in this area and in my area, know that we have a legislator who goes into the grocery store, the Walmart packing. What do you need to be packing for going in the grocery store? There is no reason for that. So we need to get a handle on this open carry in Virginia. And you've got to go through a class. You've got to get your driver's license. You've got to take tests. You've got to take a road test. But you can just get a gun without having to ever have shot a gun. And I think we need to get control of that as well. I started my career as a social worker, and we had to train with a police officer and

a social worker because we took people's kids. We had to have training for that. So I'm a gun owner. So you had to have training as a social worker, but not to have a gun. Yeah, you do. Now, I'm not the Republican. I got y'all trackers in here, so you're going to write this down. That's stupid. Okay, go ahead. You said you're a gun owner. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm a gun owner, but I'm a responsible gun owner. I have a daughter. I make sure my gun is locked up. I made sure I had training. I made sure she took classes to understand when she was little that this is not a toy.

This is not something you play with. So I'm not saying that people should not own guns. We just need to be responsible and we need to set better laws governing that. What kind of gun you got? You got a big gun or a little gun? Little gun. You got a little gun? Okay, I'm just checking. All right. A Glock. I ain't got a gun. I shot a gun one time and I was like, this is a grossly overrated experience. It is. It really is. I'm like, I'm going to play golf. Y'all can keep this stuff. But we don't need weapons of war to be shooting, hunting, or getting food or anything. You just don't need that. Absolutely, absolutely. I do want to talk about the drug problem that we do have

because, again, unfortunately there's this attitude from many Republicans across the country to lock them up. You've got, of course, crazy Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton who actually said we don't lock up enough people in the United States, which is clearly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And that's one reason why his state is so broke. Because, I mean, literally, we are going broke, constantly building prisons in this country, as opposed to treating people. And then one of those areas is drug use. Yes. I started my career, like I said, as a social worker, and I basically started

out working with veterans who had PTSD. What we were doing back then, I'm dating myself, that was back in the 70s, we were treating them for substance abuse issues, but they were dually diagnosed. And so we have to make sure when we're locking people up that we're giving them the services they need. I worked in corrections and we had re-entry programs because what people don't realize that 95% of the people we lock up are going to come back into your neighborhood. And if we don't provide them with the services that they need, what's going to happen? They're going to do the same thing and they're going to make you a victim and they're going to be back in the system. And it costs more to house them than it would to treat them. I've never understood somebody

who would say, we don't need to provide any services to these folks, just lock them up through the keyway. That's just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And then when they get out and they commit a crime, then they go, oh my God, what happened? Because fool, you didn't want to do anything while they were there. Well, this is even dumber, Roland. When I first started working at Criminal Justice Services, before we had reentry programs where we did give them services, we used to take prisoners from maximum security with leg irons, waist irons, take them to the probation office, unshackle them, and then they turn them out on the public. These people had had no services and been locked up for years.

You know, most of them didn't have a license, didn't have any means to access the legitimate economy. And then we turn them out onto our friends and our neighbors and our communities. That's dumb. Yeah, that's dumb. That's pretty dumb. Pretty dumb. A couple more of your priorities that you want to focus on. Well, everybody talks about education, and that's really

important to me. But what is really one of my biggest priorities is early childhood education. Because what we don't realize is from zero to three, if we don't catch them then, we have lost them.

Everybody focuses on K through 12, and that's important. But when I went into maximum security prisons here in Virginia, I thought I was going to see hardened criminals. I saw babies, some of our babies, the majority of them. They had no chance. Well, you look at a lot of most prisons around the country, literally 90% of those who are locked up are illiterate. That's right. They had no chance because those early years, those formative years, they had no formal or informal education or instruction. And if we don't catch them early, and early childhood includes quality, affordable, accessible child care. If we don't get our children into those systems, everybody talks about free pre-K.

That's important. But it's also important that we train our parents to help their kids from birth. And if we don't do that, we're going to pay on the back end instead of paying on the front end. And it's much cheaper to pay for them on the front end than it is the back end. All right. I agree with Debra Gardner. Certainly appreciate it. Good luck in your race. And since you have an opponent, you can look into the camera and make your appeal to those. Again, those people who are on the fence, they're sitting here just whining, complaining, saying, I'm not quite sure.

Explain why they should vote. Look right over there. Look straight ahead. All right, straight ahead. No, right there. Right there. See the guy waving? There you go. Oh, I see you.

There you go. I'm going to tell you why. Because I got the redistricting lottery. I ended up in a 60-40 Democratic district. The problem with that is these people do not vote. The Democrats in our district don't vote. You knock their doors and you say, are you going to vote? Is there an election? They don't. So my problem is not that, you know, I need to worry about an opponent. I need to worry about you getting out, exercising your right to vote. And if you do that, when we vote, we what?

We win. When we vote, we what? We win. So go out and vote. All right. Thank you, Grover. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Folks, it's going to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk to a candidate who is in a really, really tight race that could make the difference in determining whether Democrats take control of the House later in the show. We'll talk with Gary Flowers, who has covered politics in this state for quite some time, radio personality. We'll also talk with the grassroots organizer who's doing their best to get those formerly incarcerated get their right to vote back, which has been under assault from Republican Governor Glenn Young. And, folks, you're watching a special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered right here in Petersburg, Virginia,

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taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. 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 good. Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the war on drugs.

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. I'll be right back. it into deadly violence. You will not replace us. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the US Capitol. 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 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 people. next on the frequency with me d bonds actress writer and advocate ray don chong is here to discuss her childhood and break down her life in ho, a show you don't want to miss. Even at my peaky peak peak when I was getting a lot of stuff, as soon as I was working a ton, I heard people whispering, oh, we don't want to pay her because we're giving her a break. Only on The Frequency 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. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney Plus, and I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Welcome back to the Petersburg Public Library. We are here in Petersburg, Virginia, folks, focusing on the Virginia elections taking place in November, but also we cover, of course, elections happening all across the country.

And one of the most watched races in the country, but especially in this state, is the 82nd House District. It is a tight race. Kimberly Pope Adams, the Democratic candidate in that race. Kimberly, come on out. Kimberly, glad to have you here. So you are running, trying to flip a seat here in Petersburg from red to blue. Yes, I am trying to flip it back because it was already ours two years ago.

It was a fluke, and we're going to remind people this is a blue seat. So let's talk about what you are focused on. What are the critical issues that you're trying to explain to constituents here about why they should elect you? Yes. Well, I'm born and raised here. I'm born and raised in Hopewell, which is just one city over. I've lived here my whole life and I understand where we were and where we can be because we can be so much better. And I make sure that when I'm on doors, I let voters know, listen, I'm not fighting for you. I'm fighting for us because that's what this is about. Things

we need in our community, safer communities, free of gun violence and making sure our schools are fully funded and making sure that housing is affordable. Because right now we have a situation where people get up and go to work every day, but can't afford to live in a single family home. People are living in hotels. People are living on campgrounds. People are living in trailer parks, not because they want to, but because that's the only option they have. So it takes someone who's been here, who's lived here, who's been broke but ain't broke no more. And we need someone who can really relate to the voters.

And that's what I do when I talk to the voters. You're running against a MAGA Republican in Kim Taylor. And probably one thing that should offend anybody in this city, frankly, whether you're Republican or Democrat, is her supporting the rolling back of voting rights, which, again, I still think is one of just the dumbest things in the world. All these people run around talking about praising our military, saying, oh, they're fighting for our freedoms.

But one of the things that they do here is try to cut access to the ballot, cutting back early voting and things along those lines. So talk about that. Yes, and let me remind people, the reason we have 45 days of early voting is because Democrats had the trifecta in 2020 and 2021. So we are the reason we have the 45 days of early voting. And to be honest, it's so hypocritical of them because our governor, Glenn Youngkin, he comes out in that charter bus and red vest and makes it seem as though early voting was something that he came up with and encouraging his supporters to vote early. But let me tell you something. We know,

we know what they're up to. And we know if we don't regain the House and keep the Senate, if Republicans get the trifecta, they are going to roll back all the progress that we've made. And we got to make sure that we continue to move forward, not backwards. One of the areas, one of the areas that is certainly on the ballot is reproductive rights. And you recently talked about you experiencing an issue being pregnant. And when we look at what's happening across this country, we are seeing many women who are having to deal with a lot of these places that are very striking when it comes to policies, even some places forcing women to carry babies to term that are not going to survive.

And that's sort of the, you know, hardcore policies we're seeing come from the right that your opponent supports. She supports what we're seeing, like folks in Mississippi and Texas and places like that. Yes. Yes, she does. And let me tell you, for whatever reason, Republicans try to make it seem as though the only topic is an elective abortion. Let me tell you something. I had a miscarriage. I had a miscarriage at 12 weeks. If I had to carry that unviable fetus for who knows how long, there could have been infection or sepsis and who knows what could have happened. So it's so disingenuous of them to make it seem as though, oh, we're protecting life. Listen, my life matters. I don't want to die giving childbirth. And let me tell you something, for black women, that's a

reality. Black women die giving birth. And we should not ignore that. And it doesn't matter what your income is. I mean, Serena Williams, she's married to a billionaire. She's a multi-billionaire. And she was facing a serious

issue where her health could have been compromised. Absolutely, absolutely. So we have to make sure that this health care is accessible, affordable, and remains legal. Go ahead. You talked about My Life Matters, and we played the clip before the show where I had a black conservative on my show. This is our State of the Union show. And every time she comes on, she wants to make the show about abortions. I was like, OK, fine. She says, you want to go there again? And then I challenged her

on what this concept of being pro-life is. And it's stunning to me when I listen to Republicans, white, black, Latino, Asian, Native American, doesn't matter, talk about being pro-life. Yet I never hear them stand with life when gun violence erupts in this country. I never hear them talk about life when they want to cut back food programs when 30,000 people die every year with starvation. I never hear them talk about life in so many different areas. So I said, no, y'all really anti-abortion. You not pro-life. Yes. Yes. Thank you. So if you are, so if you are elected, talk about those issues, those life issues, that's healthcare, that's food deserts, all of that impacts life. Yes, very much. And I'll tell you, my district is a majority rural district. And I have one locality, Surry County, Virginia.

There may be some people out here from Surry. They don't have a grocery store in the entire locality. So when we talk about a food desert, that's not something we're just talking about in the abstract. These are real life situations that are happening to us. When we talk about a health care desert, we have people who have to drive one, two counties over just to get urgent care, you know, just to get something outside of just a basic pharmacy. So again, like I said, for me, and I am a rural Democrat, I live in Dinwiddie County, and we, thank you, and we're here, we are tax-paying citizens, we're, you know, gainfully employed, but when it comes to having the resources, that just seems to be overlooked.

So again, we need to make sure that we voice our opinion and we make sure we do that at the polls. And I'm going to tell you, city of Petersburg, if you're in here, tomorrow you've got early voting until 9 p.m. tomorrow. There is no excuse. I want to support you because you mentioned rule. What do you say to the non-black voters in your district who they see R and D, but in many cases they literally are voting against their economic and health interests.

Yeah. Thank you so much for that question, because I knock on a lot of doors. I average about a thousand doors a month that I knock on. And I tell people, I said, listen, this is not about left versus right. It's about right versus wrong. And I need people to understand that sometimes we can get so caught up on labels that, again, like you said, we vote against our best interests. So sometimes when I'm on doors, I say I'm the candidate for House of Delegates. And I see where the conversation goes. goes because it's so interesting when you leave the party affiliation out of it people will listen to you and they find themselves agreeing with you on individual matters so i said you know what i'm

gonna meet people where they are if you want to talk about guns let's talk about guns i got a little gun too i know i think so yeah deborah said she has a gun i got a 380 it's not huge but it'll get job done so it'll stop you. It'll stop you. So that's the way the conversation goes, and that's where I go. If we start talking about public schools, knowing that we don't have a private school in my locality, then that's where I go. But again, it comes down to meeting people where they are, not being polarizing. I said, listen, I'm not here to talk about red versus blue. Let's talk about green and let's talk about getting some money in this district and getting the things we need in the 82nd. Let's talk about money because I do get a kick out of when Republicans

complain about people who got money during COVID. I remember Senator Lindsey Graham was whining and complaining about people getting money, getting unemployment money, saying, well, there are no incentives to work. And what was just the dumbest thing in the world when he said, we need to get people back to work because they're making more money unemployed than they were working. And I went, does that fool realize what he just said? That if a person is making more money through unemployment than the job they had, maybe there's a problem with the job they had and what they were paying. So you're running against an opponent who has complained about these same relief programs during COVID. A new study actually came out that showed that between 2019 and 2022, black wealth actually increased during those three years.

And the reality is a lot of that was because of the stimulus that was going out. Yet your opponent complains about that. But didn't your opponent get some PPP money? Oh, yeah. Let me tell you. Where's the camera? Which camera? Can I talk to her?

Right there. All right. My opponent, Kim Taylor, the Republican, running for what's going to be our seat, criticized everyday working folk for taking PPP loans when she took nearly $200,000 in PPP loans herself. Hold on, hold on. She criticized other folk for taking COVID relief money, but she took COVID relief money.

To the tune of almost $200,000. Wow. I didn't get that much as a stimulus. Did you guys get $200,000 as a, no. And I think, I think, I think all our show got, all we got was like 38,000 in PPP money. She got six times more money. Yeah. So, soisy is real, and it's right in front of us. I mean, Republicans try to make it seem like they're the ones that own, you know, fiscal responsibility and those types of topics. Listen, we are smart, we are capable, and we are going to show them on November 7th why Democrats deliver. But we talk about, again, corporate tax breaks and money and resources. Like one of the things that still just drives me crazy,

when I see city, counties, and states, including Virginia, give tax breaks to corporations, but they complain when employees want to get paid higher wages. And you sort of have this sort of back and forth. And so explain, again, what your opponent did to hook herself up in corporations, but not take care of employees. So let me be clear. My opponent has not had much legislation while she was in office, and we'll do something about that soon.

But she passed, she wrote a bill and voted and was passed this tax loophole, in essence, that benefits only the type of business that she and her husband own. So they own automotive businesses. I don't own an automotive business. I don't know if anyone else in here does. But the legislation that was written and the tax loophole that was written only benefits automotive businesses. Only, like no other businesses? Nope.

Only the automotive business. That's self-dealing. Which is why herself needs to get out of the way so we can get some things done, all right? Turnout is, at the end of the day, that's where elections are won and lost. And so in the last campaign, she won with how many votes? Okay, so two years ago, we lost this seat. And I won't even say we lost this seat. We gave up this seat. Y'all, we gave up this seat.

512 votes. 512 votes. That's how we lost this seat. How many precincts in the district? 31. 31 precincts. 31 precincts. Over 60,000 registered voters. But,incts? 31 precincts.

And so when you- Over 60,000 registered voters, but again, turnout is only a fraction. How many total people voted? About less than half, less than half. Wow. Yeah. And what was black turnout? Not enough.

Not enough, not nearly enough, because as far as I'm concerned, if black turnout isn't 100 percent, then it isn't enough. We can do it. And so how have you been making the case again to get people to understand that how they vote and then who win has a direct result on what then comes back to the district? Absolutely. And I tell people, I said, listen, when it comes to the General Assembly, which is what I'm running for in House of Delegates, I said, listen, our needs can be met one of two ways. It's either legislation or appropriations,

laws and money. That's really what it comes down to. And in Virginia, there is something on the ballot every single year. There is no off year in Virginia. And if you sit even one out, you are opening the door for Republicans to come in and move us backwards. They can strip away our freedoms when we don't vote. We can and we should because it makes all the difference in the world that we show up, we show up in numbers. I've told people, listen, bring your mother, your father, your ex-husband, your next husband. I don't care. Bring whomever.

But you better bring somebody with you when you go vote. A couple of other areas that are a huge contrast between you and your MAGA Republican opponent. Well, of course, women's reproductive freedom is the top priority. Listen, I'll tell you, my opponent is connected to crisis pregnancy centers. And if you're not sure what that is, a crisis pregnancy center is this establishment, for lack of a better term, that poses as a women's health care facility, when in fact that is not what they do. They are not about giving women all of their options. What they want to do is talk you into the option they want you to take. And that is unfair to us.

And in a district where access is already so difficult and finding the resources you need is already so difficult, the last thing we need is somebody in office pushing their own agenda when it's not what's best for us. All right. Well, Kim, we appreciate it. Good luck in this race. Again, it is very tight. It's going to come down to a few votes, and that's why I keep saying that every vote doesn't even matter.

I've got to remind people when there was a tie in this state, and then they had to go to a tiebreaker that did not involve folks actually voting, that can be avoided when we turn out with our proper numbers. Absolutely, but we can make sure that doesn't happen because we can run up the numbers. We can run up the numbers. Early voting, like I said, tomorrow, Petersburg, you can early vote until 9 p.m. tomorrow. So folks get off work. They can't complain.

All you got to do is go by, vote, and then go home, fix your dinner. That's right. That's right. There you go. All right. Kim, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Folks, going to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about restoring voting rights. The formerly incarcerated in Virginia also talked to private Virginia radio host in the state as well. Plus, we'll talk about on the national level again what we're seeing when it comes to black voter participation is actually decreasing, and we'll talk about why that is happening. You're watching this special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network live from Petersburg, Virginia. We'll be back in a moment. We talk about black. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 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. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

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

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. 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 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. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

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

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops 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 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 Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

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

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz 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 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're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media.

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On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, being of service to others is one of the greatest callings in life. But being there for someone else in their time of crisis is a whole new level. And you have to bring courage, commitment, and strength. On our next show, we meet two real life angels who were thrust in the midst of caregiving and without warning. And he was looking strange and couldn't cut his meat.

And it was very odd. And I said, well, what's wrong? And he says, I think I've had a stroke. And so of course it scared me. And we literally got in the car and he walked into the hospital on a Thursday. And by Saturday of that same week, he lost all control of his left side. The blessings, the challenges, and the way they maintain their balance, all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. back to the petersburg public library uh we are glad to have you here again we're focused on elections here in november but also all across the country and what we are seeing we're seeing

uh again uh millions and millions of dollars being spent uh on both sides but also what we have to understand is that uh our vote matters There's a mayoral election in Houston. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is running in that race against a longtime state official who's a Democrat, but who's getting major support from Republicans in Houston because they want to take back the mayor's mansion. You've got races in Kentucky and Mississippi. We just had the races in Louisiana. You got runoff there in three positions. You had

porous black turnout in Louisiana for Democrats as well. And so what we are emphasizing, and I need people to understand that this is serious business. We cannot on one hand talk about billions of dollars and people wanting things for our community, then we don't vote. I literally had to smack a few people on social media over the weekend who were saying that we should check out of this system. Then one person then said to me, we should not be looking at a party. We should not be looking at the candidates. We should be focusing on us. And I'm going, well, that's kind of dumb because you kind of got to look at the candidate and what the issues are. And you kind of got to look at parties because you can vote for your one candidate.

But if they're not in control, then they don't control the levers. We saw Republicans in Louisiana now have a super majority in that state. They have a super majority in Texas, in Florida, in Mississippi, in Tennessee. And so when people then say, well, we would love to have formerly incarcerated folks get the right to vote back, well, that depends on who controls the legislature, who controls the governor's mansion. Here in Virginia, the power in that rests with the governor. And we saw Governor Glenn Youngkin make changes to that that was different from the previous governor, who was Democrat,

and so greatly impacting those who are formerly incarcerated. Joining us right now is Sheba Williams. She is with No Left Turns, Inc., an organization that helps formerly incarcerated people reenter society. Sheba, welcome to the show. How you doing? So for folks who don't know what exactly, I always tell people elections have consequences. And so it was a national story when formerly incarcerated people, thousands got their right to vote back

when Terry McAuliffe was the governor. Things changed when Glenn Youngkin became the governor. So just to be clear, Bob McDonald reinstated my rights in 2013. He was a Republican governor. So it's not just a Republican or Democrat issue. Terry McAuliffe wanted to reinstate the rights of 231,000 Virginians who had lost their right due to felony disenfranchisement, which is rooted back to our 1902 convention, which says that we were trying intentionally to disempower as many black people as possible. No, no, no, no, no, no. And what they said. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, So we don't do that. We say exactly what they said. They specifically said we want to take the power away from darkies. Card of glass. So our history is rooted in slavery, and the power of felony disenfranchisement is to continue to take that power away from as many black people as possible. So our governors have continuously improved the process. They removed the process from being a 38-page document to a two-page document to a one-page document to an online process that takes about two minutes to do. In February of 2023, we discovered that this governor had changed the process, and it had application. But because we do restoration of rights and voting rights work every single day with individuals who are leaving incarceration, we knew in 2022 that when 800 people were the only amount of people that were reinstated in October 2022, that something was changing. We did not have proof until February 2023. I sent that to our elected officials. The administration kept saying, oh, we operate by grace, but there's no concrete documentation of what the criteria is.

So we sued. April 6th, our organization, Fair Election Center, Terry Frank Law, filed a lawsuit to say, what is the process? We need to know how you're judging people based on a piece of paper and not looking at their character, not looking at their accomplishments, not looking at what they're doing. What is the term? And that's how we got to today. We went to court. They dropped our organization as an organizational plaintiff because the bar is high to prove that an organization has been harmed, even though we have put more money, more time, more travel into educating people across the state. And we still have a plaintiff that is on the case and we have gone to discovery. But there are a multitude of organizations and coalition partners

that have filed lawsuits recently on this subject. So they changed it. So you still don't know what the process is? No, we don't. And they refuse to give us any data about what the process is. They operate in grace, but grace is subjective. So we don't know. What does that even mean, they operate in grace? That, first of all, you know, the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer came up with

the phrase cheap grace. And so it sounds to me like they're trying to buy by cheap grace. If we knew what grace was under their terms we would have concrete uh operations to tell people how they can get their voting rights back when they are completed all the terms of their sentencing so just be clear and again see and this is why what i was trying to make clear uh to these simple simons this weekend um because it kills me and i'm being real clear this is a bunch of these ados f FBA people who are stuck on stupid. And I'm clear. I've never self-identified with any party,

but I understand power. And I understand how parties operate when they have power. When you had a democratic governor, they want to restore voter rights to 231,000 people. He wanted to do it en masse. They then sued and said, oh, no, you have to actually do it individually. Like, fine, I'm just going to send all these letters. So when the Republican wins, he changes that process.

We all know our numbers dramatically are different when it comes to those who are formerly incarcerated. So this has a direct impact on black people in Virginia. So let's be clear about what the criteria was. When you were finished your terms of supervised probation, you could apply for your voting rights back. In 2016, we worked really hard to make sure that fines and fees were not a barrier to making sure that people could have their rights back. Complete supervised probation. Because that was the crap Republicans did in Florida when Amendment 4 passed, when Desmond Meade and others got it passed. They then took it to the

Supreme Court and said, oh, no, no, no. They tacked on fines and fees to say, oh, no, that's completion of your term, because they were trying to stop those 1.4 million folks in Florida who were formerly incarcerated for getting that right to vote. So fines, fees, and restitution being eliminated as a barrier does not mean that people are not responsible for paying their fines, fees, and restitution. You absolutely still have to pay that and are responsible and accountable for it. But we had that removed. They're trying to remove it back. So now the application changed from a very simple process of what court have you been convicted in?

What was your name? The time of incarceration? What is your current name? Address social. And have you completed all terms of incarceration? Now they ask if you have been convicted of a violent conviction. And if you owe fines and fees, you need to upload proof that you either have a payment plan in place or you have completed paying that, which is a deterrent to our current processes of doing registration drives because we have to help people locate their paperwork or go to the courts or get the clerks to pull things up because a lot of people who are leaving incarceration are transient or don't keep that documentation. So it has been a process even trying to get to the information. There are people who are afraid of prosecution because they don't know when they can apply or if they can apply. And this has been a thing that has impacted us for the past year and a half.

And we have other examples. You got the sister in Texas, Crystal Mason, who Tarrant County, seven years, five years later, is still calling after this sister. Rhonda Sanders had people arrested before the election, and every single one of those cases were thrown out by the judge because people were like, I didn't know. I thought I was able to vote because y'all sent me a voter registration form. And so these are specific examples of how Republicans are using law enforcement to create a chilling effect against

those formerly incarcerated where they say, I'm not even going to attempt it because I don't want to go back to jail. So there's another issue. There's another issue. Recently, we discovered that this administration, along with Virginia State Police, are removing people from the voter rolls to the tune of 17,384, some who have technical violations. Technical violations can be being late to your appointment, having a dirty urine, not showing up for a LASAP class, different things like that. That is absolutely illegal. They admitted that there was an error.

They said that only 275 individuals were impacted. They said that 10,558 people were confirmed to have new convictions. Where's the other 7,000? So they lying. I'm just going to call it what it is. So I'll ask you this. So if Dems right now control the Senate, if Dems control the House, how could that change this? Because right now that's all with the governor. Can the legislature actually take the power out of the governor's hands? Yes. So for full transparency, last year, 2021 election, not last year, 2021 elections, our House flipped to Republican majority.

Senate stayed the same. And we have a thing called the Senate brick wall. Not even identifying with party politics because you have to look at the issues and you have to understand that you're in a fight for your life. If this majority is reached, if this traffic is reached, everything is up for grabs. Everything is at stake. That is your economics, that is your abortion rights, that is your housing rights, that is education for grabs. Everything is at stake. That is your economics. That is your abortion rights. That is your housing rights. That is education, income. Anything that you can think of has been

on the attack since they have been in office. And we had to play defense this year and last year. In the House side, we wouldn't even get a hearing for a lot of the things that we were fighting for. The Restoration of Rights Constitutional Amendment that we have been fighting for for a decade, they would not even give it a hearing until the general public marched on the Capitol. So imagine what happens when they get control. So again, for the person who needs a home, I'll make it simple. By Republicans controlling the House, you're having to play defense. Democrats control the House, you're now playing offense. Absolutely.

Because you now have power. You have power and you have the ability to be heard. In this current situation, we don't have the ability to even be heard on a lot of our issues. Hold on, I want you to restate that because, again, I got some really stupid people who love making videos about me. And I always crack up when they're like, oh, you sitting here, you a paid informant. You sitting here, you on the payroll. And I keep saying, no, fool, this is about power. There's a difference between one party that won't even talk to you, that will not even return your phone calls. They won't even meet with you.

That represent black people will never even meet with black people. I said, yet, facts are facts if you have, in most cases, because you do have some stuck on stupid Democrats. I said, but in most cases, if you have a Democrat in the position, you actually have an opportunity to actually talk, communicate, legislate, and be able to get something done. Absolutely. There are a few Republicans who listen and carry our bills. There are, you know, a lot of Democrats who do.

There are a few who don't. But when we're talking about having a hearing for something that has been brought forth by the people, we weren't even getting a hearing in the room. They wouldn't even docket a lot of the issues that we fought for. So we have to be intentional about who we put in position to represent our issues because you can vote. But if you don't follow up, if you don't lead, if you don't show up at the General Assembly, if you don't serve on boards and commissions and jury duty that everybody avoids, if you don't show up for those things, you can't complain about who's in position. So I'm going to ask this question, and this is not a partisan

question for the organization, but it's fact-based. If Democrats regain control of the House, you stand a better chance of being able to get voting rights restored for formerly incarcerated people, yes or no? In my most nonpartisan voice, absolutely, because those are the people who showed up in the past to give us the hearing for a constitutional amendment to be passed to take the power out of the hands of one individual, not just this administration, but Governor Northam, Governor McAuliffe, Governor McDonnell, and everybody who came for him,

because this fight has been going on for a long time. And again, for the people who don't understand power, the way to get it done is to get power, not always trying to be on the defense, not trying to figure it out. And then when you get the power, you actually use it. Get power and keep power and support power. We got to keep showing up. It can't just be at the ballot. You got to keep showing up. It can't just be at the ballot. You got to keep showing up for the people who are fighting for what you believe in.

Who identifies with your values? You have to show up en masse, year round, not just at the ballot box. Final comment. I'll say the same to you. You can look at that camera right there. So, again, there's a brother or sister, in many cases a brother, who's out there who is saying this stuff don't mean anything. I hear what you said, but both parties are the same. All politicians are evil.

I'm not wasting my time. What do you tell him or her? Your vote is your life. If you don't like the way that people are representing you, run for office. When you get your civil rights back, you don't just get the power to vote. You get the right to run, serve on a jury, be a notary public, and cast your ballot. If you don't like who's in position, stand up and we will stand behind you. Sheba Williams, we appreciate it. Keep up the good work. Thanks a bunch. Folks, got to go to break. We come back. We're going to chat with my man,

Gary Flowers of Virginia Radio Talk Show host. back, we're going to chat with my man Gary Flowers, the Virginia Radio Talk Show host. Also, we've got a couple other candidates who are here that I want to ask them a few questions. Plus, the audience, we're going to take some questions from you as well. So looking forward to that. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, live from Petersburg, Virginia. Don't forget, again, to support us in what we do.

We launched this show five years ago. Everybody named Mama said it's not going to work. We launched this show five years ago. Everybody named Mama said, it's not going to work. It's not going to be successful. Even when we reached out to the people at YouTube, they were funding a lot of different shows. They literally said to me, hey, black folks are not going to watch news.

We proved everybody wrong. We started this. We had 157,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. We're now at 1.15 million in the five years. Not only has this show grown, but we've exceeded more than 1 billion impressions. Our views have reached more than 700 million views in that time. In addition to that, we've been able to launch our 24-hour, seven-day-a-week streaming channel, our OTT platform as well. And we've done all of that with a very small amount of money.

I talk about all the time. There was another news site that was launched by two white journalists. One of them you constantly see on MSNBC and Showtime, John Heilman. John's a great guy. They raised $32 million. Listen to me, y'all. They actually launched this around the same time we did. They raised $32 million, and they went out of business at the end of last year.

We launched this with pennies. We launched this with about $350,000 of my own money, one sponsor, and they couldn't figure out a business plan in five years. We've been able to do so, and so they got sold. I think one person is still there, but we're still growing and thriving. But I keep saying, I don't want black-owned media to be surviving.

I want us to be thriving. And so we can't, just like we talk about on the voting side, we can't complain about what we don't have if we also do not support. You can't complain about something saying, oh, man, we need services for our community and roads and bridges and streetlights and parks and stuff like that. But then we don't vote. That's where we actually get it from. Well, the same thing, if we don't support black-owned media, well, then who is going to be telling our story? Because here's the reality, Mika and Joe with MSNBC, they're not here. And what I also say to folk, and listen,

more black people watch MSNBC than any other network, but there's not a single African-American who has a show at MSNBC who can decide on their own to go do their show from anywhere. They got to go ask somebody else for permission. Well, I don't have to ask anybody because I own it. And that's why we need your support. And so please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Trust me, we have been able to survive on those $1, $5, $10, $25 donations.

In fact, I was at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta yesterday with our book signing, and that was a sister, let me find her name, who came up to me. She bought a book and she said, I wanted to put my money in your hand to make

sure you get it. We got a bunch of our people, they don't trust no digital stuff. That's why they still send checking money orders. Right now, it's about 40 checks in my car because they like, they'll tell me, we ain't using all that stuff, Roland. So she came up to me

and put her $40 in my hand and she said, now make sure my name show up because every Friday we run the names of all our donors. So let me shout out, oh, my goodness, where is it? Oh, Victoria Barton. Victoria Barton.

She's like, here's my money. So y'all out there, send your checking money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. And wait a minute, Anthony, did we get some checks from people? We were in Virginia. Did you give me those checks? Okay, making sure. All right. Making sure you ain't still carrying around your backpack.

All right, send me a check. Send your check of money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003790196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMart Martin unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle Rowland at Rowland S Martin.com. Rowland at Rowland Martin unfiltered.com. You get my book,

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android phone apple tv android tv roku amazon fire tv xbox one samsung smart tv we'll be right back. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone,

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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 three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six 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 two 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 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. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Debra Owens, America's Wealth Coach and host of Get Wealthy. Let me hit you with a few numbers.

African-Americans spend nine times the amount on ethnic beauty products and yet only own 1% of the beauty supply stores. It's an $18 billion industry. On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to learn and hear from a woman who's turning this obstacle into an opportunity. We literally take you from A to Z on all of the things, step-by-step, you need to have in place to open and run a very successful beauty supply store. That's right here with me, Deborah Owens,

host of Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Peace, I'm Faraji Muhammad, host of The Culture. And brothers, we need to talk. There's been much discussion about the state of the Black man in our community, whether it's in politics, education, or in the home. My brothers, we are struggling to lead the way, which is why The Culture will be hosting the black men summit we will be redefining and celebrating black manhood this special series will kick off on the 28th anniversary of the historic million man march on monday october the 16th at 4 p.m eastern time i'll be talking to some of black america's most prolific dynamic thought-provoking Black men activists, scholars, and readers about our role,

our power, and our future. So tune in and join the conversation as an online culture crew member for the Culture's Black Men Summit, redefining and celebrating Black manhood, starting Monday, October 16th through Friday, October 20th, 4 p.m. Eastern Time, each day, right here, exclusively here on the Black Star Network. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to...

Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Petersburg Public Library here in Petersburg, Virginia. We're talking Virginia elections. We're also talking, of course, election season overall. Joining me right now is Gary Flowers, host of the Gary Flowers Show, WOL Radio out of Washington, D.C., longtime host in Richmond, Virginia. Gary, of course, has worked Rainbow Push with Reverend Jesse Jackson. Gary's a great guy, except for the fact he belongs to a very junior fraternity. It's all good. It's a nice little youth group. Nice little youth group.

For the record, every man of Alpha Phi Alpha has to have an Omega service before they put in the ground. And guess what? Once we're gone, we don't care. We don't care. We care about what happened when we're alive. And that's Alpha. And that is short-sighted. No, it's not.

Only thing short is Omega's bank accounts. Because the richest man, the richest black person in America is named Robert Smith. He's an alpha. All right, let's get right to it. I got more. I got more too. The NAACP gives its annual award the Spingon Medal. That is the person who's had the most impact on black people that calendar year. Since its inception, omegas have 22 recipients. Alphas are in a distant second at 15.

So I need you all to be more relevant to black people. Well, first of all, let's just be real clear. Ain't no NAACP without W.E.B. DuBois. You might as well go and leave that long, Gary. I got a whole lot more in my back pocket. You ain't going to win this one. You know you ain't going to win this one. And then he quit the NAACP.

Because the Momegas came in running in my house. You ain't going to win this one. So I'm just letting you know right now. It ain't going to running in my house. You ain't going to win this one. So I'm just letting you know right now. It ain't going to go well for you. It ain't going to go well for you. You came here to talk about voting, right? Absolutely. Because, you know, Alphas, we have our voting initiative that's long and distinguished.

Voter people are hopeless people, but what y'all got? More. With fewer members. All right. And more elected officials. Now, see, right there. Right now, see, right now. In the history of America, we have more elected officials than alphas.

Gary, Gary, right now, we got more alphas. You research it, Larry. You got unfiltered. Gary, Gary, Gary. You need to put a filter on that. Gary, we got so many alphas in Congress, we can have a chapter. Y'all got two. Y'all could meet in a phone booth.

Let's go ahead and get to it. Get to the point. Let's get to it. I love these. Somebody said, Roland, respect your elders. Yeah, he older, but I look better. All right. I got some fool on the chat, and I got to deal with this.

What's this fool's name? See, I love these people who think I don't pay attention. Oh, but I do. Somebody goes by Percy Miracles. So this fool tweeted, no tangibles, no vote. Now, a lot of these people, these FBA, ADOT people, they keep saying that. And I keep trying to explain to people, first of all, somebody running for office can't give you anything because they're not elected. That's one.

So it requires them being elected. So, therefore, if you don't vote, fool, you can't get any tangibles because they actually can't make it happen unless they win. It's hard for some of these people to understand politics 101. Well, I'm glad you said 101 because the great philosopher Stevie Wonder said, if you believe in things you don't understand, You suffer from superstition. And so before we talk about that response, let's go to one on one politics in America. a democracy. We live under a constitutional republic. No one in this room or in the listening audience of viewing audience has an affirmative right to vote in the United States Constitution. What you talk about Gary

Flowers? No we don't. And Roland was with us in 2000 when we went from Florida, the stolen election, to the Supreme Court of the United States. And Justice Scalia, speaking for the majority, said, hey, love to help you guys, but nobody has the right to vote. It's a state matter. You were there. And so, one, we have to understand that we don't have an affirmative right. It's a state matter. Yep. You were there. And so, one, we have to understand that we don't have an affirmative right. It's a state right. We have 51 state systems in this country, all different. 3,067 county systems, all different.

And 13,000 municipal systems all different. For the people who don't understand, it's like, hold on, you said 51. First of all, you've got Puerto Rico that actually votes in federal elections as well, although they're not officially a state. And then you have other provinces where people, where they vote as well. The point is, Reverend Jackson was very clear to our staff, and Roland was in Chicago then with the Chicago Defender. He said, Gary, Gary. was very clear to our staff and Roland was in Chicago then with the Chicago Defender. He said, Gary, Gary, you ain't going to teach what you don't know and you can't lead where you don't go.

We have to understand the system in which we are voting first. OK, because if we don't understand it, then we're going to do the same thing over and over again. And to that end, I'm saying that we have to fight beyond this election for an affirmative right to vote in the United States Constitution.

When we talk about voting rights, Brother Roland, nobody has the right. We have a privilege. And that could be taken. But I want us to be thinking, I think, far different than how we are now. And that is

we have to be thinking in terms of 20, 30 years. Yes! So when we talk about, like I was on a panel during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and it dealt with the Supreme Court. And my good friend, L.E. Mister, with the nation, he said, I just think that we've lost the course for the next 50 years. I said, no, I disagree.

He's like, well, why? I said, well, you run the math. I said, Biden, Harris, they've appointed more than 100 judges in the last four years, more black women to the appellate division than all other presidents combined in history. I said, if they get reelected in 2024, they probably will appoint another 200 some-out judges. That's 300. I said, let's say Democrats win in 2028, another 200 judges. Now we had 500. There are only 930 federal judges. I said, if you literally win the next two presidential elections, you will appoint more than half of the federal bench. And so but we have to be thinking in that way. So when a sister was earlier was talking about, you know, don't just go on offense, not defense. you control the house for two four six eight ten years the things that we say we want can actually get done because we're maximizing our numbers if we look at the numbers uh and you look at the raw

numbers black folks in petersburg are not maximizing their country. You can run the... If black people alone in Petersburg maximized their numbers, they could run the table in all of the House races and the Senate races because of the number of people who live here. Numbers don't lie. Sister, you made the point earlier. What was the number, the small number,

that was the margin of the election? Did you say 512? 500. We are losing elections in petersburg and around the country by margins less than the unregistered voters sherry beasley could it was in 2018 she lost by 400 votes state supreme court chief justice as she won democrats would have had a 6-1 majority on the Supreme Court, and that's how they stopped racial gerrymandering and the voter suppression laws. Then they lost, she lost by 400 votes, it shrunk 4-3.

They lost in 2022 a couple of races. Now Republicans have a 5-2 majority. Well, what are the first thing they do? They're going to allow voter suppression to go forward, a voter of races, now Republicans have a five to two majority. Well, what are the first thing they do? They're going to allow voter suppression to go forward, voter ID to go forward. So even in those races, these things matter. And we just need to understand that we're talking, it was 400 votes she lost by. And so we have to understand voting at 65, 70, 75 percent of our numbers, we're sweeping races, state representatives, state senate, but also statewide races. Black voters could literally choose all statewide races if we're maximizing our numbers at 70, 75%. And let me just lift one word that you just said three times, and that is understand.

Proverbs 4 and 6 reveals that beyond wisdom, you have to get understanding. If we don't understand from a civic perspective, first, let me say thank you for those who came out in this hall tonight and those who are viewing, because at least it means that you care. And that's the first rule, to care. I've got brothers and sisters in my circle, distant circle, distant family members who don't care. And we're all fighting through that.

But we have to understand the system. There was a time in church that Sunday school did not mean Jesus wept. It was citizenship education. They were teaching the Constitution. They were teaching how to take the voter exam. And so we at least have to get back to that go back to your respective churches and ask the pastor he or she to have a civic engagement ministry and within that ministry there may be two or three congressional districts represented they need to be subcommittees just to talk about the issues that impact you in that congressional district.

We have to understand the system before we can negotiate it. Also, I said this last week when we were in Fredericksburg last week, is that I think one of the mistakes we make is that we keep thinking and operating broad, meaning, okay okay but if folk just

show up and i said the folk who don't vote are not going to show up unless you go touch them and so voting data is public you could literally go pull the data to see in that last election how what were the votes in each precinct in the district? And if you pull that, you will see what the lowest precincts were. What organizations in here, whether you're Alphas, Omegas, AKs, or Deltas, again, Prince, Home Mason, if you are non-Greek, if you're talking about getting the folks out to vote, you could literally, if you go in and say, we're going to target the three lowest voting precincts,

and if you all of a sudden say our goal is to get half of those folks in each precinct to turn out and support the candidate, you win. You may add anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people to the voting rolls. If the last election was set about 512 votes boom you win and that's doable and that's focusing on three precincts yes and that's within our organizations within our churches now i mean then there's another point that that gets under my skin and that is voter registration at the mall. That's like going fishing and asking the fish to jump in the boat. You have to canvas. When Roland and I were trained by Reverend Jackson

and Dr. Ronald Walters and Dr. Dorothy Height, it was the Ella Baker model from Virginia who trained the Student Nonviolent coordinating committee. That's door to door. People ain't going to just show up because you at the mall on your phone. Hello. So I wonder, so for me, I wonder how many voters groups are descending upon homecomings. Very few because they had they had to cook out

and again and so i'm so i mean again you have to and again so i think so the thing i think from for folks to understand is you also you go where people you talk about fishing i hate fishing uh but one thing that's kind of basic about fishing, you don't go fishing where there ain't that many fish. And so what gets me is, again, and I'm going back to the precinct model. I'm not interested in chasing going out to this event. No, no, no. The numbers are right there. Right.

The numbers are literally there. Anybody in here can pull up the data and just go to the state election board or the county, and you can see the precinct breakdown for each one of the House races we talked about. And you can look at the last election, and even if you had lines changed, you still can see in the general area. If we're talking about how to make a difference, that's how you do it and here's the crazy thing any 8 10 15 people in this room could literally decide we're gonna go canvas this neighborhood uh this weekend you don't actually have to get somebody's permission to actually canvas and that's the other thing that cracks me up people i think people a lot of people really think that, oh, I got to call someone and sign up. No, you can organize your own GOTV effort. You got the vote effort. Or to your point that voter data is somehow another non-public.

It's there for us. We just have to understand how the system works and make it work for us. But that's what our ancestors did, either through their churches or their civic organizations, their benevolent organizations, their fraternal, sorority organizations. We have to be in a spirit of reclamation. It ain't new. How do you see these house races, these Senate races developing? What should folks be paying attention to? The Virginia way, which is deception.

Deception. And so the Virginia way is to fake left, go right. For instance, on this issue of voting, one, for review, no one has a right to vote. We have a privilege to vote. Virginia is the last state in the union to take away the privilege to vote for life. And we're arguing from governor to governor who's going to restore, change the law. OK, and that's where Roland's point came in earlier. If we don't have majorities in the legislature, we can't change the law. But even under Democratic governors, Governor Northam did not change the law but even under democratic governors governor Northam did

not change the law governor McAuliffe thought he was going to get a cabinet position from Hillary and fake this out by saying he's going to have 200,000 new votes that was for his purposes he didn't change the law so the democrats aren't talking about changing the law either I come from a school that my grandfather told my father who told me, trust in God and check everybody else. Last question for you. All right. We don't have much time. It is October 23rd.

Only a few days left. And again, that's the most important poll, who actually shows up. And so critical areas, thinking about this state, what are the cities or the areas that we really need to make sure where our people are turning out? I think southeastern Virginia, because as you pointed out earlier, there is a pattern and practice of people not registering and not showing up. And it's not hard. And those cities are?

Well, these are counties, more so than cities. Because the cities usually have more apparatus for people to come out. It's the slightly rural or rural areas where people don't care. My home, paternal home county of Surrey County, you mentioned earlier. Anybody from Surrey? Okay, I'm a Flowers from Surrey. Route 611. Anybody ask for your address.

They were talking to me. I need you to stay over there. That's because he spent so much time in Chicago. Because Chicago Negroes will give you their whole address. Yes, they will. They're going to give you the cross street. If you meet somebody from Chicago and they don't give you the address, they're asking from the suburbs.

They ain't from Chicago. Because his is Chicago. See, he know I ain't lying. They'll be like 87. In Chicago, it is. I live at 69th and Vincennes. Boom. They'll give you that.

Right there by Ms. Izola's. You know, across the street from. That's why you gave the route number. Uh-huh. Right. Uh-huh. But the point is, there are services lacking there. And yet it is a low voter registration, low voter turnout area.

That has to be a target. All right. Gary Flowers, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Going to break. We come back. We're going to take your questions. So look forward to that.

So we'll do that in just a second. Plus, there's a couple of candidates I do want to call up here from as well. So we'll do that right here in Roland Martin. I'm Phil to the Black Star Network live from Petersburg, Virginia. Back in a moment. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, being of service to others is one of the greatest callings in life. But being there for someone else in their time of crisis is a whole new level.

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The blessings, the challenges, and the way they maintain their balance, all next on A Balanced Life on Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not replace us. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. 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 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 people. Come on. Me Sherri Sheppard with Sammie Roman. I'm Dr. Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Peaceburg, Virginia. Natan McKenzie is running for the state Senate. Natan, come on out. Grab the microphone there.

If elected, what do you want to do? Sure. Okay. The short answer is really bring a tone of empathy and community when we're. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

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I think that we are in a time of change in the General Assembly here in Virginia, and there's an opportunity for us to truly represent our people, not just with propaganda, let's just say, or talking points when you're on the campaign trail, but actually be involved in our community in many ways and bring that grassroots effort and energy into the General Assembly. What issues specifically? Well, we already talked about abortion. We already talked about what's happening in our educational system.

But one of the areas of opportunity throughout Virginia that we glanced over briefly was food deserts, right? And I can't express how impactful that is in so many communities. I started my, let's say, political career here in Petersburg, Virginia, and the food desert epidemic really does affect every household, every citizen, and especially when it comes to our youth and their ability to perform in the classroom. And so it's a less understood issue, but an opportunity for us to change so many lives, not just in the immediate sense, but also in the long term.

You're focusing, when you say you're focusing on working families, what does that mean? So we all know that we're struggling economically right now. Post-pandemic, a lot of families have lost loved ones, struggled with their own personal professional jobs, and just trying to make ends meet. And let's just be honest, too, it hasn't gotten better. We already talked about the minimum wage being an issue. And what we need to do is not only be sensitive to those issues, but also understand how that impacts so many families on a mental health standpoint, the ability for them to thrive in their communities, be engaged in the political process let alone. We talked about engagement before and folks coming

out to vote. Well, they're not connected because they're dealing with so much on a personal and professional level that disengages them to be a part of this process one of the things that when you talked about the issue of education and I don't understand why this is a conflict controversy you have these people who are running around showing what school board meetings yelling about CRT that doesn't exist which shows that they're not actually educated and yet the people they talk about how teachers are important but then they don't want to actually raise the pay of educators absolutely what I've always believed is that every child deserves to have a quality education and every teacher deserves to have a quality of life right

we have already talked about them being the social worker the confidant the the protector the individual who's doing more than what is already understood for them in their job description, right? I mean, there's a lot of people here who would say, you want me to do what? In addition to what my job description is, they would have walked away. But we also know that they are the connecting point, let's just say, between the child and the parent in many ways, right? And so when we talk about funding our schools and supporting our teachers, we need to make sure they have the

resources to ensure that the child has the ability to grow as a person and as an individual, but also academically succeed as well. All right then. Well, Nathan McKenzie, good luck in your Senate race. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Bring up Stephen Stephen Miller Pitts. Stephen, step on up. Stephen, you're running for a delegate. One of the areas that Republicans love to attack Democrats on comes to police yelling deep on the police, but you've made it clear, fully funding police and sheriff's departments. Explain. Absolutely, because as an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, I understand coming back, we need safer communities, right?

And so we need more funding than the communities, right? And so I really want to fully fund the sheriffs and police, but what type of funding and where the funding goes. So really knowing how they spend the money and making sure the resources are there in the community. When we talk about mental health, de-escalation tactics and things of that nature, hiring other qualified personnel to our police forces. So we really have a community effort. So it's not all on the officers from doing their jobs, but they can call on their partners who have different qualifications in the community so that our community can get the resources that they need.

You're running in a race, a lot of people not paying much attention to, but you're really spending time hitting the ground or going door to door. Yeah, absolutely. You know, when I spent time hitting the ground, going door to door. Yeah, absolutely. You know, when I spent time in the mountains of Afghanistan just myself, but knowing people were watching, I know people out here are watching. And so somebody told me earlier that they see me on TV. So I'm making noise. I think the unique thing is for the Republicans to stay in office, for Youngkin to do what he needs to do. They need to take spotlight off of races like mine, races that are so unique where there's enough people.

My district is suburban, urban, and rural, right? There's a gamut of things that are happening in my district that once I flip this seat, Yunkin and everything goes away because they can't hold. See, we're talking about flipping the house, but what we need to have is veto control, right? Where we can do what we need to do legislativelyatively and what he does doesn't matter because you know what they're doing in north carolina they're doing in north carolina tennessee mississippi florida mississippi alabama texas absolutely so we have an opportunity we have we have over two weeks left

over two weeks left to get people excited come out and and vote. And we can have veto proof here. We got a historic number of people of color running, over 50 plus individuals running for 140 seats. That's a significant chunk of the state legislature looking like people that come from the communities that we want to help. And so that's why I'm running because my community is one of those communities. And as a professor at Virginia State University, teaching government, understanding how it's supposed to work, and once you put those individuals in office, and so I'm not beholden to anybody, right? I'm here by the grace of God, still living. Everybody in my household is gone that I grew up with, but I recognize, because I'm building my house,

that I need to be the example, the example for the communities, where Hopewell City is my majority minority, and they get overlooked, because where I live in Chester, that's where my opponent lives. So everything falls in Chester, and Hopewell gets left behind, right? But what I will make sure, that I return the hope to Hopewell, the resources to Hopewell, Prince George, the food deserts, everything, the whole gamut. There's no single issue on the ballot, right? Everything is connected. And so me teaching government, I understand. That's why you have different departments, right? But everybody works in conjunction with each other, right? And so one of the things that Republicans are unique and able to do is make these things single issue things. But I was talking in Prince George early on

Saturday at the pecan festival. There's no single issue, right? If I want to fully fund schools, right, I've got to worry about the students, right? Do they have everything they need at the household, right? So then that's affordable housing, right? Do their parents have livable wages, right? That has an impact on what they can and cannot do in the house. So when they come to school, my teachers aren't stressed out because the students have everything they need to be successful and learn. And more importantly, what I keep

saying is schools, their primary job is to educate, not be social service centers. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so absolutely. You know, I was on a I was on a call the Virginia Nurses Association last week. My opponent was on there first time that we were in the same space. Right. And, you know, you said some slick deception, deception, Republicans. She did some trickery. Right. A little truth and then sprinkled with the falsehood. Right. So Hopewell has a clinic within the school system. And so she made some comments and she said it was open to the public. Right. And so that's not generally true. Right. Because if it's in the school system it operates during school hours right and so if this so if the students are there they're good but the parents should be at

work right but the other thing is you don't just want anybody walking to the school absolutely safety issues this thing this is a part of it like i've because i've covered city county government i've explained that part of the problem in this country is that in the cities and counties across the country, they literally got rid of community service centers. And so people are like, oh, let's put it all into the schools. Yeah, but the problem is you don't want anybody who's looking for community services roaming a school hallway. Absolutely. Absolutely. 100%. One of the other unique things, you know, when you talk to talk to other candidates and one of the things on the ballot, you know, we have these developers.

I love that the development and the growth, but it's not matching with our infrastructure. Right. And so you said something unique. We in my part of the county, there's a lot of developments and houses going up, but they're not pulling up new schools. They're not putting up medical parks. They're not investing in the community. What they're doing is a cash grab, and then we'll be left holding a bag. So that's why November 7th, I'm going to ensure that if I'm holding a bag, I'm going to return the bag back to the community. So that's why everybody needs to come out and vote and ensure that people like me and the ones that you heard earlier are elected so we can have some veto proof, right? It's more than just flipping the house.

It's about changing the communities and bringing the resources because the money is here. You mentioned something about the Biden-Harris administration. There's a massive surplus in Virginia thanks to the federal government and Biden-Harris. A hundred percent. The money is here. We talked about unions. I'm a union supporter, right? The Lego plant is coming to Chester, right?

They're bringing over 1,500 jobs. And so one of the things I think about, higher education is not for everybody. So I'm a professor, but I understand in Hopewell, part of my district, they have a tech center. In Chesterville County, they have two tech centers, right? All right, so when we talk about apprenticeship programs, we talk about the pipelines, right? The pipelines for these students, like, you can go to Virginia State University for free if you're in a certain radius. You can go to Virginia Union University for free if you're in a certain radius. That covers this geographical location.

So you can go to higher ed for free, right? And then— Which actually used to exist in this country. Absolutely, absolutely. That was before ronald reagan became president and so there are a lot of people and again this is for all the folk i did there were a lot of white americans who went to free college places where we couldn't get into and so a lot of these people parents and grandparents got paid by going to free college absolutely go ahead absolutely so so now we have an opportunity, right? We're not taking nothing from nobody.

And in the military, we never had enough resources, anything, right? But we always got the mission done. And so it really is about electing the right group of folk that care about the community, that are going to go get the resources and fight for the community. And it's time to stop electing individuals that are about special interests, taking care of their good old boy network, and lining the pockets of their friends. And so it's an opportunity for all of us, especially black people, to get out there and impact it. My district is 33% African-American voting population, which means if I can get the majority of the black people to come out and vote November 7th,

I went and flipped this district that has not been in Democratic hands as far back as 1992 when Riley Ingram held the position. And so we have a unique opportunity to make history, right? And so we will make this history because there's a shift in the atmosphere. And we need everybody coming together, connecting the dots, because we are all a piece on this puzzle. And we just got to connect so we can get to the middle part, which is helping and bringing resources to the community. All right. Stephen Miller Pitts, man, good luck. I appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch. We're going to take a few questions. And so if you have a question, I want you to come over here. And so if the candidates could just come on the stage over here, and then if you got a question directed to over here, come on, just come on up. Come on up. Come on up. Hear the ground rules. I got the microphone. I don't need your help holding it. Come on. So just ask your question, stress free.

I said I got the microphone. Did you not hear that part? I got the mic. I'm going to hold it. You got it? You can assume the position. Put your hands on your pockets. There you go.

There you go. All right. So my question is this. What are y'all going to do primarily about the younger generation? That's kind of broad. Be specific. Yes, sir. What I mean is I certainly feel that you all are just hitting topics regarding the older generation. I feel that we need to get out of the mentality of the 1990s and the 1980s. It's 2023. We have other better issues that we could be

focusing on. Such as? Black on black crime. That's the number one. As you look within the area of Petersburg, we see so much crime on a daily basis within my age group. And I don't find neither, none of y'all talking about it. Did you? So let me ask you this question here. So when you talk about crime, what's the, what do you think is the cause of crime? I got this. What do you think the cause of crime is? No, no, no. What do you think the cause of crime is? Well, I certainly think social media and not only social media. I think also mental health is another one also. What else? And then also, I also think also that we as the black community, we don't talk about it, but which we need to. We are so jealous and so envious towards one another, we don't believe in helping one another out.

Okay, so now let me ask you this question. What do you believe, you don't have to cite specifically, what do you believe the crime rate is in a neighborhood where the credit score is 700 or higher? Well, that's a great question. I mean, it's being real low. So when you ask, so here's my whole point. So when you say crime, okay, crime is largely indicative of health care,

wages, education, opportunity, correct? Every candidate has spoken about every single one of those issues. So if you address those issues, you directly address crime. Not really. Yes, you do. I'm going to ask you again. If you have an area where they have proper health care, good jobs, good education, you likely have low crime, correct? But my thing is this, you're right to a certain extent, you're right.

However, what are y'all going to do to lower the crime rate within our area? I'm gonna ask you again, I'm gonna ask you again, I'm gonna ask you again. I'm going to ask you again. I'm going to ask you again. If you provide, I'm going to ask you, if you provide health care, economic opportunity, job creation, higher wages, increase black-owned businesses,

improve education, and provide additional resources to HBCUs, does that not have a direct impact on crime? No, it does not. How? It does not. Because there are bigger issues that influence black-on-black crime than just focusing on those things. And what they are?

Well, a number one thing, and I have not heard nobody talk about it is the LG, the LGBTQ community rights. As we do know, Petersburg within the area, we have the we have a large, a large population of that. And and as many of you all do know, our trend, our transsexual sisters, they are on danger lately. Like, y'all know I'm not lying. Y'all know I am not lying. We do not focus. We don't focus. We don't focus. We do not focus on those topics. And listen, it's 2023, y'all. We're not living in the 1980s no more. We are living in a new society. And to be honest with you, to be honest with you, if we don't have more people like me, my other friend Darius, and another young guy back out there, if we don't have us coming out here to these things and voicing our opinions, how in the world is anything going to get done

now here's my next question for you and I'm let one of them answer that's not a problem what are you and your friends doing to mobilize voters no no no no I actually want to know well well well first, well, first, well, first, well, first, what we are doing is we are going out at our school, going out to every single residence hall asking... What school? At Virginia State University. Asking, asking, asking them, are you registered to vote? Are you coming out to vote? Are you registered to participate in the U.S. Census? Because we don't talk about that either. Well, that's also the census every 10 years. So this is not a census year. We just already had the census. So you're not going to have it again

for seven more years. So you say you're asking them when they register to vote, but are you registering people? Well, what we're doing is, well, what I have done was I have created a poll, a Google Doc poll, and I used that. And what I have done was, was I have been trying to find went to the county to be certified as an official voter registrar? No. Okay. So, no, no, no. So, asking somebody, are you registered, is one thing. But being an official registrant means that you could actually sign them up on the spot.

So now you're not just asking, you're now also doing. And so that's one suggestion that you should be actually doing. One of y'all should be an actual voter registrant so you have the authority to actually register people. When you're asking them and you're going around asking them to register, are you carrying any voter registration forms? Well, no. Okay, so right the whole up so if you're asking me I'm just helping you out if you're going to someone to say are you registered they go no then what do you do so what I do is I get there I get their information and then I for them to the to the local poll office in Petersburg and I told them but are they allowed to register online say that again

they allowed to register online I mean I don't know I have online registration in Virginia which means that you could actually have an iPad and have them registered right there on the spot but see that's but see that's what I was saying though we don't know nothing about that no but I'm telling you right now so no no no no cuz he cuz he we. We don't know nothing about that. No, but I'm telling you right now. No, no, no, no. Because when you say we don't know anything, because you actually said you know a lot, but now you don't know anything about voting. My point is this here. You, as in, no, no, follow me here.

If you're asking what they can do, you can actually impact that. If it's online, you can literally say, oh, you're not registered. Do you know you can actually register right now? So why don't we get you registered right now and we can do it right here. Here's an iPad or a computer. That's what you can actually do. Okay. Yeah.

Yes, sir. Most definitely. All right. So cool. Anybody want to answer the question about crime? Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead, Steven.

So I'm not going to answer directly about crime, but I think you wanted to know what we were doing. Right. And so I believe earlier when we spoke, you said you knocked doors for me. Right. So we're in this fight together. Right. So that's first and foremost. So that's what we got to remember in this fight together. But we might not always agree about the core issues of what needs to be addressed right but as a professor at Virginia State University and all of us uniquely qualified to understand this this that we understand it's not the next generation y'all are now generation so some of the things we do you notice because you knock on doors for my

campaign so one of the things that I make sure and everybody here that students on Virginia State University are intricately. So one of the things that I make sure and everybody here that students on Virginia State University are intricately in each one of our campaigns, knocking doors, getting access to things. And we're not talking about just free stuff. We're talking about interns. We're talking about paid canvassers, things of that nature, right? Because we recognize that that's the only way we're going to get everybody out. So when my students go knock on doors, right, if they can't see me, they're seeing somebody that they would never have seen, that that's the only way we're going to get everybody out. So when my students go knock on doors, right, if they can't see me, they're seeing somebody that they would never have seen, right?

And so that's where it starts, right? Because we got to start somewhere, right? And so the crime aspect, there's conversations we need to have, right? And a lot of things that he said matters, right? Mental health is a big thing, right? We came out of the pandemic, but you didn't know, you don't have any social skills anymore, right? You did schooling online, right? And we know that online is systemically messing with the brains of our youth, right? So things like that need to be addressed. But the first part is you got to get everybody to vote, right?

Vote for us. Because once we get elected, that's first, right? Then after, we can tell you exactly what we're going to do. And we don't do it you hold us accountable and then you run against us right that's the cycle that's the system and let's let's be clear again and the reason i want to go back to the crime issue when people say we're gonna put more police on the streets that's great the problem is that is in response to crime. You asked about stopping crime. And what I'm trying to convey is you cannot, you simply cannot disprove my point. Show me an area of Virginia where there is low crime,

and I guarantee you there is high home ownership, high education, high credit scores, high number of jobs and wages. And so you can shake your head all you want to. You could go ask any criminal justice professor on your campus, and I challenge you to do so. You can go ask, in fact, you can go ask any police chief. I've interviewed numerous months a police chief will tell you crime is a direct response to economic health indicators period you're talking about a response to crime so in a lot of our neighborhoods black people are dealing with high crime because many of our neighborhoods are low income, low education, low health, food deserts. So all the things, and any one of y'all want to speak to that, but that's literally what, how, how crime is able to manifest,

but show me an area not that's doing well. They ain't got a crime problem. Go ahead. So I will say this, given your other question, because it all correlates. And Brother Martin, I appreciate you walking him through that question process, because reach one, teach one is really the core of that, right? And I hope you understood what he was trying to do. Not necessarily call you out, but understand there's a process with everything. Like I said, I had my start here in Petersburg. I was 21 when I ran for city council here, right after I graduated Virginia State University. I'm not saying that to impress you. I'm saying that simply to say you can do this too, right? You don't necessarily have to just simply go out there and feel as though you need to get others around you. You can be the catalyst

change that you want. You just have to figure out a path to get that done or you don't have to run for office but you can mobilize and organize voters there it is there it is and that's that's all i'm all i'm saying is and again and i need people to understand right it's it's not a criticism uh it's actually a proper critique because the biggest mistake and trust me me, what you said, I get it all around the country. And the biggest mistake is we say, I want something done, but then what do I do? And then what will I do? So my whole point is this here, and this is what you're talking about. You're speaking to older voters.

I'm going to be real clear with you. And I don't say this around country. The reality is this. When it comes to voting, people in this room who are 60 plus vote at a higher. No, no, no. Follow me here, brother. Follow me here. Numbers are numbers. You can you can shake your head all you want to. Facts are facts. In the United States of America, voters 60 years and older have the highest voter participation of any age demographic. The lowest voter participation is 18 to 39. But hold up, you're shaking your head. I'm giving you real data, bro. I've only done this since I was 14 years old. But the largest block of available voters are millennial and Gen Z. The problem is they have large numbers. They don't vote. I'm from Texas. There are 2 million eligible but unregistered Latinos in Texas. You may not understand this. Republicans hold every statewide office in Texas. Are you aware that Texas right now is 61 percent minority? But guess who votes? 61% of all voters are white. So in Texas, black and brown people make up 61% of the state population.

But 61% of those who vote are white. That's why you see very few black and brown people statewide. So here's the deal. If Gen Z and millennials voted their numbers, you can outvote. You can take out every baby boomer, every older person. But it doesn't happen if they don't vote and they can't say, well, I don't see this. So therefore, I'm not voting. You will never see this if you don't vote, which is the same thing I'm saying to Black people. If you don't vote, everything we complain about is irrelevant.

Next question. My name is... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

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

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban 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. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action,

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

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

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-illion-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 two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. 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 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is Larry Akeen Smith. I'm over 60 and I do vote. I'm secretary of the newly formed NAACP in Petersburg. We've been registering people to vote. Now, not as a member of anything, thank you for coming here and taking the time to have this forum. Thank you very much for pointing out the deception of the Republicans in general, Glenn Youngkin in particular.

Now, how can we offset this deception that he has going on right here in Petersburg? He's got these signs talking about promises made, promises kept. And these things have not been done. They are lies. And he's in fact dangling Mayor Perm and our city council members out as though they are supporting him. Maybe they are supporting him 100 percent. Do we need to vote them out? How can we offset this deception that's going on before our very eyes. Kim? Thank you. Thanks, bro. And thank you for that question, Larry. The way we combat the lies is with the truth. We need to fact check Glenn Youngkin every chance we get.

Because if we sit here and allow him to tell the lies and don't say anything, people are going to believe it to be true. Partnership for Petersburg is a prime example. I know. I'm an accountant by profession. I follow the numbers. I've been working for the Commonwealth of Virginia almost 20 years. And when he stands on this very stage,

because Glenn Youngkin has stood on this very stage and acted as if initiatives that he has repackaged as the Partnership for Petersburg were actually his idea when in fact it was the late Congressman A. Donald McKeachin who set things in motion for us to have the federal funding to do the things that he has now rebranded as the Partnership for Petersburg. So I agree with you 100%, Larry. The way we combat these lies is by fact-checking. You fact-check him, you fact-check him publicly, and you hold him accountable because that's what we have the power to do as a voter.

It's like I had some fool trying to tell me about Trump and HBCU funding. I said, first of all, it was a lie. He did not fully fund all HBCUs. Two, the program he was talking about was created by President George W. Bush, was then followed through with Obama. It expired. Trump zeroed out the funding for the program in his budget. It was put back in by Congresswoman Alma Edwards of North Carolina, a Democrat, and that's how it got done. But, again, he promoted the lie and folk fell for the okey-doke, and I'm like, I ain't giving you credit because I know the truth behind the lie. And this is the point here, and I'm going to close with this because I see we're over time,

but I've got to say this here, and this is critically important. And, again, why did I walk through what I'm talking to close with this because I see we're over time. But I got to say this here, and this is critically important. And again, why did I walk through what I'm talking about here? Facts are facts. And I've said this across the country. If you are a young voter and you are 18 plus, the numbers do not lie. We have seen an increase in voter turnout 18-39. But the lowest voting demographic

period is 18-39. It's a fact. You could drop your head, bro, and you should drop your head. Because here's the problem. Here's the problem. You cannot, and again, I'm speaking about young voters overall, and I'm speaking about black people.

You cannot complain about something in government and then not vote to change the vote. You can't complain about policy and not change the folk. You can't complain about policy and not change the policy makers. You can't complain about policy and then even if your candidate doesn't win, you don't show up to the city council meeting, the county commissioners meeting, the state capitol, or the congress. It is a participatory process here. And the mistake that we keep making is that we believe that there's some other group out there that's going to change this. No, it's us.

If you want to see change here, if you think the MAGA person running against Kim is awful, you can throw her out. But you got to show up to do it. You got to be registered to do it. And so the registration deadline's already passed. But if you register, you can file a provisional ballot. So even if somebody today is not registered,

they can still register, but they have to vote with a provisional ballot. But I can guarantee you, and I can guarantee you this, bro, the guaranteed way something never changes is if we complain and do nothing about it. That's the case in Virginia, in Kentucky, in Mississippi, in Texas, everywhere. So everybody who's watching,

we're going to be in Richmond next Thursday for our last town hall. We're going to have other candidates on talking about these issues. But if you're out there and you're watching and listening and you keep saying voting solves nothing, I can guarantee you when you sit at home, it's some other people who are showing up. And then when they start getting stuff, and you say, why are they getting stuff? Because they showed up. And they voted.

And that's how it works in America. Let me thank all of our candidates. Let me thank all of you. Let me thank the Virginia House Democrats for partnering with us. Folks, I'm going to be back in the studio tomorrow. I'm going to show you a video. I had to. I'm going to show you a video.

It's a bunch of young people on social media who are mad with Biden with what's happening in Israel and Gaza. And they're saying that they're not going to vote. And I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to break down for you why that is absolutely nonsensical, because you can't say I want student debt relief. And Republicans opposed it. But Biden has canceled 127 billion in student loan debt. But then you say, why did he cancel more? This side don't want to cancel any of it. 127 billion is being canceled. Folk, you got to think much broader and deeper.

Because when you vote, you're not voting just for today. You literally are voting on policies that will impact us 20, 30 years from now. Thanks a bunch. I'll see you guys tomorrow on Rolling Mark on the Filter on the Black Star Network. Power! Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now.

Black power. 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? Thanks for watching! A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, So now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding.

If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 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 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. 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. 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. This is an iHeart Podcast.