#RolandMartinUnfiltered - SC Justice Breyer retires; Kendrick Johnson case closed; Black mayor commits suicide

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

1.27.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: SC Justice Breyer retires; Kendrick Johnson case closed; Black mayor commits suicideToday, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer officially announced his retirement at the White House. President Joe Biden says his nomination to the Supreme Court vacancy will be a historic first for the nation's highest court. He's sticking to his word of picking a black woman.Reports say the economy made a strong comeback during Biden's first year. Economist Dr. Julianne Malveaux joins us tonight to discuss what that means and what Biden's second year will look like.Ya'll remember when companies and CEOs "united" to oppose state bills containing discriminatory voting measures? Well, journalist Judd Legum is calling them out on their silence. He'll be here to expose those companies and CEOs who have said and done nothing the help voter legislation.A second investigation in the death of Kendrick Johnson, the Georgia teen found in a rolled-up gym mat, has closed with no charges filed. We'll share with you what the sheriff said about the case and the family's response.Plus, Maryland is pushing to ban ghost guns. Prince George's County State's Attorney, Aisha Braveboy, will explain it's so important to ban these illegal weapons.A California city will require gun owners to have liability insurance.And the Cleveland Cavaliers promotes the NBA's first black woman as Chief Operating Officer.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3zSX7aJNissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Today is Thursday, January 27, 2022. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Today, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer officially announced his retirement at the White House after serving in the Supreme Court for 27 years. President Joe Biden makes it clear he is going to nominate a black woman for the first time to the nation's highest court. We'll be talking with Melanie Campbell, Black Women's Roundtable,

about that very issue. Reports say the economy has made a strong comeback during Biden's first year. Economist Dr. Julianne Malveaux joined us to discuss what that means and what Biden should be saying to take credit. Y'all remember when companies and CEOs, quote, unite it to oppose state bills containing discriminatory voting measures.

Well, why are those same companies now going back to funding Republicans? Journalist Judd Legum is calling them out on their silence. He'll be here to expose these companies and their CEOs who said they, and who have said and done nothing when it comes to voting legislation. A second investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson comes up with empty.

Of course, he was a Georgia teen found rolled up in a gym mat. Of course, the sheriff has said the case is closed. No charges whatsoever. Maryland is pushing to ban ghost guns. Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy will explain what the ban means for these illegal weapons. A California city will require gun owners to have liability insurance.

Also, the Cleveland Cavaliers promotes the NBA's first black woman as chief operating officer. And Highsville, Maryland is mourning the suicide of their 44-year-old black mayor. We'll tell you what happened. Folks, it is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics

With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's rolling Martin, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best

You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin 27-year Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer made it official with this letter he sent to President Joe Biden announcing his retirement. He lays out in here, of course, you utilize exactly what you're supposed to do in terms of why he's that he's retiring. Also, the timetable that he has given in terms of his retirement's retiring, also the timetable that he is given in terms of his retirement. In that particular letter, he talks about, again,

his role, the role that he has played, and again, what he has been able to accomplish on the Supreme Court. This was sent, of course, to the president. He said, I enormously appreciate the privilege of serving as part of the federal judicial system. Nearly 14 years as a court of appeals judge and nearly 28 years as a member of the Supreme Court. I have found the work challenging and meaningful.

My relations with each of my colleagues have been warm and friendly. Throughout, I have been aware of the great honor of participating as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the rule of law. Today at the White House, Breyer, of course, stood alongside President Joe Biden in speaking to the nation. Choosing someone to sit in the Supreme Court, I believe, is one of the most serious constitutional responsibilities a president has. Our process is going to be rigorous.

I will select a nominee worthy of Justice Breyer's legacy of excellence and decency. While I've been studying candidates' backgrounds and writings, I've made no decision except one. The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It's long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment. I will fully do what I said I'd do. I will fulfill my duty to select a justice, not only with the Senate's consent, but with his advice. You've heard me say in other nomination processes that

the Constitution says seek the advice and consent, but the advice as well of the Senate. I'm going to invite senators from both parties to offer their ideas and points of view. I'll also consult with leading scholars and lawyers. And I'm fortunate to have advising me in this election process, Vice President Kamala Harris. People have come to accept this constitution and they've come to accept the importance of a rule of law. And I want to make another point to them. I want to say, look, of course people don't agree, but we have a country that is based on human rights, democracy, and so forth. But I'll tell you what Lincoln thought, what Washington thought,

and what people today still think. It's an experiment. It's an experiment. That's what they said. And Joanna paid each of our grandchildren a certain amount of money to memorize the Gettysburg Address. And the reason the reason that that that what we want them to pick up there and what I want those students to pick up, if I can remember the first two lines, is that four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought up, created upon this here a new country, a country that was dedicated to liberty and the proposition that all men are created equal. Conceived in liberty, those are his words,

and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. He met with them too. And we are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. See, those are the words I want. To see. An experiment. And that's what he thought. It's an experiment.

And I found some letters that George Washington wrote where he said the same thing. It's an experiment. And I found some letters that George Washington wrote where he said the same thing. It's an experiment. That experiment existed then because even the liberals in Europe, you know, they're looking over here and they're saying it's a great idea in principle, but it'll never work. But we'll show them it does. That's what Washington thought. And that's what Lincoln thought. And that's what people still think today. And I say, well, I want you, and I'm talking to the students now. I say, I want you to pick just this up. It's an experiment that's still going on.

Joining me now is Melanie Campbell, convener of the Black Women's Roundtable. Melanie, glad to have you here. President Joe Biden, when he was running, made it clear that he was going to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court. Today, he was emphatic in stating that to the nation as he stood there with Breyer. Melanie, can you hear me? Yes. I didn't hear the question, but I said President Biden was emphatic. Speak before the nation

about him appointing a black woman. And it was refreshing. It was refreshing to have someone who was a candidate make that kind of a pledge and actually follow through. It's been a long time coming. At least the last, what, 12 years

or close to 12 years. I remember when we made the attempt during the Obama administration and here we are today with it actually manifesting. And we're ready to support the president and his efforts, but also to be ready for

if there is any kind of pushback to fight as well. You already see the folks running out here. You see these conservatives whining and complaining. Oh, it's a race and gender, not qualifications. Um... White men, that was the only folks who could apply

for 250 years. I'm like, shut the hell up. Yes, I totally agree. Um, 233 years exact, I believe, is the number. And we've only had two Black people, two Black men on that bench. And so the reality is we know diversity does matter. And it's not about qualifications. Everyone's name that we're hearing out here publicly are exceptionally qualified, but

they have not had the opportunity to even be considered, to even get an interview where you could see them walking from the West Wing, all the theater. We never had that vision. And so I think the moment that we're in with this country, it is as diverse as it is, even though there are those who are pushing back. The highest court in the land needs to be diverse, and having a Black woman with lived experience who can bring that to that bench is vitally important

to this country really finding a way to own the fact that we are a diverse nation, so that this rule of law will be justice for all of us. Obviously, conservatives still will hold a 63 majority on the Supreme Court, but considering the fact that we've had 115 Supreme Court

justices in American history, 108 of them have been white men, it's not like for all the people who are whining and complaining like we've had just in abundance. You even have some folks, I saw some idiot talking about, oh, how Biden has been nominating black female judges, which is at a higher percentage than the number of black female lawyers in the country, as if that's a big deal. So it's been really interesting listening to the folks, all the different ways they have jumped out

complaining about a black woman he hasn't chosen yet. Right, and then the idea of the idea of that there should not be inclusion of all of us at any time that we point out the fact that it's...

And you bring up race. And we're in this time where we're at an inflection point in this country. And I know, Roland, I know you talk about it all the time. And the reality of the fact that you have people pushing back after the Black Lives Matter movement.

You think about that. You know, how... Where we thought we were. And we... And hoping that this this maybe this will be the time that we really own the fact that this is a diverse country, own the fact that not all of us are actually being able to live out our dreams in this nation because of the issues of race in this country and gender as well. So I say, you know, the heck with whoever thinks what you want to think. We are America, and we want to see ourselves on that court, just like anyone else does, because we want those lived experiences, not just because of color, because it is about exceptional qualifications, but it's also the diversity

of that lived experience that can come to that court. And yes, right now, as far as the numbers of six to three, but we've lived long enough to know that things can change on a dime. So we don't know what the future holds. Only God knows that. But in this moment, we want to take

this advantage of it. And we thank President Biden for keeping his word and not shrinking from that. Absolutely. And so we will see who he will nominate. He's made it clear he will do so by the end of the month. Senator Chuck Schumer has said they will move his nomination forward and confirm it in a month, matching what Republicans did with Amy Coney Barrett when it was 27 days from her being nominated to be confirmed. And I think that's a really important point.

I think I saw you, I read something that you said about that. And it's really important to hear him say, in Black History Month, wouldn't that be beautiful? And going into Women's History Month the following month, that we would see this take place. All right. Melanie Cameron, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, Roland. All right. I'm going to go to my panel here.

Dr. Greg Carr, Department of African American Studies at Howard University, Risi Colbert, Black Women's Views, and we'll be joined by Roger Muhammad, of course, who will be hosting a daily show on the Black Star Network. Greg Carr as well. Glad to have all three of you here. Greg, you teach in the Howard University Law School. Let's talk about this. First and foremost,

people should really pay attention to what Breyer said. Wasn't a shock when he talked about and brought up the Civil War? No. No. I think Breyer, I suspect and we talked about this yesterday, you and I were on

offline, I want to know who got to him because he wasn't going nowhere. I wonder if the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg shook him. And one thing that was striking to me when I saw him at the press conference today, I haven't seen Stephen Breyer in quite some time. The last time I saw him at the press conference today, I haven't seen Stephen Bryan quite some time. The last time I saw him,

he's in East Street Cinema in D.C. He's aged considerably, of course, but he's in good health. And he hadn't talked like this before, at least not in public. But, you know, there's so much here to unpack. And I hope we spend some time on it. I mean, to me, this is really not going to be a fight-fight.

I think they'll get this seat. This I mean, to me, this is really not going to be a fight fight. I think they'll get this seat. This, it seems to me, for people who don't pay attention to a whole lot of other stuff, this might be enough to put the Democrats in the game to retain the presidency in 2024, when the real endgame will come up. Because I suspect Clarence Thomas is going to come off that bench before 24 and 28. And then you have a chance to put Roberts back in play with a swing vote. And by the way, I know that Sonia Sotomayor doesn't claim any Afro background, but if you saw her mother, Selena, and know her history, then you understand that that barrique were from the Bronx. I'm not one of them Negroes that draws a hard line between people who

speak Spanish and people who speak English. So, she will have some comments. If you remember her confirmation, actually, the Hispanic caucus met, and they didn't, the Mexican-Americans didn't have a better candidate. They said it's going to be Sotomayor. And then they reached out, Naya Velasquez tells this story, to the Congressional Black Caucus, and Mel White said, look, if there's nobody black on the list, we will back Sotomayor. In other words, those kind of meetings are taking place now. Finally, I would say this initially, with Breyer leaving, that shortlist,

Ketanji Brown-Jackson, which we probably all thought would be the one nominee, Leandra Kruger out there on the California Supreme Court, who, you know, her mother's from Jamaica, father white.

She's a little younger, Yale law editor. To me, intellectually, she kind of makes, probably takes the lead in my mind. And we talked, I talked with my students last night about this. We went through this.

Michelle Childs, of course, out of South Carolina. Even Stacey Abrams' sister, Leslie, has been floated. Leslie Abrams Gardner, who's down in Georgia, the first black woman on the court there, federal court. I would say that for me, you know, of course, there's going to be a black woman. This is intellectual warfare. This is real intellectual warfare. And those white nationalists, and if you look at the nominees, well, we can talk about this maybe in another round, the number of nominees Biden has pushed, the number that have been appointed, unprecedented except for JFK.

But we need to understand that this is intellectual warfare, and this is the reason why you vote. So all people say voting don't matter. Just shut up. Just shut up, because these people are playing for all the marbles. This is the window that's going to determine whether the United States goes forward in a way that we recognize. It has been very interesting, Recy, to watch these folks just utterly lose their minds with a black woman getting on the Supreme Court. There's this guy, Ilya Shapiro, who just got named to a prominent position at Georgetown. He sent out these tweets.

Objectively, this was yesterday. Objectively, best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid, progressive, and very smart, even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian Indian American, but alas, doesn't fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy, so we'll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors. Then he says, because Biden said he only considered black women for SCOTUS,

his nominee will always have an asterisk attached, fitting that the court takes up affirmative action next term. Then, of course, he put out, is Joe Biden racist and sexist for saying his Supreme Court nominee will be a black woman? Well, let's just say that did not go over too well with the folks at Georgetown, who heard real quick from staff, faculty, and students today. This email went out.

Dear members of the Georgetown Law community, Ilya Shapiro, who was recently hired to direct one of Georgetown Law's research institutes, posted a series of tweets on Twitter that he has since deleted. The tweets suggested that the best Supreme Court nominee could not be a black woman, and their use of demeaning language are appalling. The tweets are at odds with everything we stand for

at Georgetown Law and are damaging to the with everything we stand for at Georgetown Law and are damaging to the culture of equity and inclusion that Georgetown Law is building every day. Signed by William Treanor, Dean and Executive Vice President of the Law School. And then, of course, Shapiro rightfully got hit up by some folks on social media as a result of his post. This was an interesting one. Mr. Shapiro, as one of your future

Georgetown colleagues, I'm curious. Is your phrase, lesser black woman, meant to describe a particular black woman, or do you intend lesser black woman to encompass the general set of black women under consideration for the seat?

And that was, he goes, I apologize, I meant no offense, but it was an artful tweet. I have taken it down. No, Resee, it wasn't an artful tweet when you say there's an asterisk by her name. That was no asterisk by Thurgood Marshall's name. There was no asterisk by Sandra Day O'Connor's name. There's no asterisk by Thurgood Marshall's name. There was no asterisk by Sandra Day O'Connor's name. There's no asterisk by Sotomayor's name. So why should there be an asterisk by a Black woman's name?

Well, let me start off by saying, uh, fuck you very much, uh, Ilyas Shapiro. I hope he doesn't have a job. That statement was cool and all, but you hired him, or you can show as hell, fire him. So unless they do that, then that ain't nothing but a whole bunch of smoke up somebody's ass. And as far as this whole conversation about an asterisk, y'all have that anyway, because the reality is that these

white supremacists want zero Black people in these positions. And how about this? You're not going to be able to shuffle the vice president so that we don't have any Black woman in the Senate, and then you shuffle her to the White House, and then you're going to try to shuffle her to the Six Codas to replace her with some miscellaneous white person? I don't think so. Keep dreaming. I don't want to just stop at the first Black woman Supreme Court justice. I want another Black woman, multiple Black women in the Senate in 2022. I want the first, second, and third Black women governors that are going to be on the ballots, or at least going for the nominations for the Democratic nomination this

midterms. Black people, I know sometimes people don't always think of a win for Black women as a win for us all, but we really have an opportunity here to make history. And we've already made history with our votes. I don't hope y'all can hear me because

my screen is frozen. We've already made history with our votes. I don't hope y'all can hear me because my screen is frozen. We got you. We've already made history with our votes, but in turn, so that's why we're going to get the SCOTUS, but we have more voting to do to continue to make history in these midterms. We can show them better than we can tell them. So yeah, I can cuss them out. I can go in and go out,

but they're going to have to get over and they're going to have to deal with it and we're going to keep. Faraji, you know, it's so funny again when I listen to these fools who just start ranting and raving and all this sort of stuff and I really

laugh at them. I really laugh at them because they're just hilarious. It's like they're just so, like you take Ben Shapiro, I guess he's related to this other dude, maybe not. He goes, there's a reason Democrats never miss with their SCOTUS picks.

They overtly choose wild leftists. That's the only real qualification. They wouldn't care whether Biden nominated an HLS grad who clerked for Breyer or Cardi B, so long as that person voted reliably left. Last I checked, the Federalist Society picked Trump's

nominees. Those are hard right picks. So stop the silliness. The reality is, conservatives, they have made it clear they are not going to make the mistake of another David Souter being appointed. He, of course, was appointed by a Republican president, ended up as a liberal judge. They're like, hell no, we gonna raise up these folks to be hard right conservatives to guarantee we know

how they rule when they get on that Supreme Court. So Ben Shapiro, you can suck it. Hey, I'm with you on that one, Brother Roland, but here's the other part that I think that a lot of people may not know, which lowered the threshold of the filibuster from 60 votes to 51 votes for Supreme Court nominees. And he tried to blame Senator Harry Reid for that, but Reid actually changed it for Obama nominees

and for lower courts, not for the Supreme Court. So that's a lie from McConnell. Go ahead. Exactly. And the other part of it is that McConnell was hoping that the change and the transition of any justice from the Supreme Court would take place in either 23, 24, when it's when it's guesstimated that the Republicans will have control of the Senate. But here's 22. And then you got this big opportunity for President Biden to get somebody in there. But the thing that gets me the most, you're talking about the way people are talking all this BS. Mitch McConnell sent a joint announcement, sent a letter to the president saying to the vice,

to President Biden to select a nominee to fill Bryant's vacancy who has, quote, demonstrated reverence for the written text of our laws and constitution and have urged him to quote, not to outsource this important decision to the radical left. What? Hypocrisy is absolutely just, it's not even stunning. It's just, it's numbing because of the fact that you want somebody who demonstrated reverence for the written text of the laws and the Constitution, yet your face is... Your head is so far up the ass of Donald Trump who don't give a damn about the Constitution. You go along with a

party that seems to be broken away from the whole idea of rule of law and just do whatever they need to do to win. I mean, this is absolute insanity. So we got to keep that... Like Dr. Carr said, this is a game. This is intellectual warfare. So we got to keep that... Like Dr. Carr said, this is a game. This is intellectual warfare.

And the president has to step up, and I'm glad he made the commitment. You know, we talk... We should talk about Judge Ketanji Brown as well, um, as being a part of the conversation. But I'm glad he's making the commitment there. And, I mean, at this point, why not pick a Black woman?

I got her on my sign. Black women judge best. So there it is. I mean, what else point, why not pick a black woman? I got it on my sign, black women judge best. So there it is. I mean, what else is there to say? Well, before I go to... Before I go to my next story, I did want to show y'all this 23-second of absolute comedy from Republican Senator Susan Collins.

Y'all, listen to this. It is utterly hilarious. As you know, I felt that the timetable for the last nominee was too compressed. This time, there is no need for any rush. We can take our time, have hearings, go through the process, which is a very important one. It is a lifetime appointment, after all. As you know, I felt that the timetable for the last... Susan, I'm not trying to hear that. Susan, I'm not trying to hear that. Just, oh, I was against it then, yeah, but you went along with it and you still voted

for whatever. I ain't trying to hear it. Bottom line, folks, is that we can, is now the vetting goes on. We'll see who the president picks. Of course, he says he will do so by the end of the month. And then just in time for his, of course, March 1st speech before Congress. Going to go to a quick break. We come back.

Talking to journalists, Judd Legum. All of those companies. Oh, we are standing and fighting for voting rights. What happened? Why did they go quiet? And why are they now returning to writing checks to the very Republicans who are voting for voter suppression? He's going to break it down next right here

on Roland Martin and Phil Phillips of the Black Star Network. ТРЕВОЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Don't you think it's time to get wealthy? I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, and my new show on the Black Star Network focuses on the things your financial advisor or bank isn't telling you. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape.

With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Qubit, the maker of the the Cupid Shuffle and the Wham Dance. What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. And if you're ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. So when Georgia was moving fast and furious in early 2021 with their voter suppression bill. All of these companies rushed

out. We're going to stand with those who support voting rights. We don't want to see these things happen. We're not also we're not going to be funding any of these people who were with those individuals on January 6th. This is the right

thing to do. Oh, a big letter was published, and it was all of these wonderful accolades, and Ken Chenault and Frazier at Merck, they wrote a letter, and they were all the people. They were praising them for rallying these companies on the side of democracy. Then a few months went by, and they were like, nobody's paying attention.

Let's go back to funding them. Well, my next guest, he actually is being paying attention. If you follow him, he has been very much involved in reporting this. I retweet a lot of his stuff. Judd Legum has been doing a great job, of course, breaking down, sifting through all the paperwork to show you exactly who's been

lying and who is now willing to go back to fund the very people who have been screwing over America. He is the founder of Popular Information. He joins us now from D.C. Judd, so who are the biggest liars? Who really just pounded their chest,

patted themselves on the back, how great they are, and now they're just back doling the cash out to Republicans? Well, unfortunately, it's a very long list. We tried to be super thorough about this. There were 111 companies who in the spring signed that letter that you were referring to and they said they were ready and willing to fight. They opposed all these state laws because, you know, there were this rash of state laws, Georgia, Texas, Florida, all over the country. These were corporations that said they opposed those, and they were ready to fight to protect

voting rights. So, really, the day that was important that had just came a few days ago when the Senate had a vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, two bills that would essentially protect voting rights, make sure that states are not able to do the types of things that Georgia did, that Texas did, and restrict voting in that way. So we had contacted all 111 of those companies again and said, do you support these two bills? And only two companies came out and said that they supported the bills. It was Patagonia and a company called Rich or Poor,

which I believe makes loungewear. Hadn't heard of them before I did this reporting. But that's it. Two companies out of 111. And you were posting about one company that was utterly hilarious that wrote a $15,000 check to the GOP. They're then like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. That was actually for the convention.

And really, no, the check then went in late. And so it was so convoluted, I was just cracking up laughing. Who was that who wrote that check? Well, that was actually PepsiCo. And what happened is, and this involves the abortion bill that was passed in May that's essentially outlawing pretty much all abortion. So we looked at the companies that had donated

to the Texas Republican Party, the Texas speaker, the Texas president of the Senate, and PepsiCo showed up on that list. They, the Texas Republican Party, cashed a check from them in August. They were saying, actually, we sent that check in the summer of 2020, wouldn't say when. So then I asked them, well, the checks stay good that long? Because as far as I know, a corporate check lasts about 180 days at most, and then it goes invalid. They said, oh, no, yeah, we reissued the check in 2021.

When did you reissue the check? They wouldn't tell me. So I think that it's a good example of how companies really don't want to be held responsible for their political activity. That was a case of abortion. And here's the case of voting rights. You know, they came out, they got a lot of press, as you noted. This was all over the place, corporations standing up, big headlines. But then when it comes down to, hey, there's going to be a vote, they stay quiet. It didn't always used to be this way. That's how, you know, you look back to 2006 when they did extend the Voting Rights Act,

and actually then Walmart and other corporations, same corporations that are very quiet now, were making public statements and saying, hey, you need to, Republicans, Democrats, you need, voting rights is not, shouldn't be a partisan issue. You need to get in support of this, and we don't see that anymore.

And how do we not see that? You know, look, let's just cut to the chase. They want to hedge their bets. They know the Senate's 50-50. They don't want to be attacked. They don't want to see a party that all of a sudden gets in control now target their industry by changing laws, changing one item in a bill. And so that's the case here. And so they're not going to do it. And the reason it's

important to expose it, because the people who are buying these products need to know where the companies stand. People who are giving a company money need to know how their money is being used. Yeah, and I think it doesn't make sense for the companies to generate all this positive publicity, and no one forced them to sign a letter saying that they were in support of voting rights. No one forced them to do that.

They did it because they understood that people would like the fact that they're standing up for voting rights. But it's easy to sign a letter. The real test is when there's a vote, when there's a decision, when people are looking for fallen silent, but many of the companies, big companies like Facebook, like Google, many others, are supporting the senators that are filibustering these federal voting laws that could actually protect the right to vote. So it's not only that they're not standing up for the right to vote, they're really working the other way by empowering, um, these-these Senate Republicans that chose to filibuster, um, these two voting rights bills. Any questions for the panel for Judd? Yeah, uh, Brother Roland, I got a question. Um, you know, talk to us, sir...

And first, thank you so much for joining us in this conversation. But give us some insight as to why is it important for corporate America to be a part of this, um, this whole... this whole debate. I mean, I know that in your article, you've talked about the power of corporate America in urging President Bush to extend the Voting Rights Act back in 2005.

But at this point... 2006. 2006, excuse me. Thank you. But does this point... Does this put corporate America in a different space, in a space that they're not usually, you know, have too much expertise in? Does this put them in a space where they're just,

you know, just sounding off or just trying to be trendy versus really, you know, digging their feet into the grounds and getting their people involved in this fight? So why is this so important? Well, I think that in this case, you're right. It doesn't look like they're really committed to this. It doesn't look, it looks like they were just signing a letter and washing their hands of it. No, I know. They were signing a letter to get that free publicity. Get that... Yay! They're with us!

But I think that the reality is we're seeing the erosion of voting rights. I mean, things are going backwards fairly quickly here, and it could get much worse as time progresses. And corporations, for better or for worse,

have a tremendous amount of power and sway, both for the people sitting in office, but also to help the people who might run for Senate next time or be challengers. The support of corporate America is extremely important for that. So if the corporations were to speak with one voice and get behind something, it would have a much greater chance of passing. You just have to look at what happened with infrastructure. The infrastructure bill, 100 percent supported by corporate America. They were putting ads on it saying we needed to pass it. That became law. Build Back Better, which was going to provide child care support,

universal pre-K, extension of the child tax credit, all sorts of climate. That was opposed by business. And obviously, it's still stalled, may never become law. And so it's not the end-all, be-all, but they have a tremendous influence. And that's why I think there's an obligation to stand up for, you know, basic democratic principles, small-D democratic principles. Raci? Yeah, you know, President Biden met yesterday, I believe it was, with a group of CEOs. Did you see any overlap in the population of CEOs at President Biden's meeting and the people who have been silent on voter rights or have not kept up, upheld their pledge on

this? All of them, all of the ones that were there yesterday. You know, I actually, I watched that meeting and I paid close attention to it. None of them were speaking out on voting rights. I thought it was interesting that they were even at that meeting and Biden was presenting them as supporting his agenda, which I was thinking good for him if they were. But one of the people at that meeting, Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, actually leads an organization called the Business Roundtable, which is a corporate lobbying organization of CEOs. And they've been more aggressive than anyone in fighting against Build Back Better, fighting against the child tax credit, all of those things,

because it would pay for it in part by raising corporate taxes. So I think that there's a lot. It's another example. That meeting yesterday that you bring up is another example of really what we've been discussing this whole time, which is corporations trying to have it both ways, siding onto the letter about voting rights, presenting themselves as champions of voting rights, but then when it comes down to it, going quiet. And what Roland was talking about, I think, is important. They don't want to stick their necks out now because they're afraid, well, these Republicans might be in power in a couple of years. We want to maintain on their good side. But at a certain point, you need to be about something more than just the bottom line. But that's not what's happening now. Greg Carr.

Thank you, Roland. In fact, Jed, first of all, thank you for your work. But continuing in that vein and recognizing that, and some people might call it, I don't know, pandemic profiteering, corporate profits are exploding, certainly over the last couple of years, and that all of these companies are multinational corporations. I think we, I tend to think we kind of romanticize the notion of the nation state. Given that their bottom line is the only thing, there's no morality in capitalism, do you think that their strategy of actively really supporting suppressing voting rights in the United States and kind of therefore ensuring a business-friendly federal legislature

and perhaps even presidency, do you think they're off target in protecting their interests? Or is this, if corporate profits is the bottom line, is this actually not only a smart strategy, but certainly something that we would be naive to think about otherwise. Now, I think you're generally right. There's a couple of exceptions. There's some companies out there that have been speaking out, Patagonia, a handful of others. But overwhelmingly, if you look at the entire Biden presidency, Trump presidency, you go back, it's really been corporations say the most important thing is the corporate tax rate, keeping our taxes low. They'll step in when they can feel like they can get subsidies, tax credits, like we saw in the transportation or the infrastructure bill. But when it comes down to helping ordinary people,

many of whom actually are their workers, their workforce, they could really benefit from this if they think a little bit more beyond each quarter and maximize the profits of each quarter. But when it comes down to that, they're fighting on the other side. So that's, I think, you know, is it a mistake for them to do so? It depends on what their goals are. And I think if their goals are just maximizing profits, no, it's probably not a mistake. But unfortunately, what's happening is the country is suffering because you got erosion of voting rights. But you also have, as you mentioned, corporate profits are doing very well during the pandemic, but for working people, they're seeing inflation. They're not seeing their wages keep up. Things aren't nearly

as good. Well, keep up the great work. Certainly, let's hold these folks accountable. Again, they want our money. And look, we should determine who we want to support as a result. And so, it's important to do so. I know they hate the attention that you give them. But it's needed. Thanks so much, Roland. Alright, thanks a bunch. Alright, folks, gonna go to another break when we come back here on Roland Martin, Under Filtered,

right here on the Black Star Network. More issues. First of all, when it comes to the election, the Department of Justice is trying to do their part. Roland Martin, under filtered right here on the Black Star Network. More issues. First of all, when it comes to the election, the Department of Justice is trying to do their part. Also, a new poll out of Atlanta could spell trouble for Stacey Abrams, Senator Raphael Warnock. We'll break that down as well. And we'll talk about the economy. Oh, my goodness.

Everybody keeps saying it's worse. It's awful. So why did we have the best one, the president of the United the best one year first ever president of the Congress since 1984? I thought it was so bad. It's not. You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network.

Back in a moment. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok Nå er vi på veien. Субтитры подогнал «Симон» We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network.

I'm Bill Duke. This is De'Alla Riddle. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. The Department of Justice will allow state officials to use federal grant money to protect election poll workers from violence. In a letter to state officials addressing the threats to poll workers during the 2020 election,

the DOJ says this is criminal justice purposes supported by the Justice Assistance Grant Program, permit JAG funds to be used to deter, detect, and protect against threats of violence against election workers, administrators, officials, and others associated with the electoral process. administering agencies to inform stakeholders that JAG funds may be used to prevent and respond to violent threats of this kind. In June, Attorney General Merrick Garland urged federal prosecutors to aggressively prosecute those who threaten election workers. Basically, they're talking to the crazy MAGA people. Folks, the Land Journal of the Constitution has dropped a poll today

that shows, you know what? They're not feeling President Joe Biden in the Peach State. In fact, his number is 61% disapproval. That's a high number. And also, if you start breaking

down this particular poll, what it also shows is is as the race stands right now, in the first part, 872 registered voters were polled by the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs between January 13th and 24th. The margin of error is 3.3%. Now again, Biden's polling numbers is critically important for you to understand because of the impact it has on Stacey

Abrams, who is running for governor, and also the reelection of Raphael Warnock, who is running for the United States Senate. 71 percent of Georgians believe the nation is heading down the wrong track. You can go to my computer now. 62 percent. You see that first of all, 48% of registered Georgia voters

approve of the job performance of the governor, Kemp there as well. Now, you still got some conservatives not particularly happy with what took place with him as well. Now, they also broke down what the polling standpoints, and then according to their polls right now, Stacey Abrams is seven points behind Kemp or even David Perdue.

It's a smaller margin who is opposing Kemp in the Republican primary. It's showing that there are two candidates. If Warnock is three points down or Hershel Walker, then another candidate, Warnock, is actually up a couple of points. I want to go to my panel here. The reason this is important, the reason this is important,

Reese, when you begin to look at these polling numbers, here we are in January of 2022 going into February. You're talking about a finite window. People may say, oh, well, you know, Abrams is different. No, there's a lot of things you've got to factor in. With a disapproval rating of 61%, that goes into enthusiasm. And the reality is this here. Republicans are pissed that they lost in 2020.

They're pissed that they lost both Senate seats, and they're upset that Biden won. When you factor in that, you can expect the other side to be even more jacked up. So what you can't have is a depressed perspective on your side because you need your people just as motivated to vote. In your mind, what must Democrats do to deal with these numbers

that we're seeing on the state level that we're also seeing with his decreased we're seeing on the state level that we're also seeing with his decreased job approval rating on the national level? Well, you know, I think the one of the biggest problems that the Democrats suffer from is, I won't even call it a messaging at this point, I would call it an information warfare. What's happening is people are being inundated with negative narratives about the Democratic Party. We have it from the media, which is all about horse race coverage, which is all about manufacturing drama. And then we are, I should say, the mainstream media. Let me be more specific.

We also have social media where the Democrats are just getting flat out slaughtered. It's to the point to where most people don't even have the appetite to even just speak basic facts, objective facts about what is happening. It's all about feeding this industry, this outrage machine that gets clicks, that gets engagement, that gets you booked on TV, that gets you booked on podcasts. And so what we're seeing is a political scenario that completely deviates from every kind of objective measurement of success. I don't know in what world Georgia is more on the right track than the United States as a whole, okay? In what world is Brian Kemp doing a better job than Joe Biden? You know, but what's happening is we're really

being driven so much by emotions to the point to where it's hard to make an economic argument about GDP growth, as we're going to talk about soon, being the highest that it's been in 30 years. The expectations that people have that the Biden-Harris administration is falling short, even though they're beating expectations in terms of unemployment, They've beat that. We've reached what has been called full employment faster, by years faster, as well as the GDP growth. I mean, this is extraordinary growth that we're seeing. And I understand that people don't feel the growth. They don't feel the gains. And people at this point, they're taking for granted the situation we were in when the pandemic hit.

So what they're being fed, and I'm not trying to diminish the intelligence level or I try to say that people don't know what's going on. People know what's happening in their everyday world. But I think that the Democrats are really, really suffering so much from just being completely outgunned on how they're getting their information out. It's not about slogans or anything like that. It's about actually educating people about what's being done. It's about pushing back forcefully, the same way that you did an extensive segment about HBCU funding. It's about pushing back 100 percent of the time forcefully and getting out there and selling your message and showing people how they're benefiting.

It's a shame that people didn't talk about the child tax credit until the damn thing expired. And it's not going to get renewed because Joe Manchin is against it. So they had a runway to really tout the tangible ways 57 percent of parents in this country were getting the child tax credit. They're not getting it in 2021, in 2022. It's something that they can run on. So there are a number of things that spell danger. But the other thing, last thing I'll say is for the Democrats that are capitalizing off of discontent, for the Democrats that are sitting up there trying to push their own narrative, the whole party is going to go down together. Okay? So if you, maybe you like Stacey Abrams,

but you don't like Kamala Harris, or you don't like whoever fill in the blank person, she's gonna go the same way that they go. So whatever that you're doing, and I'm not saying everybody fall in line, because, you know, that's... I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is you have to understand the implications of eroding the confidence

and eroding the way, the perceptions of the Democratic Party on everybody around the country. So just be mindful about what you're saying, what you're perpetuating. Let's expand our discussions beyond one or two bills or beyond one or two senators. And let's have a real fact-based conversation so that maybe we can start to put a dent in some of these things

that are just really being artificially driven by bad and incorrect narratives. Well, since Reese decided to jump the gun, let me go ahead and read this story and bring in Julianne Malveaux. A new report shows the U.S. economy growing at its fastest rate last year since the 1980s. Yeah, y'all. Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported the U.S. gross domestic product, the country's broadest measure of economic activity,

showed the GDP expanded nearly 6% in 2021, the fastest pace since 1984. This is what President Biden said about the economic growth in the past year. Now, here's the piece right here that's, I think, part of the problem. It's a written damn statement. Ain't nobody reading this damn statement.

Fine, I'll go ahead and read it. GDP numbers for my first year show that we are finally building an American economy for the 21st century with the fastest economic growth in nearly four decades along with the greatest year of job growth in American history. And for the first time in 20 years, our economy grew faster than China's. This is no accident. My economic strategy is creating good jobs for Americans, rebuilding our manufacturing,

and strengthening our supply chains here at home to help make our companies more competitive. Today, Americans are finding better jobs with better pay and better benefits. Layoffs are near record lows. Here's a piece, y'all. I'm bringing Dr. Julianne Malvo, an economist. Doc, okay, the numbers are the numbers.

You have to also sell the numbers. You don't have this kind of information, and you release a written-ass statement? Ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Groland, you know, the sister who spoke earlier nailed it. This administration is horrid on messaging. It does not toot its own horn. It, you horn. It's like this is laissez-faire, but this is not laissez-faire. This is news. And this is hard news. Outgunning China with

very different circumstances, that is hard news. Almost 6 percent GDP growth, we've been hovering at two and three. That's hard news. But whoever does the messaging, and we talked about this earlier this week when we talked about the HBCUs, whoever does the messaging just doesn't do a great job at it. I don't know why. You're not going to get people excited unless you excite them. You're not just going to come out and be excited because they like you. People are doing better. Of course it's a mixed bag and that's the other piece of it. It's a mixed bag, but

it is a bag. And the bag is that our economy is better than it was a year ago, better than it was two years ago, better than it was five years ago. I don't understand Farage. I don't get it. I get an email every single day from the White House where they no, no, do not pull that up, please. I don't want it. I get an email every single day from the White House where they,

no, no, do not pull that up, please. I don't want to show the email. I don't want to show the email. So here's what they do. I get an email every day, Faraji, from the White House showing people who are available to come on shows to talk. Today, Thursday, interview availability was COVID-19. I'm sorry.

When those economic numbers come out, you should have the head of the SBA out. You should have the Commerce Secretary out. You should have the Treasury Secretary out. You should have the lead of your White House Council of economic advisors. Okay.

And again, I'm gonna say this again, because it's actually, it's kind of pissing me off. Y'all, there is a black woman who is the lead of the White House Council of economic advisors. The last time I saw her was when she was on this show. I'm telling y'all, I don't understand. It's not like she can't talk. It's not like she's not telegenic.

It's not like she doesn't talk in sound bites. She does. And so I'm sitting there going, you don't release a written statement when we have the GDP numbers? Trump was running his mouth, all his pieces. Larry Cudlow's out there. They don't see NBC, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business talking about, man, the economy is roaring, it's going. They were lying. Right.

This is part of the deal, because I do want to show you this, because this is in the Georgia poll. Only about one-third, now show this, only about one-third of Georgians say their financial situation is better off than a year ago compared with 42% who say they're worse off. You cannot convince me that 42% are worse off with the stimulus checks that were sent out, with the unemployment benefits that went out, with the excess money that folks got, PPP loans, I say that's all.

And the child credit. Child credit, that's a factor of no one, all you're hearing is it's awful, it's bad, gas prices going up, supply chain issues. Oh, my God, inflation. Yo, you can't have that GDP growth and then have this poll, and both these are true. Faraji, go ahead. Right. Just real quick, I mean, I think that's, I'm totally in agreement with you. We don't, you know, this administration, everybody's been saying it, doesn't toot its own horn.

But I think that when you talk about the economy, you do have to break it down to a place where people can just kind of pick up on it. You know, when you're talking about Kraft Heinz, who is a company that produced Oscar Mayer hot dog sausages, they're talking about Capri Suns, they said their prices, they gave an announcement earlier this week saying that their prices are going up on consumer products and foods. I mean, people have to see it and feel it to believe it. And even, and I think that's the big, that is also the big disparity as to why the conversation around economics in this country seems so far off. We got Dr. Malveaux who understands the ebbs and flows of how the economy works and understands

the history and how things go. But when you're talking about to the common black man, common black woman, and trying to understand when they see gas prices, when they see supply chain issues, when they see food is going up, you've got to help people to create a context about this. And this is why government is so important, because we don't know all of the ins and outs. I mean, we just, we're operating on this level, right, of trying to get through the day in and day out. But on the level of national politics and national business, that's a whole different thing that has to be explained. And everybody needs to know how that system works to the best of their ability. And I think that is the big problem that we have these conversations. Like, you know, we might say a conversation about the national debt. Oh, we have trillion dollars or a billion dollars. Like, it's so hard

to conceptualize what that actually means to people who are still fighting for $15 minimum wage. You know, when you're talking about these numbers, these numbers are flat. They're not dimensional. They're not tangible because there's no understanding of how this number affects this number that affects the pockets of Americans every day. So I think that is part of the big issue as to why we're constantly kind of

having this, we're being in this vicious cycle about the economy. The American people don't know. We don't know what that means. You know what I'm saying? We don't know. We learn about it, but we just don't have a full understanding. So, Julianne, can you explain, Julianne, can you explain again for people who are out here? Because you have folks who are saying, oh, my God, things are awful.

We're going in an awful direction. Things are worse off. Okay, so best GDP since 1984. You have stock market. You have low interest rates. You have the amount of money that was literally put in the pockets of Americans. Okay, I get inflation. I get that. But when people are saying our economy is so bad, it's awful. How, what do you respond when you hear that? They watch too much Fox news. Uh basically... Hold up, hold up.

Stay right there. Not just Fox News. Fox News, conservative talk radio, conservative folks on Facebook, the constant barrage of we are failing, America's failing, China is crushing us,

Putin is beating over the head. People cannot, I keep telling people, you can't overlook the impact in red states where all you have are six and eight conservative radio talk stations on the radio dial and it's the echo chamber every day. Awful. We're bad. We suck. It's terrible every day. Go ahead. But Democrats need to invest more money in telling the story. They don't do it. So you've got Fox and all those people you mentioned on one hand, and you've got the silence of the Democrats on the other. The fact is inflation is bad. And the inflation story is one that Democrats need to tell also, because it's especially bad to people at the bottom.

Right. If if you have to pay 10 cents more for a hot dog rolling, you're not going to worry about it. Nor will I or anybody else on this panel. There's somebody who is moderate income with three kids has to pay more. It hits. So we need to talk about that. Biden has done a decent job with the child tax credit and a couple other things of paying attention to people in the middle and at the bottom, but he has not addressed them. And when he goes out running around, he needs to talk to these people about the economy.

What are the ways that, you know, rolling back in the day, and, you know, I'm a seasoned sister. So back in the day, there were, newspapers had economics reporters. They had consumer reporters. You ain't got none of that. That's gone.

So basically, you've got some of these little chickies and chickos, brothers and sisters, who don't know anything. They have a journalism degree in good form, but they're not good at breaking this stuff down. So there's so many stories who don't get told. They don't get told. That's why you're so valuable, Roland, because you tell the stories, but so many people don't.

So we're trying to understand the economy. Most people take it down to the kitchen table. What does this mean for me, for what I'm eating, for how I'm filling up my tank, things like that. But when you take it up to the macro level, you have to connect the micro to the macro and say, this is why this is important. This is why it's important that Jerome Powell said he's going to wait until next month to raise the interest rate. We expected that he might have done it this month. That's an important statement about something cautionary. And for working class people who have mortgages, who have loans, this is a month for you to get your records together and try to get a lower interest rate if you can.

It's a month for you to pay down some credit cards. It's a month for you to look at some things regarding, you know, whether you should borrow or not. And again, financial literacy is at a zero in this country. We in the black community have begun through the NAA, Urban League, others to increase the level of financial literacy but it's not where it ought to be and so people are still making dumb decisions that make them feel like they're worse off. Before I go to Greg, I

want to quickly go to Recy. Recy, you were trying to make a point after Faraj spoke. So go ahead. Yeah, because one thing I wanted to point out was you made the comment about how could they be better off this year as opposed or better off last year. In May of 2021, Brian Kemp ended the $300 of federal employment, unemployment benefits early. You had Republican governors across the country who rushed to end the additional assistance that was provided by the Democrats to people who were out of a job as a result of the pandemic.

That was what Republicans did. And so this whole narrative that Trump put money in my pockets or Republicans are putting money in my pockets, no, Republicans were actually taking hundreds of dollars out of people's unemployment benefits since last year. And another thing, too, the last thing I wanted to say is that, you know, I've read articles, particularly articles about black folks who are dissatisfied. And every article I've read, the first thing I push back on is I say, well, listen, this person said that they have two kids. Are they not getting the child tax credit? Because that's either 250 up to $600. I mean, yeah, 500 to $600 extra a month $500 to $600 extra a month, or $250 to $300 extra a month per kid.

And you're talking about the price of a cheeseburger going up. I'm not trying to diminish inflation, but a lot of people got a lot of extra money last year. And the same people that are talking about they didn't get anything, I'm like, hold on. You mean to tell me $250 ain't enough for a

per kid? Was it enough to do anything? You're... you're worse off? Oh, oh, oh, oh, Reese, just... just to back... back it up, I got some fool named Ronald Lee in the chat room rolling, acting like that stimulus was life-changing, uh... uh, life-changing punk... punk-ass fire bands. Fool.

There were people who literally were being evicted. There were people who couldn't pay for their healthcare. You goddamn right that check for a lot of people who were losing their homes. Now, you might be sitting your ass at home in a comfortable place, but I can tell you, it was a bunch of

people in 2021 who was like, thank God for that check. The check was life transformingtransforming, Roland, for millions of Black Americans. I don't know where they find these folks, but basically, it was life-transforming, especially for people who are making

less than $50,000 a year, which is most Americans. But see, we don't have a good perspective on what we earn, what we keep. This sister had more to ask these children, how much do you think the average person earns? If we don't have a good perspective on what we earn, what we keep, this sister at Wharton asked these children, how much do you think the average person earns? And they're coming up with six figures. One child said $800,000. Right.

Yeah, that means your daddy rich. That doesn't mean anything else. That means your daddy rich. But when you look at the average American, the average black household has a median income of under 50 grand. It's about 40 and change. The average white household, a median income of under 50 grand. It's about 40 and change. The average white household, something like 60 grand. So we're not talking about, you know, I don't know where people get these perceptions from.

But this causes the kind of dissatisfaction that many are feeling. If you think that everybody's making more money than you and you're making the median, then you're mad. The median household income in America in 2020 was $67,521. Now... Is that for... Is that household for four? In terms of how they factor in,

you know, what is a household? And typically, it's like, you know, four. But check this out. But this has another number. They call it the real U.S. per capita, what, 53,504. So, you know, it varies there.

But the reality is you still have to deal with how people perceive things to be gray. Because I'm going to go back to this Georgia poll. In May, in May, in this poll, 5% of Democrats gave Biden an unfavorable view. That jumped to 21%. In May, 8% of black voters disapproved of Biden's performance.

It jumped to 36% in the most recent poll. Now, why do I say that? That is an impact. George Floyd Justice Act, that's an impact on the voting bills. So, what the White House and what Democrats are going to have to do, they're going to have to figure out between now

and August, how are you going to speak to the needs of African Americans? Greg, you said earlier that you believe the Supreme Court pick is going to be a huge deal. But there has to be another one. Now, I understand the White House is, and I've actually, I've been made aware. I'll be very careful. I've been made aware of the draft orders of the executive orders dealing with police reform.

But, again, it's a question of you better look at these numbers because this is going to impact Abrams, Warnock, Demings in Florida. It's going to impact the races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. They got to stop saying, oh, we got lots of time. No, you don't. No, you don't. Greg? No, you don't. Roland, I mean, where to continue in this?

And again, I echo what Dr. Malveaux said. This is why this platform, this network is so important. We have to be smarter than we've been. John Bracey up at UMass, University of Massachusetts always say, people spin theories off of very thin margins of knowledge. So if we started with the very basic question, what is the meaning of gross domestic product? It's the value of goods and services provided. That's very basic. What is the difference between the gross domestic product and It's the value of goods and services provided. That's very basic. What is the difference between the gross domestic product and corporate profits? The answer to that is, corporate profits are damn near double the gross domestic product. Most people don't have

anything in the stock market. What Farage said is very important in this regard. Inflation, as Dr. Malveaux said, who is the economist here, is being driven by corporate profiteers who have no incentive to stop this superheated runaway engine called the global economy. On the front page of today's Financial Times, the International Money Fund issued a report that they anticipate the global economy to shrink over the next several years in terms of gross domestic product. And good news about gross domestic product

means absolutely nothing to someone whose check continues to shrink because the value of their dollar doesn't move. Now, how does that translate into policy making a policy? There is no party... that fights for the poor. Right. The Democratic Party is not a party that fights for the poor. Right. The Democratic Party is not a party that fights for the poor.

They are a wholly owned subsidiary of finance capital. It is in their interest to win elections. The reason they're not messaging is because they're scared to death that the people who are so alienated and disaffected by the fact that they are being crushed by global capitalism are not going to come out to the polls. And they are so locked into the middle class, the middle class, the middle class. Reverend Dr. William Barber keeps saying the growth to win is with these poor

folks in this country. Julian mentioned earlier, folks, go to my computer, the black, the medium average household for black people, folks, go to my computer. The black, the medium average household for black people, 45,870. So we were talking about when those checks were being sent out. If you do the math, y'all, if your median household is $45,870,

and that's you, a wife, and two to four kids. You ain't sitting here, you know, you ain't got a lot to be playing with, especially depending upon where you live in the country. And so if you're talking about child tax credit, that stimulus check, how much was that stimulus check, Julianne? The stimulus checks were, they rained, they were in the thousands, low thousands. Right. So if the median average income for black people was $45,870, that's $3,800 a month.

That means if you got a $1,000 stimulus check in your household, that check was 30% of your household income. Don't try to tell me that was a small-ass check. Is that the black median income? The child's tax credit could be up to $500 for two children, and you basically

had $3,500. You got another $500 per month. That's kicking you up again by almost 20%. Greg, go. Say it again, Greg. Is that the black median income?

The median income is $67,000. That's everybody. That included white people. Black people is $22,000 less than the median. But that includes... Consistently, black median moderate income is about two-thirds that.

This consistently over the past 20-some years. About two-thirds that of white. And there are things you can do to play with it, to make it even worse. It's two-thirds of the total, which means it's an even smaller percentage if you're looking black to white. And if you look at... Hold on, Greg. I'm going to come to you. looking black to white. And if you look at...

Hold on, Greg. I'm going to come to you. And go to my computer. If you look at this chart right here, you will see the impact of that recession under Obama, how it dropped. It dropped around 2011 to 37,500 and has been steadily going up, up, up, up.

Then it was flat between 2017 and 2018 and then began to climb back up. So people just need to understand the reality of the numbers. Greg, go ahead. No, no, I was just going to say, you know, again, this is where we run the risk of, as my old advisor, Theophilo Bingham, used to say, mixing many things. Race certainly has a number in that schematic, but what that doesn't show is class. Right.

Because the black people who have more money, the black people who have disposable income, the black people like us who are working, we are figured in there too. So what I'm saying is there are vast numbers of black people have disposable income, the black people like us, who are working, we are figured in there, too. So what I'm saying is there are vast numbers of black people who have nothing. Right. And they are the ones who

locked in these red states where finance capital corporations have bought the politicians, shout out, by the way, to John Roberts, because everybody, we all look at Shelby County versus Holder. But the real tipping point in terms of Supreme Court jurisprudence is 2010, Citizens United, where they took the leash off of just basically a propaganda war driven by these profiteers.

Now, that having been said, they are locked in these states. Now, what does that mean and how does that translate? Well, it comes down to this. We are in, in many ways, the end game now in this country. We think of this as a country, but people who are the most disaffected, the ones Reverend Barber is talking about, in order to drive them to register to vote and to go out to the polls, you've got to have candidates that are going to fight for them. And quite frankly, the Democratic Party is not led by people who are going to do that because they have already conceded to the idea that you can never weaponize the poor

politically. Now, once you've learned from that, this is what you're left with. The last defense for the poor, you might look to it as the possibility of the rule of law. But even when you deal with a federal legislature, that is, by the way, in complete control of time, place, and manner of federal elections.

There is no state role in that. Right. They will not even exercise that authority because they are terrified because they have allowed these states to set up basically many countries. And in those many countries, and when you talk about right-wing media, it is corporate-owned, it is driven by the billionaire class, and it depends on keeping these poor people misinformed, as Risi said. And if you can just keep that vote suppressed, you never have to worry about anything. And so the last thing I'll say is this. Those people in that Georgia poll are not wrong, because many of those people don't have a mortgage because they don't own their homes.

Many of those people see their money shrink, as they say, as they fill up their gas tank and the price goes up. And they don't understand because the company that sells the gas is making record profits and those of the world to understand that GDP don't mean a damn thing to your pocket unless you connect it to corporate profits, unless you connect it to inflation, unless you walk through how this is a superheated global economy with local consequences. And if you want to change it with policy, there are only two options. You've got to put people in elective office that are going to fight back against it. And that is a slim to none chance, as long as we don't punch through and help people understand why getting in the process is important and tell these political parties to stop electing people

who are going to sit on the fence. And then, if all else fails, you have got to have those who will enforce the rule of law in a way to protect you. And when they put that sister on the Supreme Court shortly, the reason why I said this is intellectual warfare and we have to get past just the demographic look is because whoever they put on the Supreme Court that might interpret the law differently is going to be writing dissents for the foreseeable future. But that becomes important when the dissent becomes the opinion that is drawn on

by a majority in the future to convert it into law. This is the long game that the white nationalists have been playing since the passage of the civil rights legislation of the 60s, and I'm quite certain that we are at an inflection point in this country now where the corporations are going to make more money, the GDP may continue to grow,

but the vast majority of people who suffer in this country, like the vast majority who suffer all around the world, are on the precipice of going into a permanent underclass. And we've gotta be smarter than we've been and stop talking about these local polls and politics as if we're discussing something local, when in fact we're talking about local implications of a global economy.

We've just got to be smart as a man. This is why, Julian, if we are... We're talking about, okay, how do you deal with this? How do you deal with the numbers? How do you deal with this here? I have said this for a very long time. I'm going to keep saying this. I said it directly to President Obama's face

and his advisors. Stop going to suburban Ohio or suburban Virginia and touting your Affordable Care Act. I said, you need to go to the brokest... Come on, brother. ...sickest, reddest parts of the country, look them in the eye and say, I passed that law for y'all

because y'all ass are the brokest, sickest people in the state. I totally understand. I totally understand the strategy of the White House when it comes to COVID. But you cannot, President Biden and Vice President Harris, be held hostage in D.C.

They can be holding they can be holding COVID-safe town halls. They can be going to these places and saying point blank. And again, I'm going with my man joe madison says you got to put it where the goats can get it you got to say how many y'all got that check

and that check your governor cut off those unemployment benefits i wanted to keep funding that but your governor cut that money off why Why did your U.S. senators vote against my act that gave you more money? See, you've got to engage in that level of warfare because, again, all they're getting

is what they're hearing on conservative talk radio, Fox News, and on Facebook, and so that's where they have to be. They're sitting here. You're not going to win this war running a whole bunch of damn TV ads

just talking about the economy or sending out these level of press releases. Reacher talks about it all the time. Dammit, get your meme game up. I done said to Jamie Harrison, y'all need to go hire the damn Lincoln Project to make some damn ads for y'all because they sure move a hell of a lot faster than y'all

do when it comes to doing it. You can't... Democrats want to play nice. Why do Democrats always want to play nice? I don't... I don't understand it and I'm going to tell you right now, Peter Roussel was Deputy Press Secretary to Vice President George H.W. I don't understand it, and I'm going to tell you right now, Peter Roussel was deputy press secretary

to Vice President George H.W. Bush, and Peter was an adjunct professor at Texas A&M. And this is what he told me. He said, Roland, he said, always pat yourself on the back. He said, you know why? Because ain't no guarantee somebody else going to pat you on the back. He said, you know why? Because ain't no guarantee somebody else

going to pat you on the back. If you don't tell your story, somebody else is going to tell your story and it may not be the way you want it to be. So the economic numbers and the political reality,

those two things actually go hand in hand. And so we'll see how this thing here unfolds, and we'll do that. And so, Dr. Julianne, I'm going to have a vote. We appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us, breaking down these numbers. We appreciate it. All right, y'all, going to pay some bills here. And when we come back, we're going to talk about the banning of ghost guns in Maryland.

And we'll talk about some other news as well. Folks, don't forget to download the Black Star Network app. Do so on your Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Roku TV, Amazon Fire, Xbox One, and Samsung Smart TV. Available on all the platforms. You can also support our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. And so Cash App is Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RM Martin Unfiltered.

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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. Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. Folks, an Arizona family is looking for answers after 19-year-old Gregory Elliott Buckner Jr.

left for work on the morning of December 20, 2021 and has not been seen since. Gregory is six feet tall. He weighs 190 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a black jacket, red hoodie and dark colored jeans the day he disappeared. Anyone with information should call the Phoenix Police Department at 602-261-8774. 602-261-8774.

All right, folks, a bill has been introduced in the Maryland legislature to deal with the issue of ghost guns, ghost guns. Now, this is obviously significant. It's a serious problem that we see all across the country, and it was introduced last week by the state's attorney general. The bill would ban the sale, receipt, and transfer of unfinished parts to make ghost guns. Eventually, all ghost guns would be banned by January 2023.

They are untraceable and do not have serial numbers. Prince George's County, Maryland, has seen an increase in gun crimes and the seizing of ghost guns. Joining us now is Aisha Braveboy, Prince George's County State's Attorney. Glad to have you back on the show. So, how huge of a problem are these ghost guns for you? In terms of cases and things along those lines, what are we looking at? Oh, absolutely.

Well, we have seen a huge rise in the use of ghost guns, really, over the past couple of years. Prior to 2020, we really didn't see a lot of these guns on our streets. But in 2020, our officers seized about 167 of those types of guns from our streets. And just last year, that number almost doubled, 260 guns, over 260 guns that are considered ghost guns were seized from the streets. So what that means is that there's an increased use in ghost guns and an increased, you know, access to ghost guns. And what is so critically important about these, this type of weapon is that

they are not, it is not regulated currently. So the sale of these guns are not regulated like other guns. So you can purchase a quote-unquote ghost gun, and I'll tell you a little bit about what they are in a minute, but you can purchase these guns over the internet. And so there are people who would otherwise be prohibited, people who are under the age of 18 who are prohibited, or really under the age of 21 in Maryland who are prohibited from purchasing this type of firearm, as well as individuals who might have mental health issues or who have had prior violent felonies who are otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm can actually purchase these legally from the Internet, because they are not regulated as

other firearms are. So the legislation would regulate these weapons and place them under the same category as other firearms in our state and regulate them like other firearms. And so individuals who would be disqualified from purchasing a firearm in the state of Maryland would also be disqualified from purchasing ghost guns. Now, is that because you,

the National Rifle Association and other folks have been out here limiting the ability of folks like you and state legislatures to limit or prohibit these guns? What type of pushback are you getting? Because it sounds rational, but it's not that simple. Well, you would think this is a common sense bill.

However, this bill has been introduced at least twice before in the legislature, and it hasn't gone anywhere. We have seen opposition from the NRA and other gun rights groups. But more importantly, I think we have not had the courage, quite frankly, as a Democratic party in the state of Maryland to stand up for our residents, for the people who live in Prince George's County and all over the state of Maryland who want to ensure that guns are only purchased by people who are qualified to purchase them, that young people don't get their hands on guns. Let me tell you, just recently we had an unfortunate shooting at a high school in a neighboring county, Montgomery County.

What is being reported is that the gun used in that shooting, and this was in a high school, a 17-year-old student shot a 16-year-old student. What we are understanding is that that gun was purchased by that 17-year-old student through the internet, and it was purchased as a kit. So the way that the ghost guns are sold are in kits, which is what prevents them from being regulated like other firearms, because when they come to your home, they are not a completed weapon. They're not operable.

You actually have to put them together. So they're about 80% complete when they are sold, but you have to attach the receiver in order to be able to operate the weapon. And these weapons are getting in the hands of young people, very young people who really should not be using them and have used them unfortunately against other young people.

So it's really important that we control who gets these guns. We hold these manufacturers accountable for who they are selling these weapons to, because it again has deadly consequences. This is not a game. These are real firearms. They have the same deadly consequences as other types of firearms.

All right, then. Well, Aisha, brave boy. We appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. You have the good work. Thank you very much. Keep trying to make it happen.

All right. All right. Thanks a lot. Folks, let's go to California where the San Jose City Council approved a measure requiring gun owners to have liability insurance, the first requirement of its kind in American history. The insurance would encourage gun owners to take safety classes and use gun locks. Additionally, it will cover damages or losses if the gun is

accidentally used or causes harm or death. Gun owners must report if the weapon is lost or stolen to authorities. Opponents say it violates their, of course, second amendment rights and plan to sue the city. that causes harm or death. Gun owners must report if the weapon is lost or stolen to authorities. Opponents say it violates their, of course, Second Amendment rights and plan to sue the city. Gun owners will also pay a $25 fee

that would go to a nonprofit that offers community resources such as firearm education and mental health services. You know, I get a kick, Recy, out of every time, oh, this is violated by Second Amendment. Why? Could it require you to have insurance? That's not in the Constitution.

It's like, they really think the Second Amendment is just blanket, do whatever the hell I want to do, no consequences, no nothing. Yeah, I mean, a gun is something that can be the difference between life and death.

And so these are very reasonable requirements. I mean, getting insurance, it actually does more to protect these gun owners than anything. So, I mean, I understand that it could be maybe a little bit cost prohibitive for some people. But then I guess you always don't get to own a gun. How about that? You know, so I think it's just amazing that people talk about gun violence and they talk about crime, and the first thing people want to go to is increasing police presence. No, we have to get some of these guns off the street. We have to make gun owners responsible so that their guns don't end up in hands from

being stolen or from being lost or whatever the situation may be. And then you also have children who access, you know, guns and end up killing themselves or killing their siblings or somebody else. And so this is just a very reasonable step. And it's a shame that something like this is even newsworthy. And we don't have more actions to get gun violence and guns out of under control. I'm confused here, Faraji. You need liability insurance for your car. But y'all mad because they don't require you to have liability insurance for your car, but y'all mad because they're going to require you to have liability insurance for your gun.

I mean, I think that's an excellent law. I was just thinking the same thing, Brother Roland. Your car can be used as a weapon, as we've seen in many cases, especially what we saw in Charlottesville. Your car can be a weapon. Why wouldn't you get liability insurance for your gun,

which is a weapon? You know, and I think that, that... that when we look at this gun situation, especially around the ghost guns... And I'm in Baltimore City. You know, it was just announced that homicide, the leading cause of death among Black, young Black people in Baltimore City is homicide.

And, you know, when I was listening to Madam State's attorney, Brave Boy, she was talking about the bill. But in Baltimore City, the commissioner here, Michael Harrison, the police commissioner, said there were seven that were on track to recovering 700 ghost guns. Last year, they had recovered 345 ghost guns. I mean, that's double in just a single year. So when we're talking about gun ownership, when we're talking about gun use, and when we're talking about the Second Amendment, I mean, there has to be something much different. There has to be a much different conversation. I mean, look, folks got to be responsible about gun ownership. If you're going to use a gun, be responsible with

it. And you should go through every single hoop and fire to ensure that people who don't have guns will be protected, because guess what? You know, it's the owners that's making the decision to go out into public spaces and shoot up the places. It's the owner's mentality that puts us at risk. The gun is what it is. But then there's also the bigger thing. I mean, we can't just overlook the fact that America loves the culture of violence. We crave it. We just, we're just so driven by violent behavior. So just as much as we talk about dealing with the guns issue, trying to take guns off the street, you've got to change the culture of violence in this country.

We've got to stop looking at certain films. We've got to stop, you know, there are networks that are just all about violence. You know what, I don't, to be perfectly honest with you, I really don't think it's a question of, frankly, films or music. I just think at the end of the day, and I've said this, violence is in the DNA of America, Greg. I mean, it is... It is...

This country, it is... You're programmed. Oh, get a gun. Get a gun. Get a gun. You don't even have to watch a lot of violent shows. It's get a programmed. Oh, get a gun. Get a gun. Get a gun. You don't even have to watch a lot of violent shows. It's get a gun. Oh, you feel unsafe? Get a gun. Oh, solve your problem. Get a gun.

And so what happens is, I've had people look at me like I was crazy when I said, I've shot a gun one time in my life. At the FBI Citizens Academy, it was a machine gun. And I was like, this is what y'all get all excited about? Like, really?

Now, let me be very clear. Now, people understand, I grew up in a community in Houston where the portion of my street, there were black folks who owned their homes, there were older couples. But I can look right here, just probably 100 yards

from our porch, where I saw the FBI, the DEA, and the Houston Police Department take down Crack House. I've seen all of that. So I've witnessed in my neighborhood, there are people who are living in places where there is significant violence. There is rampant violence. But what I'm talking about in this

country, in this country, you can be living in a suburban community and these folks act like you got to have, these folks got more damn guns than I got pairs of golf shoes. And I got 20 pair of golf shoes, okay? And it is this whole, just this mentality of gun, gun, gun, gun, gun. That's what is so pervasive in America, Greg. It is in this country's DNA, violence. Absolutely. Well, it's a settler state. It's born in violence. There's no place to return to in the concept of the United States of America that isn't born in violence. It's interesting you say that, Raj, about films and rolling. As you say, it's not just the films and the music, it's in the DNA.

I was rereading an article on Michael Jordan from about five or six years ago, and it talked about how Jordan stays up all night watching Westerns. He and his father used to do that. And, you know, Michael Jordan played basketball the same way they shoot at each other in Westerns. Coming up for the Super Bowl, half those companies that are now supporting the white nationalists in terms of voter suppression will have ads at the Super Bowl, and ain't nobody going to turn it off because they like the violence. The whole culture, as Faraji said, is violence, but it begins with settler violence. Now, how do we stop that? How do we reverse that trend? Well, we start local, go state, then federal. What we just see,

what we're seeing now, you just talked to State Attorney Brave Boy, what we're seeing in San Jose, California, are examples of local and state. But what the white nationalist party has done to cement its coming minority rule, which is in service of corporate profit and all this kind of stuff, is that in playing the long game, they have figured out that while they might not be able to stop a San Jose ordinance, that by the way, has no punitive dimension to it, while they might not have the numbers in the Maryland legislature to stop an ordinance there,

although please understand that all, I'd like to ask, State Attorney Brayboy, while we're focusing on the black areas, PG and as Faraj said, Baltimore, I wonder how many of those online purchases are going into rural Maryland, into the homes of people preparing for the race war. But again, the line of California is still sufficiently people at the legislative area and level and with the governor to perhaps look over at Texas, as Gavin Newsom has said, and say, well, if the Supreme Court is going to let these white masses in Texas basically turn everybody in Texas into a deputy policing a woman's womb,

I'm going to pass legislation in California to turn everybody in California into a deputy policing a woman's womb, I'm going to pass legislation in California to turn everybody in California into a deputy policing guns, which means now you've triggered the federal issue, the Second Amendment that you bring, which brings it all back to the courts. There's no country called United States of America. There is a bunch of fighting going on and people trying to command power

over other people through the courts, through the legislatures, and by the time we look up and try to do something about it, they may have already gamed this system in a way that will, quite frankly, make all of us go out and get guns. It is, again, where we are. Folks,

I do want to get to this story here. A Georgia sheriff has concluded there was no evidence of foul play in the 2013 death of a Georgia teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up gym mat at his high school. Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Park spent nearly a year reviewing the death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson after obtaining the Department of Justice's extensive file on the case.

However, Johnson's family says they don't believe the report and they don't care how long it takes. They will keep fighting for justice. More and more each day we have students reaching out to us, speaking to us. They are grown now. They are starting to talk. And we have, if it take 10 years, 11 years to find out the truth, we will be steadfast in finding out the truth of what happened to Kendra.

We will prove that this sheriff's department once again lied. We talking about a child was murdered in their school. And they treat us like we are the ones who causes all kind of chaos and problems. Our son was murdered on their school, on

their campus. State investigators years ago concluded Johnson died in a freak accident and federal authorities never brought charges after closing their case in 2016. I am still, for me this thing is common sense, Greg, Reesey and Farage, it's common sense. Because what they basically said is he had shoes at the bottom of this mat.

And to get his shoes, he climbed into the mat, which meant he would have to be upside down to get his shoes, and he died.

Okay, y'all, this is why I got a problem. Okay, this is a, I got a putting green here. Y'all know how I play golf. I'm always putting. This is supposed to be this big old mat, okay? His shoes are at the bottom of the mat. So imagine if I stuck my hand down this hole right here. This is a tight hole. Suck my hand down to grab something out to get to the bottom of the mat.

Or I would do this. Right. Right. this right right if I got my legs to grab my shoes, or we're going to tip the mat over. Hey, grab that shoe. I'm still, I'm not buying this, Greg. Come on. Come on. Well, I mean, I would, quite frankly,

love to see Sheriff Polk call a press conference and say, I'm going to show you how he did it with the assistance of some help. And then we go down there and put his ass, roll his ass up in there. And so, you know, and then maybe, no, no, no, no, you're in there yourself. You can get out. Now, that hasn't been said. This is why you have a federal government. I love what his mom said. You know, we know what side you on, pat a roller, Klansman. We know what side you on, white boy.

Let's call the feds in here and set your ass on natural fire. You went to 17... In other words, it's time to stop talking with these people. But the problem with the... But here's the problem even if you call the feds in. If you didn't do a proper investigation on the front end, it's sort of like the sister in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

No proper investigation. No DNA taken that night. Didn't check his body. Didn't check his clothes. Didn't discover. Didn't search the apartment. So even though the condom with semen in it didn't check his clothes, didn't discover, didn't search the apartment. So even though the condom was seaming in it and a pill on the table was found two weeks later,

guess what? You got chain of custody issues right now. So the feds can only review the available evidence that was collected. The whole issue with the videotape, okay? There's so many different things here. And so what people have to understand, the easiest way to get away with the crime,

second to never being seen or leaving fingerprints, is to have the police botch it. Deliberately or just through screw-ups. And so that's the problem. The feds really are handcuffed because all you can go on is the actual evidence collected and make an assessment based upon what you've been provided. That's sort of where we are.

It just doesn't pass the common sense test for me. That I just, it just don't. I just, I don't care what, I don't care what it is. If we're sitting here, look, look, man. I had a drone. I was flying a drone near my house. I had a drone. I was flying a drone near my house. I was testing it.

And the drone gets caught up in a tree. So I'm standing there looking at it. So I can either try to climb this damn tree or I can go to my garage, get that damn ladder, and then grab a pole that I have, boop, come down. Which one you think I'm going to do? I'm not climbing that damn tree. I'm going to do? I'm not climbing that damn tree. I'm going to think.

I just don't see how some shoes are at the bottom of a big-ass mat and somebody said, let me go upside down to get a mat, and my legs are sticking up, and now I get trapped, and now I suffocate when I could have just tipped the mat over. I just... Frazier, go ahead. I just don't. No, I'm trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the feds aren't involved in this case. And I know you just said, unless they botched it,

you know, botched up the investigation. But my thing is, what about the fact that it just doesn't make sense? Here you have a high-profile national case about a black man losing his life in a very unusual, under unusual circumstances. Isn't that enough to warrant an investigation from the Department of Justice to say,

wait a minute, hold up, hold up, look. I know you got your 17 boxes of evidence. I know you've gone through this. But this shit don't make no sense. This just doesn't make any sense that a young man climbs into a mat to kill himself over some damn pair of shoes. It just doesn't make sense.

So, I mean, and when you see here cases like this, folks, just come... Let's come to grips with something. Racism is still prevalent in this country. Let's come to grips with the fact that in some parts of this country that Black men and Black women are being killed wholesale,

and then their murders are being covered up and being sanctioned by police departments. That's right. And I mean, that's just what it is. Like, we gotta accept that. But, I mean, just the fact... And I hope that the Johnson family keeps pushing and pushing and pushing. I mean, they got a damn documentary about

this case. They've been on this show about this case. I've been hearing about this case for eight... For nine years. And you mean to tell me that the sheriff says, oh, it's closed. The evidence showed that there was no fire. What the...

Well, but Recy, here's the deal. The U.S. Attorney's Office, they looked into this. And remember, remember, they closed that investigation. The U.S. Attorney said, the new one said, we're going to take a second look at it. Again, you are hindered by the evidence collection

in the initial investigation. Unless there is new evidence presented, unless, again, which is forensic evidence, you know, the father in that clip says people are coming forward, but that's still witness testimony. Something has to be significant in order to be able to change

the course of the investigation. Risa, go ahead. Yeah, I just want to clarify for people who are asking about a federal investigation. They did a three-year federal investigation, the DOJ. I mean, I'm just going to read off a couple of facts about it. They did a three-year federal investigation, the DOJ. I mean, I'm just going to read off a couple of facts about it. They interviewed 100 people. They

reviewed tens of thousands of emails and text messages. They reviewed surveillance from this high school. They analyzed a lot of information. They also had an independent Department of Defense medical examiner, independent medical examiner slash forensic pathologist. So they had two of them, and they reviewed medical records and autopsy reports. However, this is the issue. That's not to say that he wasn't killed. That's not to say that something was not done to him. But what we have to understand, at least as it relates to the federal investigation, is they have to be able to prove a number of things beyond a reasonable doubt. And so the 17 boxes of evidence is actually from the federal investigation.

And so, you know, it's a tragic situation. It does not make any logical sense. As you said, Roland, why wouldn't you just move the map? Why would you turn around and get stuck in that way? And the family's examiner had found, and this is the reason why the federal Department of Justice got involved, that he died of blunt force trauma from the neck and the jawline. And so there was evidence of something obviously violent happening to him, whether it was a violent free accident or somebody did something to him and they tried to cover it up. Something happened to Kendrick Johnson that should not have happened. And so I just, my heart really goes out to the family because it doesn't sound like they're going to.

I'm not, it sounds, I'm not saying that they would ever be at peace with it, but it doesn't sound like they're going to get the justice that they're looking for. Not necessarily because, I mean, the Sheriff's Department, that's a different thing, but there are other recourses, which is the federal and the federal Department of Justice might not be able to give them what they're looking for because the proof of who did what, when and where is not there, unfortunately. And it breaks my heart to say that because this family is really hurting. And Krennic Johnson should be alive today. But that's the reality of the situation. So my heart just goes out to the family. It is.

It's just strange. I do want to do this here. A former high school football player in Michigan accused of hazing is now suing the police department and the city for discrimination. Cleveland Harville says the police officers only targeted black athletes during the investigation. The suit claims some of the athletes at Warren De La Salle Collegiate School who were investigated lost athletic scholarships and other opportunities. Harville also says he was not a student or on the football team

at the alleged hazing. All charges have been dropped against the athletes in the hazing investigation. So, we'll see what happens then. Folks, the mother of high school basketball player in California posted this disturbing video. The racist high school student shouting offensive and racial slurs at her son on Friday. Watch. The Laguna Hills High School student He let him out of his cage. He's a monkey. The Laguna Hills High School student was yelling,

chain him up. Who let him out of his chains? He's a monkey. And the black athlete throughout the entire game. According to school officials, the student has been counseled and disciplined for his poor behavior. The incident took place in Orange County, which is only 2% black, and state officials say

hate crimes are on the rise in the area. I'm trying to understand here, uh, Reese, if he did this throughout the game, uh, why didn't someone say remove his racist ass? Because people don't actually have a problem with racism.

They have a problem with racism being called out more than they have a problem with the act of racial violence. And those words were racial violence. And so it does not surprise me one bit that people was just like, oh, I don't know. And you're going to have a lot of people that are going to sit up there and be like, oh, I didn't hear, oh, I didn't take it to be racial, you know, whatever the fuck the case may be.

So this is just what happens. And this is, it's actually not a revelation at all. It's very typical and behavior to be expected. It's abhorrent and it's unconscionable, but it doesn't surprise me one bit that no action was taken when it should have been done immediately. I'm just saying, Faraji, if I'm sitting in those stands and that racist is saying that,

oh, the game is going to be paused. I'm Ron R. testing his ass, right? You know what I'm saying? I'm running right up in the stands like, yo, what you say? Like, I mean, at some point, and this is the thing

about us as black people, because we have undergone so many issues and challenges as black folks in this country that I think to some degree, when we do hear this in modern-day 2022, we are kind of numb to it. We haven't fully, you know, the sting of saying the nigger

or from anybody, because we say it to ourselves, so our brains, and Dr. Carr, correct we say it to ourselves, so our brains... And-and Dr. Carter, correct me if I'm wrong, but our brains are... don't pick up the inflection or the A at the end of it. We just, oh, that's just somebody talking, or I don't want to say nothing.

Like, we are being conditioned to lose our humanity in the midst of savagery. And that's the part about it. If somebody calls you a nigger or somebody uses, who says, calls you a monkey, that shouldn't be like, oh, that's just talk. You gotta confront it. We all gotta confront

it in such a strong way to send the message. Man, who do you think you're talking to? I'm telling you right now. This ain't 18-22. This is 2022, baby. We will knock you the fuck out. I'm telling you right now.

I would have got to sit... Greg, I would have went and sat right next to his ass. Say something. No question. Say something. Say it one more time and see what happens. Say it one more time. He's not going to be... He ain not going to be saying the whole game. Say it, brother.

Greg, final comment. No, you're right. I mean, but, you know, and Farage, you really on to something, brother. The biggest fight I ever saw at a sporting event, Tennessee State football game, and the Alphas were sitting. No, it wasn't the Alphas. It was the Kappas, were sitting in front of the Sigmas. And the

Kappas started singing, Green Acres is the place to be. And then you just saw this wall of blue, because the Sigmas were like, oh, we country now. And they started brawling. Amos Wilson used to say the reason that Black people fight Black people is because we have been

socialized not to fight white people. Do you know when they would have stopped calling that young brother a name in the OC if he was playing for their team? See, what we don't seem to understand is that, like you said, Faraji, the so-called malice in the palace. When Ron Artest is laying on that bench

on that scores table trying to calm himself down, and then white boys, so comfortable because they've been trained in this country that when there are no humans involved, you can roll us up in mats and kill us and they'll let you go. They can shoot you in your bed and your boyfriend shoot a gun at them.

They charge him. They can put their knee on your neck, whatever. Ain't nobody going to jail. You put one white boy in jail, the rest of them, they're going to let go in a couple of weeks. Well, then you can throw a cup of beer down and hit him.

But here's the problem. New York came out and he went up in them stands, and then Steven Jackson's like, well, hell dad, I'm going with my boy, and they beat that ass. Now, what's the equivalent of beating that ass? Rowling's going to sit there and say, and I'll say something, you ain't going to say nothing. But guess what? Everybody going to watch the

damn Super Bowl. You want to know why them corporations are not going to stop funding the white nationalists? Because you ain't going to make them stop. You're going to watch and they're going to pet you in the head. They're going to scream for their nigger on their team. And if he switch team, they're going to come against him. Go ask my man in Philadelphia

about that. When he decided that he was going to come back from a broken leg and damn near won a Super Bowl and when they got mad at Terrell Owens, the N-word came out. Go ask Dickie Allen about that, the Philadelphia Phillies. Go ask Barry Bonds about that, San Francisco Giants. Go ask Dave Parker about that when they threw Batteries M in Pittsburgh. He was on their

team. Ain't none of them in the Hall of Fame, and they ain't got a damn thing to do about performance enhancing drugs. It's got to, if you're our N-word, we don't tolerate racism. But once you switch teams, you are an N. Guess what? Because we all niggas, and in the words of Samuel L. Jackson in school days, y'all niggas and you're going to be niggas forever.

Well, I damn sure not. But try it and see what's going to happen. Just try to see what's going to happen. I'm just saying. I will say this here. I will say this here. You know, we all have our chants. We all have our slogans.

We were on the Tom Jonah cruise. And normally I would go play golf when they had a beach party because I don't give a damn about no beach party, okay? It's saying on the golf course. But one of those stops, I think it was like after Hurricane, the course was shut down. So I was like, damn, I got to go to the beach party. So at the end, so I didn't realize at the end of the beach party, they had this ritual or they had this annual deal where the Omegas were

staying in the middle of the beach. They'd play Tom McDawg. They'd be in a circle and they'd be chanting, barking, or whatever they would do. So, so, so, Oscar Joyner was on the microphone, and he was leading a chant, and so I was like, damn this. I went on stage, and when Will Packer, my frat, was on stage as well, So he lead and they chant.

So I start chanting my damn self. And so they chant and I'm chanting. And so then he going down and they take a picture. And so we going back. Now, y'all, it's about 100 of them and it's me and Will. And I'm chanting. Will laughing. So it really is one against 100,

which is really unfair for the Omegas. One against 100. That's really unfair for them. So we sitting here going at it. We sitting there chanting. And so I yell 06. Then the Omegas yell suck. I was like, oh.

Then I came back with, we party all night, we stay up late, but most of all, alphas graduate. Graduate. Nobody responded. And I went, is 100 of y'all? Y'all ain't got no comeback? Oh. Y'all, shut them down.

Now, mind you, we all laughing. This is what we do. So let me tell y'all what happened. This is a true story. Man, we come back from the cruise. Man, I'm taking a nap. My phone ring. Tom Joyner called me.

Tom, man, hot. Hot. I'm watching the video. This is wrong. This is wrong. You know, my frat, y'all wrong. So I got, y'all didn't understand. I got banned from the Tom Joyner cruise.

What? I ain't never told this story publicly. I got banned from the Tom Joyner cruise. Now, y'all, I'm on the show. Right. I'm on the show four days a week. That's your ban. I got banned from the cruise because I missed

the big little mega moment I started laughing I was like Tom you serious I was like you serious you that hurt because I cracked on your frat brothers I was like yeah alright

I wasn't phased I mean it wasn't like I was getting paid yeah, all right. Come on. I wasn't phased. I mean, it wasn't like I was getting paid to be on it. But it was like, yeah. And so the reason I got back on the cruise, because the sponsors had requested me to come back on, because they were like, because in fact, the next year, one of my band, Ali Sadiq, out of Houston, was on stage. And he was like, something different about the crews this year.

What is it? Where's Roland? They went to him like, say, man, can you stop bringing that up? He was like, what? I'm just saying, something different. The energy is different. Roland ain't here. Yo, that's what happened. So I get it. Some of these frats get a little sensitive

with they whole deal. And so I get it. I'm just saying, graduate. Alright, y'all. That's it for us. I appreciate it. Faraj, Reesey, and Greg, y'all again next week. Of course, we got

four shows launching next week on Blackstar Network. No, Kill the Music. Cue up, of course, America's Wealth Coach, Deborah Owens. Her show launches. Roll it. I'm Deborah Owens,

America's Wealth Coach, and my new show, Get Wealthy, focuses on the things that your financial advisor and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Blackstar Network. and bank isn't telling you, but you absolutely need to know. So watch Get Wealthy on the Black Star Network.

And of course, Faraji's show, which will be a daily show, launches. Go! We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. And, of course, Greg, Dr. Greg Carr will be hosting his weekly show as well. Roll it. 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. Now, tomorrow I will be showing you the promo for Reverend Dr. Jackie Hood Martin's show, Call for Feel, The Art and Joy of Balanced Living. So we'll have that for you tomorrow.

Don't forget, every two weeks we have a new episode of Rolling with Roland. The next one we're going to be dropping this week is going to be my man Bill Duke. And then that will be followed by Michelle Roberts, who recently retired as the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. And so if y'all have missed Rolling with Roland,

we got it ready? Y'all got missed Rolling with Roland? Here's a sample of the interview with the great Glenn Turman. Aretha and I met as a result of a friend of mine named Ben Vereen. She was standing in the mirror in front of, you know, the lights go around the star mirror, and dressed in white and getting ready to perform,

and she was standing up, and she saw my reflection in the mirror, and she gave a little, ah, you know, and I gave a little, ah. The mutual admiration. Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. She expressed at that time that she wanted to, she had moved to California and she wanted to take lessons in acting.

She wanted to do some acting. And I was, like I said, I teach. Right. You know, I've been teaching for 12 years, you know, some acting. And I was, like I said, I teach, you know, I've been teaching for 12 years, you know. And so I said, well, I teach acting. And if you want, come down to my classes. One evening, class was very disruptive. They were all at the window. You know, get back here. back here you know come on we got a client what are you doing a limousine just pulled up you know a lady got out of the fur coat she walked into the class and my first reaction was you're late you told the queen she was late she was you wouldn't let her know I'm a teacher. And I'm serious.

And I think that's what she came to find out, was I serious. And I was. And so we became serious. Serious enough where you got married. That's as serious as it gets. So I hope y'all understand we ain't been playing around when it comes to look at the shows, quality of the shows, all that good stuff.

What you got to say, Reese? What's up? Well, I want to know, what time do these shows come on? First of all, breathe. Do you have a time? Breathe. Breathe. Calm down. I'm just saying, I've seen all the promos, which are fantastic. I love them. Congratulations,

fellas. But I want to know what time they're coming on. Okay, calm down. Calm down. I'm mad if I stole your thunder. Calm down. Okay, so let me explain to people how we operate. Okay? Okay. Yes, like, for instance, yes, this show comes on...

We're live six to eight. We restream this show multiple times in a 24-hour period. So the actual time is actually not that big of a deal. But more than likely, each one of the shows, each one of the weekly shows will air around 11 a.m. We've studied the metrics in terms of highest viewership, also high point of engagement. And so we think that time is a good time for the weekly shows

for people who might be going on lunch break and doing different things around that time. And so even now, somebody may be saying, okay, what about the West Coast as well? Again, we restreamed the show multiple times so people will be watching. There have been times where I've actually, it's been 1, 2 o'clock in the morning, and I look up, and there's 10,000 people watching live at 2 o'clock in the morning.

So, you know, people's viewing habits are different. So the weekly shows will be in the 11 a.m. Eastern slot but they'll still be restreamed throughout a 24 hour period. And remember, the weekly show will be then restreamed for the whole week at different times. And so, that's what we'll be doing. So, Faraji's show will be slot into the 3 to 5 p.m. slot.

We're toying with it. We may do 4 to 5.55. We're just still working that out in terms of when we do that. So we're working through that. And so, again, and then, of course, eventually once we have the 24-hour streaming network, you'll be able to simply turn the network on and then it will be streaming continuously straight up.

So, and then that way, so just like when you watch any other channel, people will still be able to watch it on demand. But we'll be doing re-streaming the show multiple occasions. So, beginning next week, we'll be having five hours of original programming per day. And so two two-hour shows, and then, of course, the weekly show. And then once we, for the first two or three months, as we're getting straight with these shows, then we also have three to four other shows that are in development that hopefully we'll be able to launch those shows in Q3 of 2022.

So that's what's up. So, yeah. That's what's up there. People keep asking me, well, is Reese going to get a show? Reese got to let me know if she want to do one and what she want to do.

Y'all got to understand, people have come to me, hey, I got some ideas, so, Reesey got to say something. Reesey? Reesey?

Reesey? I, don't act like I didn't tweet you. I said, if you want to call in show host, No, no, no,

no, that's a generic concept. No, that's generic as hell. You can't, no, that's generic. If you want to call in show, no, that's generic. You want a call-in show.

No, that's generic. You got to actually articulate. It's called a one-pager. Hey, this is the vision. This is what I'm thinking. And then you got to say, is it, are you talking about a weekly show, one hour, two hours? Are you thinking about a daily show, one hour, two hours? See, you got to develop the concept.

I don't know your schedule, okay? So weekly may be, a daily may be too much. Yeah, because trust me, it ain't no joke. So if it's a weekly, okay, gotcha. But so you got to develop the concept. Okay, I'm listening. I'm listening. I'm learning. I'm

learning, bro. Oh, Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. But I'm happy. Listen, I'm happy for Dr. Karn Faraji. That is an all-star lineup. So I'm excited for all of this. We need you. Recy, we need you.

Put that one page in. Stop playing. Stop playing, please. Get to work. Stop playing. Get to work. All right, y'all. That's it for us. Again, thanks to our panel today. We appreciate playing, please. Get to work. Stop playing. Get to work. All right, y'all. That's it for us.

Again, thanks to our panel today. We appreciate it, folks. We'll see y'all tomorrow. Don't forget, download the Black Star Network app. Again, I told y'all we were not playing. All them haters out there who were trashing the show, y'all ain't going to do nothing. Y'all ain't going to survive.

I told y'all I don't think about y'all. I told y'all I don't think about y'all. I told y'all that. And so I need y'all to listen when I'm talking to y'all. I also keep telling y'all we were building the OTT network. It was never about just me having a show. And we also, when we're asking you to support us

financially, this is why. Because trust me, okay, the program development part of these four shows, and again, I told y'all I ain't got a problem being transparent. It's $20,000 a month to pay the company to work with all four of these hosts, to develop the show, working on the promos, looking at the graphic, all that sort of stuff.

That's real money money that's 20 grand outside of my show that's to develop these four shows and so when y'all support us with your dollars that's what it goes to when i'm calling out these companies who don't support us financially i need y'all to also be retweeting that and commenting as well because they need to understand that we're serious about this here. You know, it's real interesting. I'm going to leave you on this one here, but I'm going to show y'all what priorities are.

I want you to put killer music for me. This ain't going to take long. This is going to take 120 seconds. And I wish I could, I don't have my computers over there, but if y'all go to my Instagram page, I posted the other day about them, about the final episode of Our Kind of People and them only doing 12 episodes. And I would just like if y'all watch

the show, just letting y'all know that's it for the show. I posted that on my Instagram page. I want y'all to know that there have been 2,518 comments about Fox only doing 12 episodes of that show. Yet, when I have posted about companies not advertising with black-owned media, maybe 30 or 40. Some of y'all just missed that. Mm. 2,518 comments about a black show on Fox

that we don't own. How about that? We don't own. Come on. We just own the show. 2,518 comments. So when I am talking about making sure that they are advertising with us

so we can generate the revenue to potentially do shows like that, folk don't comment. So now you know why Fox gets the advertising and we don't. So we've got to be just as willing, because trust me, if one of those advertisers saw my post and saw 2,518 comments...

Come on. They will be calling me immediately and setting up a meeting. Wow. I'm just saying, what just saying what your priorities are determine how you respond when the call is made. So I just want y'all to understand that. So I'm just saying, just think about that.

2,518 comments. Yet when I posted, I'm going to end it with this one. Yet, when I posted about stars having all of these black shows, building their network, and not spending money with black-owned

media, 42 comments. Wow. 42. 42. I'm just saying. Folks, Come on. 42 comments. Damn. Wow. 42. I'm just saying. Folks, Black Star Network, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire,

Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, I Bring the Funk Fan Club, it's Cash App, dollar sign, RM unfiltered, PayPal is R Martin unfiltered, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zill is roland at rolandsmartin.com. Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Folks, thanks a bunch. I'll see y'all tomorrow.

Ha! I'm sorry. this is an iHeart podcast