#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Shocking, graphic R. Kelly testimony; August jobs report; GA prosecutor misconduct in Arbery case

Episode Date: September 4, 2021

9.3.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Shocking, graphic R. Kelly testimony; August jobs report has economist worried; Biden visit New Orleans after Ida; Closing the FEMA loophole that cripples communities of color; Herschel Walker, candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia, is accused of stalking women; Ex-Minnesota cop who shot Daunte Wright faces more charges; South Carolina Supreme Court bans Columbia's public school mask mandate; A former GA prosecutor is facing misconduct charges related to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery; ​Man accused of 'felony faint' dies in police custody; Chicago cops gone wild; AR Inmates unknowingly given ivermectin to treat COVID#RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: CEEKCEEK is a streaming platform for virtual events and Virtual Reality experiences featuring the biggest names in music, sports, and entertainment from around the globe. Check out the VR headsets and 4d headphones. Visit http://www.ceek.com and use the discount code RMVIP21Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Friday, September 3rd, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin on Filtered on the Black Star Network. Updates on the wrongful death suit of a young man police accused of felony faint. Died in police custody in Chicago. A third city cop has been arrested this week on allegations of excessive force. A veteran officer was caught on video shoving a flashlight between a clothed teen's buttocks.

Inmates in an Arkansas jail say they took the deworming drug of her medicine to treat COVID-19 and were not told about it. In Beverly Hills, a police task force arrested 106 people. All but one were black. According to a class action lawsuit, the task force targeted 106 people. All but one were black. According to the class action lawsuit, the task force targeted black people with harassment and arrest for low-level and even non-existent violations to keep them away from Rodeo Drive.

The former Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Dante Wright faces a more serious charge, and the other three cops in the death of George Floyd, they say, please no live streaming of our trial because some people will not testify. South Carolina Supreme Court strikes down a city ordinance mandating masks for public school children just as the state struggles with a surge

in school-related coronavirus cases. Also updates on the R. Kelly trial, woman testified that the singer paid her $200,000 to sit a lawsuit after giving her herpes. Also, President Joe Biden blamed the surge in COVID-19 cases the lackluster August Giles report, which saw an increase in black unemployment. Plus, in Alabama, the first African-American woman

in the Birmingham school board joins us tonight for our Education Matters segment. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah. to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks He's rolling Yeah! It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah!

Yeah! It's Roland Martin Yeah! Yeah! Rolling with Roland now Yeah! He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best you know

He's broke, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know He's rolling Martel Martel All right, folks, day 12 of the R. Kelly trial, and a woman identified as Kate testified. She dated R. Kelly, and he paid her $200,000 to settle a lawsuit she brought accusing him of giving her herpes, she told Jorz. When they began having sex, she told him that she was worried about STDs, but he refused to use protection. On yesterday, federal prosecutors called DNA experts to take the stand. The expert, Yong Fei Wu, testified that he found semen on a blue shirt that one of the R&B star's accusers said she saved. Earlier in the trial, Jeronda Pace recalled her last day at Kelly's home, saying he spit on her, slapped her, and choked her until she passed out after he flew into a rage because she text a friend. It's going to be my panel, Terraine Bailey, attorney,

Michael M. Hotep, host, the African History Network, Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst. So, Attorney Bailey, how you doing? We'll start with you. You are defense attorney. As you look at this trial, you've seen how the prosecution is laying this out. Do you believe that they are moving closer to proving the charges? Or does things like this testimony saying he gave her herpes, how does that actually relate to what he is charged with? The testimony about R. Kelly not listening to the woman saying she wanted to use a condom goes to the issue of consent, which is the whole issue in this case regarding trafficking and the abuse of women, that he's not listening to women and that he is abusing them.

So in many states, giving someone a sexual transvestite disease is grounds for a felony charge. So here the prosecution is doing its job and laying the groundwork for a conviction here. What's interesting is how the defense attorneys are handling this information. To the folks at audio, I'm getting lots of feedback there, so I'm not quite sure whose microphone that's coming from. When you say the defense speak to that, is it that they had not much to work with?

Because again, what seems to be consistent is that they are attacking folks saying, oh, did you cut a deal? Is that why you're testifying? When a lot of the women who are testifying, they aren't charged with anything. Well, the defense doesn't really have much to work with here because there's so many victims and so many allegations that are consistent.

So the only thing that they can do is really try to attack the credibility of each of these women and try to say that there's another motive or other incentives for why they're going after him in this way, such as monetary gain. uh britney um what is interesting about about this as we have uh been covering this you still have people out there who are art and r kelly fans i got people who are tweeting me saying oh you're not telling the whole story you need to get the transcripts of the trial these people are lying uh they're not doing a good job, that there are inconsistencies. I mean, all of this, I mean, it is very interesting, again, with all the documentaries being done, with the stories being done, with all the different things, you still have people who are saying, oh, Robert Sylvester Kelly is being railroaded. Roland, I have to laugh.

These people are misogynists, to be clear. If you are caping for R. Kelly, you are a misogynist. To be clear, if you are caping for R. Kelly, you are a misogynist, period. And I guess my question would be, at what point do we start loving black women? When are we going to actually hold these abusers accountable? Brittany, I'm getting tweets from black women. You know what's funny is that misogyny, the same way that I say we have black, excuse the language, black Uncle Toms running around, right, who have also internalized white supremacy, there are also black women who have internalized their own, the misogyny within the community, loving each other. We need to love black women. And most importantly, start believing victims, right? When are we going to hold these people accountable? And it's unfortunate, Roland, because it's not just R. Kelly. We're talking about any time a black woman is raped, she's battered, she's abused. Look at some of these comments

related to Fabulous, related to Chris Brown, related to Nas. People are just like, no way, right? Oh, but we still want to support. We still want to support. And it's all fun and games. related to fabulous related to chris brown related to nasa people are just like no way right oh but we still want to support we still into the um and it's all fun and games until it's that person's child or that person's sister or that person's mother and then why is anybody supporting me mine and why why does it always have to be the proximity to a loved one to understand that there are abusers in our community and that need to be held accountable michael you know uh roland i've been uh covering this case uh since day one and this is every day man you know there's some deep first of all there's some details that i don't even share on my show this is this is some sick stuff when you read the testimony. You know, Faith's father, on day 10,

the third woman who accused R. Kelly of exposing her to herpes, her name was Faith. She testified. Her father is a pastor. He was there at the trial, and he was outside of the trial, and there were female R. Kelly supporters who were berating him. We talked about this last Friday on your show. The most disrespected woman in America, or the most disrespected person in America is the black woman. And we're seeing this here a second time. We saw this in the first trial. We see this again a second time here. And today, this woman who testified, she's the fourth woman. They're using the name Kate. She's the fourth woman to testify in this trial that accused R. Kelly of exposing her to herpes. And, you know, brother, we have to stand up to defend African-American

women. But also, I just had a quick question for the attorney here, if I could. I just wanted to know, the charges are one count of racketeering and eight counts of violation of the Mann Act, which is interstate sex trafficking. And I just wanted to know, how is the prosecution doing presenting their case regarding the one count of racketeering? How are they doing in regards to that? Well, let me start first with the trafficking. They're doing an excellent job with the trafficking because they're showing the plane tickets and the traveling across state lines. The racketeering, I see them moving in that direction as aggressively. And I'm assuming that

they're going to do that through other witnesses because I haven't seen as much of that from the witnesses that have testified thus far. I mean, we've had some testimony from people from R. Kelly's camp that have assisted in arranging these meetups with the women backstage and assisting with introducing them to these women. But the racketeering case, from my perspective, is not as strong as the trafficking case at this point. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, obviously, the defense will have an opportunity to put their case on. This is one of three cases

he actually faces, Doreen. And so do you believe that as this moves forward, this jury of seven men and five women are going to listen to this harrowing testimony? And as you said,

it's very gritty. It's extremely, when you talk about the choking, one woman said that he forced her to perform oral sex on him. A gun was nearby. There was a man who testified that R. Kelly performed oral sex on him. I mean, just day after day, just extremely graphic testimony that this jury is hearing every single day. This testimony is exhausting for a jury. Day after day, each detail gets more gruesome and

more detailed. And so the jury can become exhausted with these facts. So by the time the defense gets to their case, they're going to have to try something new to mitigate some of these allegations and the only thing they can really go for is jury nullification and jury nullification is when you say okay these are the facts okay but look at it from this point of view these women regardless of their age consented to being initially involved with r ke. And then they take it from there and they start showing how this may have been more consensual and part of sexual preferences more so than abuse. But that is going to be a hard sell to a jury, but you're going to have to ask the jury to set aside all their reason and all their common sense and say these women, all these women

agree to this behavior and this treatment. This is going to be, again, something we're going to continue to follow, and we certainly will see what happens next in this case. But it is just very significant with this level of testimony. Let's go to Minnesota, where after reviewing the case, the former Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Dante Wright, they faced a more serious charge. Former Brooklyn Center officer Kimberly Potter was already

facing a count of second degree manslaughter. Thursday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison added an upgraded charge of first degree manslaughter to the existing count of second degree manslaughter. The officer shot Wright who was unarmed during the traffic stop. The incident was recorded on police body camera video on April 11th. Potter claims it was an accident saying she thought she had a taser in her hand

and not her service weapon when she pulled the trigger. What do you make, Terrain, what do you make of the aggressiveness of A.G. Keith Ellison? Obviously, a huge win for them with the conviction of the former cop who killed George Floyd. This new era of prosecuting police officers after George Floyd, we're seeing something unprecedented. Officers used to mistreat defendants and just walk away with complete immunity. And after what we saw in Kentucky regarding Breonna Taylor, we're seeing attorney generals

across the state, like the attorney general in Colorado in the McLean case, just come forward and say, you know what, enough is enough. Officers, they are charged with a duty. And when they act outside their duty, they need to be held accountable. So this is really good for the public. This is saying we're going to hold these officers accountable. Again, this is what happens when you have, Brittany, you have attorney general or district attorneys who are not in the pocket of police in the unions, but they are examining the evidence.

Absolutely. And we've known for a long time with all of these cases, the evidence is always damning, but it's a matter of actually doing the due diligence and prosecuting appropriately and letting our friends walk away. And I'm glad that we're finally entering this new moment. It does seem like this moment is unprecedented because we know that oftentimes these police officers are not convicted, let alone even charged. And they're able to literally shoot first and ask questions later. You know, it's I feared for my life.

I made a mistake. And that's always seemed to be enough. And it's just, it's not anymore, Roland. And I'm glad that we are seeing these police officers being held accountable. Michael, again, we talk about DAs matter, AGs matter. We're seeing this in the case of Minnesota. Absolutely. And we just saw this in the case of Elijah McClain as well, because the Democratic elected the Democratic governor appointed a special

prosecutor who was the state's attorney general. State's attorney general came back with 32 counts against three officers and two paramedics. And here, once again, this is an example of how elections have consequences and elections matter. Okay? So we have to make a direct connection between protests and issues that we're protesting against and who actually resolves those issues, police reform, DAs, all of that, prosecuting rogue police officers, et cetera. The one thing that I have concerned, and I've covered a number of different police cases and police shootings, the one thing I have a concern about is what happens when this

white female police officer, if she gets on the witness stand, and if they have a jury trial, because in this state, I'm not sure if she could have a bench trial, because that's a trick that they pull also, is have a bench trial with just the judge, that's the juror, as opposed to a jury of 12, to take the public out of it and take the emotion out of it. What happens when she gets on the witness stand, Kim Potter, and breaks down crying and sobbing and say, I didn't mean to shoot this boy and all this stuff? That's my concern. So we have to see how this turns out. But I agree with the charges, So we have to see how this turns out. But I agree with the charges, but we have to see how this turns out. Folks, let's stay in Minnesota where attorneys for three of the other officers on trial for killing George Floyd,

they now want to keep the trial from being broadcast and live streamed. Go to my computer, please. The request came from attorneys for Thomas Lane, Jay Queen, and Taotao. They, earlier, they wanted the trial to be publicly broadcast. Now they're saying, now they're saying that, oh, that if this is a stream, that there are people who are not going to want to testify if they do so. Terraine, that's quite interesting. That's quite interesting there on that particular point by saying that, oh, if it's streamed, they're people, they're not going

to testify. Really? They don't have a choice. A subpoena is a subpoena. It's not an invitation. So they don't... You're saying there's no party flyer, huh? No, no. There's no need for RSVP.

You just show up or you go to jail. And it's very simple. And so I think what's happening is that these officers and their defense teams are seeing how the live stream of the trial worked out in the first trial. And it didn't work out very well there for Derek Chauvin. I mean, we were able to see and we talked about this, you know, his reaction to the jury and just how he he reacted to the testimony about the death of George Floyd.

And so it's not to their benefit to have it publicly broadcast. This has nothing to do with their witnesses. Their witnesses have no say so whether or not they come or go. And you know what? I respect that. I respect that. You do what you have to do to protect your clients. So if your client, if it's not looking like it's going to work out well for this to be broadcast for your client, then you try to shut that down. This is what they wrote, Michael.

Cameras in the Chauvin courtroom brought us to the dangerous pass where people are deterred from testifying for the defense because they fear the wrath of the crowd. Well, wait a second. Before Derek Chauvin was convicted, you wanted the trial to be broadcasted. You wanted the trial to be live streamed. Now that it didn't go the way you thought it was going to go, now you changed court.

See, the question I would ask, on cross-examination, I would ask the question, what changed between when you first made that statement, okay, because the evidence didn't change, basically, okay? So what changed between when you first made that statement, you wanted it broadcasted, and all of a sudden now you don't want to broadcast it? But I find it interesting that they're saying this. Now, when you had African-Americans who testified, OK, in the Derek Chauvin trial, it was broadcasted. When you had the case of Darnell Frazier, we heard her voice, but we did not see her face. OK, you can do the same thing for these people who you're claiming don't want to testify and have a live stream. We can just hear their voice. We don't have to see their face. So, you know, when they make changes like this, I just have to ask the question, okay, so what changed before when you were talking all that stuff, selling wolf tickets, before the verdict, and now all of a sudden you want to, you don't want to have it live streamed? Yeah, it is, it's quite

interesting there, Brittany. Maybe it's because, oh, you're afraid of that conviction? Roland, they know they're about to get chewed up, spit out, and locked up. And the court of public opinion is important. And we saw that. We've seen that with the last couple of cases. They know what's about to happen. And that's why that quick switch happened, right? Now they don't want it to be public.

So they know they're about to get locked up. Absolutely. Absolutely. At the end of the day, the transcript of what they're going to testify to is going to be made public. So it's not as if they can testify in secret and say, well, I said, you know, he's a great guy. Nobody's going to know it. So this is simply for the defense. They know it is not. This is an uphill battle for them in the court of public opinion. Yeah. And again, if you've already convicted Derek Chauvin, you know they are concerned. Let's go to Georgia, where former Georgia prosecutors facing misconduct charges related to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.

A grand jury indicted former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson for violating her oath of office and hindering a law enforcement officer. Arbery's father says he wants everyone involved in his son's death to be held accountable. I mean, it's so grateful because, you know, everybody that had their hand on his death need to be brought to justice because the way he died, it just really devastated my family. I'm still struggling with it every day as a father because, you know, it's my job to protect my children. And God knows I do that. You know, I'm still hurt because all I got is pictures to look at him, and every morning I get up, I look at his pictures.

I'm saddened by it. A Georgia judge is not allowing attorneys for the men accused of killing Arbery to use the slain black man's past in the upcoming trial. Superior Court Judge Timothy Wamsley said the victim's character isn't relevant or even admissible in the murder cases. Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William Bryan will go to trial this fall in the February 2020 slaying of Ahmaud Arbery, who they chased and shot after they say, after seeing him running in the neighborhood. Defense attorneys say the man suspected Arbery was a burglar and tried to make a citizen's arrest.

Terrain, this DA, remember, it was three, finally it took three shots to finally get this person, to get these men indicted. The first two DAs passed on it. Here would you have this white DA, frankly, using her power to try to hinder the investigation. It's very rare to see a grand jury indict a former district attorney. We are in a new day where prosecutors, police officers,

everyone is being held accountable. This is a brand new day in America. And when I started at the Public Defender in 1998, I could have never imagined a day where a prosecutor would be charged for withholding evidence or reviewing a case against a police officer and judging it to the best interest of the police officer. And today, totally different situation. But what's interesting here is the state of Georgia got it right. Georgia's law allows for prosecutors to be prosecuted when they fail to do their job. However, in Colorado, which we're really pleased about what's happening there with Elijah McClain, the DA in Adams County cannot be charged under the new Senate bill that the governor signed last year.

So that DA is immune for anyone coming after him for refusing to prosecute those police officers and those first responders. So this is a good day in Georgia. I dare say, Brittany, you know, if you're going to sit here and protect your own, guess what? You may have to face the wrath later. Sure will, Roland. And I'm truly happy because you can still, you feel that hurt. You feel the hurt on that parent. I think, you know,

thank God to all of us being out there, being in the streets. I think this speaks to the power of the people and the power of movements. We're seeing this new era begin to happen

because we saw and we witnessed one of the largest social movements in history to hold police and all those associated with policing and the criminal justice system accountable. And, you know, thank God they also threw out that evidence, that quote on his past, right, and not able to use that as evidence. Because so often we see black folks face two deaths, right, the physical death. And then as the people that are mourning, they then have to mourn the quote-unquote death of their character, right, which we know to not be true. So

I'm glad that they are throwing out that evidence and I'm also glad that they're holding this DA accountable. It's about time and it's the right thing to do. Michael. Yeah, you know, Roland, I talked about this last night on my show. I was happy to hear this. And when this whole case came about in February 2020 and Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson refused to press charges.

And then we found out that Greg McMichael used to be an investigator in her office. And I'm like, well, wait a second, hold on. You know, I said, now, I do know that Georgia has the largest Confederate monument in this country. But I'm like, wait a second, there should be some charges against her. So this is good to hear. And, you know, in the charges, it said that she, the allegation that she showed favor and affection to suspect Greg McMichael, but also that she failed to treat Ahmaud Arbery and his family fairly and with dignity. And, you know, I applaud the charges and hopefully she's convicted as well. She faces, I think, one to five years in prison on violation of public office. So

got to go, got to go. All right. I got some other police stories, but I need a break because these cops are just driving me crazy. So we're going to go to commercial break. We come back. We're going to talk about the Giles report out. Black unemployment has gone up. We'll break the numbers down next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Yes. On the Black Star Network, folks, if you did not miss the announcement last night, our OTT network launched. We are on, yes, Apple phone, Android phone, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Samsung TV. Oh, I'm missing. Xbox. We're on all of these platforms, Amazon Fire Stick and Amazon TV.

So just simply look for the Black Star Network. Just look for this right here. Look for this. And, of course, download it. And, of course, it's free. We're not charging you a subscription. And so, again, we launched last night, and this is what happens when you are black-owned. So not only are we live streaming on YouTube, Facebook, Periscope,

we also, again, are broadcasting on our own OTT channel. So we want all of you to download this, and you can actually watch the show live right here on the Black Star Network. I'll be back in a moment. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them,

and they're complex and we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out Tiffany, I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that non-violence is soul force right I'm Chris at Michelle I'm Chaley Rose and you're watching Roland Martin

unfiltered all right folks of course first of the month you always have the All right, folks. Of course, first of the month, you always have the new job reports that come out. And the American economy slowed abruptly in August, adding only 235,000 jobs, vastly missing economists' expectation. It's the lowest in numbers since January. President Joe Biden is urging Congress to pass his more than $4 trillion economic agenda to boost the sluggish job growth. No question the Delawarean is why today's job report isn't stronger. I know people were looking and I was hoping for a higher number. What we've seen this year is the continued growth, month after month, in job creation. It's not just that I've

added more jobs than any first year president in the first year of any president. It's that we've added jobs in every single one of my first seven job reports and wages are going up. Some more jobs, some months are fewer, some months more, but always adding jobs. This is the kind of growth that makes our economy stronger and consistent, progress, and not boom or bust. Today's report fell far short. Predictions were revised down to 728,000 from 750,000

earlier after Wednesday's ADP employment report. According to the Bureau of Labor stats, the unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in August from 5.4% yet black unemployment went up. Dr. Kristen Brody, she joins us right now. She is an economist. Kristen, how you doing? I'm well, Roland. I just want to say first of all, congratulations on the launch of the new network.

And secondly, I want to say not all economists. I definitely didn't see the increase that others predicted. And I don't know why they predicted it. So let's talk about this here. And so give us an indication. What were the black numbers like in terms of overall black unemployment, black men, black women, black youth? All right. So if we look from June to August, the black unemployment rate in June was 9.2 percent. It went down to 8.2 percent in July and

then up to 8.8 percent in August. And that was the only rate that went up. So if we go across for the U.S., 5.2 percent in August, white 4.5 percent, Asian American 4.6 percent, Latino and Hispanic 6.4 percent. So again, and has history, the Black unemployment rate was the highest at 8.8. And so it gets more interesting if we look at race and age. All right. So if we look at white women in August, we had a rate of 5.2 down from 5.4. I'm sorry, 4.2 down from 4.5 there. The overall rate was 5.2.

Men went from 4.9 in July down to 4.4 percent. And then if we look at white teens, their rate went up. But now if we go over to black people in August, black women, the rate in July was 7.6. It went down to 7.9. It went up, I'm sorry, to 7.9. For men, it was 8.4. It went up to 9.1. And the real thing to look at is Black teens. So their rate, I'm going to go back to June, it was 9.3 percent. And last month, it went up to 13.3. Theirs was the only one that went up like that. and August of 2021, black teens aged 16 to 19 had the highest average unemployment rate, 18.32%. So that's a group that we really need to be looking at. So what should these reports come out every single month when you watch these different networks. People sort of lay out, you know, a number of different things.

What should we learn from this and know about this? So I think one of the things that hasn't really been talked about is the percentage of people that telework throughout the pandemic. So that's something that the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking in May of 2020. And so in August, 13.4% of those employed telework due to the pandemic. Of those workers, 12.4% were white, 11.2% were black, 30.4% were Asian American. They've had very high rates of telework. And 7.9% were Hispanic or Latino. And so I think that's important because Black and Hispanic workers are overrepresented in customer-facing jobs that are considered essential. So this is like cashiers or care workers, these customer-facing jobs that cannot be done remotely,

and also put these workers at higher risk of getting COVID. All right. So what do you see as we're now going into the fall and into the winter? What are you projecting for African Americans? It's not good, I think. So we have the eviction moratorium, which was really good, but the Supreme Court just rejected that. And we're also getting ready to see the end of unemployment benefits. And both of those things are really going to affect Black and Latino workers, particularly those who are low income. So we know that Black and Latino people have lower rates of getting the vaccine. And there are a number of reasons for that, which I've discussed on your show.

They're more likely to get evicted. They have higher unemployment rates. They need the benefits more. So I have no idea why economists keep thinking that the story is getting better as the Delta variant spreads. We're coming into the winter season. This is the time where people need housing, they need benefits, and they need to be able to get back to work, have child care, and have transportation. And we're just not doing enough to make sure that those things happen. Questions from my panelists. Brittany, first your question for Dr. Brody. Sure. So I'm really curious about where Black women

specifically are faring in all of this. So we talk a lot about, obviously, when white America has the cold, black America has the flu, and I've obviously heard quite a bit about women specifically not being able to completely enter the workforce because of a lot of the child-rearing expectations and caring for children. So how do we make sense of the experiences of black women right now? Yeah, so if we look at Black women over the 13-month period, their average unemployment rate was 8.97 percent compared to 5.35 percent for white women. And so we know that Black women are overrepresented in jobs like cashiers and these caretaking jobs that are, again, essential, but put them at risk of getting COVID, which then puts their family at risk of getting COVID. So Black women, as has been the case throughout

history, have been taking care of this whole country. And we need to take care of them now. Question, Terraine, for Dr. Brody. Well, I just heard this morning that McDonald's in Oregon is starting to offer positions to youth as young as 14 years old. What impact is this economy and is this the job situation having on young people? And how far down are we willing to go to employ to get more employers into places? So I think it's great that McDonald's is doing that. Also, Walmart just announced that it's increasing the wage for some of its workers by a dollar an hour. But I think

the important thing is thinking about how do people get to work? Do they have transportation to get to the job? Do they know that the job exists? Because how do people find out about jobs? You find out on the Internet. Do they have Internet at home? Are they able to apply? Right? I mean, are they sharing one computer that mom is trying to use for work and the kids are trying to use for school? And even if so, do they have enough money to be able to get to work even, right? So I think that it's great that companies are saying that they're trying to recruit workers and that they're raising their wages slightly, but I'm just not sure that it's enough in our cases. Let's see here. Michael. All right, Dr. Brody. So going over this and

listen to the conversation here. So we saw that with African-American women, that we saw that hiring and retail and hospitality slowed down in this jobs report. And so that explained a lot of the increase in unemployment for African-American women. What explained the increase in unemployment for African-American men, one? And two, at the same time, there are millions of available jobs right now. OK, how do we navigate throughout this? All right. So I think it partially relates to travel. Right. So if you think about traveling, when people travel, they are the people that work at the concessions at the airport. They are the people that load the bags onto the airplane. They're more likely to be men than women. We think about just all of the things that go into travel.

Who cleans the hotel? Who is at the front desk of the hotel? Who drives the Uber or the cab to get you to the hotel? So we saw people really starting to travel when things opened up. Airlines said that people could sit in that middle seat. But then the Delta variant came, and people started to cancel their travel plans. And so who does that affect? It affects all the people that I just mentioned. And with the unemployment benefits ending, we're seeing labor force participation starting to increase.

People couldn't go to work because they didn't have child care, couldn't afford it. But now they're being forced to. They've got to figure out what to do with their children. They've got to figure out how to get to work if possible. And so with more people entering and not being able to find a job, even if jobs do exist, do the people that are looking for a job, do their skills match the jobs that are available? Can they get to those jobs? Do they know that the jobs exist? Like that sort of matching doesn't happen by magic. Right. Okay, thank you. Well, it is certainly

a whole lot to take in with these job numbers. We certainly appreciate breaking down. Unfortunately, when you watch these other networks, the black focus never actually happens, which is why we got to have our own. So, otherwise we wouldn't know any of these black numbers

because they definitely don't talk about it on these other networks. Exactly right, Roland. Thank you. Now we had our lower third that said Alabama A&M but you got this Alcorn State shirt? Yeah, you know I went to Alcorn. I worked at Alabama A&M. I loved it.

Underground, Alcorn, Grad, Jackson State. Gotta represent. I'm just saying, okay, and so first of all, we got about five titles for you. And so are you still a fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program? Yes, of course. Okay, you're doing that, but you're also at Alabama A&M, right? I'm on leave from Dillard. See, there you go.

See, I'm telling you. Girl, first of all, you making sure you're not going to be a part of the unemployment numbers. Because every time you come on, every time you come on, you're in a different joint. I try. You know, got to make it happen. I'm trying to be like you. I'm trying to make things happen. Oh, you know damn well I don't believe in having one check.

All right. Other Christian Brody, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. Let me go to Brody. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. Let me go to a break. We come back. But wait till we tell you about the craziness in Chicago where a police officer is accused of shoving his flashlight in the buttocks of a brother. Oh, but we're supposed to not hurt their feelings.

I keep telling y'all, keep your foot on they neck, otherwise they'll do stuff like this. You're watching RollerBock Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, back in a moment. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You gotta deal with it. It's injustice, it's wrong.

I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's going to happen. The same people who kept us in Afghanistan 18 years too long are criticizing our troops'

heroic work to bring the endless war to its end. One of the largest airlifts in American history moved more than 140,000 to safety under the most difficult circumstances, a feat the press and the critics said could not be done in a situation made more dangerous by Donald Trump. The fact is, Trump's team got rolled by the Taliban in their deal. Then Trump doubled down, ordering the release of 5,000 Taliban insurgents from prison,

including the commander who led the attacks that toppled the government. American veterans backed this president in getting the U.S. out of Afghanistan. We honor our sisters and brothers lost to the cause, including 13 in the mission's final days. And we respect a commander-in-chief whose own son served alongside us who

had the fortitude to do what the past three presidents did not he ended the endless war hey I'm Cupid the maker the Cupid shuffle and the wham dance going on this is Tobias Trevelyan if you ready you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Another black man in Texas dies of police custody. His family files a wrongful death lawsuit against the Texarkana Police Department to release Darren Boykin's 2019 arrest footage. 23-year-old Boykin was arrested because he was a suspect

in a string of petty thefts in the area. He's arrested and put in the police car driven by Officer Jerrica Weave. Yeah, you can turn over. It's easier if you sit up to breathe. I can't sit up. Do you guys need me to transport him back over to your guys' police car?

No, we're just gonna transport him. Mom! Two, five, three. Dude, he was gonna call his mom gonna transform. Yeah. H up. What's his name? Jai out the back. Thank you, the whole way from the nu your steps and that's for sure. She's tough. Can you please knock on my door right there? Oh this is your house? Behind me. Huh? Behind me. No. No. You're gonna be getting a phone call at some

point downtown. Jason, you can do that then. Oh my. If your family, listen to me, if your family wants to come out here and pitch a fit though. What are you saying his date of birth is? What's your date of birth? Eight five ninety-two. Eight five ninety-two. Okay. He ran all this way and then he acts like he can't. Stand up. Can't function. Stand up.

You can function. It's either you're standing up or you're dragging. Alright, cool. Come on. Let's drag him. I'm trying to get up. Hold hold on let me get my hands up you want to put them back to mine or you got one over here can you hey can you push the unlock button on my driver's side? Are you leading by yourself? Okay.

Do you have anything on that side? No. Do you have anything on that side? No. Do you have anything on that side? Is he lying about your name, Dave? Come on. All right, get in. All right. This is going to be your felony suspect, too.

Get in. I've seen the gun. He held me. I can't. Get in or I'm going to pull you in. You good? You good? You good?

You good? You good? You good? You good? You good? You good? You good? He held me, I can't. Get in or I'm going to pull you in. So, you good? During the 20-minute ride to the precinct, Boykin repeatedly tells Officer Jericho Weaver that he could not breathe. She believed he was doing what they call felony faint. It's not until Officer Weaver arrives at the police station she realizes something is wrong. The lawsuit

accuses Officers Weaver and Brent Hobbs and Sergeant William Scott of violating Boykin's civil rights by being deliberately indifferent to a medical crisis resulting in Boykin's death. An autopsy ruled that Boykin died of natural causes and notes complications of sickle cell trait. Terrain. You know, when your client tells you some of the things that the officers say to them when they're being arrested,

you don't want to believe them. And I'm just being honest about that, right? Because you want to believe that the officers are acting in the best interest of everyone. But what the introduction of body cameras have done for policing is shown us the indifference that they have when they are interacting with suspects who are still citizens. And they still are responsible for caring for them and making sure that they are treated appropriately. I mean, they are innocent until proven guilty. But these officers are out on the street acting as judge, jury and executioner. And when you watch this video and you watch it all the way through, through the car ride,

he's trying to tell her he can't breathe. And she doesn't even take the time to pull over to check on him. And she is so surprised when she finds out when she when she tries to get him out the car, she gets to the station. So the charges against her are appropriate. And like I said, this is a new day that, if you recall, when we first started talking about introducing body cameras and having officers wear them, officers were initially turning them off, forgetting to have them on at all. And now there's so many states that have laws that make it illegal and can charge officers with crimes for not having their body cameras on, because this is showing us what's really happening on the street, the complete indifference and the taunting

of these individuals who are still people with rights. So this video is incredibly upsetting, but the right thing is happening here in Texarkana. It is very hard to look at this, Brittany. And the reality is this here. You know, he's dead. And the man is telling you, but now they create, oh, felony faint? Felony faint. Roland, I mean, it's every week, per usual. I'm disgusted.

I'm disappointed. But I am never surprised. This is a constant and ongoing reality with policing and dealing with those who are sworn to protect and serve. And we know that the police, they're not serving us. They're not serving people of color. They're not serving working-class folks. They serve the ruling class, and they protect property, not life.

You know, as the report said, they were deliberately indifferent to a medical crisis. And how many times do we see police being deliberately indifferent? And it doesn't matter if it's someone who's been identified or classified as a criminal or if it's someone that's a young, sweet boy and violinist like Elijah McCain. We're not viewed as humans, right? Just by virtue of having black skin, we are not viewed as humans. And I always say this, but if this is what policing is, we do not need it. I'm really tired, just in general, of the entire concept of policing as it has existed and evolved, because it's not fair, it's not equitable, it's classist, it's racist. And we all know that getting arrested shouldn't be a death sentence, even if someone is involved in petty theft. Again, thinking about why someone

is involved in petty theft, right, and doing what they need to do to survive because they've been historically marginalized and not provided equal access. You don't stop crime by bloating police budgets and hiring more officers. You stop crime by providing access to resources and distribution of money and opportunities, right? And we know that the people who are doing the most serious of crimes never see time behind bars or very rarely do anyway. You know, it is just very difficult when we have to keep doing these stories, Michael. I mean, how hard is it? How hard is it if a prisoner is, excuse me, if someone is detained, if they are handcuffed and they're complaining, I cannot breathe, to pull over and double check? Exactly.

But see, that's what you do when you think that you're dealing with somebody who's a human being. That's what you do when you have somebody who, even though you suspect them of a crime, you still have compassion for their humanity. Okay. Here in this situation, it appears, and I haven't read all the details on it, but on the surface, it appears they had no compassion for his humanity and just deemed him as being guilty, okay, and not even respecting his humanity when he's telling them numerous times that he can't breathe. Then they use felony faint. I haven't heard this term before, felony faint. Now, I've heard excited delirium because that's what they tried to say that Elijah McClain died of,

excited delirium, which is the same thing they tried to say that George Floyd died of. But all three of them were fine before police started messing with them. Now, the question I have, and I haven't been able to find this, is they said they suspected that Boykin was responsible for a series of petty thefts and sought to take him into custody. But what was the probable cause? What was the probable cause here? I know you said he was running and things like this, but what was the probable cause to make you think he was responsible for a series of petty thefts? I'm still trying to find out that information. And that is the thing, Brittany, that again, every time we see one of these stories

and they come up, it's like the same thing. And the bottom line is having police officers who treat people with basic respect and dignity. I mean, and that's the problem, Roland, that they don't. They literally do not view us as human. And again, I mean, as a story, and just going back to the earliest iterations and forms of policing, it was that we weren't human, right? It was that we were property,

and it was to catch us and return us back to the owners of the property, right? And we truly haven't strayed very far from that. And again, we continue to see that policing is not grounded in protecting and serving. It is not grounded, it's certainly not grounded in protecting and serving black and brown people, impoverished people. It's oftentimes to protect the ruling class and to protect property, which is why we've seen several times the National Guard being mobilized, right, when property is damaged. But we certainly don't see any type of care whatsoever when black bodies are dying in custody. It's unfortunate. Again, it causes us to continue to re-examine this call

for defunding the police. All right, folks, let's go to Chicago. A Chicago police lieutenant has become the third member of the department to be arrested on felony charges in recent weeks. The Cook County State's Attorney Office alleges that Lieutenant Wilfredo Roman shoved a flashlight into the buttocks of a teenager carjacking suspect

in February. Roman appeared in court Thursday on aggravated battery and official misconduct charges and was released on his own recognizance. Earlier this week, two other officers were arrested in connection with another incident on similar charges. You know, Terrain, I don't recall seeing a statement from

the Fraternal Order of Police on this one. But here's the other deal. Where's the body camera footage? Exactly. Right. Exactly. Here's the body camera footage? Exactly. Right. Exactly. Where is the body camera footage?

Because if you read the story, the officer's attorney says it was a spanking. Come on. This was just a spanking. First of all, why is the cop spanking somebody? Hold on. I'm sorry. Hold up. Hold on.

Hold on. If it's a spanking, that's called assault. That is called an assault. But what is incredible to me goes back to what Brittany was saying. They don't see us as humans. Black and brown skin as being human. And so they just, they're going to spank you like a child. If you're a young man, they're going to just stick a baton in your rear and say, oh, it's okay because he had a coat on.

There's no justification for that. That's an assault. Entering someone's rectum, whether it is an attempted entry or it's an actual entry, that is assault, and it's a sexual assault. That's what we haven't gotten to yet. And they're trying to soft-shoe it, but there was no rhyme and no reason. And I'm wondering, where is the body cam footage? What is the justification for doing this? Because nothing about this alleged carjacking suspect

indicates that he needed to be searched in his rectum with a flashlight. Shades of Abner Luima, Michael. Absolutely. And, you know, reading the story here, it says the incident was captured on the officer's body camera. And so I want to know where the body camera for the year says it was captured. But then the attorney, then the officer's lawyer says that there was no injury to the team as he was clothed and wearing a coat during the alleged incident. But still, it's like you don't have to actually steal something out of somebody's house.

Just breaking into the house is a crime. You don't actually have to, like, steal something out of the house. So, you know, this officer needs to be held accountable. I want to see the statement from the Fraternal Order of Police. I know they're going to put one out eventually. So, you know, this is a crazy case, man, out of Chicago. But this is an example why these officers have to be held accountable. And they need to release this body camera footage as well.

So this is another crazy story, man. But at the same time, with these various cases taking place, people who want—at the same time, many of us are going to have to apply to these police departments and be the type of officers that we want to see as well. As they weed out people like this, as they weed out these white supremacist officers, things like this, many of us are going to have to apply to these departments and be the type of police officers who serve and protect that we want to see also. Well, it is absolutely crazy when you see these stories in California. The Beverly Hills Police Department is hit with a lawsuit claiming its officers arrest black people disproportionately. The complaint centers on the police department's Operation Safe Streets initiative. The suit claims that between March 2020 and July 2021, the task force made 106 arrests, 105 of them black. Beverly Hills Police Department issued a statement

that says the following. The women and men of BHPD take an oath to protect human life and enforce the law regardless of race. Any violation of this pledge is contrary to the values of this department. We take all concerns regarding the conduct of our officers very seriously.

That's it. I'm just saying, Police Chief Dominic Rivetti of Terrain, 106 people arrested. 105 black. I don't know if you are. I mean, that's a hell of a ratio.

So, if you recall, in 1992, at the start of the riots in Los Angeles, the officers didn't swarm to South Central where the majority of the destruction and the violence was happening against people in our community. They swarmed to the west side of Los Angeles, and they pretty much laid a boundary protecting Beverly Hills and that west side of Los Angeles. And they wouldn't let people cross over into there because they wanted to protect those stores and protect that property. The same thing is happening here. They see people of color and they assume that we can't afford to be there. They assume that we're there to commit crimes. And they have these task

force out there that have these alleged probable cause for stopping people and these petty offenses when there are people committing real crimes. And it's just outrageous. And so it goes back to that point about officers being there to protect and to serve. Who are they there to protect and to serve? And it doesn't feel like it's us. And I've said repeatedly that this is going to continue until we require that police officers live in the communities that they serve. Because as long as they continue to come into our communities and police us, then it's as if they're at war with our community. And that's what's happening across the nation. Brittany.

I just need, I need an explanation because that wasn't it. Like that really was not it. And I think this goes back to the comment that I always make when we talk about policing and just echoing comments earlier. This is about protecting property and protecting the white and wealthy. It's never been about protecting. They are not interested in protecting black and protecting the white and wealthy. It's never been about protecting. They are not interested in protecting black and brown community members. We know that in inner-city communities it takes the police three times longer to arrive. It is not about protecting us. It is not about protecting the working class. They care about protecting property and the white and

the wealthy. It's the policing, literally, we think about Rodeo Drive, it's the policing of what they believe should be a whites-only area. And we may have removed the signs that they white only, but quite frankly, we know that there are certain spaces that they solely do not want us. There's no other way to explain this.

Clearly, they can't even begin to explain it, right? The statement that they put out doesn't make any sense and doesn't explain why this would happen because it's not explainable. And I wonder at what point we are really going to continue to consider policing, you know, as it exists because it is not for us.

Yeah, listen to that statement. I'm sitting there going, really? That's the best y'all can do, Michael? That's when you know you've been had. They can't say anything else without incriminating themselves. So they put out that blanket statement,

okay, and they just hope this case blows over. But you got Benjamin Crump and Attorney Bradley Gage who filed this class action lawsuit. And what's interesting is Attorney Gage told the Washington Post if 2% of the residents of Beverly Hills are black, but almost 100% of the rest are black, that's a pretty clear indication something's wrong.

So they can't defend this. 105 out of 106, okay? So this goes to implicit bias. This goes to racial profiling probably as well. But the attorney here on the panel, Attorney Terrain, hit on something that I talked about in the previous segment. And we've talked about this before. Police have to live in the communities that they police. They have to come from those communities. Because when you do that, and this is why I say it, at the end of the day, many of us are going to have to apply to the police department and become the type of officers that we want to see and who serve and protect, who come from those communities, who are their protected communities, not come from outside, who are there to occupy the community and see those people as subhuman. OK, so, you know, I'm glad this lawsuit is being filed. This is a number of significant lawsuits that Benjamin Crump has filed in the past couple of months, one against Johnson & Johnson, dealing with baby powder and them targeting African-American women, marketing the Johnson baby powder to African-American women after it was linked to cancer. And then there's another one, a significant one he just filed as well.

I forgot the other one also, but you know, this is, this is a good news, but this is why you have to have a police reform as well. Make them pay, make them pay. All right, y'all going to break. We come back. We're going to talk COVID. Yeah. It's still a significant impact all across this country. You're watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the black Star Network. Back in a moment. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't, and Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares.

I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ Magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down.

It took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they make these about 47 different colors and so I love them because again as men we don't have many accessories to wear so we don't have many options and so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen and what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket you know it gives you that flower effect like that but But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so therefore it gives me a different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is

go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website, and you can actually get this. Now, for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool.

So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer. She actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And of course, it goes to support the show. And again, if you're a Bring the Funk

fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. I'm Bill Duke. This is DeOlla Riddle, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. August was a deadly month for those battling COVID, folks. Last month saw 4.22 million new reported cases and 26,805 Americans dead from the virus. The combination of the Delta variant and the unvaccinated is causing numbers to skyrocket. Presently, there are 40.5 million reported cases and 662,000 people who have died. These states have the highest reported number of cases.

Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oregon, Washington, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Florida reported 4,900 deaths in August, the highest ever for the state. While cases are rising in Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, he's issued an order of fining $5,000 to any entity requiring vaccination proof. Florida has 3.2 million reported

cases, and a total of 44,000 people have actually died. I don't... What I don't understand, Brittany, is how stupid these people are. I mean, you see the numbers, but they are so hell-bent on appealing to this rabid minority of nutcases who are MAGA supporters. It's wild, Roland. And it's unfortunate, again, I mean, this is the party and this is a governor who continues to put politics over people, literally, and some of his own constituents,

which is wild to me, right? And like you mentioned, we know that this is happening because he wants to appeal to the MAGA base, and he's ultimately motivated by running for president in 2024. But what I think is really important here is that he needs to get reelected as governor in 2022 first. And from the last thing that I've seen, his poll numbers are significantly down. They were down after he kept trying to defund the schools, which was a wildly unpopular concept. So it's just interesting to watch him kind of, at first he was backtracking in the way that he was trying to defund the schools, and now he doesn't want to have vaccination cards going. And it's truly mind-blowing, again,

because this is all about politics and not anything to do with the health of the people that he is supposed to be serving. It's absolutely nuts. Duran, a Florida chiropractor that signs over 500 mask exemptions for students. Yeah, a chiropractor. A chiropractor.

Sarasota County School District issued a mask mandate enforcing students to wear a mask unless they have a medical, physical, or psychological reason. Well, Dan Bush, a chiropractor in Venice, Florida, signed nearly 13 of the exemption forms in the district. After the increase in exemption forms, the superintendent of Sarasota County Schools issued an update stating only medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, licensed,

or advanced registered nurse practitioners can authorize exemptions. Florida has some of the highest COVID cases, as we said, in the nation. Really? A chiropractor? Terrain, go ahead. This is where it gets complicated with that school district because they allow chiropractors to complete medical examinations of students to even enroll in school. So you can't ride two horses with one butt on that one. So either you're going to accept the chiropractor for their medical evaluations or you're not.

So they're going to have to do something a little bit more creative. I don't think that this is going to stand. As I read the article and I did some research, it looks like they're trying to have those families go back and get new forms completed by doctors and by nurses that they consider medical providers. But under the state statute, chiropractors are in that category as well. So. But it's ridiculous that people can just go pick up a form and the doctor can evaluate it. Just. It's a clear circum,

they're clearly circumventing the rule. A chiropractor. A chiropractor. Let's go to South Carolina, South Carolina. You know, these people are chiropractors, they have very good friends who are chiropractors. Yeah, yeah, but they damn sure ain't no medical doctors. Trust me.

If I got an allergy problem, I'm not going to a chiropractor. I'm going to go to an allergy doctor. I'm just saying. All right, Michael. South Carolina Supreme Court bans Columbia's public school mask mandate. In August, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin announced the mandate to protect school-age children who are not eligible for the vaccine yesterday. The state's highest court unanimously voted

against the measure, stating the mandate violates state law restricting masks in schools. There are 4,076 reported cases among students and 398 reported cases among staff in South Carolina. Sure, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster tweeted this response to the court's decision.

The South Carolina Supreme Court has come to a sound conclusion based on the rule of law. A parent's right to decide what's best for their child is now definitively protected by state law. A parent's right to decide what's best for their child is now definitively protected by state law. I would again encourage anyone eligible to receive the vaccine to get vaccinated. You know,

so, there's a couple things here, Roland. First of all, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union. OK. And South Carolina is where the Civil War started. You see the dumbest cases in the South. These former Confederate states who are anti-government until they need help from the federal government. They're anti-federal government until they need help from the federal government. Till a hurricane hits or there's some type of national disaster. Or their budget.

Or their budget. okay? Then they need help from the federal government. When it's the law, I don't know what year that law was made when they said it's children can't wear masks in schools, okay? What type of mask are you talking about? What was taking place? But at the same time, they need to pass an emergency law because what's going to happen is that COVID is going to spread through these schools in South Carolina. We already saw in Mississippi, thousands of, the last report I saw was about 20,000 students had to be sent home because of possible exposure to COVID. They had to be sent home to quarantine. That's in Mississippi. We see it in Metro Atlanta, okay,

Metropolitan Atlanta. We're gonna see it in South Carolina as well. So this is another example of, in these Southern, these former Confederate States, them not wanting to protect their constituents. And it's gonna really hurt them in the 2022 midterm elections, because it's gonna be less of their supporters alive 2022 midterm elections because it's going to be less

of their supporters alive. It's going to be less of their supporters alive. But this is a crazy case right here. And lastly, they're talking about get vaccines, right? Well, children under 12 are not authorized for the vaccine. Well, also keep in mind, this is the same governor who said he would not allow President Joe Biden to send people door to door to encourage folks to get vaccines. I just I just can't deal with that. I'm stupid. Can't I can't deal with stupid. All right. Yeah. Speaking of stupid, let's go to Arkansas, where inmates claim they were unknowingly given the anti parasitic drug. Mermectin to for covid infections. Now, the inmates,

I'm sorry, Ivermedicine, sorry. Ivermectin, I'm sorry. The inmates believe they were used as guinea pigs to see how the drug worked on humans. They say officials did not disclose what medications they would be taking. Now, jail officials say the inmates were aware, and Ivermedicine

administered voluntarily. First of all, y'all, what is Ivermedicine? Ivermectin, I'm sorry. It's an anti-parasitic agent used in small doses to treat and prevent parasite infestations in humans like, oh, you know, head lice, scabs, mites, liver blindness. Mm-hmm. Got it. Y'all actually buying that?

The drug is commonly used in horses and cows for parasite infections like heartworms. Yeah. Animal, yeah. Uh-huh. I ain't buying that one, Terrain. Oh, no, they knew.

Come on, now. Come on. In fact, come on now. Come on. In fact, the doctor was administering it. You know he ain't tell nobody. What's interesting is that the company that the jail was relying on, there's a financial incentive here. The first time I heard about this drug was when

I used to own a horse, and we needed to use that medication for my animal, but not for humans. And when Arkansas is one of the states that has a prisoner's bill of rights and has an inmate handbook so that the inmates and their rights are outlined for them and they have the right to be told what they're given. This is truly very reminiscent of the Tuskegee experiment where you give someone something, you say, OK, let's see what's happening. But according to the officials there, they said they've been using this drug to treat COVID in their jail since 2020. And we're just now learning

about it. So I know the ACLU is looking into that to see how many prisoners have been, how many inmates have been given that drug and whether or not they were fully informed about what it was and fully gave their consent. But this is ridiculous. I mean, everyone from top to bottom that has any type of credibility is saying, do not use this drug. This is akin to giving someone bleach for COVID. I mean, the stupidity level with COVID is beyond belief here. Brittany? Yeah. I mean, it's unfortunate.

I mean, it's as if these inmates, you know, are not humans, right? It's as soon as you get tied up in the criminal justice system, your humanity is completely removed. And it does seem reminiscent of the Tuskegee experiment, but it's also reminiscent of, just in general, America's history on testing on those that they deem as less than human. I mean, our current, you know, several things within our medical system exist today because of tests put on people that were deemed less than human. I wish I could say I'm surprised they got a great lawsuit on their hands. Yeah, I think so, Michael? Yeah, it sounds like a lawsuit, but also, you know, the FDA doing with ivermectin

says that an overdose of ivermectin can lead to seizures, comas, and death. Well, that's the CDC that said that. So I wonder, in treating this, using this in the jail and without notifying the inmates that they were using this. Did anybody die? Did anybody go into a coma? Were there any seizures from this? You know, what happened when you gave it to them?

To my understanding, no, but thank goodness. Yeah. Thank goodness. Yeah, so, you know, this is you know, this is a But thank goodness. Yeah. Thank goodness. Yeah. So, you know, this is a history. We've talked about this before on this show. There's a history of experiments being done on African-Americans, whether it's in the military, whether it's in the military, whether it's going back during slavery with J. Marion Sims, who was known as the father of modern gynecology and experiments he did on enslaved African women without anesthesia.

So this is a troubling case, man. So, you know, people need to be held accountable. Absolutely. All right, folks, real quick break. We come back. We're going to talk Education Matters. That's right. Sister, she wins the

school board seat in Birmingham. That's a city they are not too particularly pleased with. Charter schools, yeah, but she beat an incumbent. We'll talk about education in the Black Belt in Alabama next on World with Martin Unfiltered on

the Black Star Network. When you study the music, you get black history by default. And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create whatever I'm supposed to send out to the universe. A rapper, you know, for the longest period of time, has gone through phases. I love the word.

I hate what it's become, you know, and to this generation, the way they visualize it. Its narrative kind of like has gotten away and spun away from, I guess, the ascension of black people. Black women have always been essential. So now how are you going to pay us like that and it's not just that the salary, I mean there are a whole number of issues that have to support us as women, yeah, that's what we deserve that we should have to

beg anybody for that. I think that we are trying to do our best as a generation to honor the fact that we didn't come here alone and we didn't come here by accident. I always say every generation has to define for itself what it means to move the needle forward. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond. needle forward. All right, folks. I make no bones about my support of charter schools. In fact, I support any education effort that educates our children.

Y'all know where I stand. I'm down with charter schools, home school, online school, technical schools, magnet schools, private school, you name it. It does not matter to me as long as our kids are getting a shot at a future. A few years ago, I was in Birmingham, and actually Montgomery as well,

talking about the importance of charter schools shortly after the law was changed in that state. Well, in August in Birmingham, my next guest defeated a city school board incumbent with regards to being on the school board. Now, when we talk about that again, because you all have heard me talk about this on this show on many occasions, the importance of when we run for school boards. A lot of people don't want to do that, and a lot of folks then wonder, how do we actually change things? So, when you actually run and you win, you get to impact public policy. A lot of people don't realize that a school board race is not a lot of folks vote. Well, folks did vote in this race, so joining us right now is Neonti Williams. She won with 56% of the vote

for District 2 there in Birmingham. What's happening? What's up? We did it, Joe! So, you worked with Dr. Howard Fuller and Bayo, Black Alliance for Education Options. You were very much involved there

in efforts to expand school choice, parental choice in Alabama. Birmingham, you had a lot of folks who were saying no, no, no, no. Sounds to me like folks bought your message about how to think differently about educating our children in Birmingham. Oh, yeah. Yeah, most definitely. You know what, Roland? We just went out with a platform that was very strategic and intentional. My platform was parents, policy and partnerships.

We were very consistent and concise on the messaging. It was clear our current school board is reporting that our students are two and three grade levels behind, and families know that it's absolutely unacceptable, and we could not continue to do the same thing that we've been doing in years past. So, you know, they not only bought into what we were talking about, but they knew what needed to be done. So I'm grateful that they showed up at the polls. And like I said, you know, we did it, Joe. So not only did Birmingham City Schools in District 2 win, but the entire city of Birmingham won on August the 24th.

You said two and three grade levels behind? Yes. Yes. And this is pre-COVID. This is pre-COVID. So, the question is, you laid the message out, what do you hope to change and impact in Birmingham?

So, my primary goal is increasing parental engagement and involvement. We started that with Bayo some years ago, and I really feel like there's not enough transparency with parents from the district level about exactly where and how children are performing. Recently, over the summer months, we had 2,700, 3,700 students participate in the summer enrichment programs, but we have 23,000 students in Birmingham City Schools. So if you don't get the whole number, that sounds like a lot of

students participated, but not enough. And so what parents are doing is they're looking at report cards when they come home. They see that their students are making either A through F grades. The students are being passed along, but they do not understand exactly where this places them academically in terms of being college and or career ready. And so the first thing we have to do is sit down and have what I intend to call huddles. I'm a sports person and be extremely transparent with parents to let them know where their children are performing. You know, and from a policy standpoint, you know, letting our school leaders know we have two laws. Obviously, the charter school legislation that was passed in 2015.

But in 2013, we passed the Alabama Accountability Act that gives flexibility and autonomy to current school leaders to to operate their schools based on how their schools and their community need it. And so, I mean, Birmingham won by having someone like myself and others being elected because we know policy and we can help now implement policy that can close this academic gap. I mentioned going to Birmingham, Montgomery. I forgot I also went to Selma. And I remember, and I think you were there in Selma as well, I remember the conversation where there was a sister. And and in fact, what I'm going to do, I'm going to go pull that video up. I'm going to make sure that we put it on Black Star Network

so people can actually see what we talked about. There was a sister who was the first black female athletic director at Division I-A school who was on one of the panels. And she said, this is what she said. She said that your score, your student scores and grades are so poor in Selma that I would not send my scouts to even recruit your athletes. Because they would not be able to make the grade to qualify for NCAA. Yeah. And, you know, that's interesting that you bring up sports because in addition to working with Bayo, what really turned on the lights for me, I referee women's college basketball, Division I. And I started out on, of course, the middle school, high school level, and I grew to Division

II, III, and I. And as a former student athlete, I'm seeing these great athletes in high school, but I'm not seeing these students in college. And so when I started to do the research, that's where I too learned that our students are not meeting the grade level, the requirements. They couldn't make the ACT score. They're not, you know, back then we had what was called an exit exam that was based on an eighth grade level that students did not take until their 10th grade year in high school with six opportunities, twice sophomore, junior and senior. And these students could not pass the exit exam.

And so at this point, the system decided, the state decided that they would remove the exit exam because so many children were actually not getting to graduate. And so parents were in uproar and again, not understanding why their child was not able to graduate. And it was based on an exit exam. So we removed the exit exam. And now all we require is that students take the ACT, not have a specific score, but just take the ACT. And so what we've created is a system of perpetual poverty because we're at home saying, go to college, go to college, and students enroll, but they're starting out in remedial courses. And I'm an HBCU grad, so we have welcome in arms. We're receiving students. But where you're in college, professors are prepared to deal with college-ready

students, where in fact they're dealing with eighth graders and ninth graders because this is the grade level that they are inheriting students on. And it's unfair. And so someone has to sound the alarm to say enough is enough. And so Birmingham, they made it loud and clear on August the 24th. Let's go to my panel for questions. I will start with Brittany. Well, first off, congratulations. Congratulations. But I do have a question. So charter schools, we know, were initially created to be innovative. And I, too, absolutely believe that school should not be a one size fit all. And I too absolutely believe that school should not be a one size fit all. But I'm also someone who has worked in a failing charter school. So we've seen, you know, for example, the charter school that I was working in was a charter school

where we saw people with really great intentions, but they had absolutely no background in education. And essentially in that flexibility and autonomy that they had with completely no real oversight, the school essentially ended up being an experiment for, you know, I would say about five different grade levels. And the school ended up closing. And a lot of those kids actually ended up going backwards. So as someone who was a proponent of charter schools, my question is, how do you address allowing students to be, you know, allowing these schools to be, quote unquote, innovative, but also making sure that they are still in that innovation, hitting those markers and allowing those students to be successful and ready for college. So Alabama law, like many of the other states, we were the 43rd state to pass charter school

legislation. So we had 42 other states to look at. When you look at the national statistics, they're telling us that our charter school law is the best law, probably because we are the last state to institute the law. But when we talk about the level of accountability, the biggest thing is making certain that we only bring quality schools or allow quality schools to come to the state of Alabama. The alternative has been 67 schools on the failing schools list in the state of Alabama, and all it is is a list. And so when parents don't have a choice, they don't have an option, and so they have to send those children to those schools. You know, we have to have some other alternatives. While I am a proponent of charters and I do support it, I actually help

write the charter school legislation for Alabama, I do not think that is the law that is going to help us close the academic gap. I think it is the Alabama Accountability Act that gives the autonomy and flexibility to our current schools and our current school leaders to do what they need to do. When we're in conversation with our current leaders, they are talking about we know what we need. We know, you know, we know what resources need to be made available to us. But the truth of the matter is we did not have a strong board. We did not have a board that was willing to be confident enough to make the decisions and be unapologetic about it. You know, there's a mass exodus leaving the city of Birmingham and Birmingham City Schools.

And so in order for us to be in sync, we have to do something. So, you know, I think that holding that high level of accountability for charters is extremely important, but we have to hold that high level of accountability for our traditional public school system as well. And here's my whole deal. I don't believe in having janky charter schools. If they ain't doing the job, shut their asses down. But I believe the exact same thing

with traditional schools. See, I think doing the job, shut their asses down. But I believe the exact same thing with traditional schools. I think that for me, Michael, is the problem whenever we have this conversation. I ain't down for no failure. And one of the things that I've tried to do as I've traveled the country, and Neontay was there. This is exactly what

I said. I said, we need to be ensuring, and you know this from some of the jacked up ass schools in Detroit. We need to be in. No, I'm serious. I said we need to be. And also the jacked up efforts by Betsy DeVos and others when it came to charters. This is what I have preached literally in Selma, in Montgomery, in Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis, Philadelphia, in Colorado, all around the country. I've said we need to be ensuring that when a charter school, before a charter school

opens, before they open, sound board, sound management, sound curriculum, and all of that. I said properly vet them so they are set up for success the day they open as opposed to these fly-by-night con artists who are trying to make a quick buck. Michael, go ahead. Yeah, and we've seen a lot of that here in Detroit also with charter schools, some successful, some— Hell, yeah, but you see some con artists with traditional schools. Oh, yeah, I agree

with that. I mean, folks who are in prison right now for embezzling millions of dollars, but go ahead. Right. Well, criminals usually go to where the money is. So, you know, I agree with that. It's on both sides. It's on both sides. And clueless Betsy DeVos was from the state of Michigan as well.

Okay? Just so people who don't know that know that we knew about her long before she became secretary of miseducation under Trump. But for Neontay Williams, one, congratulations on your win. Two, I'm sure your source of Delta Sigma Theta are proud of you. But the question I had is with all the challenges that are taking place in the state of Alabama as far as education, we know they have one of the lowest. They one of the lowest. They rate low when it comes to educational attainment as well in the nation. For this school year, for this school year, what is it that you want to see implemented to try to start turning things around? We know we're not going to solve all the problems in one school year, but for this particular school year, what do you want to see implemented to start making progress and reversing these trends that we're talking about?

Yes. You know, it goes back to me, to parents. Like, I think that that is the large, I've been a parent advocate for a very long time. And it's like too often things have been done for us and not with us. And so when I say us, I'm speaking about the community and those that are most impacted by it. And so we have got to bring parents on board. That's the only way that we can. I think what it would take four years to do, we can do in two years if we are honest with our parents, if we are intentional and create opportunities. You know, we have leaders that will say, well, we want parents to come to the school. We want parents to be involved. Parents show up and then there's the mean secretary saying, can I help you?

Looking over the frame of her lenses, you're not really there and transparent. And so I really, I just think, you know, without a doubt. And I'll tell you the other thing that made me say, we've got to do something different was the response to what happened with COVID. You know, last year, of course, no one was prepared. No one was prepared for a pandemic. But I felt like from an educational standpoint, we reacted as opposed to responding. We should have already had partnerships with people in the community, from our faith-based community to the business community. They have, you know, beautiful emphasis. They have facilities. We should have created safe spaces. We should have put school buses in neighborhoods, took out every other seat, created hot spots,

because there are a lot of grandparents and great-grandparents that are rearing children today. A lot of the parents who are frontline workers, they work in the restaurants, they work in the hospitals, the hotels, the places that our state leaders deemed as, you know, places of necessity. And so, you know, we did not do a good job. And so the biggest thing is letting parents know that they matter. And for people who aren't typically involved in the grassroots work and understanding the importance of parental engagement, they minimize that a lot. And that's part of the problem. We don't respect the voices of those households that those children are coming from. And then the other thing is, you know, these parents are a product of this system that we're trying to fix. So we know how things are. So we can't pull wool over their eyes.

Terrain. Okay, thank you. Question for Deontay. Congratulations. This win is huge. This is so huge. Birmingham, Alabama is over 70% African American, over 70% black. So looking at that number, this is largely important to our community. So for those who aren't parents but who are interested in helping close the achievement gap in Birmingham, how do you plan to get them involved? So, great question. One of the things, again, for me, it was parents, policy, partnerships,

the partnership piece. I ran during the canvassing, the door knocking, the phone banking, you know, thousands of folks who talked about wanting to be a support of Birmingham City Schools, those that are professionals, retired professionals. I even met folks who were educators that retired early because they wanted to do something different. They were kind of forced out, didn't really like how things were working, but create those opportunities for those folks to come back.

I know in District 2, we only have elementary and middle schools. And even going back to Michael's question, one of the things that I think we need to do is talk about equity on a very serious level. We have what we call academies in our school system here, but the academies are career opportunities, but they're only at specific schools. In terms of equity, we need to have those academies available to every single student that is within the high school system. So if it's welding, if it's cosmetology, if it's culinary arts, and those are some of the things that they

offer through the academy, it's only in certain areas. And so if a student is not in that area, then, or doesn't live in that community, they're unable to attend those schools. We have a lot of empty buildings here. So, you know, my goal is that we can work together as a board to create centralized locations where those students can be bused into those sites. And from an equity standpoint, that every student that wants to participate can participate. And the other thing is, you know, starting those academy at the middle school level. We have such a high dropout rate. I think if we can early expose to college and career paths, starting with those academies at the middle school, then the

students will be more likely to stay in school and finish and enter into a career path of their choice. But again, allowing those folks to come back to the community, come back into the schools, create partnerships. And that's it. You know, just parents policy partnerships. I have a ton of things. And I know it's going to take the other eight board members for us to work together, as well as the superintendent. But there's a different atmosphere here in Birmingham. This was indeed historic. We've never had an African American female represent this district in the history of Birmingham City Schools, where 97 percent of the students in Birmingham City Schools

are African-American. And so that in itself is incredibly necessary for these young children to see someone that looks like them, that understand and speak the language that they speak. I will be in Birmingham next month for the Magic City Classic, and so look forward to seeing you there. And so also look forward to hearing some great things what's happening there,

because again, we've got a lot of black folks in Birmingham, a lot of black folks in the black belt of Alabama, and education is vitally important, and we cannot, we cannot be in a situation where we're making excuses for our kids not getting education.

And let me say this here. We also can't make excuses when we are living in black cities with majority black elected officials and our school system still being in shambles. And so Certainly look forward to that. Your superintendent, I met her when I was there

a couple years ago. Good luck. Thanks, Rowan. I appreciate it. If you're not a member of Join the Funk Fan Club, you have got to, Rowan. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be able to be as informed as we are to have the messages that we're getting out. And so thank you, your panel, for your integrity,

because we are listening. The world is listening. And you mean a lot. Congratulations on the new app that's already downloaded. All three of my phones got it. So I'm all in. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks a lot. Folks, it has been a pretty wild 24 hours since we announced the launch of Black Star Network. Folks have been. So what happens is, you know, I get alerts on my phone when when every person who who joins. And so literally I'm sitting here and I'm just scrolling up and I'm just in all these different people are sitting here. You see the announcement of folks who are joining and we certainly appreciate that. So here are the platforms that we are on. And so, as we said, we are on Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Amazon TV. We are on, again, drop it low. There we go. We are on Samsung Smart TV, Xbox, Roku, all of those platforms. Download it to your phone as well. You can see the show on the app as well. We're still live streaming on YouTube, on Facebook, on Instagram as well. Then, of course,

we have our social media. We're on all social media platforms. Let's show that, please. You can catch us on Twitter, catch us on Instagram, Facebook as well. I have not set up the I think, no, I think we're also on TikTok, too. So we're on all of those different platforms. And so, you know, it has

been quite the busy 24 hours in. Hopefully next week, hopefully next week, Terrain, Brittany, and Michael, I will then be able to unveil, folks, our studio. We got it completely done. Our set piece is going to be constructed next week. Green screen is already in here. We're going to finish the set here,

hang all the black art that we have up in here and all the LED lights. We got a lot of stuff we got to do. Y'all are going to have a great Labor Day weekend. Let's see here. Brittany, what are your plans? That's a great question. Just spending some quality time with my folks.

For real. Barbecuing. You know. Chilling. I love it. You barbecuing or someone else barbecuing? Somebody else's barbecuing. Oh, somebody else's barbecue. Oh, yeah, I thought so. Let me enjoy myself. Yeah, I thought so.

All right, Michael? Well, Roland, I'm teaching two online classes dealing with history this weekend. One on Saturday dealing with understanding the transatlantic slave trade. And Sunday dealing with history from the end of the Civil War through 1968. So people can visit my website, AfricanHistoryNetwork.com, for more information. But that's what I'm doing this weekend, and I'm taking Monday off. I'm not doing my radio show Monday, so I'm going to try to get as much sleep as I can because I am sleep-deprived. Terrain, what you doing?

Trying to enjoy these last few days of summer like Brittany catching up with some much needed barbecue and some family fun and friends. Alright, well, I ain't going no damn where. I'm playing golf this weekend, relaxing. We don't have a live show on Monday, which is Labor Day, because it's Labor Day. But we

of course are going to be, I'll be leaving for Nashville on Tuesday, so I'll be broadcasting Roland Martin Unfiltered from Nashville on Tuesday. Of course, I'm a scholar in residence at Fisk University. I'll be giving my first lecture at Fisk on Wednesday. And so I'll be broadcasting from there on Tuesday and Wednesday. And so look forward to that. And also interacting with the students, faculty, and staff at Fisk

and having some of those students. See, let me explain to y'all what we do. So I don't play games when it comes to when I go places. I put folks through the paces, and so the students at Fisk will be helping me with the show, and they're gonna be learning real time how to actually do production and broadcast a show. And so y'all better get ready,

because I don't play. Other people, they teach. Oh, we teach, but we teach you for real. So, look forward to Professor Uncle Roro dropping on the campus and just letting y'all know, I don't play.

Just letting y'all know. I'm giving your hands up. If y'all want to support our Breana Funk fan club, please do so. Every dollar you give goes to support the show. We've had some fantastic support, man, the last 24 hours, folks. We're giving, again, every dollar you give goes to support what we do. Cash app is Dallas at RM Unfiltered.

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RowlandSMartin.com, Rowland at RowlandMartinUnfiltered.com. And we have, let's see here. I'm going to see if I can read this real quick. Shout out to Tommy Williams, Billy Buck, Farrah, Deborah Elaine, Corey Jackson, Thanesha, Daryl Lavelle, Kevin Lindquist, Willie Jackson, Jordan McBride, Ronald McGee, Clarissa Lane, Debra Montgomery, Monica, George Hamilton, Cassandra Galloway, James McBride, Ned Murray, Marquise Reed, Sherry Ruffin, Tim Roddy, Alicia Benjamin, let's see here, Rob Parlow, Michael Addison, Barbara Foster, Otis Lasky, Landria Jordan, Sharna Washington,

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B. Nicole Catherick, Katrina McWashington, Bryant Jones, Elena Baltimore, all of y'all who have contributed to the show in the past 72 hours. We're always in the show running the list of our members of the Bring the Funk fan club. That's what we got right there. If you don't see your name, send us an email. We'll get you on the list. Folks, I'll see y'all on Tuesday.

Have a fantastic Labor Day weekend. Mask up. Wash your hands. Sanitizer. Also practice social distancing. We want you to stay safe and get your vaccine. If you have not, I'll see y'all on Tuesday. I also shout out the Black Brilliance for the T-shirt. I appreciate it. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves.

Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.