#RolandMartinUnfiltered - State Of The People Power Tour, Trump baby boom, Jackson Mayor defeated, Rep. Green responds to slur

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

4.23.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: State Of The People Power Tour, Trump baby boom, Jackson Mayor defeated, Rep. Green responds to slur We'll talk to the State Of The People Power Tour organizers about their plan to reenergize voters across the country. The U.S. fertility rate has been declining for decades. Now, the Trump Administration is proposing a controversial idea to encourage women to have more children. We'll speak with the founder of Viola's House, an organization that helps women with unplanned pregnancies,  about the proposed plan. Tennessee State University is making history as the first HBCU to launch an ice hockey program at the collegiate level. The Nashville-based team will play this fall, and the head coach will be here to discuss the upcoming season.  Jackson, Mississippi's incumbent Mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, suffered a crushing defeat in Tuesday's run-off.  The founder of a California organization pushing to dismantle systemic racism in America will explain how their work is more important than ever.  Texas Representative Al Green responds to being called a "boy" by a white Tennessee Congresswoman.   #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. you there? No, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. 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. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, folks, today is Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025. Coming up, Roland Martin on filter streaming live with the Black Star Network, a group of activists, political operatives, media folks are starting a 10-city tour

called The State of Our People this weekend in Atlanta. We'll talk to three of the folks involved, Angela Rye, Gary Chambers Jr., and Tamika Mallory about the purpose of this tour and what they hope to accomplish. Also, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin announced he is stepping down. The question is, will an African-American be the next U.S. senator from Illinois? Also, Congressman Al Green responds to a white Republican calling him a boy. Also on today's show, we'll talk with the California organization that's trying to end systemic racism. Also, Tennessee State is launching the first hockey team at an HBCU.

We'll talk to the coach involved in that. And Elon Musk, Washington, D.C. Maybe has to do with his stock price being down big time and them not selling lots of cars. Chokwe Lumumba loses the mayoral runoff in Jackson, Mississippi. We'll tell you about that as well. Plus, Trump administration. These white folks want to desperately increase the U.S. fertilization rate.

Black people, that ain't got nothing to do with us. It is all about white people having kids. I will unpack it. It's time to bring the funk on Rolling Rock Unfiltered. On the Black Star Network, let's go. He's got 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 rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's on go-go-royale It's rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martel Martel In the last election, a lot of Black folks picked the couch over participating in the election. We've seen a big drop off in the last five elections of Black turnout. Not only that, you see changing focus of millennials in Gen Z and, of course, the upcoming Generation Alpha compared to Gen X and baby boomers. So what you're seeing right now in Black America is really a state of flux. So the question is, a lot of people are saying, where do we go? How do we move forward? What is the next step? Well, this weekend in Atlanta,

a 10-city tour is kicking off called the State of the People Power Tour. Focus is to not just get African-Americans to focus on the issue of voting, but also the issue that men in our community, how do we teach and get people to understand that they have power even if they don't believe so. Joining us right now is the co-host of the Native Land Pod, Angela Rye. We have the co-founder of Until Freedom to become Mallory. And, of course, Louisiana activist Gary Chambers Jr. Glad to have all three of y'all on the show. First off, Angela, this tour, how did it come about? How did it start?

How did it even just rise up from an idea to actuality? Thank you, Roland, for having us, dear brother. We're so grateful. We can't wait to see you on this tour. I hope that you will join us on one of the many stops. As you know, we did a State of the People marathon that took place the same night as Donald Trump's joint address, and hundreds of people, Black folks from all over the country, from NAACP, LDF, to Untold Freedom, to Ibram Kendi and the Emancipator, all came together to give

and provide our community content for 24 hours. And when we were done, people were like, so now what y'all about to do? So we came, we sat together and Tamika, Mallory, and our good friend, Pastor Mike McBride and others said, well, we were going to go on a tour anyway, so maybe we should just fold this thing in. And what we've learned along this journey is that we're so much more powerful together across generations, to name Tiffany's other podcast. When we think about across income, across geographical locations, even though I will say in front of my dear brother from Louisiana, my sister from New York, that Los Angeles on the best coast will win in terms of how many people will come out.

We're doing community service row. We're doing workshops holistically, really helping our people to understand everything from land ownership to how to survive in an era where you're attacked on every single side. So we're covering education. We've got a field hearing on Saturday and we have a big rally on Sunday. And what has been so dope about this is I keep saying it is an embodied love letter to our people to help people understand just how important it is for us to be in coalition now more than ever. Gary, that's a number of things that are being done. But in terms of what do you want the ultimate achievement to be? Because at the end of the day, organizing and mobilizing is one thing, but having a clear pathway, a goal of what's next, how do you see it? For me, it's about engaging our people on a personal level. One, you've got to see about folks before you can ask them to be engaged in anything. And so the first aspect of this is going to see about our communities, discover what are the needs in each of these communities.

There are black papers that are being released where a collective agenda can be shared as a community collectively around the country. There's also the ability for us to meet with local officials in these communities and begin to have direct conversations with them about deliverables that they want to see for their communities. Also, the ability for these communities to begin to work together at a different level of collaboration. Right. One of the things that we have done as a collective is sit with hard conversations so that we can be the most impactful. One of the things that we see on the conservative side is they put egos, agendas and objectives aside for the mission. And the mission right now is saving our people. The mission right now is ensuring that our people understand what is at stake ahead so that we can mobilize our people when that time comes. Tamika, this weekend and Saturday and Sunday is Atlanta,

but you've got Atlanta, you've got Durham, North Carolina, Birmingham, Montgomery, Detroit, New Orleans, Newark, Richmond, Virginia, Jackson, Mississippi, Louisville, Kentucky, and Los Angeles. How are these cities chosen and why? Well, first of all, this is a very, very grassroots effort. We pulled a lot of folks together from across the country and came up with places and spaces that people feel connected to. You have, of course, a place like Louisville, Kentucky, where we know the story of Breonna Taylor. And it feels good to be going back so that folks know we didn't just leave them after the protest. They are still front and center in

this movement. And we can think about that across the country. You think about Detroit, Michigan, and the work that's being done there on the ground to address the issue of gun violence prevention and intervention, especially at the day after the Trump administration has ended funding for anti-violence groups, for many anti-violence groups. I mean, we're looking to connect real people with the real issues that are happening across this nation. Now, if Angela Rye had it her way, and I've been telling people all day today as I'm with her at a conference that she's my boss. And so if she had it her way, we would be traveling the entire country. We unfortunately were not able to do that yet. And so there was a real democratic process, if you will, where people got together and had tough conversations about where can we go? Where do we have capacity? Where do we have

people who are organizing? And how do we vote on those cities and make a decision about where to start? Because it is truly just the beginning of this tour. We think that as long as, and even beyond, because Roland, you know, you've covered the work that Until Freedom does. We do touring all day long. We knock on doors across this country. We go out into communities all the time. And many of us do that. Many of the people who are engaged in this effort, we're just supercharged bringing it all together and really concentrating on specific places, which in my mind, and I think Angela and Gary will agree, is very regional. Just because we're going to be in Newark, New Jersey, does not mean that people from New York City, people from Philly, people from Washington, D.C., people from all around the area, from Connecticut, can't be there as well. We're trying to touch as many places

across the country as possible. And I just want to say this last thing. We know that our people across this nation have been finding ways to self-sustain for a long time. There are people who have always known that there was a threat to their lives, that the federal government, they could not always depend on the help and resources that they deserve. We know that even local governments have not always done and addressed the specific needs of the very, very, very grassroots people in local communities. And so they've been doing work. They have farmers markets. They have anti-violence efforts. They have ways in which they do community engagement and in many ways community safety. I was going to say policing their communities, but we don't want to use that term.

But they have community safety mechanisms. We're going to hear from them. We are going to listen to them and to think about ways to spread the message about the great work that's happening across this nation and ensure that people have entry points to get involved. Angela, how do you measure success? You know, Ro, the most important thing that I've heard today, and actually it made me emotional hearing Tamika say that if we could have it our way, we would be everywhere. And the reason for that is I think that there are a number of changes that this country is about to undergo that we are hardly prepared for. We don't know how long we're going to have access to the social media platforms that we've used for the last several years to organize. We don't know how long we'll have access to the currency that we've relied upon. We don't know how long we'll feel safe. So to me, safety is, or measuring success is,

knowing that there was an interim community security plan that was presented that people can now live up to. Knowing that if Acre Boys is now a part of this and they're giving away an acre of land that we know how to lean into what land ownership looks like. Knowing that if AI is a tool that we cannot escape and it is quickly becoming, already is, a fabric, a key anchor point and pillar of how the economy works, there's someone coming to teach about AI. Shout out to Tasha Hilton. So there are all of these things that we want people to leave more resourced, more informed, more empowered, more equipped, and more connected. That is what success looks like. And we have everybody from the greatest policy thinkers of our time contributing to the Black Papers

that Gary talked about. We have folks developing a legislative record where we can see almost Kerner Commission style what's happening on the ground and what is the state of Black people. And we can put all of these things out on stateoftheppl.com where people can register to participate. They can learn about these black, we're calling them black papers because how could they be white papers? And there are all of these things that we are doing to ensure that we are connected and educating and we are better off than when we came.

So that is what success looks like to me. I want to touch as many lives as we can. I know all of our coalition partners do from NAACP to National Coalition on Black Civic Participation to Unto Freedom to all the labor unions. We are well connected.

And our job here is to stay connected on the organizational level and ensure that everyone on the ground feels that same connection and that same love. That's right. Gary, when you have rallies, events, things like this, we know the folk who do show up. We know the people who often are around us. How with this tour, how do you connect with the disenchanted? How do you connect with the people who are not as involved? How do you, how do you connect and how do you get that

person who has chosen the couch and who says we don't have power? How do you get them to realize that, that they have a place in this and the role they can play? So one of the things that we have been actively doing is building a big tent. There are people that are having conversations together today that would not normally be having conversations together, people who would not normally be working together because the times demand that we do. And so I think that the more people begin to recognize the urgency, and let me be honest, let me be clear, I am well aware that we're not going to get everybody in the first wave, right? I am well aware of that.

What I am trying to do and what I believe we are trying to do every day is come in with more people than we left with. Touch more people this time than we did the last time. Make people feel valued and heard before we decide to direct anybody. I think one of the things that we are reckoning with is that... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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

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

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

You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car. Always stop. Look. Lock.

Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. There's a faction of us who have been saying, you got to go talk to black people and have relationship with black people before you decide to instruct black people. And now we're in a position where we have no choice but to really build community. A lot of the stuff that we've done over the years has been talking at black people. I'm not saying that the orgs that do this work are not doing meaningful work. I'm saying that we know we have to do more, that we have to be more expansive,

that we have to touch people that we sometimes have conflict with, sometimes people that we have issues with. And sometimes, Roland, I think that prevents us from being able to be as impactful as we need to be because there's an agenda at the table that's in front of what is most important for the people. And what is most important for the people right now is that we love on each other.

I went to see Sinners this weekend. Don't spoil it. Don't spoil it. One of the takeaways that I have is. I didn't know you went to see it. I just didn't know what was coming next. I got nervous, Roy. I was like, don't spoil it for the people.

They're going to cuss you out. I ain't going to do it. I went to see it. Like, what's up? All I'm going to say is, I think that the movie gives us a clear indication that we need each other. That we

need to love each other. And that loving each other and working together is how we solve the problems that we have. I think that there's been a lot of focus on Trump. There's been a lot of focus on what other people are doing. There's even been a lot of conversation about what black folks aren't at the front of the protest. Black folks aren't out there leading the charge. Black folks are figuring out how to take care of black folks. Black folks are figuring out how to be concerned about black folks. And that

is what you see right here, that leaders around the country have been figuring out how do we effectively, strategically, and with heart go into our communities and love on our people. Absolutely. Roland, before, I just want to jump in on that. And when you talk about how do we bring people together who are not generally a part of the activism that all of us are engaged in. You know, one of the things we learned when we were in Louisville, Kentucky, was that it was definitely justice for Breonna Taylor, but there was also a need for justice that there was a food desert,

that people had one supermarket, if a supermarket at all, in the radius around where they live. And they wanted to talk about that as well. We found out quickly that inviting people to a protest, perhaps they would show up, but they definitely came out when we delivered 4,000 boxes of food

on specific weekends to families. That's how we learned and met and was in relationship with a larger tent of people that Gary is speaking about. And right now, the people who are working in Louisville on the committee to bring together the State of the People Power Tour efforts, they are people who did not know each other

pre-Brianna Taylor. They met as a result of the organizing that all of us did collectively. There are people who are working, who really, to be honest, they would never talk to one another if it had not been for a horrific tragedy. where people from different thoughts, different ideologies, different ways of wanting to lead, and different ideas about the way forward in our community, they came together and they worked together. And now they're in the tent. They are working on the State of the People Power Tour,

and they have produced many things prior to this effort. They have run for office. You have people now who are actually leading in the state legislature and other places. And it happened because we had the hard conversations and the difficult work of pulling people who don't necessarily know one another. And some of them don't even like one another together around a common cause. It was Breonna Taylor at that time, which, of course, that remains Tamika Palmer. Breonna's mother is involved in the State of the People Power Tour, but right now, it is the state of all of us. It is to keep

our communities from having Breonna Taylor's continue to be unfortunate casualties in our community, and that's why I'm happy to be a part of it, and there's so many other people who, some are like mine and some are not, to be a part of this effort uh last round of

questions uh angela the what often happens is a lot of times it's a whole lot of issues you'll have events and there are a lot of um things people say we need to do. And so how do you narrow these things to get folks to focus to be able to achieve results? Because, again, we've seen other efforts, and it's a lot of things on the table. And then when you come back, then it's like, well, what actually got accomplished? And so talk about how that is being articulated, where you talk about what needs to be done, but also you're getting people to understand that it's a process to actually show results from that.

So people gain, let's say they gain not awareness, but they actually feel as if progress is happening because they're seeing it happen. Yeah, I think, Ro, this is, it's not just a logical and metric-based effort. It is spiritual work. This is work that is being defined by a lot of prayer, a lot of discernment, and we're very grounded. And I think that if one of us is off every day, somebody's there to refocus us. Sometimes that person is Gary, sometimes it's Tamika, sometimes it's Mike, sometimes it's Latasha. Latasha say, hear me, and we got to hear her, right? Like we are a group, a coalition that is very grounded by we've got to meet the needs of our people. So at every turn, our main focus when we start is, what do you need?

And then listening to the answer, not defensively, but being open to receive what the community needs. When we meet those needs, mission accomplished. It does not mean that there are no more needs, but it means that we open the door and we have begun the conversation and have begun that work together. Again, to Gary and Tamika's point, there are a lot of orgs that do this work every day. We are proud to go in and coalition with them, align with them and support that work and also strengthen that work and perhaps even grow it. That second day around action and empowerment has everything to do with, okay, now we've met needs.

We've heard what some of the challenges are. We've seen how we've got to come together. Now what are our next steps? Some of those next steps are around the black agenda that Gary talked about with our black papers. Some of that will be more determined when we get to our national convening on Juneteenth in Baltimore. But at every step of the way, we are meeting, we are working very hard in this work. Many of us are not sleeping enough. That's why I sound like a little boy going through puberty, right? There are a lot of things that are going on in real

time and we just have to keep pushing ahead. What I'm going to say to you, Roland, is what I've said to other people. Tamika and I have been on calls today asking folks to join in, and I would say this to you and to your audience. When you go to stateofthepeople.com, and it's state, you know, domain's been here a long time, so it ain't people. It's stateoftheppl.com. I want you to go in and see where you feel called. I want you to go in and determine if you feel more called to going to feed seniors or to help kids get access to banned books. We got banned book libraries being stood up in Durham, North Carolina, and in Raleigh. I want you to go in and determine if you have something to share. Roland, you are constantly teaching us about how to use technology and equipment to get our messages out. You are the town friar. Sometimes I call him John

the Baptist, y'all, but he's going to tell us how to use equipment and be efficient and ain't really about black people's issues. Maybe that's the call. Maybe the call is to continue to help amplify this. Maybe the call is to share on a rally stage. Whatever it is, everyone has a call and a responsibility in this moment if they take the time to just hear. And I invite everybody into this process to register, to see how you can serve, and to be present for this, even if you can only come to one and even if you can only join virtually because we will be live streaming. But we are inviting you in because we all need to be here. We all deserve to be here. And this is our opportunity to do what's right for our folks. So we talked about a Tennessee tour that

Andrew decides to throw in a Juneteenth national event on June 19th. We ain't got no information on it. You're going to come, Ro. If you come on the calls and you come to one of the first cities, which I know you're going to do. I know you're going to do. I know you're going to do. June 19th, I'm already in Charleston, West Virginia.

June 20th, I'm in St. Louis. June 21st, 22nd, I'm in L.A. You have to come virtually, Ro. But that's the whole point of technology. Gary, the same- So come teach a workshop. The same question I just posed to Angela, because I want you to use what y'all did in Louisiana. A lot of folk, again, want to do a whole lot. But how do you also want to get people to get them to narrow that down? Or as I say, to understand you got macro problems, but you got to have micro solutions. So I'm glad you brought up what just happened in Louisiana,

because I think that what has been taking place in Louisiana is exactly kind of what we're doing in this tour. We went around the state and saw about people, had conversations, and made things as plain as possible for Black folk. When we made it as plain as possible for Black people, showed them the level at which these things impact them, then those folks went out and mobilized. We got to also show that that is a win that we got to build on, right, and go into other communities and show that when black voters turned out at 37%, when we make up 34% of the population and we were 37% of the turnout in early voting, that we were shifting the entire electorate, that we have the capacity to do that in other

communities, in other local elections. There's mayor's races happening every day. You just mentioned what happened in Jackson, Mississippi. There's races all over the country. There's a governor's race in New Jersey. There's a governor's race in Virginia. There's a governor's race that's going to happen next year in Georgia. So all of these are conversations that we've got to begin to center our people around understanding their power on the front side, right? And so what Louisiana, I think, is understanding is what's rooted in our power and then take this one win that we got today to fight for the next win tomorrow because this is a marathon, not a sprint.

We have to understand that incremental change is still change. It is still change. And though we want change to be faster, though we want it to be wholesale, though we deserve it to be faster, though we want it to be wholesale, though we deserve it to be faster and wholesale, that we're going to take every inch forward that we can because there are people that are working every day to put us miles behind. And one of the things that we have to deeply understand is this is our responsibility in this hour. Our responsibility is to inform the people who don't have the knowledge, because I think one of the things is we have put an expectation on people without ensuring that people have the understanding

that we have. I use this analogy all the time. I woke up this morning at 630. Tamika woke up at a different time and Angela woke up at a different time. We don't all wake up at the same time. The goal is to ensure that we set the alarm so that we all wake up. And I think that this work right here is to ensure that people all over the country begin to wake up. We have the alarm going into the community to ensure that you understand what is at stake as simple, as plainly as possible so that the brilliance of Black people can activate. To make a final point, speak to the message to anyone who shows up, whether it's virtual, whether it's in person, that events like this are not there to replace or serve as. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1 Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

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

I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council.

You know, telling local folk that we know what's best. But they're actually, the purpose is also to amplify what is already being done on the ground and to point people to those existing groups to say, if you want to do something, they're already here. They're just waiting for you to sign up. Absolutely, Roland. Absolutely. I think I spoke to it a little bit earlier, but just to reiterate, we know that there are people across this country who are already doing incredible work. People who have been dealing with self-sustainability, sustaining their communities for a long time because they have been failed and they have found ways to take care of their communities. And folks need to know about that across the country. people who may be on the other side of the nation who are saying, how exactly did you all start

a black bank in your community, or at least to support the black bank that is in your community? How are you all employing your young people for summer youth employment? How are you keeping your young people out of trouble? How are you feeding people? How did you set up your pantries? And how are you electing public officials? Because that's a whole other thing. We talk about Gary and the work that was done there in Louisiana. You got people across this country who are saying, I want to run for office and I'm trying to figure out how to build my kitchen cabinet and how to let people know that I'm here and I actually represent the values of the people. They need to be, their voices need to be elevated. And what I appreciate

about this volunteer effort, I think that is important for us to state so that people will know. We don't want folks to get off of or to leave this interview today saying, oh, they just getting paid to have a tour. No, everybody who is working on this tour are highly skilled individuals who are not making a dime. We are all volunteering our time because we believe that this work is important. But there are some high power people, people who have major platforms, people who have run campaigns, people who've won, people who haven't won that have information about what not to do. We have people who are educators, people who are lawyers, people who are fighting for our communities in incredible ways. And we are able to use our platforms to shine a light on the work that is happening locally because we know all too often people do not get the type of awareness and attention that they need for the issues that they want to highlight in their local communities. and Gary can attest to, I've been saying that every interview I do, I keep saying that what

is so important to me and what is so beautiful is that there are people who I don't know and people who I do know that don't get the credit and the attention and the support that they need. And now you will have other people in their town and across the country saying, let me send $10 to a local group in a city that is doing great work to help them continue their efforts. And that's what it's all about. So please make sure that you understand that you have an invitation, that you don't have to wait for anything specific to pop up in your inbox. Maybe we don't have your email address today, but we are asking you to hear this message and to spread it to somebody

else. Bring 10 people with you. Get them to register to be a part of this effort. We're going to need one another more in the coming weeks, months, and years than we ever have, or maybe we have at other points. But we certainly don't want to return to those places and not be in community with one another so we have the tools we need to fight our way out folks the tour begins this saturday sunday in atlanta uh ten city tour uh again beginning this sunday ends in los angeles june 5th and 6th go to state of the ppl.com for more information to also sign up uh angel to be good gary it's really appreciated thanks a lot rolling what cities are you coming to and where's your i'm in graphic

i've i've already told you first of all i've already posted something on my social you didn't post i'm in i already told you i already I already... Roland, are you in? Are you on the show right now? Roland, are you in? We want you to post your graphic. Post your graphic. We're on

the show. Hi, Roland's audience. Please comment in Roland's comments right now and say, Roland, where's your I'm in graphic? Tell them that you're into state of the PPL dot com. I posted the three days until Atlanta graphic. We said I'm in. Tell him that you're going to go protest outside.

We all work for Angela. We all work for Angela. No, we're working for the people. Roland, before we go, I do want to say to Angela, and I know Gary certainly, certainly agrees with me and shares my sentiments, that Angela has been doing a major, mega job of pulling us together and keeping us together and challenging herself. Because it's not that we just listen to her and we don't push back. When we feel a way, we say how we feel and she has to have difficult conversations.

But our sister, Angela, we love you. You are doing the work. We see you, we feel you. We want you to get some sleep at the same time. Nonetheless, we know that you really truly believe in this and you're keeping us on task. You're keeping us honest and i'm grateful for you including all of us in the your your no man's effort to get this job done thank you and angela knows 100 i don't succumb to peer pressure all right uh i've made up the people.com make them sign up I also come to peel pressure

Do it for the people, Ro You love black people too much You're going to be on He's in We're going to do your graphic for you and send it to you I appreciate it, thanks a lot Folks, appreciate it We got to bring up our next guest

Y'all go ahead and bring the next guest I'll introduce our panel for today's show. We've got Rebecca Carruthers, Executive Vice President. No, Rebecca is not Executive Vice President. When is it official, your new title? Is it May 1st? So I'm currently Executive Vice President, but July 1st I become President and CEO of Fair Election Center.

There you go. So congratulations. So right now, executive vice president, but the incoming president and CEO of Fair Election Center, Rebecca Carruthers out of D.C., Joe Richardson, civil rights attorney out of Los Angeles, Lawn Victoria Burke with NNPA, Black Virginia News owner, joining us from Austin. Glad to have all three of you here. Rebecca, the thing here is you just heard Tamika, Angela, and Gary talk about the importance of touching folks face-to-face, mobilizing and organizing. The thing that I am constantly saying is that we have to be extremely strategic and focused in terms of how do we operate in this moment. You've got folk who are scared because you've got a thug administration that's literally

targeting people. You've got Black immigrants, folk who may be concerned about showing up to events. You have students with visas who are afraid of getting snatched and being sent home. We've seen those things happen as well. But also, I think what's important when we talk about these type of events, it's important for people to recognize that you can't talk about how we must get folks motivated and activated for 26. If you don't do the same for 25, the election's in 25, that means building out an infrastructure to actually do it. Yeah, absolutely. Like I've mentioned in the program before, across 46 states, there are

elections this year. That's 100,000 seats. What's really important, I can say this from my experience of having campaigned or done political work in about three dozen states, when you are working with national entities or you're going local, it's very important to make sure that you're extremely responsive to people on the ground, because it's going to be the people on the ground who's going to provide the wraparound services for these different communities. Like Tamika talked about when she was in Kentucky, there was an influx of people showing up when they were giving out food. We know that 19 percent of the federal government, before the layoffs happened, were African-Americans. So we know that there are communities across the country that are being decimated with

these layoffs. There are people who are hungry. People who aren't able to make their mortgage, aren't able to pay for basic everyday needs. So it's very important with a tour like this is to collect information, know who's in the audience, make sure that local groups are connected to those follow-up and wraparound support and services occur in these communities in order for an event like Stay of the People to be successful. But it's also, Lauren, it's also tailoring to what is going on. Look, in Virginia, you've got elections this November.

Democrats control the House. Don Scott remains as Speaker. If Democrats control the Senate, Luis Lucas is the one who controls the money in the Senate. If the MAGA black lieutenant governor, Winston Sears, is defeated. Democrats hold the governor's mansion. Then we talk about felony disenfranchisement. You now can actually pass the law that restores voting rights versus a governor signing each one. So for the people who say, oh, man, don't bring up politics, that's a perfect example of taking an issue that is huge, how you can change that issue with who's in power. Yeah, absolutely. And everything is politics. Absolutely everything is politics. Whether you

like it or not, or whether you want to participate or not, everything is politics. And really, to Rebecca and Tamika's point, there are things that you learn when you go on tour or in person. You see this in journalism all the time. There's always a big difference between actually being at a location and doing something virtually, although a lot of times it is easier, of course, to do something virtually. But when you're there in the room, you find out about a bunch of things that you would not have known anything about. And in this case with the tour, what they're going to do is find out a bunch of commonalities in all the cities that they are in. And you can't really get that any other way except by being in person. And quite frankly, we're at a historic inflection point, as I think everybody knows in this country, dealing with authoritarian, really, dictatorship from President Trump.

And the way that's dealt with is going to require a Project 2028 or a Project 2026 and beyond. And somebody has got to work on that extremely quickly, because, as you can see, every single day he's doing something. And I know that a lot of people might think that the courts will stop him, but there are some things that are happening that would be very hard to undo. Some of what he's doing, and I think most of what he's doing, is going to be things that can be undone. But there are other things that are going to require a long-term strategy. Joe, there's that particular point, and we do this all the time, getting people to understand that you can act like politics is irrelevant. You can act like who's there, it doesn't matter. But there's not a policy issue that you can bring up that does not involve politicians. Yeah, everything has political implications,

right? So we really have to pay attention to what's going on and really understand the moment that we're in, kind of similar to the points that have been made here. And I appreciate Angela, Tamika, and Gary coming on and what it is that they're actually doing. And what has to happen is not only do we have to get involved and understand where we are in the moment, but keep the urgency. You know, there are times where we show up. We showed up when Obama won. We showed up for the Georgia elections four years ago. We showed up, you know, we show up for particular things and then unfortunately we go away. And so I think the thing that we really, really need to do is really understand that we're

in this moment so much so that we actually keep the momentum of being in the moment, making this a continuous conversation. Even though it's great that this tour is happening, they shouldn't have to always tour in order for people to understand how important it is to vote. Now, we have to do the infrastructure work to help people understand that this is how we educate you on voting. This is how we educate you on what's happening around you. You know, you want to deal with that issue? That has to do with your school board. You want to deal with that building? That has to do with your planning commission. You want to deal with that building? That has to do with your planning commission.

It needs to be a continuing discussion and conversation. But to your point, everything, without exception, has political implications. And so, therefore, you can't separate and ferret politics out. I can't even do it in the legal field. I can sit and talk about what's going on with the president right now, what's going on in the Supreme Court or whatever else. It's all politics. It's all got political implications. And so we have to be honest about that, not be scared of it, and embrace it in that we do what we need to do to take what might be complicated, make it simple for people,

help them understand how it affects their day-to-day, and to hopefully encourage action that will be consistent and that will not come or go with it not being a four-year election year, with it not being an odd number year, or whatever it is that that might be. So getting the urgency and keeping it. So, folks, let me tell you what's happening right now in D.C. You've got these nutcases in the Trump administration. They all of a sudden, they are fixated on America's low birth rate. We've discussed this many times. Elon Musk is constantly talking about it.

That's why he's got something like 15, 20... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. We get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

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

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. And never let them run wild through the grocery store.

So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, brought to you by nizza and the ad council with 30 kids because he he wants to um try to have as many kids as many white kids as possible in this country a lot of these uh conservatives who oppose abortion it's all about

low white birth rates if you look at what's happening around the world, white people are not having babies. And so one of the reasons you see people angry about immigration in America, it's the same reason they're mad about immigration in Germany, immigration in Italy, immigration in England, immigration in Ireland, because white people worldwide are not having as many kids. The world is becoming more brown. That's what this is all about. Joining us right now is Thawna Hickman, CEO and founder of Viola's House. Thawna, glad to have you here. The Trump folks are talking about a $5,000 check, a bonus, whatever the hell. I saw these white women on Fox News talking about it.

I saw Whoopi Goldberg discussing it. And let's just be clear. And I've been telling our people, this ain't got nothing to do with us. This ain't got nothing to do with Latinas. It ain't got nothing to do with Latinas. It ain't got nothing to do with black women. This is about the Trump administration trying to incentivize white women to have kids. That is absolutely correct, Roland. Thank you for having me. First of all, it's not our business what we do with our kids. Let me be clear with that. The conversation does not need to be how do we have more babies.

The conversation needs to be how do we get every child in America to actually thrive. And the way to do that is to provide more housing, more access to health care, more educational services. Providing incentives for having a child is just dangerous, especially when Black women are dying at three to four times more than any other rate. It is dangerous, and we cannot focus on that. We have to focus on the services that are needed for these children to thrive. There's no access to health care. There's no access to quality education, housing. And those are the things that are needed right now.

But to incentivize without supporting more maternal care is just dangerous right now. See, here's what's amazing to me. You've got Elon Musk and Doge and Donald Trump getting rid of USAID, hurting and killing food programs around the world that's leading to people dying. You had a woman in Myanmar where they cut off the money flow. This was the first program they cut off. This woman was dependent upon oxygen, and she died. So I'm confused. The folk who support ending USAID programs, support ending food programs in sub-Sahara Africa, support shutting off food banks in the United States for folk to get food now want to incentivize women to have

babies, but you need women to be healthy with food so they can birth healthy children. But you are now saying $5,000 again. They are not talking about poor people. They ain't talking about poor white women. They're not talking about black women or Latina women or Asian women. They are talking about white college age women. That's what this is all about. So I don't want nobody black

thinking, oh, they give us a $5,000 check. They don't give a damn about no black babies. Exactly. And the black community really needs to consider that the healthcare system is biased. The training is implicitly biased. And this will not work in our favor to take an incentive like this without there being any resources available right now for maternal health. We just finished Black Maternal Health Week. We heard so many stories of husbands losing their wives, grandmothers raising their children, their grandchildren,

because we are losing our black women due to the health care system when they choose to give birth. We need to shift our focus now. And we're working directly with the White House, Roland. I was just there three weeks ago talking about our maternity housing program because the funding for maternity housing has been cut. And so we're working with them, making them understand the importance of maternal care. Programs like AmeriCorps has just announced that they're looking to cut that. That's the workforce development that nonprofits use so that we can continue to provide the maternal care services. We focus on the social determinants of health and not incentivizing

mothers to have more babies. And our communities will directly be impacted by this. Yeah. So you can't sit here. I mean, listen, y'all deal with women who have unplanned pregnancies. These pro-lifers don't give a damn. Don't give a damn about that. They don't see... If the pro-lifers actually gave a damn about these women,

you should have $100 million in your bank account. Well... I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. See, and this is my whole deal. This is why when I challenged a control room, I need to get that clip ready. When I challenged a black Trump supporter, a black female conservative, who was, I said, no, you are anti-abortion. You are not pro-life. I said,

y'all want to cut, y'all want to end Affordable Care Act. Y'all want to make cuts to Medicaid expansion. Y'all want to cut Social Security. You're cutting housing grants. You're cutting DEI programs. You're cutting job training programs. You cutting so if a woman so let's be real clear they ain't providing services for daycare so let's so let's just really we want to break this thing now listen i have not had biological children but i've raised six of my nieces and i know what it was like when my twin nieces came to live with us and all of a sudden, boom, I got to get daycare. That's $1,500 to $2,000 a month. So you want to incentivize. So you want to incentivize. Then you got Republicans who want to put work requirements into more programs. But the problem is, if you're a woman and got a kid,

but you want to put work requirements in, I now got to make a determination, oh, for me to get SNAP benefits, I have a work requirement. But if I get a job, who's going to take care of my kid? Because daycare is too much. You ain't incentivizing that. This is why this program is bullshit. They are trying to incentivize white suburban women, white college women. That's what this is about. This is not about black and brown women. But, Rowan, the problem is that demographic doesn't need the incentive, and it's our demographic that will fall for the incentive. You will have teens giving birth and homeless. You will have people in the black community giving birth with a lack of access to resources.

It's going to put more strain on the social services that nonprofits provide. It is going to increase the need for food stamps. It's going to increase the need for Medicaid. What will happen is an incentive like this will appeal to the wrong demographic, because that demographic doesn't need the incentive. Right. Absolutely. And that should not be the focus on how do we get more babies. We've got to focus on the babies that are here, that are at hand, from the womb to the tomb.

So if they are here, we've got to focus those resources on the babies and the families that are needing the resources now without incentivizing to bring more babies here into the communities with the most disparities. If y'all have the clip ready, go ahead and run it. Tate Rees is not doing the Mississippi. And so what I'm saying is this here. No, no the Mississippi. And so what I'm saying is this here. No, no, no, no. What I'm saying is this here. When I listen to Republicans talk about being pro-life, what I want to know is where are their pro-life stances

when it comes to Head Start? Where are their pro-life stances when it comes to prenatal care? Where are their pro-life stances when you have black women who have a high rate of dying in childbirth? Where are your pro-life stances when you have black women who have a high rate of dying in childbirth? Where are your pro-life policies when it comes to infant mortality? What I'm saying is when you are a Republican in the state of Mississippi and you push a law and the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

and you are ill-prepared to handle the 5,000 new babies, maybe because the money that you could care for the poor went to Brit Favre. And all I want to see is the governor of Mississippi who's opposing Medicaid expansion seeing rural hospitals shut down in his state and you got white women and black women who are dying and Republicans control the legislature. They control the governor's mansion.

So don't tell me they are pro-life when they are unwilling to accept Medicaid expansion. But then they say we don't want to accept money from the federal government when they send $1 to the federal government and they get $4 back. When you look at this concept, what you're saying to me right now is that because you believe that Republicans are not supporting pro-living, I disagree. I look at the Republican support for community health centers. I look at the Republicans trying to- Where? Where? Everywhere, Roland. South Carolina. North Carolina. Tennessee. Georgia. Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, they all are against Medicaid expansion and rural hospitals.

Are you telling me rural hospitals in Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina are not shutting down? Are you actually telling me that? I am not telling you that. So therefore, if they're shutting down, how then are the people able to get care? How? Roland, what I'm saying is that there are, when we talk about aborting babies, like so you're saying to me that because we support life, actually giving babies the opportunity to live,

I'm confused. When a baby borns. I'm so confused. First of all, you know what, hold up. You're confused because you think I'm saying something that I'm not. Well tell me what you're saying. No, what I'm telling you, I'm being well tell me what you're saying. Well, I'm telling you I'm being very clear

You cannot say you are pro-life when you vote against Prenatal care for the mother you cannot say you are pro-life when you vote against head start You cannot say you're pro-life when you do not want to expand Medicaid to keep hospitals open You cannot say you are pro-life when you have OBGYNs who are not available in your state. You cannot say you are pro-life when you have Black women who are dying at a higher rate. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car. Always stop. Look.

Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. During childbirth and you do nothing public policy-wise to fix it. You cannot say you are pro-life if you allow infant mortality rates to be sky-high in areas where there are black and brown people. What that tells me is you are anti-abortion. You are not pro-life. Because if you are pro-life, you care about the child in the womb and when the child is out. And if you are pro-life, you are standing

there with black folks when their kids are killed by cops. You are not silent. So if you are pro-life, be pro-life from the womb to the tomb, but not just in the womb. Simple as that. And I don't mean to be flippant. I don't mean to be flippant what I'm about to say because I want people to understand.

The easiest part is to have the child. Let me be real clear. The easiest part of this process, I'm not being flippant, is to birth the child. The hard part is not raising the child. It's healthcare. It's a job. It's housing. It's food. It's education. All the things around that. This is why these people are idiots. They are literally trying to push through a massive tax cut to benefit the wealthy in this country. And they want to drive up birth rates in America, but literally cut the programs that can help somebody raise a child. That is just utterly illogical. And we are already strained at this point. The nonprofits have lost over 10,000 employees in the last 70 days. And we are the hands and

the feet in the community, especially the African-American led nonprofits. We have a different grit where we understand these communities. We understand the needs. And we are the ones that are suffering with the funding cuts. We have more families coming to our door and our social service agency now more than ever. Roland, we just had to open a second maternity home for mothers over the age of 30 with multiple children. I just walked into our second maternity home. There's a 37-year-old woman in there who had been living in a general population shelter

for eight months here in Dallas with her one-year-old and her four-year-old. We are in unprecedented times. So while we're stepping up to meet the demand of the community, at the federal level, our funds are being cut. We just lost our maternity group home grant, $1.25 million. We are threatened right now to lose 29 of our AmeriCorps members that are client facing and serving the community. We have put in years of workforce development with AmeriCorps members.

And now we are under threat to lose those, which will impact our budget. But the need in the community is not going to go away. It is increasing. We gave out over 7 million diapers last year to the community because that's the need that we're seeing. But everything is being cut. And then now we have an incentive program for more babies to come. We've got to focus on the problems at hand, not creating more problems in our community because it impacts our communities. That's where it impacts our communities, not the other demographics. Y'all are literally helping folk to birth babies and they're slashing your programs.

And that's what you're doing right now it's absolutely nuts every week we get another notice of something being cut every week who want to support but folks who want to support viola's house where do they go they can go to www.violashouse.org all right then folks you see right there their Facebook page, Instagram account, the email info at violashouse.org. You see the website as well. Thawna, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. Folks, going to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk about this with our panel. We're also going to talk about a program out of California where they're trying to combat issues of systemic racism. So we'll talk to him about that. Also, we'll chat with the brother who's trying to start the first ice hockey team at HBCU. Lots of stuff we're going to talk about, including Elon Musk getting run out of D.C.

I think it's because the sales down 71% from Teslas. I wonder if that's the real issue. All right, y'all. We're going to break it all down. Support Roland Martin Unfiltered. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. If you want to support our show, your cash app, use the striped QR code.

You see it right here. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com. If you want to send a check and money order, please do so. Make it now payable to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland Martin Unfiltered, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-7-0196. PayPal's R. Martin Unfiltered, BMORM Unfiltered, Zelle. Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

We'll be right back. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. The enormous impact of race, education, and affirmative action in America. And how, believe it or not, white America is starting to feel a little bit of the pain. Dr. Natasha Waraku joins us with a ca community and how it reac students started to accept didn't say this explicitl

know, the academics are g getting higher in part be and that is making our ki So we need to reduce the amount of homework teachers are allowed to assign. She shares a perspective that you don't want to miss. That's on the next Black Table, only on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, I'm sure you've heard that saying that the only thing guaranteed is debt and taxes. The truth is that the wealthy get wealthier

by understanding tax strategy. And that's exactly the conversation that we're going to have on the next Get Wealthy, where you're going to learn wealth hacks that help you turn your wages into wealth. Taxes is one of the largest expenses you've ever had. You really got to know how to manage that thing and get that under control so that you can do well. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network.

On the next A Balanced Life, we're talking about the stress of stress and trigger warning. Looking at those areas in our lives where we often don't turn the page or turn the corner, but giving us the ability to really take a deep dive

and look at who we are, the people around us, and the ways in which we're triggered. A lot of times we are so stressed out because we are trying to control things that are outside of our sphere of control. That's all next on A Balanced Life on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn lives.

There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this.

There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Listen to what I'm about to tell you. The window to invest in Fanbase is closing. We've raised over $10.6 million of our $17 million goal.

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of social media. How you doing? My name is Mark Curry and you're watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered, deep into it like pasteurized milk

without the 2%. We getting deep. You want to turn that shit off? We're doing an interview, motherfucker. deep into it like pasteurized milk without the 2%. We getting deep. You wanna turn that shit off? We doing an interview, motherfucker. Thank you. Well, it's got a major battle happening in this country when it comes to programs that some call DEI. What you're seeing through MAGA, the Trump administration, the whacking of billions of dollars in grants to speak to these programs. Last month, we told you about there was a scholarship program in Minneapolis. And the point of the program was to increase the number of black teachers in the state.

It's a paltry number of black teachers, black male teachers in Minneapolis. Well a white woman got upset because she couldn't attend their conference. So what did they do? They got rid of the scholarship. They got rid of the program. We see it. We've seen today in the last 48 hours, Trump administration killed billions of dollars in grants to criminal justice organizations, environmental justice programs.

We are seeing an all-out assault. And what did I tell y'all in January after the inauguration? What we are seeing is a complete focus to eradicate and dismantle the black economic and civil rights infrastructure that we have seen over the past 50-some odd years. There's a group out of California

that is also fighting a lot of these initiatives that deals with helping people, grassroots organizations, improve outcomes for young brothers and sisters of color. Joining us right now is Eric Morrison-Smith. He is the executive director of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. Joining us now from Sacramento, Eric, y'all doing the work in California, but just share with me your concern about this massive attack on programs like yours that is about saving the next generation or two, where you frankly have white conservatives who want to wipe these things out, but then complain about black-on-black crime, complain about black education stats, complain about black children being born out of wedlock.

So they complain about all these issues, but then undercut programs that confront those issues. Yeah, I mean, that's right. And I feel like you already spoke to so much of it. But part of the reason why they're making these attacks is because all of this infrastructure that we have built has been pushing, you know, racial justice ahead. And they're now recognizing, like, if we don't want to continue to make these advances or allow them to make these advances, we have to attack those advocacy organizations, those grassroots organizations who have been pushing so hard since the civil rights movement to make these advances. So quite frankly, I think that's a big part of why we are seeing them try to attack

the nonprofit organizations, those grassroots organizations who are doing this good work, because they want to make sure that there is nobody who is going to be able or willing to fight to continue to make these advances. So I definitely think that that is one big part of it. And, you know, it's definitely impacting the work that we're doing here in California, both in terms of not only just, like, people's funding getting cut to be able to do this work, but, you know, he's stirring up a lot of political chaos. He's causing a lot of fear.

And some of those organizations who have historically been bold in these moments are now, you know, taking a step back and being a little bit cautious, which obviously, you know, is going to put us in a worse situation in the future. So that's part of what I think is happening and not just think we're seeing happening here in California and across the country right now. See, I know somebody who's watching and they're sitting here saying, well, Roland, I don't understand. This shouldn't be an issue for his organization because they're in California.

And I need to warn people, and there's no doubt that Joe is going to agree with me. I need people in California to understand California is not as blue as some folks think. And some folks believe that because Democrats have taken California for granted, you have not had political investments made in that state, that you could see a state moving more and more and more red and California

becoming a purple state and not a solid blue state. And then that impacts funding initiatives coming out of Sacramento. Yeah. Yeah, that's absolutely right. And, you know, one of the things that I like to remind folks is like California, it's kind of the birth of the prison industrial complex. You know, we were one of the first places to really start to implement tough on crime policies that disproportionately impacted, you know, our black and brown communities. And in terms of, like, when we talk about the historic war on drugs, like, much of that was birthed here in California.

So while we have always had this interpretation of being very progressive and liberal, you know, underlying all of that, there actually has been some really harmful things that have been passed. And, you know, one thing I will just speak to really quickly is even before Trump came into office, California was dealing with some unique challenges where, you know, because of the pandemic, you know, California was in an economic deficit. You know, there was elections coming up and California is really starting to backslide back into some really harmful policies that, you policies that are going to impact our communities. And just to give some examples, we had bills introduced that would have put armed law

enforcement on every single campus, reintroducing and expanding three strikes, all of these types of crazy things. And even just to give a little bit of more context, like the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, we've been around for 12 years. We've passed over 126 bills here in California. We've been able to secure, you know, over $300 million over our 12-year history for community-based solutions. But in 2021, the governor was trying to cut $60 million of programs that we had helped to launch because of some of these issues. So even before Trump was coming into office, California actually started to backslide into some of these more reactionary, harmful policies. And it's something that we're continuing to see, to the point where, just yesterday, we

had to show up to the Capitol with 200 people deep for the Public Safety Committee, because there were so many bad bills that were being introduced. So we had to go up, show up in force and try to, you know, kill some of those bad bills and also uplift some of the positive community safety and justice bills that were happening. So you know, we're in a moment where even in California, we're in a real fight. You know, we're not—people should not be taking for granted that California has this perception as like a progressive state, because there is a real opportunity for us to

blackslide into becoming a purple state, a more conservative state. And that's going to have, you know, I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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

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

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there,

no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. ...for the rest of the country if that happens here. And we're seeing it with the governor, too. I don't know if y'all have seen the governor. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, we're real.

No, we're very observant how Gavin Newsom is doing all he can to kiss MAGA ass because he's running for president in 2028. So, yeah, we see all of that. The thing that I—again, I want to go back to the point that you made there, and I forgot the actual—the full title of that, but you had a statewide ballot initiative that dealt with prison labor. And again, I need people to understand, people keep saying California is blue, but you've had the statewide initiative that had no problem paying for cheap labor in prisons.

You've had significant pushback. You've had the recall, the San Francisco DA, the tip against the Los Angeles District Attorney, who was badly defeated in the election, the recall of the sister who was the prosecutor in Alameda County, and she had just gotten in, the recall of the Oakland mayor, the loss of the sister who was the mayor in San Francisco. So you have all these conservatives sitting here mad about crime in the state, cash bail, things along those lines. And so when you talk about the work that you're doing, all of these things is actually making your job harder. And then now you throw in the nutcases in Washington, D.C., and they're now scaring corporate America from now funding programs. We're talking about organizations

like yours that is in a very precarious situation to keep doing this work. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely right. And just to speak to what you were talking about with those propositions really quickly, you know, for that one that would have basically taken slavery out of our California constitution, there were only two counties in California that actually voted 50 percent in support of that. The rest of California voted no against that. And then we had Prop 36, which basically, again, would have established all different types of tough-on-crimes penalties and policies. And there was not a single county that voted in opposition against that one.

So it actually just speaks to this trend that is happening here in California, that it's going to be, you know, if we don't actually draw a line in the sand and continue to fight this, it could put us in a real precarious situation. But, yeah, just in terms of the things that are happening with Trump, it's actually it's impacting the entire field from philanthropy, our community-based organizations, the politicians. And it's really causing them to, again, operate from a level of caution that is not, you know, making them to be more bold, to push back against some of these issues that we're talking about. And again, that can have some really bad ramifications for California's future. And one of the things and the approach that we take is like, look, we understand that if we are bold in this moment, that it might put a target on our back.

But the thing is, there are a lot of people who aren't making the choice to be bold, and Trump is attacking anyways. Like, he is going to attack whether you stand up to him or not. So we might as well go out with a fight, if that's what it's going to be. Be bold in this moment. You know, advance a shared agenda with various different people. Because that's another thing. We could sometimes be so anti-Trump, which we should be. We could be so anti-like what we don't want to happen. But we've got to be clear on what we're actually defending and what we're fighting for. And that's one of the things that, you know, ABMOC does pretty well.

Because we have, again, an agenda of about 12 bills every single year that we're working on with hundreds of partners across California. Absolutely. And so, last question for you. What do you want folk watching and listening to do to help you all know what y'all are doing? Yeah, so one, you could definitely go and follow us at www.abmoc.org. We put out a newsletter every month that basically kind of gives people updates on what's happening with our policies. And the other thing, like, show up and show out because, again, we just had 200 people at the Capitol yesterday because we had three bills that were going to be heard in committee. And that makes a huge difference because there were a couple of folks in the morning who said they weren't going to vote for our things but when you show up to 60 people or with 60 people to their office and demand that they vote for that you know that's how you get votes um in this

political game because it's you know often about power and what do they say you know power gives nothing without a demand so power concedes nothing a man. Never have and never will. That was Frederick Douglass, but he also said agitate, agitate, agitate. Exactly. All right, then. Eric, we appreciate it. Again, for folks who want to know how to reach your organization, where do they go? So www.abmoc.org.

We're also on Twitter and Instagram, so you can follow us there. For Twitter, it's Alliance4BMOC, and same thing for Instagram. All right. for BMOC. And same thing for Instagram. All right. We appreciate it. Good luck. Thanks so much. I want to go back to our panel, talk about this, but also the previous segment we were talking about. And, you know, Lauren, I have these people who they they hit me on social media. They send emails and they go, I think you're just spending too much time on Trump.

And I go, are you not paying attention? I'm going, what you're seeing happen with these idiots, these thugs two blocks away, it's not just impacting federal programs, billions of dollars. It's impacting state programs. It's impacting county programs, city programs. They're forcing the hands of universities. They're forcing the hands of corporate America. When we keep saying how all of these things are connected, the point that Joe was making

in our first segment, people need to understand, when you have a dangerous thug like you have, you could literally have the eradication of an entire ecosystem that is being fed and funded. That's why

we can't ignore what these fools are doing. Yeah, they're going after 501s obviously, Roland, as you see. They're going after the law firms, obviously. Yeah, they're literally going after the non-profits now. The non-profits! Right, the non-profits, which that's a

hard one for them to hit because, of course, you have a lot of right-leaning non-profits as well. So, I would suspect, at first I thought they might go after the black church, but, once again, that would impact the evangelicals, the white evangelicals, so they're probably not going to go after the black church. But all the power centers in the black community, of course, are trying to dismantle—I think it was today—we had seen reporting on this before, but they are going after ActBlue,

which of course is the primary apparatus for Democratic fundraising. They have completely taken off a mask. And as Greg Carr would say, they have dropped all pretense that any of this is, you know, some problem or they're not trying to sneak do it or anything. It's just right in your face, playing in your face all the time. And what it requires is a new type of leadership and a different type of thinking that I think is way more aggressive. I don't think this is a moment where any of these groups should be backing down and acting as if they, you know, can't fight back. I think that,

you know, law firms like WilmerHale and some of the others that are, General Block, that are fighting back should be fighting back because, in fact, what your last guest said is true. And we see this in the media as well. He is going to do what he is going to do. They are going to dismantle what they want to dismantle. It has nothing to do with anybody's behavior or anything else. They are looking to dismantle anything that they see as a threat.

It is a fear of a black planet strategy that is in your book, White Fear, quite clearly. Interestingly enough, I actually think it's not, you know, it is a very sort of very goal-orientated group of people. It's a small group of people. It's like what they say in the Marines, you know, a few good men. It doesn't take that many people to try to destroy what has been built over the last six decades. And the other side, the left, is going to have to really consolidate a strategy around funding and money and how things are funded and how things are powered. And they got to do that, like, really quickly. I'm seeing a lot of discussion and talking. Obviously, in the

black community, there is a—I wouldn't say it's an enthusiasm problem, but there's a moment of reflection, you know. And that moment of reflection is really seen in the lack of participation in some of these rallies that we see across the country. At some point, that will change. But it is difficult, really, to get your mind around what is going on here in terms of what the forward strategy should be moved from the left. But at some point, we do have to see that. And I do think it requires really, you know, you have to take a risk. You do have to sacrifice. You do have to lean in in a way that, yeah, it is scary. What is the alternative, by the way? Watching,

you know, waiting to get hit. So it is it's an interesting moment. And as you can see from the Democratic Party and some of these advocacy groups, it's taken them a while to find their footing. See, the thing I need people to recognize here, Rebecca, is that this is far broader and deeper than anybody can remotely comprehend. I don't think people truly understand how interconnected nonprofits, colleges and universities, corporate America is with what happens in federal government. When you have a media company like Gannett announced that they're going to stop collecting racial data because of Trump's DEI executive order, when Donald Trump's DEI executive order only applies to the federal government.

So when corporations start saying, oh, we're going to stop doing this because of Trump's DEI executive order, that don't govern you. But they're all running afraid. When Sherry Redstone, who owns Paramount, tells CBS, I need you to let me know how many Trump administration stories are being done on 60 Minutes. And it leads the 60 Minutes executive producer, Bill Owens, to step down because she's trying to get her merger approved. Now you're talking about 60 Minutes.

I mean, the gold standard for journalism. People need to wake up and realize that when billionaires all bent their knee and showed up to the inauguration, folk who are worth $100 and $200 billion, these folks are scared of this idiot. You're talking about whole institutions being in fear of a crazy, deranged individual who's only been there less than 100 days and is going to be there for another three plus years. Roland, you just said a lot.

I want to remind people about 100 years ago, when Woodrow Wilson was president, one of the things that he was hellbent on doing was erasing black American life from American history. It's one reason why a lot of people now don't understand all of the black historical figures in the 1800s, those who were freedmen and those who were free men, those who contributed to our country, because he intentionally went through, got rid of some of those artifacts, some of those portraits, a lot of the records. So how does that impact Black people now? This is how. When you ask the average Black American in this country, hey, name past your great-grandparents. Can you name your great-grandparents? Can you name your great-great-grandparents?

Well, that's because there's been an intentional disconnect. Anytime history is stripped away, anytime records go missing, anytime records of Black Americans in this country aren't readily available for generations, you now have a disconnect, where some Black Americans don't really understand their history, they don't understand their roots, who they came from, the different accomplishments of those communities. We know about the red summer of 1919, where at least three dozen Black communities were burned to the ground. The reason why we don't have more information around that is because in this country, there was a systematic erasure of those things. It's the very reason why a lot of people don't

understand that we used to have very, very strong Black communities that had everything from transportation to some type of local type of manufacturing to banking to education to different professional services. Like, Black folks had real stuff in this country. So what we're seeing now, and this is where it's very insidious, is we're seeing a lot of the tech giants on board. And what's happening is, when you have the ability to erase Black folks culturally from America and do that online, do that through cyber, do that even through AI, then now that sets us up for the next few centuries of people not understanding who we are, and then even those who will become descendants, as when we become ancestors. They have no clue what we did to

resist, what we did to be resilient, or the things that we built in this country. And so this is very insidious of what we're seeing that's occurring. And it's not just, like you mentioned yesterday, DOJ rescinded millions of dollars from a lot of Black and brown community organizations that do violence interruption. So that's at the millions. But we have to think about this at the macro level, how this is going to impact the rest of this century, which is why we have to pay attention to what's happening. We have to band together as a community.

And I disagree slightly with Lauren when you were talking about, you know, so far it looks like the—and you may not have meant it this way, but so far a lot of Black folks aren't participating in some of these rallies, there's a reason. It's time for us to roll up our sleeves and build our own communities. Because if we're not focusing, pouring money into our communities, as federal money is being stripped away from our communities, our communities won't exist at the end of this century. So we're now fighting not just for legacy, but we're fighting for existence in this country. And it's very important to pay attention with what's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Joe? Yeah, I mean, ditto, ditto, and ditto. I mean, it's just crazy going back and forth a bit. There is this whole thing. You guys took the words right out of my mouth on Governor Newsom. He's from some justice issues to some other things. He's really slinging right because he wants to make his move in 2028. And it is not a foregone conclusion that California will always be

quote blue. And there are plenty places in in a place as big as California, that are red and purple already. And we have to have a strategy to make sure we deal with all of those areas. You know, what's really dangerous about what's going on right now is, even if one argues that Trump is doing the wrong thing and he's doing terrible things and everybody's going to know that it's terrible. It's just really, really hard to build back up a house that you've burned down. And in any event, it takes longer to build it than it does to burn it.

And what he's trying to do is burn away centuries of stuff, decades of stuff. Talk about things related to civil rights, things related to justice issues, community infrastructure, et cetera. And those things will be harder to bring back because, among other things, if he's allowed to get the tax breaks done that he wants to do, now you don't have the money coming in to fund what one may want to bring back. So it helps to, in his mind, helps to ensure its fate that it makes it harder to bring back. And he might be right about that. So we have to be really intentional about making sure that we pay attention to where we are in this moment, not take anything for granted, and really look around, get our bearings,

and create, once again, create that urgency that we keep. Because if we don't do that, we will see, we will be unrecognizable as a country in a few years. You will be more black and brown, but you'll have more of those people disenfranchised, which means that as a practical matter, you will not have the people in positions that need to be so that people that need to work, people that need to accomplish things for the that need to work, people that need to accomplish things for the benefit of their communities, for the benefit of industry and for the benefit of this country, there just won't be the people here to do it because you're not going to do it without diverse people. Folks, hold tight one second. We come back. We're going to talk about what's

happening at Tennessee State. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

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

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

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop. Look.

Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Where they're trying to start the first HBCU ice hockey team. That'll be in our HBCU Connect segment. Also, guess what? Elon Musk has crashed Tesla. Now he's leaving D.C. politics. Came in with a big bang, running out with a whimper.

That's what happens when you're an idiot who has no idea what they're doing. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. This week on the other side of change. The attacks on education, book fans, and what it means for us. Our guest, Aaliyah Logan, who will join us

talking about what are the implications for the lack of investment in education, both locally and internationally, and what this will mean for future generations. Fighting back against any of the administration's attempt to essentially make sure that people are uneducated and destroy history and make sure you forget history and historical things that have happened. Check us out on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network.

Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Listen to what I'm about to tell you. The window to invest in Fanbase is closing. We've raised over $10.6 million of our $17 million goal. That means there's room for less than 6,370 people to invest in Fanbase for the average amount. The minimum to invest in Fanbase right now is $399. That makes you an owner in Fanbase today. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase to invest.

Why? Because current social apps have taken advantage of users for far too long, with content suppression, shadow banning, harmful racist content, and no real tools for monetization and equity. Fanbase has over 1.4 million users and counting, allowing anyone to reach all their following and monetize their content from day one. Social media is the new TV, and whoever owns the apps that distribute that content

have the opportunity to own potential billion-dollar companies. While big platforms with uncertain futures are failing to serve their users, Fanbase is stepping up to fill the gap. Don't wait until it's too late. Invest now, invest for yourself and your future. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and own the next generation

of social media. What's up, y'all? This is Wendell Haskins, a.k.a. Wynn Hogan at the original Chiefs Golf Classic. And you know I watch Roland Martin unfiltered.

Folks, Fish University of course made a lot of noise when they announced the first gymnastics program at an HBCU, now at Tennessee State. They want to make history as well with the first ice hockey team.

Joining us right now on the show is Duante Abercrombie, appointed coach there in 2024. Glad to have you here. Joining us from Nashville. So first off, ice hockey, why? Absolutely, ice hockey is something that we've been doing for a very long time, and honestly, why not? All right, so when you look at various programs when you

look at um what we see successful programs how do you make that successful at an hbcu like tennessee state how do you make it financially successful well hockey's a sport that's built off of family and everybody knows that hbcu that's one thing we do very well is show up and show out for our own. And that sense of family is something that we plan on bringing to the ice. When it comes to finances, every school has their struggles and everybody has their own financial hurdles

that they have to get over. We definitely have ours. We're actually in the midst of a $5 million raise right now. And that's one of the reasons that we're outdoing the work that we're currently doing. But adversity builds great character.

It builds great human beings. And honestly, if you're not willing to work for it, it's not worth having anyway. So when will the program go live? So October 4th is our first game. It's already been announced on numerous stations. Boston University is the team that we'll be playing in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena. Again, it's historic for many different reasons. Boston University, the first ever black NHL GM attended Boston University and Mike Greer,

first ever Olympian and Jordan Greenway also attended Boston University, and the first ever black player ever in college history also attended Boston University. So there's some synchronicity there between the schools. But this has been a very, very, very long time coming. I'm not sure if your viewers are aware, but hockey actually began in Nova Scotia with the Colored Hockey League. And that's a history that hasn't really been told up until about five to ten years ago. But that's something that needs to be said.

This is a sport that we occupied at the very beginning, and it's something that we need to now understand as a piece of our history. We need to not necessarily reclaim it, but this is something that we can absolutely do and do very well. So how will you be competing? I mean, you'll be the only HBCU ice hockey team. So what league are you competing in? Are you independent?

Who are you going in? Are you independent? Who are you going to be playing? So we will be an independent team in our first few years. I saw everything that was happening in the sport of ice hockey with all the NCAA settlements that were going down. And there's some other rules that have changed within the game of ice hockey that just changed the landscape quite a bit. So we want to sit back, see what happens, let the dust settle, and then we'll decide which conference we join.

But I also think that gives us a leg up. Now we can travel all over the world, play all the best programs, but also get the chance to take TSU, our institution, on the road so people outside of the HBCU world can experience HBCUs maybe for the first time. What has been the response from black hockey players since the announcement? From black hockey players and families, it's about time. That's exactly what their response has been. Many of them grew up in various situations. I grew up in a very diverse program in Washington, D.C. It's actually the oldest diversity program at Fort DuPont, right there in the middle of Southeast D.C.

And then there's other individuals, like I'll just mention Houston Wilson, grew up in Philadelphia, but he had never had a black coach until I coached him at Stevenson University. So everybody's experiences are different, but everyone, especially when we talk about black hockey players

and their parents and coaches, this is about time. It's a long time coming and we're really excited to be the ones to be first. Questions from my panelists. Joe, you first. Congratulations on what you're doing. It is certainly about time.

I wanted to ask, will you have scholarship athletes? Is your school, do you know? It'll be independent, but does that mean it's Division I, Division II? Admittedly, I don't know as much about hockey either. All I know is that I went to a game once, and it was amazing to me all that was going on away from the puck. It's really quite something to watch, and you miss something when you don't watch television. So when you watch it on television, you don't go. But are there scholarship athletes, and does this create any momentum? Have you had any discussions about momentum about other schools, other HBCUs that don't have hockey teams possibly looking at

doing the same thing? Well, I'll start with your last question. I believe that there are a few other institutions that are currently working through feasibility studies to make sure that this could potentially come to their campus, but this has to be done right first. I feel as though we are the hockey team of the HBCU world at the moment. So the moment that we launch, the moment that we have success, the moment that we show

that this is not only sustainable, but it's successful, then that's when the other HBCUs will follow suit. I can almost guarantee you that. And to your first question about the scholarships, we are an NCAA Division I program, but we are funding all of our scholarships, all of our operations, everything out of our own pockets.

We have to raise, like I say, $5 million for our first couple years to be able to play. And everyone that we've worked with thus far, obviously supporters of hockey and individuals that don't know much about hockey or even HBCUs want to see this happen. So we've been grassroots to this point. We have a text link. I'm pretty sure it's being shown, or if it's not, you just text TSU Hockey, it's all one word, T-S-U-H-O-C-K-E-Y, to 41444. Contribute whatever you can.

I honestly believe many hands make light work, and I think this will be light work once everybody understands what great opportunity we have here. Lauren? Hey, I'm curious as to where Tennessee State, like what are the other teams that you play and compete against in your area? So the only team that's been communicated publicly is Boston University. So that's the only reason why I'm able to say that. There are many NCAA Division I schools within five to six hours of Nashville, Tennessee,

Ohio State, Bowling Green, University of Michigan. These are all NCAA Division I programs that we look to play, and maybe if not in our first year, definitely within our first few years of competing. Nice. Now, you also said, when you said the $5 million, is that raised $5 million just for the hockey team? Yes, that's five million dollars for the ice hockey program. And that's to cover you for how many years? That covers us for roughly two years of operations. The average NCAA Division I program is 1.5 to two million dollars. Given that it's our

first year, we have a lot of equipment that we would also need to purchase, not even just our physical equipment that we wear, but just equipment around the building. And then there's going to be a lot of travel being independent. So we just want to be very open and honest with our projections. So that's why we're shooting for that $5 million. How much raised so far? So right now, the goal is to get to $900,000 just to be able to drop the puck.

And we're over half of the way there. And we're having some pretty big conversations with other individuals. But that's why these conversations matter. The more that we have conversations like this, I know the HBCU world will show up. I know the world in general, because everybody wants to see this happen,

will show up and they'll show up. Rebecca? First of all, congratulations. I have two quick questions. Will the NHL, specifically the Nashville Predators, help be supportive of this effort? And then my second question is, especially with this being the first HBCU hockey team, are you going to create like an NIL collective so you can really capitalize, so you can recruit students to come play? Well, so being the head coach of the program,

I don't believe I can legally be involved with a collective. If that gets started, I would absolutely support something like that. I believe in student athletes, especially if they're over the age of 18, which all of them are, having the opportunity to be able to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. So if there is somebody that wants to start a collective, go for it. I would

not stand in the way. When it comes to the National Hockey League and the National Predators, those are two different entities. The National Hockey League has been involved since day one. They have already seeded some money out of their NHL IGF fund. I cannot speak about the exact amount, but it is enough for us to honestly continue to operate in the fashion in which we're operating. And the Nashville Predators are sending us dates, times, and money to be able to operate in their facilities. But we are Tennessee State University hockey. I'm not going to sit with my hand out and expect the Nashville Predators to show up and open up the door and make it easy for us. We have to go and show that this is something that is worth investing in, and I guarantee you the Predators will line up to support. All right then. Well, good luck with

this, and hopefully it's successful. Thanks so much. And again, that's TSU Hockey, all one word to 41444. All right. I appreciate it. Thanks so much. And again, that's TSU Hockey, all one word to 41444. All right. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, let's talk about what's happening here in the nation's capital. One of the stories that we are looking at that really is perplexing

with what's happening here first off um is a couple of things state department overhaul and then i can't an anti-christian task force so first off state department is looking to make massive cuts uh this is part of more of the Doge stuff. Reorganizing, cutting 132 domestic offices, eliminating 700 jobs in D.C. Of course, these offices will be impacting war crimes, global conflict, human rights as well. You got that. Rubio says the current department is, quote, overgrown. Okay, got that. Rubio says the current department is, quote, overgrown. OK, gotcha. Then you have the Department of Veteran Affairs requiring employees to report government-wide effort to investigate what he calls anti-Christian discrimination across federal agencies. Attorney General Pam Bondi is leading the two-year initiative, which aims to rewrite or remove any policies seen as biased against Christian beliefs.

Joe? Oh, so we're going against, you know, we're not going to have anti-Christian policies, but it's okay for us to not be Christ-like at all. And so, yeah, this is nuts. You know, no such thing as separation between church and state. And they're actually, you know, there are people that can sue on religious discrimination grounds. So this is being maybe proactive, talking about a problem that doesn't seem to be there, not about people that have actually brought lawsuits,

not actually about something where people have actually advocated on the behalf of people because there's this whole thing that's gone on that's decidedly anti-Christian or anti-religious, for that matter. It hasn't happened. This is something to kind of, you know, please, white ring, white ring, white, right wing, white ring, white, right wing, white ring. Yeah, maybe so. Right wing Christian, including Christian evangelicals, frankly, that don't understand government, don't understand separation between church and state.

And, you know, you just speak to them in their nice, simple language. Oh, here's what we're doing. Here's what we're doing. We're fighting for you. And so it is ridiculous. But the question becomes how creative they're going to be in pulling something out of the sky, because it doesn't look like that this is the result of actual complaints that have taken place, actual lawsuits, actual proliferation of something where they've got to do something to deal with this systemic religious discrimination issue. This systemic religious discrimination issue simply does not exist. Lauren.

Yeah, I don't know what that's about, other than the usual. I mean, everything that they do sort of leads back to the same thing, which is to center sort of, I guess, white folks in some way or another. I don't know. But I think it's all distraction, quite frankly. And with regard to what you said about the State Department and the rollback on government, government's too big and this and that. I'm sure everybody has noticed that the government suddenly became too big when we were making these gains, when black people are making all these gains in terms of the record number of

members of Congress, record number of prosecutors around the country, progressive prosecutors usually. Just at that moment where you see a certain generation get into power and a lot of black folks get into power, that is suddenly when the government is too big and we've got to roll everything back and everything is too big. They actually did the same thing with the Tea Party. You know, President Obama gets into office and suddenly now there's too much government, you know. And now that, of course, Trump is sitting there, there's all of these, you know, every single day he just can't be off the TV. He's got to be making a move. There's got to be an executive order.

Suddenly now there's not too much government. It's an amazing strategy. Again, the Democrats have to get real about how they fight back. And, you know, I do think that the Democratic Party does not bring their A game. And they don't put, you know, I was in when I was in high school, I was I was a chess player. I was on the chess team. And, you know, it's not just about the strategy of thinking a lot of moves ahead. It's putting your pieces in the right position. The Democrats never seem to have their pieces in the right position. And it is good to see some of the members sort of haul off and do their own thing because waiting for leadership is just not where it's at.

Time is passing and time is of the essence. Indeed it is. All right, y'all, quick break. Be right back. Roland Martin, Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

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

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people,

real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out.

Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. ...historical things that have happened. Check us out on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, everybody. I'm Kim Coles. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish, and you're watching...

Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, Tennessee Congresswoman Diane Harshberger, Republican, getting some blowback, because she called referencing, talking about Representative Al Green, called him a boy. Roll it. It's been a long time coming for me, and it's an honor.

The people you serve want to see you. They saw me at the inauguration because we kind of forced our way into the front. That's another story for another day. But then they saw me at the State of the Union, too, and I saved that seat from 930 that morning. And who am I sitting across from? Al Green that gets the first member to ever get ejected. I'm like, Lord Jesus, I was on front of every magazine from here to Knoxville. Attorneys will get in a

courtroom, and they'll fuss and fight with each other, but as soon as it's over, they go out to dinner, have coffee, whatever. Do Congress people do that? Well, Lord Jesus, they make money that way, too. They get up and rant and rave and tweet or X or whatever it is. Hold their signs up during the stay of the year. Now, that's got me. I wanted to go over there and grab a few of them, but Al Green was over here with his cane. And I'm like, gosh, dang it, boy.

He does not need that cane. That cane is a prop. I swear it's not real. And I'm wondering, one of my colleagues said, screw the go part off of that. See if there's a gun in there. I'm like, I don't know about that man. He's just weird out. First of all, she claims all the attention she got.

Literally, I don't even know who the hell she is. I ain't never heard of this woman. I have never heard of this congresswoman. So, I don't never heard of this woman. I have never heard of this congresswoman. So, I don't know. You should be thanking Al Green, because the only reason we even mentioning your country ass is because of what she said. Here's Congressman Al Green at a news conference.

...accept for today to communicate. And there's also a reference that was made to McCain. I'll talk about all three of these, and then each person here will have an opportunity to speak as well. We're all going to try to be as brief as possible. But this is a topic that many people are very passionate about, both of these topics, meaning the slur on the LGBTQ plus community, as well as a slur on black men. Boy, this is especially sensitive for me because as a child, I remember my father being stopped by

a peace officer, and the officer referred to my father as boy. And my mother was girl. And it wasn't just that one time. It was the way society addressed people of color who were of African ancestry at the time. It wasn't said to indicate that you were youthful. It was said to demean, to degrade, to denigrate. It was said such that you would know your place in society, and it was something that you would immediately have said to you. I can remember the child of an Anglo male calling my father boy. The child. My mother was called girl in the presence of her friends on one occasion.

Friends, it's not about Al Green. It's about whether black people in this society are going to allow slurs such as this to be normalized. We cannot allow the normalization of these kinds of slurs. Lauren, your thoughts? You know, Tennessee. Tennessee, Roland. You ever notice how it's always Tennessee? I wonder why that is. You know the history, right?

Tennessee. Here we go. And you're right. I had never heard of this member of Congress. And I cover Congress. So I was very surprised to see it. I was like, is that woman a Congresswoman? You know, I'm glad Al Green is out saying something about this and that there are people still in Congress who do bring up and don't just sit there and not say anything when these things happen. Because increasingly what we find is that nobody says anything. We're talking—like, racism is not disqualifying. That's just a fact. Racism in politics is not a disqualifying factor, as we found out last November.

So I'm glad that he's saying it. He should speak out and speak up. And more Democrats have to join him. We seem to be the only group that never gets joined when something like this happens. And then we're expected to join other groups when stuff happens, you know, to them on their watch and this type of thing when it's something bigoted. So I'm glad he's speaking up. Al Green is a special character. And so good for him.

Yeah, it's always Tennessee, Rebecca. I'm done. That kind ain't real. That kind ain't real. Girl. Rebecca, go on. They gonna make me cuss on this Wednesday. Go ahead.

Diana knew what she was doing. My great-great-grandfather, Henry Carruthers, was enslaved in Tennessee. She knows what that means when she said boy. And she said it so casually and kind of just said it like she was saying something so funny. And it was trying to be coy. It's like, come on. Here's the other thing about Congressman Al Green. We shop at the same grocery store. I've seen him with groceries and using his cane. It's a mobility aid because he needs it. I would say that this would be beneath

Miss Diana, but considering we really don't know what she does, we really haven't even heard of her, I mean, this just might... Okay, cool. She got her 15 seconds. Al Green is a better person than her. It's a little hard to be something beneath her, Joe,

when she's already at the bottom of the barrel. Right, exactly. First shout-out to my family, Justin Robinson of the Houston Area Urban League. Saw him in the picture there. I have to text him. But, yeah, what's bad, it's not like she said, oh, boy. It's not like she was above board and above level other than this slip up. She, to Rebecca's point, she's making

a lot of personal slights. Oh, you know, he doesn't, you know, he doesn't need his cane and oh, no, he's the only one to get thrown out of, get thrown out of a State of the Union session and all of these other things that have nothing to do with her and her constituents, frankly. And so, you know, that's what you're dealing with. And there's this problem with normalizing racism. And she did slide it in. She knew what she was doing when she said, boy, because you know what? You or I can't be in certain rooms and slip up and say things like that. So she should be penalized for not saying that, for saying the wrong thing as well. But if you don't care, that's how you get down. See, that's what DEI is. Here's somebody, we didn't know nothing about her. She could have been in Congress for years. We don't know her

from a hill of veins. We didn't know nothing about her until she had something to say about Al Green. Now, how impactful is she if you and I and we don't know anything about her? But maybe that's what the DEI is that they be talking about. Diana Hartsburger ain't nothing but a hillbilly from Tennessee. Just a country-ass bumpkin from Tennessee. It's as simple as that. And if you go to Memphis or Nashville, would nobody know who the hell she is?

All right, y'all, last night, Jackson, Mississippi, incumbent Chokwe Lumumba lost his re-election bid to Mississippi State Senator John Horne. Horne has been a 30-year veteran of politics, beat him with nearly 75% of the vote. He, of course, had run three previous times a mayor, and he lost. It was a shocking reversal from Lumumba's dominant 2021 re-election race, where he got 70-plus percent of the vote.

Lumumba was seeking a third term, but the city is facing a very turbulent time. Water issues, trash issues. Lumumba has been indicted by federal authorities as well. And so Horn is going to be running in the June 3rd general election where he will face the winner of the Republican primary runoff, independent candidates. But we're talking about Jackson, Mississippi, heavily Democrat, heavily black. So pretty much he is going to be the next mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. Folk, Kentucky has its first black state Supreme Court justice.

Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine was officially sworn in on Friday inside the PAC chambers in Frankfort, Kentucky, with two overflow rooms filled with supporters. She's a native of Youngstown, Ohio. Her high school is valedictorian. Goodwine began her legal journey as a secretary and court stenographer. She went on to earn both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kentucky. In 1994, she entered private practice

with Wyatt, Taryn, and Combs before being appointed to the district court bench in 1999. She was elected as a circuit court judge in 2003 and made history again in 2018 as the first black woman elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. So congratulations to Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine. All right, y'all.

My last one, I saw this earlier, and I really try to ignore these dumb maggots. But I couldn't ignore this one. So Byron Donalds had him a little town hall and they were lighting his ass up in his town hall. But I just got to show y'all this here. So this

fool actually posted this is what he did. He posted he's mad because they've had clips of his town hall showing folk, you know, getting this behind. So he decides to post this 11 minute video from his town hall. But this is his tweet. The left created a false premise that minorities can only get ahead with DEI. That's actually a lie.

This is wrong. This is a lie. Actually, your lie is a lie. This is incredibly disrespectful. Life, y'all, now this is the one that took me out. Life is about access and relationships. We should celebrate the success of all Americans, not tear down our neighbors in the name of DEI.

Rebecca, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are meant to include you. And by including you, that means offering up a diverse field of people in order to have equity among jobs. So he says life is about access that's why the programs were created to give access to literally give access to people who traditionally don't have the relationships already. I mean, speaking of relationships and DEI, is he still mad that DeSantis is undercutting his potential bid for governor of Florida? I don't understand what he's doing, or even when he said all the people who protested

at his town hall that they were plants and they were being paid. I mean, I—he confuses me. Here's the thing. Black folks in this country, we really don't want DEI if this was a true meritocracy, because we know if it's a true meritocracy, we're going to rise to the top. But when you have systemic racism in this country, where we're intentionally left out of society in this country when it comes to proper banking loan rates, when it comes to education, when it comes to actually being

able to compete and get the jobs and the quote-unquote good jobs, we don't want DEI. We just want to be treated fairly. But because this country refuses to deal with its original sin and refuses to deal with us fairly, then these white people did come up with DEI. So he's right. White people did come up with DEI. White people are the main ones who benefits from DEI. But what he's saying is a word salad that doesn't make sense, because all this anti-Blackness that he's showing, he's not even getting things out of it. Like, you wouldn't run for governor. You have other political aspirations, and you don't get it.

You wanted to be in Trump's cabinet, and guess what? You did not get it. But you did all this shucking and jiving. So now you're playing the fool, the minstrel. You're doing your own DEI program, but it's not working. I thought this was pretty funny, Lauren, from the town hall.

A cast by Isabel Wilkerson. Have you read the book of my life? All right. A cast. Stop, stop, stop. Don't educate me about my life, sir. Don't do that. Don't, don't, don't, sir.

Hold on, hold on. What? Please, hear me on this. I like how everybody's shouting at me, the black guy who stays in the white corner, saying, have you read the book, have you read the book? I'm sorry, wait a minute. The guy said, have you read Cast by Isabel Wilkerson?

And then what does he then do? Hope y'all didn't miss it. Y'all yelling at the black guy on the stage. Oh, so now we are acknowledging blackness. Allow me to play it again just in case some of you missed it. Listen. Have you read the book Cast by Isabel Wilkerson? Have you read the book of my life?

Cast. Stop, stop, stop. Don't educate me about my life, sir. Don't do that. Don't, don't, don't, sir. Hold on, hold on. What? Please, hear me on this.

I like how everybody's shouting at me, the black guy who's standing in the white corner, saying, have you read this book? Have you read this book? Have you read this book? Don't marginalize my life, what I've done. Don't do that. Don't marginalize people's lives.

People's lives are your real love. Don't do that. Don't marginalize their lives. Do you know how many black men in America? Oh, oh, oh, do you know how many black men in America? Oh, oh, oh. Do you know how many black men in America? Oh, I'm sorry. Lauren, are we having a DEI conversation? Now we're black now.

Now suddenly we're black. We're black. Uh-oh, we're black. He's going to get his melanin card pulled hard on the governor thing. I'm glad Rebecca brought that up. He's going to get that card pulled hard. Because just sitting here, I realized who he is. Well, he's not J.C. Watts, but this reminds me of the J.C. Watts scenario.

Because every room that Byron Donalds walks into on Capitol Hill is a bunch of white males. He's got to realize that. So when he talks about—I mean, for him to stand up there and talk about, you know, diversity, inclusion being a problem and all of this stuff, I mean, his reality day to day in Congress would reflect that there is a need for access for minority communities. I mean, you cannot deny that. But he's about to get a political lesson down South. There's no doubt about it, because they are not going to favor him for the next governor of Florida. That ain't happening. So, you know, it amazes me how long it takes some of these guys to figure out what the real game is. But, honey, he's about to figure it out.

And for him to sort of be out there arguing about reverse racism as if you can somehow lie to yourself like this in front of all these people and then go home at night and not realize that this is all nonsense. I mean, I get that he's trying to, you know, be loyal to the party. As Rebecca already brought up, he got nothing for that. And he's about to learn the lesson. You know, by the way, Roland, you know, Donald has a bill to rename the press gallery after Frederick Douglass, something I find highly ironic because it's very hard for black members of the press

to get credentialed in that daily press gallery on Capitol Hill. But I'm going to talk to him next week about that because he's probably unaware of that. But at any rate, it is amazing to watch him up there. I cannot, I refuse to believe he is

unaware of what he's doing as it may seem. But here's the other deal though, again, if you want to name it after somebody, I don't know. Alice Dunnigan. Mm-hmm. Ethel Payne. They've got photos and stuff up in the gallery of Ethel Payne. And they've got a photo of Frederick Douglass.

I find all of that to be completely... No, no, no. I'm just saying that if you want to rename it after somebody, you name it after somebody who actually covered... So again, that's the... Dude, it's like, do you really want to have a conversation about the agenda of Frederick Douglass? He does have a history of black press in that bill. There's sort of a little bit of a historiography of the black press. Again, I'll talk to him face to face. Right. No, no, no. But the point

that you're making is an important one. Dude, if you want to be credible, then why don't you sit down with the black press today? Why don't, show me Byron Donald's, your black press round table. Show me how many black owned media TV interviews you do.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, what was I thinking? I'm somehow Joe talking about accountability. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Yeah, it's his damnedest thing, you know. And, you know, it's interesting, you know, you gotta give it to him. He's pragmatic. Like, in a moment

something jumped off and he became black before our eyes. Now, listen, we all knew he was black. I mean, the brothers by complexion, we knew. But at that moment, because of what he said, he knew. And most of the time he plays it off. But that being said, we don't go down the row here. And there's you know, there's plenty of legit black conservatives out here that you disagree with, but who aren't putting the black card down all day, every day. But when he gets, you know,

chomped up by those alligators in Florida, let's see if he takes advantage and becomes black again and does that. When he sees it's on, sees it, a ring of unfairness and see that he gets no traction and see that it goes nowhere, then we'll see, you know, if he becomes black then. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your

gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

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

I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate

choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith

from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car

and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. And if he just kind of chalks it up to the game, particularly if he has a poor campaign, how he'll actually explain it. But see, for me, it's it's for me. I just got to go ahead and say this because I am I'm I'm you know, I was not going to show this fool on today's show, but y'all are just going to go ahead and make me do this.

Because I just, it's just stupid stuff. It's just stupid stuff that people say that really gets on my nerve. And let's see. I'm sorry. Did she delete it? So Kim Klachick. I'm sorry. Did she delete it? So Kim Claychick. Oh, gosh. Kim, you know what?

I think she deleted her post. Of course she did. So Kim Claychick, y'all, that's the black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black,all, that's the little black, the maggot child in Baltimore. She done lost every race she ran. So she posted, I already told y'all I'm petty. I already told y'all.

Everybody, Rebecca know, Joe know, Lauren know, my ass is petty. So, you know, I'll happily go to your page and light your ass up. So, earlier today, Kim Claychick

and I don't even, I think she deleted it. Now maybe it was somebody on somebody else's page and and deleted it. Now, maybe it was somebody on somebody else's page. And hold on, because somebody sent it to me this morning

and that's the only reason I saw it. So, yeah, I think she deleted her post. So, she put up a post and she said, Donald Trump, he's black people. I don't understand.

Donald Trump is trying to dismantle this system and I thought y'all wanted this system that perpetuates systemic racism to be dismantled. So y'all should be supporting what Trump is doing. Now you had a few maggots, little minions commenting. So y'all know my petty ass. Had to comment.

And I said, really, Kim? That's interesting. Because I haven't seen you comment on Trump, U.S. attorney in L.A., trying to get a conviction overturned of a deputy sheriff who beat a black woman. I haven't heard y'all say anything about ending the settlement in Alabama regarding the black people in Lowndes County with sewage coming into their yards in the homes. I haven't seen y'all say a word about Donald Trump ending the pulling out of the case in

Louisiana, suing petrochemical companies in Cancer Alley that are killing black people. I said I thought y'all were pro-life. I said I haven't heard y'all say a word about Trump pulling out of the lawsuit in Texas that said black and brown voters were being disenfranchised when they had redistricting. I haven't seen y'all say a word about Donald Trump pulling out of an investigation in a lawsuit against with her leading it against an HOA in Dallas and one billion dollars in hurricane relief not going to Harris County with black and brown communities. I said, so I'm confused. You say that Donald Trump is dismantling this system of that we have been criticizing. But your ass ain't said a word. GT FOH.

I can't find her post. That's a consciousness of guilt moment that you can't find her post. I can't find it. Like, literally, I mean... It got too hot. Like, literally, somebody sent it, and I can't find it. I'm on Instagram looking for it.

I mean, Clay Kane's book is correct. The grift is real. They know what they're doing. But the problem is Trump is going to punk them and make them look like idiots. Because that's where this is headed. When you fool around with the Blacksonian, you know, what you already said with Lowndes County and Harris County, that's all going to come, those chickens are going to come home to roost hard in a big way, and they're not going to be able to explain it.

The black conservatives are going to look ridiculous. That's what's going to happen. Go right ahead, Rebecca. Roland, if you're going to be full petty, if you're going to be petty LaBelle, you've got to take screenshots, because a bunch of these people, a bunch of these black MAGA people are posting and deleting because they're getting lit up in the comments. So I need you to take screenshots next time. I mean, what happened was this morning when I woke up and I saw it,

I was like, I think I need to respond. And then, yeah, I'm just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and I'm like, well, it wasn't I swore it was a recent comment and here I'm already in March and I'm scrolling and

now I'm about to roll into nope, that ain't it. Nope, that ain't. she got all these photos here on on westmore and i'm like girl bye you can't even she got more pictures of westmore on her page than westmore got on his instagram page uh she got all this stuff but i think the comment that she posted is gone. Kim, I don't understand. Hold up, is this it? Is this it? Oh.

Oh, here we go. It was from March 7th, so it wasn't a recent comment. So let me just go ahead and share the screen so I can just play this for y'all because this was too delicious. Because I just want y'all to hear. Let me put this code in. I just want y'all to hear, let me put this code in, I just want y'all to hear the sheer stupidity yourself of what Kim Klapchick had to say.

Okay, hold up, let me, let me, okay, all right, just let it play. What are we mad about? Turn that s*** down. So I just wanted to point out, my entire life, I've heard that the system is racist, and it's against black people and the black community. Donald Trump is currently dismantling the system, but black people are mad. I thought the system, but black people are bad. I thought the system was racist.

What are we bad about? Okay, so let's go into the little comments here. And I lit our ass up, and let's see here. It's amazing Shane responded to my post. Somebody said, Preach, you bring up a great point.

Please provide details on your point you're trying to make. Somebody, I don't get her point either. Okay. Let's see here. Let's see. Good one, sis. Right. Please stop making sense, really.

Somebody said, this is too funny. Right here. Somebody said, finish high school, baby girl. Then, let's see here. Oh, that's why you lost for the third straight time. Like, really? Okay. All right.

Got it. I just had to go and play that. I mean, you know, we had to have, last night we had our Wiz Khalifa, The Earth is Flat, even though Iifa the earth is flat even though I put the earth on my new album cover and it's round stupid ass comment of the day so what the heck I think

Kim Klaytchik's comment from March 7th qualifies as the dumb shit somebody said today well pace yourself pace yourself somebody said today. Well, pace yourself. Pace yourself. There's going to be more.

I just don't. I really do get upset with really stupid people. You know what I'd love to know? Why doesn't she have a job in the Trump administration? Say it again. Why doesn't she have a job in the Trump administration? Say it again? Why doesn't she have a job in the Trump administration? I mean, all of this presentation and free PR for Donald Trump,

why don't you have a job? Why doesn't Kim Klaychik have a job in the Trump administration? Probably because you need to have, oh, I don't know, a resume? Do you? Do you, Rowan? Or, I don't know, brains? If you're black, you do. That's what it could be

okay alright that's it for us I've had enough of stupid for today alright Lauren, Joe, Rebecca thank you so very much for joining us folks that is it for us if y'all want to support a show that calls out really stupid MAGA

people please support Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. And you know, we really tried our best to show you these people who are black maggots who have blonde hair thought processes.

And so that's what we got going on right here. So y'all want to support the work we do? Join our Bring the Funk fan club. The goal is real simple. We have 20,000 of our fans, likely not MAGA, contributing on average $50 a year, $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. You support this

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Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds available at bookstores nationwide. Get the audio version that I read on Audible. Also, folks, be sure to get your Roland Martin unfiltered Blackstar Network swag. That's right. Our T-shirts right there. Merchandise T-shirts, hoodies, wall art, mugs and more. Go to RolandMartin.Creator-Spring.com. Cura code is there as well. Also, download the app Fanbase. You see it right there. Go to Apple Store, Android Play Store to get Fanbase. If you want to invest in Fanbase, then you can do so by going to StartEngine.com forward slash Fanbase to invest. Folks, that is it. I will see y'all tomorrow right here. Roland Martin Unfiltered

on the Blackstar Network where we really are petty with stupid maggots. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holla! Blackstar Network is here.

Oh, no punch! A real revolution right now. Thank you for being the voice of black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? We'll be right back. Never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. 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 Lott. 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 recording studios. This is an iHeart Podcast.