#RolandMartinUnfiltered - SWAC MEDIA DAY, TN Black man viciously beaten by police speaks, Jan. 6 Primetime Hearing

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

7.21.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: SWAC MEDIA DAY,  TN Black man viciously beaten by police speaks, Jan. 6 Primetime Hearing  LIVE from Birmingham, Alabama, where the SWAC Media Day wrapped up earlier today. We spoke with several of the coaches and the SWAC commissioner. Stay tuned for some of those conversations later in the show.   We told you about the vicious beating of a black Tennessee man by police officers for a minor traffic violation. I'll talk to that man, his parents, and his attorney tonight.   The 8th January 6th hearing will air in prime time tonight; with the recent controversy surrounding the deleted United State Secret Service text messages, it's still unclear what information will come out tonight. Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Să ne urmăm. Thank you. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Thank you. Thank you. Martin! Să ne urmăm. Thank you. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? You dig? I'm ready. Today is Thursday, July 21st, 2022. Coming up on Roland Martin Unpilted, broadcasting live from Birmingham, site of the SWAC Media Day on the Black Star Network. We'll talk with Commissioner Charles McClellan about the SWAC, how they are looking to monetize the conference.

We'll also hear from head coaches Hugh Jackson of Grambling State, Deion Sanders. We talked to him, the head coach of Jackson State, about what HBCUs should be doing to improve how they do business. Also, a great conversation. I don't know how I got on fishing talking with Travis Hunter and one of Deion's sons, both Jackson State students. Y'all going to enjoy that conversation. Also, we chatted with my man, John Grant of ESPN about how HBCUs are doing well and how ESPN is expanding the footprint to accommodate these HBCUs. All of that from today's Swag Media Day.

Remember the story yesterday of the brother in Tennessee where the cops busted down his door because he ran a stop sign and was driving 12 miles up the speed limit? Well, he will join us on the show along with his parents and their attorney. Also, folks, the 8th, January 6th hearing will take place tonight where they will lay out a timeline of how Donald Trump get nothing to stop what took place on that day last year.

Folks, and also several prominent African-Americans have passed away and we will have a memorial for them. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. Roland Martin unfiltered from Birmingham, the Black Sun Network. Let's go. Sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin, yeah Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real

The best you know, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martez Martez We're here in Birmingham for We're here all day for the SWAC Media Day. So glad to have you joining us right here on Roland Martin, unfiltered on the Black Star Network. If you want to see, of course, our live coverage, all you got to do is actually just go to our Black Star Network. You'll see everything we did, all the interviews we did today, the folks who were here. But let's start with the U.S. Secret Service. They are facing a possible criminal probe in the deletion of text messages from January 5th to January 6th.

NBC News has confirmed that a senior Secret Service official says agency employees received two e-mails, at least one prior to January 6th, reminding them to preserve records on their cell phones before their devices were essentially restored to factory settings. The Secret Service has also hired outside lawyers because this is now fast moving to a criminal probe. I want to bring in now my panelists. Of course, they join us every Thursday. Erica Savage, founder of the Reframe Brain, Recy Colbert, founder of Black Women Reviews, Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American

Studies at Howard University. I must say, Greg, I want to start with you. This is significant how fast this thing is moving that, again, this may become a criminal probe because they may have broken the law by deleting these messages.

There is no doubt, based upon this NBC News reporting, that this was a deliberate act to erase these messages. That says a whole lot as to what potentially were in these text messages on January 5th and January 6th. Absolutely. Well, we know what was in them. We know that at a minimum what's in them is information as to what happened on the 5th and 6th. You know, those of us who are Black, who watch the Black Star Network, who watch Roland Martin Unfiltered, have not forgotten that in the days leading up to January the 6th, there were race incidents throughout the area around the White House. Remember, of course, Metropolitan AME Church. There are a number of things that are in those texts.

And this is a coordinated effort by law enforcement, the pat-a-rollers, to cover their tracks. And when I say it's a coordinated effort, I mean, anytime you start talking about the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, in October 2021, warning, thinking about warning people that the Secret Service is blocking requests for text messages and then choosing not to do so, there's no other explanation other than

you wanna protect your brethren. These white nationalists have this thing on lock, brother. And as we wait tonight to see Liz Cheney can lead this questioning tonight, of course, we wish the best recovery, of course, for Congressman Thompson, we understand that law enforcement has drawn a clear line between us and them. And so this type of theater, criminal investigation, well, if it's not going to amount to anything, I just say save the theater. Let's just, you know, say it with your chest. You don't want to be caught red-handed doing what you always do, which is what protects yourself before anybody

else. Recy, when we look at what's going on here, again, it says a whole lot in terms of culpability. The fact that the Secret Service already hiring outside lawyers, how the DHS IG also has issues here. And here's the problem. The DHS, especially the general, sat on the information as well. They have to be dealt with because they were aware of this six months ago, months ago, but said nothing to Congress. Yes, something is definitely not clean in the milk, obviously. You know, as Dr. Carr said, we've been saying on Roller Martin Unfiltered, this was likely partly an inside job on many facets of this insurrection. And it's very suspicious the way that these messages were intentionally deleted

after they had already received notice to not delete them. And what's even more interesting is we have big brothers hovering over us at every moment. They can retrieve text messages from everybody in their mama except for the damn Secret Service. So what is up with that? You know, I just saw an article the other day talking about you delete a text message and it ain't really going. So there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to recover the messages. But guess what? Once this turns criminal, I have this sneaking suspicion that some of those people that deleted some stuff might be trying to cut a deal first to save their ass. But we need to know the extent to which the Secret Service was involved because, unfortunately, a lot of those people are still there.

And one of the head Secret Service people went to work for Trump and is now back at the Secret Service again. So he needs to be the first one damn person out the door. Isn't it interesting, Greg, how all of the Where's Hillary emails people are real silent over where the Secret Service text messages? Of course. Well, I mean, it would be a lot more interesting if we lived in a nation. But we don't live in a nation. This is pure politics. This is political.

I mean, they're not going to change. They don't give a damn about Hillary's emails. They don't care about Hunter Biden's whatever. All these people care about can be summarized in a five-letter word. P-O-W-E-R. It doesn't matter. The rest of

it is theater. The rest of it is theater. Rather than bog down, you know, rather than bog down and gotcha and this is the truth and not the truth. If we understood that better, we could cut a lot of this BS and get organized and try to get some power instead of trying to, as Malcolm X might say, speak a language that they don't understand. Only language is power, brother. They don't care about them. That's true. This was a tweet. This was a tweet the January 6th committee sent out just the other day. We can go ahead and pull that up. It says the U.S. Secret Service system migration process went forward on January 27, 2021, just three weeks after the attack on the Capitol in which the vice president of the United

States, while under the protection of Secret Service, was steps from a violent mob hunting for him. I mean, common sense says you don't delete stuff. So give me a break with this whole, oh, no, nothing nefarious here. Yeah, it's definitely giving the dog a homework, okay, defense. Unfortunately, though, I mean, I just, I'm encouraged that it's turning criminal, but we've seen a lot of things kind of lead to nowhere. So I think what it really has to start with, it has to start with the top. Every time these investigations roll around, they get the lowest hanging fruit, and the leadership gets off scot-free. So I want to know what the folks that were also in the room

with Trump, what their involvement is. Because there's a reason why Mike Pence did not trust getting in the car with the Secret Service that day. He knows something, call his ass in there and have him testify as to what his hesitation was. And let's get to the bottom of this, because we still have a president and a vice president who are, you know, relying on the protection of their families. And we don't want a sleeper sale agent of Secret Service people to decide to come back to life when it comes time to count the votes the next time. That's right. Look, I mean, what we're talking about here, a bunch of people should be fired.

Folks should be put on administrative leave. Those things should be happening right now. And so bottom line, if the people who were in charge, they should not be in any decision-making position right now. Suspend them as we speak. President Biden should be a hell of a lot more aggressive, and Democrats should be far more aggressive in confronting this issue because, again, when you have the chief agency that's charged with protecting the president and the vice president doing something like this here, this is a fundamental problem.

This is absolutely, Greg, when you talk about an inside job, that has to be dealt with. Absolutely, Roland. But again, I mean, we have to think about how are we defining problem? It's a problem if we're talking about a country that has a rule of law that is to benefit the people who live in the country. But that's not what we have. We have a country that is currently hurtling toward white minority rule and has been seized by an oligarchy that has been enabled by a federal judiciary, thanks to Citizens United and everything that leads up to it, that can basically buy elections. Let's remember that just a few weeks ago, the House approved an amendment to the National

Defense Authorization Act to compel government officials to prepare a report on combating white supremacists and neo-Nazi activity in the police and military. And the vote was 218 to 208. Every member of the white nationalist party voted against it. Now last I checked, Liz Cheney, who will be leading the hearings tonight, is a member of the white nationalist party. Every member. Why wouldn't you want to investigate where the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis are in law enforcement?

You know why? Because you already know where they are. They have infiltrated it. Remember, you covered this story when it was last year when Jamie Rankin had the House subcommittee, Judiciary subcommittee, and they had the hearings and assisted from St. Louis, the retired police sergeant came in and testified as to how they are thoroughly infiltrated. What we will probably see, we'll see a criminal investigation. As Risi said, people will start knocking on each other. Heads will roll, maybe the top of the place.

But what the problem is, not that there's a handful of bad apples, this is the bad apple defense, is that this is not only thoroughly, thoroughly kind of infested with white supremacists and white nationalists, the white nationalists and neo-Nazis who have thoroughly kind of infested this structure are thoroughly infesting a structure that was already thoroughly structured to do what it's doing. So when we say, oh, the president, the vice president, the question we have to ask is, which president? Which vice president?

Smile on my pants as a white nationalist, but he knows that he ain't as much of a white nationalist as the guy who was at the top of the food chain, and he knows who those guys are. That's why he wouldn't get in the car. That's why his party will not try to investigate because they don't need an investigation. They already know that they're there and they're there on their side right now,

which brings us back to that little five-letter word, power. Uh-huh. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks, got to go to break. When we come back, we're going to talk with a young man who was in, who ran into his home in Tennessee, cop bussing through the door, chased him down, viciously beat him for running a stop sign

and being 12 miles over the speed limit. We'll talk with him, his parents, and his attorney next on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. On the Black Table with me, Greg Carr, we connect the dots and reveal a big picture you absolutely need to see. We'll explore how all the recent Supreme Court decisions fit together, like hand in glove, with the longstanding and very patient agenda of the GOP. As one of our guests tells us, conservatives are playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers. And we're getting really close to checkmate.

A black table you won't want to miss. That's next, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Amber Stephens-West from The Carmichael Show. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered. . All right, folks, we told you the shocking story of Brandon Callaway, the

DoorDash driver, Oakland, Tennessee, who police say ran a stop sign, was going 12 miles over the speed limit, afraid of something happening, drove half a mile to his home, then raced inside. That's when the cops then stormed through the home. Roll the video if you have it, folks. Stormed through the home, grabbed him, attacked him, beat him as a result. It is an unbelievable story here. And so, again, for folks who didn't see it, this was literally what took place as multiple police agencies came through.

And you see, I mean, this was video that was shot inside of the home as these cops pursued him. So we talked about it yesterday. And again, Brandon failed to stop at a stop sign, again, driving 32 miles an hour in a 20-mile-an-hour zone. And the police say that he ran into the house and was reaching into his pockets. Well, joining us now is Brandon Calloway, also his attorney, Andre Wharton. Glad to have both of you on the show.

And Brandon, just so you know, you also have a couple of fellow alphas here, myself and Dr. Greg Carr. So walk us through, Brandon, from the beginning, what happened on this particular day? What happened? You were in the car. You're a DoorDash driver. Were you finishing a delivery? Were you on delivery? Or were simply headed home walk us through what happened

Well, well, we keep getting Rolling yes, I hear you Can you see me this yes Andre? Yes, sir. Can you see I can see you in here you go ahead Yes, sir, I appreciate it. First, Roland, Mr. Martin, thank you for having us on. We appreciate the awareness you bring to so many stories, in particular this one. It's unfortunate that we have to come to you in this form for this type of story, but we are where we are.

I'm not allowing Brandon at this time to really comment on the incidents themselves, only because he still has a pending criminal case right now that we're sorting through and hopefully will work out. So him commenting on that, I just prefer to be the one commenting on that. I'm glad to kind of take you through what we believe happened regarding leading up to unusual. All right. So what happened? Well, as you indicated earlier in the lead-in, it appears that, first of all, let me just give you a little backdrop. Brent is a college grad, UT Chad.

I know you'll probably cover that a little bit here. Finished in 2021, last year, a degree in electrical engineering. Started his own business. His full-time business is a business doing loan closings. He actually goes mobile to various individuals. I think to this day he'll clarify this for me. I think he's got close to 1,000 of those. I don't know if he started his business while in undergrad or if he started that once he got out.

But he's an entrepreneur. This DoorDash was merely a part-time thing. His full-time gig is with loan transactions. And so he'll comment on that a little bit. But as far as the incident itself, you all will have access to the affidavit. We don't already have it. But the affidavit reflects that he got to a stop sign. They say it's counter-conflict because they say that he was turning and then stopped. They first

say he disregarded the stop sign, then they say in the next clause, which is separated by a comma, but he stopped in the middle of his turn. So whether or not there was a violation to justify what happened next, the speed allegedly 12 over, they pursue him to the house. He gets out wondering why are these guys following me? Obviously, as what goes through so many of our heads, young African-American males, not just young, middle aged and old these days. What's going through his head is, oh, no, I don't live in this town. My family does. That shouldn't be a criteria to be safe. But I know I'm an outsider.

I know I have out-of-county tags. Let me get on out of that way. I'm not sure how this is going to end up. So Brandon is trying to enter his home. He's professing to the police what happened. He did not violate any laws. And he goes in the house for a point. There was some dialogue between the officers and Brandon.

At some point, the officer moves to the station. The traffic stop calls backup. And things just got out of hand from there. Backup arrives. The affidavit states that he basically asked the backup officer, asked the original officer, do we want to detain him? The original officer says yes. Then, frankly, all hell breaks loose at that point.

And the officer entered the home. You can see this on that video, I believe, that you ran, reflects this. They go in the home. The taser's out, the baton is out, and they're ready to go to work. I don't mean in a cautious way, in a law enforcement appropriate way. They're going to work on Brandon from what we believe was a vindictive retaliatory response and just totally escalated. So if you watch that video, as they're entering, they're using the taser and they're swinging automatically when they come in. We believe they connect with Brandon immediately when they come in.

They're hitting him, punching him with this baton, and they run, chasing him throughout the house, which you see there. And what really adds insult to injury, Roland, you probably watched this. If y'all watched this video a few times, you probably saw it at the end. It was so reminiscent of the George Floyd incident. Every time I hear this video and watch it, Roland, I couldn't see it when y'all ran it probably because of the virtual feature here. But any time I hear it, my stomach is unsettled. Just to hear the sounds. I don't even have to watch the video, hear the sounds of it. But at the end of the video, towards the end,

when right before Brandon is being walked out, bleeding profusely, you can see the officers, they have them on the ground. And one of these officers. They have him on the ground. And one of these officers, I believe it was the one with the baton. I could be mistaken. But one of the officers steps on his head and neck as he's in a standing position just to add the exclamation point

to this cruel and inhumane punishment that they put upon him on the scene. So, you know, the other pictures just speak a thousand words. I mean, he's taken out. I believe at some point he is unconscious at some point during this attack. And at some point you see in the photos where he's laying down on the ground, essentially prostrate, laying down, that he's just out of it. And the rest is pretty much free. He's transported

to hospital, treated for head injuries, stitches. He's suffered some limitations in one of his eyes, required stitches. And this treatment is going to be ongoing. His symptoms that he's

experiencing, you can talk a little bit more with him about that, but he's experienced symptoms that are consistent with the head injury, the type that he's sustained. And so it's just a rather unfortunate incident. Brandon, if you can talk about that, what has life been like for you since this encounter? Honestly, man, it was like a bad dream just to cut it short. I just can't believe it happened to me,

but I just thank God I'm still alive. Your attorney talked about the injuries. What are you still dealing with on a daily basis? I'm dealing with memory loss, constant headaches, eye problems. When I see, look in the eye, look in the light, I can't really, it really hurts my head, and I can't really focus for too long on many things. Clearly, with that video, you were scared. And the home, was it your home or was it a family member's home that you went to? It was my father's home.

And so we saw different folks who were there. Who was home at the time because we saw different people on the video? It was my girlfriend and her friend. We were just in town just to hang out for the video. It was my girlfriend and her friend. We were just in town just to hang out for the night. You have talked to the people who reached out to you. I talked to our Alpha General President, Lonser, who said they've been in contact with you, Andre and the family as well. I mean, you know, this is one of those stories where we've covered so many,

where different brothers ended up dead with traffic cops, with police. For you, was it a matter of just being absolutely just fearful that night of anything happening, which is why you went home? Well, so, Roland, Roland, Roland. Go ahead. Yeah, let me comment on that. Go ahead. Just to comment on that. Just to comment on that. I think clearly the fear factor is one that sets in anytime

you are in a somewhat foreign area as far as for Brandon there. I think that's just almost instinctual for him to react to, particularly when you felt you've done nothing wrong. We've seen so many encounters end up where someone

has done nothing wrong and they've ended up with severe injuries or death. And so I think clearly that was a part of the thought process on the part of Brandon. But let's not, you know, shy away from the fact that notwithstanding the basis of this traffic stop, whether there was a sufficient or lawful basis for it, the other story, and I think the bigger story here is what happens afterwards. And was there a disproportionate use of force? And I think that point deserves really underlining, bolding, and italicizing because so many of these situations, what they lack is de-escalation as opposed to escalation.

They quickly escalate when proper training and proper implementation of the training would suggest a different outcome. And in so many instances, so many of these unfortunate incidents could be avoided just with proper training and proper implementation of the training. And we've got to—this is a shining example of what law enforcement should not do. I mean, I dare say that they should use this on their training videos to say, look, we're going to give you five examples of bad police operations, bad police responses, and here's one of them. And then have their officers go through that and have them tell them why, what could have been done differently. I think this serves as an example of something that could have been avoided. And unfortunately, Brandon has to be an example for hopefully future situations of these encounters so that we can prevent it.

Well, that is certainly what many people are focused on. First, Brandon, we're glad to see that you actually are still alive because too many other brothers have not made it out of these different traffic stops. So both of you certainly keep us up to date. We follow this case to see what happens next. Brandon, as well as Andre, thanks a lot. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Reese, I want to start with you. This is a tweet that you sent out today in response to a Sherrilyn Ifill tweet about President Biden soon announcing money for the hiring train, an additional 100,000 police officers. You tweeted, hiring police officers needs to be the first thing on the chopping block during negotiations because this is absurd. And again, everybody, you have these people who are touting, oh, my God, crime is out of control. But you got black people who are saying, no, cops are out of control. Absolutely. I mean, my blood is boiling right now because that's some straight up bullshit, what Brandon had to endure.

And it's heartbreaking. You know, the videos we see and they go viral and they're spread around, you know, millions of views. But what we don't often see is the trauma for the people that survived these vicious encounters with the police. I mean, Brandon could barely even, you know, speak in that interview because it's obvious that he's so very traumatized by this. You know, we're obviously very grateful that he survived, but, you know, surviving isn't just the end of it. You know, it's just the beginning of the horrors that these police brutality victims have to endure. And so do black people want safer neighborhoods? Abso-fucking-lutely we want safer neighborhoods. But we don't want the cops busting us upside our goddamn heads to make the neighborhood safe.

If people want to get their door dashed, you know, there's no reason for somebody to be getting harassed like that. Running a stop sign, I've gotten a ticket for that when I was 16 years old. It's called a rolling stop. You know what I'm saying? And the fact that they ran up in his house is just so appalling. I'm surprised they didn't come in guns blazing, but it's a citation. I have traffic cameras. I got parking ticket cameras right outside my house. Maybe they need to get rid of cops and put in some damn parking citation cameras. I will take big brother over these cops chasing people to

their home over a damn so-called stop sign and beating them up and traumatizing an entire family. There is no solution to any of our ills in society that involves more cops point blank in the period.

And I will die on that hill. Greg? I agree with Recy. I mean, there really isn't a problem in terms of law enforcement. These are patarolas. They are hunters. They are doing the job that they were set up to do at the beginning of this criminal enterprise called United States of America, and unfortunately, a job that isn't just in the United States, but is a job worldwide.

You see these kind of problems worldwide. Of course, here in the United States, it has the added advantage to the patty rollers of being racialized. So it isn't just women. I mean, men, it's women as well. We know Sandra Bland lost her life as a result of some bullshit like this. And so, you know, of course, as you say, Brother Brandon, who said the most important thing, he's just glad to be alive. Quite frankly, I don't know what I would have done in the face of being the lights being switched on and me being that close to my family's house. Because had he completely complied with them and stopped, he may have been killed on the street. So one of the things that may have saved his life was that as those out of shape punk ass

cops taking the stairs in his house two at a time began running up, there were other people there. They have all the chicken hearted courage of those punk ass cops, almost 400 of them in Uval, Texas. So, you know, they don't like the fact that there were others around. So perhaps they didn't want to shoot that sister that we saw in the frame. And it looked like there was an American Negro wearing blue running through the house. But, you know, it really doesn't matter. But at the end of the day, you know, the issue, of course, of not having a warrant doesn't mean anything. These are hunters.

And so in the words of the retired Shelby County cop, and we know that this little community of Oakland is east of Memphis, you know, he says, you know, well, he should have complied. They had to do something. You're absolutely right, officer. They had to do something. Because these n words got to be shown. Who is the law in here. So if you, if we stop you, hell, he didn't even have to have a violation.

12 miles over the speed limit, a rolling stop, whatever the pretense was, y'all was out hunting, and y'all punk asses got involved, that adrenaline started flowing, and that insecurity that was bred after you came out of your mother's wombs and you nurtured your whole life of feeling that somehow you were inadequate until they gave you a damn gun and a badge, kicked into overdrive, and you kicked in a door in somebody's house. So not only should you lose your job, please understand, y'all, this is why the legislation is important. This is why qualified immunity has to be erased. Because when they sue and when, it's going to be the tax dollars of people who should be protected

by the police that are going to have to pay the settlement. And then they'll take that money out of schools. They'll take that money out of the fire department and other things. No, get rid of qualified immunity. Every punk ass cop that is now on paid vacation while they're investigating should have to pay with his house, with his mortgage, with his car and let his family be outside. And that's how you stop it. Now, in terms of going to jail, sure, you can send him to jail. But this is not going to stop until we fundamentally understand that these police were not out of order.

They were not out of order. They are structured to do what they're doing. And the society we live in right now, they have been encouraged to do it. So, yeah, I'm glad that Brother Brandon survived with his life. But as you said, Recy, it isn't just surviving the encounter. That brother's going to carry that for the rest of his natural life. And I don't know what I would have done in that situation. I don't know that I wouldn't have tried to get to my daddy's house

rather than be killed on the street by these punk-ass cops. I know. Yeah. Erica Savage? Your thoughts? Yeah, I agree with everything that my brother and my sister have already said. And, I mean, these are effective stormtroopers. Recy has said this over and over again on his program is that to be more litigious.

And I definitely agree with Dr. Carr when he says that they need to lose their house. They need to lose their sense of stability. They need to effectively have to beg for everything that comes in their mouth and in their hands. And in thought and thinking about Brandon, you know, one of the first things that came to mind to me with regard to the unjustified beating and trauma that ensued was that he is suffering from, if not one, probably more than a couple brain injuries. His life will not ever be the same. And I can absolutely testify to that. You see a person that is sitting before you and that's able to share a little bit. But I can remember in the beginning of my brain injury, I sounded the same way that I did. And it wasn't until a week or so later that my speech started to decline and that I started having issues with memory and that I started not being able to see well. And I lost the ability temporarily to read. of what he's experiencing and then experiencing something by slave patrol who this event is nothing more than a resume builder for them at this moment.

As we continue to see more and more law enforcement cops do these types of things to black folks, that they're getting it on video. And so this is really an effective way for them to be able to say that, yeah, I'm committed. I'm committed to the cause. I'll do whatever needs to be done. I'll make sure that these people understand who has power, who will always have power. So definitely for Brandon and for all of those family members that had to watch that trauma. I hope that they can effectively be very litigious,

but that this brother has an extraordinary road ahead of him. And I, again, join in what everyone else has said, that he will never be the same. Indeed. Indeed. So we're going to continue to cover this story. Folks, today in Minneapolis, one of the four police officers who one of the police officers who participated in the death of George Floyd by doing nothing actually was sentenced to prison. Two and a half years in prison for one of those police officers. We've been covering this, of course. And why is this important? Because what it says is that if you are a cop and you stand around and do nothing, you can be held responsible for your actions. And so today in a federal, excuse me one second, in a federal courtroom, this particular officer, again, got two and a half years in prison,

Thomas Lane, federal civil rights charges for his role. And remember, he and two other officers, they were convicted of violating Floyd's civil rights in February. He was the one who held down George Floyd's legs as he gasped for air while dying after, of course, another cop had his knee in his back. And I really do believe, Erica, that why this is important, because we often talk about how other cops need to intercede when they see wrongdoing. And that is absolutely the case here. Yes. And understanding that the family was pushing for more time and that this was what the judge handed down this sentence of about 27 months. It is important that law enforcement cops understand that when they actually participate in a crime, that they are being held accountable for that crime.

And I really do commend and I really think so much of the George Floyd family having such a publicized death that brought about such a global response and still being in court to follow these situations through. This is something that is a message for all of us. It is about the follow-through. It is about holding people accountable, folks that have shields of power, people that have power protected, that they still continue to follow as all of these different officers that were involved in the death of their loved ones are being sentenced. So as unjust as this may seem, and we won't have him with us any longer, so that would absolutely be justice to have that brother here still with us. I really do applaud the family for connecting. And this is also a legislative example as well, too, for people to take a message from as well that it's after the lights, the camera, the action, after the crowd has died down to continue to keep pressure on your lawmakers, keep pressure on those things that will ensure that your community and people that are responsible to bring in violence and danger and harm to your community that

they are held accountable. So again definitely sending a lot of warmness to the George Floyd family and hopefully that people will see that they will be held accountable when they participate in the death of citizens. Thing here, Recy, for me, another great job by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice under Christian Clark. I mean, what they are doing is holding people to account. And yeah, this should send a message to any cop out there. Stand around and do nothing when one of your own is beating somebody or killing somebody.

You too can go to prison. Yeah, absolutely. I think that the DOJ has really been excellent in terms of their enforcement of civil rights, which is something that we saw not being done across the board of the Trump administration, whether it was in the DOJ or Department of Education. You know, I think it's important to leave no stone unturned in terms of federal and local charges,

in terms of civil rights violations and other violations. I think two and a half years is inadequate because he was still physically involved in the murder of George Floyd. He didn't just stand around. He was physically pinning George Floyd down as well. But I will absolutely celebrate the fact that there is a jail sentence and there is accountability because we've seen cops blow people's heads off and still get off scot-free. And so I think every one of these pigs that end up getting, you know, convicted and sentenced, even if it's not always adequate in terms of the sentencing, sends a message that, you know, it's going to catch up to you eventually. May not catch up to 100% of y'all, but maybe that 2% that it does catch up with

will give people pause the next time they want to do something like this. Greg? I would agree. I would agree. It's inadequate. It's better than nothing. And we know that the feds asked for six and a half years. And apparently 145 people wrote letters in support of young Thomas Lane, relatively young Thomas Lane, rookie guy.

Of course it's inadequate. It's better than nothing. But now my question becomes what about these other two? Because, see, Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, and Thomas Lane helped him. Exactly what Reesey said. It would have been different, perhaps, if he hadn't touched the body, but he held the man's legs down. And, yes, he said, should we turn him over a couple of times?

Should we turn him over a couple of times? You know, apparently the judge, well, he said, should we turn him on his side twice? And yeah, so what? Because if Roland Martin had leaned on somebody's neck and Greg Carr had held the, had the, had his,

had his legs the whole time, if Erica Sacks had leaned on somebody's neck and Reesey Colbert had had the guy's legs all the time, then we're going to get the same damn sentence. See, this is where we get to the deeper issue, the philosophy of murder. These pat-a-rollers are state-sanctioned murderers. There would be no parsing out of the murder if it was us. The distance between what you do when you kill somebody and you don't have a badge and what you get when you do have a badge is the distance between civilization and barbarism. So while we're counting the difference between years, we should be looking at the underlying philosophy of murderers because these two murderers didn't get the same sentence.

That's because they're all protected. Meanwhile, the rest of them, like these punk asses in West Tennessee, is kicking in doors, emboldened by the fact that the philosophy of murder is intact. And can I just say, to me, the whole should we turn them over is no different than taser, taser, taser. Because these cops set up their defense as they're murdering Black people. They know what they do. They have the little buzzwords in there so that when it comes time, if sugar goes to shit for them and they face

some kind of legal culpability, well, he said taser. I think they really thought it was a taser, even though it didn't look like nothing like a goddamn taser. Well, he said it should be turned him over, even though he's pinning him down. So I don't give a damn what cops say when they're in the process of killing

people, because all it is is setting up some reasonable doubt, some benefit of the doubt, try to get them off lighter when they do, should they have any kind of criminal charges that they're facing. That's right. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We'll come back. President Joe Biden tests positive for COVID. We'll talk about that story. Also, we'll have more from the SWAC Media Day here in Birmingham.

We'll hear from the commissioner, Charles McClellan, Deion Sanders, head coach of Jackson State, Hugh Jackson, head coach at Grambling State. We'll also have, y'all are going to really enjoy the fishing and golf conversation I had with a couple of Jackson State players as well. Plus, we talked with John Grant of ESPN about how they are recognizing the power of HBCU viewers. That means you. Folks, support us in what we do here. Be sure to download the Black Start Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV,

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Folks, for the first time, President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID. The White House released this video of the president discussing his mild symptoms. Hey, folks, I guess you heard this morning I tested positive for COVID. But I've been double vaccinated, double boosted. Symptoms are mild. And I really appreciate your inquiries and your concerns. But I'm doing well. I'm getting a lot of work done.

I'm going to continue to get it done. And in the meantime, thanks for your concern. And keep the faith. It's going to be OK. At today's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha gave an update on Biden's condition as well as the new variants. This morning, as part of our routine screening program for the President, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected by antigen testing. This result was subsequently confirmed by a PCR test. Unquestioning, President Biden is currently experiencing mild symptoms,

mostly a runny nose and fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening. Given that he meets USA Food and Drug Administration, FDA, emergency use authority criteria for PaxOvid, I have recommended initiating such treatment. The president is fully vaccinated and twice boosted, so I anticipate that he will respond favorably as most maximally protected patients do. Early use of Paxlovid in this case provides additional protection against severe disease. He will isolate in accordance with CDC recommendations. I will keep your office updated with any changes in his condition or treatment plan.

I also wanted to provide you with a brief readout of the president's activities today. The president has been working from the residence, like so many of us have during this pandemic, doing calls with senior staff, including the chief of staff, myself, and Dr. Jha, who's here with us. As we read out, the President also called Senator Casey, Representative Cartwright, mayors of Scranton, Mayor of Wilkes-Barreau, and Representative Clyburn. The President also called a few of his cousins from Scranton

who were set to attend today's event in Pennsylvania. And he spoke with Ambassador Gidenstein and Cornyn. You all have seen the photo he posted on and the video that was just released to all of you out of transparency moments ago. The president will continue to work from the residence. Today, as you all know, as I just mentioned, and as we sent out earlier, Dr. Ashish Jha, our COVID-19 response coordinator, is joining us today in the briefing room. And as I tweeted out earlier, Dr. Jha and I spoke to the president this morning, and he said he's feeling fine. He has a little dry cough, as I just mentioned from the doctor's letter, a little runny nose. He's feeling fine. He has a little dry cough, as I just mentioned from the doctor's

letter, a little runny nose. He's feeling tired, but he's working very hard on behalf of the American people. And with that, Dr. Jha. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm pleased to be with you. So as Corinne mentioned, I spoke to the president earlier. I also spoke at length with Dr. O'Connor, who is the president's personal physician. And I'm happy to share the readout of these conversations with you, and then I'm happy to take questions. In terms of my conversation with the president, he sounded great. I asked him, you know, Mr. President, how are you feeling?

He said, I'm feeling fine. He said he was feeling fine. He had been working all morning. He hadn't even been able to finish his breakfast because he had just been busy. I encouraged him to finish his breakfast. In terms of my conversation with Dr. O'Connor, we talked at length about what happened this morning. As Corinne mentioned, the president got his regular testing that he does on his regular cadence. After he tested positive, he reported the symptoms that have been described. Dr. O'Connor examined him thoroughly, found his exam to be normal, to be at his baseline.

And then, obviously, he recommended that the president take Paxlovid. The president accepted that recommendation and has started Paxlovid and has taken his first course already. I want to also just take a minute. All right, folks, I would hope people now realize that, again, we keep talking about it. Y'all, COVID is still real. And if y'all want to sit here and play around and you don't want to get vaccinated, OK, go right ahead. But trust me, your symptoms are going to be a hell of a lot more severe than if not. What we're seeing with these variants, Recy, we're seeing how people are impacted. And, you know, there are people who are just floating around like it's no big deal. Oh, forget mask or washing hands and stuff along those lines. I flew the other day and there

was the number of people who were on the plane with no mask. I don't give a damn what they're doing. Trust me. Roe going to be sitting there with a mask on, goggles and covered up because I'm not about to see. Look, I done had COVID twice. Ain't fun. Don't want to see a third time. Yeah, I mean, we're in the middle of a summer surge that you wouldn't be able to tell because everybody's out living their best life, which I can understand as well. And I'm telling you what, if I, you know, get it,

it's not going to be from going to McDonald's. It's going to be from turning up a little bit. But, you know, I think people have gotten a lot more relaxed when it comes to taking COVID protections. Maybe there's a sense of inevitability that they're going to get it and they're just going to get it however they Maybe there's a sense of inevitability that they're going to get it and they're just going to get it however they get it. But the good news is that, you know, even with the variants having lower, if you've had COVID before, you have

lower immunity in terms of even contracting coronavirus. But if you are vaccinated, it's still holding up quite well, even with we're on BA5 now of Omicron, in terms of not being hospitalized and not dying. So we're in a much different position now than we were. And, you know, ultimately, this is all we got. All you got is a vaccine share because ain't nobody shutting down no more. Ain't nobody forcing people to wear a mask anymore. Nobody is doing anything except for saying, take this down, Pax Lovett, or get vaccinated. So if you don't want to do that,

then good luck, bitches, pretty much. So I'm glad that the president is in good health. Hell, if Queen Elizabeth can survive COVID, I'm sure Biden will be all right as well. There are a lot of ways to treat the disease, well, the virus. And the other thing I'll say is get tested. If you're out there, you're a raw dog in the air, you ain't wearing a mask, you're going to turn up and all that kind of stuff, get tested. If you have some symptoms, start to isolate because with the vaccines, people are developing symptoms before they turn infectious, before they turn positive on a rapid test. So if you feel a little tickle in your throat, if you have a little bit of a cough, it's probably best that you isolate for that day. It might take another day or two for a rapid test to go on. If you're going to an event,

take a rapid test before you go. You know, these are some of the ways that we can stop the spread. If you have an event, tell people they got to get a little rapid test. They're readily available. And I just think that's the responsible thing to do. But I'm wishing the president a speedy recovery. I mean, look, I don't understand, Greg, what the problem is with some of these folks. When I did my audio book, the reading last Wednesday and Thursday, man, I'll just start kicking in. So I was just thinking, oh oh my goodness, this is COVID. Thursday took a COVID test, negative. Took a COVID test on Sunday, negative.

And again, that's the whole point of having the damn rapid test. The government is actually, they give you for free. All you gotta do is just apply for it. Now they'll mail it to you. Well, 12. Yeah, they'll send you 12. In fact, I'm looking over here at the package of my 12 right here.

And for all the people that say, oh, I don't want no free stuff. Fools! It's not free. Did you pay your taxes this year? That's what we paid for them. Most of this thing is free coming from the company. We paid for those things. So, yes, I'm looking at my packages over there.

And, you know, and Erica and I last week were over at San Kofi here at a very important conversation we were having and participated in. And, you know, we had masks, but what we're not, what we're seeing is not the end of COVID, but the end of COVID protocols. Because people are having COVID-19. And people wearing masks as chin straps. I came

in with my mask on, but I put mine down and pulled out. Because there's this sense of well, I guess we're all right. But then you feel that tickle. I taught summer school at Howard. These are my first in-person classes since March 2020. Now, I have been teaching nonstop. We've had classes all along.

But I said, let me get up here and speak to some people. I have the option of going on Zoom, but particularly I have a class of student athletes, freshman student athletes, the football, volleyball, basketball players. I wanted to see them. And I wanted to see this afternoon class with these young people in the CAR STEM Scholars Program. This is our sixth year. I wanted to see them at least once. So I'm going to come up here. And as I traveled, people ain't got no mask walking around, coming up on campus, people ain't got no mask on, somebody got a mask on. And of course, the bold thing is to have the chin strap joined. So as if, you know, well, I'm kind of compliant. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm 57 years old. I'm not really as concerned about COVID, although I should be, because in the two week average, we're up to about 130,000

new cases a day. Hospitalizations are up 20% to about over 40,000. And deaths, which always lag, are up a third to about over 400 now. So I should be concerned, but I'm really concerned about finally long COVID. Because it's been decades since I played baseball. I was a drum major in the band, but I did not pursue music. I make my craft with my mind.

The thing that scares the hell out of me is that I'll start forgetting stuff. But that long COVID, and I'm glad you saved Erica for last, because she is going to help us understand that not only is this thing not passed, even when we get past it, this BA-5, which is 80% of the infections, I don't want to catch nothing that I have mild symptoms for. And by the way, shout out to Pete Buttigieg, who gave that boy from Texas, Troy Nails, his lunch the other day when he started talking about the 25th Amendment. Go check your boy over there, that boy Trump. But at any rate, what I'm terrified of is that long COVID, man, because we don't know.

We do not know. So, yeah, that's where I am on it right now. And I'm looking at them tests. Y'all go get these tests. You already paid for them. Let them mail them to your house and use them, as Reesey said. Yeah, I just don't understand why people resist this, Erica. It makes no sense.

I mean, look, I have been in places where I did not wear a mask. It all depended upon where I was. It depended upon how many people were in the room. It depended upon how far away I was standing from people, all those different things. But I guarantee you, masks is in the pocket. And then there are times when I'm putting it on, I'm getting on the elevators, I'm in closed spaces. And so there are different ways people can actually do this. You don't have to always, you know, be like, seriously, for me, like, I don't get the people who walk around outdoors.

OK, down the street, anybody around with their mask on. OK, now that's just me. OK, because kind of like anybody here. Now, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe trying to block myself from pollution. OK, I give you that one, you know, but but trust me, you know, it's like I get off the airplane. I mean, yeah, I'm sitting here. Ain't nobody around me. I'm probably going to take my mask off. But it's just it's just common sense. And unfortunately, there are too many too many folks who are walking around as if this is no big deal. Yeah, a lot of common sense is lacking.

And we really should be definitely celebrating that we do have a competent leader who is demonstrating he um it was noted that and he said it himself president biden that he is double vaccinated and double boosted as am i and still exercise those very protections that you reesey and greg talked about you know i went to a concert me and my partner went to a concert um a few weeks ago and went to go and see my first boyfriend, my first rep crush, Rep Cam, Big Daddy Kane, a slate of other hip-hop all-stars. And, you know, we had incredible seating. However, I mean, the responsible thing to do, I mean, it was an outdoor facility. So when you're in an outdoor space, you want to get all the fresh air

you can. It's not like you were talking about rolling, being in a plane. However, when we got to a space where we were a little bit close to the front, wore the mask. And then when we got comfortable enough, because we've been doing the responsible thing, we took off the mask and we absolutely enjoyed ourselves. You know what I mean? Like I flow with them. Rakim made eye contact with me. Shout out to the guidance. But, yeah, I mean, we enjoyed ourselves and we had a really good time. But we were able to have a good time because of what everyone on this panel has talked about. We have been responsible people. what the son of a Klansman did when he held office, which was listening to the likes of Joe Rogan and taking horse tranquilizers and telling people to drink bleach and sit up under a UV light, all of these really irresponsible things that really did contribute to people who are long haulers, as they're being called, for this new and novel virus, definitely attributed

to folks' deaths. And just a real misinformation and disinformation, which Recy specializes and talks about, that is very much so targeted to our community. If people would actually peel back the layers of silliness and exercise, when you talked about rolling common sense, if you're going to be in an area that is pretty crowded, put your mask on. When you get to a space of fresh air, especially if you are walking, you're out exercising. Get all of that fresh air in. But absolutely go and make sure that you are making use of the N95 mask. Make sure that you're making use of those vaccine tests that Dr. Carr said that we paid for.

And be responsible and wash your damn hands. And seeing the alphabet, don't your damn hands. Sing the alphabet. Don't just throw it up underwater. Wash your damn hands for at least 26 seconds and make sure that you are not participating in potlucks. I think if we kind of exercise some of the common sense tools that we can actually help to encourage other people to do the same thing too.

Look, I'm telling you right now, ain't going to be no damn potlucks. That ain't going to happen. Because first of all, everybody can't cook, so let's just go ahead and say that. That ain't going to happen. I got to go to a break and come back. Before you go to a break,

we can't let it just slide by that you recorded the audio for Whitefield. Don't let that drop. It's on the way, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's on the way. In fact, the boxes came to the house yesterday.

So when I get home tomorrow, I will unbox them and unveil it. And then we will begin the push very soon, probably as early as Monday, for pre-orders. My goal, I want to hit 25,000 pre-orders. And so we're going to start pushing that real soon. The book drops September 13th. And so we're going to get that going real soon. We come back. We're going to talk SWAC Media Day.

We were here broadcasting live today. We got some great stuff for you. The SWAC Commissioner, Charles McClellan, you'll hear from him. Deion Sanders, we had a great conversation talking about, again, how we have to change our business practices as African Americans. It's a conversation y'all do not want to miss, y'all. We ain't talking just about sports. We're talking about black people. So you don't want to miss y'all. We ain't talking just about sports. We're talking about black people.

So you don't want to miss that conversation. We'll also hear from Grambling State's new head coach, Hugh Jackson. Also had a chance to sit down with John Grant of ESPN, where ESPN is recognizing the power of HBCUs. Some of y'all better, look, we've been trying to tell y'all, everybody understands the monetization of black people. We have got to begin to understand that, too. And also, a hilarious conversation with one of the Sanders sons and Travis Hunter of Jackson State,

us talking about fishing. Fishing. Y'all know I hate fishing. Even though there's the most famous bass fisherman ever named Roland Martin, white dude, that ain't me. So we'll break that thing down, y'all, when we come back. Also, man, Offscript, Scottie's going to be joining us as well to talk about SWAC Media Day. And so panel, y'all hold tight. We got some great stuff coming up, folks, right here on Roland Martin.

I'm Phil Chiu on the Black Star Network. Don't forget to support us in what we do. Download the app, y'all. Black Star Network. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. And, of course, join our Bring the Funk fan club. I'm trying to explain to y'all. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do, okay? We're not getting enough advertising support and corporate support. And trust me, y'all make the difference

uh you make it possible for us to be able to come here look i gotta understand i got a crew of four people here in addition to me we're here with our cameras everything giving a wide shot so y'all can understand look we are here y'all this stuff this stuff just don't magically appear uh in birmingham and so uh this is this was our setup uh we're here. Again, our whole setup, the pan right, Henry, check out, you know, we got the whole setup here. And I just want y'all to understand. And again, I wouldn't plan on doing this, but I'm always doing this because I need y'all to understand what we're talking about here. OK, this right here is our mobile fly kit, which allows for us to

actually do the live switching and everything along those lines. Okay, y'all, this is $5,000. This Behringer portable audio board right here, this is $4,000. Hell, the case is damn near a thousand. We got four of our Canon C300 cameras right here. The camera and the lenses are $20,000 each. Then we got our light kit as well. Our step and repeat, our director's chairs. And so what y'all are looking at literally, what y'all are looking at right now, just this set, this gear alone here is about a hundred thousand. Actually, yeah. Cause that a lot, that LU 800 over there, which is how we able to live stream, that's $12,000. So what you're looking at here is $100,000 in equipment alone. And so that's why.

So I do that. And I love these people who are sitting here like, well, Roland, why don't you be begging for money? I'm sitting there going like, well, first of all, it's not begging. It's called people who support what we do. And so when we are here, when we're traveling, look, we not going to be janking. I want to be real clear with y'all. We don't have four iPhones set up, okay? All right?

We want to be the real deal. ESPN was here earlier and I'm telling you right now, I'll put my setup up against what ESPN had and trust me, Disney owns them. Disney owns them. And so, just understand

what it is. We believe that black people deserve quality. We believe we need to see quality in terms of how we look, the cameras and the lighting, and that's what we deliver, and that's what we are all about. And so that's what we make point blank and what we try to lay out to you. So again, support us in what we do. Checks and money orders can go to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. The Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered.

PayPal is RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. We'll be right back. I'm Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. And on the next Get Wealthy, have you heard that it's not how much you earn, but how much you keep that matters?

Well, the secret to building wealth could be hidden in our tax code. That's right. Joining me on the next Get Wealthy is someone who calls herself the gatekeeper to the IRS. And she's going to be sharing the secrets and strategies you need to know whether you're a business owner or an individual how you can get wealthy that's right here only on Blackstar Network sexy to me is the exact same feeling uh as running water, ever flowing. Water always finds a way to get through. And so when you know that you're sexy,

there are no questions about it. It is an ever flowing emotion. It is an ever flowing feeling. When you question it, though, you stop the water. I actually struggle with this a lot, mainly because I've been told what sexy should look like, what it should feel like. As a model who did Sports Illustrated,

you're told that this is what sells sexy, but then you travel the world and what's sexy to one person is not sexy to another person. I'm more of a mind fuck kind of person. How can you stimulate the brain? To me, that's, that's it. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We connect the dots and reveal a big picture

you absolutely need to see. We'll explore how all the recent Supreme Court decisions fit together, like hand in glove, with the longstanding and very patient agenda of the GOP. As one of our guests tells us, conservatives are playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers and we're getting really close to checkmate a black table you won't want to miss that's next only on the black star

network i'm bill duke this is deola riddle and you're watching roland martin unfiltered. Stay woke. Absolutely packed a little bit earlier today for the SWAC Media Day. All 12 team representatives were here. We kicked things off our live coverage. We were live for about four hours. We talked with Commissioner Charles McClellan about what is happening with the SWAC, how they are growing, how they are expanding, and how they are monetizing blackness. Here's our conversation. McClellan, how you doing? Doing well, sir. Thank you for being here.

Got lots of energy in the room. Let's talk about, you know, where does the SWAC stand? You've obviously the attention of Deion Sanders, but now you've got Hugh Jackson at Grambling. Now you've got Bob McDowell at Prairie View A&M University. Now you've all these different things happening. What is the state of the SWAC? The state of the SWAC is extremely strong. When you look at just from a football perspective

and you look at the coaches, it who's who of football and i think that's ultimately what swag has always stood for and we're able to manifest that now coach prime obviously uh has a really big name but from a coach's perspective hugh jackson former nfl coach eddie robinson one of the best linebackers that ever came through alabama state and one of the best linebackers that ever came through Alabama State and one of the best linebackers that ever played for the Houston Oilers. Again, I said this earlier, not to put Eddie Robinson's business out there, but he got plenty of money. He didn't need to coach. He came back to his alma mater to give back. That star power, that name brand, Bubba McDowell, Houston great. I watched Bubba play a whole lot with Love Your Blues and Warren Moon. He's in the SWAC

now. You look at the recruits that we have coming in. SWAC is a very vibrant league. We're very popular now. We've grown, we've expanded, and it's hats off to the coaches and administrators that got it. So how do you translate that into monetization economics? Well, it's already been translated into monetization. We've gone from being in deficit to clearing that deficit, to having a robust reserve, to having the largest distribution to our membership in the history. And what is that? Well, we distributed over $8.4 million to our membership this year. And with the addition of some of the deals that we've currently made, we're ranking now within the top three of all FCS

and within the next seven years, we'll be number one and we would have outranked some FBS conferences. So it's growth. That money goes back to the membership and that is why we're strong and that is the reason why we're strong together as 12. And I would like to say this,

at no point in history, in my opinion, that our league has been as solid and as strong as it's been. All 12 member institutions are on the same page, all 12 presidents are on the same page, and that's what makes a conference strong. You have, obviously, your major conferences to talk about a realignment. Are you comfortable being at 12, or are you looking at future expansion? Well, we're definitely comfortable at being 12, but we will always look to see how we can enhance and grow. The question that I've been getting here mostly is about this super conference notion.

SWAC, let's make no mistake about it, is a super conference. We have every major Division I HBCU from Texas to Florida. But we have no plans to expand from sea to shining sea. We do not want to ship teams from one coast to another. If there is an institution that fits our brand... And that's because there's an economic cost to that. There's an economic cost to it. If it fits our brand, if it fits our academic profile, we're going to be open to look at it. We established a sustainability committee, which is comprised of several presidents and others throughout the conference, to take a look at the landscape and not only ensure that we're in position to be able to look at individual schools coming in,

but to ensure that we're doing what we're supposed to do to maintain the stability of our 12-member institutions. And, again, that goes back to me creating those revenue sources that we give back to the membership. There's one school, you could probably guess who that is, but based upon their academics, based upon their competitiveness on the field, the Southwestern Athletic Conference distributed over $3.2 million to them. And that's about 25% of their revenue. I saw one of your interviews where you kind of compared us to Texas A&M. If you look at Texas

A&M and what they got from the SEC, they get about 23% of their revenue from distribution. So if you want to compare apples to apples, the Southwestern Athletic Conference is doing for its member institutions what the SEC is doing for theirs. So on that point about distribution, and for people who don't know, are your resources distributed equally among the schools? Well, at the end, once our budget is balanced, it's distributed equally. But there are some unequal distributions based upon competitiveness, based upon what you do academically. We give academic incentives. We give competitive incentives through our sponsors.

We put their names on some of your games. You get dollars from that. So we give all of our academic money back. Some conferences do not do that. So we want to pour into our schools. So everybody does not get the same. It's based on your competitiveness. So you sort of have a scale of different things there.

Yeah, so if you go and play in the SWAG Championship, you keep that revenue. That was over $1.5 million for Jackson State. You go to the Celebration Bowl, you get that money. If we put a sponsor on one of your games, you get that money. After all of that's done, whatever the conference office has left over, we equally distribute that money as well. So if you don't win anything, you can get a distribution.

Earlier you mentioned something about ratings, linear versus digital, in terms of on ESPN. Talk about that again. Explain what you were talking about. Yeah, ultimately what we have is we had an unprecedented amount of games on linear television with ESPN. How many games did you have on? I don't know exactly. I think it was like 12 or 13 on linear, and we had another 30 or so that were on digital, but I apologize. I don't know the numbers exactly, but when I looked at the ratings, the higher the number on ESPN, the more views you

get. ESPNU doesn't get as many views as ESPN2. Smaller distribution. Smaller distribution. But when you looked at our numbers on Plus, we had some games that had more people watching on Plus than we did on those ESPN2 games. Meaning your SWAT games that were on ESPN2. Correct. Got it. Which means that the popularity of our games are through the roof. And, you know, we have this debate about linear and digital. our grains are through the roof.

We have this debate about linear and digital. Television is going a lot more digital now. My point was there are numbers in digital as well as opportunities in digital. Oh, absolutely. Your HBCU Go deal, has that been signed? Are there games that are going to be on there? It has not been signed yet. It's in the lawyers.

Everything has been agreed upon. They have chosen their games. We haven't been able to announce it yet simply because we're waiting on the lawyers to get all of those T's crossed and the I's dotted. But we expect that to happen here very shortly. Last thing, have you concluded this back and forth with Urban Edge Networks? What's the status of that? Not going to come in on any pending litigation. So that's still ongoing?

Not going to come in. The other piece for you, you're not just about football. So what are you also trying to convey to sponsors in the audience about the other swag sports? Well, that we are as strong in the other sports as we are in football. If you look just from a basketball perspective, our net ranking has risen almost 100 points on average. We were the lowest ranked with all 12, and we're still down, but we're starting to build.

We're starting to build, and that's ultimately how you get out of that 16th seed of the play-in game. We had two individuals that were drafted in the MLB draft. We had two drafted in football. We had 23 signed as free agents. We have several basketball that have signed free agent deals. So our conference is extremely strong. It's extremely vibrant. If you want to come here and you want to get a quality education, if you want to get on TV, if you want to come here and you want to get a quality education, if you want to get on TV, if you want to go pro, you want to make some money, SWAC is the place for you. All right. Well, Commissioner McClellan, good to see you. And a long way from our Prairie View, but it should be an exciting year coming up for your member institutions. Appreciate it. Thanks for being here.

Deion said they plan to dominate. So I'm sure the other coaches are happy to hear that. Hey, I just need a celebration bowl win. Regular season for me will take care of itself. I got to take care of business and the celebration. Okay. All right, Commissioner, we appreciate it. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me.

We'll see you at the next WAC. All right. Bring our panel back into this, Erica Risi and Greg. Greg, I'll start with you. Monetizing our culture. And that's the thing. We're going to talk more about that when we play the interview with Deion Sanders. But this is a perfect example.

We talk about our institutions. We talk about how we operate as the collective. For far too long, frankly, our HBCU sports programs have been wallowing in debt, have been, oh, we can't do this and can't do that. No, game now changes. The digital spectrum has changed the game as well. This is the moment for black institutions to be going to the next level. And whether it's talking about an HBCU athletic conference, whether we're talking about black-owned media, whether we're talking about black organizations. I agree, Roland. That was an intriguing conversation, brother, and a very important one. I think we are at a critical moment that is really part of,

I suppose, as I'm sitting here thinking about listening, it's almost like a three-act play. Act one was apartheid, Jim Crow. That's when you had the HBCU rosters because of apartheid. Literally the best athletes, student athletes, I might add, excellent in the classroom as well as on the field, in the country, some of the best in the world, across sports, football, basketball. This is the period. And then there was desegregation, which really for college athletics became a route for these

historically white schools to cherry-pick the Negroes they wanted. And during that period, there were still phenomenal athletes at HBCUs who went on to achieve incredible professional careers, Tutal Jones, Tennessee State, the great Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley, of course, Walter Payton at Jackson State, so forth and so on, Doug Williams at Gramlin. And now we're in act three. Having cherry-picked from the HBCU rosters, these historically white colleges run as plantations, using black slave labor to enrich themselves, at least at the top of the food chain, as Bill Roden has written in his book, Forty

Million Dollar Slaves and Others, not just the professional game, but the college game. And for years, cherry-picking the brains of the best black college coaches. I think of Joe Gillum Sr. at Tennessee State, for example. The pro coaches would come and pick his brain, because many of the things you see in professional football now were cherry-picked from the minds of black coaches like Eddie Robinson and others and John Merritt and others. But in Act III now, but particularly because of the white nationalists and the racism that is now impacting our people, you're seeing black folk begin to turn to black institutions

again. But these people don't want to lose their sugar bear. They don't want to lose their plantation labor. That's why Nick Saban gets mad at Deion Sanders at a point because you could see a sea change, but what that interview you just did today brings to the fore is the real issue. This is why

Deion Sanders comments the other day about us maybe looking at traditions differently. It's probably a little bit problematic for me because those traditions were the same from apartheid through desegregation to this moment of fascination with blackness. And, by the way, white

bands like LSU and Ole Miss copying HBCU band songs like Talking Out to Sadie and Check That Out. What you see now is the SWAC is saying, we will move forward together. See, I don't know that I trust Deanne Sanders not to make a leap. Maybe Jackson State does what Hampton did, what Howard had talked about doing. We want to go to a white league. My

alma mater, Tennessee State, made a mistake and did years ago going to the Ohio Valley Conference. But the SWAC is saying, no, we will be. The MEAC, we will be. And even though he can't comment and he says we ain't going to be coast to coast league. I got my eye on North Carolina and T. I wish Eddie George and Tennessee State could convince them to join the SWAC like we should have done decades ago. But we are now in the end game. We are now in the end game, Roland. And so that interview and the one you about to show us with Coach Prime are going to be very crucial because we can't just be now individuals. Because these white boys are playing and they realize if this thing goes left institutionally, this whole structure of plantation labor could collapse. And make no mistake, they will start making overtures.

They already have, I'm sure, to Coach Prime at Jackson State. They'll start making overtures to Grambling and say, well, why don't you leave them other Negroes and come join us in this revamped Big Ten or Big 12? The day may not be that far off. So that interview today, man, I think that should be played on a loop for us to understand. Individuals don't beat institutions. Recy,

we're going to unpack this thing further for the interview. I'm going to play next with Coach Deion Sanders. But what we're talking about is literally what we're doing here at the Black Star Network, what we're seeing happen in other ways. What I keep yelling and screaming to black people is that we have made other people uber rich off of our culture. Yeah. And if there is any moment for us to say, how about we make ourselves rich?

How about we employ ourselves? And again, that quote from the nation's first black newspaper, we wish to plead our own cause to long have spoken for us. I mean, you know, this is the moment. And so this is why every school, every athletic director, every president, every coach, every alumni president must be looking at this thing differently, trying to say, let's go out and get the best and the brightest of African-Americans who are lawyers and accountants and media experts to know how do we get our full worth in this moment? Absolutely. I mean, I think Dr. Carr laid it out. I mean, the difference between the success

is going to be if people use it as a launching point or if they use it as a point to rise together. You know, unity is the strongest and yet oftentimes most untapped part of the black dollar, of the black coolness, of the black factor, black culture. And so if Coach Prime and other coaches that are starting to see success, if they can stick with it, they can help really usher in a whole another chapter where it's not looked at as a junior kind of league. I'm not saying – I'm using it in a non-sports probably way, but it's not looked at as, oh, that's nice. No, no, no, no, no, that's – no, no, no, but that – no, no, no, no,

but the way you use it is proper because it's the same way folks said to me I didn't have a real show because it was on TV One, even though we shot it at NBC News Channel, which is where right now, right now, where NBC does all their shows out of D.C. is the exact same studio where I did my TV One show. Right, right. But black people were like, oh, you're not real or legit. But that's a mindset that we have accepted because of what they have always told us. Exactly. And too often we're too excited to see black people that are the cool in the white spaces when we could support black people when they're in the black spaces. And so I think that this is a really powerful moment. I think we've seen a lot

of the momentum die down from this so-called racial reckoning, but I'm glad to see that this is one area, particularly as it relates to HBCUs and, you know, HBCU sports or the SWAT conference where, you know, there's still, it still seems to be going in the right direction. But the people are watching and they're paying attention. And as soon as we start to get our act together, as soon as we really start to realize the power that we have, that's when they want to swoop in. So if we can stay united, this could be a game changer. And this could be a game changer and this could be the new cool this could be what people are looking for looking toward instead of saying ah you know that's just the black conference over there that's right yep erica yeah i mean uh dr carr referenced the book i was very proud to be able

to pull it off my shelf i read this book book probably about 10, 12 years ago, and it definitely shifted my outlook on how I saw Black athleticism. And to Reese and Dr. Carr's point, you know, we look at Blackness and people are, we're the blueprint. We are the standard. We are first. And so from the top of our head, the crown of our heads down to the soles of our feet, we see our culture, we see our likeness, we see our image. We see it duplicated in so many different areas because we paid a price of coolness for then everybody else to swoop in and colonize it, take advantage of it, monetize it to make it seem as though it's always been there and it's always been cool when Black people actually paid the price for it. You know, I think about growing up on HBCU campuses,

and I think about my late grandmother, who was the first college graduate in our family. She was at then Albany State College. And we had a big tradition in my hometown of Albany, Georgia, now Albany State University, of everybody coming home for homecoming. And that was such a huge deal. So being raised, even though we were a Marine Corps family, knowing that we were going to come home for homecoming every October and see people and be immersed in the culture, the swag surfing that was happening even before the song dropped out years ago, seeing the dancers, the camaraderie, being on the yard was all as a little kid, even more powerful. And it makes me think about nysp the national youth

sports program which was prevalent along hbcu campuses and so those of us that were young people we spent summers at nysp being really baptized in hbcu culture getting a taste of what was to come before us if we did choose to attend college. So I think that, you know, what is before us is, as Greg and as recent as you said, is a real opportunity to say that this is ours. And no longer will you continue to create $40 million, $400 million, $251 million slaves. This is ours, and you can't have it. So I think that this is an excellent opportunity for us to stand our ground if that is the path that we choose to move forward on.

Yes. Folks, many of you have heard me say I'm tired of us having surviving conversations. I want us to have thriving conversations. Well, that pretty much was the discussion that Coach Sanders and I had today. And let me set this up for y'all. So I was actually interviewing Jackson State's athletic director, Ashley Robinson. And so Dion, being Dion, he sees us. So he literally walks over, grabs one of our Roland Martin unfiltered director's chairs, and just decides to walk himself into the interview. And so here's that conversation. I think your ass is about to get busted up.

I see. I see. So he just busted up your interview. But, you know, that's what Coach Prime do now. We like to bust stuff up now. I told him I didn't know where to get on my knees. Hold on, hold on. Get back on the mic. I didn't know if to get on my knees and bow or do the duggy when I saw him.

Look. That's how good he looked. Then I had to hit him with a cobalt blue sock, too. You did. You did that. I'm sure Sanu will be very happy with the look. Yes. Coach, first of all, how you feel?

I'm feeling good. I'm getting better and better day by day. I am. You had a great season last year, but it's going to be different because you were in pain. At the conclusion. You were dealing with coaching and dealing with your health. Yeah, we dealt with a lot that people don't know about. But you know what?

God sustained me and saw me through. And I had a wonderful team of support around me, including my team. And we got through the storm. And I'm thankful for it. We were just talking about the modernization. No, he answered it. So you can answer this. We were talking about modernization.

And what I've said is we've been successful in making a whole bunch of other people rich off of our culture. True. I've been saying now it's time for us to make us financially powerful from our own culture. Who is us? No, no, no, when I say us, I'm meaning African Americans. Black people who are creating apps.

Black people who are creating media companies. Black people who are creating technology companies. I'm like, yo, technology. We took Clubhouse from nothing to a $4 billion valuation in nine months. Isaac Hayes III out there creating a fan base. Building that social media

app. I got people come out to me saying, man, I really wish you'd get a show on MSNBC. I'm like, no, I'm good. How about I create my own media company? We got to still stick together. That's the problem. We do it and we're separate. In silos.

We got to do it in unity. Because something that I may be great at, you may have the other piece of that. Right. So that we're exceptional. Right. But I don't want to hoard that because I don't want you to get in. Right. And that's the problem.

See, right now, that's what's happening with the swag. Now people are starting to see value in the swag. So they're coming from everywhere. They want to invest in this. They want to put money in that. They want to be a piece of that. Let's get together and talk about this. Instead of trying to get something and just sift from it.

Right. Yeah, we need to unify and make it, we need to perfect it before we package it, then sell it. Well, the night before he was killed, April 3rd, 1968, in his speech at Mason Temple, Dr. King said, black people individually are poor, but collectively, we have one of the largest economies in the world. Yes. He said if we don't practice collective economics, then we don't move forward. That's what he said the night before he was killed. Not one lie told.

And we're still in a deficit when it comes to that. That's what we're trying to do. And I'm thankful for this man granting me the opportunity to come here and do what God has called me to do. But it does not come with that complications. Oh, yeah. It does not come with that ignorance and adolescence. But we're fighting and walking through the storm because we're challenged to get it done. And we're going to get it done, ain't we? Sir, we're going to definitely get it done.

When you talk about this amount of attention, you've always understood marketing, understood media. And what is also, what now happens is, you talk about the collective, other folks now have to realize, hey, guess what? We've been asleep at the wheel. We're going to be far more aggressive with social media. We've got to be far more aggressive in communicating a message. And I've always said that HBCUs have been a potential goldmine. I love the words you chose. It's so spectacular because it's potential. We've got to get our business practices better, my brother.

We've got to understand our worth, and we've got to clean up our house so that we can reach our full potential. In my young tenure as a coach and working with this man has been tremendous. But we've gleaned from one another, and we're trying to elevate, and not just elevate with us at Jackson. We're trying to elevate the whole entire SWAC because of where we've been. Right. See, it's something for some of these other media outlets to talk that talk. But ain't too many of them have been where you've been

and what you've done and what you've accomplished and what you're still accomplishing. So when you're talking, either you're going to keep going ahead or you're going to stop and wait. And that's the challenge. We don't want to stop and wait, man. We're trying to go. We're trying to go and we're trying to advance every darn possibility

of Jackson State and Jackson State football. I did a breakdown on my show when y'all made the decision to pull out of the Southern Heritage Classic. And we had this whole big back and forth with my audience. And I explained to them, I said, guys, I didn't go to HBCU, but I was spoken on 65 of them. 65. I said, now, a bunch of y'all ain't even been to 65 HBCUs. So I've had 65 conversations with presidents, with ADs, with professors. I'm like, so don't act like I don't know.

And I was talking to one who said they couldn't bring their band to a classic because they wouldn't get enough money. I said, if you can't bring the band, I said, that go with the football team. And I'm like, guys, I said, this comes down to economics. It comes down to how do you... What does not come down to economics? Right, I said, in America, there's only one...

In sports, just sports. What does not come down... All this movement in these SEC... It's all money. It's business. So what does not come down? All this movement in these SEC. It's all money. It's business. So what does not come down to economics? Right. So if we make a decision, don't you think we've sat down and really talked about it and analyzed it and said,

what's best for the kids and what's best for Jackson State? Business, man. See, you said something that I love. When you said, what does that mean, doing it for the culture? Yes! When I saw the video, I said, okay, he been listening to me, too. Because trust me, I said, no, literally the same thing. When somebody says, doing it for the culture, the first thing that I go is, who is economically benefiting from that very thing?

And that's the piece. What is the culture? Right. How many rivals do we really have? How many rivals? Who is it? Alcorn? I'm sorry, I pronounced it wrong. Alcorn. And Southern.

Ain't no other rival? Ain't no other rival. So tell me about the culture. So when we play Prairie View, are you at the game? When we play Bethune, are you there? Who else? Who else? When we play these other schools, are you at the game? When we play Bethune, are you there? Who else? Who else? When we play these other schools, are you there?

Are you Texas? Are you there? No, you ain't there. And then what I've been saying, if you are there, are you in the parking lot? Are you in the stadium? And then... We're trying to fix that too. Oh, no. Look, I... One charge. Hey. When you you in that's it

you ain't gonna get in and be out you should be in and in what did the nfl do nfl said oh y'all want to come tailgate there's a tailgate fee there you go you ain't gotta go to the game it's gonna be a tailgate fee we gotta stop this because we want to compete with the others and you know what i'm talking about so we need to act like the others they don't have no problem with a home game a home game they don't give a damn who's on the schedule they coming because they know they'll show up that they're coming we got to get to that point where we're supporting in full not only that 11 you know it's 11 of graduates alumni give right well first of all first of all and not and that's actually skewed because a Claflin is above, it's actually five.

I'm being generous. Yeah, you're being real generous. I'm being generous. It's really five. And so that means that 95% of the folks walking around with the university's logo and hat haven't sent, not a dollar, haven't sent a penny. And I'm like, folks.

But you got an opinion. Right. But you got $100 worth of opinion. Right. But so that is, we talk about redefining the culture and redefining the mindset. Well, don't get me started. See, you get me started.

You got to stop. Well, I do this every day. So to say, I mean, I mean, I, but these are the conversations we had. Right. And this is a conversation I purposely have on air because when somebody says, well, if our black celebrities give and I walk them through and I say, guys, political campaigns, most donations are twenty, twenty five dollars. I'm like, come on. I said, you can't say I love an institution if you don't send a check. Yeah, that's not our black celebrities responsibilities. Their responsibilities to them and their families. That's not their responsibility.

They hadn't attended HBCU and they don't even understand the ramifications and what an HBCU will garnish you. I mean, my main, we have two main factors. Our main two goals. When a kid comes to me, his mama want to know two things and his father. What you going to feed my kid and what my kid going to lay his head. Let's start right there. Now, the first line. Let's start right there.

I know somebody watching. That first line, I know for a fact, is a huge deal because I've talked to other players, and we saw this even at major universities when NCAA had to change the rules. But Cass was like, no, we can't eat on the weekend because the cafeteria is closed. Let me tell you something. That's a big deal. That's one thing that AD and I appreciate him. We had to address immediately.

And now I'm looking through my reminders or whatever on social, and I'm hearing that HBCU's attendance has skyrocketed. Yes. Skyrocketed. But guess what hadn't? We don't have anywhere to put them. There you go. Housing.

We're lacking housing, not just at Jackson, but everywhere. So when I say things like our business practices, our forward thinking, our thought process needs to advance. Ain't no lies being told, man, because we got kids that want to attend our universities, but they can't. If you don't have the infrastructure and again, they have an expectation also of facilities and what to expect. And if you say you can't compete, say, well, just because. Come here just because. No. And you can't be all about the culture because they're going to say, what does that mean?

When a parent says, what does that mean? What you going to say? I'm waiting on y'all. Tell me what you're going to say when a parent say, when I say, well, don't worry about the housing or the, you know, the food. We have a culture. Coach Pratt, what does that mean? I can't eat culture.

Let me start. We're going to get in trouble. No. We're going to get in trouble. But what we're talking about here literally, as I've been laying out on my show, actually, it's nearly all of our black institutions.

I'm talking about black newspapers, churches, FPCUs, organizations. And again, it comes down to, if you've never been used to sitting at the table of power, then you don't know what to ask for sitting at the table of power. I appreciate that. We've gone in and asked for small amounts,

as opposed, and with a head down, trust me, look, Doc, I'm telling you, two hours a day, I'm on this every day. We hadn't even spoken, man. And you're right on it. I could pull out my damn phone and go to notes

and you are right on it. Ain't no lies being told. And that's the thing that hurts us the most because this is what we're trying to do. Yep. This is all we wake up for. And it's hard because you got our own people like, bro, what you doing, dog? And I'm like, I'm not asking for no $15,000 when my value is $150,000. I don't mind fighting outside the house, but when I've got to fight in the house, that's a problem.

Yeah. That's a problem. That's what every marriage I did. Even to fight in the house. Right. That's a problem. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Got to ask you a football question before you get out. What are you looking forward to this upcoming season? Dominate. We're not just trying to win, my brother. I'm dead serious, and I'm saying this with no smile. We're trying just trying to win, my brother. I'm dead serious, and I'm saying this with no smile. We're trying to dominate. The only way our kids are going to get to the next level and get to pro, the multitude of them, is we dominate.

I mean, be dominant at their positions. Be dominant when we play against other schools. Just be dominant in every aspect of their life. We got to dominate. That's the key word for our players this year. What did they learn from that Celebration Bowl game? The Celebration Bowl wasn't a test and it wasn't a learning. What word am I trying to use? It wasn't an assignment. That's something that happened.

We just lost. That's it. We missed the turn. We were supposed to take a left here. We took a right. We missed the turn. That's it. We flushed it. We're gone. We out. Let's go. That's how we attack life. That's how we attack football. That's how we attack sports. We ain't got time to be looking behind us. We got a bus kick. Give them their credit. Give them their credit. They kicked that bus.

That's it. Let's go. What's next? So we should be looking forward to bus. That's it. Let's go. What's next? So we should be looking forward to dominance. In every phase. In the classroom, in the community, and on the field. In every darn phase. Alright. Appreciate you, coach. Always good to see you.

You too. Ashley, good to see you. You're dirty. He's so clean, he's dirty. I look forward to popping into one of the games this year. Alright, folks. Let's bring back my panel, Greg, Reesey, Erica. We're also joined by my man Scott A. All right, folks. Scott A.

The host of Offscript TV. Scott A. is going to be contributing for the Black Star Network this fall, giving us HBCU updates. Glad to have everybody here. Before I go to Scotty, I'm going to go back. So Greg, I hope people were paying attention. That was not a sports conversation we were just having. That was a hashtag black economic social justice conversation we were having. Yeah, I'm not sure, Roland. I was waiting for Dr. Carr. I think the most important answer that Deion Sanders gave you, the word he used was adolescence. What he don't know about black colleges is a lot. If you want to know what culture,

what does that mean? Well, in addition to the band, in addition to the businesses, in addition to the vendors and those who always stay outside the stadium, I agree with that. You've got to monetize that. In addition to the monetary value of those people who go to those schools and get those degrees and contribute to the communities. I think what Brother Sanders probably, I think a good question, for example, when he talks about alumni giving, he may be asking, well, what's the general alumni rate for the 14, almost 1500 colleges and universities in the country? That number would be 8%. Now, if you're talking about Ohio State, where I went to undergrad and never went inside the damn stadium, it's about 20%. Harvard leads in the mid forties, but most schools don't have alumni support. Now, if you start talking about what that means in terms of athletics, and we won't even deal with housing or any of that because the reason there are housing sources at HBCUs in addition to budgets, and most of them politicians to lie. So it means you're going to have to stray off into some stuff that when you

was running them down the field for Florida State University, you would never have gotten caught doing politics in Tallahassee because them same crackers was trying to put Florida A&M out of business. So it's a little complicated, Dion. But at any rate, when you start talking about this question of housing, and I'll just mention that briefly. You know, a lot of universities are getting out of the housing business. They're into privatization. So what you're seeing is young people are being squeezed out of housing and shunted off campus. And many of our HBCUs are either in small towns or in state capitals where gentrification is real. It's a lot of moving parts, Dion.

A lot of moving parts. I'm not saying adolescence. You're just getting this under your belt. But when you say on one hand that you're talking about us coming together, and then another hand, you've got to kind of issue some of these traditions and perhaps we want to dominate. I hear somebody who may not belong for the HBCU world who's got his left eye on something else. And when you start talking about copying white folks, understand that you are literally going to run into the buzzsaw called white supremacy because you're beloved at Florida State.

Well, at least until you start stealing some of them Negroes come play for you. Now, the problem, however, is when you look at the culture of these schools that you want to join on the athletic side, their absolute culture is based on white nationalism. When Tennessee State joined the Ohio Valley Conference, for example, one of the reasons the OVC wanted Tennessee State is because black folk would travel to see Tennessee State. White folk weren't coming to Nashville, and they have never been to Nashville. Now, when he says we ain't got no rivals in the SWAT, now, I know them Grambling Boys are somewhere around listening, but my point is this. What the hell does that have to do with the culture of HBCU rivalries? We don't have no rivals.

We ain't talking about Ohio State versus Michigan. I know you talking about Florida State versus Florida. But it ain't just Alcorn. It ain't just Jackson State. You're talking about a culture. And it's very clear to me. If you go to downtown Grambling, and I've been there several times on a football day, all the businesses get fed

and ain't nobody doing anything other than when things stop when Grambling plays football. I don't care who's in the stadium. Dion has a lot more to learn. And I'm afraid we might be looking at somebody who may not belong for the HBC world. I don't know what I was listening to there, Roland,

in other words. So I'll unpack it. I'll unpack it, and I'll bring in Reesey, Erica, and then bring in Scotty. So here's why I frame it that way. One of the advantages, I believe, in not coming from the HBCU world is that you also, you do look at things differently. And if you look at a lot of the videos that he's posted, when he's talked about campuses, how they're being kept up, when he visited Mississippi Valley State, when he literally showed the practice field that folks thought was just like an abandoned area. What he's been doing, which I believe is effective,

is also exposing the shortcomings of why are our universities looking like this, but across the street they're looking like that. And one of the things that is also done, and this is, and again, I know this from personal experience, where I've had people say, well, this is how we do it at HBCUs. And you're looking at it going, yeah, but you're broke. And what is happening is, because Florida A&M dealt with that. The 80 they just fired, who was bringing in business practices. He wasn't bringing in hbcu business

practices he said no this is a business practices that are period because they ran a deficit for a decade he was like you can't run a deficit all of a sudden they go into profitability and so it's forcing some folks to get out of well this is how we've always done it. And yeah, but you also are broke. And so that is what I want to talk about. Go ahead. Can I just, just, just right quick. Yes, that has to be absolutely changed. You know, we know that this internal culture of this inferiority complex, hiring the people who are not the best people, the nepotism. But let's be crystal clear. The reason Valley's physical plan looks that way, and when you bring Alva Chambers in, he would tell us all and remind us all, go back to Title VI, goes to air versus Fordyce.

Them white boys in Mississippi wanted to close Valley. And at the same time, when you look at who's in the Mississippi State legislature, they all went to Ole Miss and Mississippi State. It ain't like black people not spending their money is why Valley looks that way. There are pushbacks and pullbacks. Yeah, absolutely. Right. But this is the value. The value is having somebody with millions of followers whatever showing it. See, I think what is, and that's why I ask all of these coaches, I ask them, how are you now utilizing social media? When I look at what happened at Howard University,

when the students showed dormitories, when the students at other universities, and so what I'm saying is, it's challenging the norms by which we have operating. Erica, when I was in Albany, talking to folks there during the campaign in 2020, sort of the same thing. Challenging how we've always done business. Dr. King talked about that in his book in terms of our institutions, how we must fully equip and commit ourselves to liberation. And I talk about a lot on our show, there are a lot of our folks who, frankly,

are the ones who are getting in our way of advancement. It's not always just men and white folks. It's some black folk who need to get the hell out of the way who are stopping progress from happening. That was also part of the conversation that wasn't completely said. Go ahead. Erica, go ahead.

Erica, hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Erica, it's on you. Can y'all hear me? So some of the things that were within the conversation that you all had with regard to HBCUs and just remembering what HBCUs, that there was an influx of students during the previous administration because it was a safe haven. Students felt safe being at HBCUs. Students felt more safe being under the instruction of folks that looked like them. So when we start barreling down kind of understanding that

these institutions are in fact businesses, but what has stood the test of time has been what has been inside of these institutions of people, which is why I said earlier in my comment when I talked about the rich history of an Albany State College, now Albany State University, and how many of our family members would make sure that every October that we would sojourner home, even for the folks that did not graduate from Albany State College or Albany State University. And as Dr. Carr just said to us, that the businesses that were in the immediate area were fed, there were heads in bed. So, of course, the hotels were booked out. Those mom and pop shops were taken care of. Institutions that maybe

did not get an influx of business throughout the year were definitely taken care of. Institutions that maybe did not get an influx of business throughout the year were definitely taken care of during that homecoming time period. So I think that the essence and the richness that has been developed over many, many decades of HBCUs is something that still needs to be captured by those body of students that do seek it for not only education purposes, but also seek them as refuges as well. Reese, the point we were talking about, even with the tailgating, one of the things that someone sent out the other day, a roundup of the top most attended games. And I think Jackson State was like 40 plus thousand. But the next school was like 20 or 18, then went down, down, down.

We know people say, oh, we're going for the halftime show. And I was talking to one university president who was complaining about the lack of ticket sales, but the thousands who were in the parking lot for tailgating. And I literally said, charge their ass. I said, Doc, if they coming on your parking lot tailgating, charge their ass. I said, if they ain't buy a ticket to the game, charge their ass and come tailgate. I said, because here's the deal.

You can't, it's the same thing I keep talking about with this show. You can't say, Roland, man, we need to have black folks covering our stuff you can't get on the plane for free you can't you can't get on the road for free and so you've got to be able to pay for it and so i think that that's where i think what dm's also is shaking up is saying hey y'all we can't keep having a system where the school is the one getting the least money and everybody else getting the most money. But it's the school that's driving the event. Yeah, I mean, there are it's a very layered conversation because what I got out of the conversation is there is one providing something of value, which is what Dion, I think, is really trying to get at is saying, hey, we have to provide value so that, you know, by whether it

be through housing, whether it be through food security or food options, et cetera, et cetera. But then there's the other aspect of valuing what's on the table. And that's where the tailgating and things come in. I think where it gets a little tricky is it sounds just a smidge elitist at times, because when you kind of center it in terms of like, look at how the white schools are doing so much better and they're doing this right and we aren't. And it kind of sounds like pull yourself up by your bootstraps, not really recognizing the things that Dr. Carr pointed out in terms of the institutional racism that has created these disparities between what HBCUs have access to as opposed to predominantly white institutions, that's when it starts to get a little tricky. And I think for Deion Sanders, he comes from a

football excellence, football culture, and HBCU excellence isn't necessarily football excellence or sports excellence. So bridging that gap is really the challenge where he has to, he has a little bit of a learning curve in terms of understanding what truly HBCU excellence is about. It's not just about football. It's not just about sports. It's not just about how nice a stadium is or, you know, different facilities. It's about something much deeper than that.

So I think if they can bridge that, we could really get somewhere. But it also does, regardless of, you know, buildings, regardless of whatever else, Black people, first and foremost, have to value our institutions in a number of ways. We have to value the HBCU games just as much as we value the NBA games. Or I know a lot of Black folks that didn't go to Ohio State, didn't go to Michigan, didn't go to Moscow, UCLA, didn't go to a lot of places, SC, but you see them decked out. I ran into some dogs decked out from head to toe in USC attire. So once we start valuing even institutions we didn't necessarily go to, because I value HBCUs, I didn't go to one, then we start to get somewhere.

But we have to have the conversation, I think, in a way that recognizes that we all have a little bit of work to do. Teach, teach. I want to bring in my man, Scotty, Allscript TV. Glad to have you here, Scotty. You were at SEC Media Day, and you saw what that looked like. You know, you've been, you cover these games, you cover what's happening here. Again, I think what is happening, not just Deion at Jackson State, but look, Hugh Jackson at Grambling State is asking questions and demanding things and saying, hey, you know, we got to elevate this thing because this generation of athletes is like, yo, yo, yo, if the facilities aren't up to par, we're not coming.

And so, again, if we're talking about competing, because the reality is this is competing with Power 5. HBCUs can provide something that they cannot provide, but we've got to make sure, what Deion was saying in our interview, that our house is in order. It's no different when I say when we roll up to cover something, we're going to look good, we're going to sound good, our stuff is going to be straight, and ain't nobody going to say our stuff look raggedy. That's the whole point. We're going to serve, we're going to

give our folks quality. Scotty, go ahead. For me, and I apologize for the background, I'm for the background, but for me, it's what I always get when I talk to HBCU alums is they always talk about what they are or what they can be, but they're not cultivating their backyard. You're not getting every ounce of what you have right now. You're signing bad contracts. You're getting into bad deals. You're doing bad decisions, but yet you want to move and grow forward. You know, they always say, why do lottery winners lose all their money in the next three or four years? It's because their mindset never changes. They don't understand what it's like to have that influx of money. You still keep doing the bad habits. So, yes, if there's an influx of alumni giving, are there going to be better management of funds?

Are there going to be better management of how things are getting placed and getting distributed? Those are the things you have to worry about. So HBCUs need to be focused on getting the infrastructure together, getting the right people in place in the office to then do what you're asking and grow from there. So, you know, on that particular point that you raised there, that was why when I asked Commissioner McClellan in terms of your ESPN deal, you deal with HBCU Go, you know, how are you driving the additional revenue sources? Because at the end of the day, broke is broke. And you simply cannot cannot you cannot be having a thriving conversation if you if you're in a constant survival mode and so that really I think is forcing a change in how people are approaching and viewing how they're building these athletic departments

what have you been seeing and hearing as you've been talking to folks at these various institutions? Well, for me, it's let's look at the stream today. If anybody goes back and watch the ESPN3 stream, it was horrendous. SEC Media Day would have never looked like that. So you're allowing ESPN3 to treat you any type of way. They're passing mics to one another. The audio is going in and out. They're not having the right overlays. But this is what you want to one another. The audio is going in and out. They're not having the right overlays.

But this is what you want to be on. You want to be on ESPN3. This is what you're getting. You're not even holding them accountable to giving you a stream worth the product that you're putting on the field. So how is anybody supposed to take you seriously? You know what I'm saying? I went to SEC Media Day at the College Football Hall of Fame. There is an HBCU section.

You telling me you can't partner with the co and put on the same event did with ESPN. No, becaus like second class citizen it and you're just happy So if anybody wants to be is doing so much, what ar for you? Because what I s

stream and your steam roain both out outclassed the espn3 stream that you were so proud to be on that doesn't make any sense oh i didn't i didn't see their stream but damn we looked that good the sound was better the shots were better i mean it was the overlays for the band aspect that espn3 didn't even have. And when you're on a, I won't say nationally, but when you're on a digital televised event and the coaches are passing the mics from one player to another because it doesn't work, something's not right. Well, again,

you're absolutely right. It's all a matter of making sure your stuff is straight and clean. Scott, I know you're at an event. I appreciate it. We're going to have more from you talking about HBCU sports coming up. The season is going to be beginning. So we look forward to having you on every week, previewing games and telling people what to look out for. Too easy.

Thank you, Roland Martin. Appreciate you guys. Thanks a bunch. every week previewing games and telling people what to look out for. Who is your favorite role model? Appreciate you guys. Thanks a bunch. Folks, go to follow Allscript on Instagram, on Twitter, and also subscribe to his YouTube channel. Folks, we didn't just talk to Coach Sanders. We did catch up with man Hugh Jackson, who is the new head football coach at Grambling State.

Here's our conversation. Joe Jackson, how you doing? I'm doing great. It's an honor to sit here with the great Roland Mark. Man, glad to see you. But as that work goes forward, a number of facts are clear. We drove around, had a good time. There can be no doubt that there was a coordinated,

more than step effort. Overturned an election, overseen and directed by Donald Trump. So y'all, I was messing with Coach earlier because y'all know that Graham McCullough is really black and gold. Eddie Robinson threw that little red in there. And so earlier, he commanded a mock. He had the outfits on. You need to airdrop me some of those photos. I got to show y'all these photos of the suits. He's rocking.

The teams are rocking. So first of all, let's just talk about that. Those, you know, in terms of the look that you want for your team. Well, I think it's important that we be clean all the time. I think the two student athletes that came with me, I wanted this to be an unbelievable experience for them. This is a chance for us to come and have people see what Gremlin is going to be. And that's what I wanted to be.

I wanted to be one of the best HBCU universities there's been because at one time it was. For you coming in, what has been the transition? What has it been like? What have you identified beyond the team itself as critical needs to upgrade the program? You know, Roland, the critical needs that we have is probably the same throughout every school in the HBCU space. We need more resources. We need

to have a better environment for our student-athletes to be the best they can be. I think we got to value our student-athletes more than what we have. And when I'm talking about that, I'm talking about when you weight rooms, nutrition, recovery, I think all those things we can be better at and we should be better at. It's interesting. When I was talking to Coach Sanders, he said the first thing a mama or daddy says is, are you going to take care of my son when it comes to eating? And I stopped and I said, and that's something, again, every person

just assumes, oh, you've got these great cafeterias or whatever, but that is a huge piece right there in terms of making sure your players are getting proper nutrients. Because a lot of them, their backgrounds, where they're coming from, I mean,

that's a huge thing. You just said it, Roland. Most of these young men are used to only having one meal, you know, one meal a day. And so that's not the environment we should provide. And it's not the environment that we do provide. There's a breakfast, lunch, and dinner format that is in place. But we have to do that even better for them because there's guys that need to gain weight. There's guys that need to lose weight. There's guys that are in between that need to maintain their

weight. So you have to find a way as a university to manage those things. In terms of this being for you, you come in hot, folks are excited. Then you choose an office coordinator, Art Browse causes a natural controversy, then he has to leave. And so, what has an adjustment been like for you? Just, again, dealing with all that where

every move you make is a major deal. It is, and you said it, Roland, every move that we've tried to make has been major. You know, before there was Art Browse, there was Ted White who left to go to Houston Texans. He was my coordinator. And then there was Art. And so I just made a decision after Art that I'm going to go back and do it myself. You know, when you take these jobs, you want to be involved in everything as the head coach

because you should be. But at the same time, when you see a need in the area, you have to take that on. And that's my expertise. And so I'm going to be the coordinator as well. I was talking to Commissioner earlier. He talked about 8.4 million being distributed to these SWAC schools. He talked about where they stand. You don't just bring a coaching background. You also bring, by being in the NFL, understanding that that is a $15 billion a year enterprise. And so how have you been weighing in on the conference saying how it needs to elevate itself to monetize these HBCU schools.

You know, it's interesting, Roland, because now is the time. You know, that's what the National Football League did. They looked at it and they grew together, made a decision. We're going to work together and build it. And they've become legendary. The National Football League will be legendary. Now is the time for the HBCUs to do the same. We need to work together, not work against each other,

to build this brand right, because we do. We have a tremendous opportunity with all these great coaches, all these great players to do something legendary, but we have to do it together, and we got to move, make the right moves and the right decisions as we move forward to build this brand better than what it's been. When you talk to your other coaches and they're talking about, obviously, their programs, what needs are, things along those lines, what are y'all also conveying how you speak as a collective as opposed to individual schools? You just said it. I think it's time for us to unite. I think every coach, we all have things that we need.

We all have things that we can do better. But we need to be able to talk about those things in public. You know, we talk about a lot of things in private. You know, we all know that normally things are talked about in private and things are happening in public. But we got to get this changed. We need to talk about these things in public so hopefully in private we can move the needle for what we truly believe our student-athletes need. All right, y'all. Speaking of student-athletes, I had a conversation with a couple of Jackson State players, and we talked about football.

We talked about all those different things. You had Shiloh Sanders. You had their number one dual threat quarterback in the country, Travis Hunter. Boy, the Power Five schools were hot that Deion got him. Now, I don't know how in the hell Greg, Reesey, and Erica, we got around talking about fishing. But the conversation is sure went sideways real fast. So, I i mean i pretty much just do my own thing

i like to fish a lot so i'll probably be fishing more times than i'll be like fishing yeah that's all i do is fish oh well so well you well you know his dad loves fishing smoked him already oh you smoked him out of there i i I love it. You say you did? Yeah, he did. They don't want no work with me, man. I fish at my house. I don't like fishing in ponds. Oh, really?

It's at the crib. It's okay. We was on the pond. We was on the pond. Yeah, we was in the pond. We was in at my house. So y'all had a fishing competition? Yeah, we went.

Where we going? It was two times. We went to Academy Sports. Uh-huh. Yeah, we got a... We went to Academy Sports, little fishing tournament. And, you know, I ain't really catch anything because that's not what I'm used to.

I'm used to fishing in my backyard. See, but look, I ain't never been on no legal in there. That was my first time being on the boat. Yeah, that's the first time being on the boat. So it's different though. You smiling real hard. You like because he know he got the up on me and that. So, you know, I let him have it.

They play around. I fish. Oh him have it. They play around. I fish. Oh. You fish, man. They play around. You fish. Where have I gone? I'm going to fish.

Yeah, he will. I don't know how. It's too boring for me. See. You're trying to catch boogies. Who want to catch a panfish? That's not fun. No, I'm playing golf.

Y'all can fish all day long. I'm going to make me some birdies. No, I can't do that. I can't agree with the golf, man. My QB coach just started doing that. You can't agree with the golf? Man, you know the folk I've connected with in golf around the world. Yeah, but that's different, though.

That's different. Like you said. I like doing stuff I like to do. I know me going on a golfing course, that's not what I want to do. Because you don't know how to swing see but I'm doing a lot of fish that why you don't like fishing no I fell asleep it was too boring it's too slow because you're not a fish what y'all fish fast that was it yeah okay all right what time what time you got get up in the morning to go fish?

It don't matter what time. No, it don't matter what time. As long as you use the right thing, as long as you know how to fish, you're going to catch a fish. No, no, I got to play golf. Y'all hear that? I'll be on the golf. I'm going to catch birdies. I'm going to catch birdies.

Just invite me to the golf course and I'll fish your pond for you, all right? Huh? Yeah, he'll fish in the pond. Well, we'll see what that golf swing look like. So, yeah, we'll see what that golf swing look like. I can do a little something. I can't do too much. Okay, well, I can.

I'm a 6.5 handicap. I don't even know what that means. I don't even know what that means. That means I'm damn good. Oh, okay. That means I can golf my ball. The only golfing I do is top golf, man. That's it.

That's the only thing I can do. Video, Instagram, Deion Sims Jr. Man, come on. That's it. That's the only swing I can do. Video, Instagram, DeionSenseJr. Go check it out. Man, come on. That ain't golf. What is it? It's all good. I'm going to put my Topgolf clip where I hit the ball far on my story today.

Y'all go check it out. Did he go straight or did he go far left or right? Straight. What you mean? Okay, yeah. I didn't say I was consistent with it but oh i hit one oh okay all right yeah i'll be looking forward to that uh video uh seeing that particular video there so uh yeah so okay so so with with this with this with this fishing thing uh do y'all have um uh y'all what y'all plan on having a competition during the season? Not during the season.

We're playing football during the season. Yeah, we always have football during the season. Like I said, you know, over a break, maybe a bye week or something, you know, I'll tell him to come to my house. Throw him in that pond, man. Let him do what he got to do. Cook some fish. You know, have the chef come over, do what he do.

You don't seem to be. Look, he got a chef. I'm cooking my own fish. You don't seem to be... Look, he got a chef. I'm cooking my own fish. You don't seem to be sold. I'm doing all that myself. So you're gonna scale it and do all that? I'm doing all that. Well, that's what I'm saying. You can do it. But I ain't gonna trust what you're doing. Don't trust it. We can eat like

a family, though. I'm gonna eat my fish. You eat yours. Yeah, for sure. But see, what your deal is, what you're saying is he's talking about in the backyard. Your deal is you can do it anywhere. Yeah, I'm anywhere. I'm going to hit backyard and smoke him in his own backyard. Nah, he probably can.

That's the thing. Like what I'm saying, I'm not going to talk about something I'm not great in. I can fish, but I'm not great at fishing. Gotcha. But just like I said, golf, just so you know, that's a golf swing right here just so you know in terms of how you're going to stroke the ball hit the second down the fairway

I did that yesterday I was asleep though you were asleep you had that golf turn with that boot on your foot I was asleep you were asleep gentlemen good to see you good luck this season.

And look forward to seeing you perform on the field. Thank you. All right. And let's. All right, Erica, Reese, and Greg, let me see. I think out of the three of y'all, I think, Erica, you probably fish, huh? Absolutely not. I am from the south.

I do not like flies, mosquitoes, worms, none of that. Absolutely not. I am from the South. I do not like flies, mosquitoes, worms, none of that. Absolutely not. I have gotten plenty of whoopings for showing my ass. Well, I mean, I do, but I'm saying I have gotten plenty of whoopings for acting the ass on a fishing trip. I'm not trying to do it. I don't want to be out there with bugs and worms and funk and good, I'm not you know it's a hard now and I took my my would be like a real G. No question I went home. Absolutely it's a hard case, no, thank you.

No reason you reason you fish. You know, they't damn fish. Absolutely not. If I'm on the boat, there needs to be a Bluetooth. There needs to be some twerking, some cigars, and some whiskey. That's my idea. That's the only kind of fun I want to have on the boat. Fishing is boring.

It's not for me. If it's for you, that's fine. But no, that's not my idea of a fun time. All right, Greg, see if you can try to carry the panel. You fish, Greg? I haven't been fishing in years, but I can and have fished, and part of it is I left the South because it is a fishing culture. And Erica says, you know how it is.

My daddy and my Uncle Aaron, they get to Georgia, and them Negroes pull out that ice chest and fill it up. Oh, Lord. And we was little boys. They wouldn't even trust us with the reel. They gave us them cane poles. I'm going to be five, six years old. That's the first time I ever seen a squirrel skin.

My Uncle Doc's standing there and he's skinning that squirrel with that knife. And I'm standing there looking at him like, man, I guess this is what it takes to be a man. I must have been six, seven years old. What I'm saying, I have to say that it makes me think of the late Greg Tate, who edited a book called Everything But the Burden. You see, that conversation that them two young brothers were having is exactly the kind of thing white folks love. Them old Southern boys, they like that kind of thing. But they didn't show that check. They didn't show that $5,000 check that Travis Hunter won from Academy Sports, which has about 260 stores around the country.

They didn't, you know, and young brother Sanders signed a name imaging and likeness deal with Beats by Dre. You saw him drop his website in there as you were talking. I didn't see that. That was smart. Of course. It was all the funny games to the car counting that money. Now, you know, them boys at Florida State got mad when that young brother from West Palm Beach, was it West Palm?

No. Yeah, but you heard him say he never been on a boat, right? That's all cute when you run up and down the field for Florida State, but when you over there at Jackson State, and the culture moves over there, it ain't funny no more. And I'll end with this. Yesterday, I was in class, and I told you I got these freshman basketball,

football, and volleyball players, women and men. We're in Douglas Hall at Howard, and we're in class, and a bunch of little kids walk by the back of the classroom. And I said, who are those kids? One of the brothers got up, found out, and then, oh, well, they're here visiting. They're from Southeast D.C. When I tell you that we invited them in, it was a bunch of six, seven, eight, nine,

ten-year-olds with the adults. They'd never been on a college campus. All young athletes. and we spent the next hour just letting them talk about what they wanted to do with their lives how these young and these are young freshmen and freshmen women and men ball players and when i tell you the way their faces lit up and the way they had that conversation the conversation y'all had i want to see a conversation like that that is tied to the institution so that what we see is they're more than just ballplayers with interesting colorful stories. Hell, that's what integration wanted. What we really have to do is channel that into the institutional strength so that children can say, I want to go to Jackson State and start wearing all this paraphernalia. I want to go in there. I know how to fish, man. But now we not only need people who know how to fish, we need some sports stores other than 5,000 check handing out Academy Sports.

I need to become a lawyer so I can learn about name, imaging, and license. So that, you know what I'm saying? So it ain't just beats by Drake. And that, Brother Sanders, the coach that is, that's the culture, brother. That's what we mean by the culture. Anyway, but I'll stop. And I just want to add to what Greg said when I talked about NY, if I could just add quickly, that was the importance of NYSP when you talked about that,

made me think about what I mentioned before earlier, having those athletes. And then we were on campus as well. And I can, you know, it would be great to see the statistics of the number of people that decided to attend HBCUs, primarily Albany State University. But the impact of being on campus for an entire summer with those, that student body, it leaves an indelible mark. And I know it will to those young folks as well, too. That's right. Well, Sandy W. on YouTube says, to be truthful, Dr. Carr was probably reading a book in the boat. I wasn't in the boat. No, I'm not getting in the boat. Let's be clear. Fishing, Roland, you were talking with golf, just like golf, not a game. Fishing, not a game in the South, baby.

They told you they gave us the cane poles. We didn't get the good real. They ain't messing around. No, sir. And you had to cut your own sugar cane poles. What? Well, look, do understand. Just like they serious

about fishing, I'm serious about golf. My plane landed at 8.42 yesterday in Birmingham. I got my bags by 9.15. I teed off at 10.55. What? So I got in 18 holes, shot a 38 on the front, a 42 on the back. That's an 82. Some of y'all out there just saying, bring your ass if you want to play.

Trust me, I'll take all your mortgage and your rent money. So I had a good time. So I'll be back in D.C. tomorrow. I got to go. The folks at the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists, they are having a reception for me and some of the other folks who are here in town. So we're going to swing by there right now. Let me think.

I'm going to run the John Grant interview for ESPN. We're going to run it tomorrow on today's show. If y'all want to actually see our entire coverage of SWAT Media Day, just simply go to the Black Star Network app. You can see all of it. We actually carry it live. And so that's why we do what we do. And I'm going to have to go look at the ESPN3

coverage to see what Scotty was talking about so I can see what it looks like. But y'all understand how we roll and how we do what we do. We want to do more of this. We would love to financially be in a position to go to the CIAA Media Day, the MEAC Media Day, and all the other conferences

to be able to give that sort of coverage. Because I keep saying this, y'all. I keep saying this. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. That's right. You heard what Scotty said. Our stuff looked, how ESPN stuff looked, and we ain't got Disney money. Oh, but

if I did, you would know what would happen. And so this is why when y'all hear me fighting and advocating for us to get black-owned media dollars, it's to be able to do this, to send crews, and not just me, I can't go everywhere, but to hire other reporters and hosts to be able to do these things. And so that's why we do what we do.

That's why we advocate as hard as we do because this is about covering us. Coming up, we're going to be, I got the email, I already knew about it, but Saturday, Rock Nation is, just so y'all understand, again, Roc Nation is just so y'all understand. Again, I'm a walk y'all through this. And this is just literally the next seven days. Just so y'all understand, when you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture in terms of what we do when we talk about the culture. Okay, so the folks at Roc Nation on Saturday, they're holding Roc Nation and the United Justice Coalition are having their inaugural social justice conference. Now, they got a bunch of folks on the list.

Yo Gotti, Charlamagne Tha God, Ben Crump, Letitia James, Soledad O'Brien, Dr. Bernice King, the families of Eric Garner, both of them, John Antoine Rose, Terrence Crutcher, and others. They're talking about one big guest. They're having all these people talking about decriminalization of mental health, conditions of confinement, policing in America, all those different things. And don't understand, when I first heard about this here, first thing I sent them a note was, I said, yo, where in the hell is black media? Where's black media, black-owned media, on the panel? So they hit me and I said, I said, yo, where in the hell is black media? Where's black media, black-owned media on the panel?

So they hit me, and I said, listen. So they're asking me, they're asking us to cover it. I told them point blank, yo, y'all streaming it? No. I said, well, that's what we do. So we'll be there Saturday. Sunday, my man Wendell Haskins, Hampton graduate, he put on his original T-golf classic,

where the money benefits to black golfers. This next generation of young cats who can't afford to be able to play. And so maybe he's been doing it for years. He's honoring Alonzo Mourning. That golf tournament is on Sunday. I've been playing this tournament a number of years. We're going to be there covering that on Sunday. Monday, we're in New York City.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday because the Jackie Robinson Museum is opening. Major League Baseball is going to be covering, but they don't have the exclusive. We're going to be live streaming, broadcasting from there as well Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So folks, that's just what we're doing in the next seven days.

I dare the rest of these so-called new black media or even old black media, whatever. I want to know what y'all doing. What y'all doing? I'll wait. So understand this is what we are about. And so we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns.

So please support us in what we do, folks. First and foremost, download the app. We should have 100, 200,000, 300,000 downloads by now. We launched Black Star Network September 4, 2021. We're still trying to get to 50,000 downloads, y'all. And so Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. And when I say your dollars matter, I'm telling you your dollars matter. Listen, the stories are already happening right now. Digital ad spending slowing down, people are concerned, possible recession. And so

you know what's going to happen? They catch a cold, we catch pneumonia. And so we want to be sure that we're in a position where we're still able to cover stuff, be able to pay salaries, all those different things. And so when you contribute your dollars, it matters. Our goal is to get 20,000 people annually who give an average 50 bucks each. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. We want to be able to do what we do. And so, folks, trust me, when you give to Cash App or PayPal or Venmo or Zill or you send a check on money order, I can guarantee you that money is going to use for equipment.

It's going to staff. It's going to travel. It's going to allow us to be able to continue to build and grow. I already told you we launched the Black Star Network September 4, 2021. We already have seven shows on the air. We got two other shows that I would love to launch. I would love by the end of the year to have a total of ten shows on the air. We got two other shows that I would love to launch. I would love by the end of the year to have a total of ten shows on the air. We don't have millionaires and billionaires cutting checks, funding us.

We are doing this. Again, I have not. People have approached me, hey, can I buy a piece? But if they aren't bringing value, I'm not interested. And so this is about us covering what matters to us and not having to ask people for permission to do so. And so please, checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash app is DollarSignRMUnfiltered. PayPal is RMartinUnfiltered.

Venmo is RMUnfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Roland unfiltered. Venmo is rm unfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. Folks, the January 6th committee, their hearings have taken place. We are live streaming that as well. And so all you got to do is sign off right now, click over to our other stream and watch the January 6th committee hearing right here on the Black Star Network. I'll see you guys back in D.C. tomorrow. Talk to you later. Holla! you you you This is an iHeart Podcast.