#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Tenn. Senate Votes to Dismantle TSU Trustees, Black Cowboy History Lesson, Latest DEI Attack

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

3.21.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Tenn. Senate Votes to Dismantle TSU Trustees, Beyonce & The Black Cowboy History Lesson, Latest DEI Attack Tennessee Senate has voted to dismantle Tennesse State University's Board of Trustees, giving the power to Governor Bill Lee to appoint new members.   We'll talk to one of the six people who opposed the measure.    Alabama is the latest state to pass a bill targeting diversity and inclusion programs. Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a law prohibiting state funding for maintaining, sponsoring, endorsing, promoting, or affirming DEI programs.   There's been a lot of chatter about Beyonce's album cover. Some of you have no idea about black cowboys. Tonight, I will be joined by some folks from the Bill Pickett Rodeo, who will help me give you all a history lesson.  Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, will be in the studio to discuss his organization's latest initiatives.  A Black Kentucky state senator says she's been threatened with suspension because she's speaking for those who put her into office.  The last of Mississippi's "Goon Squad" has been sentieced. We'll tell you how long the last two racist deputies will spend in prison for torturing two black men.  And a victory for the family of the South Carolina woman who dared to take on developers trying to take her land.   Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when have one aisle six. And aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car

deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you everought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, I get right back there and it's bad. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Thursday, March 21st, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The Tennessee Senate has voted to dismantle the Tennessee State University Board of Trustees, giving the power to Governor Bill Lee to appoint new trustees.

We'll talk to one of the six people who oppose this measure. Alabama is the latest state to pass the bill targeting diversity and inclusion programs. Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed the law prohibiting state funding for maintaining, sponsoring, endorsing, or promoting or affirming DEI programs. Oh, but they ain't talking about the sports programs, though. There's been a lot of chatter from black folks about Beyonce's new album cover. It's a lot of black people, clearly,

who don't know nothing about black cowboys, black rodeos, and black folks and the U.S. flag in the South. We're going to break that thing down and try to help some folks out. And we'll be joined by some folks from the Bill Pickett Rodeo, who will give folks a needed history lesson. Rashad Robinson, who leads Color of Change, will be joining me in the studio

to talk about his organization's latest initiatives. Plus, a black Kentucky state senator says she's been threatened with suspension because she's speaking for those who put her in office. Sounds kind of familiar to the brothers in Tennessee, huh? And the last Mississippi's goon squad has been sentenced to federal prison. We'll tell you how long he got. Plus, a victory for the family of a South Carolina woman who fought to keep her land from developers.

We'll tell you about it. It's time to bring the funk. Oh, yeah. I'm rocking Gramlin's colors today. You don't need a big win in March Madness. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter on the Black Sun Network. Let's go.

He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all

It's Roland Martin Rolling with Roland 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 Roland Martel Now Martel Folks, we've been covering this issue and the Tennessee Senate. These Republicans have voted to vacate the Board of Trustees for Tennessee State University.

It was a 25 to 6 vote all along party lines with all Republicans voting in favor of vacating and reconstituting the Board of Trustees. Tennessee State Senator Charlene Oliver joins us right now from Nashville. Glad to have you on the show. You know, first of all, I'm still trying to understand the reason for this. So the same folk who will not properly fund Tennessee State is complaining about them not having the money to fulfill all the needs of the students. Am I correct? You are 100% correct, Roland. As I said today on the floor when we voted on this, you can't sit there and decades after decades underfund our flagship HBCU land grant institution, and it's been documented with the underfunding, and then turn around and

say that they're not doing their job and things aren't working because you haven't given them the resources to make sure that they can run this institution adequately. So it's just, it's crazy how they justify what they want to justify. And is that audit done yet? I have not seen the audit. I've been asking and asking. I want to be the first to see it. It has not been done. It's a forensic audit, which means that should the auditors find any malfeasance, which we don't suspect they will, this could

come with criminal charges. So that is why this is so important, because we know that it's been documented in other previous audits that they have not been able to find anything. This is a comptroller who has been weaponized against our Republican by Republicans to try to go and sift and find what they can find to justify not having to hand over $2.1 billion to the institution. See, this is where I'm confused. So where I come from, you order an audit and you wait to get the results of the audit back. and then based upon those results then you make decisions uh it sounds to me like they've decided the outcome of the game before

you finish the third and fourth quarter that's right that's that's why this uh move to vacate the board is is outrageous because the university administration has done everything that they have asked. And they continue, as we know, folks like to do is move the goalposts. So they are hellbent on their agenda to make sure that they put folks on that board that they can control and who can control the money should they allocate the rest of their their own um the other thing that is so that is strange here uh is that um these are the same people who have been ticked off that tennessee state has had

had an explosive um uh enrollment uh and they've been questioning, well, you know, why all of a sudden these kids go on Tennessee State and not our other schools? Well, there are reasons for it. And so, this is also the danger I keep warning everybody about. The attacks on DEI, the attacks on CRT, the attacks on affirmative action,

the attacks on all these programs, and I kept trying to warn people that our HBCUs, the public schools, many of them in the South, they are not safe because these are Republican legislatures that have supermajority control and they can dictate what happens at these HBCUs. That is the danger here. That's right. That's right. And we have an attorney general who is leading the charge in the country

against affirmative action, DEI, all kinds of attacks on black folks. So we know what the play is here, but we should be telling our black students to come home, come to HBCUs, because we're going to not go where we're not wanted. And they know that should we have students that continue to increase the enrollment of HBCUs, then that is going to decrease the enrollment at PWI. So I just think that we need to get a game plan together should the vacating of the board happen with all of the Supreme Court cases that are coming down and make sure that parents know, students know that HBCUs are here to stay.

And we're going to be OK, as we've always had to do, and be two times better with two times less the resources. I was texting Cliff Albright earlier with Black Voters Matter, and he said that their activists on the ground were very much engaged here. He told me that they had funded some efforts where, give me one second, where he said they text over 31,000 Nashville residents urging them to call the nine senators on the Education Committee. He said this was at the point where the committee was voting on whether to advance the legislation. Close to 5,000 calls were made. Were y'all getting help from any other black civil rights organizations? You know, I'm on a text chain with some and I'm like, hey guys,

I've been saying for months, even going back to when President Glover was testifying and before, I'm like, hey, we got to be standing with Tennessee State. I mean, were y'all getting that support or were people kind of quiet? That's been one of my biggest frustrations as a community organizer myself, co-founder of the Equity Alliance. We know that there needs to be a public pressure campaign. And it hasn't been that way from what I've seen. A lot of TSU alumni have stepped up, but we need a national presence. We need folks to not this should not just be a TSU problem. Right. And here on the ground, that's what it feels like.

We need a larger Nashville community to rally around now, but also the larger national community to pick this up, the national media like you have. Thank you, Roland, for keeping this at the forefront of the conversation. Where's the Urban League, the NAACP, the National Black Caucus? We need more people to have eyes on this because we know that this Republican legislature, when the spotlight is put on them nationally, they start running like roaches. And so we need that public pressure, but we haven't seen it.

Absolutely. Well, I'm sending a text to a bunch of these folks right now saying, hey, look, she's making the plea. They need the help and need y'all to show up there. So look, we're going to keep doing it. This is why black-owned media matters We can't control what other folks do we can only control what we do And so we're gonna keep raising this point and keep pressuring the folks and you're right people need to understand It's Tennessee State today. It could be a and T tomorrow. It could be Jackson State. It could be Florida A&M It can be Texas Southern University. It can be Prairie View We need to understand when they

go after one and they go, oh, that was successful, then we know we can do this to others. Yep. Yep. We need a unified plan. Thank you, Roland. Senator Oliver, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Going to a break. We'll be right back with my panel

right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I have something I want to tell you. I am running for president. Of the United States? Holy. I'm paving the road for a lot of other people looking like me to get elected. Brooklyn's first black representative. You're about to make history. You're going to be president? You ain't no man.

Maybe we should find your mother. All you got is your one vote. You sound just like every other politician. Do I look like every other politician? Freedom! Truly, you can't win. Then why can't I win? I have an opportunity to make a difference.

Creation! This isn't a campaign. It's a joke. The only thing anybody's gonna remember is that there were a bunch of black folks who made fools of themselves. I'll kill you! See, too much suffering. And I don't know how to not try.

I don't think I'm special. I just want to remind people what's possible. We need something that's going to make some noise. The Black Panthers and Shirley Chisholm. It's like thunder and lightning. I'm going to force all the politicians to be held accountable. You're going to do all that? I'm a schoolteacher from Brooklyn.

Harriet was just a slave. Rosa was just a domestic. What is it you do for a living again? Lilliam Golden! The people of America are watching us! Lilliam Golden! When you golden When you golden It's undamn believable. You hear me? All right, folks, let's talk about this with my pound. Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University out of D.C., Tennessee State University graduate. Recy Colbert, host of the Recy Colbert Show, Sirius XM Radio out of D.C. as well.

Lauren Victoria Burke, Black Press USA out of Arlington, Virginia. Greg, I'll start with you. The point that Senator just made there, she said, we're the national voices. Basically, they're out here trying to fight, and the folk need to step up. We've been sounding this alarm for months, more than a year now, saying, hey, they're coming after Tennessee State. They're coming, they're coming, they're coming. And to me, and thank goodness, the folks at Black Voters Matter and their folks on the ground in Memphis and Nashville have been engaged. But the other folks, MIA. Yeah. In the Blaze CP,

listen to me very carefully at this point. Brother Derek Johnson, calling you by name, brother. You, sir, and the organization you head, you all, at this point, as it relates to Tennessee State, are worthless. Worth, W-R-T-H,

less. L-E-S-S. Stand up. Have you forgotten Kelly Miller Smith, Nashville? Have you gotten Jim Lawson, Nashville? Have you gotten Walter Davis, the president of Tennessee State, Nashville? Have you forgotten the great Fred Humphreys, who punched these crackers in the mouth when they tried this in the 1970s and 80s, until the Florida A&M alumni convened on the

governor's office and said, we want our alum, Fred Humphries, to run Florida A&M. NWACP, you're worthless. Mark, Brother Morial, it's beautiful to talk about the state of black America. Where is the Urban League? You know what? You legacy Negroes, just hold on for a minute. I'm going to tell you why I'm mad, because I was student body president of Tennessee State from 1986 to 1987. We ran up on Ned Ray McWhirter. We ran up on the governor's office. I'm talking now to the Tennessee State students right now and all the alumni. Y'all need to run up on these crackers in the legislature. This hillbilly, Bo Watson, Senator Bo Watson, the hillbilly from Hickston, East Tennessee, with his fancy, shiny degree from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga,

these hillbillies who can't spell but going to run roughshod over Tennessee State University. We need to break their backs, y'all. We've been talking about this a long time. But at the end of the day, Senator Oliver laid it out. There's no time now to be polite. That white boy, what's that punk's name? Jason Mumpower? Just the same one tried to run that game on Mason, Tennessee and West Tennessee. He the comptroller. If they get a nickel, they want to be in

control of it. You have to break their backs. If the MJCP don't step up now, y'all can cancel. I'm going to talk about y'all in a way that's going to make y'all wish that you had done this a long time before. You know, Lauren, when you, again, when I talked about... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

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

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick

your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like, uh, less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late.

And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. How do Republicans roll? They do things in one state and then they replicate. It is not scaring folks to say, other HBCUs, be leery. You may be next.

Obviously on CRT, they've done it with electoral matters. They have a game plan. I mean, basically the game plan is born from their billion-dollar and million-dollar donors directing them. They're on the same page, and they're very organized. It's very easy to see it. And we shouldn't be waiting around for investigative journalists. I mean, Jane Mayer has exposed a lot of what's going on on the voting issues. But something like this, once you see it in one state, you are bound to see it again and again. And obviously, most of the HBCUs, not all of them, are in the South. So, it wouldn't surprise me. They're definitely on a kick to set back the clock when it comes to race.

And Donald Trump is the quarterback of that. And some of the things that we thought were unthinkable to see have wound back are getting wound back. And on top of that, it coincides with the fact that our civil rights groups are, I think, basically controlled by corporate influence, to a point where they're not as focused on some of these issues that you'd think they'd be focused on right away, as they should be. I mean, the fact that the Daryl George thing took forever for anyone to say anything, finally the Black Caucus kicked in.

But it's kind of like these things are taking too long. The state of black America thing, you know, nothing against Marc Morial. I think Marc Morial is great. But that has been sort of rendered as an irrelevant moment at a time when it should be really relevant. So, the timing of the black legacy organizations being very quiet in these moments is extremely bad. I mean, you know, we're dealing with Donald Trump here on the horizon, and there's just not a whole lot of energy or activity. And that interview you did last week with the BLM person where it was word salad city and you couldn't figure out, you know, we're writing essays or whatever that was, that ain't going to cut it either.

So, there's clearly something that is wrong. I think it requires some sort of meeting of the minds and some planning, some institutional planning with these organizations, because you can see that on the right they are now going for things that, again, we didn't think that they would go for, and they're trying to dismantle things and wind back the clock 50 and 60 and 70 years. Raci? Yeah, I mean, the reality is that we are not realizing that these things are not happening in a silo. These are opening salvo after opening salvo of what the Republican Party, as Lauren has

said, is organized in dismantling our civil rights and our institutions, because they understand that when they dismantle our institutions, they're also dismantling pipelines. They're dismantling our ability to play offense. And when they're going after DEI and white spaces and then you go after the black spaces, then what the hell is left for the blacks? So I think that people really

need to wake the fuck up and realize that this is a red fire alarm. We saw more energy about, what was his name, Ed Reed, who got fired from Bethune-Cookman as the coach. And it was all up in arms. It was all over trending.

Everybody was debating about how, you know, all kind of shit. But then we don't really hear a peep about this. And to your credit, Roland, you have been talking about this for a long time. This show on Thursdays, we've talked about it many times. But people, it's still not clicking. And I don't understand what it's going to take for it to click. You know, I think it's fine to do all the celebrations and celebrate black history and women's history and black excellence and all this other kind of shit. But our institutions are falling apart right before

our eyes, actually not falling apart. That's not even the right word is being dismantled right in front of us. And we don't even play defense, let alone some damn offense. So this is very troubling. And I don't know who they're going to put in there, but if it's anything like that HBCU white man president who just got reinstated after allegedly bullying a black administrator to the point where she committed suicide, then damn, we in some deep shit. Well, I'm going to speak to that in a second. For instance, and we talked about this then, you know, when the story came out that showed that Tennessee State,

when the committee determined they had been underfunded some $500 million. Now, for people to understand, this is the story right here. This was where Governor Lee responded Governor Lee, responded to that. OK. And, of course, and, you know, look, they've been neglected for so long. And, you know, he gives this report.

And as all he said, they plan to fulfill their commitment to Tennessee State. Now, here's what's interesting. You see the quote here. The plan is to fulfill the commitment that we made to TSU, which is the largest and most historic funding commitment ever, $250 million plus additional funding. And we have worked together with TSU leadership to make certain those funds are spent correctly. That's the plan. Uh-huh. Now check this out, y'all. I want y'all to understand that statement. You see that? We have we have worked together with TSU leadership to make certain that those funds are spent correctly. That's the plan. Now. It was 500 million.

He says we're going to do 250. Guess when the white Republicans started questioning Tennessee State after they asked for the $250 million, after they said we'll give the $250 million. Now, mind you, up until this point, they didn't give a damn about TSU. Okay, whatever. But all of a sudden, oh, what are these enrollment problems? What are these housing problems? All these things. All of a sudden, because then it was, oh, y'all asking for all y'all money. And I was saying then to black leadership, why are we not there standing with them saying, where's the money? We want the full 500 million. The Biden-Harris administration came out showing how many land grant institutions, HBCUs, have been underfunded.

Black leadership, where in the hell are y'all? Why you not saying, we're talking billions of dollars. Billions of dollars. Silent. Greg, go ahead. No, no, this is a much deeper problem. These white nationalists have always been attacking our HBCUs behind the cotton curtain, particularly the public ones that are in state capitals—Jackson State in Jackson, Florida

A&M in Tallahassee, Tennessee State in Nashville. Tennessee State is the public institution in Nashville. What they have always wanted to do is take that university over so that their hillbilly friends can get degrees cheaply who work in government and work in the state capitol. This is a cycle, in other words. You go back to the 1960s and 70s, the threats to merge Florida State with Florida A&M. Every cycle you hear this business out of the hillbillies in the Florida legislature. In Mississippi, we see what those punks have been trying to do and have done to Jackson State over the years.

In other words, this is a cycle. I'm bringing it up for this reason. Tennessee State has always been able to beat this bag through the force of the community and political leaders. But this is why I say what you're raising is so very important, Roman. We're in a moment now in black America where the American Negro has unilaterally disarmed. The black petty bourgeoisie, the black elite, have been so deeply and thoroughly integrated into the American idea that they don't want to threaten anyone. As Lorne has said, you got money coming in.

So the idea is now to emphasize diversity by diversity meaning heroic individuals in individual places, not institutions. And so as a result, they're not going to make any noise. In the 1970s, when Tennessee State went to war, beginning in 1968 with the Sanders v. Geyer case, and when it was settled, Tennessee State took over the downtown campus of the University of Tennessee, Nashville, because what these crackers were going to do is put a campus of the University of Tennessee in downtown Nashville—that's what they did, in fact—rather than go to school with them N-words. But we had warrior lawyers like Avon Williams,

the man for whom that campus is now named, who went to war with these white boys. Where are the heroic lawyers today? I'm saying, Van Cronk, you want to be the man? Show up, big boy, and go get your boy, Derrick Johnson, and y'all need to be on the steps of the Tennessee State Capitol. And you better be surrounded by all them 18- to 22-year-olds who go to Tennessee State, because I'm going to tell you about the students at

HBCUs now. The spirit of standing up to these crackers is still there, but it isn't the minority now. Why? Because they're giving out internships. And everybody looks nice in their suit and their dress. And Black Excellence means representation. It does

not mean forceful resistance. We are at a moment now where these white boys are rallying for their last cry. And I invite them to as they're not having babies and as they die, the death bleat. This is the death bleat of the Jason Mom powers of the world. This is the death beat of punks like the governor Bill Lee. This is the death bleat of people like the hillbilly from Hickson. The death bleat is not to be feared. We got to roll over them. One more final thing to my—and, you know, Brother Johnson is my friend. That's why I'm mentioning him. The great Dori Ladner made transition last week. Dori Ladner, sister of Joyce Ladner. Dori Ladner,

one of the SNCC workers. Dori Ladner, one of the forces in civil rights. Dori Ladner, she and her sister Joyce were put out of Jackson State for their civil rights activity and ended up going to Tougaloo, where, among many other things, they joined a force that brought you into the movement. Derek, do you remember? They brought you in, brother. Don't disrespect the legacy of your elders and your ancestors. It's time to stand up now, because Mega Evers would be on the front line. Where are you?

Just so y'all understand how we expand this, go to my iPad. The Biden-Harris administration announced this in September. State-run land-grant HBCUs are owed more than $13 billion. This came and it was right here. Land-grant historically black colleges and universities have missed out on more than 13 billion dollars they should have gotten in the last three decades or so according to letters that were sent by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Agricultural Secretary Thomas Vilsack.

The letters went to the governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. They citing data from the National Center for Education Statistics said the money, quote, could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants. And those HBCUs, quote, will be much stronger and better positioned to serve its students, your state, and the nation if made whole with respect to this funding gap. And I've heard little from national civil rights groups. I've heard little from a variety of black elected officials. And so here's what I want to know.

If all of these black organizations are supposedly representing black people, which black people? Which black people? Because surely, surely, folks will be blowing my phone up saying, can we get on to discuss? Can we get on to discuss our rallies? Can we come talk about our protests? Can we come on and talk about our campaigns?

So what the hell are all these groups doing? And I'm going to expand this beyond black civil rights groups. I'm going to also challenge Divine Nine. Where are you on the 13 billion? I'm going to say Prince Hall Mason where are you on a 13 billion Eastern Star Lynx Black Church

Black Clergy where are you on a 13 billion I'm going to say specific Reverend Dr. Jerry Young President of the National Baptist Convention USA where are you? Why are y'all silent?

And you right there in Jackson, Mississippi. With Jackson State. Yes, sir. If black organizational leaders are unwilling to stand up and fight on behalf of black people, resign and the fight, who have the gumption, and who have the integrity to actually fight on behalf of black folks. Y'all are on notice. Go to the break. We come back. It's clear we got other black people who don't know nothing about black people in history in the South and rodeos.

All of this because Beyonce decided to wear red, white, and blue and have an American flag on her album cover that drops March 29th. We're going to explain this culture that too many people clearly know nothing about. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Send your check and money orders to PO Box 57196,

Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, PayPal RMartin Unfil app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

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

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

it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown never let kids toys take over the house and never fill your feed with kid photos you'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it.

Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle six and aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by nizza and the ad council you have the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law you have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. I'm Faraiq Muhammad, live from LA. And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics,

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I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. So, Beyonce announced she's dropping Cowboy Carter on March 29th, and this is the cover image that was released. Well, people

of course, initially, were hyped about this album. Then all of a sudden, then the folks start talking. They started talking about why she went, why she holding that flag and why she wearing those colors. And they started going on and on. First of all, not realizing that the colors that she's actually wearing, that's the Texas flag. And she, of course, is a native of Houston. Daddy from Alabama, mama from Louisiana, but she's born and raised in Houston. And then you see her, again, holding that flag. Well, it led to a lot of folk talking on social media about this. It led to others

trying to educate people on the history of one, black rodeos, educate them, understanding the history of country music and black folks in the South. And so I said, you know what? Well, we're going to have a conversation, it says others are afraid to have it, so we can understand all of this. And so let's get into this right now. Joining me is the first African-American female rodeo announcer and the voice of the Bill Pickett Rodeo, Cynthia Villery from Pearland. Glad to have you here. And, of course, from L.A., Margo Wade-Ledrew,

Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo's National Development and Sponsorship Director. Glad to have you all both. Margo, I'll start with you. Again, a lot of these folks who ain't from the Southwest and from the South, who don't know nothing about black folks, rodeos, cowboys, horses, I'm seeing them comment. And so they really don't understand that the image of Beyonce on the cover, you see that image at black rodeos all the time. Absolutely.

Walk us through that. Well, it's America. Number one, rodeo has always been around and a part of black culture. One in four black cowboys are black. And so a lot of people don't even know, Roland, that the name cowboy came because they called black men, told them to get that cowboy. So it was a derogatory turn. And then once they started making the John Wayne movies and all the other things, cowboy became hip,

and it was that macho thing. And so then they started doing the cowboys and Indians in all the movies, and people looked at cowboys in a different light, knowing that that name originated from black men working on the ranch. And at Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, we do the American flag because this is America. We also do our African-American flag because we are devoted to African-American cowboys and cowgirls.

And it's important for us to show their history, what the flag means, and their culture. Cynthia, I want to go to you because for those who, look, I'm from Houston, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the largest in the world. We would always, we always remembered the trail rides as folks were coming into the city, getting ready for the parade. And so it was

look, I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston. It was nothing driving down Fidelity Road and seeing black folks coming up and down the street on their horses. So that ain't nothing new to black folks. And so what Beyonce is showing on that cover is what many of us grew up seeing. Absolutely. Definitely. I'm a third generation. So like I always talk about, it's in my blood. It's normal for me.

You know, you can go up and down Cullens, Scott Street or wherever, and it's normal to see somebody on horseback and not even having a trail ride. So having rodeos as large as the Houston Livestock Show and rodeo to having backyard rodeos are normal. And so with the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, we have traveled and we're celebrating our 40th anniversary, where we have entertained millions about the black cowboys, the black cowgirls, a culture that's normal. And going through this, oh my gosh, Roland, you wouldn't believe, when we go to different cities, they're like, oh my God, you guys are real. Can I touch a horse?

Can I touch a cow? I've never seen it. I've never seen real cowboys and cowgirls. And so for us to be able to do that over 40 years, going through what we went through and still pushing through and being the first among many things, you know, that says a lot. I'm going to go to a panel here with questions, but I want to go to Greg first. Greg, I know you got some book behind you dealing with this. So, I mean, I'm just going to go. I ain't even going to go one of that. But I'm sitting here, Greg, and I'm looking at these folks, and they're sitting there going, how dare she hold that flag, that flag, what it represents, not realizing that black

folks said, we built this damn thing. And the flag has represented a difference to us as well. And black folks have not been silent about that. And so we've always had a different perspective when it comes to the flag. But you had black soldiers who fought, and as I said, I fought for a country that did not love me because the hope was for it to love me. I'm sure you saw a lot of this back and forth

on Twitter and other platforms, Greg. Just share your thoughts. Thank you, Roland. Yeah, you're right, man. I got books and books and books and books and books about this. I'm glad to see, I am glad to see the Pan-African flag, and that's not an African-American flag. You see one right there. The red, black, and green is the flag of Africans worldwide.

So I'm glad to see that in the parade. Beyonce, the people in the rodeo, and everyone in the entire world can keep that red, white, and blue flag as far as I'm concerned. But that's my personal opinion. And we all know that Beyoncé and her husband are very good at pantomiming controversy, but they're not going to get into any real controversy, I mean, but they're going to make all the money. So I'm not mad at Beyoncé. She has perfected that. If the hive wants to come from me,

please do. Now, as it relates to that relationship, you're absolutely right, Roland, as our friend and brother Gerald Horne reminds us, and even in the latest in the book, The Counter- Counterrevolution of 1836. You know, black men got involved in the military because it was a way to fight for liberation. More black people fought for the British and or ran away than fought with George Washington. We joined the Civil War because we fought our way out of enslavement.

And as both our guests, Sister O'Hallory and Sister LeDrew have said, when we see the cattle culture of the West, we understand that African people were there not because we chose to get on boats, where we had all of those cultures in West Africa, but we brought those techniques with us. And in fact, these Europeans, as they were displacing the Native Americans, Gerald says we were on the wrong side, by the way, but it was our only choice. Now, when they had a choice, they went into places like Nacimiento, Mexico. They went and left the United States of America. Our fidelity is to our communities. And it's complicated, whether it be Juneteenth, all of these things. But, you know, I'm interested in hearing y'all's thoughts about this complicated relationship between people of African descent in a settler state, because they're displacing the aboriginals. And we had a different relationship with the Indians than they did most often.

You know, lately they've fictionalized it with Bass Reeves. But I mean, there's some of that. And also, when it comes to Beyonce, finally, and country music, you know, I'm from Nashville, where the great Dee Ford Bailey lived, who was the black man on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. When I think of country music, I think of the banjo, an African instrument. I think of the elders who trained everybody from Mabel Carter to Johnny Cash and Little Bill Dickens and all those pickers.

And I think about the sound of Africa in country music, the blue notes, the songs, the lyrics about love and loss and community. How do y'all think we should grapple with this very complicated legacy, which isn't really, as far as I'm concerned, about patriotism as much as it's about self-determination? And when people kind of claim it, how should we represent ourselves in this tradition, which isn't a kind of monolithic tradition? Do you have some thoughts on that? Well, for me, just to say in reference to country music as a whole, it did come from—Black

people have always done country music. As a matter of fact, when Bill Pickett started in 1984, our late founder, who passed away, was a big concert promoter. And so he knew the value of music and all types of music. And from day one, when the Bill Pickett started 40 years ago, we introduced Black country singers all across this country because it was important and it was a part of our culture. And so we've always done this. And a lot of people don't even realize we've had Herb Jeffries that came to, has been a part of our rodeo when he was alive, performed, been a part of it. And of late, Money Long, who's one of the number one R&B pop singers now,

when she was Priscilla, she performed at the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo in 2018 when she introduced her colored album. And there have been so many artists that have come through the Bill Pickett rodeo because we were the ones that gave them the opportunity to be able to show their talents, to sell their CDs, sell their tapes at our rodeo. It was the same thing. I just have to do a little bit of history here. When Bill Pickett started in 1984, our Cowboys were not really allowed to do any of the other competitions because they didn't have the funds. A lot of them, they weren't let in. And a lot of people said that they didn't have the talent. Well, Lou started it because he wanted to make sure

that people knew the history, number one. Number two, to showcase and give our African-American cowboys and cowgirls an opportunity to learn, hone their skill, and show people all over this world that there are real Black cowboys and cowgirls. And so we didn't go to the Texas and the Oklahomas and all those. We went to the urban. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

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

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

to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Sh Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now

isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face,

and you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it, never let them stay up too late, and never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle six and aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out.

Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Chicago's, the Atlantis, you know, places where our little black kids never got to see a real black cowboy or cowgirl. Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Cynthia, you want to go ahead? Cynthia? Yes, I'd like to circle back because we've had artists like Miko Marks from the Bay Area. But when I started, I've been with the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo 37 years.

We had Jay Mason, who used to come to the rodeos and sit up there with his guitar and sing before we even had cassette players to play music. And he would sing live and travel with our rodeo from city to city. So introducing a culture we've always had. We've always made it important when it comes to the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo. Recy? One thing, Martin, I want to say real quick. Yeah, go ahead. You know, people never even knew that the steel wrestling event that they do at all rodeos was created by a black man, William Bill Pickett. Until Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo started in 1984 and we started educating people, then all of the other rodeos had to then tell the truth because

they could no longer just act like it was just a regular event. And so he was the real, true epitome of a cowboy. Recy. Yeah, I'm curious to see how people can watch these events or if there's any kind of documentaries or movies about this where people can get more well-versed because now social media rules are right. So if it doesn't hit social media, people don't know what's happening. So that's what I would like to know. Well, I'm glad you asked that question because I am the social media director also. So I make sure we're on every platform. We're on Facebook.

We're on Instagram. We're on TikTok. There's videos. There's pictures. There's history. Not just Bill Pickett, but other history from other cowboys and cowgirls that we make sure that we educate across. Because throughout my life, because like I said, I'm a third generation. Those past generations haven't been captured.

They're just stories that have been told over and over. And so my goal is, with the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, I'm starting my first podcast. And it's going to talk about the cowboys, cowgirls, about the judges, about the announcers, about the black

stock contractors, putting them together in a book that we can hand over and create a legacy with. And also so people can understand this is deep rooted because our stories are told always say in pockets, maybe here in Texas, maybe in Oklahoma, maybe here. You don't have to be a star that's in the major rodeos to be good at your craft. But those are the ones that have brought in, mentored, made a change, set records to where our cowboys and cowgirls now are achieving even more. And we also, you asked about seeing, we are now have a residency show at the oldest rodeo arena in the United States in Cowtown Coliseum. We have six more shows there, three dates.

If they go to Bill Pickett, Invitational Rodeo dot com, all of those rodeos are live streamed on Pluto. So they're able to tune in to see the rodeo. And we actually were able to partner with the PBR. And for the first time in 2021, we were able to have a black rodeo aired on CBS on the same day that Juneteenth became a national holiday. That's awesome. And then also to add to this, besides being the first to be on CBS, okay, the first African-American rodeo to be in Las Vegas, and we've been there three times, we've also had the first traveling museum that captured at the time 38 years of Black West history that the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo created. So we have put on platforms over and over

to make sure that we educate, reach out to those so they can understand the Black cowboys, Black cowgirls, and what Black rodeos actually are. And that's one of the things that Lou wanted to stand true to, is that you had to have some part of African-American in you to compete in our invitational rodeo. Because we weren't in the history books. We weren't in the movies. You know, we weren't there. So he wanted to make sure we had a platform where our story could be told. And, Roland, you guys may not know this, but we now have a female president, producer of this rodeo.

This is a white male dominated industry. And when her late husband passed, she took it over. She changed the dynamic. This rodeo is run primarily by African-American women. And we have taken it to another level. And we are just excited to continue. And we are in the process of planning, teaching, training young ones underneath us so that we can continue this legacy. And when we're gone, that people can look back

and see the history and the rodeo and what was created to educate our people. Lauren, go ahead. Sorry. I got to counter Dr. Carr a little bit. Dr. Carr, I'm thoroughly enjoying watching a black woman on a white horse with a big flag looking powerful on a record cover. I mean, I love it.

I think it's great. I'm thoroughly enjoying everybody complaining about. I mean, I love it. I think it's great. I'm thoroughly enjoying everybody complaining about it, everybody bitching about it, because at the end of the day, it's a power pose. That's what this is. It's a new John Wayne pose. It's an update to all the powerful cowboys we had to watch when we were kids. And she has updated that and then taken the flag of the country and used that as a prop. I wish she had a sword in the air and would like money flying in the air. Then it would be completely perfect. And I just want to ask the ladies, do you think you'll see a spike in attendance as a result of her sitting on this horse and blowing?

You know the album is going to blow up. It's going to totally blow up. So I wondered if you've had any contact with Beyonce's people. I mean, I wish she would pay tribute to people like DeFord Bailey and Leslie Riddle. Leslie Riddle is the guy. Yeah, but here's the deal, Lauren. We don't know. She's already said there could be some surprises on this album. So we don't we don't know who's going to be featured. And and and look, here's the deal. Ever since she dropped Texas Hold'em in 16 carriages, you've seen a number of people now highlight other black country artists. And you see folks go back and actually talk about the history.

And I do think, I think Leslie Riddle is going to come up in that conversation. We've also seen a lot of white folks on TikTok dancing to that first song in cowboy hats. So I think it's going to be a big success. So ladies, I just wonder if you think you're going to see an uptick in activity around what

you're doing. For us, the last three years, we have sold our rodeos. We have sold out every performance. This year, we're adding additional. When it was during COVID and we could not rodeo, our social media pages continued to grow. Absolutely. Because we didn't stop.

We continued to educate, continued to letting everyone know who we are. We still had people calling us for Zoom calls to be able to educate in schools and everything else. So our growth is based on our history for 40 years. All right. Absolutely. And what you'll see is Bill Pickett has some surprises for you guys coming very soon that's all we can say we are the first for everything we are the one the only in the original all black rodeo the bill pickett invitational rodeo we don't follow people we do things first so we have some surprises coming

up our sleeve when we hit june and so we just want people to stay tuned. And I think what Beyonce has done is just open the doors for people to start recognizing those country artists who've been here all along, that they did not give them a chance because they've always been here. Well, I just hope that again, that in all of this, people, first of all, learn the history of black people, learn the history of black cowboys, learn the history of black folks in country, learn the history of black resistance, because I think a lot of people are just commenting,

not knowing what the hell they're even talking about. And I'll say this here. We actually we, we actually tried to get this, don't go to yet. We tried to get this, uh, into, into our studios, but we literally could not fit it in the elevator, in the hallway or in the window. So a lot of people who saw my show Washington watch probably rarely ever saw this because it was on the outside wall, excuse me, on the wall to my left. It wasn't our main set. But when Washington Watch, when TV One, we ended Washington Watch in 2013, this piece was delivered to my house. And I own a lot,

y'all can go ahead and go to my iPad. I own a lot of art. And this is actually, this was not an art piece. This was actually a part of the set. But what y'all don't see, so the person who designed this is a part of the set. What you will see is

they infused images of prominent African Americans into the U.S. flag. And so you can see here, you see Muhammad Ali, you see Marvin Gaye, you see folks there when it comes to voting. But what you also see here is that in the 50 stars, they also infuse the images of other African Americans. And so you'll see a young Michael Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Richard Pryor, Frederick Douglass. Damn, we should

replace that Ben Carson. But you see Oprah, Sidney Poitier, Michael Jordan, and you see Dorothy Height, Max Robinson, and on and on and on. And so, and I've said this here, there's a lot of stuff that, look, it can get sold. One, this would never get sold by me because, one, this was on the first show I ever had. So that's one. But this piece, to me, blows away every other art piece that I have. And so for folk who have a problem with the American flag, look, I understand all your stories, all the background. But what I do know is black folks, we made this thing real. And as King said, we're going to make y'all be true to what you put on paper. So I look forward.

So when is the, so you said the bill picket, invitational. I'm on your website right now. So how many cities are you in? I see Memphis, Oakland, L.A., and Atlanta. D.C. And we have our finals. Say it again. Which has already happened.

And we also have four dates. So when are y'all in D.C.? The third weekend in September. Third weekend in September. But you kick things off. When do things kick off? What's the first date? It was in January.

We did the Martin Luther King Rodeo in Denver. Got it. So when's your next one? We have a black... Well, our next rodeo is coming up in Memphis on the 13th. So we will be in Memphis. And then from there... 13th of what?

13th of what? April. Got it. So Memphis, April 13th. Then after that? We're in Fort Worth. When? 18th. Then after that? We're in Fort Worth. When? The 18th.

April 18th? Of May. Okay, May 18th. May 18th. Then we're in Los Angeles and Oakland, the second and third weekend of July. They're back-to-back. We do a two-week run then. Okay.

Then we go to Atlanta the first weekend in August. Then we're back in Fort Worth the third weekend. I think it's the 20th of August. Then we do our finals in September. Okay. All right, then. But we also have our Juneteenth rodeo in Fort Worth, Juneteenth weekend. Okay.

All right, then. Well, look, I'm going to have to stop by one of those. I'm going to bring Greg with me. I know he can wear some boots with a dashiki. You know, the young lady asked about the Beyonce's family coming out. Well, you know, Glenn Turman has been the grand marshal for the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo. A lot of people may not know that for 38 years. And he's very close to the Cotner family.

In fact, in her video, in her video that dropped for Texas Holdings, he's in the video. Absolutely. And Tina knows the mother comes to the rodeo quite often. She loves it. And we have a lot of people that support the Bill Pickett. So we're just happy that we have been able to survive Roland for 40 years. People said nobody would ever come to a black rodeo. They weren't going to come. They wouldn't see.

And we've proved them wrong. And now being in Fort Worth, our rodeos sell out more than some of the other rodeos. And so because people come from all over the world, because in Europe and Spain and Italy, we meet them at the rodeo. They've never seen black cowboys and cowgirls before. And Bill Pickett also had a art gallery show that was done by some photographers in the streets of Paris. Well, Glenn Turman is the biggest cowboy in Hollywood. He's invited me to go riding with him. I just saw him Saturday at the end of the image awards.

Yeah. And he was dressed. Come on, guys. Go to my iPad. He was dressed accordingly. And that was him at the Image Awards. And so that's always Glenn. So look forward to dropping in.

Look, I got about 14 pair of cowboy boots and a few hats. So I'm sure we can rock it at one of them. So we appreciate it. We appreciate y'all joining us. Thanks a lot. Thank you so We appreciate it. All right. We appreciate y'all joining us. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much, man. All right. I know

all y'all watching. Y'all want to see Greg and Dashika's cowboy boots. I know y'all do. I had cowboy boots, man. I'm from Nashville. That's why I say I ain't got no smoke with Beyonce, but let's be very clear. Beyonce done gone from the marching band, of course, Texas Southern.

She grew up there. She been Yemiyah and Oshun and Lemonade. She's a blackest king. She pan-Africanist. And now she a cowgirl. Beyonce is Beyonce. As she said in her quote, this ain't country music. It's Beyonce. And let's be clear, having listened to Texas Hold'em a number of times, it's a difference between country

music and Beyonce's song with some banjos. But let's be clear, that ain't the point. Beyonce is trolling everybody. I agree with you, Lauren. Now, I draw the line at that funky flag because I guess we're all going to find out whether or not you can really troll the white supremacist system that at the end of the day

may be mad because you wrapped yourself in that flag, but at the end of the day if they still got the power, who cares? Well, she did say it's not going to be a country album, it's going to be a Beyonce album. Exactly. But, but, but, I absolutely would love

to see her win all them damn country music artists' CMA Awards after they crapped on her eight years ago and just roll up on that stage. That'd be good. That'll be good. All right, let me go to a break. We come back.

We're going to chat with Rashad Robinson, Color of Change. You're watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back in a moment. I have something I want to tell you. I am running for president. Of the United States? Holy. I'm paving the road for a lot of other people looking like me to get elected.

Brooklyn's first black representative. You're about to make history. You're going to be president? You ain't no man. Maybe we should find your mother. All you got is your one vote. You sound just like every other politician. Do I look like every other politician?

Freedom! Truly, you can't win. And why can't I win? I have an opportunity to make a difference. Creation! This isn't a campaign. It's a joke. The only thing anybody's gonna remember is that there were a bunch of black folks

who made fools of themselves. I'll kill you! I see too much suffering. And I don't know how to not try. We're living it proud Still alive, still alive I don't know how to not try. We're living it proud. Still, right, still. I don't think I'm special. I just want to remind people what's possible.

We need something that's going to make some noise. The Black Panthers and Shirley Chisholm. It's like thunder and lightning. I'm going to force all the politicians to be held accountable. You're going to do all that? I'm a schoolteacher from Brooklyn. Harriet was just a slave. Rosa was just a domestic.

What is it you do for a living again? Lady, I'm golden. I'm starved. Itch by itch. Running brick by brick. The people of America are watching us. Yeah! Baby, I'm golden. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown.

Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like, uh, less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store.

We have one aisle six. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle six. And aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council.

You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Janet actually called me and she said, do you remember us having an argument in the studio, whatever, whatever? And I said, no, not really, because we never argued in the studio. And she said, well, there's this piece we found, and can you come over and watch it with me? And I said, sure.

And I went over and watched it, and I loved it. I just started laughing. I said, this is great. This is great, Janet. And she said, okay, so you're okay with this? I said, yeah, I'm fine with it. Because literally, we worked together for, I mean, I don't know how many days we've been in the studio together. And literally, we had maybe one argument like that.

Right. And it was captured. But of course, that's the thing that, you know. Absolutely. People want to see. But yeah, that kind of thing happens. Some days, that's with, you know, your voice isn't good today. Let's just go see a movie or let's go just chill.

You know, some days it's tough love, like you gotta do that again. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Kopp. Democracy in the United States is under siege. On this list of bad actors, it's easy to point out the Donald Trumps, the Marjorie Taylor Greens, or even the United States Supreme Court as the primary villains. But as David Pepper, author, scholar, and former politician himself says, there's another factor that trumps them all and resides much closer to many of our homes. His book is Laboratories of Autocracy, a wake up call from behind the lines.

So these state houses get hijacked by the far right. Then they gerrymander. They suppress the opposition. And that allows them to legislate in a way that doesn't reflect the people of that state david pepper joins us on the next black table here on the black star network on a next a balanced life with me dr jackie beware the generational curse they're everywhere in our families in our work, and even in our churches. It's like a minefield, identifying the curse and knowing what to do about it. When we're talking about generational patterns, oftentimes we get locked into those patterns

because we don't want anyone to say, oh, you acting brand new, or you doing something different from how this is how we always did it. It's okay to do something different in order to get the results that you want to see in your life. That's next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training, and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online training programs designed to put you on the fast track to jobs in high-growth fields. No experience is necessary. Learn at your own pace.

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Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. I'm Dee Barnes, and next on The Frequency, we're talking about the rise in great Black literature and the authors who are writing it. Joining me will be professor and author Donna Hill to discuss her writing journey and becoming a best-selling author. I always was writing,

but I never saw anybody that looked like me in the books that I was reading. Plus, her work with the Center for Black Literature and next year's National Black Writers Conference. That's right here on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Franklin. It is always a pleasure to be in the house.

You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay right here. All right, folks, welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered. There's a whole lot going on. We've talked about on this show the constant attacks against DEI, of course, in Alabama. The governor signed the measure outlawing all DEI programs. They're moving forward with that in Kentucky. We see what's happening with artificial intelligence and how black folks are just being abused even in the fake world.

And we still have all of these companies out here that promise billions upon billions to black people in the wake of the death of George Floyd and most of them ain't done a damn thing. Well, Color of Change has been on the front lines of those issues. Rashad Robinson, who leads Color of Change, joins us right now.

What's up, man? Good to see you. Good to see you so let's talk about uh first um I don't know it's so much so much it's so much let's first let's talk about again the the DEI text well people have to understand this is a well-funded clear direct attack I'm calling all this anti-blackness. And the effort to stop any program, not just affirmative action in colleges,

but they're going after law firms. They're going after a fearless fund. They're going after corporate America. They're going after any and every program or initiative that has been a helping hand to anybody black or minority. But I really say these are anti-black initiatives. Well, folks have to understand that this is about closing the door hand to anybody black or minority. But I really say these are anti-black initiatives. Well, folks have to understand that this is about closing the door to education, to government contracts, to employment, closing the door of opportunity across the board. I know we talk about DEI and we talk about affirmative action, but those are solutions to a problem. The problem is unearned opportunity, unearned access, privilege, all of those sort of things

that allow for people to get things, to allow white people, to allow white men in particular, but white people across the board to get things that they haven't actually earned while we're fighting over crumbs. And so what ends up happening, their strategy is now we start arguing about whether or not we like affirmative action or whether or not we like affirmative action. Right. Or whether or not we like DEI or whether or not a DEI program has been beneficial or not. These are solutions.

Perhaps they haven't always been the best solutions. But at the end of the day, what they're closing off is any solution to dealing with the problem. We have to focus on the actual problem. And then we also have to focus on the people behind it and their enablers. And so part of what we're doing at Color of Change is really going to be focusing on the funders, the people who are funding this, the people who are supporting it, the donor advised funds, these folks who get together and pull their money through Fidelity and Goldman Sachs and other places and want to be private and in secret.

Right. And are funding these efforts and then want to play in polite society, want to serve on board of directors for cultural groups. For black organizations. For black organizations. Want to be in spaces where they are sort of playing both sides, and we can't have that anymore. It was sort of like what many of these companies were doing who were funding ALEC. Yes. Well, this is exactly.

We would tell black people, we would tell ALEC that you can't come for black folks' money by day and want us to buy your products or use your services and then take away our vote or make us unsafe to stand your ground laws by night. And, you know, this is what actually sort of has to happen. Because, you know, I think we've gotten really focused on they've, they're chipping away and it will be DEI today and it'll be something else tomorrow. It'll be something else. And this all, you know, it's connected to the attacks on, on, on books in our schools, attacks of coursework. All of those things are connected. It's about erasing us, silencing us,

and then closing the door to opportunity. Well, look, look, Christopher Ruffo made it clear, hey, we want to do this and we want to put everything under, basically anything that's brought up, they want to attach woke, CRT, DEI to it. So basically, again, all anti-black. He made it clear. That's in the minds of folks, really white folks.

When it comes up, they want to see, see, they want to put everything under that banner. Sowing to keep the money from black farmers. Now Stephen Miller, these folks now trying to support this one writer, this white guy in Hollywood. 90% of all writers in Hollywood are white. Oh, but all of a sudden, I can't get a job

because they told me they had to hire some less talented people. I mean, come on, man. And here's the thing about that. We should be suing these companies because the fact of the matter is that the reason why all of these writers' rooms are so white

is because of policies and practices that are deeply discriminatory. You know, we've done a number, over the years we've done a number of reports on Hollywood. And we have one coming out in August that's going to look at all the crime TV shows and looks at the representation of race and crime. It's the second one in a series we've done specifically on this called Normalizing Injustice. When you look at the crime TV shows, and these are shows about cities. They're shows about race. They're shows about how democracy in those cities work and about activism and so much more. You will look at some of these writers rooms and they look less diverse than the Republican caucus. And they are supposed to be writing and doing engagement about telling the story.

And the fact of the matter is, is Stephen Miller is suing. And we get in there. They put us into a situation where now are we defending this company against this? And so I think we have to be honest that some of these corporations, we've allowed them to get away with too much. We've allowed them to say that they're doing DEI. We've allowed them to say that they're doing DEI. We've allowed them to say that they're fighting for diversity when, in fact, they're not. And so this is both about holding those who are coming after these programs accountable,

but also holding these folks who have been leveraging these programs accountable. AI. We are seeing how racist AI has been. We're seeing, and of course, we keep trying to say, well, the folks who are programming are white, so it's no shock what is going on. How have y'all been dealing with that? Because, again, we're seeing that,

look, this thing is taking off very quickly. And if we are not at the forefront right now, it's going to be a problem in the next, not five to 10 years, the next one to two years. Remember back in 2006, seven, eight, when people were talking about social media and the only thing they've said about social media was like, Obama, Arab Spring, it's going to open up all these opportunities. And yes, it does a piece of that, but there was no regulation. There were no rules.

And self-regulated companies are unregulated companies. And one of the things you have to remember about what's happening in the technology space is that at the end of the day, the incentive structure is for these companies to make money at all costs, but that's any corporation, right? Our cars are not safe because of the benevolence of the auto industry. They're safe because they were forced in their superstructure.

Seat belts, windshield wipers, no, no, no. And that you can get safety standards and that if something happens, you have recourse. Our food in our supermarkets is not safe because of the benevolence of big ag. There's rules and there's accountability. When something goes wrong, there's a process. And somehow people can call themselves engineers, go out to Silicon Valley, build stuff that breaks us, that hurts our society, and there's no accountability. You know, when I testified before the U.S. House of Representatives on something called Section 230, which is this clause that allows for tech companies, tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter to be immune from a whole set of sort of things that are related to their business model, like ads that are forced or the ways in which they make money that amplify hateful content and lead

to all sorts of problems. This thing called Section 230, which allows tech companies to be immune. And one of the things we think about is like, you know, we have immunity for tech companies. We have immunity for police officers. We have immunity for all of these forces that hurt us. And at the end of the day, we don't have the recourse. So we actually have to change the rules that govern big tech. And so we've been really engaged. I testified recently before Senator Schumer's committee on AI insights. We are releasing kind of a platform called the,

it's the second version of our Black Tech Agenda, which actually will look at a set of demands. But over the last couple of weeks, we've been engaged with the platforms because we can't wait on the federal government. And for years, as you know, we have been fighting these companies, leading boycotts against them, going toe-to-toe, meeting with Elon Musk after he buys it, because government hasn't done anything. But I know the minute-

Too slow. anything. But I know the minute we leave Menlo Park or wherever we've met with these tech CEOs, the agreements we have gotten from them are as good as our organizations are at holding them accountable. And at the end of the day, we are in a deeply David and Goliath fight where our total budget for the year will be less than one of their senior level staffers makes all years. And so we're in this fight. We are getting demands. We've gotten some demands around the election recently because when you see things like

Gemini, which is Google's AI or OpenAI, these platforms, when you enter things like find my polling place, they'll enter, they'll spit out addresses that don't even exist. Wow. Because AI is not designed to give us facts. It is a generative learning tool. It's collecting data from all kinds of different sources. Then it's like, well, are those factual sources?

Yes. And then it's creating a new idea. But if you actually have things that are just fact or fiction, that's where I really messes up. Right. And so if so, these platforms are going to be really a problem if we don't get them to actually make agreements. And government is so far behind. Right. Yeah. Well, that's why you had some what several lawyers use chat GPT, whatever hell is called. Yeah. And it created case law. Yes. Yep. Didn't even exist. Yes. Yep. And lawyers and the judge came to heart. Oh, I apologize.

Using chat Jeep. Yeah. He literally made up cases. And that's and that's and that is the problem. So think about it in the medical space. Think about it in. Right. about it in the medical space. Think about it in right, you just mentioned the legal space. Think about it in all these places that can be deeply consequential for, and so the fact that we haven't gotten to a place, and you know, I was just with

on Capitol Hill today and talking to members of Congress about particularly AI and they're talking about innovation and this is going to stifle innovation. And I said, you know, I go up to, I go up to Silicon Valley and I meet with tech CEOs and they're talking about innovation and this is going to stifle innovation. And I said, you know, I go up to Silicon Valley and I meet with tech CEOs and they say things to me like, oh, this is going to stifle innovation. And then when they leave their tech campus, they get into their electric cars, which is all about regulation and all about innovation that came out of regulation.

And I think it's crap because at the end of the day, in this society, folks will find ways to make money based off of the rules that exist, and they will innovate and think about all of the ways in which victories have been won in terms of climate change and then the innovation that has flown and the people who are making money as a result of it. The information environment that is like crappy as a result of what is happening around AI, what is happening around misinformation and amplification. You know, it serves the billionaires. It serves the people in power.

And, you know, we're going to be obviously running a lot of campaigns. But what I know about this is that if the government doesn't actually put in rules and enforcement, we're just going to constantly lose. And we have to make this a priority. Hold on one second. Going to break. We come back. Our panelists get to ask questions to Rashad. That's next on Rolling Mark Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything

that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown.

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Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash app is DollarSignRMUnfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RMUnfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, are you working hard and yet your performance doesn't reflect your paycheck? On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to learn some savvy career moves so that all your efforts actually show up in your bank account. Joining us is the founder of a career network, and she's going to share the three R's of accelerating your financial growth.

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Got kicked out your mama's university. Creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays, an air hip-hop comedy. But right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Welcome back to Roland Martin on the filter on the Black Star Network. Time for questions from our panel for Rashad Robinson, at least color of change.

Lauren, Victoria Burke, you're first. Hey, Rashad. How you doing? Long time, long time. I know. How's it going? Don't you think, I mean, we've never seen Congress regulate anything around social media. And the reason for that is obvious.

They are paid for. They are totally owned. They're owned by these lobbyists. Completely owned by these lobbyists. Completely owned by these lobbyists. And the other thing I would say with 230 is when you don't have a right to action, when something goes wrong on social media such as defamation, it's really game over. So without the right to action and without the power to boycott these things, what is there left? I mean, you were talking about outing these companies that fund some of the things we don't like. But what we see is a growing situation, a growing problem where there is no shame in racism anymore.

There's no penalty for racism anymore. How do you change that paradigm? So, yeah, I have to say that there are days where I'm like, you kind of want to throw your hands up. You know, we do a billion dollar boycott of Facebook. And then you get some demands out of Mark Zuckerberg and at the time, Sheryl Sandberg. And then you see that Facebook makes money. And then even during the boycott and you see some of the things that you felt like you got as a result, not actually pan out into the change. And absolutely, we got, you know, we thought we

were getting close last time around, around an antitrust legislation during the last Congress, which would have been our last chance with like both both bodies and and the president. And we recognize that we were just absolutely outgunned by the lobbyists on both sides. I think our best path is going to be the regulators. It's going to be the DOJ and the FTC and the FTC has proven probably the best path. And Europe. And Europe. And Europe. Well, the trick about Europe is that, yes, Europe is actually doing things that are far better than where we're at.

And they have a regulatory sort of history that, you know, in the United States, a lot of our ability to actually hold institutions accountable comes from the legislation. In Europe, their work is really about regulatory bias, and they really empower regulators. And I've gone to Great Britain and actually testified specifically around when Rupert Murdoch was trying to buy up more media products, testified about the kind of Fox News issue with black folks in this country. And that was part of one of the reasons why he was denied access to buy more product, more sort of media platform. So Europe is great. The trick about Europe, and this is what we all have to remember, is that

Europe is coming out with rules. But Europe will use international human rights standards. And what that actually means is that international human rights standards oftentimes leave out race. So you will get policies that actually say you can't dehumanize based off of religion or based off of gender. And that's great. But you have a set of countries that don't even track race, most notably France. They don't even track or count our racial demographics. It's actually illegal. And so you have sort of a history in Europe where they don't look at and think about,

and their kind of relationship to civil rights looks different. So while Europe's standards will change the companies in some ways, even the sort of Digital Service Act that came out of Europe, what it will do is that we will still, in the civil rights perspective here in the United States, still have to win victories. Because so much about what's happening on these platforms is that the sort of technology that is supposed to bring us into the future is dragging us into the past. Recy?

Hi, yes. My question is about, I know there's a lot of talk about the prevalence of racism in social media and how it's unchecked, particularly with Elon Musk now owning X. But I have seen, and I've been talking about this for years, how even when they do enforce the rules or they call themselves enforcing the rules, it disproportionately harms Black users, Black content creators. Are you doing any work around trying to make sure that the rules are not weaponized to silence the voices of black users and black content creators on social media? Is that something that you've thought about? Yeah, we've been really involved in this. And so both during the racial equity audits that we've called for at Facebook before it was meta and really worked directly with to try to engage that.

We did a lot of surveys and engagement with black users to try to really unearth stories that are exactly around what you're talking about. We actually hosted a forum in Atlanta with black creators and black users. This was a number of years ago. We actually brought Sheryl Sandberg to Atlanta. This was in the height of some of our back and forth campaign for her to actually hear directly from users and really hear the experiences of people being put in Facebook jail. They said Facebook jail didn't exist, but I know more than enough people that know that they've had the experiences of simply being able to talk about a racist experience that they have, and then that being called racist. And so we have a number of those examples, and that's absolutely been part of not just how we've pushed on policies, but how we've pushed on personnel.

Because a lot of this has been about the personnel at these companies, from the content moderators on up, really having a nuanced understanding about how different communities engage. And as things go to AI, and more and more of this sort of content moderation is kind of automated, we're only going to see more and more problems because it's going to be bad data in and bad data out.

X and Elon Musk creates a real problem for us because it's a race to the bottom. All of the sort of things that have been won over time, and this is why self-regulation is such a problem, is that the race to the bottom now creates a kind of market force that makes Google and Facebook say that, oh, we're not as bad as X. And so we're doing X, Y, and Z, which is not nearly enough, but X is so far in the gutter that we have these problems. But when there's something bad on, let's say, a Facebook, it's such a bigger problem because Facebook has 3 billion users.

So that's more followers than Christianity. And so their ability to actually even monitor and engage and even take seriously what you're bringing up becomes really hard. And so we are paying attention to that and making sure that the rules that we get in place are not sort of disproportionately impacting black people or not used to stifle black voice, black creativity, black content.

Greg. Thank you, Roland. It's good to see you, brother. I had initially wanted to ask you if you had any thoughts about Steve Mnuchin and some of these white nationalists trying to put together consortiums to force the sale of and then purchase TikTok and how that might impact us. But given the story that came out of Nashville today as it relates to the white nationalists trying to destroy Tennessee State University's board, I know that back in June you released a statement on behalf of Color of Change demanding justice for black applicants beyond affirmative action.

And one thing you talked about was Congress providing more funding for HBCUs and MSIs. And I also know that there's an option, of course, with Color of Change of starting your own petition so people can do that. Any thoughts on how Color of Change could get involved directly in this struggle out of Nashville to prevent the Tennessee government, state legislature and governor from taking over the Tennessee State University Board? Well, I think there's a couple of things that need to happen. First, we need a robust engagement from Merrick Garland and Kristen Clark and the DOJ. We have playing defense far too much on these issues, trying to defend a set of things that are solutions,

once again, to a problem, rather than actually go on the offense at the sort of route, the ways in which these policies and practices will no doubt lead to a whole set of discriminatory outcomes that that if we are both clear and creative with how we take these things on I believe that there's sort of legal path that we should be engaging and there's no reason why we shouldn't be demanding that this is the this is the consequence elections, that you have people in office that actually care about these things, and we have to hold them accountable for it. That's one. I do think that, you know, looking for the right types of campaign levers is part of what we do.

Of course, we allow folks to, like, create and start their own petitions, but we're absolutely going to look for where are their openings. Because part of this is that going directly at racist forces and asking our members to call on such and such to do something when we know such and such doesn't have any incentive to listen to us. And so we're oftentimes trying to figure out who are the enablers? Who are the folks that actually want to play in polite society? Who are the folks who will have to play in polite society? Who are the folks who will have to pay a price for their association? And that's part of, A, what's, you know, kind of how we think about it. And so that will be part of something, the things that we're looking at. And that's part of the full range of what we're looking at as we think about these fights around

the sort of weaponization of privilege and unearned opportunity and unearned access that's coming at us in the forms of attacks on DEI, but will be coming at us in the forms of all sorts of other things as well. And last point, unlike, and we talked about it, unlike other civil rights groups, y'all do not take corporate funding. We don't take corporate funding, and that, sometimes it makes it tough, you know, when you're trying to close the books. But what it does do is it allows us to go directly at these companies. And so when we are sitting in the room, which we have with Elon Musk, when we're sitting in the room with Mark Zuckerberg, when we're sitting in the room with Sundar or at Google or any of these other companies, there's no staff member whose job is paid by that.

And we're the only national black to be the Negro whisperer, to be the one with what tables to buy, stuff like that. Absolutely. And we're not coming back afterwards saying, hey, buy a table. And this is not to accuse any group of doing anything nefarious, but it's to say that it becomes very hard to hold companies accountable that you are taking money from. It just becomes very hard. Or if they're on your board of directors. Yes. And our job is to hold

the line between real solutions and fake solutions. And even one fake solution that's coming about in terms of all of this stuff that's happening around admissions is that, oh, we're just going to end legacy admissions and walk away, right? And I don't care whether or not you end legacy admissions or not, but let's be clear that that doesn't solve the problem because privilege doesn't start at the point when someone's admitted to college.

Privilege starts with how we do funding for public education from to college. Privilege starts with how we do funding for public education from the beginning. Privilege starts with who gets access to programs and opportunities. Privilege starts with the neighborhood and zip code you're in. Privilege starts in so many places. And so they know. This is why Republicans in Virginia

supported the legislation to end legacy emissions because they know that this is not just about the written rules, but it's about the unwritten rules of access and opportunity that far often will exceed the written rules. They will be the real rules. And so the unwritten rules of how corporate money has influenced the way that civil rights gets played out

and what we think that we need to do in order to make companies happy or on our side makes things incredibly hard for us to truly win. Because at the end of the day, the companies will never give us enough money to be powerful enough to push back on them. They'll just give us enough money so that we want more of it and so that we are now in relationship with them.

All right. Rashad Robinson, appreciate it, man. Appreciate you always. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for having me. All right, folks, we come back. Why are Kentucky Republicans trying to shut down a black woman who's elected member of their body from speaking?

She will join us next right here on Roller Barton. I'm Phil Trudeau of the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do. Y'all know we fight in a good fight when it comes to trying to get these companies to advertise $340 billion spent every year on advertising. 1% goes to Black-owned media. 1% of $340 billion. So your support is crucial.

And so our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each for the year. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. You can't give that. We give less. We've got people, look, every dollar matters. People have given us $10, $5, $1. We appreciate that.

We've had people give us $1,000, $5,000, $10,000. We appreciate that as well. And so send your checking money over to the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-7-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, RM Martin Unfiltered, Venmo's RM Unfiltered, Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at Roland role of Martin on filter dot com. We'll be right back. Carol, come snap. I have something I want to tell you. I am running for president of the United States. Holy. I'm paving the road for a lot of other people looking like me to get elected. Brooklyn's first black representative. You're about to make history.

You're going to be president? You ain't no man. Maybe we should find your mother. All you got is your one vote. You sound just like every other politician. Do I look like every other politician? Freedom! Truly, you can't win.

And why can't I win? I have an opportunity to make a difference. Creation! This isn't a campaign. It's a joke. The only thing anybody's gonna remember is that there were a bunch of black folks who made fools of themselves. I'll kill you! See too much suffering.

And I don't know how to not try. We're living it proud. Still right, still right. I don't think I'm special. I just want to remind people what's possible. We need something that's going to make some noise. The Black Panthers and Shirley Chisholm. It's like thunder and lightning.

I'm going to force all the politicians to be held accountable. You're gonna do all that? I'm a schoolteacher from Brooklyn. Harriet was just a slave. Rosa was just a domestic. What is it you do for a living again? I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1.

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

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got Be Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't

working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown.

Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle six and aisle three.

So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.

If you cannot afford an attorney, One will be appointed for you. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney Plus, and I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Imagine fighting for America. Fighting for the rights of America.

The First Amendment. And here you are, a state senator in Kentucky, and the folk who are sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution wanna stop you from speaking. Well, that's exactly what has been happening to retired Colonel Pam Stevenson, a state senator in Kentucky. Watch this. Colleagues and Mr. Speaker, I speak for the people that can't speak for themselves. That's exactly what has been happening to retired Colonel Pam Stevenson, a state senator in Kentucky.

Watch this. Colleagues and Mr. Speaker, I speak for the people that can't speak for themselves. I'm not a mean person by nature. I just am passionate and I want every voice to be heard. So if I get thrown off this floor as I've been threatened because I'm so passionate about these things, then I will be suspended from this floor for my Lucy. And I will be suspended for every person that suffered under the guise of racism, sexism, and all the isms, and they had nowhere to go.

Silence is not democracy. Senator Stevenson joins us right now from Louisville. Glad to have you here. So what the hell is going on? Why are they mad at you speaking on issues when that's what you were elected by your constituents to do? That's exactly right, Roland. Thank you for having me. But we have been passing a number of bad bills. We have said that children can work 40 hours a week during the school hour. We've criminalized

homelessness. We've done so much that goes against everybody living a life and thriving. And on that day, what they wanted to do was take public monies and fund it into private schools, leaving our children behind. So and that's a voucher program. We've seen the exact same. They tried to do it in Texas, but they would throw it about rural or rural Republicans. We see what's happening in Tennessee. But again, you have the right to speak against it. They don't even want you to talk. Exactly. And so the sponsor of the bill would not answer my questions so that we could flush

this out and people could see that this was not a good deal. And finally, when he said, um, I think your question is irrelevant and I'm not going down that rabbit hole. I said, pretend like I'm a rabbit and answer my question and that's when the speaker called my leadership up front to give them instructions and after that he called on someone else and they let us know that because of my tone

and my words and especially if I would attack or say something bad about one of his people, he would suspend me for five days. And so suspend for five days, what does that actually mean? What does that mean? I don't know, because it's the first I ever heard of it. How are you going to suspend an elected official for doing what the people sent them to do?

So I don't know, but I was going to find out on friday we were going to do the diversity equity and inclusion bill right and it was a hotly contested bill we had a number of people speaking and that was the clip you showed where i want to make it very clear that I'm going to continue to speak, you might say you're going to suspend me in private, but I want the world to know that this is not democracy. No, I mean, look, we saw what happened in Tennessee when they expelled two black members, now expelled the white representative, and they even have passed rules that if they want to stop debate,

they could be in the middle of talking and somebody could actually raise their hand, you know, and offer a motion and get second up. But you got to sit down and be quiet. So these people do not, for all of this talk about how they love America and America, they do not want to hear from black elected officials. No. And for me, after serving 27 years in the United States Air Force, many of us, all of us, took an oath to the Constitution to defend it against enemies, foreign and domestic. And we never thought it would be domestic. And so when they sent me to the Middle East, when they sent me to Africa, when they sent me to fight for

the promise of America, you're not going to shut me up in America. Right. I guess they wanted you to fight for that thing called the Second Amendment, but they wanted to skip that thing called the First. Thank you. Questions from our panel. Recy, you're first. Hi, Colonel Stevens. Thank you for your bravery. First of all, you know, what's next if this suspension does occur or is this just you do think it's an empty threat? Are you going to keep pushing the envelope and see what happens?

I am going to continue to speak the truth for the people that couldn't I speak. You know, I always tell the story about my grandmother, Lucy, who dropped out of the sixth grade, was married at the age of 14, had 15 kids and had no access to any of these systems. But she managed to save 10 cents a month to get an insurance policy so I could go to school. And she died early. So you can't shut me up because too many unknown fighters died so that we could watch, march towards the promise of America. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Lauren. Yeah. So, so, Colonel, nice seeing you. What are the rules? What are the rules in Kentucky? I once upon a time worked for the lieutenant governor of Virginia. And one day he showed up in the chamber and there was a memo on his desk saying that he had to truncate his speeches at a part of the day called morning hour, which is basically just greeting guests. And of course, I and his chief of staff read the rules of the Virginia Senate and found

that there was nothing that can limit the speeches of the president of the chamber. And we met with the clerk, and they never bothered us again. So I wonder, what are the rules in Kentucky? Can the chair in any way truncate your speaking or do they just make this up out of whole cloth, you know, and it's just arbitrary? In Kentucky, we have a super majority, 80 Republicans and 20 Democrats. And essentially, they make the rules. They will stop the process

and make the rules as we go along. They will stop the process if we speak too long, have a motion to have the debate shortened. They will turn off your mics. They have total power to do what they think they should be

doing. So they can make up the rules. By the way, most of it has nothing to do what they think they should be doing. So they can make up the rules. It has nothing to do with making sure that every child is loved, nurtured, and protected. They can, in fact, make up the rules to truncate debate in any way they want. It's arbitrary. Okay. Thank you, Colonel. Great talking to you. Greg.

Thank you, Roland, and thank you, Colonel Stevenson. Let me first compliment you on your library. That's not one you can build very easily. I see you as just a Himes fan. I see Himes, Morrison, Zora Neale, Hurston, Marley the Kid, Black Panther, Eric Foner, Virgin. It's hard to find. So you can't fake a library like that.

Let me just compliment you first of all on that. Thank you. And my husband, I love him too. And I know you're native of Louisville and native of Kentucky, and that. Thank you. And my husband, I love him, too. And I know you're native of Louisville and native of Kentucky, and I was born and raised in Tennessee, right, to the south. And I guess for this question I want to ask you is germane to that. Are the legislators in Kentucky as retrograde as the ones in Tennessee? Because it sounds like this whole idea of trying to make you be quiet—and I love how you name-checked your grandma. That was beautiful. It sounds like what they tried to do to the so-called

Tennessee Three. Since they're moving with impunity, what possibility is there? We heard Rashad Robertson a moment ago talk about talking with people who at least want to act like they want to play by the rules. But it sounds like these boys don't want to play by any rules at all. And they sound like those Tennessee legislators. What is your, you know, what is your, I don't even say the word hope. What's your strategy for dealing with these white nationalists that have now gone beyond so they can just act with impunity? How do you conceive this going forward beyond any rule change or any idea to silence you? What's your strategy and how can we be of assistance in surrounding and supporting you in it?

Thank you for that question. I like that saying that hope is a small revolution. I'm dealing with my people who they are, they've got to feed their kids. They've got three jobs. They don't have a living wage. They don't know what's going on. And they said, yes, we want you to go forward. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to continue to speak truth because that's what I'm paid for. OK, I'm not really paid, but that's what I'm sent there for.

Yes. Yes. I am sent there and I will continue to speak up and speak out. I've been speaking up and speaking out for the three years that I've been in the legislature. And I'm not going to stop because too many people in my district are watching and they everywhere I go, they people that I don't know say, thank you for standing up for us. Thank you for this. And I will make sure that I'm in an election year now, and that's not going to make me quiet. In fact, it's going to make me louder. Yes.

Because the promise of democracy is for everyone. Not just the chosen few. I always say, we don't say a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for some. So I will continue to

do what's necessary to make sure that we fight back bills and make sure that every child, the elderly and the differently abled, have a life that God wants them to have. I'm a pastor, so it's God. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

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

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at LavaForGood Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

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

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You'd say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it.

Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car,

always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. That they were given. Well, I saw the video and I said let's get her on and hopefully folks now know that you are not going to be quiet and you're gonna keep giving them hell

and so we love folks like that. And I see what you're wearing. You're wearing pink and green for a reason? I'm just checking. All right, I'm just, you know, matter of fact, I was texting. I was texting y'all last four presidents. And so I'll let them know that you on the show acting out, doing what's necessary.

Let me tell you, Roland, and all the members of your panel, now is the time to lean in. That's right. Thank you for giving people information that they need to take action on. This is no game. If we go to sleep, when we wake up, there will be no democracy, no freedoms, no rights, no responsibilities. And if anybody wants to keep up with what I am doing, just Colonel Pam, Colonel Pam Stevenson on all the social media. All right, then. Well, look, we appreciate it.

Keep up the good fight and we're right there with you. And so keep us abreast of what happens in Kentucky, because every voice does indeed matter when it comes to this. Democracy is something we call this republic. Bottom line is we here, and we ain't going nowhere. Ain't going nowhere. And I have to say, hi, Mommy and Daddy. I still have my parents. Black folks will always do the shout-out.

That will always be the case. So tell your mother and father as well, my parents are still here, and they watching right now too. Senator Stevenson, thanks so much. Bye-bye. All right. Folks, we're going to a quick break. We come back.

Them white boys down in Mississippi who tortured them brothers. The last two guys sentenced today. I bet they going, damn, why did we do that? And Vice President Kamala Harris gives a shout out to Grambling State for their big win in March Madness. We'll show you that phone call. You're watching

Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Terry and I, we couldn't play in the white clubs in Minnesota. It felt like such a, you know, strength through adversity type moment that I think black people just have to go through. You know, we have to figure it out, you know. Right. We make, you know, lemons out of lemonade. But there's a reason we rented a ballroom, did our own show, promoted it, got like 1,500 people to come out.

Clubs were sitting empty. They were like, where's everybody at? And they said, they're down watching the band you wouldn't hire. So it taught us not only that we had to be, we had the talent of musicians, but we also had the talent of entrepreneurship. It wasn't like a seat at the table.

It's like, no, let's build the table. That's right. We've got to build the table. And that was the thing. And of course, after that, we got all kinds of offers. Of course. Right, to come play in the clubs. But we didn't do it.

You're like, no, we're good. No, we're good. We're good. And that's what put us on a path of national. And of course, when Prince made it, then it was like, okay, we see it can be done. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning into... Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Oh, those six white former cops who tortured and brutally beat two black men. Well, the last two of them learned their fate today. Former Rankin County Sheriff's Deputy Brett McAlpin slapped with 27 years in prison for breaking into a home with a group of

law enforcement officers as they tortured and sexually assaulted Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, an act the judge called egregious and despicable. For his part in the incident, former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, he got the lightest sentence, 10 years in federal prison for his role. The other four goon squad members were sentenced earlier this week. Hunter Edwards got slapped with 20 years. Jeffrey Milton got slapped with 17 and a half years. He was the leader of his goon squad. Daniel Opdike was sentenced to 17 and a half years.

Christian Dedman, he got the longest sentence. He got hit with 40 years for his role in torturing Jenkins and Parker. I say take your punk ass on to prison, Lauren, and I hope it's a horrible experience. Yeah, I'm sure it will be.

Yeah, I would imagine one of the things about this story that I find sort of odd is that there's a lack of attention, in my view, on it. There's not a whole lot of attention on this story compared to what I think it would be if women were involved and it was a bunch of male prison guards. I just think this story has gotten a low level of interest on our cable networks. I'm not sure why that is. It's just sort of a passing interest. But it's a particularly disgusting story that's a throwback for like 100 years ago or even more. And it's a strange story, but it is good to see the sentences they get. I mean, 27 years is a lot. The guy that got 10 years is probably going to be out in five, but

the 27 years is a hefty sentence, as it should be. Well, now remember, these are federal charges, but they also got to deal with state charges, so they also pled guilty to state and federal. And, you know, Recy, you know, we talk about mass incarceration all the time.

These are the folks prison was meant for. Absolutely. I don't think they all the time. These are the folks prison was meant for. Absolutely. I don't think they got enough time. I don't give a damn. Slap every single charge. No parole. No parallel sentence or whatever they call it. Yeah, lock their asses up because that was absolutely crazy.

But not only that, let's take a look at all their cases of the black men that they planted evidence on, lied on, and make sure that those people get brought to justice in terms of getting those charges dropped, make sure that those people get paid for the way that these officers have disrupted their lives, make sure that that department has the consent decree so that they cannot continue to get away with this extrajudicial behavior.

And I hope that this serves as a little bit more of a warning to other cops out there. And it's just a shame that it went through to such extremes for it to even—it was so extreme and egregious that there was no other choice but to have these sentences, which are longer for cops, but what they did, it still ain't enough for me. Greg? Yeah, no, I agree. You know, it's interesting. There, you know, in critical race theory, there's often a discussion of something called

the case of the extreme incident. You know, Rodney King, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, the things that are unavoidable. In other words, you have to do something because not doing something might cost you more in terms of triggering some type of extrajudicial response. And this is one of those extreme

examples. They had to do something. Of course, the judge, he's a senior judge now, Tom Lee, Thomas Lee. He's 82 years old. He's from a different time, if you can believe it. He was appointed to the Southern District of Mississippi by, of all people, and forgive me for cursing, Ronald Reagan back in the 80s. It's a different Republican Party, of course. But this extreme incident, I mean, you know, is something that they just basically had to do. Now, we can hope that this might mean that other patarolers and hunters like these goon squad people who aren't that far from the mainstream will be punished.

But this is kind of low-hanging fruit. The other thing I would say is, and I echo what you said, Lauren, that, you know, this isn't getting coverage like it should in the white stream media. Again, that's why this space is important. You had Malik down in the studio. Malik Zulu-Shabazz is representing these victims. And that's important because you've been covering this all along. And of course, we know that I think that $40 million or $400 million lawsuit against Sheriff Brian Bailey in Rankin County is still active. So we might need to update. Oh, there he is right there.

Yes, sir. But again, that's why the Black Star Network is so important. Hey, folks, let's go to South Carolina, where the family of the late Josephine Wright were fighting. They were trying to take her home. Well, guess what? She went to her grave fighting those developers for demolishing her home. They have now settled with the company. White refused to sell her land to developers building around her Hilton Head Island home. She said after she turned down offers, they started harassing her. Well, the investment company behind the development sued the 94-year-old

woman to get the land her home sat on. She died in January before everything was settled with her home. Now the settlement has been reached. According to South Carolina Public Radio, the settlement concedes that the Wright family owns the property in the middle of Bailey's Points planned 29 acre neighborhood. The company cannot contact the Wright family about purchasing the land and a privacy fence will be erected between the Wright family's land and the new construction. Don't forget, Tyler Perry had announced he was going to buy her a new home. He still plans on presenting those keys to the family. Again, she died at the age of 94.

Greg, I hate that she couldn't see this all the way through, but this is what happens when, damn that, you keep fighting to your last breath for what's rightfully yours. I tell you, Roland, it's tough, man. You know, tonight, there's been an ongoing theme in all of these stories. You know, the United States of America, Langston Hughes once wrote, America never was America to me, but this of our America will be. God bless Langston Hughes. I could America never was America to me, but this I vow America will be. God bless Langston Hughes. I could give a damn about the place.

But what we're fighting for is self-determination. That property has been in their family since the end of the Civil War. The betrayal of black people in South Carolina, beginning with our forced relocation to this funky settler state, but then during the Civil War, the betrayal of land by the Union Army, and then Lincoln, and then Johnson, and the federal government during Reconstruction, the fact that anybody black in South Carolina has any land at all is a testament to our iron will and resolve. And that property on Hilton Head, where these white developers have gone in and basically tried to carve out paradises, places like Kiowa Island, where Tim white developers have gone in and basically tried to carve out paradises,

places like Kiowa Island, where Tim Scott was down on one knee in a cosplay proposal. Have we heard if they set a date yet? Anyway, on a beach not far from where Nikki Haley has a mansion on Kiowa Island. All that land used to be black people. And when they betrayed them, that is where the 40 acres and a mule promise was made. So Sister Wright is an ancestor now. And if these people come sniffing around 100 years from now thinking they're going to do something, she's liable to rain fire on them from the ancestral

realm. So it doesn't matter that she made physical transition. At the end of the day, we will triumph. Why? Because our will is stronger than yours. You tried to kill us, and we're still here. So that should tell you what's going to happen next. You know, Lon, there's a lot of folks who

are younger when they get family land or homes passed down. They don't want to deal with it. They want to sell it and move on. We saw that happen with a lot of folks who had brownstones in Harlem, and then when the prices blew up, what was what was

two and three hundred thousand was being sold for three and four million. And Chuck D. talks about it all the time. God ain't making no more land. Yeah, that's right. You know, it's a big mistake selling family property. Huge mistake. And I'm so glad to say that my family has something in Brooklyn that's pretty valuable because of my grandmother. And it's hard to get that land. It took three people from my grandmother. You get it in 1950s. And then on my mother's side, she has a house in Virginia. And it's just really hard to get that land back once it's gone. And the arrogance of these companies, the arrogance of these corporations to think that they can come along and take somebody's house or move somebody's house or whatever it is, is incredible. So I'm glad that she fought that. And shout out to Tyler Perry for getting involved in that.

Rishi? Yeah, I mean, this is one of those things where, you know, the narrative about pick yourself up by your bootstraps and, you know, people wonder why there is a wealth gap and even a generational wealth gap between black and white families because we are targeted. We're systemically targeted and the system is typically on their side. the negative publicity that this generated, but for the likes of Tyler Perry and others who have massive platforms getting involved and coming to her defense, this would be another elderly Black woman taken advantage of and rolled over by the system. And so this is still happening throughout the country. And I'm glad at least—I mean, the administration wasn't involved in this particular case, but I know as part of the infrastructure bill, Secretary Buttigieg has been talking about trying to repair some of the forest relocations that happened with infrastructure, you know,

decades ago. But we're still up against a tough system. So kudos to any family that can manage to hold on to valuable land or, you know, familial land. But we also have to recognize that a lot of people are up against very powerful forces. And not being able to defeat those forces is not a deficiency on their part. Indeed. All right, folks, we're going to close the show out with this. Other night, y'all see me rocking the Grambling State track suit. They gave me this when I visited.

Well, the other night, they had the play-in game. That's where they always stick the HBCUs. And all these prognosticators were like, oh, Grambling State, y'all should just be happy. Y'all made it. They played, who was it, Montana State? They played Montana State. Well, it went to overtime, and Grambling State beat Montana State 88-81.

That's a $2 million win for the SWAC when it comes to that game, which they'll get over the next several years. And so folks have been talking about this. But not only that, didn't Alabama A&M win their game? Alabama A&M won their game as well. Well, the vice president of the United States put in a phone call to the Grambling State head coach. Here it is.

Coach? Yes, ma'am. You all killed it last night. Let me just tell you something. Is the team there? Yes, they're here. Can they hear me? They can hear you.

I have to tell you, I watched the entire game into overtime. You all just, you were just pure excellence on that court. I mean, but going into overtime, I was literally, my husband and I, on the edge of our seats. And, of course, you know, you got among your so, so talented team, you got that lefty. And it just was, I mean, what you all did as a team and coach, I saw your interview afterwards and just being so cool and calm and collected. So I just have to call you all to tell you, I'm just, you made me proud, and you just, you made history for Grambling. And as a fellow HBCU, proud HBCU graduate,

I just had to let you all know that you've got fans all over the place, including in the White House. Thank you, VP Harris. So congratulations for last night. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I really appreciate it. So Alabama A&M, they were in the collegeinsider.com

post-season tournament. Gremlin State were in March Madness and they were the, so they're the 16th seed, so they now play Purdue, the number one seed. And a whole lot of folk, Recy, with egg on their face because they just assume, oh, the SWAC school. In fact, one of the ESPN folks said, for the SWAC school, just making the tournament, you should feel like that's like winning the championship.

No, it's not. Well. Because the winner of the championship win multiple millions. Hmm. Right. I mean, you know, bet on Black. I know that they might have been the underdogs,

but they came to fight and they won. And I'm happy for it. I'm glad to see HBCUs, you know, getting past the first round because a lot of times it is just like a participation trophy. People try to act like they're there just to color the brackets a little bit with HBCUs, because most of the teams got Black people. But I'm happy that they made it through, and I'm happy—you know, Vice President Kamala Harris is a big basketball fan and a big HBCU fan, so it doesn't surprise me at all that she reached out to offer her congratulations.

Lauren? Unlike President Obama, the vice president is, in fact, a big HBCU fan. That's nice to see her call them, and grambling is great. And, you know, Recy is right. Usually it's like everybody is just sort of happy to be there. People put them on the bracket because they're happy to be there. So it's great to see them win. And hopefully they'll win again.

We'll see. Lauren throwing that shade. You're doggone right, because President Obama was anti-HBCU, and it was not good. He was. It was not pretty. All right. Greg. Thank you, Roland.

And thank you for saying that, Lauren. But that contempt, as far as Barack Obama's concerned and me, that contempt is mutual. So it's all good with the chocolate wonder. But, you know, basketball is, I think, this is very instructive for us. I mean, I'm a big fan of the women's game. So, you know, I love Dawn Staley and lived in Philly for 17 years. So, you know, out of Dobbins High School, won everything that can be won in's game. So, you know, I love Dawn Staley and lived in Philly for 17 years. So, you know, out of Dobbins High School, won everything that can be won in the game. And it's now leading her

undefeated team in to break the backs of some of these beautiful stories, like maybe they'll run into Iowa at some point and snatch that fairy tale down. But they've already vanquished Connecticut, apparently, over the years. You know, Gino is mad as hell up there in stores. But guess what? You'll have to get over it. That having been said, I'm saying this. All of these black athletes who have filled the coffers, particularly behind the cotton curtain, that that fiasco to happen at your alma mater with the sister where you and then you made the call on this network for black athletes to reconsider Texas A&M until there's time to do something different. Apparently, the idea that Negroes can get two nickels to rub together so pissed off the coach of the University of Alabama football team that he decided to retire rather than give up his plantation. And all of that is in football. But basketball is a different story. I'm sure we all

remember Ron Mitchell, Fang Mitchell at Coppin State. You can put together a squad and make a run in the NCAA in basketball quicker than you can put together a squad in football and get involved in the plantation-level events. I think women's basketball in a state like, oh, I don't know, Florida, where some of these athletes might decide not to play for the University of Florida or Florida State and go perhaps to Florida A&M, or perhaps in Alabama, where they decide not to go roll tide and maybe roll over to A&M or Alabama State. Or if in Louisiana, instead of going to Louisiana State, hey, nothing against Baltimore's finest to buy you Barbie, but instead of banging shoulders with the 6'7 Brazilian on the University of South Carolina's team, maybe you decide instead of LSU to go to Southern. I think you might be able to see. This may be one of the unintended consequences of all these hillbillies acting crazy

and their legislatures behind the cotton curtain. If some of these women athletes decide to go play basketball at some of these HBCUs, a phone call like that won't be something that you see so infrequently. Absolutely. Howard lost their playing game by 3, 71-68 to Wagner. But on Saturday, folks,

tune in because the Jackson State women's basketball team will be playing Connecticut at noon, and this was their reaction when they got selected for March Madness. So while y'all are cheering, so again, you've got Grambling State representing the SWAC on the men's side, playing against number one Purdue on Saturday.

It will be Jackson State, the 14th seed, playing against Connecticut. In fact, a lot of people felt Jackson State got screwed. They should have been a higher seed for the season that they had, winning the SWAC championship as well. And that's the case. And I think, let me just double check, didn't Norfolk State make the tournament? They did.

They won the MEAC. They beat Howard. Gotcha. Now, I didn't see the times on the games, and I'm not doubting that the vice president and the second gentleman watched that game. But if Howard was playing the same time as Grambling, I'm not going to go back and look at the time.

They must have had two TVs. Actually, yeah, Norfolk State, they are playing in the College Insider Tournament, not the NCAA March Bandits Tournament. Oh, wait a minute, really? Yeah, yeah. So that's where they're playing, the College Insider. And so that's where they're playing.

So, give folks a run down there. But again, congratulations to Grambling State. So let's see what happens. You know what? They might be, hey, Purdue, I'm just saying, there may be another upset. If they play a great game, it could be another phone call they're getting.

All right, that is it for us. Let me thank Reesey. Let me thank Greg. Let me thank Recy. Let me thank Greg. Let me thank Lauren for being with us on today's show. We certainly appreciate it. Tomorrow, folks, we're going to have a guy on the show. First of all, the Netflix movie Shirley drops March 22nd, so that's going to drop tomorrow.

And so one of the central characters is a young white man who worked on that presidential campaign. He is featured in the movie and he played a role in a huge decision, a huge FCC win by her. His name is Robert Gottlieb. Well, the real life Robert Gottlieb will be joining us tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered to talk about what it was like to work on the presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm. He also worked in her office as well. So we're looking forward to having that conversation. And don't forget, folks, again, Shirley drops on Netflix tomorrow. We appreciate that.

Folks, that's it for us. Be sure to, again, join our Bring the Fuck fan club. Your dollars make it possible. We'll do the work that we do. You see the stories that we cover. Other folks don't cover this stuff. But we don't have time worrying about what mainstream media won't do. We focus on what we can do.

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