#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Tex. chef arrested and tased, DOJ ends civil rights cases, TD Jakes steps down, Clayborn Temple Fire

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

4.28.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Tex. chef arrested and tased, DOJ ends civil rights cases, TD Jakes steps down, Clayborn Temple Fire #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.

This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Listen to what I'm about to tell you. The window to invest in Fanbase is closing. We've raised over $10.6 million of our $17 million goal. That means there's room for less than 6,370 people to invest in Fanbase for the average amount. The minimum to invest in Fanbase right now is $399. That makes you an owner in Fanbase today. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase to invest. Why? Because current social apps have

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up to fill the gap don't wait until it's too late invest now invest for yourself and your future go to startengine.com slash fan base and own the next generation of social media. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

You dig? Hey, folks. Today is Monday, April 28, 2025. Coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. I'm here in Houston. Pastor Ralph Douglas West, the Church Without Walls, had his annual golf tournament. And, of course, I'm a member, and I stayed here and played. So we're going to chat with him.

We're going to talk to him about Bishop T.D. Jakes' huge announcement over the weekend that he is stepping down as senior pastor and turning it over to his daughter and son-in-law. Also, baseball legend Gary Sheffield is here. I'm going to chat with him about all the drama in the NFL. We're dealing with Shadurah Sanders and people saying that Deion was being too much of a father. I know Gary got to say something about that. Folks, we're here in Texas and a black chef in Dallas gets tased and detained

as a falsely accused of having drugs. Chef Michael Singleton will be joining us to talk about the craziness that happened in the airport. Also, a black man is suing the Spokane, Washington Sheriff's Office for excessive force, but falsely being labeled a trespasser at his own apartment. Donald Trump's Department of Justice. We keep telling y'all shutting down voting rights cases. More to talk about. And North Carolina St. Augustine University getting sued for firing a coach for breach of contract. More drama at that North Carolina college.

Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Barth, unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it blips, he's right on time. And it's rolling.

Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now

Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Folks, a black chef in Dallas. Scary scene. Here he is sitting in the airport, minding his own business. Next thing you know, he looks up and he's surrounded by cops. A woman at the airport accused him of saying that he had drugs.

And then this happened. Did somebody take this? I didn't do nothing. My name is Michael Singleton. Do you have words? My name is, I got a crack at words. My name is Michael Singleton. I want you to please take this.

They arrested me for wrong reasons. Get down on the ground. I want you to please take this. They arrested me for wrong reasons.. No, why would y'all do that? He was standing still. . My God, my name is Michael Singleton. My birthday is 12-21-71. I have a traffic warrant for $500.

No, you said you have cocaine. I'm not a drug dealer. Man, I'm a suicidal, man. Fucking drug dealer. Hey man, I didn't try to fight you. Why you taste me? I wasn't pulling away. They got me on tape.

No, I fucking chose you right here. You're a fucking dickhead, bro. I put my hands on my back, but I couldn't even fucking move. I have to fucking electrocute him. You keep telling me to do shit like I can. You're a dumb fuck. Man, fuck you. I just got chased for nothing. Hey, man, it's Joe. Man, fuck you. I just got chased for nothing.

Hey, man, somebody please have this on tape. Michael Singleton. Michael Singleton. Folks, we're joined right now by that man, Chef Michael Singleton, also Robert Slater, the founder of the Culture Commission

Coalition. Glad to have both of you here. First of all, Chef Singleton, also Robert Slater, the founder of the Culture Commission Coalition. Glad to have both of you here. But first of all, Shell Singleton, again, set us up. You're in the airport. You're traveling somewhere. Tell us exactly what happened. Well, I was going back home because I travel twice a month back to Oakland. When I say home, I live in Frisco, Texas. You know, I go bring my mother her food because I cook for her because she needs no sugar, no salt.

So that's why I was going this weekend because I didn't have an event. And I was just approached by when as soon as I was in the tunnel going to the plane, I was approached by the plane close officers that identified themselves as narcotics detectives. And they asked to speak to me. I said, for what? They said, can we talk over here? And then they proceeded to walk me over to the middle aisle. I mean, the middle of where pre-bar was, where everybody was. And then that's when they proceeded to ask me the question, you know, about, you know, everybody's seen it.

About, about do I, basically assuming that I have drugs on me. Well, it's saying I'm under assumption, we're under assumption that you're possessing of narcotics and cocaine. Okay, so how did they arrive? So, Michael, how did they arrive at that assumption? I don't know. That's what we're going to find out. Somebody said something that I had something on me. I think some white substance or something like that.

And then it was a lady on video. She recanted it and said, I never said cocaine or something. So basically somebody told them something that I was I had drugs on me or something and they went into action. You know. Robert, what I'm trying to understand is, again, cops walk up. They don't see anything. What's the probable cause that they have to search Michael? Mr. Warren, that's what we're trying to find out right now.

I have sent a demand letter to the New People Police of Dallas, no response. We have sent a letter and a complaint to the city, no response. The clock is ticking. There's a lot of answers that is—there's a lot of questions that are unanswered. Right now there's nothing to justify why we have narcotic detectives inside the security checkpoint misidentifying an individual when they should be properly identifying real threats to protect our friendly sky. So DPD needs to start answering some of these questions, and that's what we demand. Now, this took place at DFW airport, correct?

Love Field. Love Field. Love Field, gotcha. Okay, so that's why I asked, because if it was at DFW, but Fort Worth and Dallas have oversight over that airport. So, Michael, when they approach you, how did it escalate to the point where you get tased? Well, you know, like everybody's seen the tape. I just basically said that he asked me, can I search you?

I said no. And just basically just arrested, just went into action without even, I didn't even know why I was being arrested when I said I have nothing else to talk about. And I didn't know why. And then that's when they went into action. This is, I mean, obviously, absolutely a strange case here.

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

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

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

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

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care.

It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Have you hired legal counsel? So, Roland, that's what the Culture Commission Coalition is. We're an advocacy agency that encompasses in-house legal, as well as medical, trauma support, PR, so on and so forth. So we're

one stop stop. We have an expert legal team that is investigating and looking into the matter and to devise what steps are next. But going past any civil matters, our number one goal is to see what is the systemic breakdown so this can stop happening. Enough is enough. And Dallas should be tired of these two first ask questions later situations but our ultimate goal is to be solution driven and it's great that Mr. Singleton that is his goal as well so we will not stop until they look at their training practices and their policies and that they have a public accountability on his behalf because Mr. Singleton has not gotten an apology he has gotten a not gotten a reason And I'll further say that we found out just as recently as two hours ago,

as they are ignoring our demand for the police report, they turned around and leaked the police report to some media to show one-sided bias. If they keep playing them games, then we will reciprocate in the same matter legally and also demonstrate and will call for everybody's jobs to sit in the official capacity for Dallas. All right, then. Well, certainly keep us abreast of developments with this case because it absolutely is quite strange. Chef Michael, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And also, thank you so very much, Robert. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right. I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. I'm going to bring in my panel right now. Joining me is Dr. Omi Congo, the being a senior professorial lecturer, School of International Service, American University, author of Lies About Black People, How to Combat Racist Stereotypes

and Why It Matters. Joining us from D.C., Kelly Bethea, communications strategist from D.C., Derek Jackson, Georgia State Representative out of Atlanta. Omicron, I'm going to start with you. I mean, listen, if I'm him, I'm thinking the same thing. I'm boarding a flight. Why in the hell are you coming up on me and asking me these questions? And if you're the cops, you need to have probable cause to accuse somebody of having drugs. Yeah, you know, it traumatized not only him, but everybody in that airport. I also was flying in on Southwest Airlines over the weekend, and there's nothing that could have prevented that from—or any one of us in these spaces.

How does just somebody talking about someone having drugs lead to that? I remember my mother was in a train station once. Her Ph.D. from Harvard and all of that didn't matter. The woman said that she tried to sell her drugs. Cops just went on her assessment and just arrested her. My father had to go get her out of jail over some nonsense. And at what point do the people who make these accusations have to be held accountable? Because whoever said it, this person's on video, right?

And the people who are watching this, if I'm watching that from a distance, I don't know if this brother got shot. I don't know what's going on. And so the fact of the matter is that they can do this. And on top of that, as the brother was saying, just play games with the investigation, not give out any of the police report, probably leaking stuff to Fox and News Nation and the like. I hope this brother gets paid for everything that he feels like he needs to get and more. But what if something happened to him?

What if he had a heart condition? Who's taking care of his mother? He's flying home to take care of her. And people don't even look at the larger community implications of something like this. I'm very thankful that he's okay. And also, I'm just thinking about all these other people there, just kind of bystanders, just kind of watching, oh, well, I got to go get on my flight. You know, I wish there was a little bit more outrage from the people in the line and the like, but people get too comfortable when these things are happening. And then he's telling them to calm

down. Who the hell is going to calm down after just being electrocuted? This is ridiculous. And I have not surprised, haven't seen this covered anywhere else today, Roland. Look, here's the thing for me, Kelly. If I am this chef, and I'm boarding a flight, I fly all the time.

I've got 2 million plus miles, almost 3 million miles. And I'm going to tell you right now, if I'm getting on a flight, minding my own business, typically I got my earbuds in, all of a sudden the cops stop me and accuse me of carrying drugs, I'm going to be pretty damn pissed off. And as well you should, because you were minding your business. Like you said, you set the scene.

You got your headphones in. You're trying to get on your flight, minding your business. And out of nowhere, you have cops showing up accusing you of something that one, you haven't been doing. You're not even aware of it. But also, you have no idea where this came from whatsoever. And it's just unfortunate that the only time you see something like this is when it happens to people of color. Like, I would be absolutely shocked if I saw that kind of behavior towards a person of a lighter hue.

It simply just does not happen, certainly not at the rate that it does for people who look like me and you. To echo Dr. McCongo's sentiments, I am very glad that this man is, frankly, alive, because, like he said, we don't know the health conditions of this man. We don't know what he was going through. I certainly would be racking up some therapy bills at this point, because lawsuits should

be pending, because this kind of behavior towards people who are supposed to be protecting and serving, when you were doing neither of those things. This is absolutely ridiculous. It needs to stop. It needs to stop. It goes without saying that. But the safety of everybody in that airport, frankly, was in jeopardy because of weaponized incompetence, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll tell you right, Derek, I can't wait to see the officers body cam footage. You accept the right, Roland, but not only the two officers, but the two bystanders, they were citizens. You can see that they were citizens. So why is it that the two officers are allowing for two citizens to also place their hand on another citizen. Again, I certainly agree that this is a travesty. And just doing this a little bit of research, Roland, over 1,081 citizens have died from being tased. 1,081 citizens have died from being tased. 1,081 citizens have died from being tased. So this is another demonstration that law enforcement have a lack of substantial reasons to use excessive force.

And this is another reason why the community trust in law enforcement continues to be eroded. This is another reason why we have to address these kind of implications, because when you think about the lack of accountability and the lack of training and the lack of the protocols that are in place, he was already at the boarding gate, Roland. So that means he already went through TSA in several checkpoints where there's dogs, where there's x-rays, where they've already examined. And so if a citizen is at that point of boarding and flight,

they've already went through several checkpoints. And so this, Michael Singleton could have been any one of us. And he needs to be awarded. But more importantly, these two police officers and these two citizens should be dealt with and held accountable. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We've got to go to break. We come back.

A black man in Spokane, Washington. Same drama. Mistaken identity. It's amazing how that keeps happening to black people over and over and over. We'll talk about that also. Bishop T.D. Jakes, huge announcement over the weekend, announces that he is stepping down as senior pastor of the Potter's House. We'll show you that announcement and talk about that reality

and also what he plans to do next. All of that right here. Roland Martin on filter. The Black Star Network live here at the Houston National Golf Club for the Reverend Dr. Ralph Douglas West Golf Classic. We'll be right back. This week on the other side of change. And this is a special episode that is near and dear to our heart, especially during Earth Month,

where we're going to talk about how the environment impacts our everyday life and what you can do to help solve it. The issue is that the movement has not historically created a connection with us and has had narratives that really speak to our unique lived experiences and the environmental burdens and hazards that we experience. So there's really a narrative shift that needs to happen for the mainstream climate and environmental movement to really position itself as one that is for all of us. only on the other side of change on the Black Star Network. Hey, what's up?

It's Tammy Roman. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, let's not go to Spokane, Washington. Joshua Clark, a 35-year-old black man, has filed a federal lawsuit against the police department there, against the sheriff's department in Spokane. He was violently arrested and hogtied outside of his own apartment in 2023. Folks, a clear case of mistaken identity. Deputy Samuel Turner was responding to a trespassing complaint,

and he thought that Clark was the man in question. The lawsuit made way for Deputy Samuel's 15-minute body cam video release. We're only going to show you about three minutes of the encounter. It turned violent extremely quick. Folks, the video is very disturbing. Now, here's the deal. Clark was hit with three felony charges, including assaulting an officer. Charges were dropped five months later when it became clear that he was innocent and the

trial's real suspect was somebody else. Clark's attorney said the case is about more than one man. They say it is a pattern of aggressive, discriminatory policing for the Spokane County Sheriff's Office that leaves black folks traumatized and fearful of their lives even when they're minding their own business. Again, quite traumatic video. I'm going to play it right now.

Hey, sir? Your name Willie? No. No? There's a Willie that's associated with this vehicle that's trespassed from here. It ran your plate. This vehicle. So that you're not supposed to be here.

Not this vehicle. Okay, you got your ID with you? Yes. Okay, let's see you at that. No. There's no reason for you. I just told you the reason. And I have told you i am not this person how am i going to verify that without senior id well you can ask any of the staff members here and i've been trying i'm asking you and i just gave you the answer no i have not

who are you my name is j Josh. Josh what? Nothing. Hit and hop out of the car for me, Mr. Josh. Advertisement. Advertisement. Advertisement. Advertisement. Advertisement. Advertisement. Advertisement.

Advertisement. Advertisement. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car.

Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car.

Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car.

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Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. Hit and hop out of the car. I'm not fucking... Give me your hand while you're back, now. I'm not fucking... Now. I'm not... Give me your hand. You wrap my neck up, motherfucker. You're getting your hand. I haven't done anything. Give me your other hand now.

I'm not... I'm... I'm... Get off. Stay down. I'm trying to tell you where it is! God damn it! Fucking stay still! Stop fighting! I'm not trying to fight! This is uncomfortable as hell!

Please! Let me just readjust my body so I can be more comfortable, officer. Now sit on your butt. Officer! Sit still. Officer? Hi. 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 call 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 Glod. And this is season two of the war on drugs. We are back in a big way, in a very big way, real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. 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.

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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires.

Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. I haven't fought anybody. I was trying to ask you a question, officer. Damn!

You don't want to say it? No, I want your name. you a question, officer. Damn! You got one detained. No, I want your name, I want your supervising, I want your... You're under arrest for assault third degree as well. Stand up on your feet. What? Hey! Hey! Come over here. No. No, no, no, no, no. I have the right to ask for all of this! Separate your feet. Separate your feet, pal. Dude, stop banging your head around. You're all banging my head, you dumb son of a bitch.

Get me a... Stop fighting me, you little... Get me a actual cup. I'm still cut, 6. I want a supervisor. Stay down. I am standing down. You're cut, 6.

I'm trying to look you in the eye. I'm trying to stand you up and you're still fighting me, fucker. Fucker, I'm asking you a question and you're beating a dick. You know, Derek, every time we show one of these videos, it's always the same thing with these cops in terms of how they treat folks. They don't de-escalate. And so this is somebody who should never be policing. He should not have a job. And this is what, so what's insane is these cops, they act like thugs as opposed to ascertaining exactly who the proper suspect is. Roland, I appreciate you highlighting these situations.

I mean, it's unfortunate, but you're not going to see this anywhere else. The reason why I appreciate you highlighting this is because you've got to think about the physical and psychological harm to black people in the United States. He was just sitting in his vehicle rolling. And so it will be

hard for any one of us, including myself, for a police officer to roll up and start asking questions and get out the car when you're not doing anything. So there's the physical aspect, there's the psychological aspect of harm around this. But then we got to explore the consequences of these wrongful arrests. I mean, in this age of anti-DEI, in this age where we don't have a Department of Justice, and I'm sure we're going to talk about later on during the show, that's chipping away around the and greater because this body camera evidence clearly shows that this law enforcement individual is violating policy.

He's violating protocols because this citizen was doing absolutely no nothing to in a matter of two minutes to go from sitting in the driver's seat to now you're face down on the ground in excruciating pain. Listen, Kelly, the point that Derek makes there is true. You've got a Department of Justice. This Trump DOJ. Oh, they don't give that cop a medal. They don't praise him. They don't treat him to lunch at the White House. And this is the problem.

Donald Trump has no problem supporting thug cops like this here. And so from a citizen standpoint, the only recourse this man is going to have is a federal lawsuit because he sure as hell is not going to have any charges brought up against this cop under a Trump administration. And that was actually going to be my point as far as recourse is concerned, because frankly, I'm even concerned about the federal lawsuit route on the civil side, because you got to pray that you get the right judge for it. Because right now it just feels like we're in a free for all when it comes to justice, how to get justice, who's going to get it, and who's going to be held accountable for actions like this, because everything is up in the air right now. When you do not have a political and moral backbone to say, this is wrong, you, a cop who is supposed to be protecting and serving the public, this is wrong. And there's nobody above you saying that. Nobody above you holding you accountable for your actions

in a way that gives this man a semblance of justice in this situation. I don't know what his recourse would be. I don't know if he has a semblance of recourse at all, because right now, who's holding the courts accountable? No one's holding DOJ accountable. Certainly no one's holding the president accountable. for the uptick in incidents such as this because we essentially have been given permission to, and by we, I mean just generically, have been given permission to do whatever we want in the worst possible way. You know, on the Congo, again,

I mean, it's like Groundhog Day. I mean, it's over and over and over and over and over. And we have to do these stories. And people need to understand that this is our reality, being black in this country. And you know what? I keep saying, we're the fiscal conservatives. We're the people who say we're spending, we're wasting billions of dollars on police settlements. They're always quiet.

You never, ever hear them say a word. And they're going to keep staying silent. And that's why we have to keep bringing up these stories. The man is in his car. Anybody who pulls up a registration of this man's car is going to see his name, is going to see his face. They didn't even have to have a further conversation. And the way that they just treated him like a piece of trash, just

tossed him around. And they're saying all of these things on camera to help them with their case. Oh, he's fighting me. And he's like, I'm not fighting you. And then they have the nerve to say, oh, can you stop banging your head against our car? Like, seriously? Things that they feel like they can just put out that

people are actually going to buy this, who can actually see what's going on. If we don't record these things, nobody's going to catch them. And these conservatives, they want more of this. And the reason why this is worse, kind of going to the other prior point that was made, because in addition to what we're going to be talking about later with the DOJ, the DOJ has also stopped its investigations into white supremacy into the police departments and all of these neo-Nazis and other groups who are joining the police so that they can get away with things exactly like this. This is torture. This is torture of this man. I would love to see what the actual picture of the person they were actually looking for, if they were actually looking for somebody, looks like, because the way that they did this man was foul. There's more of it. And I personally don't believe this stuff is on the rise. I believe it's just being recorded more. And I just feel like it's going to be more dismissals

now because so many departments locally, statewide and nationally, federally are feeling emboldened by Trump. All right, folks, hold tight. One second. We come back. We're going to talk about Department of Justice pulling out of more voting rights cases. Also, Bishop T.D. Jakes announces he is stepping down as senior pastor of the Potter House. All that we're going to talk about the Department of Justice pulling out of more voting rights cases. Also, Bishop T.D. Jakes announces he is stepping down as senior pastor of the Potter House. All that we're going to cover right here on Roland Martin on Filters on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Of course, your dollars make it possible. Plus, to cover the stories that matter all across the country. If you want to support us via Cash App, use the Stripe QR code. You'll see it right here. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com. Click the Cash App Pay button to

contribute. You can also use a Stripe for credit cards. Also, you can also check a money order. Make it out to Roland Martin Unfiltered, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-7-096. PayPal is R. Martin. Venmo is R.M. Unfiltered Sale. Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

It's a rare occasion when a course taught in high school becomes a topic of national conversation, let alone a burning controversy. But that's exactly what happened with Advanced Placement African American Studies, courtesy of a certain southern governor who's taking offense. On our next show, we take you inside the classroom for an up-close look at the course through the eyes of the teachers that teach it, the students that are taking it, and the communities that surround them. So many of the kids, you know, we saw, you know, the truth. And, you know, it just impacts those kids in such a big way. A Master Teacher Roundtable on the next Black table that you do not want to miss right

here on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's wealth coach. Inflation is on the rise. Interest rates are high. Can you still thrive during these uncertain times? On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to meet a woman who's done just that, living proof of what you need to do to flourish during these uncertain times. These are times where you take advantage of what's going on. This is how people get rich or richer. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash.

This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. I'm Russell L. Honore, Lieutenant General of the United States Army, retired.

And you're watching Roland Martin on Filth. Folks, we told you Donald Trump's Department of Justice does not give a damn about black people at all. And we are continuing to see what has taken place where they are pulling out of voting rights cases, raising a significant alarm. Less than a month after Trump ally Harmeet Dhillon took over the Civil Rights Division, all senior career managers in the voting section, including Chief Tammy Hagler, were removed from their roles and reassigned to low-level positions. Attorneys were also ordered to dismiss every active voting rights case without explanation or any meetings. This voting section is responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect against voter discrimination, especially as states pass more restrictive voting measures. The new leadership has shifted the division's focus

from protecting marginalized communities to advancing Trump's priorities, which is, of course, lying about voter fraud. You know, this is a thing, Derek, that we kept warning people about. We kept warning them about Project 2025 and what was going to happen. So for the people who sat on their ass and stayed at home, for the people who complained about Vice President Kamala Harris, so guess what happens? They're now going to be focused on voter disenfranchisement, removing polling locations. We're going to see more actions by these conservatives taking place all around the country. And the people who, again, stayed at home, who complained, guess what?

This is the result of when you do that. You're exactly right, Roland. I mean, when you think about how we were sounding the alarm about Project 2025 on your show daily, daily, we were talking about Project 2025. And for some reason or another, 89 million registered voters did not vote. I don't think that the 89 million, if they believed it or not, But we went through all 922 pages and there was not one page, not one paragraph in there that helped Black

people. And when you think about the instance of Project 2025, not only were they going after Voting Rights Act of 1965, but they're also coming after the Civil Rights Act. We also talked about how they're going after the Fifth Amendment, due process. They're going after the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment.

They want to disenfranchise black people in the United States. They want to weaken and remove the protections that we were able to leverage over the last 248 years. So these are the kind of things that we got to continue to sound the alarm. And again, when you think about democracy, I know we typically use the word democracy in a macro sense, but when it comes down to it, if we can't vote in this country, if we don't have due process in this country, if we do not have civil rights in this country, this is don't have due process in this country, if we do not have civil rights in this country, this is the reason why, as a Democrat, I urge all other Democrats, we got to fight this stuff about when they go low, we got to go high.

No, there's democracy at stake. Our voting rights are at stake, due process at stake. And when you have a country that just simply pick up citizens, Roland, and put them on a military lift and take them to another country and put them in prison, that's kidnapping. And so, yes, voting rights is an issue, but there are so many other things that they're coming after us. And you're right. We sound the alarm. And unfortunately, 89 million people registered voters stayed at home. Listen, what we are dealing with here, Kelly, is a thug administration. And people need to understand they don't care

about discrimination. They don't care about police brutality at all. They don't care. I would argue that they care about it a lot. I would argue that they are endorsing it. I would argue that they condone it because like you said, if you're a thug administration

what is the number one way that you present power? You present it through violence. You present it through force. You present it through suppression. And those are the ways in which these police officers, law enforcement, now the DOJ, and the cronies within are exhibiting their power. So, like my colleague said beforehand, this is absolutely something that was in Project 2025. And as we have been saying on your show since the election, the hashtag we tried to tell you, that is absolutely relevant in this case. It is going to be relevant for the entirety of this presidency, because we are going to see time and time again every lie that has been disbanded, every truth that has been illuminated. All of it is going to come to light. All of it is going to affect

us. And we did try to tell you the truth. And you decided not to listen because you would rather have a racist bigot than a competent, intelligent, overqualified black woman for this very same position. Omi Congo, again, we just need to understand the reality of what we're facing. We need to understand that as long as that thug is here, that criminally convicted felony in chief, as long as they're there, we're not going to have any federal oversight. This is not going to happen. And this is also part of Trump setting himself up to have a third term. You know, if he can continue to cripple the voting rights of people, continue to cripple

access to voting, and put it in a situation where he's basically going to be the one to declare who is in charge, who can run voting or not, all he really needs to do is get enough governors to put himself on the ballot, and then it's going to be chaos. And so this voter disenfranchisement, people need to understand that this is not just happening in a small level. This is part of a national campaign. And as a network that we are here, who has always taken this man seriously, when he talks about staying in office, if you saw that interview with the Atlantic over the weekend, he said, in my first administration, I had to take care of the country while dealing with all these people who are out to get me in my administration. Now I can just focus on running the country and the world.

Those were his words. And so at what point are people going to get serious about this man doing everything possible? He wants the voting rolls from the states. What happened to states' rights? To whatever it takes to stay in power, these people believe in a unitary power that's supposed to be vested into the president. And folks better wake up now, get off all this arrest and stuff, and really recognize it, because if you don't get it now, it could actually be too late. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, listen, look, we warn people. We told them this was going to happen. We told them what you can expect to happen. And people didn't believe us.

People after round and they found out. And I'm telling you, there's going to be somebody out there who they're going to come. They're going to come face to face with voter disenfranchisement. And they're going to be mad. They're going to come face-to-face with voter disenfranchisement. And they're going to be mad. They're going to be upset. They're going to be angry. And then it's going to be like, well, you know what? This is what happens because they don't care. These people do not care about voter discrimination.

They are pulled out of case after case after case. This same Department of Justice, When you have the Attorney General who spends more time on Fox News than she does at the Department of Justice, that's what you're actually going to see. And so these things happen all the time. So, hey, we got to do this here. So we're going to take a little break. I told y'all we're here at the Reverend Dr. Ralph Douglas West Golf Tournament.

And so, yeah, yeah, yeah. Our group won first place. So let me do this here. Let me just walk up here and get our award. I said, I told y'all how we do things a little bit different. So let me just do that. So I'll be right back. We're gonna get our first place award.

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

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

MMA fighter Liz 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. homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. So who do we rely on? I don't know. I just found out.

Give me. Just want to let y'all know the timing is perfect since I'm live on my show right now. So they all get to see us winning. So yeah. And I ain't seen Paz since we drove off. Paz blessed us. That's it. That was it. Past blessed us. That was it.

Yeah, I said that. I said it. He was there. He was there in spirit. Y'all taking a picture? Come on. Y'all take a picture. Take a picture. Go ahead. Y'all take a picture. Come on. Y'all take a picture. Go ahead.

Man, shoot. Turn that camera. Now you can fit everybody. You come to the back for an interview in a minute. Come on. I've I gotta go to work I'm live come on I gotta go to work come on now there you go come on baby you got to snap that I gotta go to work come on man come on I come on. I ain't joking. I'm like, okay.

Get it from her. All right. Get it from her. What's up? No, seriously. I'm working. Hold on. All right. So I told y'all. Hold on. Let me go ahead and put my earpiece in. See. See, see, this is how you got a black show right here. So, you know,

I had to go ahead and pick up my hardware. So, you know, yeah, yeah. I had to, I had to, I had to pick up. Listen,

listen, you know, every, you know, everybody can't do, can't do what alphas do. You know, I'm just saying.

So, Pastor Wes, let me go ahead and micphas do. You know, I'm just saying. So, Pastor Wes, let me go ahead and mic him up. Let me mic him up. We are live, Pastor. I'm not lying. So, hold on, hold on. I knew you'd lie. We are live.

Hold on. Let me turn your microphone on. Let me get you. All right. Testing, testing. All right, here we go. Come on, bro. Let me clip you on. All right, there we go. All right. I'm testing, testing. All right, here we go. Come on, bro. Let me clip you on.

All right, there we go. All right. So, Reverend Dr. Ralph Douglas West, actually, we'll step back so they can actually see you. Come on, let's do it. All right, then. So, first and foremost, glad to be here. It's an annual golf tournament. Right. And so, good to see you win first place. You hit some great shots. I ain't seen not one of them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my family was doing it, you know. I had my able niece, and she was out there representing me today. And she did very, very well. So did you and Maurice.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, so y'all did great. Oh, yeah. While I was holding things up on the sidelines. Oh, gotcha, gotcha. Okay. Let's do this here. So yesterday, we're talking a little business.

Yesterday, Bishop T.D. Jakes announced he was stepping down as senior pastor. And as somebody who's founder of a church, senior pastor, people really do not understand. He reached himself with a heart attack. People really do not understand the level of pressure when you are having to pass to 10, 20,000 people. You're getting calls from people all around the country and the world. You understand that as well. It is not easy in these days.

Right, right. So just talk about just that, how you have to plan for transitions because of that. Well, first of all, let me say to T.D. Jake's congratulations that he gets a chance to pastor a church, successfully grow it, and then to mentor so many people in ministry. And I think I got word that his daughter may be. No, he announced his daughter and his son-in-law are going to become senior pastors. His daughter and son-in-law will succeed.

And so to him, congratulations that he's had a chance to shape that life for the Protestants. That's number one. Number two, that you're right. Most people that don't do church ministry don't understand the pressure that a person like a T.D. Jakes is under, or anybody who passes 10, 15, 20,000 people, is beyond just the personal phone calls. It's an institution. And for you to have to care for that many people, you have to build a team around you that really has pastoral care. You know, that's the question that people say, how do you minister to that many people? Well, you minister through that many people through ministering to people to minister to that many people.

I remember when Pastor Wesley, when he announced, this was a couple of years ago, he announced, if I do not take off right now, I'm out of here. Right. And folks were stunned, and he said, I am spent. There's nothing more that I can give. And he stepped away from a sabbatical. Yeah. You, you know, people, you do that when it comes to the summer, things on those lines. Right.

People really don't get that a pastor of a church is a seven-day-a-week job. Yeah. And you've got to know when to step away. Yeah. Well, let me say, I appreciate you bringing that up. One of the things that in our church, the church that I was, our leadership incorporated that for the last, I don't know, 20 years maybe or longer from June to September, they make me take off.

They just, you know. And the reason why they do that is because, you remember, in the old days, we were running five and six services on the weekend, three services during the week. So you had nine services that we were responsible for. So this says, you know, you have to un-stream the boat. And so preaching and pastor, but particularly preaching, is creative work. I mean, you know that from what you do.

You're not only a journalist, but journalism takes creativity. How do you shape, frame, and package what you're going to say to different audiences? How do you talk about something politically different from the way that you address what's religious or social, that kind of stuff. So the break-and-go way allows you to recalibrate, to refresh yourself. And what I have done over the years, during my break time, I don't do any preaching.

If I'm on sabbatical or if I'm taking a summer break, I don't preach for anybody. I use that as my time to rest first. Typically, it takes two or three weeks, and then to read, and then to plan for my fall. And then in December, I'll take two weeks off to plan from January to May. It's just to keep yourself fresh. Because if not, you know, the challenge of a person like me who's been preaching for 50 years is that you start resting on your laws. You know, you just start preaching stuff that you preached last year.

Right, right. It's the same sermon with different illustrations. And I wouldn't have heard that before. Yeah, quite a bit, you know. So it allows you to stay fresh, you know. So it allows you to stay fresh, you know, but it also allows you to be healthy. When the prophet Elijah

is about to, he says, I just want to die. The angel simply says get some sleep, eat some bread, and drink some water. And sometimes our best spiritual advice is sleep, eat, and drink water. Last question for you again. A proper succession plan. Reverend Charles Jenkins,

when he left fellowship in Chicago, he was a young pastor. He said, look, I want to do other things. I want to do music. And so he set the way. Reverend James Meeks identified Charlie Dates early on, do the same thing. When in Concord in Dallas. E.K. Bailey. E.K. Bailey had health issues, had cancer. Step before the congregation said, ain't gonna be no deacons fighting,

this is who gonna replace me. Carter was there for quite some time. How critical is it for pastors, small, medium, large, bigger churches to understand you have to have a succession plan because in the case of the brother in the Bahamas who died in a plane crash. I mean, listen, look, life is life and ministry, you build that thing up, it shouldn't go away when you become an ancestor. Yeah, that's good. Well, first of all, succession is relatively new to all these churches.

That's the first thing. And those people who are in these churches that afford them the opportunity to plan a succession, hats off to them, you know. But I will say that whether it is a small, medium, large, or extra large church, that the pastor ought to be thinking like Moses, where's Elijah? Or rather, where's Joshua? And if, you know, Elijah said, where's Elijah? That's right. Or Jesus and his disciples, you know. At least thinking in the direction of people that they could possibly recommend. But then those of us who are privileged to be in churches where the congregation really gives you the freedom to do that, the onus then becomes on the pastor to select the right person.

As much as we may want our sons or daughters to succeed us, they only succeed if that is the person that God really has selected for that congregation. And who can move that church forward. Absolutely. Move it forward, sustain it, grow it, nurture it, you know, strengthen it. So, yeah, succession, I would say, for everybody listening on the broadcast tonight, it would be, be prayerful about it. Start talking about it early. About possibilities.

Who these people could be. Because what happens if the people that you want to choose feel like they've been called to do something else? So who then would be the persons that you're thinking about that could succeed if they're not? If your A choice is not the

right one. Sometimes God works through the second best. That's good. We'll pass. I appreciate it. I came home for my dad's 78th birthday. When I was watching YouTube, the servers, I said, hold up. The tournament, I get to stick around on Monday. I'm glad I did that. I'm always glad to be home

here at Church Without Walls. Man, good to have you here. Tell the family I said hello. I will do. I appreciate it. Love you, bro. Folks, we're going to go to a break. We'll be right back. Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life, we're talking about the stress of stress and trigger warning. Looking at those areas in our lives where we often don't turn the page or turn the corner,

but giving us the ability to really take a deep dive and look at who we are, the people around us, and the ways in which we're triggered. A lot of times we are so stressed out because we are trying to control things that are outside of our sphere of control. That's all next on A Balanced Life on the Black Star Network. -♪ This is Tamela Mann.

And this is David Mann. And you're watching Roland Martin... Unfiltered. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, folks, you heard us just talking about Bishop T.D. Jakes making the announcement that he is stepping down as senior pastor of the Potter's House in Dallas. This is yesterday's announcement. You all know for years I have been talking about it.

It may not work out the way I planned it, but I get on my knees and pray, and I plan my life in decades. How many of you remember me saying that? Not days, but decades. Because major moves take time. It may look like it was suddenly, but you don't know what the background work was. About six years ago, I started talking to Pastor Tore and Pastor, because I did not want all that I had spent my life and your life and our lives building to get old and go with us. This is a generational.

And even though she was busy doing Woman Evolved and he was busy pastoring One LA, about four years ago they moved out here just in time for COVID. God has a sense of humor. He throws you

in the water and then says swim. So for the last four years, they have been swimming. I talked to the board because I was concerned. I have seen too many men build something and stay so long that they kill what they build. What you got to understand is,

it's not so important that you just know when to grab a hold. It's knowing when to let go. Now there's some other things that I'm assigned to do, both here and outside. But I cannot afford, especially after November, to risk something happening to me. And you'd be sheep without a shepherd. I cannot afford to let all the work of all the saints living and dead to hold this so tight so long that I wither away so I'm suggesting

to you I'm recommending to you that you receive Pastor Tore and Pastor Sarah. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Come on. Come on. This is legacy.

Not because they're kin, but because they're the kind. They've immersed themselves into the DNA of this church for years. Sit quiet. Preach. 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 call 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 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 man. 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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program,

providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our L.A. community rebuild. It takes all of us. But you didn't know from November forward they've been running the church anyway. Folks, that was Bishop T.D. Jakes making the announcement yesterday that his son-in-law, Pastor T. Ray, and his daughter, Serena, would be taking over as senior pastors.

I'm going to go to start with you, Kelly. This is a significant announcement. We were talking about this is a worldwide ministry. The Pottles House is not just a Dallas-based ministry. Bishop Jake's moving there more than 30 years ago, coming from West Virginia to setting up shop there in Dallas. National ministry, international ministry, traveling all across the world. Look, he's 67 years old. He has talked about that heart attack that he suffered from the pulpit in November. And that was a huge scare.

He said later he didn't even realize that he was suffering a heart attack. And look, almost did not come back from that. And so this really is significant. It really is important. And I do hope it is a lesson, not just for preachers, but also for business owners and others to understand that when you built something monumental, how does it keep going? That's one of the issues that we've seen in a lot of black-owned businesses, where they built it up and very rarely sons and daughters take it over.

And so all of that work, all of that time, all that energy just simply goes for naught. But I want to note and really highlight the significance of this from a woman's perspective in the church. It is rare, incredibly rare for a woman to take over a church of this magnitude. Like you said, this has been in the making, Potter's House in general has been in the making for 30 years. And in those 30 years and before those 30 years, during those 30 years, and certainly after these 30 years, there has been attacks on women leading congregants, not because they're not able, not because they haven't studied

themselves approved, but because there is toxic patriarchy within the Christian community, within Christian leadership. And it runs rampant. Doesn't matter what your denomination is. Doesn't matter what your race is. It doesn't matter. In the religion itself, there has been, certainly within Western Christianity, an undercurrent of toxic patriarchy, such that women have not been able to lead in the way that they could and should. So for Bishop T.D. Jakes to not only recognize that, but to flip it on its head and trust his daughter, who has more than studied herself approved, who has more than shown herself overqualified for this position to bestow something so precious and so needed in the Black community, needed in Black church

community to a woman, that speaks volumes. And I don't know if enough people are going to talk about that point, but that is what I took away from this, that he trusted a woman, not just his daughter, not somebody who he has mentored, just somebody who he has mentored, but a woman to lead a church of this magnitude. you said this is a global church and a woman is going to be the head of it and that that's incredible to me um i think back on the congo to uh to the point that kelly makes there um billy graham uh reverend billy graham uh it leaves the ministry to his son Franklin Graham

but the real preacher in the family is Ann Lutz the person who really if Ann Lutz was a man oh no, she blows Franklin out of the water Franklin ain't even an actual preacher so the real person, the real person who truly follows in the footsteps of Billy Graham is his daughter Ann Lutz, but she's a woman.

And that's how Franklin Graham was able to take the mantle of his father's ministry. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And when you look at something like the Potter's House, I mean, you're talking about a church that started with a man who, you know, would pick up people to drive them to church, preach to them, and then drive them home. I mean, you want to talk about starting from the bottom and building an international organization. And so on two levels, you know, I see something amazing. Number one, the fact that what you and Kelly are talking about as well, passing this over to a woman to lead this.

And like you said, she and her husband have been running it ever since the heart attack happened. That's powerful. And I think it's also powerful to show that, yes, this is a church that we're talking about. And you talked about businesses. But they're also, I'm thinking about the legacy civil rights organizations as well, and people not seeing the handoff take place. And unfortunately, sometimes things don't happen until somebody dies. There's documents. People are claiming this and that and this and that. He made it all official. He made it public for everybody to see. Doesn't matter what anybody

says. This is what's going down. And that's really important. And so I think in addition to other churches, in addition to businesses, other leadership and legacy organizations also could learn from this example. So in this brief moment that he has put out to the world, it was actually something that was very monumental and can be actually consequential if more of us would follow that example who lead these other churches, organizations, and businesses as well. Oh, absolutely. And Derek, it is, again, I hope people learn from it. And you heard Jake say in terms of what's been built up, but he also, impressively, he announced, he talked about things that he wants to do. He really wants to now focus his energy on creating economic

opportunities for African Americans and others. He has his organization in Good Soil. So he's really about, he really wants to be focused on the economic piece with now that his time will be freed up, no longer being the senior pastor of the Pottos House. Yeah, you're right, Roland. And, you know, I want to just build upon what Dr. O'Meara and Kelly. When you think about a mega church, it is a is a mega business. When you think about a congregation of 20,000 people or more, the responsibility goes well beyond just delivering powerful sermons, you know, on a weekly basis.

When you think about the role and responsibility that his daughter is about to step in, she's more than capable, not just in preaching and teaching, but talking about making sure that payroll is met. And, you know, the thing about this story, Roland, for me, it highlights the most important thing, and that's succession planning. We as Blacks do not do succession planning as much as we should. I can only think about, you think about Coretta Scott King. She was thrusted into her role after Dr. King was assassinated. And it demonstrates that, to Kelly's point, that a woman has the capability and the capacity to get things done. We have the Dr. King federal holiday because of Coretta Scott King. And so when you think about T.D. Jakes passing over the reins over to his daughter and his son-in-law,

it makes sense. We've got to do more succession planning in all aspects of our lives, in the family as well as politics and the likes. And so I agree that this 67-year-old icon, giant, felt the need to pass over what he has built over three decades to his daughter and then ask the congregation roll in and say i need you all to support this um decision because it's the right decision to be had yeah uh and again folks uh so our lord third is wrong jex is not resigning from the church he is retiring as senior pastor. So that language is actually

the distinction is really important. All right. Got to go to break. We come back. Bishop William Barber repairs of the breach were arrested simply for praying the U.S. Capitol will show you what took place and hear for what he said afterwards. Speaking at the Supreme Court, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the

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with Advanced Placement African American Studies, courtesy of a certain southern governor who's taking offense. On our next show, we take you inside the classroom for an up-close look at the course through the eyes of the teachers that teach it, the students that are taking it, and the communities that surround them. And so many of the kids will, you know, we saw, you know, the truth. And, you know, we saw, you know, the truth. And, you know, it just impacts those kids in such a big way. A master teacher roundtable on the next Black Table that you do not want to miss right here on the Black Star Network.

Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint. Hey, Saraz, I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Cheryl Lundgren Show. Well, it shouldn't be the Cheryl Lundgren Show and the Roland Martin Show, but whatever show it's going to be, it's going to be good.

Folks, Moral Mondays came to Washington, D.C. today. Capitol Hill, Bishop William Barber, repairs of the breach. Remember, they did this in North Carolina, really changed that state. They are focused on the budget. The Republicans are looking to gut services all across this country. And so they came to the U.S. Capitol to pray. And guess what? They end up getting arrested. Now, remember, when a conservative came to play a guitar there, old lawmakers were walking up to him like it was no big deal and encouraging him. But literally literally they actually arrested these religious folk for praying in the U.S. Capitol. Here's what happened today in the Rotunda.

We are here crying to you, O God, because we've heard the cries of your people. We have also read the budget resolution of this Congress, which calls for $1.5 trillion in cuts to life-saving and life-sustaining programs in order to give a tax break to billionaires. Deliver us, O Lord, from the deceptive lie that says our nation will be better off if those who have little get less and those who have too much get more. Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy. Walk through. Right now you're participating in an unlawful demonstration. If you don't cease and desist the activity, you are subject to arrest.

Keep moving, Lord. Keep changing, Lord. Warnings have been given. If you do not want to be arrested, you must leave the area. Move outside. That area? Doesn't matter if you're pressed. Outside, sir.

This way. Everybody outside of the building. This is very different. This has never happened before. The press is being cleared out of the rotunda. Fine, let's go. Keep walking. We're in a police zone.

Let's go. It's closed now. Let's go. Don't keep walking. You'll be arrested. Keep walking. Yeah, let's close the door. Keep moving. Keep moving back. Keep walking. Yeah, let's close the door. Keep moving.

Keep moving back. Keep moving back. It's a police line. It's a police line? Yeah. What do you think of that? So this has never happened before. We are here in the Capitol Rotunda, where even the press was told that we have to push

out and away. You guys, you guys go down there, please. Down the stairs. This way. Stop pushing. Down the stairs, please. Let's go, folks. Out of the building.

Let's go. They're not allowed in there right now. The press isn't allowed in. No press is allowed in? No. Don't push. Don't push. Don't push. Don't push. Let's go. Out of the building. Let's go. They're not allowed in there right now. The press isn't allowed in.

No press is allowed in? No. Folks, let's go. Keep moving down the hallway now. Sir, if you keep doing this, we're going to have to lock you up, okay? We'll do an active demonstration in there. Told you about 10 times already. But I'm not actively demonstrating.

You're staying here. We've asked you to leave. So you are part of it. That is absolutely BS. Religious folk praying. They call it an active demonstration. And then you see they don't give a damn about the First Amendment, they kick reporters out of the Capitol Rotunda. Well, before that action took place at the U.S. Capitol, that was a news conference taking place. 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 Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

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

Brent Smith from Shinedown. 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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board

of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to asenseofhome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Place outside of the Supreme Court, a number of people spoke. This is Bishop Barber.

Yes, this is not, Moral Monday has never been about just kind of a justice fellowship where we come to feel good. We come to cry, not just cry out. But if in this country right now you have people and you're watching them get up in the morning and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt and they got the power at least the temporal power that's the time for mourning it's the time for us to the first move in any non-violent type of protest

is first of all, you got to get your facts so that you're not focusing on personality but policy and the real problems. And second of all, you have to make sure, as we did on Ash Wednesday, that your adversary actually knows what's bothering you. You don't just start doing things. You actually have to have the kind of redemptive hope that you believe if you show the folk

the fact, they would change. And you can't be frivolous about that. They may not, but you have to believe in that possibility because if you give up on humanity, then you're doing the same thing they're doing. Part of what it means to be in a nonviolent movement is that if I didn't believe in the possibility of my worst enemy becoming my best friend, I'd stop preaching. I wouldn't put on robes and crosses and stuff. I wouldn't be in need. Now, you say you're naive. No, I say believe it.

Because if you don't believe it, then your prophetic moral witness doesn't have power. That's right. Because you're living in a kind of nihilism which will destroy any hope that you have. In the scripture, Ezekiel was told by God, I want you to go to the people and I want you to tell them what's wrong. In fact, he was told to go tell him that injustice had become epidemic because the princes or the power structure and the priest had developed an unholy alliance. Then God said to him, they may not listen to you because they are a stiff-necked group.

Don't laugh. Listen to me. It's very serious. They may not listen to you, but at least they will know there has been a prophet among them. That's right. And if you do it right, they may not listen to you, but see, there's a valley of dry bones out there.

That's exactly it. And the people have become disheartened. They may not listen to you, but see, there's a valley of dry bones out there. And the people have become disheartened. And they need an authentic voice to go speak to them. The word of the Lord, the word of truth. And if you can't challenge your adversary with the hope that they changed and know that even if they don't, at least they will have no excuse that they did not get told what is right.

That is a powerful witness and it's something we have to be serious about. Because if we don't build a movement just to hate folk, go on and join the haters. Somebody said, where does hope come from? Well, hope comes, Juergen Moltmann said, hope takes place when people of faith,

and that could be faith in different ways, but when people of faith, and that could be faith in different ways, but when people of faith or people see something that's so wrong that they can no longer accept it and they decide to put their hands and their bodies and their feet to work to change it, he said the moment they make that decision, that's where hope is born. Hope doesn't just fall out the sky. Hope doesn't happen because you walk over one time or send an email one time or text message one time and all of a sudden they stop voting. Hope begins with you and me deciding not to believe the lies we're being told. Because the most powerful thing you can do is tell the truth in the midst of lies.

So when Moral Monday was born, actually today was the anniversary, April 28, 2013. This is actually. And, Mr. President, when it was born, uh, it had been after, uh, January, February, March, April, we had seen a state legislature and a government governor after we had put 20,000 people in the street in January and the forward movement agenda and had even offered to them, uh, they said, it didn't matter to

us if you Republican or whatever, whatever, if you're about justice, we'll work with you. And they said no. And they denied health care, denied Medicaid expansion. They cut money for public education, took North Carolina to last in the country. They went after the LGBTQ community. They went after women. They went after women. They went after unemployment. And then during Holy Week, before they went home for recess, they wrote a bill in the state Senate that changed 40 laws,

was attempt to change 40 voting laws to take voting in the backwards direction rather than forward. And the bill was so bad that when they put it in the computer, this is true, they put it in the computer, and the computer kicked it out and assigned a number to it. The computer named it Senate Bill 666. Now, you laugh about it, and I get that, but part of the problem, the reason they even got to write that bill 666, is because in years prior, when Democrats had the chance in North Carolina to expand voting, they didn't do it. And when Democrats had a chance to block, to block, see, moral movements have to tell truth both ways.

Moral movements don't tell truth one way. The sword of the word cuts on both sides. In 2010, how did they get the power to do that? In 2010, there was a redistricting plan. When Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was still in place, and it was pre-cleared, even though four years later the court said it was racism with surgical precision. Now, if it was racism with surgical precision four years later, it was racism with surgical precision four years earlier. But in an attempt to compromise and play games, Democrats allowed it to go through and then

that created this super Tea Party pre-mega majority that then writes Bill 666. So all of us need to repent. That's exactly right. Right? And so what happened is, Dr. Jackson, is when they wrote that Bill 666, they set it to the side. And this is what they said. They said, now we're going to wait until the Supreme Court makes its decision on the voting rights error.

And so what we said was, we can't wait. And we may not have the votes to stop them, but just because the Supreme Court of this world makes a wrong decision, it doesn't stop the Supreme Court of God from not standing up for the right decision. Folks, that's called moral leadership. And, of course, Bishop William Barber. So it was Bishop Barber who sent me this tweet earlier. I want you all to me this tweet earlier. I want y'all to check this out here. Um, this Jack Jenkins posted this tweet reminder when right-wing activists, Sean Fult held an impromptu evening worship service in the Capitol back in 2023, police occasionally walked in to speak with lawmakers participating, but no one was

arrested. Hmm. Isn't that quite interesting? The actions that Bishop Barber is engaged in, Derek, I think is critically important because this budget, the budget cuts Republicans are trying to unleash really is about damaging the poor, the disenfranchised, and the needy in this country in order to trillion tax cut, that's trillion with a T, $1.5 trillion tax cut, it's not only going to devastate a lot of citizens, both our elderly, our retired, and our children, but the disabled as well. It will negatively impact Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. Roland, when you think about this $1.5 trillion tax cut, when you have 73 million citizens that receive a social security check

every month. They're playing games, talking about, well, we made the system believe that this person was dead and they're still alive and well. They're playing games with folks who are on fixed and stable incomes.

Those who need medicine, where now the pricing of medicine has ballooned again. Take insulin as an example to go from a cap of $35 to now back to whatever that number may be, $200, $300. And so this tax cut, and again, this is where the Democrats got to sound the alarm. Again, that if it goes through rolling, not only will it devastate a lot of citizens, but a lot of citizens will die. Will die. That's the gravity of this. Omicongo?

Yep. Omicongo? Yeah, I'm so glad that we're highlighting, you know, Moral Mondays, because what's happening in this country right now is evil. It's depravity at the highest level. You know, I know we're not talking, you know, a lot about immigration today, but when you see what happened with the woman who was deported, but her son,

who's an American citizen, was four years old, had stage four cancer, exported with her. And you look at the programs that are actually already being cut, right, that are already being cut or halted or funding being halted until they can check to see if it is in line with their ideology, they are killing people. And we should have paid more—not we here, but as a country, we should have been paying more attention when this started happening with USAID. But the Trump administration is so strategic because they know that they always go after groups and organizations or parts of the

world or parts of communities that people don't care about. And not enough people were caring about people dying in Zimbabwe or Sudan or Argentina because of USAID money that got chopped up. And people started, have already started dying already. So they're like, well, successful there. Let's just bring it here. Add it to what are they getting rid of in this country meals on wheels all of these different programs one by one by one as they're also dismantling social security when are people going to wake up unfortunately in this country too many people wake up until they actually get hit and by that time it's going to be too late because you already lost your job you already lost your home you already lost your access to low-cost insulin. How are you going

to be even in a position to fight back? More people should have been down there with everybody who was there as part of Moral Mondays getting arrested. And if the cops didn't come, it wouldn't even have been a big deal. They weren't making as much, you know, quote-unquote noise as that musician who you showed earlier. People were going about their business, but they want to make these things points. They want, just like that judge they arrested in Milwaukee, they want to make these points that they are in charge and we're not going to keep stopping. And so, so much props to Reverend Barber and everybody who was out there, as well as the press who documented this for us. Kelly? I feel like I'm grieving the state of our nation and what it was

and what it will never be again. I do not know how we come back from this level of depravity, because it really does feel like history is repeating itself as far as what they went through in World War II with Hitler. It's almost the exact same playbook, bar for bar, as well as the trajectory of the events happening at almost the exact same pace as what happened with Hitler pre-World War II. This is frightening to me. This is very frightening. And I appreciate the highlighting of this issue. But as far as next steps for this country, if we are not looking at radical change and radical options regarding getting rid of Trump and his cronies, I dare say it will be worse,

and there will be no coming back from it. And it is unfortunate. Once again, I go back to the hashtag we tried to tell you, we really did. And I mean, ironically, I have to pray for this nation, probably not at the rotunda of the Capitol, but certainly elsewhere in order for anything to change. Well, absolutely. All right, folks, a couple of the stories that we want to get to that jumped at us, folks, really sad news out of Memphis, Tennessee. But the historic church, of course, that had so many different meetings and gatherings during the sanitation workers strike burned to the ground. Significant, significant damage.

Claiborne Temple, which had been under renovation, located in downtown Memphis, was the organizing focal point for Dr. King's final campaign in Memphis in 68. Fire officials responded to the early morning alarm to find the church engulfed in flames, located just south of Beale Street. Claiborne Temple was built in 1892 as the second Presbyterian church and originally served an all-white congregation. In 1949, an African Methodist Episcopal congregation purchased the building and renamed it Claiborne Temple.

Before the fire, the church was undergoing a $25 million restoration project, which was scheduled to be completed next year. And again, just, I mean, just some really sad news because they were working so hard to restore that church. Now it all begins anew. Also, remember we talked last week, Variety and New York Times were sort of questioning, could Ryan Coogler's movie, Sinners, make its budget back, which was stupid?

When you make $60 million your opening weekend, you're going to do well. Check this out, folks. Second week in a row, they pulled in $45 million, okay? That was only a 6% drop from Easter weekend debut. That is the smallest drop in any genre since Avatar in 2009. It is unheard of for what has been categorized as a horror movie, and it's already grossed $120 million domestically, a $90 million budget.

This right here is phenomenal. Derek Omikongo, Kelly, first of all, any one of y'all see the movie? Twice. Again. All right. So say it again. I'm a Congo. So Kelly said twice.

I'm a Congo. You saw Derek. You haven't seen it. This weekend. Yeah, Derek, you're like me. You're like me. I'm planning on going to see it at the IMAX. Because first of all, we're like me. You're like me. I'm planning on going to see it at the IMAX. Because, first of all, we've been busy.

I mean, what you mean? What you waiting on? Bro, bro, I've been busy. I'm just saying. Bro, I've been busy. Also, my wife was in New York all last week with the Lynx. And so we said we're going to see it together. So she wasn't here.

So since you asking questions, Kelly. So here's the thing for me that I think is crazy. Variety looks real stupid. The New York Times looks real stupid, questioning somehow, you know, in terms of what's going to do well. I mean, this movie is on its way to $200 million, you know, or even higher. 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 call 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. 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 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. Hey, Drew Scott here, letting you know why I recently joined the board of an amazing nonprofit, A Sense of Home. For 10 years, this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care.

It's an incredible organization. Just days into the L.A. fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program, providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. What it also says is that original movies with original concepts can still work. Everything is not about a superhero movie, and that to me I think is important. So it's a lot of people

on the Congo with egg on their face who are questioning the opening weekend of Sinners. Yeah, and it was so great that we had Omar Miller on last week to talk about it, and one of the things that stuck with what, one of the things that he said was that this movie's not only

doing so well, but it's also, it's not black trauma porn. And this could be revolutionary for the industry if they pay attention. Because when you look at the movies that have majority Black cast that start doing numbers like this, or have an impact like this, it's movies that are not Black trauma porn. Movies like this, Black Panther as well, you know, obviously that's Marvel and everything, and Ryan was involved in that. But the way that this movie is going, it beat out The Accountant as well, part two, that everybody else was talking about and saying, you know, go see that and everything.

And, you know, I think they had like similar budgets and the like. So I just love the fact that Michael and Ryan are just speaking with their art right now. And it's just, I've been so dismayed about what I've been seeing in media as of late. And so to have something like this, it just gives me a lot of hope of what's possible. And I don't even care about, like, what other folks in Hollywood do. I'm interested in there's more stories that are going to come from us because of what this movie is doing. And like I said last week when Miller was here, it's the movie we need right now in this moment. Kelly?

I mean, I couldn't agree more. This was one of my favorite films to date, really ever. And I am a self-proclaimed scaredy cat. I do not do horror movies. I do not believe in spiking my adrenaline levels any further than they need to be. I'm already a Black woman in this world. I am stressed enough. I don't believe in paying to watch horror films. But something told me to go see this film. And it is one of the most incredible pieces of art that I have seen in a very, very long time. I haven't even been looking at the reviews from Variety and stuff. I saw the headlines, and I immediately dismissed it because it was giving hater.

You know what I mean? It was giving we want to sabotage the results of this film because we didn't believe in it. We being the mainstream media. And I have just kind of delved into every think piece, every presser clip, every promo clip. I wish I was here when Omar was here because I absolutely love his work as an actor in general. But he really outdid himself in this role. Everybody outdid themselves in this role. Shout out to the actress who played Annie, giving it up for the plus-sized woman who was a legitimate love interest, not a trope, not a joke. She was a real multi-dimensioned, layered character that a conventionally

attractive Black man was in love with. You don't see that enough. I don't see that enough. And that alone was enough for me to see it not once, but twice. I might see it a third time in the different formats that Ryan Coogler outlined that he showed the film in. Again, I can't talk about it enough without giving spoilers, but if you haven't already, go see this film. It's incredible. I love it

and I'm ready to see what else it's going to do as far as numbers and impact and culture. Derek, it's a lot of Hollywood media people looking real stupid for what they were writing about just a week ago. And listen, I have not seen the movie Kelly. But it is on my wife and I to do this because our schedule has been crazy. But when you think about the narrative, Roland, I just noticed that these same folks didn't do the same thing to Quentin Tarantino movies.

Right. I mean, it just always folks always demonstrate that there are two sets of rules in our society it's the same thing that you know they want to beat up on coach prime with chador but you didn't do that with archie manning with eli right and so this falls in that same category it's the same playbook that they continue to do over and over again uh ryan is a genius now he was a genius when even Marvel didn't give him all the budget that he needed for Black Panther, but it still turned out to be a blockbuster, number one

box seller. So we're looking forward to going to see it before this week is out. All right, folks. that's it for us. A lot we're going to talk about tomorrow. First, we're going to talk about

Senator Gutz and the university, another lawsuit against them. Also, we talked about law enforcement. We warned everybody. Donald Trump has released another executive order where he wants to give protection to cops. He ordered the attorney general to create a legal mechanism to indemnify them. Oh, and all those law firms that cut deals, they're going to be required to represent the cops pro bono.

Oh, we're going to break all this down tomorrow on the show. Also, the Philadelphia Eagles went to these White House today, went to the Super Bowl. A bunch of black players and others did not show up, but what's causing a lot of attention is Saquon Barkley, where he told folk he didn't want to hear them complain about him playing golf with Donald Trump. I said a couple of things to him on Twitter and Instagram. I got a lot more to say to his ass tomorrow. Yeah, it's going to be a little busy show tomorrow.

I'm back in the studio, and y'all know I'm going to be ready to bring the funk. Derek, Kelly, Omicongo, I appreciate y'all being on today's show. Thank you so very much, folks. Thank you so very much. And again, let me thank the Church Without Walls, Brookheller Baptist Church, Reverend Dr. Ralph Douglas West for holding the golf tournament. And again, for the folk, in case y'all missed it earlier, see, when you got golf skills, this is what happens when you got skills.

You win first place. So this ain't the first time I've won first place in a golf tournament. It won't be the last time. So a lot of y'all out there be talking all that smack. Bring your ass. Come on. If y'all want some of this, I'll happily take your rent or your mortgage money or your lunch money if you keep running your mouth.

All right, folks. If y'all want to support the work that we do, join our Bring the Funk fan club. Here's a way you can support our show. Give me a cash app. Use the QR code for Stripe. This is it right here. If you're listening, you can also use that for, of course, credit cards. Senior Check and Money Order, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.,

2003-7-0196. Paypal, again, make checks payable to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland Martin Unfiltered, PO Box 57196, Washington, make checks payable to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland Martin Unfiltered. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo, RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Download the Blackstone Network app. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Of course, get my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Get the audio version that I read on Audible. Also, download the app Fanbase. You can also get that. Download the app Fanbase, Apple Store, Android Play Store.

Or if you want to invest, go to startengine.com forward slash fanbase. For more information, startengine.com forward slash fanbase. Also, you heard me say it a little bit earlier. Yesterday was my 36th Alphaversary. That's right. 36 years ago, I crossed the burning Sands into the only real fraternity. The rest of me, youth groups, including those folks in my control room who belong to those other little groups. So, again, a shout out to my L.B.'s, John Williams, Freddie Ricks, Paul Stafford. And, of course, of course, one of our L.B.'s, he died.

Actually, he died on the 10th anniversary of us crossing. That is Kevin Roberts. He passed away in a plane crash, and so he's in the Omega chapter. But he played for us at Texas A&M University. Shout out to my LBs on our 36th anniversary. The Epsilon line, Pai Omicron chapter, Texas A&M University. So shout out to our Alphaverse. All right, folks, that's it.

I'll see y'all tomorrow from the nation's capital, from the Black Star Network studios. Until then, holla! Black Star Network. Oh, no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? this charity has been creating homes for young people exiting foster care. It's an incredible organization. Just days into the LA fires, they moved mountains to launch a new emergency relief program providing fully functional home environments for those who lost everything in the fires. Please

get involved. Sign up to volunteer, donate furniture, or even donate funds. You can go to ascensivehome.org to find out more information. Together, we can help our LA community rebuild. It takes all of us. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

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

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