#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Texas GOP Gerrymander, Tulsa’s $105M Road to Repair, Joni Ernst & Moral Monday Arrest

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

6.2.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Texas GOP Gerrymander, Tulsa’s $105M Road to Repair, Joni Ernst & Moral Monday Arrest MAGA strikes again, in Tarrant County, Texas, commissioners are set to vote on a new political map after two months of debate over whether Republicans are trying to politically or racially gerrymander the county. Tulsa's first Black mayor, Monroe Nichols, is unveiling a bold new initiative--The Road to Repair. We'll talk to the mayor and Civil Rights Attorney, and Justice for Greenwood founder Damario Solomon-Simmon about the $105 million investment to help restore what was stolen from Black families impacted by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.  Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa is under scrutiny for her handling of voter concerns at a recent town hall.  A federal appeals court has blocked a Trump-era attempt to slash thousands of federal jobs, ruling that the former president overstepped. We'll discuss the impact. It's Moral Monday! Rev. Dr. William J. Barber will share details about his arrest today and explain how they are standing against Trump's budget, which threatens to harm the most vulnerable among us. #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 Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. 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. 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 One, Taser, Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Taser, Inc. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser, Inc.

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. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes, we met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast, season two, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepapersceiling.org,

brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. folks. What's up today? It's Monday, June 2nd, 2025 coming up on Roland Martin on social streaming live on the Black Star Network. Republicans want to strip a county commissioner seat from black folks in Tarrant County. It's where Fort Worth is. We'll talk about this here. Folks, this is blatant discrimination by Republicans in Texas. Also, Tulsa's first black mayor establishes a reparations plan. The survivors of the Tulsa Race Master will talk to the mayor as well as the Mario Solomon Simmons about this important important decision.

Boy, they are ripping Republican Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa where she said in response to someone saying you guys are going to cause folks to die because of Medicaid cuts, she goes. Well, we're all going to die anyway. Bishop William Barber had a few words to say about that. Also on today's short break, because of Medicaid cuts, she goes, well, we're all going to die anyway. Bishop William Barber had a few words to say about that.

Also on today's short, Federal Appeals Court has blocked the Trump administration from slashing thousands of federal jails. We'll unpack that ruling as well. Plus, Moral Monday, we can have Bishop William Barber, Moral Monday, continued in the nation's Capitol. We're gonna listen to more on Monday. Continue in the nation's capital. We'll hear from Mr. Barber about that.

It's time to bring the funk. I'm rolling my unfiltered. On the Black Sun Network, let's go. He's got Whatever the piss he's on it Whatever it is he's got

The scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks he's right on time And it's rolling Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from Swastika news to politics And when it breaks he's right on time And it's rolling Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from Swastika news to politics And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's Rollin', best belief he's knowin'

Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's Rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roll-Roll, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Martin, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know he talk about redistricting. It happens every 10 years yet Republicans in Texas said

not I forget that we can do this anytime we want to the county judge in Tarrant County Texas that's where Fort Worth and Arlington is located. He's decided that you know what? We're gonna do this right now. And so what they want to do is, they want to pretty much destroy a precinct or a kind of judge position where an African-American

currently sits at that job. So what they wanna do is they wanna strip, they wanna move a lot of black folks from that district and move them over to impact them into one particular district, diminishing two Democrats who sit on the Tarrant County Commissioner's Court. Commissioner Alisa Simmons has really been fighting this tooth and nail. She's actually having a town hall in less than an hour and we're talking about this very issue. You have Congressman Martin Vesey calling this blatant discrimination, and Democrats

are saying, why are they rushing to actually do this? Now, guess what? A Republican state legislator resigned today from the Texas legislature in order to run for the seat hasn't even been created yet, y'all. So the commissioners are going to vote tomorrow. It's pretty much a complete, they have a three to two majority on the commissioners court. So this is going to take place tomorrow. Again, you've got civil rights groups and others blasting the decision. No doubt in my mind a lawsuit is going to be filed here, but it goes to show you how Republicans are scared to death of the power of the black vote. My panel, Dr. Omi Congo, the Bingham Senior Professorial Electric School of International

Service, American University, author of Lies About Black People, How to Combat Racists. Also Raven Schwamm-Curtis, content creator, keynote speaker out of Chicago. State Representative Derrick Jackson out of Georgia, Jonesville from Atlanta. Glad to have three of you here. Derrick, I wanna start with you. You know about this process.

This is what legislators go through, but this is different. Can you have a Republican County judge who wants to redraw the lines of the court there in Tarrant County? And it's undeniable. I mean, the maps don't lie. And in fact, UCLA has done their own analysis saying it will be blatant discrimination to pack black people

to remove them from one precinct and pack them into another precinct. This is literally what the Supreme Court has actually ruled against. You know, Roland, when you think about discriminating the voices of the people and disenfranchising the voice of the people, they would gerrymander in full transparency, both Republicans and Democrats have done this, but to the point that you're making, when the Supreme Court back in July of 2013

removed section five, that pre-clearance requirement where states could not simply just go in and start redistricting because they feel like it, it had to go through a process up to the Department of Justice. Now, quite frankly, we also know that if the civil rights of the DOJ was in place, that

would also help this perspective too. But unfortunately, this administration gutted out the civil rights division of the DOJ. So that's the reason why Texas and other southern states, they feel empowered, Roland, to be able to do this whenever they can, how they can. They don't have to wait every 10 years like we normally would do. This process is normally done every 10 years. You get the census data, and then you look at redistricting, congressional districts, state, house, and so on and so forth. But Texas feels empowered that they don't need to. They believe that they have the favor of the White House and the DOJ to go ahead and do this most distasteful, dishonest, disrespectful thing to gerrymanders duly elected officials

out of their district? The thing here, Raven, is abundantly clear. That we saw this in Alabama. We saw it in Louisiana, where the Supreme Court ruled that these legislators were stripping black people of de-representation. They created an opportunity district in Alabama. They created a second congressional district in Louisiana.

Now the question is, will they, obviously there's gonna be a lawsuit here. Now I think what Republicans are suggesting is that, well, in those cases, those are federal cases, let's see if they can get away with this in the state, because this is not a state seat. It's a, excuse me, this is not a federal seat. It's a county seat in Texas.

But still, it is absolute undeniable racism and discrimination by white Republicans in Texas. Absolutely, Roland. and discrimination by white Republicans in Texas. Absolutely, Roland. I mean, this is a clear overreach of power, but unfortunately we're not new to this, we're true to this, right? I live in Chicago, which is one of the most segregated,

redlined, gerrymandered cities in the entire country. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in Houston, Texas. I still have family out there. I'm flying there a week and a half from now. So this doesn't surprise me in the slightest, I'm sad to say. And, of course, we know that Republicans have historically used gerrymandering, this redistricting, to their favor, right, to try to vote us out of power and to... political power. But it's not going to work. There is going to be challenge to this. And, honestly, I

think this situation really underlines why it's so, so deeply important that folks in our community are running for these positions or being appointed to them or being elected to them, particularly as a commissioner, because, otherwise, we're not at the table making the decisions, right? And I think, in this moment, that's just become so abundantly clear to me as I'm watching so many of my peers as a member of Gen Z step up to the plate and running for Congress. My friend Kat is running for Congress here in Illinois. to the plate and running for Congress. My friend Kat is running for Congress here in Illinois. I have another friend running for Congress

in Arizona. And I think the really the only way that we're going to be able to push back meaningfully is if we have a seat at the table. It's so important. MCCONGELL, the Republican County Judge Tim O'Hare is very blunt. He said, quote, the mission is to get three Republican commissioners, period. Now, here's the deal. Supreme Court previously said that they don't have a voice in political gerrymandering, but they do have a voice in racial gerrymandering. And this specifically attacks black and Latino voters in precinct two in Tarrant County.

Yeah. And what they're trying to do is have a workaround by talking about, oh, it's about ideology voters in precinct two in Tarrant County. Yeah, and what they're trying to do is have a work around by talking about, oh, it's about ideology and not race. I'm reading from a commissioner, Matt Krauss, who said after hearing, my entire goal, my entire purpose, my entire intention is to allow Tarrant County to go from three Republicans, two Democrats on the commissioner's court, to four Republicans and one Democrat.

And so they feel like, if they can wrap anything in that political party, they can avoid anything relating to race. And I think, really, at the end of the day, going off of what's been said already, we have to show that we're more politically astute than that in terms of how we fight. Unfortunately, Roland, I don't know where anybody else is getting this story, with the exception of the Black Star Network and people who read print journalism. And so it is really Unfortunately, Roland, I don't know where anybody else is getting this story, with the exception of the Black Star Network and people who read print journalism. And so it is really up to us to support the members of that local community, so we can

put this type of pressure on them, because this can fail, but it's only going to fail with action from the community. And so, but this is also happening all across the country. It's never going to stop. And that's why we have to continue to make sure that we don't sleep on these particular issues, because they're going to go through rate, they're going to go through ideology, political party, so on and so forth. But we know every single time it always comes down to race.

And they feel they're going to keep pushing it so they can get something to the Supreme Court again and again and again. They're like Trump. They're never going to stop. They're going to keep throwing spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. And they think that they're going to be successful with this as well. And again, this is why I keep trying to tell people why voting matters and why we are trying to keep you abreast of what's going on.

This is what Republicans are doing across the country. They are scared of black people. They're scared of brown people. They do not want to lose their white power and that's what this boils down to pure and simple. Got to go to break. We come back. Lots of talk about including what's happening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the newly elected black mayor is finally doing something that residents there have been asking for for a very long time.

We'll discuss right here. Roll the mic on the filter right here on the Black Stud Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We featured the brand new work of Professor Angie Porter, which simply put is a revolutionary reframing of the African experience in this country. It's the one legal article everywhere, and I mean everywhere, should read.

Professor Porter and Dr. Vlithia Watkins, our legal round table team, join us to explore the paper that I guarantee is going to prompt a major aha moment in our culture. You crystallize it by saying, who are we to other people? Who are African people to others? Governance is our thing. Who are we to each other?

The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe as African people. That's next on the Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. In France, me and Tony, and accidentally went to the Louvre, right? But I had never been and I saw a side door.

And we got off the little bus and said, let's go to the Louvre. I mean, I'm just like, let's go to the room. Right. We're here. This black girl is at the door with this white guy, black African girl. And she says, oh my god, Vanessa B. Calloway.

And I'm like this. You know me? And come to find out we were at the wrong door. But she said, I wanted you to just go in here. But I was in Paris, France. Mm-hmm. And that shocked me. She knew my name. She knew me. Mm-hmm. But you said, I wanted you to just go in there. But I was in Paris France. And that shocked me. She knew my name.

She knew me. She knew my movie. You know, so it's like, you just got to, as they say, build and they will come. Put it out there. People will find it. They will come. Oh, whatever. This is Essence Atkins.

Mr. Love King of R.B. Raheem DeVon. This is me, Sherri Shebritt, and you know what you're watching. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, I want to continue the conversation I was talking about there when we were talking about what's happening in Tarrant County, but I want to take it to this place when we talk about why we must be maximizing our power. Dr. Gerald Horne was on the show on Friday, and we talked about the fact that there are more eligible black voters in Texas

than any other state in the union. Let me say it again. There are more eligible black voters in Texas than any state in the country. More than Mississippi, more than Maryland, more than Georgia, more than South Carolina. We can go on and on and on. But the question still becomes when we talk about Texas,

when we talk about other states, when we talk about then on the city level, how do we maximize our vote? You take Atlanta. Atlanta is no longer a majority black city. Some people have been freaking out by that. I don't know why they're freaking out by it. Because if you're still 40, 45, 48 percent,

you still can actually control the politics of the city. But the question is, will we be turning out in significant numbers? And this is where I have consistently said our goal cannot be waiting on a candidate or a party that is going to excite us and motivate us, what must be motivating us is our agenda and recognizing that when we don't show up, what we're doing is we basically are losing our power. We basically are ceding it to someone else. And that really has to be our state of mind, Raven. We must begin to look at how do we fund black political groups? I always say this, you can send money to a candidate or to a party, but what I'm tired of

is us investing in organizations and campaigns and then hoping and praying and then complaining, well, that money doesn't come back to our community. When with black men, when we had our Zoom call, the day after President Biden chose not to run, we raised $1.5 million. We actually kept almost 500,000 of that. A million went to the campaign of Vice President Harris, but about half, almost a half million

we actually kept. And a lot of people had a problem with that. They were bothered. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glodd. And this is season two of the World 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 van. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouche. 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. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me.

Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The Paper Ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepapersealing.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council.

By it and I said we were upfront with it because we said no we're going to send this money directly to black male groups ourselves and not hope a campaign wakes up. This is a moment where we as African Americans must be thinking and operating in a different way because if we don't, we're going to be at risk of frankly seeing our vote stay at home and not maximizing our power. Absolutely. I mean, I think you're spot on. Just because we don't choose politics doesn't mean politics don't choose us. And we do have a fundamental responsibility to show up for one another. I think one of the most loving things we can do as a black community is show up to the voting booth. It is absolutely

paramount and I don't know why so many people discount it. It's integral to our liberation. If we don't opt into these systems, at least to some extent, and try to transform them and reform them, then how are we gonna get free? And I understand fundamentally the argument that, hey, these are broken systems. These are systems that have been built on our subjugation and through logics of enslavement in the antebellum era

that were fundamentally organized and orchestrated to be violent towards us. I totally understand that line of thinking, and that can't be the beginning and end of it, right? We have to figure out how to reform these systems, even as we imagine what life looks like and liberation looks like in excess of them, beyond them. And so I really just implore like folks to show up,

run for local office. There's a big push for that right now. There's a really important moment that we're in where so many seats are opening up. And I hope that that folks in our community will rise to the occasion because no one else is coming to save us. It has to be us. We have to organize both politically and economically like never before. Well, Makongo, what I look at when I look at these elections, what I pay attention to,

I don't pay attention to percentages. I want to know raw numbers. I want to look at what, you know, I want to know raw numbers. I want to look at what is the percentage of the black population and the eligible, so there's different levels here. So the percentage of the black population. And then the next level is eligible black voters. Then the next level is registered black voters. Then the next level is registered black voters. Then the final one is actual turnout of black voters. And I just think that the mistakes are being made when in a

lot of these places we're seeing city elections, 16, 18, 20% turnout, total turnout. And then when you look at black turnout, 28, 30, 32. And I keep making the argument that if our target goal should be 70%, we hit 70% of black turnout, we sweep elections. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's like you're talking about with Texas as well.

And I watched your interview with Dr. Warren last week. It was incredible as well. Largest numbers of black voters being in Texas as well. And the fact that a matter is, this is a lesson that Democrats should be learning from the they should have learned from the jump, but they continue not to do so. And I'm a little bit nervous because we're talking about cities and the like, but even as we expand it to the states and go into these, you know, next presidential elections,

we see all of these potential candidates doing all of this work to try to, you know, appeal to the list, Cheney voters of the world, as opposed to activate that black vote. I mean, that black vote is really what's needed in so many of these states, but they continue to look at these individuals as people who are just not going to be engaged in the process. Those potential black voters realize that they don't care

about them being engaged in the process and then they don't engage them. And so this cycle has to be broken. And unfortunately, the hope would be that it would be broken by many black people in these communities who just had had enough and they're finally going to get to the polls. And that's happening in some places, but it's not happening on a larger scale. People are still waiting for an Obama-type figure or some type of charismatic leader

to activate them. And we have to be better than that. We have to be beyond that, and we have to be stronger than that. And one thing, going back to what you were saying about you all keeping the money that you, some of the money that you all raised, that's extremely important as well, because people respond to the dollars. People who are politicians, they're responding to the dollars. And if we're saying we are going to allocate this as opposed to sending it to places like

Ag Blue and other places, not saying anything wrong with those organizations, but we also have to assert our dominance economically as well by showing that we control these purse strings as well and make these policies perfect that money as well. If we do that, we can start making a change by following this blueprint. The thing here, Derek, and listen, Georgia's a perfect example.

You have, beyond Fulton County, Gwinnett County, when you start talking about rural areas as well, you have a significant black population, but they have to be maximized. In order to maximize it though, get a talk to them, you have to appeal to them. And so what I'm suggesting that for African Americans, when we look at the places where we make up 20, 30, 40,

45, 48% or more, frankly, we should be doing more with that voting power as opposed to too many of us sitting at home. Roland, you're exactly right. When you think about Georgia, there's 11 million citizens in Georgia. Of that 11 million, 5.1 million actually vote. And of that 5.1 million, 2.7 million are registered black voters. But that 2.7 million registered black voters, at best you may get 40, 50%, depending on what kind of race, where the race.

For example, when Senator Warnock was on the ballot, versus when he was not on the ballot, who's on the top of the ticket. But I think the solution is very simple, Roland, you said it yourself on your show. Invest, invest, invest. We gotta invest in us, we gotta invest in black candidates, we gotta invest in black media,

we gotta invest in black organizations, we gotta invest in black grassroots campaign organizations, we gotta invest in black grassroots campaign organizations. We got to invest in black and brown communities. If we do exactly what you have always been saying, invest, invest, invest, because the turnout is not just going to magically happen because you have a black candidate on the ticket. We're far smarter than that.

But if you don't invest where these black votes are, you cannot expect to get 67%, 80% turnout that you're articulating. And so if we don't do what you've been talking about, I mean, I was just amazed I had to go do my homework, not that I didn't believe you, but when you broke down Kamala Harris nearly $2 billion and 93% of that nearly $2 billion went to white corporations. 93% Roland, I had to go do homework

because I'm like, okay, homework assignment. You cannot expect to invest 93% into white companies, into trying to turn out the white vote, white men vote, white women vote, where they continue to show since 1964, we don't care how much money you throw at the Democratic Party for the white vote, it's not gonna happen. We gotta turn this around. Can you imagine, Roland, if they would have invested in Gary down in Louisiana, just about $3 million, Gary would be a United States Senator in Louisiana.

If you invest in Ty, our friend brother that's running for US Senate in Mississippi, if you gave him $2 million, the turnout in that Mississippi vote. I mean, it's just incredulous for all this money to be in politics rolling, for them not to basically subscribe to what the solution that you continue to talk about. You got to invest, invest, invest in black media, black candidates, and black communities. Absolutely, that is the only way. All right, folks, gonna go to a quick break.

We come back, we're gonna talk about what's happening in Tulsa. Perfect example of what happens when we maximize our vote and we change the leadership. We'll talk about how the folks who've been impacted by the Tulsa race massacre more than 100 years ago are finally, finally seeing some justice. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget to support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. The goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year.

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Right now I'm rolling with Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? On the water on the fourth anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, one of the deadliest attacks on Black life in American history. Tulsa's first black mayor, Monroe Nichols, unveiled a bold new plan called the Road to Repair. It deals with something that has been asked by residents there for quite some time. The white leadership of Tulsa in Oklahoma has never actually stepped up, but this is

what happens when we use our power to put one of our own in office. Joining us right now is Mayor Nichols. Glad to have you back on the show. In addition to that, Civil Rights Attorney Demario Solomon Simmons, founder of Justice for Greenwood. Glad to have him as well. Mayor Nichols, I want to start with you. Walk me through the process of putting this together and making this announcement because again this is something that DiMario and others have been demanding for a very very long time but they were getting nowhere.

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 Inc. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the World on Drugs Podcast. podcasts. 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 means. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamouche. 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 Podcast. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper.

The paper ceiling, The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepaperceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. With City Hall in Tulsa before you were sworn in. Yeah, I want to say first, thank you, Roland, for allowing us to be on and thank you for all your advocacy for what goes on here in Tulsa. I also got to thank my brother Demario.

You asked about the process for getting here. The process started with people like Demario who have been fighting for justice for years. DiMario and others came to me with ideas about how we begin to repair the harm. And we had a great conversation. And from that came the road to repair. This plan is fully reflective of Justice for Greenwood's recommendations. It's fully reflective of the Beyond the Apology Commission's recommendations. It is a reflection of the Descended community. And I'll be really honest, there's still a lot of work to do. But everything in this plan came directly from the folks who have been on the ground for a long time

doing this work. And that's why I'm so proud for the work that we have out in front of us. But it comes from people like DeMario. So I can't thank him enough for his advocacy over the years, his fight over the years. He was doing it before it was cool, and I'm just happy to be a part of bringing some repair to this community that has gone for far too long without it.

So walk us through exactly what you laid out. Yeah, so it's $105 million, it's a private charitable trust, $105 million, 24 million of it dedicated to housing and homeownership. the $10 million investment in the survival entities. I know you've been to the Greenwood district.

Those buildings that are there, those buildings that survived the massacre, again, this is a justice for Greenwood recommendation, making sure we're investing in those things so we not only preserve our

history, but create the kind of economic economy that we have. So we're going to be investing in those making sure we're investing in those things so we not only preserve our history but create the kind of economic conditions that brings back what was all special and great about the Greenwood district. Then the last piece is the $21 million endowment fund to invest in scholarships for descendants, to invest

in business grants and no interest loans for companies owned by descendants. And it continues We have a lot of scholarships for descendants to invest in business grants and no interest loans for companies owned by descendants. And it continues our grades investigation so we can do our work to bring closure to families. It is really about us taking the next big steps in the work that we need to do in Tulsa. But the one thing I always say, and Demario knows this about me, you probably know this about me. I still say it is still incomplete, but these are the steps we're taking. $105 million investment that goes into recreating

what was special and what was great about the Greenwood district and having that work start right here in the mayor's office, along with our community partners at the recommendation of people like DeMario Solomon Simmons. That's the road to repair that we all in Tulsa right now. DeMario, I got your text over the weekend and I'm gonna use a still a phrase from that Reverend Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes III used who happens to be an alpha.

He always says, Peacock proud, hyena happy. That's how you work. Oh, absolutely, man. It's so good to be out here with both of you all. And I just want to say for the mayor, man, leadership matters. I just want you guys to know we're so proud of Mayor Nichols, not just because of what he's doing here on this particular issue, but how he's leading this city. And I think yesterday, I'm just asking everyone, if you get a chance, go listen to his speech. It was one of the best speeches I've ever heard.

It was truly presidential speech. He laid out the case, not only why this should happen, but what it will look like, not just for us as descendants in the Greenville community, but for Tulsa moving forward. I truly believe the way that Tulsa and Greenville was a beacon of light for all of black America before the massacre.

If we are fully implementing this plan, and as the mayor said, this is just the start of a plan, but once we fully implement it, this will be a model that communities around this country can actually make happen for their community. So we are excited. We're excited to continue to work with the mayor. We know it's gonna be a lot more work

to put everything together. And I'm asking everyone that's listening tonight, connect with us, connect with Mayor Nichols, connect with us at Justice for Greenwood. We need to raise this money. We need to make sure that this plan gets the success it should have. The, Mario, let's just be clear.

Y'all have been fighting this for a very long time and you're getting nowhere with previous leadership there in Tulsa. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm 25 plus years into this thing and we've got, we've got no any, every way you can possibly, you've got no from the federal government, no from the state government, no from local governments. You know, we went to the Department of Justice, we've been to Congress, we've been everywhere. But the thing about this administration is that they are listening to the people. I think Mayor Nichols said it best.

He's listening to a broad group of people here in Tulsa that's fighting this fight, people who have been, who are descendants, and picking all of these ideas. Yesterday was one of them. It was so beautiful to be doing this on the first ever Tulsa remembrance holiday that the mayor created at our recommendation, to have all the groups there all of our elected leaders Some of our most prominent pastors and hundreds of descendants and community members Everyone was there and we are so excited to continue this work and we're just gonna do the hard work to make sure because the goal is By 105 which is next year 2026 if this plan is funded and we're moving these things forward.

And that's just the beginning. Mayor, when we were there for the 100th, there was this huge gathering at the convention center. And I went by and I was actually supposed to speak, but I had to leave because we had to be inside of the perimeter when President Biden was speaking. And I really did want to speak, because what bothered me, you had all of these organizations, all of these financial institutions, banks and others, they were having this conference

about reinvesting and piggyback on what happened in Greenwood. And I remember asking to Mario, are any of these folks doing that? And I took a picture of all of these different sponsors. And I said every single one of these people who were on that listing as a sponsor should be reinvesting in Greenwood as opposed to just trying to get frankly some good PR. And that's what always bothers me when folks step out and they want to sponsor stuff, but then when the cameras leave, so do they.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, Roland, one of the things that I talked about yesterday, or yesterday in my speech was this reality that for so long, this issue has been politically charged. People have been afraid of it. We don't have to fear each other. We don't have to have an argument about what to do. We already know, undeniable, the massacre happened. Undeniable, there are clear recommendations on what to do about it.

Let's just talk about it in very direct terms. On that day four years ago that you were talking about when President Biden was here in Tulsa, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point.

I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I know things are difficult, but we're not going to wait. And so those same folks who are investing because they're too afraid to touch these issues that they may have felt were politically charged, we're going to say, no, no, no, we're going to have this conversation right now. And yes, we can all have a share

in moving this community forward. It is my belief that Tulsa has hit a plateau in some ways. And that plateau is there because we have this thing that we have to go back. I said yesterday, we are making it clear that hate, even aged 104 years, will never win. And so now we're bringing people back into the conversation. I think what was missing before, and this is not a shot at anybody who came before me,

what was missing before was the courage, talking direct terms about this issue and rally people around it. And that's what we're doing right now. But also think Mayor DeMario, you can hop in here as well. I think also what it was, was this unwillingness to correct the wrong. And it was excuses.

When city leadership spent, what was the number, Demario? 30, 40 million to build a museum, which really was about trying to attract tourism. I'm sorry, Greenwood folk didn't need a museum. The area needed investment. Yeah, Roland, one thing I'll say, Demario, Sorry, Greenwood folk didn't need a museum. The area needed investment. Yeah, Roland, one thing I'll say, and Demarri, I'm sorry for cutting you off,

but one thing I'll say is that that's because that's what we've always known. We all know of museums that commemorate things in parts of the community where you didn't invest in what was there before. The Tulsa Race Massacre is not, it may have been the worst, but it was not as far from the only. And we've all been to the museums

in all these different parts of the country. But what we don't see around those museums oftentimes is the economic investment to restore what was lost as we think about those points in our history. I think, and I talked about this yesterday, I think this is a moment of national significance. I think finding a pathway by which everybody else can think about how do you do it is really important

because I agree with you. You gotta do more than just remember. And we've been in that remembering phase and I'm not gonna say all that was wrong, but what I will say is it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough. And I think you could say that about so many different cities across this country.

So my great hope, and my people here are descendants from Greenwood, but I know there are other people from across the country, other communities across the country. I hope they take note at what you can do. You have to listen to the people who have been most impacted and you have to act. And that's what we're doing now.

Yeah. Mario, go ahead. No, I was just gonna say, he said it perfectly. I think everybody here is under the, taking this leadership from our mayor, all aspects of the community coming together and saying we wanna do something that is real and that can be emulated across this nation.

And I just wanna just again, thank the mayor for his leadership because, hey, this is a tough issue that for 104 years people have run away from, He's run to it. And again, I just encourage everyone to listen to that speech, how he laid it down. One of the things he said yesterday that I thought was so powerful, he said, people were asked, well, why are we doing this now? Why is it taking so long? And why should we deal with something that was 104 years ago? He said, because this is what right and decent people

do. And I think he made a benchmark, a demarcation. Those who are on the side of repair are right and decent people. Those who are against it, well, you're not right and decent people. I think it's just that simple. And another thing I think the mayor done that was so important here, this is not about race.

This is about those who are harmed, descendants. This is why it's so important to work that we do a justice for Greenwood, for chronicling descendants and verifying people who they are, because there are people in the community, even in the Greenwood community. And we have Mexican-American John Villarreal, we have a Japanese family that was impacted

by the massacre. And so I think the way the mayor is talking about this is very important. Not only will it repair Greenwood, but it will remove our city forward. And that's the most powerful thing about this, what Tulsa can be when the Greenwood community and descendants are repaired and made whole,

how great Tulsa can be. And that's part of the leadership of Mayor Nichols. All right then. Well, Mayor Nichols, I appreciate it. Demario, I appreciate it as well. Look forward to getting back to Tulsa where you have groundbreaking for some of these initiatives and letting folks know what's going on there. Sounds good. Thanks, Roland. Peace.

All right. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, folks. Going to a break. We'll be right back. We'll talk to Bishop William Barber. He was arrested today on Capitol Hill as more Mondays continue in opposing the Republicans' shameful budget proposal. You're watching Roland Martin-Unfield right here on the Black Star Network. and I saw a side door and we got off the little bus and I said, let's go to the room. I mean, I'm just like, let's go to the room. Right. We're here. This black girl is at the door with this white guy, black African girl, and she says, oh my God,

Vanessa B. Calloway. And I'm like this, you know me? And come to find out we read the wrong. 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.

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I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glodd.

And this is season two of the World of 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.

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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 I always had to be so good no one could ignore me.

Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves.

Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepaperceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Don't do it. What you say, I'm gonna let you in, just go in here. But I was in Paris, France, and that shocked me. She knew my name, she knew me. She knew my movie.

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Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, I'm going to have a panel here and I'll start with Macongo. The point that the mayor made there, I think is critically important, and the mayor made as well is that, okay, you know what, we can keep commemorating, we can keep looking back, but you can also be forward thinking, and this is what leadership does.

And to the previous segment, this is also what happens when black folk put black folk in office who respond to community needs? Man, there's so much to process for that incredible interview. First thing that came to mind was everything you were talking about when investing were the same comments. I will see you talking about with Selma every year and what Selma actually looks like, but people just come and go once a year.

And so it had me thinking about that. I also had me thinking about our first segment when they were saying, oh, this isn't about race and so on and so forth. You see what they are in terms of what they're doing in Tarrant County, and you see what the mayor is doing now. He's like, this isn't about race, this is about what's right. And so it shows what happens when people use

the same playbook, but to do the right thing, to do the righteous thing for all people in the community involved. Another thing that I appreciate is that a lot of people don't to do the righteous thing for all people in the community involved. Another thing that I appreciate is that a lot of people don't talk about the fact is that the people of Greenwood, they actually rebuilt after 1921, and by the 1940s going into the 50s, their community was destroyed again,

but this time it was by government policies. Things like denying access to credit, redlining, all of these different types of things. And so he's using the political power to make sure the community is restored. And this has to be a blueprint for people all across the country. And if I had a chance to ask him a question, I was going to ask, what type of pushback is he dealing with from the governor or the Trump administration, because that response is also going to be a necessary blueprint for America as well in these black spaces.

Well, the governor and Trump can't tell them how to spend their own money. So that's one I mean, they can say something, Raven, but they can't tell them how to spend their own money. That's right, Roland. That is absolutely right. And to piggyback off of what my co-panelist said, you know, I really, really appreciate what Mayor Nichols said about needing to be brave, right? We need to do more than just remember.

And I think it's amazing that we have electeds like Mayor Nichols, who's in this position of power and using it for good, to pour into community. At the same time, I wish it didn't always have to be us the Mayor Nichols who's in this position of power and using it for good to pour into community. At the same time, I wish it didn't always have to be us doing the labor, transparently, right? There is so much precedent for reparations, both within a US context and outside of US context.

After the Holocaust, Germany gave reparations to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. In South Africa, survivors and victims of apartheid did receive a form of reparations. It is a deeply imperfect apparatus and system to try to repair harm that is intangible, is epigenetic, is deep, is spiritual. But there's deep precedent for it.

And it does frustrate me. I have to be transparent that it's always Black folks who have to do the labor to save us. Like, it'd be so lovely if other folks would jump into the cup with us. I also am based in Chicago and up in Evanston. There was this really, I mean, groundbreaking reparations initiative that was spearheaded by Robin Rue Simmons. And this was the first U.S. city to implement reparations program in 2021. So it's fabulous that we're doing the work. And I wish it didn't always have to be us. And also, you know, I think sometimes we talk about reparations in a way where it gets framed

as the thing that will get us to liberation. And I want to be really clear, I think reparations is a crucial, crucial piece of the puzzle. And at the same time, how does one quantify this deep communal trauma, right? And I think so much of how we get free is actually a question to white people. I think of that really powerful interview that James Baldwin did, obviously a number of decades ago, where he was asked about the N-word

and how he relates to the N-word. And his response was, when I think of the N-word, I actually think about white people and why y'all needed to create this moniker, this caricature of who I am, because that's not who I am, to make sense of yourself. Because the way that whiteness is made legible is by measuring itself against what it's not.

And so I guess I say that to say that so much of this conversation is, yes, let's harness our economic power, let's pour into community that's been harmed, let's harness our economic power. Let's pour into a community that's been harmed. Let's lean into a sort of justice. And another huge piece of that puzzle is like changing minds and hearts. At what point as a nation are we fully going to reckon

with the fact that there has been a profound dehumanization of Black people in this country, that every institution in this country is built on said dehumanization. And until white people ask themselves why, why they needed that to make themselves legible, to make themselves feel whole or good, we're not gonna get anywhere.

Derek, what you're seeing right here, this is of course Uncle Red, he was one of the three survivors. This was when we were there in 2021, he passed a couple of years ago and did not get to see this day there, too. His sister is still with us. There's another survivor still with us as well. And the thing that I need people to understand is, like, I understand Raymond's point, but

guess what? Hell, if other folk ain't going to do what's right, Raven's point, but guess what? Hell, if other folk ain't gonna do what's right, that's why we should put folk in office who gonna do what's right. So the hell we're waiting on them. So finally, and again, this is time. And so we had the sister in Evanston on the show, we had her on, we have others. And so I'm just like, hey, I ain't waiting on them, let's us do what we do. Yeah, you're exactly right, Roland.

And when you think about, I appreciate you showing that picture of Uncle Red. He was 102 and unfortunately to your point, he passed away two years ago. But his sister is 110 and then they got another survivor. What's her name? But his sister, you know, is 110, and then they got another survivor. What's her name? Les, Lesi. Miss Lesi, she's 109. And that's my prayer is for them to see

the fullness of justice. Reparations, restitution, all that matters. But this is about justice too, Roland. A mob of angry white men, 300 to 400 angry white men came into a black Wall Street. These black families were doing their thing. They had their businesses, they were thriving and surviving and they were killed because of the pigmentation of their skin.

And so justice, to me, means it goes beyond just reparation, goes beyond just restitution. It's to make sure that Miss Viola and Miss Lassie see justice in a manner before they too transition like Uncle Ray. We got to put people in office and when people get in the office, they don't do what happened over in California. Where California, they stopped their own reparations bill. And we can talk about that another day. But when we get in position, we have to have the leadership and the courage to make it happen. Absolutely, and we actually had of course, we discussed that on the show as well.

What took place of the absolute craziness that happened there in California. All right, folks, go into a break, we come back. We're gonna talk about Bishop William Barber. And of course, Moral Monday's arrest taking place as they continue praying in the Capitol. And they keep getting arrested for praying. So we're gonna talk about that next right here. Roland Barclay on Philips home with Black Star Network.

Coming soon to the Black Star Network. Let's go. Truth Talks is the fastest growing show about pop culture. And now exclusively on our own channel. What am I saying man? Attention! We're back. We gotta stop letting this s*** slide.

Bigger and stronger than ever. I mean I just have questions. Season 2 is reloading May 26th at 8pm Eastern Time. What's up? With new hosts. Let me tell you what damn time it is. And big celebrity surprises. Kiss my behind, kiss Oprah Winfrey. 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.

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I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. May 21st and episodes four, five and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the World on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. It's kind of started 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 band.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamouche. 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts are 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 podcast. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from Foster Care. Visit adoptUSkids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSkids, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. All that's live. I'll see you there. This week on the other side of change.

The mass incarceration, Trump administration is doubling down on criminalization and how it is profitable. And there's something really, really perverse about saying that we need to put people in cages in order for other people to have jobs. Like that is not how our economy should be built. Only on the other side of change on the Black Star Network. What's up everybody it's crossroads, a moral crisis?

That warning comes from Bishop William Barber. Federal leaders continue, Republicans, not federal leaders, Republicans continue to push forward with a budget proposal that could barely slash programs essential to millions of poor and working-class Americans from Medicaid to food assistance. Housing support and Social Security of these programs are now on the chopping block, and Bishop Barber repairs of the brief public was campaign or sounding the alarm. They continue their Monday, a moral Monday effort in Capitol

Hill today, where they would go to the Capitol and pray. And what happens? They keep getting arrested, which makes absolutely no sense, because I thought these Republicans are so-called evangelicals. I thought Speaker Mike Johnson is, you know, you know, misdemeorality. But it's amazing how they got a problem when folk actually pray who goes against what they are doing. Bishop Barbara Jones is right now on the phone. Bishop, you and others were arrested today?

We were. I'm sorry, I think I might be in your video. I'm looking kind of rough. I'm just getting out of the paddy wagon. But on all serious note, Roland, yeah, nine people were arrested. They even arrested a lady with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair. We had two groups going in. The second group was basically hindered from going in. But the bottom line is, today we had people testify, folk who had quadriplegics, people with cerebral palsy, one mother who has a daughter whose child would be dead if she did not have medication. What's needed by life?

A pastor, a preacher with lupus, and a family member said, I had lupus and died from it. And religious leaders from across the board, from imams to Jewish women to the bishop of the A&P, the white church, the Presbyterian church, UCC, and so forth and so on. This budget rolling is deadly.

And when you hear the Senator in Iowa last weekend, when she was questioned in Iowa, and somebody said, Senator, people will die, her response was, we all gonna die. And then later on, Roland, she put on social media that if people were worrying about the eternal life, she would introduce him to Jesus. But the Jesus I know healed people.

The Jesus I know and you know never charged a leper or a copay. This is a sick deal. It's not big and beautiful. It's big and bad and ugly and deadly and dangerous. We're talking about 14 million people being thrown off of Medicaid roll. And we know, we know for a fact

that for every 500,000 people thrown off, that don't have health insurance, about 2,500 to 2,900 die. This is serious business. And it is the place that could actually unify us. This is why today we had hundreds of people, black and white and brown and Asian and Native. And the truth of the matter is, though, the last thing, more people would have gone into the rotunda, but they have got this rule now that you can't go in unless you're in a tour,

or you have congressional staffers that will take you in. Now, it's been interesting to me that some of the democratic congresspersons, when we ask about lending a staff person to us, they kind of get skittish, I don't know why. But thank God for Congressman Al Green, because he has... You broke up there, you said thank God for Congressman Al Green, then you broke up.

Because Al Green every time, Dick sends his staffers to come down and help us get into the rotunda unless you go through the tour. I mean, the way they have it, I recognize since January the 6th, but the point of the matter is, Roland, not only do those people claim to believe in prayer,

they are praying, P-R-E-Y-I-N-G, on the poorest, but a few months ago, they had a prayer service in the rotunda with one of their own. But instead of having that with us, they're choosing to literally give prewarned and arrest. And as I said today, they even arrested Mike Johnson authorized him even arrested a woman with cerebral palsy today in a wheelchair, certainly because she's saying, don't kill me. Don't take away my Medicaid.

But the point there that you make about these skittish Democrats, this is the problem. Folk want to see them fighting and you don't fight by being afraid to fight. Exactly. And what we're saying to them is just give us, when we come on Monday, just give us 10 staff people to bring folk in. You know what the rules are. We're doing it in the nonviolent tradition. And you have to fight back. People want to fight back. They should be bringing in people like we're doing, that impact the people, people who

put a face on the ugliness of this bill. If we mess around and don't show people how ugly this bill is, not only with Medicaid, but the money it cuts from public education, the money it cuts from SNAP, the money it cuts from school lunches. It doesn't provide any resources for living wages. It puts more money into deportation, more money into defense contractors. It'll raise the deficit by $3.8 trillion. They want to put this bill in place for the next 10 years. This bill, if they do it, they want to give—this is the largest, the largest transfer of wealth from poor working people to the wealthy in history, except for

the transfer of wealth that took place between the slaves and the slave masters. But this is the thing that, again, when we talk about this deal, we talk about what they want to do. The Freedom Caucus, they want more cuts. They want $2 trillion. And the reality is, while they're saying that, they are trying to make for the first time the Pentagon's budget hit a trillion dollars. Exactly. In fact, it will be over a trillion dollars, which means, Roland, that you could

take the combined budgets of China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea and cut our defense budget in half, and it still would be more than all of those budgets combined. And it must mean, because those same people, the Freedom Caucus, in that, like, for instance, in Texas, over 3 million Texans are on Medicaid, North Carolina over 2 million. But every one of the Republicans from Texas voted for this budget in the House, the first vote. Same thing with North Carolina, same thing with West Virginia. So part of it is, if media doesn't do what you're doing,

and too much of the larger media is not doing this, they are not putting a face on this. They're not telling the whole story. They're not showing the people that the majority of people on Medicaid are people who make less than $40,000 a year. They are the working poor or the disabled. They're not talking about how this bill will hurt children and people in nursing homes. They must be getting a lot of money from the defense lobbyists and the war economy, we call it, to do what they're doing, because they are literally hurting our herd, and they're all in the same boat. That's what we're born with. I think that's why we're building our boat

and we are building it. And that's the problem, because the problem that is going to the fence is connected to this golden dome and connected to space exploration, which leads to who? Musk. Well, I'll be honest, Bishop Arbor, that the issue, I'm gonna tell you

how white mainstream media operates. They focus on process. It's process. They don't believe it impacted people. I can tell you this, when I was at CNN and I was filling in for Campbell Brown, I wanted to have people, people on the air live

who had gone through bankruptcy because of healthcare. This is when the Affordable Care Act, a huge issue. And in fact, the person who was sitting here arguing against me, her name is Rebecca Cutler. She was a producer on the show. She's now the president of MSNBC. And I never forget. Well, you know, I don't know.

I don't know, cause you know, when people are alive, I say, y'all, I'm gonna be asking the questions. I can handle that. They were fighting me to fight me to have people on the air who had gone in the foreclosure, who had serious health bills, who were filing for bankruptcy because of healthcare. And I said, y'all, there's nothing better

to having impacted people. I'm sick and tired of there being rallies and listening to members of Congress give long ass speeches as opposed to a woman or a man or a young person who can talk in a personal way about how the bill is going to impact their life. That's where they keep screwing up. Impact the people and powerful. They are powerful.

And if the Congress don't learn to do this and organizers don't learn how to do this, this is not the day. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country cops called this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glodd. And this is season two of the We're on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod and this is season two of the war on drugs by sir We are back in a big way in a very big way real people real perspectives It's kind of star-studded a little bit man. We got Ricky Williams NFL player Heisman Trophy winner

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podcast 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 Podcast. The Paper Ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepaperceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. You know, I spoke for maybe seven minutes today or so just laying out the framework.

But the point was to build a stage for impact to people. That is the key. It's the power block we have to apply for low wage folks is the power block that can be mobilized. But you're not going to do it by long speeches from politicians and other folks. It's time for a movement vote. It's time for a movement protest led by the voices of the impacted people, that the folks that will suffer violence from this bill and other bills need to be the ones that are being put forward now and make America look at herself. Rolling your right on it and God knows,

we're gonna keep pushing it. I'm hoping that folk will catch it because if not, the level of elitism is gonna lead to a continuing withdrawal of people from the political arena rather than coming to it. All right, Bishop Barber, we surely appreciate sir. Keep up the good work, Frank. Thank you, my friend, take care.

Appreciate it. I'll go back to my panel and pull the three of you in here. And Derek, it really does drive me crazy. When we're talking about these issues and there'll be a rally and it's politician after politician after politician after politician after politician and what I appreciate that Barbara does, anytime they have a rally or a protest, they put impacted people on the microphone to tell their story. Yeah, Roland, you're exactly right. And I tell you, being an elected official, the approach that you and our dear brother was talking about is the right approach.

We as elected officials do not need to be at the microphone. We need to set the stage and say 14 million people. And we're just going to bring up a few families of this estimated, this is an estimated number rolling of the 14 million people that's gonna be impacted. So we can say, Republicans continue to mock citizens who are afraid of losing their healthcare,

Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, et cetera, et cetera. And so we have five, six, 700 many families bring on to the stage. Folks don't have to need to know their name. They just need to know that that senior citizen Roland possibly could die. They need to know that that disabled person can possibly die.

They need to know that children who are also on Medicaid or Medicare, whatever the case may be, can possibly die. The underserved can die. Now some people would say, Roland, we're taking it to the extreme. We're talking about fatalities and death. But that's the reality. If a person don't get their insulin, if they don't get whatever medication to sustain their life.

We already see it. The last 110 days, they started removing medicine from those who are overseas through USAID, Roland, they're dead now. Because when that USAID, $48 billion stopped, people started dying. And that's what this big ugly bill would do, Roland. When you talk about the adding, and I appreciate you saying, let's not talk about percent, let's talk about real dollars. Real dollars, y'all. Defense spending will go up 149 billion dollars.

As a retired military officer, you don't need an additional $149 billion. There's no justification to go up. Border immigration, they're gonna add another $147 billion, Roland, to do what? They wanna expand ICE, they wanna expand law enforcement and National Guard. They're gonna cut $828 billion. Now Doge said they're gonna find $2 trillion of waste. Then they had to revise it.

They said, well, maybe we'll find $1 trillion of waste, only to learn that they only discovered $175 billion, which was not waste. And so they're gonna go forward with this big, ugly bill knowing that they cannot cover the cost of this tax cut, which will add to the deficit. You heard Bishop Barber there talk about, I will send a Joni Ernst,

and I wanna play for y'all the video of what took place when someone in the audience shouted out. Go ahead and play that. talking about the corrections in when we're talking about the corrections in this reconciliation bill again it's corrections of overpayments and people that have not been eligible for these programs by law as it is currently written so when you are arguing when you are arguing, when you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million, they are not eligible. So they will be coming off. So people are not, well we all are going to die. So, for heaven's sakes. For heaven's sakes, folks. Okay, no, but, well, what you don't want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable.

Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. And then of course she took to Twitter to respond. Do y'all have that? All right, let me go ahead and pull it. Because again, her response also is ticking lots of people off. Let's see here. Give me one second. Let's see if I can pull this up. This is pretty crazy with how she responded, and she was really being, trying to be petty, her response. Here we go.

All right give me a second let me figure out what's going on with the audio. second, let me figure out what's going on with the audio. I have it here. All right. Not sure what's going on with the audio, because I have it up here. Let me work on this. Let me go to Raven here. This is one of those moments, Raven, where, again, if you are Democrats, I mean, you leverage this, you use this, you do all you can to show you how frankly trifling Joni Ernst is and how uncanned Republicans are about these issues. Roland, I think that's absolutely right. This is a prime opportunity for us to let them expose how they're lying, right?

She said the quiet part out loud. Republicans do not care whether we live or die. Do you know how arrogant you have to be to be sitting in a room to serve your constituents and someone is telling you, you are making decisions that are not compatible with my access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And to then look them in the face and say,

well, we're all gonna die one day. Are you kidding me? Absolutely not. Just bold face lies. This bill is not about protecting the most vulnerable. It's about exploiting the most vulnerable to put more money in the pockets of billionaires so they can buy their 15th and 16th yacht while we die because we're not able to get the access to health care that we need. And I think what's so incredibly frustrating to me is

just the lack of moral and ideological consistency. I think of Medicaid, for example, and about 40% of births in this country are covered by Medicaid. So they want us to have more babies, but they don't wanna make it financially accessible for us to do so. They want us to have more babies, but they wanna cut SNAP benefits so we can't feed them when they get here. They want us to have more babies,

but they don't wanna implement comprehensive gun reforms that when they get here and they're in the classroom, they're actually able to be safe and learn safely and not have PTSD because they're exposed to violence that they never should be exposed to in the first place. Like just the fundamental lack of moral and ideological consistency, I think is really where we have an opportunity to get a home run here because it's clearly on blatant display. Omi Kongo? I mean, the fact that she would not only say that, but double down right out of the Trump

playbook and then go and record her response in a cemetery rolling on top of that, it shows how comfortable these guys think they are in their districts. And in addition to, you know, the work that we need to do, hopefully these people who are mad and angry and chanting and everything will actually get out and vote themselves. But there is there like you started a few segments ago, there are enough Democrats, especially enough black Democrats that can give us the majority in the House, that can give us the majority in the Senate, if people would get out and just see things like this. And this has to be the job of the Democrats to make sure that they're I mean, between

this, there was another senator, a Republican senator, who said something to the effect of the best health care is a job. I mean, it's like the things that they say that are so out of touch with the people, but if the people aren't hearing it, if the people aren't seeing it, then they can get away with saying whatever they want, because we know that Fox isn't going to cover this or OANN and so on and so forth. And if people are getting a lot of their news from various sources that don't cover this, they're not going to see this. This is the job of the Democrats. Why aren't more of them down at the Capitol? Why aren't more of them with Reverend

Barber talking about these particular issues and making themselves be known? I mean, I don't know if any of them have gotten arrested recently or gotten close to it, but they have the ability. They have a bigger microphone than they act like they do. And if they're not gonna take advantage of this, Republicans are just serving it up, Roland. It's like every day is something different. A few weeks and months ago, chainsaw to bureaucracy, where Elon Musk, like you could run down the list. And if they don't take advantage of it, again, 2026,

or any special election that's coming up between now and then, our election to lose. Let me go ahead and play this video. So just listen to this show. Let's go. Let's see if I can get this straight. Hello everyone, I would like to take this. All right, still trying, still having some issues here. Give me one second. Think I may have it now. Let's see here.

Let's see if we got Joni. Here we go. All right. Not sure why I had it a little bit earlier. Not sure why this audio is not coming through. But y'all her statement was just crazy. And then as Omokongo said, she did it y'all. She did it in a cemetery. I mean, how arrogant can you be? But Roland, she also equated to a tooth fairy, Roland. I was hoping you were gonna get the audio

so folks can hear from her own lips. Not only she's in a cemetery, but then she says, well, it's a good thing that I didn't start talking about the tooth fairy. A tooth fairy. This, this, a tooth fairy, she's equating

death with a tooth fairy, she's equating death with a tooth fairy. That's, they're not only out of touch rolling, they're incapacitant, they're not fit to, or deserving with the titles that we call them. She's not deserving to be a United States Senator. I was hoping you'd get the audio because that's the part that really got me upset when she said, it's a good thing I didn't start talking about the tooth fairy.

Yeah, well, they, look, they're bundling. They're bundling. They're bundling. They're bundling. They're bundling. They're bundling. They're bundling. They're bundling.

They're bundling. They're bundling the people. This is what happens when, you know, look, elections matter. Elections absolutely matter. And I hope people remember this when they go to the ballot box. I hope they remember how shameful and with her actions. Because that's this is this is who they are. Let's go ahead and play it. Hello everyone. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall. See I was in the process of answering a question that had been asked by an audience member when

a woman who was extremely distraught screamed out from the back corner of the auditorium, people are going to die. And I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize. And I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life,

I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Wow, talk about it. Now we had Bishop Barber on the show a little bit earlier, but he was preaching this weekend and he did give a response. So I want to go ahead and play what he said from the pulpit in response to what that nutcase said. At a town hall in Iowa this weekend, just yesterday, someone interrupted Senator Joni Ernst.

It's going to be on TV if it hadn't already hit it. With the reality of what this bill means, they asked her questions. This is Iowa. Now, I understand that in Iowa, black folk not out there. That's why you can't just address what's going on now from just a race critique. You gotta have a fusion critique where you bring white folk and black folk and brown folk and Asian and all of us together in this moment.

So way out in Iowa, one of the people out there, I don't know if it was a farmer or what, said to Senator Joni, people are going to die. You passed this bill, people are going to die. And it was exactly right. Her response was, well, we're all going to die. Literally that was her response.

But then, but then she went further. She went on the social media and said something to the fact that I'm asking forgiveness for anybody that didn't like my language about dying, but people are going to die. And so if you need me to, I'll introduce you to Jesus Christ. So that you'll be okay in eternal. Do you know that's the same language

that the slave master used to say to slave? Don't worry about your slavery now. You just know Jesus. And the problem was the slaves already knew Jesus and they know Jesus didn't talk like that And they that's why they used to sing a song everybody talking about heaven Ain't going there This Why did that person don't stand up and say people are going to die? If this bill is passed as it is, 13.7 million people would lose Medicaid and their health

insurance. Now who are we talking about with Medicaid? First of all, how many of you all know somebody on Medicaid? Raise your hand. Yeah, know somebody. And probably some folk in here on Medicaid. Medicaid protects children with Lou Gehrig's disease. Medicaid protects children that have life-ending renal disease.

Medicaid protects people who don't have enough money to afford insurance, but it protects them, the disabled people. It protects all the way down. There's not a disease that we have that Medicaid doesn't touch in some way. And they want to cut 3.7 million people off of health care. 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 One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the World on Drugs podcast. podcasts. 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 band. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette, MMA fighter Liz Caramouche. 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 Podcast. data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars.

Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Now, here are the numbers for every 500,000 people you cut off healthcare, 2500 to 2900 die.

We didn't get Medicaid until the 1960s. And so they're talking about healthcare, taking healthcare from the most vulnerable Americans. And the people that are talking about it are people who serve in public offices that get free healthcare. Come on somebody. I'm trying to preach so y'all don't cuss because it'll make you cuss. I don't want y'all cussing in the service, you know. But you think about who's doing this.

The people who, all they had to do was get elected. And once they got elected, they got access to the best healthcare. Not only is it free, you pay for it, I pay for it. And when you get free healthcare paid for by the people, but you're so cynical to say say well, we're all gonna die You are engaging in what they call necropolitics The politics of death and murder and when you don't care

We all have to ask the question what mythology what sickness what has gotten hold of you? What has entered you? To that all you can think to do with power is hurt somebody But we can't just keep analyzing why they're doing it. We also have to say we will not just sit here and die Folks they are who they are. I'm gonna go to break we come back. Y'all wanna know stupid? That's Donald Trump and people who he appointed.

In a staff meeting yesterday, y'all, this is so unbelievable. When I come back, I'm gonna tell y'all what the Trump's pick, head of FEMA, had to say yesterday in a staff meeting about hurricane season. Y'all are, y'all gonna think this is the onion. Y'all gonna think this is fiction. What I'm gonna tell you is the absolute truth. It shows you how stupid these MAGA people are. Folks, support Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. If you wanna contribute to us via cash out,

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join us to explore the paper that I guarantee is going to prompt a major aha moment in our culture. You crystallize it by saying, who are we to other people? Who are African people to others? Governance is our thing. Who are we to each other? The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe as African people.

That's next on the Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Marissa Mitchell, a news anchor at Fox 5 DC. Hey, what's up? It's Jami Roman and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. If you want to understand how the top is our chair. In Donald Trump's head of FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, he literally said in the meeting, he was not aware that the United

States has a hurricane season. Wow. Now, let's be real clear. Donald Trump has denied tornado relief to Missouri. Tornadoes have devastated St. Louis, denied FEMA assistance for Arkansas for hurricanes, denied North Carolina additional hurricane assistance. Mississippi has been hit by hurricanes. They said they ain't seen nobody.

All four of them states voted for Trump. But what's insane, how you head of FEMA and you didn't know that was a hurricane season. Y'all, this story is it multiple sources at FEMA have said this took place and they are absolutely baffled that the acting head of FEMA said I didn't know we had a hurricane season. CBS says the remark was made by David Richardson at the conclusion of an 830 a.m. daily operational briefing typically attended by hundreds of FEMA staffers and interagency

partners. Reuters first reported this. Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer, has led FEMA since early May. How your ass didn't know? Right in the gone head. Yo, you got me laughing. I mean, it makes no sense. Just the level of incompetence is truly astounding. And honestly, Roland, what I'm thinking of right here is really just that all of their attacks against us

are an admission about their own personal failings, right? They talk about DEI, didn't earn it. Y'all are getting positions that you don't deserve. And the whole head of FEMA doesn't know what hurricane season is. Like, y'all are really, really projecting heavy and it shows. But on a real note, it's terrifying to have people this incompetent and positions of power that grand.

But we also know these aren't the brightest tools in the shed. I mean, they deny climate change despite pretty much every single accredited and well renowned and respected scientists saying that this is a reality that we have to confront and we are getting to the point of no return. These are the same people who think that Jewish space lasers are causing you know climate disasters or blaming Democrats for somehow orchestrating climate disasters. So I wish I could say I was surprised but really the bar is in hell at this point. And I think it'll stay there if not go further down. On the Congo, I've got no words.

Man, I'm just like, you got this, you add, Christy, no, not knowing what habeas corpus means. And she was a former governor before. I mean, this guy's acting director because clearly he's an actor, right? I mean, he doesn't know the real roles and this is crazy. We're entering hurricane season. Folks got to buckle up. Uh, a couple of weeks ago, um, when Candice was hosting for you, we know we did that story on St. Louis and how this could be, you know, black communities have been abandoned by what happened with the tornado over there. This and, you know, a lot of these networks aren't covering it, a lot of these, you know, white sources aren't saying anything,

but now their communities are about to start getting hit. I wonder if this story is gonna surface then, because these guys, we're about to see their incompetence on full blast, whether it relates to the climate, whether it relates to law enforcement, so many different areas. And on top of this, Roland, you got guys coming in not knowing anything, and then they're pushing people

out with expertise. I was listening to a story on the FBI today, and when I think about that tragic anti-Semitic attack in Colorado, we always have attacks like this happen, but now I find myself wondering more if things like this could have but now I find myself wondering more if things like this could have been prevented if we had more competent people,

because they're pushing out career people there, folks ain't even waiting for their 20 years, they're pushing out women. And so for we're talking about female, whether we're talking about Homeland Security, whether we're talking about the FBI, it's incompetence with the leadership coming in. And then on top of that,

it's them pushing out people with institutional knowledge and skills. And so it's disgusting, it's ignorant, it's incompetent, it's embarrassing. But unfortunately for too many of us, it's turning out to be deadly. Derrick. You know, Roland, when our sailors come into the Navy,

the very first thing we educate them about is hurricane season. We started yesterday, June 1st, for the listening audience, right? June 1st, all the way through November. But here's the other incredulous part. Not only FEMA denied Georgia $5.5 billion from a hurricane disasters from last year,

last fall, Hurricane Helene, but FEMA also should be ready to respond to tornadoes. But it's hard to do that when you fired some of the most senior national weather system specialists to the tune of about 410 of them. And so that's the reason why devastation over in Kentucky, Iowa, and yes, Georgia, these states that voted for him, he continues to deny funding and resources.

And so we're gonna be navigating this hurricane season rolling like Stevie Wonder, trying to drive a Cadillac, just as blind as we can be. And it's gonna be devastating when you think about it because citizens gonna wake up and find themselves without any kind of alert notification system because they turn all the folks, all these systems off and sent folks home.

And all these red state folks, hey, hashtag, we tried to tell you. So now they're sitting and whining and complaining. And isn't it interesting how silent the Republican senators are and members of Congress? Okay, I mean, Josh Howley in Missouri has been, oh my God, we need FEMA's help. Okay, why aren't y'all pressing Trump?

That's y'all boy. Where you at, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas? Where you at, Cindy Hyde Smith of Mississippi? It's amazing. Tom Tillis of North Carolina, where y'all at? Yes, right. They real quiet because they are scared to challenge the orange man.

That's all this is. That's all this is. So it's amazing to me. Raven, you cannot convince me that if Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter said, nah, don't kill her, nah, Mississippi, nah, Missouri, nah, Arkansas, nah. Man, these Republicans will be losing their damn mind.

Of course, I mean, we always get a different set of rules. The bar is so much higher for us than it is for them. They get to fail upwards, and we have to be twice as good to get half as much. It's a totally different set of standards and a totally different barometer. But that's how they operate. I mean, let's be real.

I mean, Roland, you're naming this so well. MAGA is a cult. Let's be so for real. MAGA is a cult. They do not discourse and dialogue and arrive to a myriad of spectrum-based ideologies. They fall in line. And that is the difference between them and us.

We understand how to dialogue across difference. We understand how to build coalition across difference and they do not. It's either dogma or it's nothing at all, or you're ousted. And I think that's a really, really dangerous way to try to build a base, but also a very effective way to get people to fall in line.

Yeah, I mean, it's just, but the silence is amazing. There's truly amazing on the Congo and they're hypocrites. And I'm a call them what they are. That's exactly what they are. I mean, this man is looting the country and they say nothing. And so my whole deal is guess what? I'm a remember everybody who's silent. Oh. Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, we pulling receipts and we... I think at the end of the day, it's also important that the Democrats see those receipts too, because I mean, you look at what's his name, Speaker Mike Johnson over the weekend, talking to Kristen Walker, just lying, blaming everything on Biden about the deficits, as if Trump didn't run up the highest deficits of, like, every

president combined during his first term, or the fact that he talks about, oh, well, Biden and his Biden family, they did everything in secret. And Mike Johnson literally said, you know, what Trump is doing, he's doing it all in the open. When he was asked about corruption in the plane. They are giving so much thought to Dan Bongino, Bongino, that FBI, like, whatever director, you know, after Cash Purcell was talking about, oh, my gosh,

I have to work 12-hour days now. I gave up so much to be here. Like, they are every single day, Joni Ernst, they're giving us fire every single day. But what are Democrats doing with it? What are the mainstream media sources doing with it? Because I think we can all be honest here that some of these networks, the CNNs and the like have invested interest in keeping the Trump show going

because they feel like it's good for their ratings, the Scott Jennings of the world and the like. But if we keep pushing this, the Reverend Barber's keep pushing from their angle. Some of these Democrats who are actually about something, you know, like the AOC and the carcass and stuff, we're not even 200 days into this thing. And I do believe that if we continue to push this, push this incompetence, we're not even gonna need a lot of these disease,

mega volts to finally see the light because many of them never will. But there are enough of us, there's enough of a groundswell that can get out there and do something about it. But we gotta stay consistent. And that's why I'm glad we're on every night. Derrick, it's just, it's crazy.

It's absolutely hilarious to me how quiet these people are, how they say nothing, they got nothing, they just, there's nothing to say. And again, he's screwing his own people and they're like, hey, more of that. Please, by all means, screw us over more. Yeah, Roland, and here's the sad part. We shouldn't have to wait for pain

to show up on our doorstep. We shouldn't have to wait for death to be in our family to respond. Yeah, someone asked me last week, we need to take our democracy back so we can go back. Well, this is the democracy that produced this two-tier system. 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 One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. on June 4th, ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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 band. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouche. 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit adoptUSkids.org to learn more. Brought to you by adopt us kids, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. That we see live and well and live in color. Right? I don't want to go back to a democracy that's created this orange dude. I mean, he literally just continue to do things with the microphone on and the cameras rolling. I mean, when he said it was okay, because he was able to negotiate these million dollar plates rolling, cuz he was on his personal time. He was on his personal time?

You are the, you are, there's no personal time when you're in that role, Roland. Yeah, it's okay for him to charge $5 million for him to go play golf with other folks, cuz that's his leisure time. Now, I'm not a golfer, you are, Roland. What is that, two hours, three hours to go play 18 holes? And so I don't wanna go back to that kind of democracy. I wanna go to a democracy where folks look like Raven on the Congo, you and me are in the driver's seat

where we are governors, mayors, county commissioners, school board superintendent, president, vice president, and then we can drive this country to where it really needs to be. Because every time we're in the position, we make sure that that high tide lifts all boats and move us in the right direction. And so my thought rolling is this,

we gotta have a strategy in place now direction. And so my thought rolling is this. Um, we got to have a strategy in place now and execute that strategy right now. So that way Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina needs to be prepared for 2026. Cause if we don't get it right, right now, then come 2030, they're going gonna really make sure that we will never have an opportunity with this system. And it's because if they get an opportunity to do those congressional districts in 2030 roll in,

you think we're gonna be able to vote where they already plan to take votes, congressional seat, from North Carolina, Georgia, California and New York. So we gotta have a 2030 plan executed in 2025. So that way we can really stop all this madness. Yep, absolutely. All right, folks, going to a quick break. We come back more right here,

a role of my non-filtered on the Black Star Network. Back at on. Y'all look, fan base is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential

for creating long-term wealth and influence in the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding Black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community, through the jobs act. This week on the other side of change.

Mass incarceration, Trump administration is doubling down on criminalization and how it is profitable. And there's something really, really perverse about saying that we need to put people in cages in order for other people to have jobs. Like, that is not how our economy should be built. Only on the other side of change on the Black Star Network. My name is Lena Charles and I'm from Opelousas, Louisiana. Yes, that is Zydeco capital of the world.

My name is Marcus Chappell. I'm from Dallas, Texas, representing the Urban Trivia game. Yes, that is zydeco capital of the world. My name is Margaret Chappell. I'm from Dallas, Texas representing the Urban Trivia game. It's me, Sherri Shepard, and you know what you're watching. Roland Martin on Unfiltered. Folks, Byron Allen is planning to sell his broadcast TV stations to reduce his company's debt. The Alameda Group hired the investment bank, a Malaysian company, to assist in selling his group of 28-owned and operated broadcast TV stations in 21 markets.

The company refinanced the $100 million debt facility earlier this year due to consistently late payments to its network owners. Their costs have totaled tens of millions of dollars throughout the year. This also keep in mind that earlier, actually late last year, Byron Allen pretty much gutted his Grio TV linear channel. They ceased linear broadcast and laid off nearly everyone at the Grio except four people. And so financial issues has been causing significant problems with the Allen Media Group. And so we'll keep you abreast of what happens next.

Folks in New Orleans celebrated the return and burial of the remains of 19 African-American folks whose skulls were sent to Germany for racist research practices in the 19th century. On Saturday, a multi-faith memorial service, which included a jazz funeral, honored the humanity of those finally coming home to their final resting place

at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial. These skulls belonged to African-American individuals who were severed and shipped to Lapsett University from Charity Hospital for racially biased studies in 1872. One common practice of the time was based on the unfounded theory that black brains were smaller, which was used to justify claims of racial inferiority.

17 of the 19 remains have been identified, however efforts to contact their descendants have been unsuccessful. ever efforts to contact their descendants have been unsuccessful. Wow. That daddy is an unbelievable story. Oh, Macongo. It is. It's wow. It's disgraceful, man. And you think about there were children from the move bombing in the 1980s

who were burned and their body parts got shipped to different universities for people to study what happens when somebody gets burned. I think about the woman from Harvard who fought Harvard to get an image back of her ancestors. These studies of our bodies, man. And look at what Lonnie Bunch was doing with the Smithsonian, working

to send body parts back to different parts across the world from what the Smithsonian has been doing over the years. This has been such a common practice of robbing grays of indigenous communities, of black people and shipping them across the world to do what? Not to improve medicine or anything. That would still be disgraceful, but to promote racist ideology. And the fact that this reckoning is happening now, I hope that more is done to locate the members of these families because they died in hospitals back in those days. But to do this and to not try to make any type of recompensation, especially financial, it shows how wicked and evil this system of racism has been and how international it has been.

We talk about MAGA and the white supremacy here, but what Donald Trump and all of them know is that it's global and it's been happening for centuries. And this is the latest example of that. We can talk about Sarah Bartman in South Africa, Ota Banga from Congo. I'm just happy that people have welcomed these remains back and gave them the proper respect

that they never got in real life. Raven. Just to add onto that. I mean, I think this repatriation is absolutely a step in the right direction, but it doesn't, as my co-panelists named, just change the fact that harm has already been done and that this harm is tied to just this global reality

of anti-blackness that for some reason, we just cannot seem to fully break through from or break free of rather. And I think honestly, it's just disgraceful that not only do we have to suffer the injustices of anti-blackness in life, but those injustices and those harms continue even after we're already gone.

I mean, you know, you mentioned Sarah Bartman, they put Sarah Bartman's genitals in preserves and put it up in a museum in France for people to view. Right, after she was made to perform in freak shows throughout her entire life and abused and subjugated, just the cycles of harm are so profound. Like what has to happen? How violent does that pseudoscience

and that phrenology and these eugenics have to be and how deeply do they have to permeate for one to think that that is an acceptable way to treat someone after their soul, their spirit has gone elsewhere. And I think it's really just shameful. We've seen this throughout history in a number of different contexts, right?

We've seen this in terms of the father of gynecology experimenting on enslaved women without their consent and without anesthesia. We also saw this in the context of Nazi Germany, you know, during the Holocaust and concentration camps, young Jewish people being experimented on, medically experimented on. So this is really just a technology of subjugation. It is a technology of bigotry that we've seen replicated across time and space. And I hope that this can be a moment of restorative justice, both for the spirits of our ancestors who are gone, who are being repatriated, and also hopefully for their ancestors, and rather for their offspring, who hopefully will be connected with them and be privy to this moment.

About 30 seconds, Derrick. Yeah, I would just say this continues to add to the trauma that we continue to hear and experience in this country. I mean, we have a young lady right now in a vegetative state where the law gives her unborn fetus more rights over her. So this is as trauma and it continues to create the distrust that we continue to see in our society. Folks, a prominent New York protester has been cleared of all charges after new video evidence

proved he was falsely accused. Terrell Harper, known as Relly Rebel, was arrested in September for allegedly attempting to break into the Brooklyn home of a police officer during a protest. The protest took place on September 23rd outside the 737 73rd precinct following an incident where officers shot a knife wielding man injured

two bystanders and a fellow officer. Harper accused an officer of assaulting protesters and later found the officer's address using public records. He led a rally at the officer's home the following evening. Police claimed that Harper set a bat on fire and threw it over a fence. He faced multiple charges, including burglary, ar fire and threw it over a fence. He faced multiple charges, including burglary, arson, and inciting a riot. However, prosecutors dropped all charges after video footage contradicted the officer's statements.

Outside the J Street courthouse, Harper reflected on his name being cleared, expressing gratitude after the video evidence disproved the lies against him. Yeah, it feels like, bro, none of it makes sense. Like the body cam, I told y'all the body cam at night, he was laughing. You know what I mean? Like it was a game. And then the next day they told him to restart it on him.

He did the all, it was like, oh, he scared him and his family. He was threatened for their lives. I ain't shitting niggas out there laughing, bro. You know the fuck he was doing. He never said it on the 911 call. They wasas out there laughing, bro. You know the fuck we was doing. They never said it on the 911 call. They was saying that boom, protest outside. It was like they going shit and shit like that.

They never said it for me. They kicking in my door. That'd be like the first thing you would tell them motherfuckers, right? They kicking in my door right now. So the officers lied. I wonder if they are going to get charged. I think I already know the answer to that.

Let me thank Derek, Raven, I'm a congo for being on today's show, I certainly appreciate y'all being here. Thank you so very much. Folks, do not forget, if y'all want to support the work that we do, we are really building Black Star Network, as I told you, when it came to YouTube's weekly top 100 podcast. We launched this show, we were number 78 when they were the list launch

I'm sorry. We were number 78 a week later. We were number 67 now. We're number 46. We're the only Black news show on this list everybody else who's above us who's black. It's all entertainment and sports And that's something we focus on we believe is important for you to have good news and information and that's what we focus on. We believe it's important for you to have good news and information. And that's what's most important. And so that's what we do here. And so we want you to support the work that we do. And let me do well, actually, before I do this here, let me do this here. I'm gonna get a shout out. We got some new members of there. We got some new members of Alpha Phi Alpha. And so let me see if I can cut to this right here. Let me see if it cuts.

I was there, Roland, I was there. Of course, you know, Representative Sylvester Turner, Representative Sylvester Turner passed away. He was an Alpha brother. And he passed away a couple of months ago. But Gabe Amo, who the congressman from Rhode Island, you see him pictured here with brother, Representative Al Green. He is the newest member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity incorporated. So Representative Amo, certainly congratulations on that. And

also actor Adrian Holmes. Adrian Holmes plays Dr. Phil, of course, on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. And y'all might remember in the recast version, what you see on the Peacock Network, he plays Dr. Phil and he plays an alpha on the show. Well, in real life over the weekend, Adrian Holmes and his Lyme brothers actually crossed. And he also is a member. So I want to shout out Adrian Holmes.

I see him every year in the WSCP Image Awards. Glad to see that he is now a member of the coldest, boldest fraternity of them all. The rest of them are simply youth groups, but we already knew that. So let me. He didn't want to go through the process. Well, first of all, remember we don't do honorary.

So other groups do, Sigmas. I know they do. I'm not sure, like I say, some of the other ones out there, we know how they roll, but Alphas, we don't do honoraries. But I certainly want to shout out Adrian Holmes as well. I sent him a note and I'm sure will be. And he's a big time golfer, so you know, I've already sent him where to get the appropriate alpha gear for

the golf course. And so let me show that, let me show a photo of Adrian. So this is him right here throwing the ice. So congratulations to brother Adrian Holmes as well as all the other brothers who crossed. And so, and again, if you in another organization, y'all don't get shout outs, because this is the Alpha show. That's how we do it. All right, folks, that's it.

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Black Star Network a real revolution there right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All the momentum we have now. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See the difference between Black Star Network and Black Own Media and something like CNN. You can't be Black Own Media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig?. 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. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott.

And this is Season Two of the World 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. It's kind of started 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 podcast. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean he's not only my

parent like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptUSkids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, change thing about our lives.