#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Texas Judge Rules Against Black Student's Locs, USVI Governor, Navy Federal Discrimination Suit

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

2.22.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Texas Judge Rules Against Black Student's Locs, USVI Governor, Navy Federal Discrimination Suit A Texas judge sides with a school district's discipline of a black teen over the length of his loc. Darryl George will remain in in-school suspension after a Chambers County Judge says the school did not violate the state's Crown Act. The George family attorney and the  Texas Legislative Black Caucus Chair are here to tell us about today's hearing.   We tell ya'll how important local elections are. Tonight, we'll chat with Claude Cummings III. He's running for Harris County, Texas Tax Assessor-Collector. The U.S. Virgin Islands is trying to revive its tourism. Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. will be in the studio to discuss their plans. We'll also discuss the clean water initiative and some other things. You don't want to miss that conversation.  A recent investigation found that the Navy Federal Credit Union was more than twice as likely to deny Black loan applicants than white applicants. Now, Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump has hit them with a lawsuit.  The fools at Fox News say Trump's gold sneakers are his golden ticket to shoe-loving black voters. Yeah, wait until you hear this foolishness.  Watch #BlackStarNetwork streaming 24/7  Amazon Fire TV / Amazon News, Prime Video, Freevee + Plex.tv 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.

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It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Thursday, February 22nd, 2024. Coming up on Rollerball Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Start Network. A Texas judge, a Republican, sides with a school district's discipline of a black teen over the length of his locks. Darrell George will remain in in-school suspension after the judge's decision. We'll talk with the George family attorney as well as the head of the Texas Black Legislative Caucus.

Also, we'll talk about the important elections taking place across the country tonight. We'll be joined by Claude Cummings, who is running for Harris County tax assessor. One of the local races I'm always talking about that absolutely matters. Also, could the US Virgin Islands be the land of opportunity as well as retirement for African Americans? Well, we'll talk about that.

The governor of the US Virgin Islands. Also attorney Ben Crump. He is suing Navy Federal will show you what took place at today's news conference. Plus, Fox News. One of the people actually say, talk about being stuck on stupid, that black folks are going to vote for Trump because we like sneakers. I told y'all these people are crazy.

It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland McUnfield of the Black Sun Network. Let's go. Let's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now.

Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martel. Martel. Folks, white folks in Texas whining a Republican judge sided with the school district when it came to a black teen wearing locks and remember the texas texas passed the crown act which outlined hair discrimination in government jobs when it comes to school as well but uh the judge says no the school district's uh hair policy uh is just and the young man who has been in in-school suspension, well, he does not win his case. Barber Hill ISD, the judge ruled that they did not violate the Crown Act for disciplining Darrell George. That decision came down today.

Chambers County Judge Chapp became the third sided with the school district, saying that his hairstyle didn't adhere to the grooming guidelines. Again, the 18-year-old has spent over half of his junior year in in-school suspension. Before today's hearing, Darrell talked to us and other media about the impact of the situation that all the suspension has had on him and his academics. It's put a lot of emotions on me. You know, anger, sadness, you know, disappointment. And my bad. Take your time.

I apologize for how they make you feel. Do you feel like they're bobbing you a little bit of your childhood, your high school? Oh, yeah, for sure. No doubt. No doubt about that. They... It just makes me feel angry, very angry, that, you know, throughout all these years, throughout all the fighting for the black

history that we've already done, we still have to do this again and again and again. It's ridiculous. It makes no sense. Joining us now is Allie Booker, the George family attorney, plus Ron Reynolds. He is the Texas Legislative Black Caucus Chair. Allie, first and foremost, do you plan to appeal this ruling? Is it appealable? It is, and we do plan to appeal this ruling. So when the judge said that he was violating the hair policy, I'm still confused because their policy deals with length. His locks do not go past his ears. And that is exactly our argument.

But they believe that they can control how long the hair is in totality when it is let down, not when it's worn at school. But that's what's so strange because when it's let down, if it's not let down at school, how is he

violating it? We agree. That's like saying they're going to regulate a woman's hair length, but if she's wearing it in a bun, well, we can still regulate that because it's in a bun, but it's not down. Absolutely, and that's why we believe that it's overbroad. The school district, of course, has been very aggressive in this the superintendent has taken taken took an ad out in a newspaper as well um what do you think is really going on here

well guess what before i started this interview i received an email and this interview this email is from Greg Poole and David Bloom. David Bloom writes it and says Dr. Graham this is I guess he wants me to read it he says Dr. Greg Poole has been the Barbers Hill ISD superintendent since 2006 here are Dr. Poole's comments on today's verdict. The Texas legal system has validated our position that the district's dress code does not violate the Crown Act, and that the Crown Act does not give students unlimited self-expression. The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that affirmative action is a violation of the 14th Amendment,

and we believe the same reasoning will eventually be applied to the Crown Act. High expectations have helped make Barbers Hill ISD a state leader. Falsely claiming racism is worse than racism and undermines efforts to address actions that violate constitutionally protected rights. So I'm sorry, they actually invoke the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action and they think the Supreme Court is going to invalidate the Crown Act? They do, based on the fact that they believe it's unfair. They're claiming reverse racism. I thought it was funny. You know, they sent it to me and then said it was a media blurb, per se. But it answers your question, right?

Where's their mind at? Affirmative action. I'm going to take away anything for blacks. Ron Reynolds, you're in the Texas legislature. Go to my iPad. This is the actual law. It says prohibition on certain discrimination

in student dress or grooming in this section. Protective hairstyle includes braids, locks, and twists. Any student dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district, including a student dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district, including a student dress or grooming policy for any extracurricular activity, may not discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race. I'm sorry, I'm confused here.

That's the damn law. How does a judge write this decision? The law is explicit? Pratt, Pratt, this is a shame on the judicial system that this students like Daryl from being discriminated against from the very same district, by the way, that we filed the damn bill in the first place, because they did it to DeAndre Arnold two years before. So we filed the Crown Act so that Barbers Hill will stop discriminating against students, black students, for wearing braids, locks, or twists. And here it is in 2024, deja vu.

Barbra's Hill says, yeah, y'all passed the Crown Act, but we found a loophole. You didn't talk about limp. So we're going to have a policy that just says you can't wear it past your—well, you put it on the screen. And so, therefore, he's in violation of our school policy. So this is discrimination. This is the school district saying either you can conform to European standards or you won't be at our school. And the judge gave them a pass. He turned a blind eye on the law that we passed. And it is a shame. This is an affront to democracy.

Even white legislators agreed, first of all, voted for this. So this is not like it was carried only by black folks. No, this, this, Roland, you know, you're from Texas. It's hard to pass any legislation in Texas. This is bipartisan. Governor Abbott

had a bill signed because they did so much harm to,they did DEI and all that other stuff this session. We don't even touch that right now. But this was like, OK, we did something. Yeah, let's have a bill signing ceremony to show we passed something that had bipartisan support that benefits black people. And guess what?

They didn't give a damn about this law. And first of all, the attorney general and the TA commissioner weren't enforcing it in the first place. So that's why attorney Allie Booker had to file the lawsuit. And then the judge then slaps it down today saying, yeah, school districts, if you want to violate the Crown Act, all you have to do is come up with some nonsense about limp. When we know good and damn well that you can't grow locks, braids, or twigs without having any kind of limp. So this is discriminatory. It's a slap in the face.

I think that Attorney Booker will prevail on appeal. But all while this student suffers and other students who are similarly situated suffer that they cannot go and learn in an academic environment with their peers because Barbra's Hill wants to single out black boys, black young men, and discriminate against them because they don't like raised locks and twists. Allie, how's Darryl taking this ruling? He's taking it hard. You know, he wasn't born during the civil rights era. This is a new era. And it's like they're trying to

repeal and attack all of the laws that protect minorities. And so this is a new, younger generation that has to deal with that. And it's tough on him, right? Because to these children, they've experienced racism, but not in the way a lot of us have. So he's highly confused by it all. Well, some things change and some stay the same. Alec, keep us abreast of what happens with this case. Representative Reynolds, I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thanks, Brad. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk about with the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Is this an opportunity for African-Americans to create opportunities, business opportunities, but also a place to retire and grow their families? We'll talk about that next right here on Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Throughout all these years, throughout all the fight. Check this out.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are investing a record $7 billion into HBCUs. Billions for campus improvements, grants, and debt relief. Billions more for HBCUs. Endless possibilities for us for the last 15 or maybe 16 or 18 years i'll say since i when i moved to la i hadn't had a break i hadn't had a vacation i've been on a week vacation here today right this year after i got finished doing queen sugar we wrapped it up because i knew i had two tv shows coming on the same time so i've been on break for the same time. Except for a typical break.

So I've been on break for the first time and I can afford it. You know what I'm saying? So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost two decades that I've actually had time to sit back and smell the roses. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We look at one of the most influential and prominent Black Americans of the 20th century. His work literally changed the world. Among other things, he played a major role in creating the United Nations. He was the first African-American and first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And yet today, he is hardly a household name. We're talking, of course, about Ralph J. Bunch. A new book refers to him as the absolutely indispensable man.

His lifelong interest and passion in racial justice, specifically in the form of colonialism. And he saw his work as an activist, an advocate for the Black community here in the United States, as just the other side of the coin of his work trying to roll back European empire and Africa. Author Cal Rastiala will join us to share his incredible story. That's on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy, did you know that the majority of households headed by African-American women don't own a single share of stock? No wonder the wealth gap continues to widen. Next on Get Wealthy, you're going to hear from a woman who

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producer of the new Sherri Sheppard Talk Show. It's me, Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin Unfiltered. Since 1927, U.S. Virgin Islanders have been United States citizens. A lot of people don't actually think about that when you think about U.S. Virgin Islands, but also when you think about Puerto Rico. So although not states, they are territories that are part of the United States. And so what many people are looking at is we see what's happening all across the country, an increasing number of African-Americans moving to places like Costa Rica. We also hear about the Dominican Republic.

And, of course, we see the Bahamas and Jamaica also doing lots of recruitment for African-Americans to visit, also for business reasons. But what about the U.S. Virgin Islands? Well, let's talk. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

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Glad to have you here. You're here in D.C. for various meetings. NGA. It's the National Governors Association. So annually we come up. I don't know why they have it in February, but we're here to talk to, we usually get an opportunity to talk to secretaries and various people on the hill about what's going on in the Virgin Islands and people like you. So I was recently there. First of all, I've been a number of times. We invited you down there. I've been several times.

Tom joined the morning show cruise. So we were there before COVID hit. We were talking about bringing my TV One show there as well. But, of course, that changed everything. And for folks who don't understand, what makes up the U.S. Virgin Islands? So with St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix are the primary islands, but there's actually 52 islands and keys that make up the Virgin Islands. So the populated ones, St. Croix, the bigger island, which is, I call the last residential island,

is the place you want to live, make a living. St. Thomas, which is a center of tourism. And then St. John, which 75% is actually a national park. It's a beautiful place to visit, lovely beaches, hiking trails. It's the Virgin Islander's Virgin Island. So what's interesting is when I was there in St. Croix, folks said, St. Croix black folks, St. Thomas black folks, St. John white folks. And I was kind of like, okay, interesting. And so what is the distinction between those three? So I think, like I said, St. Croix has been primarily an agrarian culture that moved into the industrial age with refining the distillery, watchmaking, textiles.

A lot of that has changed since then. St. Thomas has always been a mercantile commercial port, lots of tourism all the time. And then St. John, essentially the Rockefellers owns like three quarters of the island and deeded the whole thing over to the national park. So it's very, very hard for local people to live on that island because the properties over there are so expensive. The land taxes are through the roof.

So you have a lot of black people that are land rich but cash poor. So a quarter acre land in St. John is probably like a half a million, a million dollars. So the Rockefellers used to own that island? Absolutely. Most of the island. And so he wanted to preserve it, which was a good thing. I mean, so Caneel Bay is the resort that most people recognize.

It's in the national park. It has seven beaches. It was destroyed by the hurricane, but now we're looking, well, the federal government is looking to reopen that park and have a new hotel go there. You had issues with the hurricane. Whenever we would stop, the time during our Fantastic Four's cruise, we always play golf and say Thomas, but after one hurricane, they reopened it, but after the latest one, it didn't get reopened.

Houses are there now as well. And so how are you still recovering? Have you recovered from that most recent hurricane and the impact it had on the islands? Economically, I think we've recovered, but we got a $15 billion recovery going. So you're talking about a place with a workforce of about 42,000 people and an economy of about $4 billion. So imagine if we were able to do the economy in 15 years. That would mean that we'd have to put a quarter of the GDP into the economy every year.

Almost impossible. So that's where the opportunity lies. So we've been going around talking about it, black community, large contractors, trying to get people excited about coming to the virgin islands we got two major hospitals to build six schools undergrounding and then our tourism economy is on fire we just opened up uh the westin frenchman's reef uh buoy house four or five hundred rooms added to our inventory we got another three or four hundred rooms coming on next year we're

redoing our airports redoing our seaports. So lots of opportunity to make money and lots of opportunity to get new people in because we don't have enough people to get the job done. I've spent a lot of time being a city hall reporter, county government reporter. And so when you do that, you spend lots of time understanding infrastructure.

And so when I was there, I was like, these roads are killing me. And so you don't have potholes there. Matter of there, I was like, these roads are killing me. And so you don't have potholes there. As a matter of fact, I saw one brother did a video. I mean, you got these sinkholes. And so we're talking about a massive infrastructure bill that was passed by Congress. How much money is how much money have you received a part of that? And how are you dealing with that infrastructure? Because the reality is when businesses look to come to places, the first thing they look at, highways and roads. They didn't look at wastewater.

They didn't look at energy as well, electricity. And so how are you dealing with that to address those fundamental issues to attract businesses? So the first thing you got to understand about the Virgin Islands is being a U.S. territory. We have a tax miracle system to the U.S. businesses so the first thing you got to understand about the virgin islands is being a u.s territory we have a tax mara code system to the u.s so the way we attract companies is we have the ability to forgive 100 of your state taxes in the virgin islands and 90 of your federal income tax so you have a in you have a tax exposure about 1.72 or something around there on average so that's a main draw to people to get that.

That's why the company's coming there. Right. So that's $100,000 investment, 10 employees, and you're there. You set up. You have to be doing business, essentially export business, whether it's in finance or it's in hotel, heavy manufacturing. We have a lot of people there that are actually doing head funds and whatnot. But the infrastructure piece you're talking about, we're talking about Congress passing a bill that allowed us to rebuild our infrastructure and FEMA pay for it if more than 50% of it is damaged, whether it was by the storm or anything else. So we're replacing our entire portable water system on Sinkhorn, our entire

sewer system, 50% of all our power cables going underground. By the next two years, we will have more renewable daytime solar production than we actually have a demand for. So you're talking about a complete rejuvenation, revival of the entire economy and the infrastructure. But we don't have enough people to do it. So we have- You say we don't have enough people to do it. So we have... You say we don't have enough people to do it. You don't have enough

what? Workers? Yeah, we only have 3% unemployment. We have the lowest unemployment rate in the history of the Virgin Islands. So we got to get people to come. So you have projects. Right. But you need workers. Absolutely. So if they come there,

where are they staying? That's the other problem. So we're trying to attract companies big enough that can create temporary housing. Like when we built our refinery in St. Croix, we have a man camp there that holds 1,600 people. We need companies that are able to bring those types of resources so we can rebuild our hospital, rebuild our schools. So the smaller companies there on the island right now they actually have so much work to do and then the bonding capacity that's needed to get this job done we're talking about 40 years or so of development trying to get that done and crammed into 10 years so who are you so who are you talking to uh you have you have i mean

look you have african-american developers you have construction companies, and so are you meeting with those individuals? Are you meeting with folks who do that here in the United States? Absolutely. So we have an Office of Disaster Recovery, and they spent time going around the United States asking companies what it would take for you to come. What they said was we need at least a billion dollars worth of packages, we need to make sure we're going to get paid. So bid on what the package is, what does that mean? So the hospitals, we're combining our structures. So the hospital plus the skilled nursing center and the health department, all of those packages in one. So this year we'll be issuing three $1 billion packages. The other part about this was a federal match.

So in most cases, when FEMA comes, you've got to come up with 25% for states. We've got to come up with 10%. But even at 10%, we're talking about 25% of our economy. So thanks to President Biden, what he has done now is reduced our match to 2%. So now we're able to effectuate a lot of these projects that we didn't know how we were going to get before. So this first quarter, we should be issuing RFPs on requests for qualifications.

You can get more information at usviodr.gov on what those packages are going to look like. And stay tuned, because it's a lot of work. And it'll keep coming for the next two or three years so you're figuring like a katrina situation a total rebuild of everything uh but you're doing it on three separate islands with infrastructures that don't interconnect um you've gotten a significant amount of money from hud right um for housing for purposes right almost two billion dollars uh but not much of that has been spent right but you also for housing purposes. Almost $2 billion. But not much of that has been spent.

But you also have a timeline. I talked to the folks at HUD as well, and that's a concern. And so how fast are you moving to allocate those funds? Because the last thing you want to do is to send that money back. Right, so a lot of that money, like $500 million of that money is matched. So that money will be dedicated to the 2% I just talked about in order to get those projects running.

And then the housing construction projects are actually going on. But the construction costs are escalating. It's costing us $1 million per public housing unit. That's what construction looks like. Why? Because there are hardly any suppliers. You don't have the contractors there that are able to do it. So if my house, we still have 400 homes to rebuild and 300 new ones.

We have also, in order to help with it, we've created a program now where we're subsidizing and giving our residents a grant of up to $350,000 on your first home. So whether it's your down payment, you're doing a construction loan, or you're doing a straight-up purchase or renovation, if it's your first home, we're giving you that. So there's a lot of pressure on the contract of the construction market and demand. That's why we need more workers, people to come in and be able to help not only do the big stuff,

like the hospitals and the housing communities, but also do the big stuff like the hospitals and the housing communities but also do the small stuff like residents need uh homes we gotta we got like 700 homes that we gotta get done so we're talking about uh these uh unique workers what are these jobs paying well that's the thing now i think the minimum wage in the virgin islands is 10 50. but But if you're a grocery clerk cashier, let's say, that's about $15 an hour. So laborers now are up in the 20s and skilled people in the 30s and the $40 per hour, which is driving us. What I'm saying is if there's somebody here in the United States who's, they hear this and they say, okay, wait a minute, here's an opportunity. If I'm a construction worker, I can go to the U.S. Virgin Islands, work for the next one, two, three years.

What kind of salaries are we talking about? Right. So, I mean, what do you say? An electrician probably now making about $45, $40, $45 an hour. A plumber around the same. So that would equate to what, $50, $60, $45 is like $90,000 a year. But with the overtime and everything else you get, it's even more. Because those trades, we just don't have enough of those people doing work in the Virgin Islands. And are you also looking to, as that is happening, are you also looking to have those folks trained?

I think back to what Prime Minister Christie did in the Bahamas when Bahamar was being built. The Chinese brought in all their workers, and he said, wait a minute, we want Bahamians being trained to do these jobs. And that was one of the things that they also did. And so you have an HBCU there. How is that university, what are they doing to help train skilled labor? Because if that's what you need,

you need some place to train them. So the University of the Virgin Islands is the only HBCU in the country that actually gives free tuition to everyone that graduates from a Virgin Islands high school. So whether you graduated 20 years ago or you graduated last year,

you could go, you don't pay any tuition. Right, that's for free tuition. Right. But what are they training them to do? I mean, is there a focus on trades? So yes. Now, beside the university, we also have the Department of Labor.

We've been running a real aggressive apprenticeship program, not only in the trades like woodworking, carpentry, plumbing, and electricians, and being paid while you're being trained. But we've also been running simultaneously project management stuff. But when you're paying $25 an hour for labor, it's hard to get brothers to come in and sit down and get trade.

Because if you want a job, there's a job out there for you. So we still have gaps in our hospitality industry, in our transportation industry, teaching, public safety, you name it. But all of that pressure and all of this money that we're putting in the economy is putting a lot of pressure on wages and driving everything up, which, of course, is driving up the cost of living, which is already high. How much time do you have to allocate these funds? Because, look, you have it here in the United States. There's a number of states.

If they don't spend this money by a certain period of time, it goes back to the federal government. So how much time? This is 2024. How much time do you have? So the 800 million of the HUD money has to be spent by 2026. And we're peeling away at that money, but we intend to get an extension on that. So 800 million of that, how much have you spent so far? We spent probably, I would say about three, 400 million so far. So you got two more years to spend 400400 million or so of that. That's just hard.

Now, FEMA and I, we just, with this new matching opportunity that we got from the president, we got 11 years. Otherwise, our match goes back down to 95% instead of 98% where it is now. So there's a lot of pressure on us to get this done and get it done quickly. Do you have, I mean, we saw this, you talked about the hurricane. When I was, I'm born and raised in Houston, so when the last hurricane hit, the governor also, the mayor appointed critical individuals to oversee that. And so do you have government officials with the expertise to actually push through these massive deals? These are not just regular, ordinary deals. And so do you have that capacity? Do you have sort of a housing czar, a construction czar, who that is their

sole job to get this done? So right now, we just formed what we call Rebuild USVI. And that's because we're getting our projects obligated now. And what Rebuild USVI is, is a super project management office that is going to house exactly what you're talking about. Currently, it's headed by Adrienne William-Octolins, who was our housing czar, who has experience with FEMA, and has a broad experience from Section 8 to public housing. She is running the whole thing, but we're bringing on the expertise in terms of people from the United States mainland that have done these projects before, because we really don't have anybody who has built a hospital before. We haven't built a school in 30, 40 years.

So we got to bring on all of this talent and help to get it done. Now, we're doing this at the same time that you're having this massive infrastructure revival on the mainland. So resources, getting people, material, concrete, steel, everything is at a premium. So we're trying our best to hurry up and get this thing done before all of this infrastructure money really lets loose on the mainland. All right. Hold tight one second. I've got to go to a break. When we come back, my panel has some questions.

I've got a couple more questions as well. Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. Be sure to support us in what we do. Join our Brena Funk fan club. Your resources make it possible for us to cover the stories that absolutely matter. Senior Check and Money, order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Be sure to download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. And, of course, you can watch our 24-hour, seven-day-a-week streaming channel on Amazon News. Simply go to Amazon Fire, go to Amazon News. You can also tell Alexa to play news from the Blackstar Network. Also, Plex TV, Amazon Freebie, Amazon Prime Video. And be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Brownie of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available available bookstores nationwide.

Get the Audible version on Audible. I'll be right back. A launch. It's not even a march. We're launching a 42-week campaign. March the 2nd at 10 o'clock in Raleigh and 33 other state capitals and the District of Columbia. This is a historic move to mobilize the most powerful untapped block of voters in this country. Poor and low wealth voters who make up 87 million votes.

A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

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

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

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early

and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. It's never been tried before. Never been tried before in history. At the same time, the same message, same focus. When that power turns loose, they will not be able to figure out the political calculus. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to shake things up. I'm ready to get up out of the valley. I'm ready for God to put his spirit on us. I'm ready to be used to

change this nation. And what we're saying is, can't we come together? Can't we come together around an agenda? You ain't got to like everything about Rembobble. You don't have to like everything about St. Greer. You don't have to like everything about Longpire. But can we come together and say it's time to end poverty as the fourth leading cause of death? It's time to have $15 out of living wage indexed with inflation so every time inflation goes up, the minimum wage goes up. It's time to have health care for all. It's time to fully fund public education. Can't we come together? It's time to fully fund public education. Can't we come together?

It's time to protect women's right to women's health. It's time. It's time to have affordable housing for everybody. It's time to stop the proliferation of guns. Ain't no way folk ought to be able to have more guns than they have food, more guns than they have meat on their table. That makes no sense. Isn't it time for division to be ended and love to take over? Can't we organize around that? Look at your neighbors. Neighbor, I don't need to like everything about you. But can't we organize

for power? Can't we stand for justice? Can't we love everybody for just a little while? Can't we love everybody? For just a little while. Can't we come out of the valley? Can these bones live? Yeah!

Come on together! Come on together! Come on together! Come on together! Yeah! unplugged and undamned believable. You hear me? All right, folks, welcome back. We're talking with the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Albert Bryan Jr. Time for questions from our panel.

Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA, you're first. Governor, what is the relationship you have with Delegate Plaskett, given that she has no vote in Congress? How does that relationship go? Is she able to really assist the Virgin Islands, particularly when the Republicans are in charge and she currently has no vote in Congress? You know, Stacey, as I call her, we've been working together for a long time. We worked together at the Economic Development Authority when I was the board chair there. We have a great relationship. She somehow was able to work it so that we are able to get benefits. One of the strategies I know is working very closely with Puerto Rico and keeping friends on both sides of the aisle. She's been a strong voice for the Democratic Party, and we have a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle. She's been a strong

voice for the Democratic Party, and we have a lot of friends as a result of it. So she's been very successful. Thanks. Greg? Thank you, Roland, and thank you, Governor Bryant. Like Guam and Puerto Rico, as you say, the Virgin Islands is in many ways, I guess the polite word is territory, but I think of it more as a colony. If over half of the land is National Park, what are the limits to possibility, the possibilities for the people who actually live there? I'm not talking about the tourist industry and all that kind of thing. I mean, what you've laid out is a beautiful vision. I'm wondering, like I said, I really had two questions. Number one, what's your long-term vision for the people of the Virgin Islands?

Not the tourists, not the people coming in trying to make a buck, but the people who do most of the living and dying. And does that vision finally involve any move toward perhaps statehood? I can answer the last question first. It's like the move towards statehood is a no. And the only reason being, I think we need to define our status with the United States. We've had, I think, six constitutional conventions already trying to establish a constitution. We're not successful. We're about to do one again, which will help us to define who we are and where we're going

as a people. As a governor looking forward, you know, I'm really fearful of progress. You know, growth kills. And the one thing that I've been strategically trying to do is do the things that we can to do to control inflation, like lower poverty, increase wealth for families by subsidizing housing and giving people the opportunity to buy their first home. And unlike Fannie Mae and conventional loans, these grants allow you to have an apartment, money generating things to do. Making college tuition free, so you make people more valuable in terms of what they're able to produce, creating business opportunities for Virgin Islanders. So they not only work for people, but they actually own the businesses, whether in tourism,

hospitality, or in the construction trades like we're doing. So constantly ringing that bell to keep people in state walkways. With all of this growth and improvement, we're going to see more people coming there. We want to see people of color. That'll allow us to maintain control of our policy and our government. Because everybody I mean, I remember my five brothers visiting me from college. And, you know, the smile on their faces is like everybody's black. Kappa Alpha Psi. Oh, hell no. That's your first problem right there.

That's what happened when you joined a youth group. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. But you know, creating that strength and creating wealth and making sure that we are participating in the tourism economy and this great reconstruction that we're doing in St. John where 75% of the land is owned by the federal government. You know, it's the Gallagher-Plosket and I fight all the time. So we get a $30,000 payment in lieu of taxes from the federal government. If you live in St. John, you got a couple acres, your taxes may be 30,000.

So getting an equitable share of that payment and creating something that creates equity for our residents by using that money to help them subsidize their first home. Right now we're out of a project where we're actually rebuying public housing, one of the ways we're using the HUD money, and creating homeownership opportunities for our residents because that's the only way they're going to get a house.

And then buying out all of those apartments, creating these homeownership organizations, and then selling it back to them for between 100 and 150 000 creating wealth in that family that they would have never seen before greg your second question no that was it i just again i asked about the division and it kind of laid it out and and i guess if no is stay and again i'm not an advocate for statehood i think the united states of america is eventually going to have to be broken up anyway these hillbillies are showing us what they think of the project generally. But that having been said, I guess the concern is, and I hear you addressing it,

and I think you just answered part of it in terms of trying to put a floor under the poor in the Virgin Islands by getting some of that wealth transferred into their hands by way of control. I guess if I did have a follow up, it would be around that process. I'm sure the clock is ticking. As you said, capitalism is a beast and the opportunities are coming in. You know, what percentage of folk in the Virgin Islands are indeed in poverty? So we have a 30 percent poverty rate. One of the things that I always bring to people's attention to show how structural racism and institutional racism work, we live on an island 1,300 miles away from the main line.

But yet in every single way, our community mimics that of inner-city African-Americans. Whether you look at the dropout rate, you look at the diabetes rate, the incidence of stroke and heart attacks, you look at the education rate, you look at the crime, you look at the incarceration rates, they all mimic the same. How is that possible that we live

in a completely different place, but the policies are the same from the mainland and are creating the same situation. So it's almost like living proof that what we're doing is not happen chance. It's engineered. It's institutionalized. This gentleman right here, Roland Martin, I don't think he remembers, he came, we had a nonprofit organization and we had a leadership conference in 2006.

He came to our organization and he said, take it over. 17 years later, we've taken it over. You remember that? I ain't never stopped. I said, take it over last night in Nashville. We actually did take it over. So I'm the governor. One of our associates is the president of the legislature. One of us is a federal judge. So we have placement all over the community trying to make sure that we preserve the ownership in our community.

Even in our urban renewals that we're doing now, we're setting up estates where black families have owned for generations, trying to make sure that they can keep it in their family, that we don't lose these properties out because they could never be gotten again a couple more questions i talked about infrastructure this is the for 2022 they talked about an energy crisis happening in the u.s virgin islands uh speaking about the issue of problems with your water and power authority right uh you're you're spending a ton of money on electricity right how are you addressing the power grid how you're spending a ton of money on electricity. How are you addressing the power grid? How are you addressing that? Because the reality is, if you're spending unnecessarily high amounts of money for electricity,

that's just more money that's coming out of people's pockets. Absolutely. So energy is one of my, this is the biggest thing that I'm going to fix within this term. And how are we going to do that? Well, we got $2 billion to redo our infrastructure for energy, but we're actually commissioning solar plants now and solar fields that are going to be producing about 56 megawatts. Running daytime peak is probably about 85

megawatts. And then we have another, at least nine that we have now, plus we're adding wind. So the goal is to have more actual renewable power than we have a need for. Now when you do the math on renewables, it kind of pairs down because the sun don't shine in the night. So we're adding battery systems to be able to subsidize that in the night. So we're spending like $150 to $200 million a year in just fuel. And our intention is to reduce that, not only from a power standpoint, but also from the electric vehicle standpoint.

So through the Biden administration, we've been able to do some incredible things. We're just installing now all these new power stations. The government fleet, we're converting it actually to electric vehicles. And the plan is to use all of that power through solar and wind. So when you look at it, it's something that people can count on.

It will be energy. What we've also done is we're issued 1% loans for people to come completely off the grid. And you pay this like you're paying your power bill every month. So you can amortize that loan amount over three years or eight years. But you know that your light bill is going to be $300 a month for the next four years or eight years but you know that your light bill is going to be three hundred dollars a month for the next four four years or five years and then you own the system all out you don't pay it anymore and how are you addressing the leadership at the power authority uh because at the end of the day you need competent leadership to do these things right are you changing folks out are you moving moving people out what are you doing there you

know it it depends on what perspective you looked at, but we have completely changed the leadership at our power authority. And you know, a lot of it on the backs of people just being frustrated because the lights of power bill is high. But in doing that, it's a small town. We're essentially killing off our own people, our own professionals, who are for the most part victims of a system that has been broken for 40, 50 years.

Now we have an opportunity to fix it. I've made a commitment to go there. We have $145 million of HUD money that's actually going to help to purchase a facility that has propane, which is running our fuels, our generator system off of that is cheaper than diesel. So when we pay for diesel, it's almost twice as much as what we're paying for propane. So a lot of different things going on on the islands at one time on just trying to get it done. Good on iPad. In November, President Biden

approved his emergency declaration dealing with the water. We talk about Jackson, Mississippi, Flint, Flint, Michigan as well, different cities here. And so just in November you had a significant problem with water, high amounts of lead, high levels of lead and copper in your water supply. What's the status of that? So it's essentially the boy who cried wolf, right? The EPA came down and they did the testing erroneously and reported that we had a lead and water crisis. Now we know we don't have any lead pipes in the Virgin Islands.

So we've done extensive testing through the system and since proved that we don't have a lead crisis, although we have found lead components in our system. So the emergency declaration, was it lifted? It was. It expired. We let it run out. But we're not stopping there. We're making sure that we keep our constituents informed. We're issuing water filters just to make people feel secure.

And we're changing out those systems where we have like valves or whatever in the system that may be in lead. Like I said, we're redoing the entire portable water system on our major island, St. Croix. And we're in FEMA negotiations for doing the one in St. Thomas. So it's something that we were already doing because all those systems are really old. And being from a poor community, we never had the resources to do it before. Last question here. I talked about tapping into the expertise here.

What particular organizations or groups or individuals who you're talking to, who you're reaching out? Are you bringing people down to do assessments and then going back and saying, hey, this is what we need? So, for instance, if you have if you say we need one thousand, two thousand, three thousand workers or whatever it is, who are you working with here in the United States to be able to bring to bring folks there to be able to do some of these particular jobs. So that's why we're looking at these larger corporations, the Brown and Rood, the AECOMs, the huge ones in the world, because they're the only people that we think have the infrastructure and the money to be able to say, I'm going to build a man camp or move people from one place to the next. But are you requiring that they also partner with black-owned companies? Well, that's a requirement anyway, because remember, all of this is federal money.

So they have to partner with black-owned companies all the way around. And, you know, in the Virgin Islands, and most people may not know, it's essentially 90% people of color. I know they told you that St. John is for the white people, but the black people run essentially in art everywhere. No, no, no, 9%. Black people or people of color? See, I'm real specific.

When I say people of color, that means everybody. No, I'm talking about black people. Probably about 85%. 85% black. Cool. There you go. So 5% of other people. Yeah.

Gotcha. I always top the black number. So I cut right to where the black number is. You know, it's winter in the Virgin Islands, though, I'll probably count the black number. So I cut right to where the black number is. You know, it's weird in the Virgin Islands, though. So being black, African-American, is the majority. So everybody wants to be black. It's like cool to be black.

Even the white people don't trust white people down there. Yeah, but they ain't black. No. They ain't black. They're not black. So, again, because that's one of the things I think is important. We're talking billions of dollars here. And for me, look, when I traveled to Ghana, when I was in Liberia in 2022,

I'm seeing these things happen. We are seeing, when I was in Ghana in 2019 and 2008, there was a sister who moved down there who has now the largest wastewater management company there in Ghana. We're seeing folks do that. and that's important to me. If we're talking about billions of dollars, what I want to see is that money going to black-owned companies, being able to build capacity, being able to grow. So that's why I'm saying those conversations are happening there. Well, we're doing a lot of stuff around tourism, and during COVID, right,

we saw a large amount of the african-american community come to the virgin islands because they couldn't go to jamaica the bahamas was close all those places are much cheaper to go than the virgin islands and most of the people we ran into out like i never knew this was here the hardest thing is getting people on the mainland to recognize that we're americans too that we are from, that it is U.S. currency, it's the U.S. taxation system. So there's a lot of education in why I'm on shows like this to make sure people understand that we're just like you.

We live in the Virgin Islands. Our weather is 100% better all the time. So on that point then, are you creating a specific campaign? Because, again, when Christie came back in, he was very aggressive doing partnership advertising deals with Urban One radio stations, doing television as well, the digital side as well. Are you looking at what are the annual events that happen there that can actually draw people and bring them there? You've got black people who are right now going crazy, going to Martha's Vineyard, damn near now, for two months spending money. I mean, literally, you could be attracting those folks to the U.S. Virgin Islands. And so what is the plan of action there? Are your tourism people really crafting plans that are specifically targeting African

Americans? You've got Divine Nine, you've got Lynx, you've got all these different organizations. Folks are always looking for some place to go and black folks do spend when we travel. I must admit that on the tourism front, we're there. But on the construction front, in terms of bringing

people for business, it's not happening right now. And you make some excellent comments about who we need to partner with to make that happen. And hopefully you can help us do some of that. All right. Well, look, we're going to check in with you. I'm a firm believer in follow-up. So everybody knows how I roll

when it comes to accountability. So we'll check back in three to six months and see what's going on. And hopefully, you know, things continue and we see improvement. And, again, when I go back, I didn't shoot a lot of video this time, but I'm going to be checking the roads out when I go back next time. So, again, like I said, I'm from Texas. The first thing we look at are roads.

And so that's always the big deal. I was in a car with Tim Reed. I was like, Lord, Tim's work. I was like, I said, if there's one business that can open, it's a shock absorber business. I said, because, man, it was rough. But that's the deal there. I definitely believe because any business, at the end of the day, when they're looking in this country, when they're looking to move to states, looking to move to cities, that's the first thing they're looking at.

Roads, energy, water, now all of those things that are put in first before they even come there with jobs and people. Absolutely. All right. We'll appreciate it. We'll see what happens with AC Kappa running the Virgin Islands. And so, you know, we already know how alphas roll. But, you know, we have mercy on y'all. I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Folks, got to go to break. We come back more. Rolling about unfiltered, including Fox News actually saying black people will vote for the orange man because we like sneakers. And y'all wonder why I wrote my book called White Fear, how the brownie of America is making white folks lose their minds. We'll be right back. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up.

So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to

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

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

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

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

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In a moment. Check this out. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are investing a record $7 billion into HBCUs. Billions for campus improvements, grants, and debt relief. Billions more for HBCUs. Endless possibilities for us.

Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson

at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. on a next a balanced life with me dr jackie what does it mean to actually have balance in your life why is it important and how do you get there a master class on the art of balance it could change your life find Find the harmony of your life. And so what beat can you maintain at a good pace? What cadence can keep you running that marathon?

Because we know we're going to have, you know, high levels. We're going to have low levels. But where can you find that flow, that harmonious pace? That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. On the next Get Wealthy, did you know that the majority of households headed by African-American women don't own a single share of stock? No wonder the wealth gap continues to widen.

Next on Get Wealthy, you're going to hear from a woman who decided to change that. I have been blessed with good positions, good pay, but it wasn't until probably in the last couple of years that I really invested in myself to get knowledge about what I should be doing with that money and how to productively use it right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks.

Did y'all see this video here? These people at Fox News have truly lost their minds. We're going to talk about with our panel, of course, what happened at Barbara Hills. But listen to these fools talk about Trump and his trash ass sneakers. I mean, he talks about these MAGA threats and how it's unraveling society. I've got a couple of people I'd like David French to talk to. Justice Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and pro-lifers who had their clinics firebombed in the last year. I mean, this is completely unhinged. Look,

there's a lot of violence happening in America. But to try to somehow throw all of that at Donald Trump's feet, even with those gold high tops, I think this is a bridge too far. But look, every time they try to say Trump, they try to stop him at a trial or they try to throw all of this, you know, sludge at him. He somehow survives, which must drive his opponents crazy, because even the sneaker thing, I was on social media last night. Very interesting. As you see, black support eroding from Joe Biden. This is connecting with black America because they love sneakers. They're into sneakers.

They love the you know, this is a big deal, certainly in the inner city. So when you have Trump roll out his sneaker line, they're like, wait a minute, this is cool. He's reaching them on a level that defies and is above politics. The culture always trumps politics. And Trump understands culture like no politician I've ever seen. Question for you on that point, though. Will the people that are excited about the sneakers and excited about Donald Trump, will that translate into them going out and voting for Donald Trump? Anybody willing to put 400 bucks down

for a pair of sneakers? Yeah, I think that's commitment and love. I hope you're right. It's something. It's affection on some level. I don't think this is just for collectors. It's for people who want Donald Trump brand sneakers. That, again, he's connecting on a different level. And I hope he brings new voters into the fold,

though, because I have a feeling the people that are going to go buy the $400 sneakers were probably going to vote for Trump anyway. So that's my concern. How well, how does he get new? A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything

that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

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

Ad-free at Lava for and six on June 4th. Add free at lava for good. Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the war on drugs. We are back in a big way, in a very big way. Real people,

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

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working

and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. voters into the fold. That's my concern. Lauren, they really think black people are simpletons. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. they think black people are stupid. You know, we saw that with the whole Kanye West presentation. You know, they thought that they could just get a rapper out there, and, oh my God, there's a rapper out there, so we're going to, black people are going to vote for Donald Trump.

I mean, it really just doesn't work that way, and everybody knows if you look at these elections that African Americans overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic Party, and way. And everybody knows, if you look at these elections, that African Americans overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic Party. And even with Hillary Clinton, that was the case. Certainly with Biden, it was the case. Hillary Clinton getting more than 3 million votes than Trump. And then, of course, Biden getting more than 8 million votes than Trump. There's no reason to believe that that's going to change. The issue is,

at what percentage will the black turnout be? That is going to be the issue, not so much the percentages. But certainly there is an issue with regard to black voters in this cycle. And President Biden, the energy is not there on Team Blue right now, and Team Red has a little bit more energy, even though these two candidates are close to the same age. But there is this tendency to throw out very odd performative moments like the sneaker thing and like the Kanye West thing, which was extremely strange. And, of course, just like with the Kanye West thing, it meant absolutely nothing, and I suspect the sneaker thing will

mean absolutely nothing. We'll see. Greg, this is no different than the trash-ass platinum plan, which was their way of, oh, let's call it the platinum plan, because the Negroes, oh, they love the flashy stuff.

Well, brother, I tell you, I mean, we're talking about percentages. I mean, Lauren laid it out. If you're talking about lower voter turnout, it probably will be lower this time than in 2020. There's no pandemic. There's no Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery. And so you then concern yourself with who's going to go to the polls. Now, the people who would support Donald Trump in the Negro community are probably not going to vote.

And I agree with Paul Rubens—I mean, Pee Wee Herman. I thought Pee Wee Herman—I mean, Raymond Arroyo. I'm sorry, Raymond Arroyo. I thought for a minute I was looking at Pee Wee. Same thing. Yeah, same thing, right? But when he says that Donald Trump understands culture, he understands popular culture. And we know that Donald Trump was

an icon for a lot of folk in the hip-hop community. But those people are not going to vote generally. You talk about Kanye. I remember Kanye and Lil Wayne's collaboration Barry Bonds, and I think the lyric as Weezy spoke it went,

I'm so bright, not shady, my teeth and my eyes so white like shady, ice in my teeth so refrigerated. Then he goes, I'm all about my Franklins, Lincolns, and Reagans. Oop, I mean, whenever they make them, I shall have them. Nope, I, have them. I'm so crazy.

Meaning what? If they put Ronald Reagan's face on a dollar bill, some of these Negroes in the hip-hop community would get it. They don't care about the politics. They just want the money. And Donald Trump, for them, represented success. So this ploy is perhaps not aimed on growing the pie for voter participation for Republicans. It's aimed on chaos and misinformation. And anytime you've got a community where some folks who are potential voters are going to argue more about whether Megan is in the right or Nikki is in the right, then you've got a situation where you're just trying to shave off a few thousand here, a few thousand there, confuse a few more people here.

Some people turned out. I don't want to hear anything about it. And they're going to be, make no mistake, they're going to be some Negroes in them gold shoes. And it ain't going to be Tim Scott and Ben Carson. There are going to be enough people to cater to this chaos, to create the chaos that the white nationalist party needs to distract folk from the issue. And that goes back to the Texas story as well. They're after the 14th Amendment to strike all race laws. There wasn't a random email that they sent to

that sister. They're playing the long game. We're over here talking about gold tennis shoes. See, this is what I have been laying out to folk, Lauren, when I say you must understand the evil that is at hand um what their plans are what they are trying to do uh project 2025 we're going to actually go into

detail uh on that i'm going to dedicate a whole two-hour show to that but i keep trying to explain to black folks all of this stuff. Oh, we survived him before we can survive it again. These people have no idea, no idea the long game they're playing. I have been now saying for 15 years, they see 2043. They know what is coming. And what they have figured out and like, and again, I have dealt with these simple Simon Negroes who

say, oh man, them federal judge positions, Biden appointed, that stuff don't mean nothing. I'm sitting here saying, listen, dumbass, the president is only there max eight years. US Senator can get reelected, they can lose an election,

you got House members. Federal judges are lifetime appointments. And what the folks on the right understand and the Fairless Society understand and Leonard Leo understands, that if we control the judiciary, they are the ones who are the final arbiters of all laws. Congress can pass a law, the courts could invalidate it. The president could issue an executive order, it could be invalidated by the courts. And so our folks have better understand that their goal, their aim, Lauren, is to have largely white men in federal judicial positions that if you appoint today, if you appoint today a

35, let's say, let's say Trump somehow wins 2025. If you appoint a 35 year old federal judge, 35 years old, and they serve 50 years in that position. That position does not come open until 2075. And these folks are running around saying, oh, these things don't matter. Oh, yes, they do. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, the whole the moment that we're in really was touched off by really the defeat, the shocking defeat, really, of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Because when you think back on it, because of the overconfidence of people like Robbie Mook that want to use iPads and all this other nonsense to, you know, have digital contracts going to their friends and not really listen to some of the things

that were being said in terms of advice on the electoral college map. What that then did was that gave, of course, Donald Trump three Supreme Court picks and, of course, a lot of picks on the federal judiciary. That's what sort of started this moment that we have now into motion. Of course, it put Donald Trump in the White House and, of course, created this whole thing, this movement, MAGA, the whole bit. But not just those three picks. Remember, McConnell blocked 100 federal judges. He blocked Obama from Merrick Garland, but also 100 federal judges. And so that's how Trump, I think Trump appointed like 237 or 247.

A hundred of those were when Obama was there. They knew exactly what they were doing. Yeah. As, as the federal judiciary, of course, can invalidate, but of course, Congress can, can pass laws that invalidate. Like, so the, the John Lewis bill, for example, could actually fix the voting rights act. But the problem is, problem is, you need 60 votes in the Senate. So guess what? You're not going to get to 60. I'm getting to that. So what's happening in political strategy for the Democratic Party

is that they're telling everybody that, of course, voting and getting certain people in place in Congress is the answer to winning this political battle. And I'm not too sure that's true, because even though we know that voting, of course, is important, putting certain people in Congress is important and all that, what we're seeing is that no matter how many people you put in and no matter what you do, there's always the problem of having, you know, everything lined up.

You've got to effectively have the presidency and both houses of Congress. And that trifecta is becoming more and more difficult to pull off. Well, it's becoming— Usually, particularly on the state level, because you're losing the Senate, you get—you know, what's going to happen probably is the House is probably going to flip back to the Democrats, you know, by the beginning of this year. But then you have the problem of winning the states. And winning the states is a difficult thing, because the map is just—just have a lot

of red states there. And that's why we have a Senate, you know, that's effectively 50-50, even with two independents. But so there's that constant lack of strategy with certain things that have to bring this whole thing together. But you've got to realize it's set off by that national, that first national election, which really was lost. It was really lost because of misinfo, disinfo, and Comey's announcement against Hillary Clinton. Well, first of all, let's be clear. The 2016 election, there were multiple factors at play. First, Senator Elizabeth Warren chose not to run against Hillary Clinton.

I still believe had Senator Elizabeth Warren run, she would have beaten Clinton like Obama did in 2008. That's one. Two, you obviously had the email drama and the constant drumbeat of those stories. Then you had Comey dropping the letter late. Then you had Robbie Mook being a ridiculous campaign and her not stepping foot in Wisconsin one damn time, a state she lost by 10,000 votes. Them blowing off, having signs and things along those lines, even the people in Pennsylvania

and Michigan were demanding those things. But you also had a lot of people who were just like, nah, I can't vote for her, who were not thinking long term. And see, Greg, this is the thing that, again, I love when these simpletons come, man, you out here shilling for the Democrat. You out here sitting here book dancing for the Democrats. And I'm like, y'all are stupid because I'm looking at the map. I'm looking at the chessboard the way and who's searching for Bobby Fisher when Ben Kingsley knocked all the chips off and said, now read the board.

I'm telling you, I understand the board. There are 900-plus federal judges in this country. Biden and Harris has appointed about 150. They may get another 25 before the election is up this year. If Democrats win in 2024 and win in 2028, in those 12 years, they will have appointed more than half of all federal judges. They likely then will also be able to appoint replacements for Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas. Right now, it's a 6-3 conservative majority. If Democrats play long ball, they could actually pick up, again, over the next 12 years, three of those Supreme Court positions, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts.

So when the people say, oh, we've lost the court for the next 50 years, that's a lie. You lose the courts for the next 50 years if you're not paying attention to who controls the presidency and the United States Senate. And so then if you talk about the United States Senate, hey, what is the key? You're not going to win West Virginia. Manchin is not running because he's a weakling. That's off the board. You got to hold Sherrod Brown in Ohio. You got to hold Tester in Montana. You got to hold a seat in Nevada. That's what you have to do.

Then you go to the midterm elections. And so what I keep saying to these people, and yeah, this is one of the reasons why you don't see these networks calling me, who's actually talking to black people and doing interviews because they want to call celebrities all the damn time. We as black people must be strategic. We must not be emotional. We must not be sensitive to stuff. We must be studying the board and going, okay, I didn't get all that I wanted with Biden-Harris. What can I get in the second term? What can I get if they win in 2028? I know what I'm not going to get by Republicans. I know what I'm going to get from them, voter suppression.

I know I'm going to get a rollback of civil rights. I know all those different things. So my deal to our people is sit there and go, even with all these things happening, I totally understand Israel and Gaza, but let me be perfectly clear. You already had a Republican, okay, out of, what's the dude, out of Arizona who said, wipe all the Palestinians out. Let me be clear with y'all. Trump, Trump don't even think like Biden and Harris. He's going to say Netanyahu, yo, bulldoze all of it. It doesn't mean you do not push Biden to declare a ceasefire.

You do not push him on there. But we as black folks cannot be short sighted. We must be thinking the same way our ancestors did who were thinking the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years. Greg. Absolutely wrong. Again, I mean, maybe we all sound like a broken record. It bears ad infinitum. That is why this platform is not just essential. It is foundational for how we must be discussing these issues. Even as the Biden administration has authorized their representatives, the ambassadors of the U.N., to craft draft language for the U.N. Security Council on Gaza that is moving toward pushing

Israel to stop this genocide. They're not going to in the short term, but they have to do that. Why is Biden doing that? Because he's going to lose this election. And you know, what these white boys have done now, these white nationalists, these hillbillies, they have now dropped all pretenses. And it's exactly because of what you said. They put their federal bench in place, not just the Supreme Court, because the Supreme

Court only hears a fraction of federal cases. We all saw what happened down there, Lauren, where you are in Fairfax at Thomas Jefferson High School. The Supreme Court refused to hear this case that was decided this week on the program, the admissions schemata that allows for students to be accepted at Thomas Jefferson High School. Now, Alito and Thomas dissented because they want to dismantle everything. They cited, of course, what happened at the collegiate level. But I'm bringing all that up for a reason.

The white boy's strategy now is to drop all pretenses and throw everything they can in the courts. That's why this hillbilly chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court is quoting God in saying that embryos are people. That's why in Texas they're setting up a military base at the border. They're now going to do the egregious example. And if anybody thinks that Greg Abbott signing the Crown Act in Texas wasn't with a wink toward going to court and that this fool at the school there, Dr. what's his name, Dr. Poole, whatever the hell that is, wasn't already set up to do exactly what they're doing, in other words, just straight violate the law and get it into the court so they can have a crack at it at that 14th Amendment, then you're not paying attention. The egregious examples are the point at this point. They think they have a bench in place to be able to run their white supremacy Boston.

Now, what we are dealing with, and I was just in South Carolina. I was there Tuesday and much of the day on Wednesday. And by the way, everybody down there told me, tell you hello, Roland. I saw Mignon Clyburn Thursday night, Tuesday night. And so, when you look at a state like South Carolina, with the mush-mouthed senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott and Lil' Lynn, the number of black people in that state who if they would simply be organized and move in the tradition of South Carolina. We talk about Brown versus Board of Education, but it's really Briggs versus Elliott that sets that whole thing off. South Carolina doesn't have to look the way it does. Gary Chambers told you how many times Louisiana doesn't look like it does. But that's why, finally, this platform is so important. Helping our people understand that the only way we are going to prevent deeper harm to ourselves, forget the funky United States of America.

We're talking about self-preservation and self-defense. The only way we're going to do that is to get off the sidelines and get involved in the political process in every way, not just voting, organizing. What we saw with Reverend Barber, we are going to make the mistake of thinking that there are some rules in place. These white boys have no rule. They only have one rule, rule or ruin. They are now violating every law, thinking they've got a bench in place that's going to back them. And largely, they are not incorrect. A lot of times, the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding,

but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull

will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I need, before we close this segment off,

this is what I need folks watching to understand, people who are listening. You heard at the top of the show, the lawyer for the young brother in Texas with the locks. In the statement of the superintendent, they specifically referenced the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision and the 14th Amendment. To all y'all who are watching, the 14th Amendment. To all y'all who are watching,

the 14th Amendment is one of the three Reconstruction Amendments that were passed by the radical Republicans after the end of the Civil War. The 13th, the 14th, and the 15th Amendment. Why do conservatives hate the 14th Amendment? It's the Equal Protection Clause. In that particular amendment, it deals also with insurrections. Listen to what I'm saying.

If you look at most of our civil rights laws, the Equal Protection Clause, has been used in a variety of cases by the courts. The right, the white right, hates that the 14th Amendment exists. If you look at Samuel Alito, he and the ruling just the other day. Oh, well, if somebody before religious reasons is doesn't believe in homosexuality while they call a bigot. Y'all got to understand what they're setting up. that Ed Bloom, in suing the Fearless Fund, is using the 1866 Civil Rights Act against black people, which was a civil rights act that was put in place to ensure that black

people got economic opportunities. If y'all pay attention, you will see that Stephen Miller, that white nationalist who, if Trump wins, Trump is going to make him the attorney general. What does he do? He sues and blocks the funds for the black farmers. What y'all have to understand is that white nationalist Charlie Kirk, who attacks Dr. King, goes on the attack of saying the 1964 Civil Rights Act, that was a time when Republicans in the 60s were ardent supporters

of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Until there was a book written called The Conscience of a Conservative. See, some of y'all don't, see this is what happens when you're not paying attention. Barry Goldwater goes against the 64th Civil Rights Act, and he flips almost the entire Republican Party. So what you have to understand is they're attacking the 1866 Civil Rights Act,

the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They've been trying to erode and destroy the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, they've been trying to erode and destroy the 1965 Voting Rights Act. What they are looking at is how can they, by using the courts, literally dismantle all of the laws that have been the mechanisms we have used to be able to make this a more perfect union. And so while we are sitting around, many of us, talking about the Cat Williams interview and talking about the Monique interview and talking about Sexy Red and Glorilla and talking about all this other different stuff, we need to understand that what these people are doing are literally putting in places all of the pieces that then they could, one federal judge can invalidate a law. Oh, y'all forgot the Tennessee judge who ruled against the 8A program in the Small Business Administration.

A white woman sued who did not even apply for the program, but she got her money through a women's program, but she sued the one that was for black people and minorities. Y'all got to understand what's at play here. They are playing for keeps. And Leonard Leo got a billion plus dollars from a rich billionaire to use any way he wants to, and they are targeting. Black people, listen to me clearly. They have a bullseye on us.

They want to destroy the entire infrastructure that we fought for, bled for, died for, that has put us even in this position. I'm not saying it's perfect. We have not gotten all that we have wanted. But I can tell you this here. They want to get rid of not just affirmative action, but DEI. They want to get rid of any fellowships, any scholarships. They want to get rid of any programs that are there to bring in African-Americans and other minorities to be lawyers and doctors and dentists and engineers and pilots. Why do you think they were attacking the United CEO? Why do you think all of a sudden it became a big deal with Elon Musk out here on Twitter talking about, oh, these black pilots and Candace Owens

and Charlie Kirk. Man, y'all need to understand what's going on. And while we are being entertaining, while we are sitting here laughing and joking and loving all this sort of stuff, what they are doing is literally putting in place some of the most dangerous precedents and what y'all have to understand that's right if they invalidate section four of the voting rights act and then section two of the voting rights act you were sent you don't have to wipe the law off the books. All you got to do is get rid of the two most important things. See, some of y'all sitting here think we joking when the Eighth Circuit in Arkansas ruled that only the government can file suits on behalf of the Voting Rights Act. Do you know what that means? NAACP, LDF, Laws Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Transforming Justice Coalition,

the ACLU. That means that no black voters matter. Repairs of the breach. That means that no third-party group—y'all ain't listening. That means no third-party group, which constitutes nearly 98 percent of all lawsuits, can file a lawsuit using the Voting Rights Act. The federal government has only filed less than 20. This is happening before our very eyes. And so we're talking about these things because right now, y'all, in the nation's capital, in D.C. and Maryland and Virginia,

these think tanks and these conservative billionaires and these conservative lawyers and the Fairless Society and the Heritage Foundation and all of these entities, what they are doing is literally targeting this entire infrastructure, and they want to dismantle any and everything that has been beneficiary up to this point for African Americans and others. And if they could find some Asian Americans to sue Harvard and Yale, oh, they'll do it.

If they can find a few black people, War Connolly's of the world, and prop them up, they'll do it. See, a lot of y'all were laughing about War Connelly when they attacked affirmative action in California in the 90s. You now see what the game plan was. We had better wake the hell up and start watching shows like this who are teaching you every single day what's going on

because what you don't want to do is sit here and sit election out and blow these things off and then in a year or two or three or five go, what in the hell happened? Ask all these women. Ask all these women who believe that Roe v wade was set a law when the right was saying no no we're gonna we're gonna take care of this we're getting rid of this

and then the dobbs case the dobbs case they didn't ask to overturn roe v wade alito said we're going to do it. And if you read the opinions, they mentioned birth control. They mentioned these other different things. Y'all, the Alabama decision, it ain't about just in vitro. It's in vitro. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,

even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. It's birth control. It's plan B. It's all of it. Roe v. Wade happened—

Wake up! Roe v. Wade happened because white women voted in majority for Donald Trump, and then he appointed three conservative justices that flipped Roe v. Wade. And now we get to find out, at the end of this year, whether white women are going to vote in majority for Donald Trump again. These are the moments where you realize that some of the voting patterns on sides that we don't talk about—we're always talking about black voters. We're always—you know, when I say we, the media is obsessed with black voters.

But it was actually white women that messed up that election big time for Hillary Clinton and caused this situation where we had Donald Trump picking three members of the Supreme Court. And then that led to the flip of the road. We pre-wait. That's one of the biggest ironies of this entire thing. Yeah, but here's the deal, though. Yes, yes, 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump.

Yet we're analyzing black voters in the media. No, no, no. In the media generally. We're analyzing black voters in the media. In the media generally. We're analyzing black voters all the time. No, no, no. Here's the deal, though. White women are going to do what they do. But Greg said it earlier, which is what my focus is. There's some woman named Sarah Thompson on here. She go, all Roland cares about is race.

Sarah, let me be real clear. I care about black people. You damn skippy, I do. All I'm saying is when we do the right thing, we vote the right way, we turn out, which we did for Biden. We turned out. We put him in office. Black voters put Joe Biden in office. We do the right things every election cycle. And then it's another group that messes this thing up. I agree with you, but I have to add this. We are not maximizing our vote. Here's my whole point.

My whole point is this here. We vote our numbers. DeSantis is never governor. Facts. We vote our number. Again, that was a 50,000 voter drop off between black, between voters in Milwaukee for 2018 and 2022. Now, let me be clear. DNC got to do more. Candace got to do more. But the point that I'm making is I am not waiting for a party to speak to my interest when I'm speaking to my own interest. If 50,000 folks in Milwaukee vote in 2022, Senator Ron Johnson is not there. Democrat Mandela Barnes is.

So what Greg is talking about in South Carolina, and I'm talking about the same thing in North Carolina, if black people voted, Sherry Beasley is chief justice of the Supreme Court. If black folks maximize our numbers, Mike Epstein is U.S. Senator in Mississippi. If black people maximize our numbers in Texas, you can have a black United States Senator who beats Ted Cruz. And so I agree with you totally about that, Lauren. But if they vote there the way they do, but we take our numbers from 38, 40, 42, 45 to 68, 70, 75, we run the table. It's true. And I'm just trying to get black people to understand the larger picture of how they are strategically attacking all of the mechanisms that we have been able to build and grow.

Because if they're able to bring those down, it truly makes our lives a living hell. Greg, final comment before I got to go to the break. You know, I would just, again, echo everything that we've been talking about and, again, stress the importance of this platform. We all saw what happened yesterday in Arizona. The Maricopa County district attorney said she's not going to extradite a murder suspect to New York because she doesn't trust Alvin Bragg.

Alvin, a word for you, brother. You know, doing what you did with Jonathan Majors, as Lauren has walked us through, it's not going to save you. See, what you Negroes don't understand is that there's nothing you can do to save yourself as an individual. You can't appease them. You can't lock enough of us up. This white woman said she's going to violate federalism. She ain't sending the murder suspect. Extradition. Do y'all understand what's happening? There is no United States for white nationalists that they don't run.

Either they run it or there's no country. We are at the point now where they have dropped all pretenses. The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court quoting God in an opinion. There is no separation of church and state. Listen to what Roland is saying. It's very important. Now, you say

this ain't about in vitro. This is about control. We're going to tell you women what to do with your bodies and you inwards. We're going to make you shave your head and then we're going to pass a law to say you can't be in vitro. This is about control. We're going to tell you women what to do with your bodies and you inwards. We're going to make you shave your head and then we're going to pass a law to say you can't be ballheaded. It ain't got nothing to do with anything other than control. And if you don't want to have to fight in a way that everybody bigfooting and loud mouthing like they're going to go out here and start a revolution. Well, you know what? You might get your chance and it might be

right around the corner if you don't take another tack. And that's really where the rubber meets the road. So I'm just going to co-sign everything y'all said. Hold tight. One second. Going to break. We come back. We're going to talk about you hear us talk about local elections and why they matter. So we're going to talk about an election

in Harris County, Houston that again, somebody might think I don't understand, what's the big deal? It's a perfect example of why every election matters. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. You heard why we're marching, and it's really a launch. It's not even a march. We're launching a 42-week campaign. March the 2nd at 10 o'clock in Raleigh and 33 other state capitals and the District of Columbia. This is a historic move to mobilize the most powerful untapped block of voters in this country, poor and low wealth voters, who make up 87 million votes. And it's never been tried before.

Never been tried before in history. At the same time, same message, same focus. When that power turns loose, they will not be able to figure out the political calculus. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to shake things up. I'm ready to get up out of the valley. I'm ready for God to put his spirit on us. I'm ready to be used to change this nation. And what we're saying is, can't we come together? Can't we come together around an agenda? You ain't got to like everything about Rembobber. You don't have to like everything about Sangria. You don't have to like everything about Longprior.

But can we come together and say it's time to end poverty as the fourth leading cause of death. It's time to have $15 at a living wage indexed with inflation so every time inflation goes up, the minimum wage goes up. It's time to have health care for all. It's time to fully fund public education. Can't we come together? It's time to protect women's rights to women's health.

It's time. It's time to have affordable housing for everybody. It's time to stop the proliferation of guns. Ain't no way folk ought to be able to have more guns than they have food, more guns than they have meat on their table. That makes no sense. Isn't it time for division to be

ended and love to take over? Can't we organize around that? Look at your neighbors. Neighbor, I don't need to like everything about you, but can't we organize for power? can't we organize for power? Can't we stand for justice? Can't we love everybody for just a little while?

Can't we come out of the valley? Can these bones live? We're all together. We're all together. We're all together. We're all together. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson.

And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, local elections. You hear us say local, local, local, local matter, and so we're not just talking about mayor, city council. We're not talking about just county commissioners. We're talking about district attorneys. We're talking about judges. We're talking about municipal judges. We're talking about all sorts of different things, including tax assessors. So you might be saying, well,

hold on, hold on. I'm sorry. I mean, what? So the Harris County, Texas tax assessor collector, Claude Cummings III, is running. Now, I'm doing this because, again, I'm talking about these races that we don't necessarily think about, because when we vote down ballot, the number is high up top and it gets smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller. And so one of the reasons why we were not in those positions is because a lot of us just skip right over going, I don't know what that is. So joining us right now is Claude Cummings III. So Claude, for people who don't know, what does the Harris County Tax Assessor Collector do? Good, good, good, good evening. Thank you for having me on the show.

And that is a very important question, Roland, because what I spend most of my time doing, not talking about my platform, not talking about how I want to help people, but I spend most of my time explaining to people what exactly the Harris County Tax Assessor does. And what I like to tell people is that the Tax Assessor's office is the most powerful position in Harris County that no one talks about. The Harris County Tax Assessor is in control of every piece of land in Harris County. We are responsible for telling people how much taxes they're going to pay. We're responsible for vehicle registration, and we're also responsible for voter registration in Harris County. Wait, hold on.

What? The Harris County Tax Assistance Collector is responsible for voter registration in Harris County? How? Voter registration, as you remember, as I know you can recall, that was once a time when we had to pay a poll tax. Tax. Yep. Tax.

And Harris County is still holding on to that tradition. So the voter registration is still in the office of tax assessor collective. So in the history, has there ever been an African-American tax assessor in Harris County? There has been an African-American female and she is no longer running. Hence why I am running for the spot. So I am seeking to become the first African-American male to hold the spot. And again, when we talk about elected office, when you talk about how benches are created, folks run for positions like this and then might run for city controller, might run for other different things.

And so these are what we call entry positions, if you will, into the political space. Yes, but it's a very important one, Roland, because again, what we're talking about is land. What do we know about land? Land is the one thing that we're not producing. We're not making any more of. And so when you talk about land, it's important to put someone in this position who wants to have access to the land for the right reason. You don't want to put a realtor. You don't want to put an investor, you don't want to put anyone in this position who is going to bring harm to the community and not help the community.

So although this is a down ballot race, although this may be an entry position into a larger role within the county or within county governments, it's also a very instrumental one. Questions from the panel. Lauren, you first. Does Harris County have a car tax? Yes, we do. Oh, wow. So you collect the car taxes as well?

We collect the vehicle registration tax. Wow. All right. That's all I need to know. I was just curious. Thanks. Great. You're on mute? Sorry about that, Roland. Thank you, brother. And thank you, Brother Cummings. I want to ask you a quick question. I know in your current work, you are dealing with, among other things, job readiness and affordable housing.

Could you tell us a little bit about how this new position might help us around the issue of affordable housing? We had the governor of the Virgin Islands on earlier. And, you know, that's an unsolvable situation in the Virgin Islands simply because the wealthy have control. And, you know, there's only so much that the poor can do. They can't lift themselves out of poverty. How might you use this new position to help in terms of, you know, access to things like affordable housing? Sure. Well, first and foremost, what I want to do is I want to make sure people don't lose their homes because they can't afford to pay taxes. As you all know, gentrification in our historically black neighborhoods is running rapid. And we know that that's taking place because the majority of the times we didn't pay our property taxes and the land was auctioned off. The house that we own, our generational wealth, was removed by a bulldozer. An investor came in, erected some $400,000, $500,000 house

that no one could afford. And so that eliminates that individual being able to come into a neighborhood that they grew up in because they cannot afford to keep that property. And so what I would like to do is, when we talk about affordable housing, let's say that someone decides that, hey, I don't want to keep my property. I just want to let it go. I'm not concerned about paying the taxes. It's old. What I would like to do is work with a non-profit organization who would like to maybe purchase that property at face value and then rebuild some affordable housing. That way, some of the same people who grew up in the neighborhood can return back and live in the neighborhood and afford to stay in the home.

Yes. Thank you. All right, then. Well, look, Clark, good luck with it. Again, I just want more of our folks to understand, no matter where they live to think about top to bottom bottom to top uh when they are voting uh because all the races are critical and and i love these people who who yell do for self do for self i want the government in my life and i keep telling them there is no aspect of your life none i don't care who you are, that government does not play some

form of role. Right. And as I mentioned, if you don't mind, real quickly, as it pertains to voter registration, what I'm going to do to motivate our people to vote, younger people to vote is, is I'm going to play this video of Roland Martin unfiltered because they need to understand what is at stake when we don't vote. They need to understand what's at stake when they don't register to vote. It is more about letting your voice be heard and understanding that choosing not to vote is just like choosing for those things,

which are going to hurt our communities. And so it is important for us to understand our voice is our power and to vote. We have to do more to get out and encourage people to vote. And that is something that I want to do as a tax assessor collector. Go and meet the people in their communities, engage them where they are, and encourage them to sign up to vote. And not only register the vote, but every opportunity, every local election as well as nationwide election, let your voice be heard through your vote. All right. Paul Cummings III. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for voice be heard through your vote. All right.

Claude Cummings III. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. So very much. Thank you. Folks, coming back real quick, we're going to talk about the lawsuit that Ben Crump has filed against

Navy Credit Union, the nation's largest credit union. That's next on Rolling Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. See your chicken money. Order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Cash out. Dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. For the last 15 or maybe 16, 18 years, I'll say, since when I moved to L.A., I hadn't had a break.

I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there. Right. This year, after I got finished doing Queen's, you're going to be wrapping up. Because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time. So I'm going to take a little break. So I've been on break for the first time, and I can afford it. You know what I'm saying

So I can afford it I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about But this was the first time In almost two decades That I've actually had time to sit back And smell the roses next on the frequency with me d barnes the amazing drew dixon she gives us the details behind the hbo documentary that shed light on the alleged sexual assaults by russell simmons and we're talking about the netflix documentary ladies first right here on the frequency on the alleged sexual assaults by Russell Simmons. And we're talking about the Netflix documentary,

Ladies First, right here on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from LA. And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation, you and me. We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard.

Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard talk show. You're watching Rolling Mark. Until tomorrow. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on,

why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

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

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

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

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

And to hear episodes one week early And ad free with exclusive content Subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Folks, Paige Jones has been missing from Ogden, Utah since February 4th. The 15-year-old is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Paige Jones is urged to call the Ogden, Utah Police Department at 801-395-8221, 801-395-8221. The nation's largest credit union is being sued for allegedly having discriminatory lending practices. A lawsuit filed by civil rights attorney Ben Crump says the Navy Federal Credit Union

has the most significant loan approval gap between black and white applicants among the top 50 lenders nationwide. According to the filing, Navy Federal Credit Union approved more than 75% of white borrowers who applied for a new conventional home purchase mortgage in 2022, while approving less than 50% of black borrowers for mortgages. They had a news conference today. Crump said this. Black Americans make up only 8.8% of homeowners and across the industry and more low-income white applicants are approved

than all but the highest income black applicants. As a result of race-based factors, and Hispanic borrowers have paid $765 million more in interest rate per year than white borrowers. Just to make it clear and bring it home, in 2022, Navy Federal, as it relates to black borrowers were approved for mortgage loans only at 48%. That means they denied as 52% of the time. Latino borrowers were only approved 56%

of the time. While white borrowers were approved 77% of the time. Folks, I'll start with you, Greg. I mean, the reason these suits are important is because of something called discovery. And what happens is these companies can say

whatever they want to in press releases, but when you have to go through discovery, you've got to provide documents. You've got to sit and provide emails, and that typically is where the good stuff is located. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's a very important point you're raising, Roland. And every lawyer knows it. Every legal scholar knows it. Filing a lawsuit isn't always about an immediate victory. Like you said, can we get into the documents?

Can we get into the transcripts? Can we get into the conversations, the emails? And that is often where the good stuff is. You know, what is particularly disturbing about Navy Federal is that if you're a veteran, if you're the child of a veteran, myself, you know, my father, my brother's father and sister's father was a veteran of World War II, an Army veteran. Then you're supposed to have access to this. I mean, one of the things that struck me, and we heard Attorney Crump there say it, but it warrants re-saying. federal approved a higher percentage of applications from white borrowers making less than $62,000 a year than it did from black borrowers making $140,000 a year.

There's no way to explain that. There's no way to explain that other than this is how race operates. And we know that to be sure. But as you have just said, in conclusion, when you get discovery, you can then begin to track down the individuals who said this policy, who put this policy in conclusion. When you get discovery, you can then begin to track down the individuals who said this policy, who put this policy in place. You can see the comments they made. You can see the attitudes they made. You can see the decisions they made on individual cases. And you can align that a pattern. Now, after that, of course, we have to take action

because it isn't just enough to know one act to change the world. Lauren? Yeah, I don't know that we need discovery, actually. This is like the fifth or sixth story we've seen in the last, what, 10 years about bank loan discrimination and African Americans. We know what the discovery is going to show us. We know that. In fact, what Ben Crump said effectively is what is—what's going to be backed up in discovery if they get that far. I'm wondering what the damage awards would be, should they win the case.

I don't know that they can go back to everybody that was trying to borrow money who couldn't get it and was trying to buy a house, for example. And this entire moment just sort of makes me think about Tulsa and the fact that we have to control our own banks and our own money and our own banking system to get what we want, because this problem keeps coming back over and over again, whether we win these cases or not. I'm glad that there's a lawsuit, but it seems like the same cycle is taking hold over and over again, where we just get to the next bank and the next

case and that the bigger thing never actually changes. So that's what we call being black in America. Yeah. Well, I think that until we control banks and have our own banks, I think we're going to be having this conversation over and over again. And it's tiresome. And as somebody who—I have several family members who bank at Navy Federal Credit Union, because my sister is career Navy. She's in the Navy for 20 years. And my mother—you know, when you bank at Navy Federal, your family members, even your, like, extended, extended family can get an account at Navy Federal so my mother has an account etc and so on so I just think that you know this spinning around over and over again talking about these

stories that sort of come up again and again like this unless there's a systematic solution this conversation just sort of never ends but the reality also is that listen it goes it comes with a capacity. And frankly, our black banks and black credit unions are not big enough. That's what it goes to. And so the bottom line is, I mean, again. Didn't we do it in Tulsa? Huh? No.

Didn't Tulsa, didn't we have our black banks in Tulsa before it was burned down? Yep, yep. You had that, but that was 1921. And what I'm saying, well, I mean, if we can do it in 1921, it seems like we do it now. And what I'm saying is far easier said than done. And the reality is it is going to take mass. I fundamentally believe this. It's going to take massive lawsuits against these states, not funding HBCUs against any discriminatory practice, you name it. Those things have to happen. And we got to target everybody, ad agencies, other companies.

If they're shorting us of the money, we got to take them down. So we'll see what happens with this lawsuit. Lauren, Greg, I appreciate y'all being on today's show, folks. Thank you so very much. I thank you for watching as well. Be sure to support us in what we do. I say this all the time, y'all, and it's no joke. Our expenses are $195,000 a month. This show, Faraj Muhammad's show,

Wealthy You, Balanced Living, Stephanie Humphrey, The Pivot, Greg Carr's show, Dee Barnes' show. I can go on and on and on. We want to add shows,

but y'all, we need your support. While we were sitting here on the set, Vice.com shut down. They're going to be laying off hundreds of their people. They're totally getting rid of their website. And so we cannot depend on anybody else telling our story. We can't.

So your support is critical. So your check and money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. YouTube folks, if y'all not hit the like button, hit the like button, y'all. That impacts the algorithm. That impacts the money we make. So please, please, if you can do that, also download the Black Star Network app, y'all. We should be at 100,000 downloads.

We launched this September 4, 2021. Here we are in February 2024. Let's get it done. Download the Black Star Network app on your Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. And, of course, please support my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds Available at Bookstores Nationwide. Folks, thanks a bunch. I'll see you all tomorrow right here on Rolling Mark, non-filtered. Holla!

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

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. Thank you. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real.

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