#RolandMartinUnfiltered - TN TSU Management Hearing, LSU's First Black Bass Fishing Teammate, Thomas W. Dortch Jr Funeral

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

2.27.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: TN TSU Management Hearing, LSU's First Black Bass Fishing Teammate, Thomas W. Dortch Jr Funeral Tennessee lawmakers held a management hearing this morning following the release of a state audit on Tennessee State University management's handling of the recent influx of students on campus. We will speak with a Tennessee state representative about what happened today and how black lawmakers are helping ensure that the state takes accountability for its role in the TSU student housing crisis. A Black Louisiana student-athlete made history as the first to receive a scholarship for bass fishing. We will speak with him about the new Discover Boating campaign 'See You Out Here, and how he is changing the perspective for other students. Nigeria is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis and is looking to the US for help. We will speak with the Founder & CEO of the Nigerian Center to explain what we can do to aid Nigerian Citizens stuck in the crisis. We lost civic leader Thomas W Dortch Jr this month. We will honor his life by showing some of his celebration of life & legacy ceremony. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Monday, February 27, 2023. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. I'm live here in Austin, Texas. In Nashville, Tennessee lawmakers questioned the management and financial practices at Tennessee State University. What is going on with all of a sudden Tennessee officials jamming up TSU? Are they trying their best to take over that HBCU?

We will show you what took place at today's hearing. Also, a black Louisiana student becomes the first one in history to get a scholarship for bass fishing. We'll talk with him on the show. Also, Nigeria is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. We'll talk with the founder and CEO of the Nigerian Center about how people can help and explain what is going on

in that African nation. And also on Saturday, the funeral was in Atlanta for Tommy George Jr., the Atlanta businessman, major HBCU champion. We will have a look back at what took place in his home-going service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin and Filcher

on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics

With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah, yeah With Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real

The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin All right, folks, today in Tennessee, lawmakers, they held a public hearing to discuss if they're going to vacate and restructure Tennessee State University's Board of Trustees and hire new administrators. This afternoon, a scathing report from the state comptroller complaining about various issues at the university. Now, the state Senate ad hoc committee, they met last Thursday with 200 TSU alum students and parents providing pushback to an audit by the Tennessee Comptroller Jason Munpower.

Munpower accused the university of being unprepared to handle the sudden influx of students causing a housing crisis. Lawmakers tasked the Comptroller's Office with examining the spike in enrollment after several students and parents filed complaints with the state. Joining us now is Tennessee State Representative Vincent Dixie. He joins us right now. Representative Dixie, glad to have you here. So, okay, today's hearing, was that an open forum? Was it broadcast? Were people able to actually see it?

And what took place? Yes, it was an open forum. So it was a regular committee meeting that we had. People were able to sign up, and we had six speakers from the community that spoke, and they spoke very well and very highly and very supportive of Tennessee State University. So basically at the end of the day, what happened, they recommended to the full committee that the sunset hearing be set out for a year. They laid out some parameters, which TSU agreed to make the majority of them to the majority of what was going on. So we have some issues that we can work out. We have some goals to move toward.

But I think the heavy lifting is just about done. We have one more meeting to go through, and then we should be able to fulfill the mission of educating Black students going forward. All right. So they complained they were not ready for the influx. But let's also be honest. The issue is that Tennessee State was owed $500 million from the state. They've only gotten $250 million. When are lawmakers going to give the other $250 million so they can do their job? First, I want to back up. I want to just be clear. The first 250 million have not been received yet. It has not been received yet. So this is kind of where it kind of gets interesting for me, is that TSU received an audit last year, and it came through just regular mundane

findings that you would find in any university audit. And it was fine. They had the recommendations. It was okay. It really didn't become an issue until Dr. Glover started requesting this money. And they had some prerequisites in order for us to get this money. Dr. Glover balked a little bit because she didn't think that was fair. And then that's when this review came into play. And I find it suspicious. I find it suspect that we did it this time. But I hope that what this community learned and I hope people across the nation learn, that when you step up and advocate and people show up, this is what this is the outcome

that you get. You can impact the outcome. And that's what we did. And we did it in a positive manner. Well, you can impact the outcome, but the reality is it shouldn't have come to that. And not only that, lawmakers previously questioned Tennessee State for why all of a sudden these black students are going there and not other state universities. It is why all of a sudden these black students are going there and not other state universities. It is if all of a sudden by asking for the money and have a dramatic, you know, increase in enrollment that TSU has a bullseye on his back.

Well, anytime you excel, you know this better than I do. Anytime you excel, you put a target on your back. And that's exactly what happened. When you start to exhibit excellence, you become a target for other people. And you know we have to cross our T's and dot our I's and do everything twice as better than anybody else in this world. This is just—we shouldn't have never been here to begin with. This was egregious. It was heavy-handed at best. And we should have never been here. When you look at the optics of it, it appears that now that you increase the scholarship money, which the state didn't increase and add one penny to it, that it was all accumulated by Dr. Glover and TSU's efforts. Now it went from $6 million to $28 million. The optics says, oh, it's a problem. Now we want to educate more black students.

That's the problem now. So that it just it looks suspect at best. OK, so what what is next? Because I'm getting getting calls from different people who are who are saying that, look, that they still are concerned that these white officials, these white Republicans in Tennessee are going to try to make a move against Tennessee state. So the next step in this procedure is next Monday, I think at 1.30, they have what's called the Government Operations Committee at Beats.

And this committee that met today made the recommendation. And hopefully their Government O ops committee, operation committee, will follow that recommendation, and it'll still give Tennessee State a year in order to input what they said they would input in order to make the university run a little bit smoother going forward for this next year. And then that should be the end of it for at least one more year. Yeah, but I mean, I get that. But what this does is it sort of puts Tennessee state on this sort of like shot clock, if you will. And again, they're trying to make do with little. And I guarantee you, University of Tennessee, they're not having these funding problems. Not at all.

And again, when you look at the $544 million that was owed to Tennessee State University over these years, imagine where we would be right now. Imagine all the research that could have been done. We have already went from a research level two to a research one, and that's the highest level that you can get in a research facility. And it comes with millions of dollars of grants. We did that with no, really no support from the state.

And this is amazing what TSU has done so far. So you're right. It's time for Tennessee to pay up and not put strings attached to this money and let us govern ourselves the way that we know how to govern ourselves and not put strings attached to this money and let us govern ourselves the way that we know how to govern ourselves and know how to make, how to achieve excellence, because that's what we do. Tennessee is about excellence. All right, Representative Dixie, we appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. All right. Thank you for having me. All right. My panel, Dr. Julian Malveaux, Dean of College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, L.A., President Emerita Bennett College, Atama Kongo Dabenga, Senior Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University, Renee Shannon, Georgia State Representative. Glad to have all three of you here.

So, Julian, I'll start with you. As the representative said, they're quite mysterious. All of a sudden, let's now examine the administration, the finances of Texas, Tennessee State when they decide to say, where's our 500 million? Exactly. I mean, this is just nonsense. Glenda Glover, Dr. Glover, the president, has been doing an excellent job as president of TSU. And as the young man said, the representative said, taking from a research two to a research one qualifies you for all kinds of federal funds that you might not ordinarily get. So she's been successful. What it is is, we know what it is. Let's go back to Reconstruction. As soon as black people become successful, white people become envious, nasty, and snatching, snatching away.

So what's going to happen, unfortunately, Roland, is that imposing all these audit conditions is going to take effort away from the real work that needs to be done at TSU and at any other college. And you know what cracked me up? I glanced at the report. I didn't read the whole thing. What cracked me up, so people are upset because there's not enough dormitory space.

Hey, that's a victory. If there's not enough dorm space, that means that enrollment has exceeded expectations. But beyond that, tell me another university that hasn't had dorm space issues in the past decade. Even some of our elites, PWI elites have had to put students in hotels and do things like that. So it's just a double standard and it's nonsensical. And I hope that the brother who spoke, the representative, stands strong for TSU because it's worth saving. Black colleges have been attacked this way, that way, and the other way, and it's got to stop. I'm a Congo.

You know, I think that this is indicative of a representative of a greater problem. And we're seeing with this cultural backlash or anything relating to black studies, we talk about it with Ron DeSantis in Florida, these politicians and these leaders and these board, they're looking at every single way possible to try to target what we're doing because they also notice that more and more students are enrolling in HBCUs than ever before, than in a very long time because of the way the racial climate is going in this country. Parents are seeing the backlash that's happening towards their kids' education. Kids are seeing what's happening as well. And they are retreating to spaces that they see are safe. And to be quite honest, Roland, and you know this better than anybody, the way the stories are painted out there about what's happening there, they're painting it as a story primarily of mismanagement. At the bottom of one

article I was reading, it mentioned the fact that TSU never got the money that it was promised after talking about all of these other issues that are happening at the university and making it look like it's the fault of the leadership. And so the average person will see that and just be like, oh, another Black university. They don't know how to handle their students. And so it's really important that we got the Black Star Network here to really point out what's actually going on. We're seeing this on a university level. We're seeing it with places like Jackson, Mississippi. They're looking for ways to come into Black spaces and Black leadership and just take over. And we have to continue to fight and continue to expose this for the sake of our students and for the sake of all of the places that we are attempting to create to be safe for

Black people, especially Black children. You're always going to follow the money, Renita. Absolutely. And I agree with Dr. Malveaux. Other PWI universities have had issues with dorm problems, and this has gone back for a really long time. I remember being at the University of Florida around the year 2000, and there were dorm issues. So that is not something that is unique to HBCUs. But I really hope that the black representatives in Tennessee know what time it is, because I don't think that this HBCU is being targeted just because it is excellent. There is a history, especially in states that are under Republican control, conservative control, of them going after things that are very profitable, that black people have built,

things that they just want to take control of. There is a history of them doing this. So you look right here in Georgia, we have had attempts for the Republicans to try to take over our Atlanta airport, which has produced more black millionaires and has been really a big source for black people to grow wealth.

Here in the state, they have consistently tried to take over the airport. We've seen attempts from Republicans to try to take over the voting efforts in Fulton County, the election boards. So any way you slice it, when black people are having full control of something, it is often that we see that these legislatures that are Republican control, essentially being controlled by almost all white men, you see that they want to come in and take over what is black and control it. So I hope they're being smart about what is really happening. All right, folks, hold tight one second. I got to go to a break.

We'll be back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. YouTube folks, hit that like button. Same on Facebook, also on the app. And of course, download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. We'll be right back. coach. The wealth gap has literally not changed in over 50 years, according to the Federal Reserve. On the next Get Wealthy, I'm excited to chat with Jim Castleberry, CEO of Known Holdings. They have created a platform, an ecosystem to bring resources to Blacks and people of color so they can scale their business.

Even though we've had several examples of African-Americans and other people of color being able to be successful, we still aren't seeing the mass level of us being lifted up. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We featured the brand new work of Professor Angie Porter, which simply put, is a revolutionary reframing of the African experience in this country. It's the one legal article everyone, I mean everyone, should read.

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

Who are we to each other? The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe as African people. That's next on The Black Table, here on The Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, I wrote my book, White but I've been saying since 2009 what we're seeing. And we keep seeing this even when it comes to mainstream and social media.

So you take former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. This is this idiot who's a now Fox News contributor. If you want to know how she is absolutely a right wing extremist, listen to this nonsense. Judging people, hiring people, selecting people based on race, which is really, let's be clear how serious of a problem this is. It's based on genetics, race, based on your blood, your genes. And where do we see that connection? Well, these are the very same geneticist core principles embodied by Nazism and Adolf Hitler. And this should be something that is sickening and alarming to every single Democrat and every single American. We have seen where this philosophy can lead.

The American people deserve so much more. I'm confused what the hell she's even talking about, but let me go ahead and walk this thing through. Tucker Carlson previously complained about, um, president Biden's judicial nominees and he felt they were too black. So what you have is you have folks like Tulsi who don't like to see black people hired. So what they do is they complain by saying, oh, look, they're hiring all these black people.

We seen Bill Maher complain about old people being chosen because of their race or their gender. See, when you start choosing educated, honest, accomplished non-white people, namely non-white men, white people have a problem because they've had this for years. It literally is the thesis of my book, White Fear. They cannot handle seeing people of color get opportunities because

they actually think all jobs are theirs. All opportunities are theirs. Then, of course, you got the nut Scott Adams of Dilbert cartoon. He decides to post an absolutely strange video and says white people stay away from black people. Listen to this nonsense rasmussen poll uh had a uh provocative little poll today they said uh do you agree or disagree with the statement uh it's okay to be white? That was an actual question. Rasmussen asked white and black voters, and probably others, do you disagree or agree with the statement, it's OK to be white?

26% of blacks said no. It's not OK to be white 21 percent weren't sure add them together that is 47 percent of black respondents were not willing to say it's okay to be white that that actually that's like a real poll. This just happened. Did you have any idea? Would you have imagined that that could have happened? So I realized, as you know, I've been identifying as black for a while, years now, because I like to be on the winning team,

and I like to help. And I always thought, well, if you help the black community, that's sort of the biggest lever. You can find the biggest benefit. So I thought, well, that's the hardest thing and the biggest benefit, so I'd like to focus a lot of my life resources in helping black Americans so much so that I started identifying as black to just be on the team I was helping but it turns out that nearly half of that team doesn't think I'm okay

to be white which is of course why I identified as black because so I could be on the winning team for a while. But I have to say, this is the first political poll that ever changed my activities. I don't know that that's ever happened before. Normally you see a poll, you just look at it, you go, eh, whatever. Oh, this is interesting what other people think.

But as of today, I'm going to re-identify as white because I don't want to be a member of a hate group I had accidentally joined a hate group so if you know nearly half of all blacks are not okay with white people according to this poll not according to me according to this poll that's a hate group that's a hate group And I don't want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people.

Just get the fuck away. Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there's no fixing this. This can't be fixed. Right? This can't be fixed. You just have to escape. So that's what I did.

I went to a neighborhood where I have a very low black population. Because unfortunately, there's a high correlation between the density. This is according to Don Lemon, by the way. So here I'm just quoting Don Lemon when he notes that when he lived in a mostly black neighborhood there were a bunch of problems that he didn't see in white neighborhoods. So even Don Lemon sees a big difference in your own quality of living based on where you live and who's there. Well, things did not go well for the racist Scott Adams. First and foremost, his syndicator, Andrews McMill Universal, they have severed their relationship with him. Hundreds of newspapers nationwide have dropped his comic strip Dilbert, including the L.A. Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the San Antonio Express News, uh, defend the comments. Um, and, uh, according to this story here by Monday morning, Adams no longer appeared in searches on go comics and Dilbert comics were gone from the

website. Um, and then let's see here. So, and he's complaining, Oh my goodness, I've been canceled. And, uh, again, again, just, just then of course, of course, no shock that Elon Musk, who's from South Africa. White members of Africa basically the supports Adams saying what's wrong with what he said. Now, his was interesting. He was commenting on a Rasmussen poll. Now, Rasmussen has pretty much been a right-wing poll for quite some time. And so this is a piece that's in the Washington Post here that I find to be interesting. And this is what they said on Macongo. It said that if Rasmussen polled 1,000 people, they likely only polled 136 black people, which means the poll has a margin of error of 8%.

But see, the thing that I love about what's going on right now, and I'll say this again, what happened January 6th, I appreciate the races of 2023 showing us exactly who they are. And that's what Scott Adams has done. Absolutely. And I'm seeing people say, oh my gosh, what happened to Dilbert? And what happened to Scott Adams? I can't believe this. And my response was nothing happened to him. He just showed us who he was. And as Dr. Maya Angelou said, someone shows you who they are. Believe him the first time. And so he got into issues last week, last year or a year or two ago when he was making comments about reparations as well. And so he wants to talk about cancel culture. This, as Dino Badajoz said, it's not cancel culture, it's consequence culture. This is a different time period. And when you tie it into what Towson Gabbard was saying as well, with her ignorance and self-hate, given that she's part Samoan as well.

And we see that these people feel for some reason emboldened to get out there and say whatever they want and basically target anything relating to diversity. And for him to say, oh, I wanted to be on the winning side. So I said I was black for a while. I mean, how ignorant and disgraceful and despicable is that? We see with this man that really at the end of the day, he says, oh, people are going to call me racist. But let's see, Roland, what networks or what organizations are going to pick him up? Because I guarantee you the only ones that will are going to be ones that have some type of racist bent. So if you're not racist, why are you going to go inside with them? Because I'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen. And regardless of this poll, right, if I saw a poll that said 50 percent of white people hated black people, I would focus

on the 50 percent of black people who like white people who like black people and respect black people. And I would work to build with them. So for him to sit there and say all black people are a hate group because of this ridiculous survey from the first place and then target those ones who say they're uncomfortable with whiteness and the like, he is looking for any excuse to just justify his racism. That's why he also brought Don Lemon in there, because he said, see, I'm even quoting a black guy here to kind of justify what I'm saying. And even that was a misquotation as well.

And so what we need to do, Roland, is make sure that every network, every newspaper, every outlet that had him is making sure that they no longer every newspaper, every outlet that had him is making sure that they no longer have him if they haven't cut him already. Because there are going to be some that are going to try to get by Roland. There are going to be some that are going to try to let this blow over because of his popularity. Yeah, the thing. We can't let him.

Hold on one second. I've got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to pick it up again. But I need people to understand what is at play here. It is no shock you're seeing this as a recurring theme. We need to understand why and how to combat it. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered 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 capital 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 rise 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 beer. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Eldie Barge. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon,

and you're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. So the thing I want people to understand here, and this is why I played all of that, what he had to say, and then I put the Tulsi Gabbard comment. It's why I wrote the book, White Fear, how the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. You now look at what's happening with the University of North Carolina system. They now want to get rid of DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion. We talked last week about what's happening in Oklahoma,

what's happening in Texas, in Florida. The Supreme Court hearing a case dealing with the issue of affirmative action in Ivy League schools. Also, the Supreme Court today hearing oral arguments dealing with President Biden's student loan forgiveness. And you had individuals who actually sued the president on the grounds that these that the loan forgiveness will benefit black students more than anybody else. So the reason this stuff matters, Julian, is because I need people to see that this is not just, well, a one-off. What we are seeing is a wholesale attack on black and minority progress over the past 50-plus years. are white conservatives, white conservative Republicans, using their power, controlling state legislatures,

which means that you're controlling state university systems. We're seeing through the lawsuits, they do not want to see advancement, any further advancement from African Americans, from Latinos, from Asian Americans, Native Americans, anybody non-white. That is the assault that we are seeing and too many people are not paying attention to this. I told everybody what the critical race theory attack was about. That was a small piece. It is way bigger.

You're absolutely right. And what I'm most assertive about is the lack of critical thinking or critical reporting on the part of the mainstream media. I mean, so as you said, if they surveyed a thousand people, probably 136 of them were black, but you can lie with statistics. So the question is, is it okay to be white? Well, no, it's not okay for me to be white because I don't want to be.

So how you phrase the question perhaps predicts your answer. And basically, you know, he's a one-off. We're not even thinking about him. But we are thinking about the systematic ways that black people, brown people, people of color have been sidelined systematically. I mean, we started out talking about TSU, sidelined, talking about what's happening, critical race theory attacks, attacks on ethnic studies. People do not want to know the truth. I mean, just yesterday, I was in Section 14 here in L.A. It's in Palm Springs, where they burned Black people out. They literally burned people out of their homes. That's a story that they don't want to tell. And,

you know, Reva Martin has been leading the effort for these folks to get some reparations. And the old white people are like, well, but but you know, we didn't do it on purpose. Oh, no. The fire department sat and watched black homes burn, but they didn't do it on purpose. But there's so many incidents like this, so many stories, and they're not stories, so much reality that they don't want to hear

because when they confront it, what they do, it's like they have to deny it. But they don't have to deny it. What they have to do is say, this happened, it. But they don't have to deny it. What they have to do is say this happened, let's own it and let's fix it. But fixing it, you know, is too much for some. That's what student loan, you know, majority, not the majority. About half of those loans are held by people of color.

Biden did a good thing by targeting those loans, forgivenessate, forgiveness to people who had PELs. That means that people had lower income. What's the resistance there? Why are you fighting, filing lawsuits about young people having some relief so that they can put money into the economy that everybody says they're worried about? Come on now. Roland, you're absolutely right. And your book is so important when you talk about white fear, because we've been living it daily in terms of the pushback, the, oh, gee, don't we have freedom of speech? You know, that kind of thing. It literally is the reality that we're living in. And we have to, day before last of Black History Month Theme, Black resistance. We must resist. You know, Renita, again, I hope our people are understanding what is going on here. And what we are seeing, this is not going to end. This is going to intensify. They're going to use the courts, the legislature, every way possible. And what they really want to go after, because you keep hearing these elite institutions, they don't like the fact that black women are being educated at a higher rate than anybody else.

They don't like the fact that we are advancing. And so, oh, if we're able to attack the institutions, we can slow down black folks from graduating from college. We can slow down what's going on and we can hold onto this as long as we can, which is why I wrote in white fear, black folks of the minorities must be fortifying ourselves in the present for the attacks that are about to happen. Absolutely. And you know what? I actually don't care how many people Vasmussen polled to get their opinion of whiteness, because whiteness has not been good for Black people in this country. It has led to white supremacy. And so for Scott Adams to complain about this,

has he ever thought about how often Black people get told in this country that white people don't really care that anything good happens for us? It happens every election cycle. We continue to see the majority of white folks vote for people who are running openly anti-black campaigns and open campaigns that are against any person of color. So to me, his rant really just seemed like a continuation of Miss Milley from Color Purple when she was hugging the tree saying, I've been good to you people. Furthermore, if he has been identifying as Black, that doesn't help Black people. And if he actually identified as Black on any government form, I hope he gets investigated for it. Last but not least, UNC deciding to remove DEI requirements from its medical school is very problematic. It's, as you said, Roland, this stuff actually cost us our

lives. And I'll give you one example. When you look at maternal mortality rates, which is women dying, just trying to give birth and up to a year after giving birth, what you find the research shows over and over again is that black women who are college educated are still more likely to die than white women who have just a high school diploma.

And you know why that is? That is because medical bias and medical racism is still a thing. So when you are removing these DEI requirements that basically flag for up-and-coming medical professionals that they need to be aware of implicit bias because that can make the difference in a person's life, particularly a person of color's life, these things are very important. And so I'm really disheartened that this campaign was led by an Asian organizer. I hate to see that once again, white supremacy is able to pull some folks over to its side and it's really for the detriment of us all. Well, I just want, again, for the people who are watching, Omicongo, we need to be as vigorous in fighting this.

I had somebody hit me, a journalist hit me, and he asked me, I recently went on this podcast with this guy, Patrick Bet-David. First of all, let me be real clear. I'd never heard of the dude. Apparently, he's got a popular podcast. Never heard of him. And apparently, they did some Twitter poll, and they asked the followers who they'd like to have on their show. And my name was one of the top ones that came up. So they hit me up, and they offered to fly me down, pay for the trip, pay for housing, whatever.

I happened to go to Fort Lauderdale when I was being honored by the Trayvon Martin Foundation in Miami, I went down, and first of all, I wasn't about to sit here and adjust my schedule for them. So I said, look, I'm supposed to be there, I'll leave on that Monday anyway, so let's do it. They're like, oh, we can only do it Tuesday. Well, I'm sorry, I ain't waiting around for y'all. So I went on and he's Armenian immigrant, you know, right winger, tried to claim he was independent. If you listen to him, he wasn't. And I said, somebody hit me. They said, man, why would you go on the show, I said, because here's why. You have to counter the level of ignorance. You cannot allow their audience to be paid the exact same thing. And people might find it wasteful, but not me. I'm not one of these people who will say, oh, I'll run away from Fox News.

No, no, no, no. I want to run to them. I want their people to listen to somebody who is smarter than them. I want to introduce them to new different things. We may think back to the birth of a nation. And it was William Monroe Trotter, the black newspaper owner who used his voice to campaign against that movie. So it's very easy for us to say, man, I'm not engaging those people, but we have to remember every single one of those people, they've got people who are watching and who are listening. And we are in an information war. And the reason we cannot succumb and not be willing to engage and fight these people, because when you're in an information war, you're in a battle and you

have to fight and resist that nonsense everywhere possible. Tulsi Gabbard must be cut down and condemned every single time. Scott Adams as well, because if we don't, we are allowing these people, these impressionable minds to be shaped. The reality is when I push back, when that when that when Philip K. Long here for Indianapolis, really playing field, he went for Indianapolis. I'm pushing back on that when that when Philip came on here for Indianapolis really playing field he went for Indianapolis I'm pushing back on that that thing went viral millions

saw me going against him that means other people were impacted by what they saw that's why we have to do battle and every single turn when it comes to what is happening with these people oh absolutely if we don't fight the lies the lies persist and we're sitting here at every single turn when it comes to what is happening with these people? Oh, absolutely. If we don't fight the lies, the lies persist. And we're sitting here talking about many of the well-known figures who are out there. But we also know that AM radio,

controlled primarily by conservatives, people who are out in these rural areas, these hosts are getting their information from the Hannity's and the Tucker Carlson's of the world. And if we stay silent on it, we're basically saying that it's OK to lie about us and our culture and our community. And some of us have this mentality, oh, just ignore it and just don't pay attention. When you ignore them, you end up with situations where they're putting laws on the books saying that our culture can't be studied. When you ignore them, we end up with situations like UNC Chapel Hill saying we don't got to focus on diversity anymore after what they already did to Nicole Hannah-Jones, right? When we ignore them, we put them in situations where they don't have to watch their hiring practices, where they don't have to watch how they teach in our classroom.

And they clearly, as we see, don't have to watch how they police our communities. And so really at the end of the day, if we don't challenge them every single day, Roland, if we don't put ourselves where we're on these videos, like you said, going viral and speaking truth to their ignorance, then we are basically complicit. And I believe that our silence is compliance. And we can't wait for the next shooting. We can't wait for the next

law to come down from another racist governor. We can't wait for them. We have to be proactive. We have to react when we see the Scott Adams of the world, but in our own space, in the Black Star Network, we have to continue to fight. All of us got platforms. I don't care if we have two followers or 20 million followers. If we do not speak up, we are just as bad as them, if not worse, because we have seen this happen. You mentioned Birth of a Nation, going back to the early 1900s. We have seen this happen, and we have seen the consequences of our silence.

Now we have more money, but are we using it to be more influential? Now we have more money, but are we using it to build more black networks? We have more money. Are we using it to build information structures that counter this ignorance? If not, we have no one else to blame for it persisting than ourselves. We know how to target sponsors. We know how to target politicians. We know how to do all of that. We can't be silent because it is our future at stake. Absolutely. Folks, hold tight one second. Got to go to a break. We come back more. Roland Martin, Unfiltered, right here on the Black Star Network, live from Austin. Back in a moment. We'll be right back. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.

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Waits $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Check some money orders. Go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash App is $RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Rolandsmartin.com. Pull up a chair, take your seat at the Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. I used to see my dad hooking up to the boat leaving out. And I was like, I want to be with him too. I want to be a part of fishing.

Me and a friend of mine said, let's start our team. And it just got better over time. My senior year, I started doing awesome. LSU Shreveport recruited me, and I signed with them. I was the first African-American in Louisiana to get a scholarship for bass fishing, and it feels awesome. 007 007 Hey, I'm Deon Cole from Blackest.

What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. 007 007 and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, a black Louisiana student athlete has made history to become the first to receive a scholarship for bass fishing. That's right, bass fishing. Christian Rousseff, hopefully I'm pronouncing that correct. Y'all, please do phonetic spelling.

Was accepted into LSU, Louisiana State University, in 2021. And has been making waves since joining the LSU Bass Fishing team. Now he serves as an ambassador for Discover Boating, powered by the NMMA, the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. Discover Boating campaign, See You Out Here. Now, the campaign features stories of passionate boaters turned brand ambassadors around the country, honest people who reflect the next generation of boaters. The new campaign launched across the U.S. and Canada in April.

Christian joins us now. This segment, of course, presented by Discover Boating. He's from Edgard, Louisiana. So, Christian, glad to have you here. First of all, properly pronounce your last name. It's Rusev. Rusev. Okay, gotcha. All right. Glad we got that straight. So here's what's interesting. The reason I find this to be hilarious is because the greatest bass fisherman ever is actually named Roland Martin. Yeah, he is.

And so I remember reading about him. I was in the seventh grade, and back in the newspaper, I think he won like $70,000 at a bass fishing tournament. And I was like, who the hell is this person named, same name as me, who's fishing? Now, I don't fish. I've never liked fishing. I do golf. That's my thing.

But it is interesting that, again, in your space, Roland Martin is the greatest bass fisherman ever. Yeah, absolutely. He is, man. And I told people about being on the show, and they were like, wait, you're talking about Roland Martin, a fisherman? And I'm like, no, Dr. Roland Martin. You know? So, yeah, I had a lot of that. So, I still get some of his e-mails for his lures and other stuff along those lines. So, when did you first start fishing? Oh, I started as a kid, man, with my dad and grandpa. You know, I started off young since I was in diapers, you know, and I took a liking with my dad going out on the water, and I was like, hey, I want to go. So, he wanted me to do it. So, I was like, man, I love this, you know, and I took a liking with my dad going out on the water and I was like, hey, I want to go. So he wanted me to do it. So I was like, man, I love this, you know,

and especially catching my first fish, you know, it just blew my mind. I was like, this is all I want to do. I mean, I love being on the water. It's my thing, you know. Absolutely. Now, there are different types of fishing. So you got fly fishing. So where did bass fishing come from? And when did you realize that, wait a minute, they have scholarships for this stuff? drills and stuff like that and casting rods. And it all started a while back, right, when I got out of middle school, getting ready to go to high school. I heard about high school fishing. So I went to, when I got in high school, I told my high school teacher, I was like, hey, they have bass teams, you know, and I think we can start a fishing team over here.

And we looked into it, and she was like, yeah, they do. And sure enough, we started in my eighth grade year. And things kind of started off rough, hey practice makes perfect so I started practicing a lot and going fishing every chance that I had and through my ninth through tenth grade year I got out there and I started making a name for myself getting top 20 finishes which it wasn't top five or first place not yet but when my junior year and senior year came that's when I excelled through my season, and I had top five finishes back-to-back and even had two first-place finishes.

Then after that, that's when school started looking at me, and then LSU Shreveport came, and the coach gave me a call, and he recruited me. He was like, hey, I'd love to have you on our team, and we have a good team, and we're going to excel, and sure enough, we are. So I can't ask for better, you know? So you're at LSU Shreveport not lsu in baton rouge yes shreveport correct got it okay cool so um and for people to understand i mean look bass fishing you've

you've got television shows you've got competitions i mean there are people who have made a lot of money and become millionaires bass fishing oh yeah i have especially fishing uh circuit the elite series yeah it's a lot of money out there and a lot of people so um how many other african americans do you see out there when you're doing tournaments uh the most i probably see is about maybe two or three and those guys go to school on the east coast especially in alabama just two or three yeah that's it it's not that many of us so are you hoping by being an ambassador you're gonna connect with a lot of those young black kids out there who love to fish and let them know hey if you're not you have to play football or

basketball you can actually go get us get a fishing, absolutely. I do it all the time. I reach out to younger kids that are in high school, and I'm like, hey, let's go fishing. Fishing tournaments is a big thing in high school right now, and it's going worldwide. I tell kids every day, man, let's get out, and let's get a diversity in this sport, because there's not that many of us,

and kids are getting into it, and I'm glad to do what I'm doing. Oh, I totally understand. Questions from my panel. Omokongo, you first. Congratulations on everything that you're doing and this success. One of the questions that I have is, have you seen in your experience backlash from white people who are in the sport who are saying that you don't belong here? And you get, you know, different kind of looks or things like that. Has that been an experience for you or not so much? Not so much. I mean, we get looked at as the people like, you know, expressions can tell, you know, when you say, you know, that we don't belong here.

You know, so I get that pretty often, but hey, I just show up and fish and win. That's what I'm here to do, you know, make a name for myself. All right. Renita. Congratulations, Christian, on breaking barriers. I wanted to ask you, you know, a lot of

times sports can be cost prohibitive for black kids to play or black kids to enter. So maybe it's the cost of the uniforms. It could be the cost of competitions. Talk to us about what it is, about what it's like and what it takes to enter to start fishing like you've been doing? Well, basically through the high school circuit, you have to get with a tournament director, and they have no reason to turn you around. They'd be more than glad to have you. And you just get like a coach or whatever. Like you have to get a boat captain in high school, a fishing coach,

and he has to take you out. And that's just about it. And once you get on, you're good to go. All right, Julianne. Congratulations, Christian. This is really wonderful to have you blazing trails in a sport that I don't really associate with black folks. You're a college student. So tell me how much time are you spending with the fishing team? How much does this take away from your studies, which should, of course, be your primary focus? Well, I'm

fortunate enough that LSU... Oh, you see how much money they make fishing? Well, I'm fortunate to have good professors at Louisiana State University in Shreveport, and our professors know about our fishing team on how we're excelling throughout the tournaments. And most of the time with in-person classes, you know, we let our professors know in a week or two advance, like, hey, look, we have this tournament coming up. And most of the time, they'll just post, like, the videos on our Moodle. And that's just about it, you know.

So they are very lenient with us. And I can't ask for better because I know some guys at other schools, their professors are pretty hard up and like, hey, you need to be in class, and they don't get that much time. They don't get a break, basically. So you talked about your success in high school. What success have you actually had now while in college? As of now, I've been getting some top 40 finishes. You know, I'm just kind of getting my feet in the water.

You know, I just started as a boater this year in my sophomore season. So this is just a beginning. So far, I had three tournaments. One was in Russellville, Arkansas on Lake Dardanelle. And we came in 100 out of 250 boats. And then I had another one on pickwick lake and that one had 234 boats and we came in top 80 and my last one recently was on harris chandler lakes and uh leesburg florida and we came in 85th out of 234 boats so i mean it's just a start you know

i mean i have two more years remaining and let's just get out on the water and practice makes perfect. I just keep fishing every day. That's all I can do. Oh, well, absolutely. It's always great to see folks who are doing some new and interesting things. This is absolutely awesome. Christian, keep it up. Maybe in a few years, again, I'll be reading somewhere, and we'll be seeing your name take it first place,

just like I did years ago seeing Roland Martin's name. And, in fact, first of all, have you ever met him? Because I've never met him. Now, we used to jockey for the top positions on, you type in Roland Martin in Google, but about a few years ago, I beat him. So you now type in Roland Martin in Google, but about a few years ago, I beat him. So you now type in Roland Martin. I come like the first four or five different times, but I've never met him.

No, sir, I haven't either. I know he has a son, Scott Morton, that's on the Bassmaster Elite Series. And I met him one time at a high school national championship in Anderson, South Carolina, fishing at Lake Hartwell. So I met his son, but I never met him. All right, then. Well, Christian, look, good luck as a bass fisherman. Congratulations on the scholarship. And we certainly hope other young folks are excited about this and see the opportunities that exist when it comes to getting a fishing scholarship. Okay. Thank you so much, Dr. it comes to getting a fishing scholarship. Okay. Thank you so much, Dr.

Martin. It was a pleasure being with you. And one more thing, you guys can follow me on Instagram at the real Chris T H E R E E L Chris K H R I S. And that's it. And also I'm currently looking for sponsors this year for my team. So if anyone's interested,

be feel free to ask, you know. All right, then. And so we appreciate it. And we certainly want to thank Discover Boating for sponsoring this segment. Christian, thanks a lot. Absolutely. Thank you. It was a pleasure being on the show.

Yes, sir. Appreciate it. All right, folks. We'll be back. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We featured the brand new work of Professor Angie Porter, which simply put, is a revolutionary reframing of the African experience in this country. It's the one legal article everyone, and I mean everyone, should read. Professor Porter and Dr. Vletia Watkins,

our legal roundtable team, join us to explore the paper that I guarantee is going to prompt a major aha moment in our culture. You crystallize it by saying, who are we to other people? Who are African people to others? Governance is our thing. Who are we to each other? The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe as African people. That's next on The Black Table, here on The Black Star Network. Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us.

They think that they're being painted by white people. And I got to tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk that are the creators, the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. The people don't really wanna have this conversation. No, they don't. Hi, I'm Kim Burrell. Hi, I'm Carl Painting.

Hey, everybody. This is Sherri Shepherd. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Anastasia Kirkland left her Lima, Ohio, Lima, Ohio home on December 27th. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. When she was last seen, her hair was dyed a faded red. Both of Anastasia's nostrils are pierced, and she has the word blessed tattooed on her right wrist. Anyone with information about Anastasia Kirkland is urged to call the Lima, Ohio Police Department at 419-227-4444. 419-227-4444. The racist Kentucky student, of course, who went after, who assaulted a black student.

She has been, which was called on camera. She has been indicted, a Fayette County, Kentucky, grand jury indicted. Sophia Rosen on one count, a third degree assault of a police officer, three counts of fourth degree assault, one count of second degree disorderly conduct, and one count of alcohol intoxication. Rosen was kicking, punching, and biting student worker Kyla Spring while repeatedly calling her the N-word. Rosin could be heard saying things like, do my chores. It's not my fault that you're black, and it's not my fault that you're ugly. The University of Kentucky permanently banned Rosin from campus following the racist attack

in November. Her arraignment is set for March 17th. As I said earlier, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plans to drop diversity, equity and inclusion requirements from hiring criteria following a board of governors meeting. The college will no longer. First of all, the system is not just the college. or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement. The Board of Trustees also approved the creation of UNC Chapel Hill School of Civic Life and Leadership, which reinforces free speech and debate on campus following the decision

to eliminate diversity and equity hiring requirements. Well, we see what that's all about. A South Florida family agrees to a $2 million settlement with the city of Palm Beach Gardens. The family of Corey Jones, a black motorist, fatally shot by a police officer after his vehicle broke down on an interstate off-ramp in 2015, settled for the total amount cited for the city's insurance policy. Palm Beach Gardens officer Numan Raja was convicted of manslaughter and attempted murder in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the October 2015 killing of Jones. Raja was the first Florida law enforcement officer in nearly 30 years to be convicted and sentenced for an on duty killing.

All right, folks, let's talk about what's happening in Nigeria, where they recently have had a contested election where the people there are looking for stability, but also safety. There's been a lot of things happening there. Of course, we covered in years past Boko Haram with the kidnapping of children and other issues that are taking place. Many Nigerians have been looking for the United States for temporary asylum and for temporary protected status. The TPS is a program that allows migrants whose home countries are considered unsafe the right to live and work in the U.S. for a brief but extendable period of time. Joining us right now is Benga

Ogunjimi, the founder and CEO of the Nigerian Center. I was talking about the TPS program and how the recent changes dealing with migrants in the United States could impact Nigerians. Glad to have you here, Benga. So take us through, first of all, give people a sense, how many Nigerians are there in the United States? Look, I'm from Houston. There's a huge Nigerian population because of Texas Southern University. But give us a sense of how many Nigerians are here in the U.S. Oh, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. Nigerians are one of the largest immigrant groups in the country. We also know that beyond the numbers of

Nigerians who immigrated here, the vast majority of Africans in diaspora also have their ancestry from Nigeria. And also the White House recent report redefined the definition of African diaspora to encompass both African immigrants and also African Americans. So significantly, we're looking at the greater majority of the African diaspora.

So what impact will the recent changes by the Biden administration have on Nigerian immigrants? So over 100 organizations, the exact number is 128, 128 civil society, immigrant rights, humanitarian rights, human rights organization, recently wrote to the Biden administration to immediately designate Nigeria as TPS. While Nigerian American community is one of very successful community in the United States, they are a significant number. The last estimate, estimate around 60,000 Nigerians that are undocumented. The impact of this will make them not to be deported back to Nigeria. If they're currently in detention, immigration detention, they'll have the opportunity to be released. And if they are going through any form of immigration proceedings, removal from the country, that would be stopped because the

Department of Homeland Security did Nigeria unsafe at this moment for people to get deported back into. Also, those who are currently here out of status would have the opportunity to have work authorization and may even get some travel documents. We want to state that we recognize that immigrating to the United States is an opportunity. It's a privilege. We want to state that we recognize that immigrating to the United States is an opportunity. It's a privilege. We're not demanding this. We are asking for this. We are asking the Biden administration to issue our community this protection so it can save lives. So the TPS program, how will this benefit Nigerians? A lot of people also have to understand that Nigeria, because of oil, is one of the favorite nations by the United States.

Yes, Nigeria is a significant ally to the United States. And as this new administration redefines its engagement with the African continent, and Nigeria plays a significant role as one of the allies and partners and actors of Nigeria on the continent. So they're making significant financial investments into that country. We at the Nigerian Center and the coalition believe this is an opportunity to directly invest in Nigerians that are currently living in the United States. So the way this is going to benefit them ultimately is going to give those who are undocumented an opportunity not just to be protected, but also the opportunity to contribute, the opportunity to pay taxes, the opportunity to live as any other person living in the United States of America.

And this is not an exclusive request for Nigeria. We know what happened in Ukraine. They were afforded TPS. We know Haiti was afforded TPS. Countries around the world have been afforded TPS. And for a decade long, there is the Boko Haram insurgency. There's terrorism in the country. It's on the rise in sophistication.

It's on the rise in intensity. Again, this is an opportunity to save lives and offer the people opportunity to contribute by paying their taxes in the United States. Let's have some questions from our panel. Renita, you're first. Well, thank you for coming on and talking to us about what's going on in Nigeria. I'm seeing a lot of information around people contesting election results. Can you kind of crack open for us and explain a little more what is going on, what happened with the election, and how it is going with verifying the election results? Well, currently the presidential election happened over the weekend.

And there have been pockets of irregularities in some parts of the country. But to my understanding, I don't think it has risen to a point where you can conclusively say that the election is not successful or marred by violence. I think it's still in progress. The election results are still being counted. Ultimately, I think we're seeing a lot of surprises. I think for the very first time in this election, we saw the emergence of the third force. And really, the voice of the people is being heard in such a way that has never been heard before. and a lot of surprises coming up in this particular election. So I would say I think it's going for the most part peaceful. The transition is in motion.

I think we have a couple of days to completely see how the election completely pans out. Well, my goal here is DPS. I want to also say that in the past subsequent change of administration, I think about four administrations, for every administration that comes in, there's significant hope that the security issues of the country would completely turn around. But that has not been the case. So, as this new administration comes in, we really want TPS to immediately go into effect. So to give them some time to demonstrate ownership leadership on the security issues on the country while saving lives in the meantime. Omokongo. Thank you so much for the knowledge and information that you're providing.

My question is regarding the redesign of the Naira and the problem that has caused economically as it relates to people not being able to get access to their money in parts of Nigeria. Do you feel like this could exacerbate the problem more and lead to an increase of more Nigerians having to flee the country and seeking TPS? Absolutely, without a doubt. I believe the timing, there's nothing wrong in going into a cashless society. There's nothing wrong in redesigning your financial policy as a country, but timing is critical. That policy has been met with a lot of pushback, and we just believe the timing, particularly going into an election.

We're talking about a season in the country where it is one of the most challenging chapters in the country's history economically. And now there's this redesign initiative. I think the problem is even the scarcity of money in itself. I think this really intensified the situation of security of lives, kidnappings. It's always been a challenge the country continues to deal with. And I think this time around with this redesign and also the shortage of cash in an election period, frankly, I think is a bad idea. Julianne? Thank you for being with us, and thank you for bringing us up to date, especially on the election. I want to jump back. Nigeria has, well, many African countries, but Nigeria has frequently been painted in the media as unstable.

You mentioned the kidnappings and other things. Is the root cause the way that independence happened with the enduring influence of the U.K.? Or is there another reason why we continually see the instability in Nigeria? So Nigerian country as a country, we've always attempted to renegotiate and also reexamine the basis in which various independent ethnic groups form this independent new nation. And we have some legacies of colonialism from the United Kingdom that we still wrestle with. Obviously, that goes into the fabric and the foundations of the country. Even our political system is one of the challenges a lot of people think holds progress back. Because the way the country system is designed right now,

it concentrates powers to a certain part of the country. You know, so I think the challenge of this new administration, which I'm hoping for a system leadership, is really examine that system and make it more fair and easy for everyone to participate in our experience as a nation. So we're wrestling with external legacy issues, international issues. But hey, ultimately, Nigerians have always been leaders. We have an unbreakable spirit. We have a tremendous potential.

There's a lot of forecast about our country. A lot of even prognosticated that would not be existing at this particular time. We have defied all those odds. So Nigeria continues to really defy the odds. And this kind of expression of what it means to be an African, what it means to be a Nigerian, to be a black person. So I think the challenge is not so much that we can overcome them. And I think we're in the progress, in the motion of the process of doing so. If you look at our country, our diaspora communities around the country, around the world, even in this United

States of America, we continue to excel. So I think that's going to be the challenge for this new incoming administration to create that kind of playing field for the country in itself to rise to its true potential domestically, not just internationally. We strongly believe that is possible. What we are saying, while the country takes on that challenge of manifesting its true potential, let us save lives in the process. And those who are in the United States, let's also give them the opportunity to rise to their own potential. By working work authorization, have this protection not to be deported back at this particular time, and just contribute like any other Americans. All right, then. Benga, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

If people want to reach out to help your organization, how do they do so? Thank you so much. Our website is NigerianCenter.org. Follow us on social media and send us an email. If you go to our media page, you can read our press release regarding TPS. We ask that you

call your congressman and representative, help can read our press release regarding TPS. We ask that you call your congressman and representative, help them support our congressional campaign going on right now to designate Nigeria's TPS. Thank you very much for this opportunity. Thank you so very much, Renita Julian Omokongo. I appreciate you joining us on our panel today. Thank you so very much. When I go to a break, we come back. Tommy Dortch Jr. was laid to rest on Saturday. We'll show you what took place at his home going in Atlanta. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. That is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. I'm proud of it. Support this man, Black Media.

He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? on a next a balanced life with me dr jackie a relationship that we have to have we're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it that's right we're talking about our relationship with money and here's the thing our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Pull up a chair. Take your seat. The black tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on and Blackstar network. Well up a chair take your seat.

With me that the great car here on the Blackstar network. Every week to the deeper dive into the world we're living in during the conversation only on the Blackstar network. Hi everybody this is Jonathan Nelson hi this is surely rough and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, I'm here in Austin, Texas. I'm going to be moderating or hosting the Black Fund Awards, taking place at the Paramount Theater.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be speaking at Houston Tillerson College for their Dubois lecture. And so looking forward to that. And so what we're going to do is, first of all, I'm going to be a guest host tomorrow because I'm going to be speaking. But then right now, I've got to go host to do this right here. So what we're going to do is we're going to share with you some of the homegoing service of Tommy Dorsey, Jr., the Atlanta businessman, HBCU advocate, known all across the country for his great work. He was laid to rest on Saturday, died at the age of 72 due to pancreatic cancer.

And let me remind, again, I need the folks on YouTube, y'all watching YouTube, hit the like button, y'all. We should easily be, there's more than 2,000 of y'all. We should be over 1,000 likes, okay? So I shouldn't have to keep asking y'all to do this here. That impacts the algorithm. So please hit the like button. We should be hit a thousand, 1500, 2000, every single show. So I got to go do these duties here. And so here he is again, some of the home going service. We live streamed this on Saturday. If you want to watch

the entire service, go to our Blackstar Network app, go to our YouTube channel. You can see the whole thing. So here's an abbreviated version, the homegrown service of businessman, my good friend, despite him being Omega, he was a good brother, Tommy Deutsch Jr. I'm here to read two scriptures, Galatians 5, 13 and 14 in Hebrews 10 and 24. Galatians 5, 13 and 14 says, For you were called to freedom, brothers, only to not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And Hebrews 10 and 24.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And if there was anyone on the face of the earth that used their freedom to stir all of us up to good works. It was Tommy. He was a master chess player of service and all of us were the pieces on the board. He had you serving when you didn't want to serve. If you wanted to do a deal, you would have to serve here. If you wanted something, he would make sure you gave here. But he didn't do it transactionally because he knew there was a crack in the night, and he didn't allow that crack to be a reason that that night couldn't be used. That there was a flaw with the bishop, but he still understood how to put that bishop in place for the greater good. And if there's anything that we learn as we celebrate his life and legacy,

it's our job to use our freedom to stir up the world and to use the pieces around us for the greater good. And he would be telling us even in this moment, go and do the work for I've already given you the example. First and foremost, thank you to everybody who came out today to memorialize my father. um yeah it's been tough it's been really tough but but we're getting through it. It's nothing you really could have done to get prepared for this. I mean... I want my brothers and sisters to introduce them. Mark. Bridget.

Angel. Molu. Janiece. This may have been his kids, but he created a huge family. You know, I gained so many uncles and aunties and cousins and so much more. He was a country boy, so you know how we do with our family. We had a big family. But, you know, a lot of people have poured into us and give their prayers and their condolences. But we also thank you all. Because, you know, everybody in here made him who he was. He was so motivated and so driven by the idea of a better community, a closer community.

He was driven by us working together and really being a family. So, you know, we owe a lot of thanks to you all. I remember a lot of things my father used to do. One of my, well, two of the things I remember the most, one was his love for travel and his love to be on the road. I kid you not, he probably traveled 20 days out of every month. And that's even up until this last few months where he shouldn't have been on any plane or in any car. He should have been sitting still, but he never did. But he was always on the road trying to do for somebody else's community, trying to do for our students, for every child who had a dream of being in the position he's in or was in and even bigger. He was always there for them. And it was hard to give him up on days because I wanted to spend time with him, and I know

a lot of people can say the same. But I understood. As I got older, I understood his need to be on the road because he changed so many lives. Another thing was, as I got older, I got to sit around and see as he signed a lot of checks, too. And I'm not going to lie, even to this day, I wonder sometimes why that $500,000, $100,000 wasn't going in Tyre Pocket. But as I got older, I got to understand that, too. That, you know, we were only strong as our weakest link.

And it was no good for us to have all the money and everything afforded to us when it was always somebody struggling behind us. He always felt he had to bring up the next man. And I respected that about him. Even though I still miss some of that money, but I respected that about him. Even though I still miss some of that money, but I respected that about him. But he was so selfless. Even until his last days, he was worried about everybody else but himself. That's just the man he was.

And I'm so appreciative for that. I can never replace him. I don't want to. I never want to do the work that he did, but it was necessary. And all I know that we can ask on behalf of this family is that you all keep that work going. Keep doing everything we can for our communities and our students and our kids because they need our help. And I know they put me up here on purpose because I am the crybaby, I am the baby. And you probably didn't notice about him.

He was the baby too, and he was a big crybaby. He wore his emotions on his sleeve at all times. So I'm not apologizing, but this is me. This is him too, A big cry, baby. But he loved everybody. No matter if he agreed with you or not, he loved you all. And we love you all the same. Thank you.

You know, the spirit never leaves us. We may not see him in the flesh, but we see him in his children we see him in his wife we see him in his friends we see him in the united negro college fund and all of the HBCUs. We see Tommy Deutsch in 100 Black Men. We see things that he touched, that he had a little hand in, and I don't remember when it started. It just seemed like he was always there. He was always showing up telling me what I needed to do. And it didn't ever have to be the same thing. There were people like Thomas Deutsch who encouraged us and who looked like

he really wanted to run against us, but understood that there was more power in running everything than in just trying to run City Hall. And so whenever you needed something done, whenever you needed to rally people around an idea, regardless of what that idea was, there was Tommy. Where he got all the energy was probably from Carol, but I don't need to explain that because she was a little girl from Princeton,

and I don't know how she got from Princeton down to Atlanta, but it really used to worry me because my brother went to high school in Princeton and we knew everybody in Princeton and knew her family. And then when I started running for something, there was my opponent's signs all over her front yard. And I said, you know, why is she supporting him? And I never asked until one day Tommy came and said, I wish you would marry us. And I said, okay, when, where? He said, now, soon. And so we got together in my living room

and we said a blessing on a wonderful couple and they have continued to share those blessings for almost 40 years now. And it may be more than 40 years because they were probably sneaking around a little bit before we knew about it. But that's what makes this such a great city. You are great people. Thomas W. Deutsch is a representative of you. He's a representative of the spirit that you brought here

from many, many places in the world. He's a representative of the dreams. He's a representative of the courage of the day. He's a representative of the best that is in us. And so when we look around and we say, how did Atlanta get to be a $400 billion economy? You know, that's about the same size as Norway. Atlanta, little old country Atlanta, now a rising city shining out all over the world because of the men and women and children that came out of our academic institutions, that came out of our churches, the spirit that came from some of the greatest preachers you've ever heard. Anywhere in the world.

You can preach good when you're full of sin. And you know you got to get out of it. And you can preach your way out. And so when we preach as preachers. We're not preaching to save you only. We're preaching trying to save ourselves. And Tommy Dortch was always in church saying amen, helping to raise funds to feed the hungry,

working with scholarships in our colleges to get more of our young people in school, paying off student loan debt, and doing all of the wonderful things that we should never forget because we are the product of the work, the love, the dreams the sacrifices of the entire

Deutsch family and really he made all of us his family and I thank you for following him, for listening to him, for loving him for believing in his dreams even when they

seemed impossible. God has blessed you for your humility and your service and the fact that in your busy lives you took the time to come not to bless Tommy but to thank God for sending him our way. Thank you for this opportunity to say a few words about your loved one and one of my best friends in life, Thomas W. Deutsch. I called him T.D. for short. Our friendship expanded 54 years. He always had my back, and I his. We fought together and worked together and and into the Fort Valley State University Foundation where I served as chair.

T.D. and I were inseparable. In fact, in the city of Fort Valley, the Fort Valley newspaper, the Fort Valley Herald dubbed us as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A character study of remarkable friendship in service through our ups and downs. We both have a passion and love for Fort Valley State. Our lives to thee we dedicate. And part of our friendship and relationship was centered around FVSU and HBCUs. While we had our differences, Tommy and I never fell out. We had quarrels over political candidates and political matters, but we never ever separated from one another's friendship.

As Fort Valley State University's student government president, the political bug hit him well before it hit me. When he called me to tell me that he was going to be the state director for United States Senator Sam Nunn, the first African American to do so, I was so proud and excited for him. What an honor and responsibility during those times. It was a game changer. Over the years, we would exchange calls and texts on many life-changing opportunities. He always told me that there's a beauty in how HBCU mold us into being productive citizens. He described it as perfecting the diamonds in the rough.

He went on, talked to me about the National Black College Hall of Fame, which is his legacy, something that we must keep going. Can I get an amen on that? This is Black History Month. This is Black History Month. Today we mourn and celebrate a history maker and a man of all seasons, Thomas Deutsch. For all the times that we've been friends, he never hesitated in saying and believing in you can. Obviously, T.D. believed in John 9, 4. As long as this is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming and then no one can work. Carol, on our last conversation at your

house, we had talked about Tommy's life and our friendship. You talked about the fact that he has no more pain. No more pain. I can hear him saying now, don't grieve for me now I'm free. I'm following the path God laid for me. I took his hand when I heard him call. I turned my back and left it all. Perhaps my time seems all too brief. Don't strengthen now with undue grief. Lift up your heart and share with me. God wanted me now. He set me free. It's often

stated that in life you make your living by what you get, but you make your life by what you give. Tommy Deutsch made his life by giving. And for that, we ought to thank God. We ought to thank God that Thomas Deutsch passed our way. Well done. Well job done, faithful servant. Job well done. Thank you. Thank you. of Thomas W. Dorch Jr., my rider, thy leader,

partner, and friend. Thank you, Tommy. Take your rest, and we will see you on the other side. We know that earth had no sorrow, that heaven cannot heal.

Because we serve a God who sits high, but he looks low. And so let us go to the God we serve in prayer. God bless you, my sister and family. Great and mighty God, our creator, sustainer, our protector, our provider. We know in this moment and in this hour that Tommy is in a good place

because your word reminds us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But God, we call you Abba Father in this hour, because if we might be frank, death is hard. And there are just some people, oh Lord, that we believe will never leave us in this earthly plane. But we thank you, God, that although Tommy is not physically with us today, he is with us because of the many memories we have created with him we thank you for that infectious smile that he often shared and shown forth we will hold on to that we thank you lord god that he was a man who didn't waste a moment or a minute or an encounter, but he showed us how to make the best of every part of life and even showing us that you can live every day

to the very end. Thank you, God, for this wonderful servant of God. And now, God, we pray to you, Abba Father, because you know us. You know how this moment caught us. For many of us, we may have been expecting it, but we still did not believe it. There are those of us who it caught us by surprise and Lord, frankly, in the last several years and especially in the last few months, we have gone through tremendous losses and it just seems to catch us off guard and takes away a little bit of our breath. And so, and so father god we welcome you into this place holy spirit we welcome you into every heart especially the heart of this family your word teaches us that you are our comforter and so god i pray for comfort for each and every family member, for his wife Carol, for all of his children, for his sisters and give us the prescription that we will need just to make it through those moments. Because grieving is a process, but we know that you will be with us

every step of the way. There's no person, there's no food, there's no substance that can do what you will do. So Father father because i know what you've done for me and the many losses that i've experienced i pray even now that you do it for my sisters and my brothers in this family lord god be with them in those hours and surround them with your love when people step out because after today the crowds rush in, but then we're left with all of these emotions. And so God, just be God. Show up in a mighty way. And we honor you in your sovereignty

because you determine when it's time for us to come home. And so God, we bless you that you took Tommy home. We may not fully understand the moment in the hour, but we honor you nonetheless. And so God, we just say, thank you. Thank you for this life that we were allowed to intersect with, to know. Thank you for the deposits that he made in our lives that we will forever hold. And now, Lord God, thank you for giving him a rest that he deserves from all of his labors. He will continue to live because he lives in our hearts. He will continue to live because his light shone bright. And so God, thank you once again for Thomas W. Dorch Jr. We say to you, our brother, well done, thy good and faithful servant. You served so well. Now we thank the Lord, our God, for giving you the crown that you deserve.

We ask this and many others. Prayers in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is touched even in this hour by our grief and our affirmities. In Jesus' name I pray and the people of God say amen. Praise the Lord everybody. Oh y'all kind of mutant here. Praise the Lord, everybody. Oh, y'all kind of muting here. Praise the Lord, everybody. I, to the Deutsch family, thank you for letting me in. You're home on several occasions. Loaning me the best father figure, mentor, brother a man could ever have. I thought, I knew I was going to cry.

I knew it. You know, I'm from New York. You act all tough. Yo, what's up, son? Yo, what's up? And here I am with tears in my eyes because as a man whose father died at eight years old, and when you're in life and you reach out for mentorship

and something comes back that's so valid and necessary for a young man's life. I just have to tell Tommy Dortch, thank you for that. Thank you for that. Thank you for the divine timing because I was right there. I walked in the house and I asked Carol, I said, can I take out my horn and play to him? And she said, yes. I played Amazing Grace. And he started moving because as they say, the last thing to go are your ears, your hearing. And watching him be in joy because his man, Tommy Dorch's Pied Piper,

had to come to the house and make sure that I sent him off with a song. And if you watch movies, if you watch television shows, the music in the transition that sets up the next phase, you watch a different world, the music that goes from one part to another. I am blessed because the soundtrack to him leaving us and being in a better place was done through the music. So thank you, Carol, again. I love you. Thank you for having

let me have that moment with tommy and this is exactly what i played to him ¶¶ uh uh © transcript Emily Beynon I love you. Thank you. Thank you so much. So now that we got that out the way, hanging with Mr. Dortch, a song that I wrote a year and a half ago. And I remember, yo Trey, I remember when I played it to him, he said, man, that's my song. I love this piece. I love it. I love it.

And I remember the first time Tommy heard this song. And first of all, I'd just like to say this song, I will make sure that it is transferred to the estate, because this is Tommy's song. So the ownership of the songs and the masters will be to you, Carol. This is his song. And I want everybody to be like what Tommy was when he heard the song. So I need you guys to stand up right now. Please, please, let's get up and let's get our Tommy on right now, man. Let's go. Come on.

This is not a funeral at all. This is a celebration of life. Let's go, Tommy, let's go. Thank you. Sing it. Hang it with Mr. Doge Sing it! Hang it with Mr. Doge Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you so much. I love you. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches.

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