#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump DOE executive order, DEI funding battle, NC Supreme Court seat open, Black voter briefing

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

3.20.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump DOE executive order, DEI funding battle, NC Supreme Court seat open, Black voter briefing The twice-impeached criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald "The Con" Trump signed an executive order calling for the shutdown of the U.S. Education Department. Still, his signature doesn't mean much since abolishing a federal agency requires congressional approval. North Carolina's intermediate-level appeals court will hear arguments about the still-unsettled November election for a state Supreme Court seat. Terrance Woodbury will break down HIT Strategies' latest data on what happened during the 2024 election.  Louisiana activist Gary Chambers will be here to discuss the proposed constitutional amendments regarding courts, taxes, juveniles' treatment in the criminal justice system, and elections for judges appearing on the March 29th ballot.  And another historic March Madness win for an HBCU: The Southern University Women's Basketball team won its first-ever tournament game.  #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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streaming live on the Black Star Network. The twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald the Con Trump signed an executive order today calling for the shutdown of the U.S. Department of Education. The signature doesn't mean much, since abolishing a federal agency requires an act of Congress. But it certainly has ramifications, and we'll talk about those.

North Carolina's Intermediate-Level Appeals Court will hear arguments about the still-unsettled November election for a state Supreme Court seat. The Republican lost, and he simply can't accept the fact that Democrat Allison Riggs won. Pollster Terrence Woodbury will be joining us, talking about his strategy's latest data on what happened during the 2024 election when it came to black voters. Louisiana activist Gary Chambers will join us to talk about the proposed constitutional amendments

regarding courts, taxes, juvenile treatments in the criminal justice system, and elections for judges appearing on the March 29th ballot. MAGA wants to really control things in Louisiana. Plus, another historic March Madness win for HBCU, this time the Southern University women's basketball team winning their first ever tournament game. Folks, it's a lot to break down, and it's time to bring the funk.

I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all 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 Our town Folks, this is the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief, Donald the Con Trump, signing an executive order to facilitate the right's long-standing goal of eliminating the Department of Education.

That was always the goal of the Republicans and Project 2025, and so that's what they're doing. During a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, this idiot Trump signed the order while flanked on each side by schoolchildren seated at desks. While the order recognizes that it would take an act of Congress to completely shutter the department, Trump directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to do all she can to achieve that goal. The con man said the department will preserve useful functions like Pell Grants, Title I funding, and programs for students with disabilities. Do we have any audio of him talking? If y'all got anything, just go ahead and roll it.

All right, so here's the deal. They're gonna sit here and what they're doing is again, they wanna completely gut the department. They've already laid off half of the employees. This is what they have always done and what they want to do. And again, this is what their goal has always been. My pal, Dr. Nola Haynes, she is Georgetown University School of Foreign Service out of D.C., political scientist, social media, political activist out of Nightdale, North Carolina,

Recy Colbert, host of the Recy Colbert Show, Sirius XM Radio out of Washington, D.C. Recy, I'll start with you. I mean, bottom line is this here. This is always what they want to achieve. They are blaming the Federal Department of Education for the problem with education. I'm here in Texas right now. And in fact, I'm going to, we're going to have also on the show, I got a chance to chat with State Representative Jolanda Jones, and we talked about a couple of things. We talked about the voucher scam bill here in Texas, and we also talked about the Texas Education Agency takeover of the Houston Independent School District.

But here's the whole deal. 90% of the funding in America for schools is state and local. So this idea that the problem with education is all because the Department of Education is right-wing fiction. Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, I mean, the right-wing education system has created a problem with us having lower literacy scores, lower math scores, compared to other industrialized nations. Look, this is about undoing the progress since Brown v. Board of Education. This is about creating separate and unequal. It is about creating a caste system, or not creating, but entrenching a caste system in

which wealthier people get to send their kids to better schools, in which underprivileged and I use that in air quotes, underprivileged kids have no recourse for underinvestment in their areas, in their schools, where kids who have disabilities do not have any recourse in ensuring that they have equal access to education, whether that be learning disabilities or physical disabilities. And so this is about making it harder for the playing field to be leveled through education. It's also about eroding the middle class. It's about taking away investments, like what Biden, Harris did by expanding public student loan forgiveness and other student loan forgiveness programs.

And so this is a full-on assault on all of the mechanisms that have been put in place over decades to make education slightly more equitable in this country. The way to make more progress is not to undo the progress that's been made, but it's to double down on it. And this is the exact opposite of that. Nola, people really need to understand. And again, all of these crazy deranged people on the right, they literally have no clue. They don't even understand that the states that benefit the most from the Federal Department of Education are red states, like Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas. So they just want to just go ahead and cut their noses off and spite their face. Ooh, I am burning, burning, burning, burning up about this issue. I knew it was coming. It's here.

You know, as an educator, this is definitely something that my chats have been going off about all day. But I've been thinking a lot about this in that same context, Roland, but also in the context of politics. Last night I did a live, and I had a question asked about what is a populist? What does populism mean? And what does it mean when people say that Donald Trump is a populist? Basically does populism mean, and what does it mean when people say that Donald Trump is a populist. Basically, at the end of the day, it benefits a populist wannabe dictator, wannabe autocrat to have an uneducated, permanent class.

That benefits him. MSNBC did a very interesting, did some interesting polling today around white voters. And to no one's shock, most of Trump's supporters were white males who were uneducated. That shocks no one. And while more white women do not support Donald Trump, the ones that do have not received at the very least a four-year degree. So this is all part of the playbook. There's nothing new here. Donald Trump is not reinventing the wheel. And it's very easy to convince people that those coastal elites, those Northerners, and I can't tell you how many times I've been hearing that lately. I feel like I've been transported in some sort of time machine and we've gone backwards in

time. Like people actually using terms like Yankees and Northerners. What? Where are we? But anyway, my point is they are genuinely convinced that education, that we are the permanent enemy and somehow that they are in on something that they know something that we don't know, that they have the authentic information that we do not have. All part of a larger scheme.

It's not a shock to no one, but it really is the populist autocratic dictator playbook. It benefits them to have a very undereducated base. And to Recy's point, absolutely. This is also about undoing everything that had anything to do with civil rights. Political sis, you're North Carolina. And the same thing, we talk about education, resources, oversight, the ability to be able to collect data. That's the other thing. They don't want to collect data. So when you talk about inequities,

when you talk about the issues that we have, when you don't have the data, then you don't even know what the hell is going on. You don't even know how do you achieve parity because they don't want that. They just sort of throw out these phrases, we're just going to send the money to the states, but these same states, these right-wingers, they don't want the data.

They don't want to be able to know what the inequities are. And what we do know here in North Carolina, $1.6 billion of federal funding from the Department of Education comes here. And we know that affects kids for Title I, IDA, kids with disability. And we also know that the kids that are going to be affected the most by all of this is kids that live in rural areas. That is the data that we have right now. So also don't forget about federal loans, grants. So we're talking about community colleges. We're also talking about how this is going to

impact teachers on a community college level, which I work at a community college. So I think I want to go back. I may be moving too far ahead. But when Chuck Schumer, what he did, this is why I say, with all due respect, let the motherfucker burn. That's how I look at it, because we have said this is what's going to happen. It is going to impact us the most. But it seems like the only damn way that this country is going to pay attention is if this country falls a little. Well, listen, people need to understand what is going on. This is going to continue.

There's going to be more of this. And I'm going to say it again, Recy. I don't care what anybody says. We understand. We know what's going on. Black people are very clear. White folk are going to have to get pissed off and outraged for them to understand what's really at stake. Because there was an analysis done on MSNBC.

71% of the electorate in the 2024 election, and we're going to talk about this more with Terrence Woodbury, 71% of the 2024 election was white. Yep. Well, and they are starting to get pissed off, but the question is, will that translate into a change and a shift in voting

patterns? Will that cause some of them to stay home if they can't hold their nose and vote for Democrats? Will that cause some of them to shift in the way that people like to pretend like Black people shifting from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party was all some mindless zombie-ism that we were infected by, as opposed to an act of self-preservation? What the Republicans have shown, and I've said this many times, is that they are waging war on White people. Black people are the byproduct.

We are the collateral damage of it. But this is really about redistributing wealth. It is about cutting off the ability to that ability to climb the ladder, the income ladder, the educational ladder, because it's more of them than there are of us. And this is going to impact states where we're not very well represented in. Black people ain't in but 6, 7, 18 places, okay? And we have a big-ass country where there are not us in those spaces that are going to be harmed. As Political Cess said, rural areas are going to be impacted. And yes, we know we have Black people in rural areas, but a lot of this country is rural and very, very white. The Appalachia is very, very white. And so when they realize that they have to stop selling our civil rights, meaning Black people

and people of color civil rights and LGBTQ people civil rights down the river so that they can feel like they have some more power and authority, when they realize that that bargain that they're making with the Republican Party is hurting them more than anything, maybe we'll see a change. In the meantime, we got to buckle up and ride this as best as we can, like we always have. Political sis, you're sitting in North Carolina.

All these white folks that voted for Trump, what did he do when it came to additional hurricane relief? Ah, nah, we're good. Same as in Georgia. You're on mute. You're on mute. I'm so sorry. And he's ready to slash

funding now when it comes to hurricane funding. He's ready to slash that right now. I know our governor, Josh Stein, just signed a bill that is directing money towards hurricane victims because we're still suffering from that. But, yeah, it's going to be a great impact. They do not see it yet. Some are seeing it. But like Recy said, it's a matter of how many people, how long is it going to take? And with all due respect, when I say let this shit just fall, because they don't get it. They still think.

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,

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Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Here in North Carolina, which is a purple state, they still think that it's going to affect us the most. Like, like Recy said, in rural areas, the majority of people that live in rural areas are white. Poor white folks.

Who a lot of them don't have transportation, by the way. So good luck with private schools on getting your children there. Yes, sir? Well, folks need to understand, you are seeing the destruction of civilized society. This is all about oligarchs. It's all about the rich. It's all about billionaires. It's all about white suburban communities and folks had better understand that as best as they can. I've got to go to break. We come back. We'll talk more about how MAGA is destroying America.

That's next right here on Rolling Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk. In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reeve's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reeve's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government.

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what you as ordinary citizens can do to speak up and speak out to fight back. This is the other side of change only on the Blackstar Network. Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint, hey Saras, I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint, because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So, you'll see

me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Sheryl Underwood show. Well, should it be the Sheryl Underwood show and the Roland Martin show? Well, whatever show it's going of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Cheryl London show. Well, should it be the Cheryl London show and the Roland Martin show? Well, whatever show it's going to be, it's going to be good. So, folks, folks, I'm here in Texas. Yesterday, I was in Austin, the state capital, where there was a conversation on the floor regarding the issue of DEI. Now, let's be clear.

When MAGA talks about DEI, we know it's a dog wheel, so they mean black. The discussion is taking place nationally with the idiots in Washington, D.C., but you're seeing it happen on the state level, the county level, the city level as well. One of the truly dumbest individuals in the Texas State House is Brian Harrison. This white nationalist, his mission is to remove all diversity, equity, and inclusion funding across Texas agencies. It's being met by resistance from Democrats and some Republicans. So here's this fool, Harrison, explaining why he is leading the DEI budget slashing efforts in Texas.

I am a liberty person. We have gotten far away from the principles and the values that made our state and our country great of limited government, low taxes, low regulations, maximum individual freedom, free markets, private property rights. And here's what I can never, and I wish every elected Republican would remember this. As government expands, liberty shrinks. My name is Brian Harrison. I'm really proud to represent hundreds of thousands of Texans in the Texas House of Representatives,

a position that I've held for about three years ever since I returned home to my home state of Texas, where I grew up right on the heels of serving President Trump. I was in his administration for the first term. So when I came home to Texas and ran for office here and got elected, I was in absolute shock to learn that the state of Texas not only still has DEI, but that we are funding DEI programs to the tune of billions of dollars. When I got elected, I was excited to lock arms with all these elected Republicans in Texas because I believed every elected Republican in Texas was fighting as hard for freedom and liberty as those of us in the Trump administration were. And I was shocked to learn that while we have a reputation for freedom and liberty, in many

ways we're just coasting on that reputation. I said, I can't, I'm not going to sit here. I'm not going to be silent. And I'm going to cut this off at the source. And I think the best way to do that is to starve it by cutting off all the funds that are going to DEI because my constituents, they're already overtaxed. Many of them are being taxed out of their homes. And the last thing they want their hard earned tax money going to pay for

is woke Marxist, facially discriminatory DEI policies. I think it violates the plain language of Title VI and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And depending on how these various DEI policies are being implemented, it is absolutely clear that it is illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their race or on the basis of their gender. And some of these programs that I have uncovered, including... I'm sorry, I couldn't listen to more of that bullshit. Now, this is the individual. Remember when we played the video of the sister who was the chair of the Texas Water Development Board?

Remember we played that video? Well, remember when she broke down in tears because she was being defended by a black state rep? Brian Harrison was the asshole who was questioning her. So just understand what we're dealing with here. And this is a moment, Nola, where I really need African-Americans not to play this BS game that these people love. Because let's be real clear, with the impeccable credentials

of Supreme Court Justice Katonji Brown Jackson, they call her a DEI hire. You can be a black woman or a black man who's the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, they're going to call you a DEI hire. You can be a black woman or a black man who's the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. They're going to call you a DEI hire. And so here's what we do. And I get it. The natural reflex for many of us is to defend ourselves by citing our credentials. I have this degree. I have this degree. And then what we do is we fall into the same trap of, I went to Harvard, I went to Yale. These white races, it doesn't matter. You could literally sit there and say,

I have three PhDs as a rocket scientist, and they're going to say, you're still a DEI hire. So we need to be fortifying black folk to, first of all, say with all of your chest, kiss my ass. I'm not about to start reciting my credentials to white racists who have no respect for the credentials. Because they're going to say, oh, well, you got into college. You got a scholarship. You got these things. I told you all the story of my sister. They were at a baseball game or a soccer game or something,

and she mentioned her son got a scholarship to Seton Hall. And one of the white women went, well, my blonde-haired daughter likely is not going to get one of those. My sister said, well, my blonde-haired daughter likely is not going to get one of those. My sister said, well, guess what? At the welcome reception, it was a whole lot of other blonde-haired, blue-eyed kids who were there with their parents. So maybe your daughter needs to study harder. That's the kind of energy we have to fire back at these folks

because they don't care. They don't see white mediocrity. In their minds, I mean, everybody who's watching and listening to understand, in their minds, any job that a black person has, they believe that's their job.

They believe that they were taken. Remember the white girl, Abigail Fisher, who sued the University of Texas. And then when they went to the Supreme Court, they discovered that, oh, black and Latinos didn't take your spot. It was other white kids who had less credentials than she did. And that's just how they think. So you're never going to get one of these white races to go. Oh, you know what?

You're right. You are talented. You do have the credentials. So we just need to fortify our people to not always go into that mode of, well, let me, if I can show them and prove to them how smart I am with all my credentials. The white racists don't care. No, they don't. The credentialing game does not work. It absolutely does not work. Because to your point, it's not about that. We can go, you know, I was listening. I could only listen to him for so long before I muted him.

But what was so interesting about what he was trying to sell the people in Texas is this idea of liberty and freedom. That is, when I talk about the playbook, there is nothing new in the playbook. There is a situation in history when Benjamin Franklin went to France trying to get them to fund our war against Britain, right, so we could so-called have our freedom. France repeatedly remind them, y'all have slaves though. So this idea of freedom and liberty

has never applied to anybody here that looks like us. We have never been included in that, right? So freedom and liberty to them means to operate without impunity, you know what I'm saying? And so for them, diversity, equity, and inclusion holds up a little tiny mirror, just a tiny bit to show them that things have not been fair. And that is an uncomfortable notion for a lot of the MAGAs to sit with, right? And, you know, you had mentioned earlier, or we had a conversation earlier before we went to break about, you know, MAGA.

They are so conditioned. That 35 percent is so conditioned. They are so conditioned to believe all the talking points, that any Black person in any job does not deserve it. Any brown person they see anywhere must be an illegal immigrant, and that somehow they are the victims and they are oppressed. They get a steady diet of this. Those people are gone. They are beyond radicalized. This is a lifestyle. This is a culture. They are gone. I'm not interested in trying to meet them where they are. It's not going to happen.

I'm not going to waste my time, my energy, my lip gloss. I'm not. They are a done deal. Political says, you know, I referenced this NBC poll a little bit earlier, and they talked about where white voters stand, and the group that loves Donald Trump the most are white men with no college degrees.

The second group that loves him are white women with no college degrees. Now, white men with college degree, it's like plus one or plus two percent. But the group that hates him the most is really white women with a college degree. When you talk about DEI, guess what? White men with no college degree, number one, who wants to get rid of it. White women with no college degree, number two. In a large number, white men with college degrees wants to get rid of it. What's the group, the only group of white America that actually supports DEI? in a large number, white men with college degrees wants to get rid of it.

What's the group, the only group of white America that actually supports DEI? White women with college degrees. Because white women with college degrees have been the greatest beneficiary of affirmative action programs. But here's the thing that I find to be interesting, Political Sis, and maybe you, so we've got an all-female panel here. Can y'all help me out? I don't see a lot of these white women defending diversity, equity, and inclusion. Do y'all?

Well, let's keep in mind, I mean, it is a lot of... Oh, go ahead. I'm so sorry. Go ahead, Reesey. Oh, no, no, no. It's you. You're up next. Okay. I mean, I... Local sis, go ahead. You have white women who... I think their focus is they just want to focus on their husbands, right?

Forget about me, because like you said, it's the majority of white women who focus on keeping DEI or white women with education, right? So, I mean, when you look at the people who came out and voted for Trump a lot was white women in rural areas. That is how, that's what we saw in North Carolina,

right? And these women walk around here with no damn teeth in their mouth, oxygen tanks and shit worrying about their husbands. And their husbands, by the way, are veterans, right? They're veterans who now they're finding out, guess what? Their asses benefited from DEI. So

again, it goes right back to letting that damn ship sail. I mean, go down. Reese, yeah, I mean, Reese, bottom line is this here. These attacks on DEI are about

attacking the economic, the economic independence, if you will, and the economic infrastructure of black America. That's what this is all about. A hundred percent. First of all, fuck them. We ain't got to explain our credentials to them. They'll never be satisfied anyway.

But we are obligated to correct the record. So when this fuckface Harrison is saying that a billion dollars is spent on DEI, it's not a billion dollars spent on DEI. When there are contracts that have DEI provisions, which by the way, as you pointed out, Roland, tend to go to white women because white women are considered minorities, so women own businesses and things like that. That is a provision, but the services rendered are not DEI services. If a white woman has an asphalt laying company or a Latino business has laced roofs or a Black business is providing engineering services, those are not DEI services. Those are standard services provided by people Those are not DEI services. Those are standard services

provided by people who are not white men. So to your point, Roland, this is about attacking the leveling of the playing field. This is about the fact that these white folks do not believe that any of us should have anything.

They really don't believe that each other should have anything. They just believe that they alone should have the resources. So it's not even about that they want white people to get ahead. They want to get ahead, because when white people are given the opportunity to support their own brethren and sistren with health care, expanding Medicaid being one of those things, with shoring up Social Security, with environmental protections, with higher minimum wage, they still give their votes to Republicans. So it's not even just a matter of, they don't want us to have anything. They want to keep

everything for themselves. And I don't think that's a problem we can solve, but we can correct the record. JOHN YANG, The Press, NOLA. Nella? It is an economic situation. And it's an economic situation. And it's also the fact of how dare we? We shouldn't be having this conversation. A black man shouldn't have his own network. I shouldn't have my PhD.

Reese shouldn't have her own show. Politics shouldn't have my PhD. Recy shouldn't have her own show. Politics shouldn't be here. It is this correction of a record that they believe that they have been aggrieved probably since the Civil War. There's been some very interesting kind of migration tracking that's been going on, talking about how the white Southern migration, how we had a lot of those folks on the West Coast, like in Colorado and all those different places, you know, during the gold rush and all those different things. And so how you have a lot of those sentiments that kind of that didn't creep north northern, but they crept more westward and how we are having a resurgence of this kind of, you know, we got to get the South back kind of mentality. And then you have these people that are kind of like spread all throughout the country

and then also in the middle part of the country. And it's this resurgence of whiteness that goes all the way back to civil rights days where a bulk of them truly believe that we still belong in chains. So dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion, dismantling critical race theory, weaponizing wokeism has everything to do with what that congressperson was talking that they claim us for getting our freedom and messing up their cotton, messing up their generational wealth. So how dare we want to equal or level the playing field on on on in any regard? Because they don't believe that we're supposed to be here at all anyway in the first place. Well, folks, we often talk about, again, we often talk about the results of voting or not voting. And we show this over and over and over again.

And when we talk about what's happening in the nation's capital, black turnout actually went down. There were people who decided to stay at home. 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 Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

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

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. 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. and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves.

Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Talk about that story in the New York Times where they talked to a 39-year-old black woman in Milwaukee, Battleground State, who said, well, I thought Trump was going to win, so therefore I just didn't vote. But now she's a teacher's aide, now she's complaining. So of course they're shutting down the Department of Education, or trying to, which is going to impact her, but she actually chose not to vote because, well, she just thought that he was going to win. Louisiana, same thing. Significant number of

black people, a massive black population in Louisiana. And a lot of those folks didn't vote. And that's how MAGA Governor Jeff Landry, who was previously Attorney General, is how he won. So guess what? In nine days, voters in Louisiana have another election. They're going to decide on four proposed constitutional amendments for the state constitution. The changes concern the courts, taxes, juvenile treatment, the criminal justice system, and elections for judges. Activist Gary Chambers joins us right now from Baton Rouge.

Gary, glad to have you here. So before we walk through, again, these amendments, and we know what happens. This is what some call an off election. And so these things typically pass because there is absolute small, small, small turnout. Are you seeing any signs that black people in Louisiana are waking the hell up? Well, thank you for being a part of this conversation, as always, Roland. You elevate our voices here in Louisiana. But yes, I just finished a statewide tour with the Powell Coalition going to Shreveport, Lake Charles, the River Parishes,

New Orleans, and my hometown of Baton Rouge to stimulate the conversation around these taxes, around this juvenile justice amendment that would allow more juveniles to be incarcerated as juveniles in the adult penitentiary. Not a single one of these policies is a benefit to the people of this state. And we have been moving the conversation to make sure that people knew about it. I hope that if a sleeper election gets 5 to 10 percent more people to show up that say no to all four of these amendments, that before the legislative session starts, that'll send a message to the governor and the legislature that these policies are not the direction that the people in this state desire to go in.

And let's be clear, Jeff Landry wants to lock up more black people. And when he was attorney general, didn't he want to release or make public the juvenile records of folks? It was only, what, two counties, the largest two black counties, two parishes, largest two black parishes in the state? Absolutely. There was a policy that he was pushing as attorney general, as well as as governor. In his first special session, he already made it, passed laws and signed into law more policies that would allow juveniles to go from juvenile penitentiaries to adult facilities. He is building more juvenile prisons. As we speak, there's putting millions of dollars to the side to build juvenile detention facilities. This governor has been a disaster for young

people in the state of Louisiana since the day that he took the oath of office. And I think that a lot of folks thought that things would be different or slept on the election, and now they're going to end up paying the consequence. But you have the ability to slow them down at the ballot right now. Early voting is actually going on now through Saturday. And if people are showing up at the polls, they understand that, you know, number two is about taxes rolling. They want to take $101.7 billion out of our revenue stabilization fund and move that money somewhere else. They want to tax whether or not you get taxes on takeout orders. There's a whole host of things that poor folks will end up paying more money in taxes because they want to give a flat tax,

and they're going to give this impression that teachers are going to get a pay raise. They're giving it an impression that you're going to get more money in your paycheck. But at the end of the day, if the tax rate is taxing more things than sales taxes, poor people are paying more taxes out of this tax plan. All right. So walk us through these four. And from your point of view, how should voters, especially black voters, be voting on each one of these constitutional amendments? Just take us one through four. So number one, Roland, is about out-of-state lawyers being able to be penalized by the judiciary system here in Louisiana, allowing the state Supreme Court here in Louisiana to penalize out-of-state lawyers.

That would be a problem for people like Ben Crump and Lee Meredith. People decided they wanted to make bar complaints against them as they come in and fight on cases like the Ronald Greene case and other cases for civil rights that folks have been involved with trying to bring justice in this state. Constitutional amendment number two, and to be clear, on number one, if you are an out-of-state lawyer and you violate our policies, there's already a procedure to go through to penalize those lawyers. Number two is a complete restructuring of our tax system here in Louisiana. Now, we do have a broken tax system here in the state of Louisiana. We have the highest sales taxes in the country. But this would give us a reduction in income taxes in some ways.

But that reduction would end up in higher sales taxes than we already have. And we know that people who are poorer or have less money will be impacted by that more. So if you make $350,000 a year and this tax plan goes into place, you may not feel anything other than more money in your bank account. But if you make $50,000, $60,000 a year and they're taxing your takeout services, they're taxing your subscriptions, they're taxing more things, these things will cost you more money in the end because of the sales tax that's attached to what is going on. The other aspect of this is there's a myth in this plan where they're saying that teachers

are going to get a pay raise. Well, the reality is, it's a stipend that they're making permanent. It's not a raise or any extra money that teachers are going to get, but they're using that as a way to try to manipulate teachers into supporting this, when at the end of the day they're moving protected funds into a different category in K-12 education. Number three is extremely egregious, Roland, because number three gives the ability to give more penalties that they will incarcerate juveniles for. Now, if you're a juvenile and you commit murder, rape or certain violent crimes, you already will be charged as an adult.

This would take the Constitution and allow them to take those charges out of the Constitution. And so if a kid is at school, the kid happens to pick up his friend's cell phone. They say they stole a cell phone. A kid steals a cell phone. That kid could be then charged as an adult for a five hundred dollar theft in any situation, depending on the parish that you're in. And so looking at communities like where I'm from in Baton Rouge, you may have—in New Orleans, you may have somebody who's more progressive. But if you are in Ouachita Parish, if you are in Rapides Parish, if you are in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, those outcomes may be different for you when

you encounter the judicial system, and those kids can end up in the Angola penitentiary. And the Fourth Constitutional Amendment gives the ability for races, for judge, to happen sooner if a vacancy happens on the judiciary. The reason that's a problem is a sleeper election just like this one would be able to elect judges when—instead of putting them on the largest turnout election to come. So you got an election that just happened for a state senator here in Louisiana, where 9.5 percent of the people in the district showed up to vote in that election, another district where 14 percent of the people showed up to vote in that election.

There are people in power who want these low turnout elections because they get to determine that election. Another district where 14 percent of the people showed up to vote in that election. There are people in power who want these low turnout elections because they get to determine who wins those races. That is not good for democracy. It is not good for the judiciary. It is not good for justice or the people of Louisiana rolling. Questions for my panel of political sis, you're first. Political sis, can you hear me? Okay, you're on mute. You got to remember to take your mic off mute. So you're on mute.

There you go. Go ahead. Can you hear me, Gary? It's an honor to meet you. Yeah, we got you. 79% in reference to Amendment 3. 79% of juveniles in secure settings, meaning like a detention center, that is what they're black men, black young boys, versus what, 14% of white.

And it's the same around the high percentage points when it comes to non-secure settings, like in the custodial settings. This is directed at young black boys. This is directed at young black boys. How can we get this message out to our black folks in Louisiana? I'm sorry about the mute button. Well, this is a part of the conversation for us. That's why we did these town halls all over the state.

That's why we're glad Roland is here. I saw Sheriff Susan Hudson in New Orleans at the Super Sunday this last Sunday talking to thousands of people in New Orleans about the need to get out and vote in this election. People are sounding the alarm that this is happening. We just need as many people around the country helping echo that so that people in this state pay attention to what's going on. We believe that this is a critical juncture for us as a community, as a state, because this is the opportunity to reject the

policies that this legislature continues to try to jam down our throats. We know that this will target young black men. And listen, as somebody who was expelled in the third grade, the fifth grade, the sixth grade and the seventh grade, if it wasn't for a village who was there to surround me and support me, I would not be here. If these policies were in place in Louisiana when I was 12 years old, then I would have ended up deep in the justice system. And who knows where my life would have ended up. And so this is personal for me because I wasn't a good, rosy kid. I was one of the kids who got in trouble and got put out of school, who today is somebody better in my community because there was a village to love me. Thank you.

Nola. Thank you, Gary. Thank you so much for doing this work. It's so important. And, you know, being born and raised in New Orleans and especially under the Morial regime, I'm a political scientist today because I came up in that environment where people were active and engaged in politics. So my question to you, and I've been wanting to have this conversation with you for a very long time, is about demographic shift and change, as we've been having this conversation

about why people have become disinterested in voting in Louisiana, which, again, growing up, my experience was so different. And every time I go home and I talk to friends and I see the neighborhood shift, you know, you see the changes. The Sixth Ward, the Seventh Ward don't look the way that it used to, you know. And you will hear people talk about Hurricane Katrina being this turning point, in that I know in my own family, a lot of people left, right, because the city just completely just fell apart. We couldn't trust our politicians. Crime, you know, escalated, all these different things. Is some of this what we are seeing, this kind of apathy regarding voting? Does it have something to do with demographic shift? Because I've really been trying to figure out, like, what was that

major shift from the 80s to now? You know, and I know that that's a big time span, but constantly, every time I go home, people will always talk about Katrina being a defining moment where a lot of Louisiana shifted and changed. And I'm just curious, would you agree or disagree with that? I think that that is an interesting perspective.

I definitely think that demographic shifts impact the culture of the vote at the time. It definitely impacts who's stimulating the conversation and how that moves. turning out. What I think impacts us the most is a level of disenchantment that turns to resentment and that resentment turns to apathy. If my elected leaders continue to ignore the issues that are most important to me, the same way Chuck Schumer is ignoring the majority of his base right now, saying that they want to see a fighter, then the only way a voter can make a politician pay is not to support them, to support another candidate or not to show up. If they feel like you aren't showing up for them in a meaningful way, then why should they show up to vote? And there's a lot of people who feel like government is not impacting my life in the ways that I would like to see it. So therefore, I am not going to participate in the process that is not benefiting me. Now, is that a perspective that is beneficial to us as a collective? No, because there's a

whole host of things that government is doing that we need to be contingent. We need to be consistently fighting to make sure it stays in place, such as our civil rights that are now being eroded away. However, for young people who have no connectivity to a lot of these things and for people who are disconnected from the process, civil rights are not the number one issue for them. Economic rights are. And we are not, as a collective, putting a grip on an economic policy for our community in a way that I think makes them bite the bullet and show up. Recy.

Gary, I appreciate the work that you do. And you're the name I always invoke when I talk about how we have the capacity to make the difference in these elections. Can you talk a little bit about the amendment around the judiciary and how this is part of a pattern we're seeing around Republicans to take away the self-governance, the ability to have judiciary actions be influenced by electeds that people are electing locally, as opposed to statewide or appointed judiciary oversight, that this amendment would help shift the balance of power away from—or away to, sorry? I'll give you an example. Here in Baton Rouge, black Democrats in the last two election cycles became the majority of the judges in the 19th JDC,

which is the local court system here in Baton Rouge. Well, if you have a judge that is removed or vacant for any reason, then you move the date of the election up. That helps the person with the most money win those races. What has helped black judges in a lot of cases here in Baton Rouge is if all of the judges are on the ballot at the same time, they are all raising money at the same time. And even if you don't have the most money, you can be competitive because there's a bunch of other black judges on the ballot. When you're the only black judge and you're struggling to raise $50,000 to be competitive in a race where somebody else may have $150,000 at the drop of their hat, that means that that person

is more competitive. It means that they get the majority on the local bench. And when they have the majority on the local bench, they determine the makeup of the court, what the court looks like, and how the court activates within your local community. That's the same makeup problem that other parishes that are majority black would face in this situation. And these are methodical ways that conservatives use policy in order to tweak the balances of power in their favor by making sure that there are as few as people possible showing up in these local elections.

All right, then. So, Gary, early voting is happening right now. When does it end? This Saturday is the last day to early vote, and then election day is March 29th. Well, black folks, this is where we must show up and show out. And this is real simple. You cannot

complain about what Jeff Landry is doing and his MAGA Attorney General and Republicans now have a super majority if you don't vote. That's how there's a guaranteed way for them to have power. And that is if you actually do not show up and vote.

So I really hope folk now recognize what sitting at home does. It does nothing but make our lives worse and miserable. And again, I really hope that the black folks in Louisiana show up. So, man, continue the great work. You know, we'll certainly keep supporting it. The tour was awesome, and I just really hope that folk in Louisiana realize that what Stacey Abrams

and Warnock and others did in Georgia can happen in Louisiana. But you can't talk about maximizing black power if you're not organized and mobilized. That's right. Thank you so much, Roland, and vote no on all four. Appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch. Folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk with Terrence Woodbury about data regarding the 2024 election. We're going to discuss that. You're going to hear from State Representative Jolanda Jones here in Texas about, again, we're going to talk about what happens when you do not vote. What this relates to the Houston Independent School District being taken over by the Texas

Education Agency and how that has led to awful and awful situation in Texas. So lots for us, we want to us to us to unpack here. Folks, don't forget, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars are critically important for us to do here. Folks, don't forget, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars are critically important for us to do the work that we do to join our Bring the Funk fan club. And remember, our goal is very simple, to get 20,000 of our fans

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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 Business Week. 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 One, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. 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-studugs 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 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Back in a moment. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Cawthorn. We look at the history of emancipation around the world, including right here in the United States, the so-called end of slavery.

Trust me, it's a history lesson that bears no resemblance to what you learned in school. Professor Chris Mangiapra, author, scholar, amazing teacher, joins us to talk about his latest book, Black Ghost of Empire, The Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation. He explains why the end of slavery was no end at all, but instead a collection of laws and policies designed to preserve the status quo of racial oppression. The real problem is that the problems that

slavery invented have continued over time. And what reparations are really about is saying, how do we really transform society, right? And stop racial violence, which is so endemic. What we need to do about it on the next installment of The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change. We're digging into the immigration crisis that's happening here right now. It can impact each and every one of us. We're going to break down the topic of this constitutional crisis that is being led by the Trump administration

and what you as ordinary citizens can do to speak up and speak out to fight back. This is the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Martin Unfiltered. Stay right here. Folks, we talk about elections. What do I keep saying? Elections matter. In the last election, black voter turnout dropped. A lot of people stayed at home. Not just African-Americans, Latinos, young voters as well.

And so what really happened? How did Vice President Kamala Harris lose to Donald Trump? He's running around talking about this mandate he got and he got this and got that, won all these counties, all these things. And you got a bunch of people hollering, talking about, yeah, it was a mandate, but the reality wasn't really a mandate. Well, Terrence Woodbury, Hit Strategies, has really been going through the numbers, but also doing focus groups, getting a sense of what happened. And so he joins us right now. Terrence, glad to have you here. So let's walk through the data. So give us the top line of what you have discovered, what happened in November, especially with African-Americans. Absolutely, Roland. Thank you for having me, man. Look, Hit Strategies has been pouring over exit poll data, voter file data, and sitting with black voters in focus groups since the election

to really understand what happened, where was their underperformance, where was their underperformance, and why did it happen. There's a couple of trends that we're starting to see here, man. Number one is that Democrats, frankly, underperformed with all of their base voters. Every group that you would consider a Democratic base voter, we got less votes with. That includes Black people, Latinos, young voters, voters of color, men of color, urban voters, working-class voters, all the groups that you would consider. The one I want to focus on, because we've talked a lot about the gender and the generation gap

between Black voters, that Black men and younger Black voters are showing up a little bit different than some of their counterparts. Well, Black men, compared to any other group of men of color, held the line, only 2 percent drop-off from Joe Biden's 79 percent support amongst black men to Kamala Harris's 77 percent. Again, that's the smallest drop-off of any group of black voters. What concerns me there, Roland, is the trend over time. It is not that we lost 2 percent of black men in this last election. It's that we lose 2 to 5 percent in every election. And that's how we go from the 92 percent of black men's support for Barack Obama and 82

percent of black men's support for Hillary Clinton to 77% for Kamala Harris. I want to be clear that Democrats don't just have a black men problem. Democrats have a men problem, especially young men, especially men of color. And that's exactly what we've been digging into. So what's the reason behind that problem? What are they saying? And how do you fix it? Yeah, so there's a couple of things that we're seeing here, you know, and these are trends we've been lifting for quite a while. The first is that on some of these social issues, Roland, we are discovering that Democrats really don't know how to talk to black folks about issues of gender, sexuality, race, the role of gender in society.

In fact, and when we—in fact, I just want to show you, read you some of the poll numbers here. Amongst men of—I'm sorry, amongst black men—I'm sorry, amongst all black voters, 66 percent of black voters agree that men should be head of household. My mama agrees with that. My daddy agrees with that. Fifty-nine percent of black women agree with that. Seventy-five percent of black men agree with that.

But why does that matter? Because when we—in our research, as a Kamala Harris pollster, as one of the pollsters for this campaign, when we discover that there are some groups of voters that have concerns about voting for a woman, well, we shouldn't wag our finger at them and shame them and tell them there's something wrong with them, because that's not what we're seeing in this data. In fact, when they say that men should be head of household, we know that a lot of black folks get that from church. They got that from the pulpit.

They got that from their pastor. They got that from their Bible. And so we're asking them—we're telling them that their Bible has been wrong. And so instead what we need to do is alter an alternative—I'm sorry, is offer an alternative vision of society where gender roles are evolving and where there is absolutely a role for men in it. And then not all masculinity is toxic, but what is that non-toxic masculinity that we're embracing on the left? What does that look like? How do we demonstrate examples of it? And how do we make black men feel like they're a part of it? So Gavin Newsom has this podcast where he recently broke from Democrats when it came to the issue of transgender.

Donald Trump MAGA was highly successful last year in running, I mean, more than $200 million in ads, specifically dealing with transgender surgeries for inmates, but also, as they frame it, men playing women's sports. And I can tell you individually, I heard from black men who were very supportive of Vice President Kamala Harris, very supportive of Democrats, who were like, yo, they're right. And what a lot of people don't understand, and let's be clear, the Harris campaign blew this off like it was no big deal. In January, February, and March, the MAGA PACs were running these ads on black radio stations in Detroit, in Atlanta, and other places. They were essentially testing the ground.

They came back awesome. What then happens? That clip of Charlamagne and DJ Envy saying, I don't want transgender prisoners getting surgeries was the second most effective ad out of all the ads that Trump and MAGA ran. So what does your data say on that issue? Because a lot of Democrats, let's just be clear, coming out of Black Lives Matter, I heard people say, yo, how is transgender, how has this become such a dominant issue? Is that also one of the cultural issues you're seeing show up in your research? Yeah, that's exactly right, Ron. I'm glad you brought this up because there was some misperceptions about that trans ad. I'm glad you described it the way you did because a lot of people remember that very famous tagline,

she's for them and they, and I'm for you. But what they often forget there is that it wasn't just about trans folks. It was about using tax dollars to pay for trans surgeries. And what we're seeing in our data is that the zero-sum politics that really does represent Donald Trump, that for you to get—that for other people to get more, you have to get less. Well, we're seeing that in our data. In fact, 59 percent of black voters believe that the gains of the LGBTQ community come at the expense of the Black community. Fifty-nine percent. Sixty-four percent of Black voters believe that the gains of the Latino community come at the expense of the Black community. But I want to correct some misperception here. When I see those numbers, 59 percent of Black folks say that

they agree with that LGBTQ gains come at their expense. That's not an anti-LGBTQ number. That's not an anti-trans, anti-gay number. What I see there is a pro-black response that when I look at the black community, I see that we're not getting what we need. And folks that are feeling that pain in their communities need a reason for it. This is just basic human psychology. When you're, I said this on a podcast recently, that when your life sucks, you want to understand why it sucks. And if the person asking for your vote

can't tell you why it sucks, then how can they unsuck it? And so Donald Trump came along and told groups of people that the reason that their lives, that the reason that they're feeling this pain in their communities is because another group is getting more, is because immigrants are taking black jobs, is because trans people are taking your tax dollars.

Well, what Democrats have to do is, one, we need to learn how to talk about some of these hot-button issues in ways that resonate with black folks, but we also need to give people a reason for their pain. Why don't you have what you need? Why does your kid's school not have what it needs? Why does your community not have the resources that it needs? And if it's not going to be because of trans people, and it's not going to be because of immigrants, and it's not going to be because of DEI, then what reason are Democrats going to give? And I think our data gives us some daylight on where we need to go here, because the next question that I want to—the next data point I want to point out here is that—and this is amongst all voters, not just Black voters—73 percent of Black people, I'm sorry, 73% of registered voters believe that greedy corporations and billionaires have rigged the system to keep themselves rich. 73%.

And so while MAGA and Trump are telling communities of color and immigrant communities and LGBTQ communities that all of their problems are because of other people, at the same time that he's given the keys of the kingdom to Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, at the same time that Donald Trump's cabinet is the wealthiest cabinet in the history of America, worth over $700 billion inside of Donald Trump's cabinet, if you include Elon's $400 billion, which has dropped rapidly due to some of the protests of the communities we're talking about. But if we're not able to offer the alternative, that it is not because of the person that has less than you, that you have less. It's because of the people that are hoarding all the resources

at the top, that are pillaging our government the people that are hoarding all the resources at the top, that are pillaging our government, and that are cutting services for the least amongst us in order to make themselves rich. I could tell from the data rolling that not only Black folks, but Americans will believe that, and we can begin to mobilize the multiracial coalition that is being splintered by these zero-sum politics. So your biggest three takeaways, you said that in number three, voters trusted Trump on the issues they cared about the most, the economy and immigration. I bet they sure as hell are regretting that. But actually, let me break that down. First of all, 10 of the last 11 recessions, Republicans. Republicans have messaged their way into getting people to believe they're great for the economy.

No, they're great for major corporations and tax breaks. They're not great for the economy. And the reality is Biden-Harris is better. They were just horrible at the great things that they actually did. Even on immigration, Biden was deport, Biden was deport, even right now, Biden was deporting more people every week than Trump is. But here's the difference. Biden didn't have his Department of Homeland Security secretary out there playing dress up, doing photo ops, photo shoots in gear. I mean, she wearing every, OPS PHOTO SHOOTS IN GEAR. SHE WEARING EVERY DAMN PIECE OF SWAG THEY GOT IN HOMELAND SECURITY. WHAT DONALD TRUMP HAS DONE, AND THIS IS ALSO TIED TO MESSAGING, HE HAS TURNED IMMIGRATION,

DEPORTATIONS INTO A TELEVISION SHOW. THE DEMOCRATS, BIDEN-HARRIS, THEY DID IT QUIETLY. AND SO THIS IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS, IT SHOWS YOU THAT, WAIT A MINUTE, BIDEN-HARRIS, YOU WERE DEPORTING this is one of those things, it shows you that, wait a minute, Biden-Harris, you were deporting more people than Trump actually is. Hell, Trump fired, I forgot which department, because the guy, they weren't deporting fast enough. They were still behind. But the difference is they are showing it, they are messaging what they're doing, whereas

Biden-Harris did not. Just talk about that, your assessment of that. That's exactly right, Roland. You know, Democrats really have to get into the game of political theater. You know, I've argued for a long time that our politics are post-policy. Americans agree with us on policy. Black folks agree with us on policy. Americans agree with us on policy. Black folks agree with us on policy. Young people, people of color, men of color agree with us on policy, from gun control to immigration to—I'm

sorry, not immigration. That's the only one. Immigration and the economy are the only ones that they don't agree with us. But on all of these issues, health care, student loans, gun control, climate—they agree with Democrats overwhelmingly on policy. We are losing them on the storytelling. And a part of that is because we're not lifting up the stories of the folks. Even at this moment, at this very moment, Donald Trump's approval rating today is higher than it was in his first term, higher amongst all voters, but even twice as high amongst Black voters. In Donald Trump's first term, he had a 15 percent approval rating from Black folks at this time in his first term. And now Donald Trump has a 32 percent approval rating amongst Black folks.

And that's because we're not connecting the dots on how the actions that he's taking are hurting black communities, are hurting black people. And a lot of that does come with the showmanship. I want to read you a stat here that I believe represents where black folks would like to see the Democratic Party going. When we ask this question, which of the following statements is closest to your opinion? Seventy-eight percent of—I'm sorry, 22 percent of Black folks believe that Democrats should keep their heads down and allow Donald Trump to fail and prove that he is incapable of governing. Twenty-two percent believe that. Seventy-eight percent of Black folks, The overwhelming majority, almost 80%. That's like everybody that... That's almost everybody that you know.

80% believe that Democrats need to fight back as often and as visibly as possible. The visibly part. So basically, black people... Basically, black people are saying, James Carville, you know what the hell you talking about. Yeah, that play dead shit is for the birds. Black people want are saying, James Carville, you know what the hell you talking about? Yeah, that play that shit is for the birds. Black people want to see less James Carville and more representative Al Green and the courage that he showed when he stood face to face with Donald Trump and told him that he didn't have a mandate.

You're number two. You said Harris lost, but Dems did not get wiped out. Can you tell Stephen A that? I mean, all these people are running around. Oh, my God. Dems got not get wiped out. Can you tell Stephen A that? I mean, all these people are running around. Oh, my God. Dems got destroyed. They got crushed. And I'm like, no, they didn't. They literally almost won the house. And this is the problem when people act like the entire house is burning. It's actually not. It wasn't a mandate. The reality, I mean, we're talking about the shifts that she could have actually won.

But when you had all these factors at play, Biden in the debate, him dropping out in July. I mean, he had all, frankly, Biden insiders trashing Harris in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, causing her numbers to go down as well. The reality is she almost pulled it out. That's right. That's exactly right, Roland. Look, Kamala Harris was able to close a double-digit deficit. Joe Biden was down double digits in battleground states. He was down more than 20 points amongst young people,

almost 20 points amongst black people. Kamala Harris joining the ticket closed that gap in under—in just over 100 days, she was able to close that gap. And in fact, she won 73 million people, 73 million votes. That's the second most votes ever by a presidential candidate, second only to the person that beat her in the same election. That means that Kamala Harris got more votes than Joe Biden when he won. She got more votes in Georgia, in North Carolina, in Michigan than Joe Biden got when he won. And so this idea that there's a mandate—if anything, I would argue that there's a—that

the country is split and there's a mandate for the other half—for the other half of the country that didn't win, that there's a mandate for us to start representing the opposition and not the minority, that folks that have—regardless of what party you're a part of or who you voted for, if you see what's happening and disagree, you are in fact a part of the opposition. There were 73 million people that saw this, the MAGA shit that he was presenting, and said no. And that is a growing coalition, including 10 percent of Republicans who voted for him and disapprove of the job that he's doing. And so there's an opportunity here for Democrats to really mobilize this growing opposition of folks that would like to see more Democrats fight back as much and as visibly as possible and not roll over and play dead the way James Carville is encouraging them to.

You're number one, and I'm going to talk about this before I go to my panelists for questions. Something that we've said, I consistently said during the campaign, you got some of these Negroes out here like, you got $350,000 from the Kamala Harris campaign for ads, but they want to ignore the other $599,700,000 that was spent on ads

that largely white media got. You said, underinvestment caused significant erosion to Democratic base, could signal a realignment if not corrected. The bottom line is this here. The people who are more likely going to vote for you is your base. You must shore up your base. I'm sorry. I was there the day before the election.

That damn Kamala Harris rally in Philadelphia was fucking obscene. It was obscene. And I mean, I was standing there, we're covering it. And I'm like, I wonder how much all of this costs. And if they put this much money into the ground game in Philadelphia alone, when we were in Houston, I'm born and raised in Houston. I love my city, but the rally before the election in Houston was dumb. It was dumb. And I'm sitting there going, hmm, I wonder how much has been put. The fact of the matter is that the Democrats, and this is white Democratic strategists, white Democratic media strategists, white people who run campaigns. And I'm going to say this. You don't have to say it. You don't have to say it.

You don't have to nod your head. You don't do any of this, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. The reality is this here. General Malley Dillon, initially Anita Dunn, who got booted by Kamala, but she was with Joe's campaign. Later, Stephanie Cutter, David Plouffe. They were not listening to the black people on the campaign.

They were not listening to the black staff Atlanta, and headquarters struck everything in the copy that mentioned John Lewis activism and protest. Well, why the hell you even doing that? And so they spent money. They were, you know, I don't... They were, yes, this is an appropriate word. They were niggardly with the money for black radio, black newspaper, because their whole deal was, oh, we got them. No, you didn't have them.

OK, they made people like me jump through hoops to even get interviews. And this is why they keep losing. They are running a 1984 black strategy in 2025. You cannot show up at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. You cannot just drop in to some black churches in October and win. You have to be spending money in the year. If it's a November election, you got to be spending 12 months out. And you got to be educating, enlightening, informing. That's what you got to do. And that's and you got to be educating enlightening informing that's what you got to do and that's literally what you're saying number one i mean look well and i'll go

as far as to say we got to start spending right now this is a part of the narrative that we are combating and this is why what you're doing is so important is that the right doesn't stop campaigning donald trump is running they are running Donald Trump ads on this program today. Right now, they are running Donald Trump ads today. I just saw—what was it? Texas Steel or something. And so, look, they are never going—they will continue communicating with our audience. The only reason Republicans have seen the increase that they have seen amongst Black

youth and amongst Black men, the only reason—it's not because they changed their policies. It's not because they changed their message. They're not saying something different to black folks than they've been saying. The only reason they have doubled their support amongst young black voters and amongst black men is because they are spending money trying, and they didn't used to. And that is not unique to Donald Trump. That is up and down the ballot. We see candidates like Tom Tillis and Perdue and the Republican in Pennsylvania—I just

forgot his name. But they've all increased their support amongst young black voters and amongst black men. And so, look, when you have a group of voters who have been, it's like a voter told me in a focus group, my hood ain't getting no better. A young Black man told me in Pennsylvania, my hood ain't getting no better under Obama. It ain't getting no worse under Trump. So what did Kamala and Biden got to do with me? For voters like that, what we call a hit rightfully.

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.

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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 uh ricky williams nfl player hasman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne for brothers osborne we have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher.

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

The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Cynical voters, those closest to the pain that don't often fill our interventions, those voters actually don't like either party. They don't like Trump or Biden. They don't like Democrats or Republicans. And so what they are going with is the candidate that is offering to blow all of this shit up. This is why, Roland, we have seen this voter that confuses the hell out of Washington,

and that's the Bernie Trump voter, voters that voted for Bernie Sanders and are now voting for Donald Trump. Well, that's because they're voting for disruption. They want to break a system that has failed them, and Democrats spend too much time defending it. Questions from panel. Recy, you're first. Terrence, it's always good to be with you. So much of what you said, I've been warning people about.

But help me reconcile this, because your data talks about the issues that are most important to Black people. And the discussion you and Roland had was around cultural issues, things that Democrats themselves did not focus on. I didn't see Kamala Harris run pro-trans ads, pro-LGBTQ ads. I saw her running ads around her economic policy, around her being tough on immigration and things like that. by the Republicans really owning the narrative on what Democrats are talking about as opposed to Democrats owning the narrative on what their policies are and what their emphasis is on. That's exactly right. But before you answer that... Hey, Terrence, before you answer that, I'm gonna throw in one more thing.

She wasn't running those ads, but what the campaign failed to do, they actually failed to respond. The campaign literally said, they literally said, they literally said, Clinton folks, the number two, that they did not,

they believed that the transgender commercials were having no impact. And we were like, what in the hell are y'all talking about? I'm like, guys, they were running 8 to 12 in every football game. I'm telling you right now, General Malley Dillon, Stephanie Cutter,

David Plouffe, and Quentin Fulks, I don't know what planetary system that they were campaigning in, but it was totally different than the one that we were living in. Terrence, go ahead. Political malpractice, for sure. Listen, when it comes to these cultural issues, you're absolutely right, Recy, that Democrats have not been engaging, have not waged their political campaigns on these cultural issues. Republicans are certainly leading these conversations around wokeism, around DEI, around—but the problem is that we are allowing Republicans to shape the issue context that the election is happening in.

I could have told you two years ago that if the number one issue in every election is economy. Two years ago, I could have told you if the number two issue was not abortion, then we would probably lose. If the number two issue was immigration or crime instead of abortion or guns, then we're probably going to lose. And so we allowed them to shape the issue context. And they have done that by now launching a—we are in a culture war, but it's a war that Republicans have started and that Democrats have to respond to, because when we don't—here's how this works. Democrats don't respond or defend critical race theory.

Democrats don't respond or defend the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action. Democrats don't respond or defend to removing Court overturning affirmative action. Democrats don't respond or defend to removing Black history from books. In fact, our response is, we don't believe in CRT. We're not—we ain't woke. Our response is to deny all of these things. And so when they now come in and start gutting all of this shit, and Democrats now look to black voters or look to voters of color to mobilize a resistance and an opposition, well, we haven't given voters a reason to defend affirmative action, CRT. In fact, 40 percent of black folks believe that racism exists but doesn't prevent them from pursuing opportunity.

And so if we're not presenting the pain or the alternative, then we are going to continue to allow Republicans to shape the narrative and to launch a culture war that we have not figured out how to show up to. Noah? Terrence, thank you so much for this data. This is wonderful. I love this conversation. I, during the campaign, I was a national security and foreign policy messenger.

And while foreign policy typically doesn't win elections, foreign policy did factor in to the emotionality of the election, right? And as one of the people who were invited into the rooms, but who wasn't listened to in terms of messaging, you know, a lot of that fell on deaf ears. And then we saw the results. You know, we saw how Michigan responded. And so my question is, as we're seeing all of these different things happen, as we're seeing the way that Trump is blustering, you know, that bullish kind of posture towards

Mexico, towards Canada, towards Panama, towards Greenland, while the traditional thinking is, and some of the data would support, that foreign policy does not win elections, it does impact elections. How can Democrats be out there right now talking about this? I think that they're making a mistake by not talking about colonial imperialism, this kind of huge reversal back to this time that no one wants. I think it's a mistake that they're not leaning into this kind of rhetoric because it's more than rhetoric. It's true. So in your professional opinion, how does that shift begin to happen

in terms of messaging? I'm talking to some folks on the Hill because they're like, what do we do? But how do you get them to listen? Yeah. Yeah, you know, foreign policy is interesting because you're right. For black voters and for most voters of color, it doesn't typically register as a top issue that impacts who they are voting for. Even in this election, we tested the war in Gaza and the war in Ukraine as the saliency of these issues and how much it was impacting people.

I don't have the exact number, but I could tell you less than 10 percent of black folks say that that was an important factor in who they consider voting for. But this is the important part. It wasn't that salient, but it was quite resonant for the folks that it was. For the less than 10 percent that said they were considering it, it was their top issue, right? And so for those young folks and those voters of color and those folks in Michigan, while they didn't represent a large part of the constituency, it was the most important thing to them. And many of them felt like they didn't represent a large part of the constituency, it was the most important thing to them. And many of them felt like they didn't get the response that they needed from the Democratic Party.

I do think that there's an opportunity here, as he continues to strip and rip foreign aid from around the world. I remember shithole countries coming up in a lot of focus groups in his last administration. When he said that about countries in Africa, focus groups were repeating that back to me. Well, unfortunately, I haven't heard anybody bringing up the fact that Elon Musk is in South Africarikaners to be refugees in America, that we are withholding funding from countries across Africa, and frankly, that a lot of that funding, while it does benefit those countries and they need that aid, it is also to keep us safe.

Look, guys, measles and AIDS and pandemic, these things don't have country borders. This is why we fight these pandemics around the world, because it's the only way to keep them out of America. It's to fight them there before they get here. And so we have not, Democrats have a lot to respond to right now. This is a part of the muzzle velocity of the Republican strategy, of the MAGA strategy. But a part of what I, you know, we have to figure out how to respond to all of these things. We can't allow any of these attacks that hurt our communities or, frankly, hurt our diaspora, because, again, while it may be less than 10 percent that are prioritizing the diaspora, the folks that do prioritize it as their number

one issue. And so we've got to find a way to respond to it and to mobilize the folks that do care to actually join this opposition. Thank you. Political Sis, your question. Hey, Terrence, how are you? I'm here in North Carolina. What I do know is that USAID affects farmers here in this state. What I do know is that USAID affect education on a college level when it comes to grants. And what I do know is that in the triangle, people are losing their jobs right now because of USAID. What I also know is that Tom Tillis is going to be funded like an ass when it comes to his re-election in 2026 by Elon Musk.

And what's also ticking me off is veterans right now. Veterans are so pissed with Tom Tillis. I'm talking about veterans that voted for his ass. No one yet has came out and said that they are going to run against Tom Tillis. No one yet has came out and said that they are going to run against Tom Tillis.

No one yet has done that. And everyone, I think, is waiting to see what our former governor, Roy Cooper, is going to do. We do not have my congresswoman, Deborah Ross. Her little prissy ass is not nowhere near to be found. She's on TikTok or X. She's nowhere near to be found. And right now, even on a local level, our local politicians, right, our state politicians,

they are nowhere to be found. They are not showing up at these town hall meetings. They are not going in these rural areas that's going to be affected the most by cuts or getting rid of the Department of Education. So I'm with you on that. I'm looking for shit that I know. What I see at USAID, okay,

let me grab what's going to affect my people, right? That's what I'm going to look at when it comes to USAID, the Department of Education. Let me say, well, shit, wait a minute now. We're talking about Title I. We know it's going to affect low-income. Head Start, we know this shit, right? How can we get them

out to understand? I'm not talking about the voters, right? We're trying to rile up the voters, right? We're trying to get them going. How do we get these politicians? I'm just a country girl here from North Carolina. Don't nobody listen to me. Right? So what do we do, Terrence? What can I do? Well, listen,

I believe that the South got next. His strategies is advancing a New South, a Blue South project. I believe that blue South got next. His Strategies is advancing a new South, a blue South project. I believe that that blue wall in the Midwest, we've seen how shaky it is, how non-durable that blue wall in the Midwest is. But I do believe there's an opportunity to build a much more durable black-ass wall across the South. You just had Gary Chambers on here, who has been raving the flag on this. Places like Louisiana, Mississippi, the South are not red states, they're just oppressed states.

That's right. And here— And North Carolina, South Carolina—it is no coincidence that the South is where the blackest states in America are and the same exact states, you can almost track the correlation directly. The blacker the state is, the lower the black turnout is. It's almost a direct correlation. That is absolutely crazy.

And here's the deal, Terrence, that we have to understand. And when you talk about that blue wall, 2030, the numbers are going to be changing. California, New York State, Wisconsin, blue states are going to be losing congressional seats. They're going to be shifting those to red states, which means Democrats are going to have to have a consistent strategy to win Georgia and or North Carolina. And they're going to have to make Florida. They got to figure out what to do. Florida has to come back purple. The numbers are shifting. It's going to it's going to make it harder because to get to 270, if the blues, if blue states lose anywhere from 6 to 10 electoral college votes. That's right.

That's right. But the good news is while the geographic patterns don't favor Democrats, the demographic patterns do. What do I mean by that? The places that this growth is happening might not benefit us, but the people that are causing this growth should be benefiting us. This growth is being caused by people of color and by young people. I don't know about Florida.

I still got PTSD from my Andrew Gillum days in Florida, but I do know places like Mississippi, the blackest state in all of America, where Democrats just lost in 2023 in an off year with a black candidate running for governor. We lost by two points in Mississippi. We lost by less than we lost in Michigan. And so there is an opportunity to build this black wall across the South. But to Roland's point, those are not just strategic decisions. Those are economic decisions. Because to build a black ass wall in the South means you're going to have to empower a bunch of black organizations and black media and black

operatives in order to go get those black voters that feel like politics don't got nothing to do with them. The same way Stacey Abrams did in Georgia. Yep. Thank you, Tans. Tans Woodbury, we appreciate it, my brother. Thank you, Terrence. Terrence Woodbury, we appreciate it, my brother. Thank you, Terrence. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right. Thanks a bunch. Folks, got to go to break. We come back. Man, why

is this white Republican in North Carolina? That man just cannot accept that he lost. We'll tell you about that coming up next. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Listen, the conversation we just had there, y'all, you are not going to get that conversation on ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News.

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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 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 But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. 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. and episodes 4, 5, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

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

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The real problem is that the problems that slavery invented have continued over time, and what reparations are really about is saying, how do we really transform society, right, and stop racial violence, which is so endemic. What we need to do about it on the next installment of The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. How you doing? My name is Mark Curry, and you're watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered, deep into it, Like pasteurized milk without the 2%.

We getting deep. You want to turn that shit off? We're doing an interview, motherfucker. All right, folks. November election was November 5th, but guess what? There's one race. It still is not over because you have a Republican who just can't handle the fact that he actually lost to a woman. Yeah. Democratic incumbent, Alison Riggs. She narrowly won her Supreme court race by 734 votes. Her Republican

opponent, court of appeals, judge Jefferson Griffin has constantly challenged more than 65,000 ballots cast in the race, arguing the State Board of Education elections improperly allowed these voters to participate. Y'all, the Court of Appeals will now hear the case on Friday and has drawn national criticism from those who argue he could set a precedent for challenging election results across the country. Griffin did not act alone. The North Carolina Republican Party has supported his efforts and has joined him as a plaintiff in the case. Many of Griffin's arguments for disqualifying voters

closely resembles the North Carolina GOP's pre-election lawsuit that aimed to purge voters from the state's rolls. Now, here's the deal. The state board of elections has already said, sorry, dude, there's nothing here. And so he is desperate for a court to somehow agree with him. We'll see if someone will start with you. Here's the deal.

If Allison Riggs is named the winner, Democrats have a 5-2. They have two seats in the Supreme Court. Republicans have five. Next year, Justice Anita Earle is the only African-American on the court. She is up. But here's the piece. 2028, three of those Republican seats are on the ballot in 2028. Democrats could flip that race, could flip the Supreme Court by winning those three seats. That's why Republicans are desperately trying to go from a 5-2 majority to a 6-1

because they do not want Democrats to have any shot at regaining control of the North Carolina Supreme Court. And I'm going to throw in there, and the reason being because Republicans had a 10-3 majority on the congressional seats because of political gerrymandering. When the Democrats took control, they changed that and it was 7-7. Those are the four seats. You go back to 7-7 in North Carolina, seven Democrats, seven Republicans,

that means in Congress, Democrats would control the House by one seat. Political sis, you keep hitting that mute button. I don't know why you keep hitting the mute button, baby. We can't hear you. You can hear me now. I'm off. So over 500 million people... Now we can hear you. You by worse than Nola hitting that mute button. You being a lot

nicer tonight, though. Can I finish? Can I get going, please? Because I'm trying to crack. I'm trying to get going here. Nola, you knew I was going to mention you, Nola. You knew I was going to mention you. All right, political sis, go ahead. Go.

So over 500, I mean, 5 million votes here. The count, she won twice by 734 points. I mean, votes. He is trying to say that, well, it shouldn't be because of voter ID. People didn't use their voter IDs. Well, here in North Carolina, there's a form that you have to fill out if you don't have your license or ID. People didn't use their voter IDs. Well, here in North Carolina, there's a form that you have to fill out if you don't have your license or ID. And after you fill that form out, of course, you have to swear. Well, the Board of Education, they look over those forms and make

sure that they are legit. And that is what they did. So he's challenging over 65,000 votes only, only in heavy Democratic areas, OK, heavy Democratic areas, overseas military ballots. He's also challenging—I mean, one vote that was challenged was the young lady from the Black Hawk incident helicopter, the one that's dead, challenging her vote. He's also challenging, he's also challenging Alison Rigg's parents' vote. So this, if this man wins, then North Carolina will not be the only state to do something like this. But we also need to keep in mind that he sits on the appellate courts, right? And this is where it's at right now. So you have 15 seats for the appellate court, and they go off on threes. Only three Democrats sit on that.

Now, there are two people who gave to his election or to fight against Alison Riggs. They are not the ones who are going to be listening to the case. So that's good. That's fine. But if it makes it either way, it's going to make it to the Supreme Court, the Republicans that are in control are already talking about or they already are saying that they're basically is going to give it to him. So this is extremely serious. But this is also another example of how these candidates, with all due respect to Alison Riggs, but these are facts. Y'all need to come in neighborhoods. You need to come in black communities

and show your damn face because maybe, just maybe, if she would have done that, she wouldn't be just sitting at 734 votes. Reesey, I just want people just to understand that this is a perfect example. Every vote matters. Sherri Beasley, when she was the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Democrats had a had a they had a six to one majority.

She lost. So the white Republican who got mad that she was appointed chief justice ran against her. She lost by 401 votes. Republican won his seat. They could have had a 6-1 majority. It went to 4-3. Then the next election, it flipped, and then they took even further control. But she lost by 401 votes.

I hope people understand, Alison Riggs, 734. This is what we mean by every vote matters. Yes. And can I say something recently before you, if you don't mind? Can I say one more thing? She lost. Sherri Beasley. Let me explain something to y'all about Sherri Beasley.

Beautiful sister. Beautiful sister. But she focused on rural areas. She did not come in the hood and do you know that people had to pay for her um signs who the hell living in the hood gonna pay for your signs and they don't even know who the hell you are so once again every vote counts and to be honest those two elections she could have won the first time she could have won the first time. She could have won the first time. Just FYI. I'm sorry about that. Oh, no.

I listen to you. Recy, go ahead. I don't have a problem with you jumping in. But to Political Sister's point, I definitely feel like it does go to show that, and to Terrence Woodbury's point, we just had a whole segment on this, the Democratic Party, too, often takes the base for granted. And they feel a whole segment on this. The Democratic Party, too, often takes the base for granted. And they feel like that's the choir. I'm just preaching to the choir. I'm wasting my time going and engaging and having conversations with those people because they are already

votes that I feel like I can bank, not understanding that when you don't engage, then your voters who are being targeted by Republicans, by the opposition, to be more disillusioned and disengaged with the Democratic Party stay home. So there's that part. But what this is evidence of is that Republicans defend their turf at all costs, and they will lie, cheat and steal. They never concede. They will never

just say, well, them's the rules, and so I guess I got to, you know, take my lunch and go home. No, absolutely not. They are willing to do anything by all means to hold on to power and to steal elections. And I think what part of this is, is that even if they, in this case, he fails to get this seat, which he lost, I think what this probably tries to do is it tries to kind of erode Democrats' defense of not having voter ID. It makes Democrats then try to concede. I'm not saying this. I'm predicting. But, you know, Democrats are often so willing to concede ground on Republicans and buy into their pretext for why votes don't count by saying, all right, fine, so that we avoid this kind of battle next time over voter I.D. requirements. Fine. Have your voter I.D. And then some other law that they're willing to bend, break, and there will always be a quest for power that they will not concede to Democrats.

There's no reason why Alison Riggs should not walk her ass to the courthouse, sit in there with her robe, and be like, bitch, I'm here, OK? Because I tell you, that's what a Republican will do. YAMICHE ALCINDOR, Yes, of course. YAMICHE ALCINDOR, Yes, of course. YAMICHE ALCINDOR, But, at the end of the day, Democrats are going to believe in institutions, believe in the process. And that's why we're in the mess that we're in now, because Republicans don't give a damn about process, institutions or norms or laws. Noah, I talk about these Supreme Court races. They're important. I mean, look, you've got a Supreme Court race in Wisconsin taking place on April 1st.

Folks, vote for Sarah Crawford. You've got Elon Musk pouring almost $10 million into that race because if the Democrat wins, if Crawford wins that open seat, Democrats will have a 5-2 majority in the Supreme Court. So if people are complaining about the U.S. Supreme Court, y'all, state Supreme Courts are also just as important, Noah. Yes. Oh, absolutely.

Everything happens locally, you know. And one of the things that I think a great deal about is as we're talking about North Carolina, I remember canvassing in North Carolina. And in as much as I absolutely believe that Dems rely on the idea that the base is going to be with us no matter what, I think that they've been through this enough times to know that that's not necessarily the case. And so I'm starting to wonder, like, what is some of this hesitation about really engaging with Black voters? And I recall canvassing in North Carolina, and I was the only Black canvasser. And they gave me, you know, a lot of kind of places to go that, you know, we would call the hood. You know, like, literally, there were like bullet holes, like, in people's we would call the hood, you know, like literally there were,

there were like bullet holes, like in people's houses and cars, like, I'm not kidding. And so I'm starting to wonder like, okay, is, is it some sort of hybrid sort of situation where I'm starting to wonder if the party is actually scared to engage with its own base? Um, and I'm, I'm just starting to think that more and more because these elections are so close and they're so tight. And here you just have people sitting right there. They're sitting right there. But they don't know what's going on. You're not engaging with them. Why is that?

I think, you know, in terms of the party, and I'll get to Wisconsin and Elon Musk and paying for different races. But that is something that we really have to have a really, really, really tough conversation about with this party. It's one thing to just assume that the base shows up for you. But in these kind of tight races like this, where things like this keep happening, it has to be more than that. And so I'm going to pivot towards Elon Musk and buying races. First of all, I like what Tim Walz has been doing. I like that he's been out there. I like how he's been talking to people and engaging

with people. And he's just like regular, regular talking to people. And I think that's effective. I think that it's going to take more of that relational kind of dialogue to really get people to understand what's at stake. And the one good thing about Elon trying to buy this race is how negative the negative perceptions and how negative his brand is right now. I think that will help. And people need to continue to lean into that. And, you know, we've talked about this until the cows came home, that Democrats really need to dig in. I know that they're still trying to find their way. They're still trying to find their messaging. But right now, when Elon's brand is so toxic, that's when you lean in. That's when you go for

the kill. And that's when you remind people who he is and what he's trying to do. The rest of the world understands quite clearly, because he's persona non grata in a lot of these places. We need to get on board with that, too. Yeah. So, folks,

check this out. Okay. go ahead. I just want to say, we cannot, to Nola's point, we cannot bitch and moan about how weak and punk-ass the Democrats are. When we have multiple races, the Wisconsin Supreme Court state race, there are two special election races. Now, granted, those are very red districts, but we cannot continue to bitch and

moan about Democrats being weak when we do not give them the power. Democrats are handcuffed when they're in the minority. And yes, we like the theatrics. And yes, we like them to resist and protest and block and all kinds of shit. But the math is still the math. And so 89 million people sat out in 2024, and polling has shown that 83 percent of them motherfuckers have the audacity to not approve of Donald Trump's performance, but they did not vote. And so guess what? Now we're all stuck with it.

And so now is the time to not just put our foot up the Democrats' asses and say fight, but also turn to our neighbor and say, neighbor, get your ass out and vote. If we want to make a change, we have to do that, because if these elections come and go and Republicans win, then that tells Republicans, keep doing what you're doing. Keep dismantling the government. They ain't going to do shit. Yeah, they'll scream at town halls. Yeah, they'll drag you on Twitter.

But at the end of the day, when the rubber hits the road and it's time for them to put their money and their votes where their mouth is and get us out of power, we ain't got shit to worry about. That's right. Folks, we told you all about yesterday. We had Spike Leon talking about, of course, the D.O.D. removing the pay, removing the pages regarding Jackie Robinson. Well, that's been a little fallout. That Pentagon spokesman who issued that really idiotic statement, he's been sidelined. John Yuliot, something like that. Y'all, because this is how dumb this man is. He actually released a statement.

This is what he released. He said, as Secretary Hicks said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. The discriminatory equity ideology is a form of woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It divides the force, erodes unit cohesion,

and interferes with the service's core warfighting mission. We're pleased by the rapid compliance across the department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is removed, either deliberately or by mistake, that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive. We instruct the components and they correct the content accordingly.

Now, he also issued, this is actually a broader statement. He said, everyone in the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima, and so many others. We salute them for their strong and,

in many cases, heroic service to our country. Full stop. We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn a uniform.

Well, first of all, you dumbass. And he's getting ripped by this statement, Nola. And the reason he's a dumbass, let's see. It's a little hard to remove race from the Tuskegee Airmen. Because it was, I mean, it's kind of hard. It's kind of hard to remove race from Jackie Robinson's service in the U.S. Army when Jackie Robinson fought a court-martial in Texas for refusing to sit in the back of the bus. When you're talking about this, it's kind of hard to remove race from U.S. Army veteran Medgar Evers, who was gunned down by a racist white supremacist in Byron Della Beckwith. It's kind of hard. This is how dumb these people are because, no, we're only going to recognize their patriotism.

Oh, damn, I'm sorry. How do we ignore that the armed forces was segregated when Jackie Robinson was there and the Tuskegee Airmen, and it wasn't until a Harry Truman executive order in 1948 that desegregated the military. But we're just going to move that race stuff aside

and we're just going to focus on them being a great warrior. I see why this dumbass got sidelined. It's a complete delusional and it's intentional erasure. The MAGA folks have a really hard time confronting their own racism, confronting their own allegiance to white supremacy, and they hide behind the First Amendment. And this is what we are. I can tell you, you know, I went to high school in Pasadena.

You know, my family lost high school in Pasadena. You know, my family lost a lot of, we lost properties in the Eden Canyon fire. And I can tell you that this was definitely a wound, another wound for the community because, you know, Jackie Robinson is a product of Pasadena. And so this felt like another, it felt like a double slight against blackness, right, because you have a whole community that still supports him. I remember winning Ms. Black Pasadena at Altadena. And one of the proudest parts of that honor was the way that they parade you through the Jackie Robinson Center, you know. And so he's part of the Black culture in Pasadena and Altadena. And so I'm I was happy to see all the pushback. I was definitely part

of the pushback and then especially being in security and defense. Now, this is what I will tell you. You talk to some enlisted folks and some of the things that they will say that they had a problem with diversity, equity, and inclusion has absolutely nothing to do with highlighting heroes who went through the impossible to do the phenomenal. That is a big difference. And context matters. History matters. And what they are doing is trying to intentionally erase their culpability in racist and violent behavior.

That's the reality. And they are using diversity, equity, and inclusion as a shield for that. Now, you know, like I said, there are some enlisted folks who say that some of the stuff regarding diversity, equity, inclusion for them went too far. But it is not this. The Navajo Navajo code writers. Do we not say anything about that? They weren't white. They were Native Americans. And this is how they helped out in World War Two because they were able to talk in code.

What about in Japan? The guy who put the flag up in Japan, Jimmy Iyahu, I'll mess his name up. What about him? So there's no way you can escape race. I feel like they're offended because a lot of these people we're talking about, the majority of people that did so good under certain circumstances, were people of color. So erasing that, that's something you can never erase.

Black history is American history. And unfortunately, can somebody tell me what the hell is white history? Do they have history? No, they don't. I'll take her. Recy.

You know, listen, the gaslighting is not going not gonna work it's funny how y'all want to be colorblind when it comes to our hero and the racism and uh abhorrent conditions that they overcame to be people of note but when it comes to di and trying to make di the face of didn't earn it all of a sudden you see our black asses. All of a sudden you want to, oh, it's color this and woman this and whatever else this. Get the hell out of here. If we can be the face of DEI when you want to say that we didn't earn it, then we can be the face of DEI when it's definitely earned it. And we can definitely get our just due for being black people, specifically Jackie Robinson and Tuskegee Airmen or the 6882, they haven't gotten around to that, that's not checked, and erasing that history.

Thank you, Tyler Perry. Then give us our props. But that's not what they're trying to do. This is a white nationalist, white supremacist administration who, if they can get away with it, and luckily that we're not allowing them to, will erase every single accomplishment that we have and try to make us the poster board of failure when it's really white men who are the primary face of failure in this country. Look at the Confederate War. Okay. So folks, I was going to, and I'm so glad you brought the Confederate War up. So

I was going to play one of my interviews with Jelani Jones. I'm going to save that for tomorrow and Monday. And I told you all yesterday about that racist Confederate memorial that's on the state grounds of the Texas Capitol. Well, when I was leaving today, on the other side, there's a memorial regarding Texas African-American history. But there's something that's real interesting, though, because on one side of it, they salute two men of African descent who helped Texas win independence from Mexico.

And you're going to hear me talk about it because in the placard, it also shows how they were free black men, but then they had severe limits on them operating. Well, hell, it sounded like they were in prison. So I want y'all to see this because I need you to understand this is why history is so important. This is why factual statues and memorials are so important because if you...

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. With 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 call this taser the revolution.

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

Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-stud 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. 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. my parent. Like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

and the Ad Council. Don't, and let me just say this real quick, and I mentioned this yesterday. And I'm going to try to be as, well, I can't even do that. So y'all people who don't want me to cuss, I'm going to let y'all just turn it down for 10 seconds. Because I just, I got no other way to say this, because it actually ticks me off. So if y'all don't want, y'all don't hear me cuss, I want y'all to turn the TV down. Five, four, three, two, one. I am sick of these fucking idiots

who say when a black statue is raised, it's performative. Or they say it's symbolic. I'm sick of you assholes. Why? Because we have been subjugated to racist statues and memorials in history. When I landed in the Austin airport, I go to baggage claim, look to my right.

Do you know why I look to my right? I didn't take a photo this time because I always do. But there's a statue of the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan in the Austin airport. When I go through Atlanta, I always see that placard, that plaque of Mayor Maynard Jackson. When I go through one of the terminals, I think it's Terminal E in Houston, there's a bus of Congressman Mickey Leland. When I travel, I always stop. When I go through Washington, D.C.'s train station, I always stop and pay respects

to that statue of labor leader A. Philip Randolph. I'm always, no matter where I go, I do that because these are monuments to our people, our history. And what we have to understand is that, and you're going to see this video in a second, while I was standing there, when I was standing there, little white girl came up with her family. There was a Latino girl with what looked like to be her grandparents. And he and I had a conversation about the races. He was telling me about how the Texas Rangers basically stole his grandfather's land, made them get off the property and leave. Black people have that history as well. So he and I were having this conversation about this memorial. This is why this stuff is so important, why we must erect

these statues and memorials, because these people, they want what we have right now, and it's all tied together by stripping these pages and getting rid of these stories and these monuments, they want the framing to be one of whiteness. They want to say, no, we're not going to talk about, you know, the first female combat pilot because we don't want women to know about that historic woman. It was a white woman. They don't want women to know about that historic woman. It was a white woman. They don't want that. So these people, they want a world. Donald Trump, Peter Hegseth, J.D. Vance, they want a world where it's all about white men. And we black people need to stop this bullshit of, oh, well, that's just symbolism. We need to check. We need this. Well, how about you try to get both? Why do we have to piss on black monuments and black

statues and black plaques to go, well, that's just symbolism? Well, how about some of y'all? And here's the other deal. I'm just going to go ahead and say this. Every one of you assholes who say, oh, it's symbolism, I want to see your voter registration card. I want to see how many elections your punk ass voted in. Because see, it's a lot of people out here

who love talking shit. And they don't go vote. But they always got something to say. And so it just sort of gets on my nerves when they do that. So I want to play this video for y'all because many of you may never have seen this, but I want you to understand that this is why this show matters and why we do this because there are black museums

all across this country, small, medium, large. There are black monuments and statues, and every single one of you should make an effort that when you visit a place and you seek out, you take a photo, you do whatever, and you share it, because our people need to understand that our history is damn sure just as important. Watch this. So folks, I'm here on the Texas ground. So remember I told you about that

Confederate memorial. That's literally right there. So right across from this is an African American history memorial. And so what you'll see with this particular memorial is you see how they have these depictions about Ligoliad, Texas statehood, and how people of African descent fought for Texas Revolution. So you got Hendrick Arnold, you got Samuel McCullough. And so you'll see right here, well, they have this battle for Texas independence from Mexico and laying out, of

course, this particular history. Now, keep in mind, the Texas Revolution was about slavery, wanted to free themselves from Mexico because Mexico had actually gotten rid of slavery. And so, again, there are people who were people of African descent who were fighting alongside these folks, the Texas Army, and they actually were fighting for the segregationists. All right. And so here you have this monument, to these african-americans or who people of africa to see who fought so that's why you'll see right here um hendrick arnold and samuel mccullough played important roles in the texas revolution the formation of the republic

of texas after texas became independent both were considered free blacks but they were they were placed under severe legal restrictions so isn't that isn't that amazing here they actually fought for the state uh and they actually uh they actually uh were restricted you see how crazy this is and so this is the reality what it meant to be uh black in these slave territories now when you go on this other side of this particular monument, then you're gonna see the focus on emancipation. So this is a beautiful monument here.

So you see here the depiction of enslaved people of African descent. You see, of course course the cotton right there. You see they got this Texas Capitol here. So then you go down here and you see these placards where they lay out exactly when the first people of African descent first came. Then you see right here,

slavery during the Mexican national era. And so this monument actually details that particular history. So I'm gonna give you a wider view of this. And so when you look at this amazing monument and what it looks like. And so what they've done up here. So zoom in here. So you see they have this black woman holding the Emancipation Proclamation.

Give you a better view of her. Uh so you see that in her hand and so then of course when you come down here you see all of these different images right here as well. Now we go back down here. I told you we had slavery doing well first of all go back over here. we had slavery doing well first of all go back over here with slavery doing the mexican national era and so this details slavery then it details again more slavery during the republican early statehood of texas then over here it details the civil War, Emancipation, and Juneteenth. All that information right here. And then it has Reconstruction and the Post-Slavery Experience. Okay, right here. And then you have major achievements of African-Americans or people of African descent here in Texas. So you see they got all different people, Bessie Coleman, Dor for uh the folks here uh to erect in order to set the record straight uh when it came to uh texas history uh and so and because again and it sits

right across from that memorial over there to those white domestic terrorists who kept these folks over here who wanted to kill people enslaved. So understand what Texas independence was all about. Texas independence, okay, right there at Texas Capitol, 14 feet higher than the U.S. Capitol, Texas independence was all about maintaining the institution of slavery. Man, it must be something a political says to be a person of African descent who fought for Texas's independence

when the goal of Texas getting its independence was because they wanted to keep slavery. They took—this is the problem with taking civics out of education, away out of the classrooms. That was—thank you for showing that. It almost made me cry. This is not the only story that we hear. We fight so hard for independence. I can go back even here in North Carolina, what we did.

It's important for us to understand and know our history, because if we don't, like what's going on right now, we go along with people who want to repeat the ugly part of our history. So, again, thank you for showing that. But it just—I don't know. I'm a little bit knocked down from that because it's—you go back and forth with your people about the importance of, like, what's going on right now. You know, they don't want to bring up the part how Trump is literally just gutting our

civil rights, our voting rights. They don't know that. But if you bring up something about money, they know about that. And the fact that a white racist-ass man can throw money at us, at our people and get their attention instead of what's going, like the negative

part, like that's, okay, we're going to give you some money, but at the same time we're taking your rights away. What the hell is $1,200? What the hell? I mean, it is a lot to some people, but that shit doesn't last. Your freedom, your civil rights, women rights, that is worth more than anything. So, you know, that's what happens when they take civics out of education. Well, Nola, at the end of the day, this is on us, and this is where we are going to have to make sure that we're telling the story, our kids understand it,

their kids understand it, because their desire is for this generation, the next one, and the next one, and all in the future, not to truly know, as Paul Harvey always said, now the rest of the story. Listen, you know, this is something that I think a great deal about. And, you know, I would go as far as to say that as Americans, we don't appreciate history, right? And what the magas are doing, they are mythicizing, they are making up stuff about their greatness, right? I mean, that's what drives white supremacy is this made up myth. And so when I think about that, I think about, OK, what's going to what's going to get younger black folks interested in this history? You know, is it is it to tell these kind of stories about, you know, the people that fought for their freedoms, you know, to be to preach, to preach at them, right? To kind of talk at them.

More than trying to figure out how to make this a vibe, essentially. You know, like, I think that this is an opportunity for some level of a new Black renaissance to emerge where it's more inclusive, where we include all the things, you know, not just the highbrow Black things. But I definitely do think that this is an opportunity to figure out how to engage with

the generations of Black folks that we have lost. You know, they're just not interested in these things. I can still recite Langston Hughes poems that I was reciting in the fifth grade, you know? But that's just not the world that we live in, so how do we meet this moment? You know, how do we talk about Black history as it sits inside of American history, as it is the foundation of American history? How do we talk about it beyond preaching?

How do we talk about it beyond chastising? That's what we need to figure out. And I got to go. JOHN YANG It is about educating, Recy, pure and simple. It's about educating, pure and simple, Recy. RECEI GARCIA Oh, absolutely. You know, to your original point, you know, this isn't a zero-sum game. Sometimes we get caught up in that, or people who want to say, we all need symbolism, we need action. Republicans leave no stone unturned. We started off the show talking about the dismantling of the Department of Education.

People should go to Project2025.observer. It shows that there are over 30 agencies agencies in which Project 2025 has objectives, 41% of Project 2025's objectives are already met or in progress. And so the idea that we can only do one or two things at a time, the idea that we can only ask for one or two things at a time is completely a foreign concept to our opposition and they are winning and fighting every single battle that our side is too busy telling people we don't be focused on that we need to be focused on that like terrence woodbury said earlier we got to focus on everything now can 100 of us focus on 100% of things? No. But know your strength and know your lane. This show

has a huge lane that it's filling and telling our stories and helping us not leave so many of these stones unturned. And so anybody who is against statues, anybody that's against our history is against us or is for us repeating

the mistakes, reinventing the wheel when we already have the blueprint, and helping the other side win. And my show is doing that as well. I have a Reese Carpenter Sean Ceres accent. Thank you. There you go. Well, first,

Reese, one thing you didn't do, you didn't tell people when it comes on. Saturdays, 2 p.m., 2 to 4 p.m., it's a live call-in show. So if you got some smoke, bring it to me, honey. I'll take it. I'll bring it back with you. Oh, that's good. I'm off on Saturdays. That's good. I'm off on Saturdays,

so I'm going to have to check you out. All right, y'all. Let me thank all the panelists. Nola had the bounce. I told Nola, you had the bounce. Stop being long-winded. Yeah, Nola, I'm going to take that shot at you. So let me thank Nola. Let me thank all the panelists. Nola had to bounce. I told Nola, you had to bounce. Stop being long-winded. Yeah, Nola, I'm going to take that shot at you. So let me thank Nola.

Let me thank Political Sis. Let me thank Reesey. I appreciate y'all being on today's show. Thank you so much. Wait a minute. Oh, so now you got to, what? Now you unmuted your microphone. You got more to say?

Yeah, damn right. Hold up, look. So I got my shirt on. I finally got it after 20 damn months. Just FYI. I don't know if y'all can see it, damn right. Hold up, look. So I got my shirt on. I finally got it after 20 damn months, just FYI. I don't know if y'all can see it, but yeah. After 20 damn months. Come on, Antoine. There we go. There you go. All right.

Don't blame me. I voted for the black woman. That's right. I had it on yesterday, but you know, we had technical difficulties, so but I got the shit on today. Just FYI. Alright, there you go. That's what I'm saying. I appreciate

it. Thanks so much. I appreciate y'all being on today's show. Thank you so very much. Alright, y'all. That is it for me. We're going to shut this thing down. I appreciate all of y'all watching today's show. Y'all, YouTube, if you haven't hit the like button,

hit the like button right now. I am going to go hang out, spend some time with my parents. But before we go, we want y'all to be sure to support our Brain Defunct Fan Club. I'm telling y'all, our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each year.

The goal is to raise a million dollars. If you can't give $50, you give less. We totally understand. We appreciate that. It was a brother last night at the Texas Legislative Black Caucus handed me. He said, no, I ain't even waiting. He handed me his $200 on the spot. So I appreciate that, and I appreciate everybody who supports this show.

Thank you so very much. I thought I got the brother's name, but we took a photo. I'm going to post it. I'm not sure he'll see it. So do me a favor. You want to contribute via Cash App. Cash App cancels all of our accounts because they changed their rules. So you want to support the work that we do.

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I shall see you guys tomorrow. 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? 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.

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

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