#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump DOJ Voter Crackdown, Claudette Colvin Remembered., No Charges in Jacksonville Cop Assault.

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

1.13.2026 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump DOJ Voter Crackdown, Claudette Colvin Remembered., No Charges in Jacksonville Cop Assault. Her refusal to move seats on a bus sparked the civil rights movement. Tonight, we honor civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin, who passed away today.  Trump's Department of Justice is cracking down on your votes and putting your private data at risk. Democrat leaders call it a national voter roll that could negatively impact midterms. No charges for the white Jacksonville, Florida, cop who punched a black man in the face during a traffic stop.  We'll talk to Will McNeil, Jr.'s attorney, Harry Daniels, about his civil lawsuit.  Morris Brown College's board of trustees fired President Dr. Kevin James after 7 years of service, for reasons unknown.  Journalist Tiffany Cross will be in the studio to talk about her book, "Love Me." In tonight's Black Star Network Marketplace, the eco-friendly, black-owned candle company Multifaceted.  A business committed to using safe ingredients to make homes more elevated.  #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the I heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app.

Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Every 13, 2026, coming up on Rolla Martin on Filters, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Her refusal to move seats on a bus sparked to civil rights movement. Tonight, we honor civil rights pioneer Claudette Covem, who passed away today at the age of 86. Donald Trump's Department of Justice is cracking down on your votes and putting your private data at risk. Democratic leaders call the national voter role that could negatively impact midterms. Also, MAGAP, they are targeting black folks in a significant way from colleges to speakers, to academics, you name it.

We'll talk with Michael Harriet of contraband camp about both of those stories. Folks, no charges for the White Jacksonville, Florida cop, who punched a black man in the face took a traffic stop. We'll talk to the family attorney. We talked to Will McNeill, Jr.'s attorney, Harry Daniels, about their civil lawsuit. Morris Brown College Board Trustees, they have fired their president, Dr. Kevin James, after seven years of service for reasons unknown and his contract go through 2009.

Plus, Tiffany Cross would be in studio to talk about her book, Love Me, as well as why today's media is so afraid of Donald Trump and MAGA. In tonight's Black Star Network Marketplace segment, the eco-friendly black-owned candle company multifaceted a business committed using safe ingredients to make homes spell a lot better.

Plus, Don Trump says, F you and give the finger to a Ford worker. Isn't it amazing how the right wing is so accepting of his evil ass? It's Tyler, Breeding the Funk. A rollerbar unfiltered on the Black Stud Network. Let's go. Justice is building a national voter role that could disenfranchise voters in the upcoming 2026 midterms.

Eight Republican-led states, including Texas, have already turned over unrestricted voting data for millions of voters. The Trump administration has sued 23 states that refuse to comply. their goal is clear to determine based on sensitive voter information who is eligible to vote and who is not. But there's no outline criteria for that decision. Michael Harriet, the editor and founder of contrabandcamp.com, Joneses right now. Michael, glad to have you on the show. So explain the people why this is so dangerous. How are they going to impact the vote with this strategy?

So the first thing you have to understand is that the federal government does not control who votes. It has no say in who votes that's determined by the state. And that's in the Constitution, right? So the state makes the rule. So the federal government can't decide who to vote. For instance, in some states, you have to be registered 30 days before election day. In some states, as long as you have your voter ID, you can walk in and vote is called same-day registration. So it varies in different states. And we're depending on Donald Trump's regime or his to be competent, right? And we also have to understand that we have to view this through the eyes of his administration,

basically coalescing everyone's data. Remember that he's already given IRS data to Homeland Security to investigate what he called illegal immigrants, right? And we also have to remember that the biggest owners of the tech companies in the world, right, are on Donald Trump's side, right? We know that his former advisor, Dina Powell, now works for meta. Well, it's the job of those companies to correlate and synthesize data and identify, voter, I mean, identify, you know, people who use their platforms, right?

Well, what's to say that he won't be doing that with, you know, your vote, your voter information? What's to say that you can synthesize data close enough to, identify who voted, right? If you live, the only black person on your block and there's only one Democratic voter in your block, voter districts are so small that it's easy for companies with enough data to determine whose vote and to disqualify certain people from voting, right? And so we have to take all of that into consideration is that this is not an effort to determine who is and who isn't eligible to vote. It's an effort. It's an effort.

to disqualify voters. It's an effort to help his campaign through his position in the federal government and to help Republicans gain more power. So for folks who are watching and listening, I need to need you to really understand here, okay? We do not have national elections. We have 50 state elections. And then we don't even just have 50 state elections.

Then it then goes down to the county level. He's a perfect example. The elections board in North Carolina refused to place an early voting location on the campus of North Carolina A&T, the largest HBCU in the country. Okay. Now, it was a three-two vote. So the problem is you have a state board of election that the Republicans put in charge of the Republican state auditor because they did not want it to be in the hands of the Secretary of State. and so different counties also operate depending upon that particular state on how that county rules. So let's take Texas.

Harris County may have a different voting plan than Dallas County. And so what Trump is doing, and this is where it gets very dangerous, we've seen in the last decade, Michael, where Republicans have removed folks from the ballot. We saw it in Georgia when Stacey Abrams ran We started in Florida Then we found out later a bunch of people got removed illegally Same thing happened in Virginia And so what we're talking about here Where these Republicans are so stupid

They will run these algorithms And they go, oh, Michael Harriet is in North Carolina There's a Michael Harriet that is in Idaho That's the same person So remove him from both voter voter rolls as opposed to it could actually be two different people.

Right. And we also know that those systems also disproportionately affect black people, right? For instance, there are studies that show like if you have an apostrophe in your name, if you have an accent over your name, like a lot of immigrants do. If your name is spelled differently, like there are counties and states

where you hand your information, you fill out a form, and you hand your information to a registrar, and they put it in the computer. If those people make a mistake, not you as a register, but the registrar makes a mistake on your voter roll, inserting it to the computer, right, your information,

they can disqualify you because this doesn't match your license or this doesn't match the IAD. And there's so many ways to disqualify a person that if you really look hard enough, it's easy to disqualify, for instance, those 11,000, 11,000 voters in the state of Georgia that he was looking for, looking to disqualify. It is easier, especially if you have all of their income data, if you have all of their identification data, if you have all of their voter registration data. And that is what we're worried about. Like he has already predetermined, right?

He's already signal that, hey, we need to, in order for me to win, we need to make it harder to vote. Yep. Right. And that part of making it harder to vote, he's putting in place now. Like, there is no other reason to do this. Well, and again, we had Bishop Barbara on the other day. And the reason the Republicans control the House is because collectively of 7,000, votes. And so the Republicans

are all about, hey, if we can shave off 1,000 here, 1,000 here, 1,000 here, 2,000 here, 5,000 here, 10,000 here. That's really what it's all about. I always remind people that the Supreme Court voted to allow voter purges. It was a white man in Ohio

who sued and was like, why did y'all remove me from the voting rolls? Well, you didn't vote in the last, I think it was like two or three elections. He was like, why does that matter? And so the Supreme Court gave them the go-ahead. And so in this notion of voter to protect against voter fraud and clean the rolls up,

they will systematically release people, wipe them out every single year and under all these different rules. And so people need to understand when we talk about the attack on voting. The strategy is very clear. Republicans, this is documented, okay? One, we remember Paul Whiterick in Dallas in 1981,

when he said, we don't want everybody to vote. Republicans also are on record as saying, if we can shrink the voting population, we send a bare chance to win. Then they've also on record by saying that if the voter rolls expand. This is why Trump hates 2020 election

because of COVID, the rules were changed that expanded the electorate. Republicans are like, oh, hell no, we cannot have that happen. That's why after the 2020 election, all the Republican states where he won, they still change their voting procedure because they need to cheat to win.

Right, right. And you also have to understand that, along with what you said, when they coalesce this data, right, the easiest way to identify people who don't vote Republicans, and this is important also in the cases of gerrymandering. It's just by race, right?

Like, they like to say, well, it's a political gerrymander, not a racial gerrymandering, but the way that they identify the difference between Democrats and Republicans is just by race, right? Like, they know if they have your data and they know that you're black, there is an 85% chance that you will not vote for them. So they're not just purging, like, roles of people who hadn't voted. They're going to be able now, if this thing goes through, to direct their target precincts, right,

and purge those precincts, right? And they know with the census data which they own, with the income data which they own, with the Homeland Security data which they own, they know exactly who to purge. And it's only using the specific category of race that they will be purging these people. Well, and by having this data,

the other problem that they have is they now can sit here and break down zip code. They can now look at, okay, run the numbers. How did this zip code? They'll now be able to break this down to the precinct level. Right. And the precinct level, I think when you are talking about large towns or small towns, right? Like, when you're talking about breaking stuff down

at the precinct level, we've seen malfeasance, you know, go into that. We know that in Georgia, for instance, right? I reported in 2018. It was harder for people in majority black precincts to vote. Voting machines broke down more often. The lines were longer. There's a study in 2018 that took all the cell phone data. So basically everyone who voted, everybody who was at a precinct, they grabbed their cell phone data. And they realized that if you lived in a black precinct, you waited longer to vote. three times longer to vote in a black precinct

than any other precinct than America. So they have more advanced data now and they can target black voters. And again, it's not just purging the rolls and shrinking the electorate. It's shrinking the black electorate. Well, and this is the same man who said that that he wishes he had seized ballot boxes in 2020.

Again, let's be clear. They will try that in 2006. They will try it in November. Right. And also you have to also know that in these red states, in many of the states that handed him over their data, they have long held this idea that people are cheating at the ballot box, that people are doing in-person voter fraud.

And every time they look, they use all of the state resources, sometimes federal resources, local resources, to target what they call election cheating. It's always like 12 people in an election of 35 million, right? or 17 people, right? Like, there is no voter fraud, right? That changes election. There isn't an example.

And most importantly, when they find these people, it's always a Republican voter who tried to vote two times because they wanted their candidate like Trump to win. Absolutely. And it's no doubt what they're doing. I want to sit here and bring in my panel right head, Dr. Mustafa Santé, Ali, former senior advisor, for environmental justice at the EPA

joins us right now. Randy Bryant, DEI disruptor, D.C. joins us. And so glad to have her as well. We also have my other Alpha brother, y'all don't mind. We got an Obaga guest on the show. So, you know, we have

mercy on them. So Larry. Somebody got a pass up his joy. Oh, see, right there. See, I ain't going to cut them deep, Larry. I ain't cut them deep, so, you know, we're going to have mercy on him. Y'all, joining us, Dr. Larry Walker,

Associate Professor, University of Central Florida as well. Larry, you're there in Florida, and we, and this is what Michael's laying out. Florida and Texas in Georgia, really have been the three states that have been, frankly, the test case for a lot

of these shenanigans, and that's where all this stuff is coming from. Yeah, so, Rowan, don't forget, we lost, we had a congressional, the governor decided to get rid of congressional seat. And also they're doing redistricting and session, starting with the session in Tallahassee today. But I want to ask Michael, in terms of, I know he talks about writing a lot about history. What are some of the lessons we could, you know, look at from the past as in the African-American community in terms of how do we counter some of the challenges we're dealing with today?

Well, well, one of the best examples of what we could go wrong, right, is remember, right, in the election of 1876, they targeted one county in South Carolina, right? Lawrence County in South Carolina. They, the Lawrence Massacre, they went there. It was a majority black district that was, uh, voting district that was started. That was a county that was founded by a man named Prince Rivers, a union soldier named Prince Rivers of black man. And they attacked and just basically lined up black men and killed them.

And then in that election, what's funny now is when they go back and do the data, they said that more white people voted in that county than white people existed in that county, right? So they overturned that election, the entire national election, by one county in South Carolina, targeting one county.

And the Republicans made a deal that said, we'll move the troops out of the South in exchange for you giving us the presidency, and that is what gave us Jim Crow for another 100 years. Called the Great Compromise of 1877. There's compromise of 1877. In a black-owned hotel, they went in a room, 15 white men, and decided an entire election based on one county.

Right. So this is the thing that we're facing. And how do we counter that? Well, we have to counter it preemptively, right? And it's not just by voting, right? It's attacking the mechanism by which they disenfranchise us. This is an effort to disenfranchise black people. They're looking at it as voter security.

But remember now, if you go back and look at the newspapers in 1955 and 1960 in Selma, what they were trying to do, the reason they were trying to prevent those black people from voting, the reason they marched across that bridge. Alabama called it their voter, the ballot security effort. That is the lesson of all of this. They always use that voter integrity, their ballot integrity, ballot security

when they're about to disenfranchise black people and we can't let it happen again. Because we stand to lose another 100 years of Jim Crowe. Mustafa. Yeah, well, Michael's good to see you, a big fan of all the things that you write. You just talk about Michael Mustafa, also in alpha. Just won't let you know. Go ahead, Mustafa.

I still appreciate your word, Michael. Right. Hey, Michael, you had talked a little bit about security just there. What are your feelings about the cybersecurity risk that this place is for so many folks across our country? Well, there are some cybersecurity risk, but I think what people don't know is the... Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down.

It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at Love Your Mind Playbook. Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad console. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Zers in jail.

The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers,

whose trip to the White House, ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have. have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo.

Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com.

Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. When you vote on a voting machine, right, those machines have cards. Those cards are collected and those machines are not hooked to the internet. Those cards are collected and put into another machine that is hooked to the internet, right? And I think the risk now is if you look at government documents, right?

So all of the government, the federal government's internet security is handled by two companies, Amazon Worldwide Services and Starlink, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. That is the risk, right? Not the voter, the precinct level voting machines, but the counting of votes, right? I've interviewed people, a guy in election security expert who showed me one of these machines and. said, hey, let me show you how I can change these votes. And in five minutes, he went into a voting booth and rigged the card so that when they tallied the votes, it could be, it would be miscounted. And that is the security.

And again, when you have the safety net in all of this is that there are so many different systems and so many different states and so many different precincts and so many different people that work at the voting rolls, that is hard. is this disaggregated system for somebody to commit a malfeasance that could overturn the national election, unless you put one federal government in charge. Better up. Yeah, good to see you, Michael. You know, of course, I'm a huge fan.

You know, as I'm hearing you talk and I'm seeing what's happening with, you know, how they're trying to change the postmark date when we're doing mail-in ballots with the USPS. We're talking about, you know, we have Bezos and Musk in charge of the machines. And now them trying to claim that we have a bunch of ineligible voters. I mean, I am trying to figure out what can the average person do. I mean, we just go and check to see if we are still seen as an eligible voter. I mean, what can we do? I'm always just wondering, how can we fight against this?

Well, so there's a couple of ways, right? One thing that I always, first of all, nationwide, right? You should, the best voter security is handmark paper ballots, right? Handmark paper ballots, it's hard because you can always take those and count, recount the votes, right? So handmarked paper ballots are very important. But on a personal level, right, if you're worried about, you know, you being in a Republican county or, you know, the poll workers in your county,

it's almost, I mean, it's advisable to vote in advance by or vote, get an advanced voting, and take it to your registration office, right? That is, to me, the most secure way of voting, right? And that's one of the things, that's one of the reasons they always want to attack, like, ballot harvesting is because they are attacking the most secure ways of voting. Another way to, I think, to attack this, right, is like preemptively help our side, like, help the side of democracy, right? Like, I always advise people never, ever, ever, ever go to the voting booth alone. If you go into the voting booth, somebody needs a ride, take somebody with you, right?

Like, just that doubles the number of voters. If you keep that in mind, right? It's double the number of voters that you can affect an election with, right? And I think if we take those small steps, right? Like, I would never, ever, ever, right? Like, if you, your grandmother having a party, if your church having an event, there should be voter registration forms there.

From now until election day, do, like, it is, to me, malfeasance to have a gathering that doesn't allow people to register the vote. It might be somebody new in your town that hadn't had the chance. All, like, those kind of small efforts, make a large difference when it comes to election. Folks, the threat we are seeing is very real when it comes to voting.

Michael, while we got you here, you dropped another story on Cartierbank. Go to my iPad. Trump wants to silence his critics, colleges, corporations, and nonprofits are doing it for him. Subhead reasons America pivots towards authoritarianism.

Institutions across America are not just ditching diversity, free speech and facts. they're embracing the fascist fad, too. And you'll lay out here what we're seeing. We are seeing, we really started last year, and we're seeing where corporations are canceling MOK programs, black history month programs, women's history month program, black music month program,

Hispanic Heritage Month programs, all the sort of stuff along those lines. We're seeing where they're targeting affinity groups inside of those corporations. We're seeing where universities are kowtowing as well, Texas State University, So there's a mobile black history museum. And the impact, and I've been talking about this is the downfall, the impact has been tremendous.

It has economic impact. In terms of you have Indiana University of Indianapolis canceling their MLK breakfasts because of actions from the Republican governor in Indiana. We can go on and on and on. And so they're canceling programs. The impact of that, which I've been trying to explain to people. is you're not impacting vendors. You're impacting caterers, audiovisual companies. You're impacting PR companies.

You name it. You got nonprofits. I was at Susan Taylor's National Care's mentoring gala last year the week before. You had a corporation that was a major donor said, hey, we're not going to honor that commitment. We're pulling out. And it was a huge blow to their fundraising efforts. and a lot of the folks in these companies that were behind a lot of these investments,

black folks got laid off. And so people need to understand. When I talk about there's a deliberate attempt to defund black America, that's really what your article is laying out. And not only are you defunding Black America by canceling these events and shutting them down, these universities, especially these state institutions in red states, or even in some blue states are kowtowing to the pressure because they're afraid of being targeted

by Trump's Department of Education. Right. And we see this, you know, let's take this conversation that we were just having about voting, right? Like, we know that, like, there was a report last year that basically, you know, between Stacey Abrams and Latasha Brown, they basically registered almost everybody in Georgia that was eligible to be registered to vote.

Part of the reason they were, able to do that, right? It's because they would go speak out of college and they could make their money and donate their, I mean, and use the rest of their time, right? They didn't have to charge anybody to register the voter. Nobody had to pay them, right? So a lot of the work that a lot of the activists and freedom fighters and organizers that we know, they depend on speaking gigs.

In other words, someone like Alicia Garza might go speak. at a college and right and she talks to them about organizing right and so she doesn't have to charge a million dollars for the nonprofit work that she does right or she doesn't have to raise a million dollars for the nonprofit work that she does because she is she has enough time instead of fundraising to do the actual on the ground work right so that's why it's important and And it also important is because a lot of times that many of these colleges, right, Indiana, all these schools in Texas, all this,

I went to school in Alabama, right? So Alabama is 27% black, right? The school that I went to, Auburn University, is about 4% black. The only time many of those students get to hear from a black person is when there is an invited speaker, right? So by removing those voices, you're decreasing the diversity,

of their education and increasing all of, cementing all of the white thought that they learned in K through 12 by saying, I went to college and nobody told me any different, right? And that is the danger of this.

Not just the silencing and the income that black people are losing, right, but they are perpetuating the narrative that they already told their kids when they were young by defunding these, by defunding these institutes by different these corporations, right? Nike, for instance, if it has an MLK day, right?

So I write about AT&T. AT&T would have diversity seminar for all of its employees at their corporate employee conference every year. And then they promised the Trump administration that they were going to eliminate DEI. Yeah, because it's seven. The Trump administration, I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead. Seven days later, the Trump administration approved them for a merger to buy U.S.

seller. And that's because, that's because Brendan Carr, the FCC chair, he has publicly said, if you do not, it wasn't just AT&T, it was paramount, it was other companies. If you do not get rid of these programs, I am not approving any acquisitions, any mergers, any deals. and so these telecom, I know, listen, Verizon, Verizon was supposed to sponsor an event that I was there, and Verizon literally said, hey, we can't sponsor this because black is in the name, and the FCC is going down.

They've asked, what are stuff are you sponsoring, and if they see black or Hispanic or women or LGBT in the name or in the organization, They're like a red flag. Right. And it's not just like these big corporations and not these white colleges, right? So at an HBCU, I was scheduled to speak at an HBCU. They texted me that morning and said, hey, like, we're just wondering if you're on the way to college.

Five minutes later, they texted me back and say, hey, don't come, right? And I bet you're like, like, what the hell? Right. I didn't know what was going on. And I eventually found out that, oh, we were together when we found out, a better back, well, this DEI stuff was the reason, right? And, like, it's hard to criticize them because if you're a small HBCU and you risk offending this company, like if they can target Harvard, what do you think they're going to do to a tiny little HBCU?

And it's important also to know, like, that HBCU had required every student in their friend. freshman class to read my book about black history. So I wasn't as mad as like I wouldn't get to talk to him because they were worried that someone was going to find out that they basically used state funds to purchase a book about black history, right? And that is the atmosphere of fear that many schools are living under, that they preemptively capitulate to appease the Trump administration when they don't even have to silence us because they're doing it for him.

Yep, yep, self-censorship. The Austin American Statesman reported this a week ago, go to my iPad. This University of Texas graduate wanted to help diversify Hispanics in pharmacy. And he tried to create a $100,000 endowment, but Texas X is their Alumni Association denied it because it's focused on diversity because it was for Hispanic scholars. And so, and again, so when I try to explain to people, how they are trying to defund black America. So we know the affirmative action decision how they attack the affirmative action

in colleges and admissions. So they're attacking that. I think that was, well, first of all, at Auburn, you had a couple of magazines, one targeting one, where African-Americans and women were centered. They targeted those, but say, oh, nope, no school funding going to that. We've seen other scholarships.

I mean, people don't understand what these MAGA white folks are doing, and this is all tied to, my book, White Fear. They want to shut down all avenues for black people, for Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, anybody non-white from being able to go to college, being able to get jobs because I keep saying it, the browning of America is driving these white folks crazy. Right. And there's a great example of like these fraternities and sororities. My undergraduate fraternity has a scholarship, an endowed scholarship.

So it's in the university's endowment fund. And so they told us, hey, if it's in our endowment fund, you can't designate that it goes to a black student, right? Because of the state laws, right? And what we see, what we reported on is that many of these universities are doing this preemptively. They are silencing speakers and telling them, hey, you can't say these words. because the state might defund you. One of the best examples is...

Go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead. At the University of Wisconsin, there was a DEI, the DEI, the vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. He had funded this group of black students, this black group who recruits black people to the University of Wisconsin. So the University of Wisconsin benefits,

but they knew, hey, when you recruit black people, black people live in the South. So when you get them up here, what's the one thing that we, can do to make them come here? Well, they bought them coats, right? They spent like $17,000 on coats. And the university tried, the university tried to say that they were just buying folks

coats for DEI, right? So that's how they vilified DEI by making it seem obnoxious and demonizing it, instead of saying, this is a thing that will help our university and our institution. What? My crazy is, look, look to my iPad. I have to deal with this at my alma mater, Texas A&M.

And they actually ran the president off. This was one of the reasons. Christopher Rufo, that white supremacist, and then Greg Abbott that white supremacist governor of Texas. That was a conference.

And the conference was to the whole point of the conference, you'll see it right here, it was to send folks there to recruit prospective minority doctoral students, and these folks attacked them, calling it DEI,

and the governor literally said to the president of the university, Texas A&M, this was the Ph.D. Project, point blank, if you, if anyone from A&M goes to that conference, I'm going to fire you. And so, and this is to create, so their whole deal is, you know, you're not going to conferences,

you're not going to events, you're not going to reception, and so so many schools are like, hey, you know what? We're just, we're doing nothing. We're doing nothing because they are afraid. And even if you, and again, I'm going to go back, even if you talk about, even if you are, even if you fight it, use the example of the HBCU,

you know, being very scared. Listen, you've got a black president at George Mason University in Virginia. Trump has been targeting them. Luckily, you had folks that know we're standing by him. They ran off. president at the University of Virginia. Oh, my God, too much D.E.I focus. They ran off the black guy

who was a superintendent at Virginia Military Institute, and that's because you've got, you had a Republican governor of the state. Now, of course, you've got Spanberger, who's Democrat, but people need to understand what's going on here. Even if you are, let's say,

Governor Westmore in Maryland, Trump's like, okay, I'm going to attack the research dollars of your institution. So your governor can protect you. Your legislature can protect you. But I'm going to tack the research dollars the federal government gives to you.

Yeah, it does not matter, right? Capitulating does not help you escape the tentacles of this authoritarian administration, right? The only thing, so you might as well stand up. Like, you know, I remember a friend of mine saying, well, if they're going to shoot at me anyway, I might as well fight them, right? So I think that's what we have to understand.

They aren't going to shoot at us. That's what they're doing with this voting project that they're trying to capitulate, get us to can them over our information. That's what they're doing with speaking engagements. That's what they're doing on every front. They are shooting at us. So we might as well fight anyway.

And I'll say this, Mike, and I'm actually working on a book. I wish it was coming out this year's. going to come out January of 2027. And I have been, I've been making this point repeatedly that, that, you know, today is the Founders Day for Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Aren't, is it your final day coming up, Randy? Yes.

All right. So you got A.K.A. is coming up. You've got, you've got these different civil rights organizations. You've got Prince Hall Mason. You've got links. you've got D9, you've got, you know, black data processors, you've got national.

I was talking to somebody saying the black MBAs, which always had a huge conference that they damn them, may have to go virtual because of so many companies pulling out. I was aware to AfroTech. This is what I've been saying

what has to happen in this moment. This is a moment, Michael, where all of this black institutional infrastructure that we have has to, has to read the room, has to recognize the moment. This is where we've got to have black organizations

standing up fighting on behalf of black people. And I say it. The executive leadership council, they're supposed to be the big black corporate organization. They ain't saying shit when it comes to the tax that's happening in corporate America. And I'm sitting there going to the point.

They land your members off. They are firing your members. So you being silent, don't do anything. It is stunning to me that a year has passed, and maybe it's happened, and maybe you heard about it, Michael, maybe I ain't heard about it. Maybe Larry, Randy and Mustafa has heard about it. But it is stunning to me how you have not seen black organizational leaders collectively move to go to corporate America and say, let me be real clear.

if you sit here and play games and you don't stand with us then we are not going to keep using your products the only way you can fight folks is you got to fight laying down ain't a fucking option

right and I think that's what people don't understand is we have the infrastructure and we have the power right um you know if it was like for instance right all of those organizations that you talk about Delta Sigma Theta Omega Sopi like

we have banks now, right? Like what if we said, hey, we're going to pull out all of our money, put them in our own banks, right? If y'all keep capitulating, because just as they have to capitulate the Trump for the sake of profit, we can force them to do that to us too, right?

We see what happened to Target, and we just kind of didn't even go fully into that. If we start pulling our money, our resources, and not just pulling them, focusing on where we are going to put them. We're going to put them here and give your competitor a specific advantage. That is how you wield power,

and we have that institutional power. We have that economic power. We just have to wield it, and these organizations have to take the lead because they're scared. We can't be political because they'll take off 501C3. Look, we see these white dudes on church praying for Trump and talking about Joe Biden.

is the devil, and they don't lose their tax exempt status, right? And also, that is a lie. And that is a lie. You can't endorse a candidate. It doesn't mean you can't be political. It doesn't mean that you can't

talk about public policy and say, we support this deal. We support this legislation. We are against this legislation. That shit pisses me off, and I'll say it, for so many on, especially a lot of D9 groups, we are so

risk-averse, you know, we've had leaders, don't wear your colors, don't wear your letters, all this sort of bullshit. I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? And so, there is a massive assault against Black America happening. And I don't

just name check the D-9. I also name-checked Sigma P5 Fraternity Incorporated, the Bulae. I name-checked Prince Hall-Mason, Eastern Star. What pisses me off is, we have massive infrastructure. We've got international organizations,

national organizations with regional, state, grad, undergrad. We got programming going all the way down K through 12. And we got impotent as leadership who to me is so focused on their insular business

and not the business in the attack on black America. Right. And this summer almost every one of those organizations that you remember, you mentioned will have a national conference. And we...

Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bejan Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down.

It just makes it feel great before I run the play. Just like Bejohn, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at loveyourmind playbook.org. You're by.

Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad console. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Zers in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely.

The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate you won't hear about

these online stories in the mainstream media but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the brad versus everyone podcast hosted by me brad palumbo every day of the week i bring you on a wild ride who the most delulu takes on the internet criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective join in on the insanity and listen to the brad versus everyone podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February

22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. We have to find a way to wheel that power in those cities that we are talking about and across the nation. We have to send all of those people back with a directive on how to save ourselves inside the structure of this country. Because without it, what are they for really?

Like, you know, I mean, the colors are pretty, but what are they ultimately for if they are not doing anything for the people who they're supposed to be serving and the people who created them. Absolutely. And so I have been hardcore about this. And so folks, do me a favor, y'all. Hold on, give you one second. Let me pull it back up.

I want you to go to, I want you to go to contrabandcamp.com. Hold on one second. I'm pulling it up. No, I told y'all don't go to it yet. It ain't loading. Finish loading. Slow down. All right, y'all can go to it now.

Go to contrabandcamp.com. A number of stories on there but I also need y'all to subscribe and support. I've made this point before folks that in this moment we got to depend upon us and we do not, let me real

clear, I'm going to say this, I've got no problem saying to Michael. You do not have a lot and when I say a lot I'm talking about maybe I can use both hands. We do not have a lot of report that's going on.

Let me be real clear. We got lots of commenting. Right. We got lots of commenting, but we don't have a lot of reporting that's going on where in people are being interviewed talking about the subject matter.

And so we've got to be supporting Black-owned media. And when we look at what we spend money on, I'm telling y'all, we spend lots of money every single month, subscriber to streaming services to catch entertainment and documentaries and comedy shows and stuff

but I've always said the greatest problem we're always going to face is a dearth of real substantive information to give us a sense of what's going on right now and so you've got to support outlets like contraband camp

so go to the website you click their substatt you can subscribe you've got you can do monthly you can do yearly but I'm telling you It has to happen, y'all, because, listen, we're in this, okay? This thug, he ain't going anywhere until January 2029, okay? So we need to understand these attacks on us. They're not stopping.

They're going to intensify. So, Michael, a great job. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. Folks, it's a whole lot to unpack a lot of things that are happening right now. and before we went on the air, came on the air today, certainly got some sad news with the passing of Claudette Coven.

She, of course, the black woman who sat down on a bus and she, of course, was told, you got to get up. And this took place before what happened with Rosa Parks. And there were all sorts of folks talking about, well, why wasn't she the face of the movement? It wasn't because she was so young. It was all those different things along those lines. She passed away today, again,

the age of 86 years old. And it was, but do understand, if you read Joanne Robinson's book of the women who led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, you will realize that there were others who sat down before Claudette COVID. And so all of those cases built up frustration and anger in Montgomery

that led to the, Montgomery Bus Boycott. We just celebrated, of course, the anniversary just the other day of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Claude Covem goes down as one of our foot soldiers, history maker. When I sat down with Fred Gray, Fred Gray was her attorney in that case. And he explained to us the backstory of what happened with Claudette Coveon.

And we're going to show that for you. It really was, it really is. It was a fascinating story, Randy, listening to him described for us what really took place with Claudette Colvin, the legal maneuvering that took place as well. And, again, she passed away at the age of 86, certainly one of our history makers. You know, as I was reading more about her, and I've always, of course, known about her, but what is interesting is that we didn't learn about her in school. And so I was impressed with the ability of her to, of hers to just be quiet, be an unsung hero.

I mean, it had to be something where here she was 15 years old, even though her friend decided to go ahead and move out of the spot they asked her to move out of. She stayed at 15 years old. And she wasn't chosen to be the face. I mean, she did this nine months before Rosa Parks. She wasn't chosen to be the face for various reasons, including colorism. You know, we have to be real about that. But she was okay, you know, and she was okay with that and was just fine to do her part. You know, right now you have so many of us that want accolades for standing up.

And we have to realize that so many people sacrificed to get us where we are today. So absolutely have great respect and regard for her. And we talked to Fred, and according to Fred, none of that actually was the case. He actually said that really he said his whole job was like, let's make sure she don't go to jail. So he addressed a lot of that backstory in terms of why, at that moment, why didn't her case become the case, Mustafa? But as I said, if you read Joanne Robinson's book, there were incidents that happened to other men and women, even before Claudette Coven. And so when you look at all of those together, it was a buildup. It was a buildup.

It was a steady buildup in Montgomery. and then when Rosa Parks got arrested, that's when the powder kick just blew and they said, enough. We're tired of sitting here and waiting because a lot of people don't realize Mustafa, a few days after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954,

Joanne Robertson sent a letter to the bus company about desegating their buses. And so this battle had been brewing, but Claudette Colvin is certainly a significant part of this, unique American history. Yeah, she was a, she most definitely was a freedom fighter. You know, huge amount of courage.

When you think about someone was only 15 years old and all the pressure that you had to deal with at that time because of segregation, because of the violence that was going on for her still to be able to do what was necessary in that moment and to do it with courage is something that we should continue to embrace, continue to look at. build upon because we are in somewhat similar situations right now. I've written about, you know, how folks actually created their own taxi systems and how they, you know, made sure that folks could get to the places that they needed to go to make sure that the boycott actually worked. And we often don't highlight our sisters enough who have played such an amazing role

in the civil rights movement and, you know, gave and continue to give even to today. So, you know, we love and honor Ms. Colvin and all those others who sacrificed so much, but we have a responsibility also in this moment to not only take those lessons, but to make sure that we are actually applying them against, you know, a regime that is, in many instances, as devastating as the ones that folks dealt within the 40s, the 50s and the 60s. Larry. Yeah, Roland, you know, you know, certainly want to send, you know, let her family know we certainly mourn her.

One of the things I want to talk about Rowan is not talked about enough is that we lose icons, civil rights icons like this. I think people forget in terms of where we are with history. They think this, you know, some of these things obviously happened years or decades ago. But a lot of these people that, you know, laid a foundation, some of we don't know the names of are still living with us. So it's really important in the context in terms of what we're dealing with today in terms of, you know, So the government, the federal state level, trying to resegregate and prevent black people from opportunities is this a reminder that these individuals are still living amongst us and that we have to continue to fight and also use the examples of those in the past to continue to fight to make sure that black folks are having the kind of economic, political, and social opportunities that we gained just over the last 20 to 30 years.

And folks, I'm having an issue with our video playback, so I'm going to have that video towards the end of the show. What I definitely wanted you would hear with Fred Gray had to say about that. Let's go to the story out of Jacksonville, where no charges are going to be filed against Officer Donald Bowers because the DA said he acted lawfully when he punched Will McNeil Jr. in the face doing February traffic stop. Folks, if you can get the video of the video, we did show it before. remember this video. Brother was just sitting here in his car, and then the cops operated where they did, while the internal affairs investigation exonerated

by hours of using, quote, unnecessary force. He sustained the administrative charge and he failed to conform to work standards. The family of McNeil's attorney, Harry Daniels, joins us right now. And so, again, Harry, we do these stories so often, and we see how

the laws are set up to protect these cops for whatever action they do. And frankly, we're all all the stuff that we're seeing with ICE do all across the country. We see this is how these guys operate. Hey, thanks for having me, Rowling. You know, early on in this incident, the sheriff of Jacksonville, he made the decision, even for the investigation, actually it took place.

They kind of doubled down to what the state's attorney office determined that the officer engaged in no criminal activity. they decided to do internal affairs investigation and would seemly, to me, they disannured including the obvious of what took place, not just the strike in the face while he was in the vehicle, but punches and his head been slammed against the ground once he was actually on his stomach.

You know, it was a lot of other officers involved, and this was just a whitewash, to try to double down on what the state's attorney's office had already decided. It came to no surprise to us. That's why a lot of time we have to proceed with help from the Department of Justice. And believe it or not, just recently on today, some officers and cases that we actually represented people on were convicted, and others was indicted. Because it seemed like a lot of times these local officials just won't pull the trigger and terminate people, you know, for misconduct and violates people

of civil rights, a lawful use of force. In Jacksonville, we have seen it over and over again in the news in many cases where there's no accountability, you know, and I, you know, I express that accountability in this case need to be head at the polls and in the court of law. That is certainly the case. And what's next? Y'all still, are you filed a civil lawsuit? Yeah, the civil loss already filed.

We sued all the officers involved. We, in fact, sued the sheriff in his individual capacity for the first time in the case in Jacksonville that we have represented individuals based on the policies. Roland, they have a policy in Jacksonville's absolute absurd where an officer can use force against a person. And if the person appears to don't complain of any injuries or have any physical. injuries, the officers simply don't have to report it. So it's strange and crazy to me that in this situation where Mr. McNeil was in fact injured, you know, had to go to the hospital, the officer still didn't report the incident, the striking the inside the car as such. He was recommended for that. But, you know, that is a reason why he didn't report it because he won't

have turned affairs investigation, anybody be, you know, triggered to look at this incident. And that's the only wrongdoing they found, and they restore his full police powers. You know, no accountability whatsoever. That's why people like myself and being, we have to pursue these cases in so many different avenues and realms that in order to get some measure of justice for people who have been a, of rights have been a bridge, you know. And we continue to push this some envelope and we'll continue to keep y'all updated and how this case turns out. All right, Aaron, we still appreciate it, man. It's always, you know, we hate to, you know, we have to do these stories, but unfortunately, it happens over and over and over again.

So we appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Roel. Have a good night. Appreciate it. All right, folks, let's talk about some drama happening yesterday at an HBCU in Georgia. Right before we went on to the show, posting went up from the account of the president of Morris Brown, Dr. Kevin James, saying that he had. been fired by the school board's board of trustees, a move he called deeply concerning. He, of course, in 2022, helped them regain their accreditation from the Virginia-based Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. Remember, they had serious issues, then almost closed their doors. There was a fight to come back.

This is what he posted on social media. Today, the Morris Brown College Board of Trustees terminated my service as president without providing specific cause or substantive explanation. This action is deeply concerning. Research and my lived experience demonstrates that many HBCUs has struggled with board overreach and interference. Unfortunately, those dynamics are evident in this situation. The timing of this decision is particularly troubling as the institution is approaching its accreditation reaffirmation review in a few weeks. Equally concerning is that this action disregards established governance best practices in my existing presidential contract, which extends through 2029.

I fully intend to pursue all rights and remedies afforded to me under the agreement. Also, it is important to note that I recently completed a successful annual evaluation and have received consistently strong performance reviews throughout my seven years of service. Morris Brown College has literally made history under my leadership as president. I'm profoundly proud of the work accomplished during my presidency, including leading Morris Brown College to become the first HBCU to regain accreditation after nearly 20 years, restoring access to federal financial aid. Growing enrollment from approximately 20 students to more than 540,

securing national recognition and restoring the college's visibility and reputation, achieving clean financial audits for seven consecutive years, establishing long-term financial stability for the institution. I dedicated myself fully to the restoration and resurgence of Morris Brown College, and I stand firmly behind the progress we achieved together. While I am deeply disappointed by the board's decision, I am grateful for the overwhelming support I have received from alumni, faculty, staff, students, and community partners.

Thank you for believing in the vision and the work. Hashtag the Hard Reset to hashtag the Resurgence, Kevin James, 19th president of Morris Brown College. Now, we reached out to Morris Brown and was directed to this statement on their website. They said the following. The Morris Brown College Board trustees announced today that NBC trustee, Ms. Dzinga Shaw, will assume guys, oh, look, guys, people can't see that.

You all know that. Okay, hold on a second. Let me fix this here, y'all. I keep telling y'all, y'all, y'all can't put up statements like that because people can't read that. All right, let's see here. Where's their, okay, here's their statement. All right, here we go. Come to my iPad, please.

Thank you, folks. Can see that. The Morris Brown, the Morris Brown College book, they announced the board of trustees extends his deep gratitude to Dr. Kevin James for his. for his years of service and leadership at Morris Brown College. Dr. James has played a meaningful role in guiding the institution through critical seasons of growth, resilience, and transformation. The board thanks him for dedication to the students, faculty, staff, and alumni in the broader Morris Brown College community and wishes him well in his next chapter. Shaw will work in close partnership with the college's executive leadership team to ensure stability and continue progress toward the institution's mission.

Shaw has been an integral and respected member of Morris Brown's governing body. Prior to the interim appointment, Shaw served as a member of the NBC's Board of Trustees and as a co-chair of the Board's Facilities Committee. For her leadership and contributions to the college, Shaw received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Morris Brown College during the 2003 commencement when she delivered the college's commencement address. From 2020 to 2024, she served as a member of Fisk University's Board of Trustees, has held professionals at Fish University and the University of Tennessee.

Shaw is a 2001 graduate of Spellman College with a bachelor of arts degree, when a 2005 graduate with a master of liberal arts in the University of Pennsylvania. Morris Brown College remains finally, firmly committed to the students' admission and his long-term strategic vision, said Bishop Michael Mitchell, Chair

of the Morris Brown College Board of Trustees in the statement, this transition and leadership will help to ensure continuity as we move forward with the important work of strengthening in advancing the college. Okay. I want to know from Morris Brown what the hell is going on. And the reason I want to know that, which I don't, which makes no sense to me, is, so right here, this is the website. So let's go right here.

So does Inga Shaw, a strategic board advisor, corporate executive, known for navigating, complex governance reputation of human capital challenges. Got it. First person to serve as Chief Diversity Inclusion Officer for two Fortune 400 companies. It was the first Chief Diversity Officer in the NBA, representing Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. Okay. All right.

Served as CEO of an entrepreneurial venture. Okay. Independent Director of ColorCom. Okay. Former member of the Board of Councils for the Carter Center. Got it. sort of after speaker, public educator. Got it?

Master's degree. Got it. Okay. Here's my problem here, Mustafa. How do you run a university? Right. And here's the other deal. And this is what I don't understand. And I have had to deal with this with numerous HBCUs.

Why do you keep naming interim presidents from your board when you have people who are, are a part of the staff in the day-to-day. You've got provosts, you've got C-O's, you've got folks who are running a university in various capacities. Again, I want to know exactly what happened here. I don't understand what happened here.

I would love to hear from the leadership to say, well, when was your evaluation of the president? Was it a positive evaluation of Kevin James? If it was a positive evaluation, why are you making this move? Also, why would you fire somebody in 2026 whose contract runs through 2009? It's not like Morris Brown has the money to be paying two presidents at one time. But it really does bother me with these HBCUs where they fire presidents and board members take over as interim. president, that's a problem for me.

Yeah, it caught my attention as well. You know, there's so much talent that's out there. And if you cast the net, you'll be able to find that talent, that talent, and especially in the education realm, should have education administration as a background, or sometimes folks who come from the business side of the equation, can also fill the role as long as they have the individuals surrounding them that's going to be necessary. If you have, you know, historically and in the recent history had a problem with being able to raise money for you to then have to pay an individual's salary for the next three years is strange as well.

And then the last thing that really got my attention was something that you raised, you know, with all the folks who have worked for me over the years, what I do that. Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says... Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry.

Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on... Smokeybear.com, with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey, bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Ziers in

jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can and keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo.

Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the Insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHard Podcast Awards Podcast Awards, podcast of the year, by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. their evaluation, if there is gaps, then I'm going to highlight that, and we're going to put a plan together to be able to address that. But, you know, for these folks, it seems like he was doing fine, and then all of a sudden, you know, then they've made this transition. So there are a lot of unanswered questions. There are a lot of concerns.

I think that most people will have looking from the outside. It will be interesting to also see for those who donate to Morris Brown, if they will continue to have confidence. and being able to do that. So I guess we'll all be revealed here over the next set of weeks. You know, and I'm sitting here looking at the board here, I'm looking at the board here, Randy, and I'm seeing the right Reverend Bishop, Michael Mitchell, okay.

I'm seeing a financial advisor, founding CEO of Impact Data. I'm seeing the CFO for the city of Atlanta. I'm seeing President's CEO, Uni National Bank. I'm seeing education consultant, others. Well, hell, I'm saying that to Gwendolyn Boyd, executive search consultant. If I'm correct, that's the same Gwendolyn Boyd, who was the president of, I think it was Alabama State.

Hell, if you're going to put somebody to be the president, why don't you put somebody who's actually been a university president before? That's just me. That at least would seem to make sense. But Roland, it's just messy, though. I mean, even if they wanted to make a transition, the way that this all went down does not be. make me feel secure. It would not make me feel secure in sending my student. Because at the end of the day, business is business and they are not conducting business well. They're not dealing with people are processes in a professional way. I mean, how do you let somebody go? They don't know that they're

being let go, which is going to expose them to some serious lawsuits, which I'm assuming if I know about HBCUs, they don't have money just hanging around to satisfy that, nor pay a dual salary to somebody. And it just breeds bad blood. I mean, they should be able to conduct business better than this to be an institution of higher learning, regardless of what was happening. If a decision was made, which I'll be honest with you when I look at all that he's done,

but if a decision was made to remove him, the way that it was done is just completely unprofessional. And we need to do better at our HBCUs. We need to at least represent what we want the students coming out to be to be. So if this is how you conduct business, how do I trust your business school? How do I expect you to run a university where you can't even properly handle a transition? And again, here's my whole deal. When you do these moves, Larry, again, this is just looking at a set of facts.

You have a president. you have the semester starting, the second semester starting, the president's under contract for 2009, and you get rid of them, and you don't explain to the public why? To me, that's not actually how you lead. There's a lot of moving pieces on the story. First of all, we do have to acknowledge.

President James did a miraculous job. bringing Morris back from the brink. As you said, rolling, the university nearly closed, and they recently announced a project with one of the major hotels that they'll be building right there in the EU center.

So they've done a lot of tremendous work. He's done a lot of tremendous work. I don't think that letter interesting in terms of some of the language there said, fired with cause, if I'm not mistaken, rolling. So it's really unclear in terms of when the board and whatever, you know,

you know, communication person, they work with in terms of writing that letter. I think that they need to provide, like you said, a lot more clarity about what is going on because it raises more questions than answers. In terms of what this means for the future, he mentioned the accreditation. I've worked on some accreditation issues as a researcher. They're going to need to do a search, and they're going to need to get someone in there who's qualified and experience.

Obviously, you want to do a great job vetting as soon as possible. But I want to go back to your point about the interim position. Listen, this is where a place where a lot of, not just HBCUs, but smaller institutions, when they have a leadership, you know, transition, they have an interim. This is where they encounter problems. It's really important that you have someone who understands higher education, who understands curriculum, who also understands the relation to faculty and students, and has a background to ensure that this in person, this person is a buffer in terms of they identify new leadership. So it's really important, like I said, that they lay out what's really going on. here and that, you know, the person they've hired, they've asked the service interim, they're going to really need to make sure they had a number of experienced individuals besides the provokes and other

people to support her as she moves to this journey. Yeah, I just, listen, I've had to deal with too many HBCU presidents that have been fired, that have been let go, all sorts of drama. And I can tell you too often, the problem traces back to the board of trustees. And I just think it's amazing how every single time these things happen, an interim president is the member of the board when I don't think so if you're a board member you're voting on removing somebody as president and then one of the people who votes to remove them becomes the interim president in a lot of times they'll throw their name in the hat I don't get it

if you have university staff if I'm if like if I'm running a newspaper I'm I'm the managing editor then I've got a system managing editor anything happens to me they can step up you don't have to go pull a board member out to run the paper. I just think that if you're going to remove presidents, you should have qualified staff to be able to step in that person can't do the job or that person has been removed. That way, you take a lot of this board drama out of the way. So hopefully, Morris Brown will be forthcoming

to explain what has happened there. And I'm sure the legal representatives of President James are going to be weighing in as well. I'm going to go to a quick break. Come back, my shot Black Star Network segment. That's next, Rolla Mark Unfiltered on a Black Star Network. If in this country right now, you have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt,

and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity.

We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. But not all candles are good for us. They're not healthy for us. I know. Some of you have me were saying, really? Ain't a candle? Just a candle? No, not really. It's also what are the products in that candle that are also critically important. And my next guest, she has been dealing with this here. She created her own line of candles

at discovering how toxic they can be. Christina DeGraffin-Rite, its company is called multifaceted. It's a premium hand-poured candle company. And she joins us now from Greensboro, North Carolina. Christina, glad to have you here. So, okay, so explain to us what the hell is this man. I mean, look, we see candles.

We go into the store and the grocery store. We see bed, bath, and beyond, and might be in, and might be. And Michael, we see them all over the place, and it's just candles. How are candles toxic? First of all, thank you for having me here. I'm very excited to be here today. So in candles, they can have anything and everything that is good or bad for you.

There's no federal regulation on what can go into a candle. And there's also candle brands don't have to tell you what's in the candles. So you can have everything from petroleum in the candles. There can be dangerous chemicals that have carcinogenics in them that can affect your respiratory system. So with our formula, we can stand firm on saying that everything is toxin-free. We do all the research to make sure you're burning something premium and better for you. Okay. So when we say, okay, so what makes these, lack of better, what makes these healthy candles,

non-toxic candles. Yeah. So we use a premium grade of soy and coconut wax, which is going to automatically be a better wax. So most candles that are in the market are paraffin, which is a petroleum byproduct, which is very dangerous for you. There are people that can burn them and not get sick,

which is, you know, completely normal. And then there are people that it will immediately affect them. I like to tell people if you have pets and especially cats, if you're burning a candle and your cat starts to sneeze or even vomit, that means that there's something dangerous in your candle that is, if it's making them sick, it's probably going to make you sick as well. Okay.

All right then. And so you've got, so I'm sitting here. Now, people know, we always sit here in stores is like sitting here, you know, sniffing cameras, sniffing candles. Yeah.

And so take me through, how many different candles do you have? We have about 34 different scents, and then we add seasonal sense. So, of course, like when you have the fall season come, we'll have our fall candles out. And then we have our winter sense where you get your Christmas sense. And then your cozier sense. We have one out right now called Sweeter Weather that is appropriate for the cooler season. All right then.

And so, okay, now, are there mainly two different sizes? Because I see, so this is the large canons, small. So what are you, is two different ones? Yes. So in the flower candles, I have one here on display. Right, I got it. I got it right here. This is going to be our large one.

I got it. So this is our eight ounce. All right. So this is an eight ounce right here. And this is what? Yes. That's her two and a half ounce. Okay, two and a half ounce.

Got it. All right then. And are these easy to travel with? They are. I always tell people if you, are traveling with them and you're going on an airplane, just take them out of your bag. Otherwise, TSA will flag them as a liquid and then they'll have to pull you to the side and you don't want to have all that complications while you're traveling.

So we just tell people just take it out of your bag and you're good to go. Yep. I've actually fun with some candles before and, yeah, it wasn't that big of an issue. Let's see here. Well, let's see. Who's the biggest candle lover on this panel here? Hmm, let's see, Mustafa, Randy or Larry. Something tells me, Larry, you got a bunch of candles around your house.

Yeah, I like candles and incense. It's good. But listen, I want to congratulations on, you know, starting the business. I wonder if you can talk about your journey. I think that's always important, your story and narrative. So how did you get here? So I'm a candle lover. I started researching what's in candles because I was just curious to know what is in this.

Is it something that is better for me? Is it causing harm to my space? Is it causing harm to me? So after doing a lot of research, I ended up discovering that most of the candles that are in the market are filled with toxins. And it also helped address a concern that I had for my parents. So my mother loves to burn candles. and my dad absolutely despises them. So I figured there has to be a way that, you know,

both of them can enjoy candles. So I actually use my dad, or both of my parents, actually, to test our formula. And he hasn't been sick or had any issues from anything that he has burned. So your dad is the smell tester? It's not about the smell. It's just like the chemicals in it. Sometimes he's just like, I can't take it.

Okay. All right. But before I go to Randy with a question, can you burn two different types of kennel at the same time? And does that screw up? And so do you suggest, hey, burn this one with that one and work together because not all candles being burned together work? That's true.

I always say if it's in the same scent family, like two masculine ones. Like, for instance, you should have the centile and the blue one that's the anemone, you could burn those together, and your space will smell just fine. Now, if you smell one that's, like, really fruity, and then you burn one that's like, like a clean, like a cotton scent, I don't think those two will mesh that well. Or you could just have them in two separate parts of your home, and you'll be fine. I actually, I like the not-your-ordinary lavender, and the, is it sandal? Is it sandal?

Uh-huh. Yeah, those two are cool. Randy, go. Yeah. I love how you, I mean, I've never, would have thought candles affected our health, but I see that you also care about the health of the environment. So can you tell us more about the RE3 program? Absolutely. So our jars are made out of recycle glass. Depending on the jar, it is 50% recycle glass or 30% recycle glass. So with

the recycled glass, we're trying to keep glass out of the landfills here in Greensboro, North Carolina, where I'm at, you actually can't recycle glass. So we actually welcome the jars, back and we clean them out and refill them and make them new candles for someone else. We also care about the planet in our packaging. So our packaging is recyclable and we encourage everyone to recycle everything that comes from us or give it back to us if you don't care about packaging. Mustafa. Yeah, sister, you're killing it in a very positive way.

Yeah, you know, you got the toxicology handled. you've got the environmental and recycling handled. Let me ask you this question very quickly. One of the most important things is what your customers are saying about your product. Could you share with us one or two examples of what folks are saying about your particular candles? Yeah. Most of the people, they are in awe by the look of the candle first. So we have the very popular flower.

top candle. So people like the look of them first, and then they gravitate towards, you know, what smells the best for them. People say that our candles last a really long time. So with the premium ingredients that we have in our formula, they do last a lot longer than something you can buy in the store traditionally. They are also not getting sick from the candles. A lot of our customers have pets, and their pets are not getting sick from our products. So they're, they're welcoming our products into their homes. So we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from our formula.

All right, then. So, all right, so you see about 30 different candles, folks, I want you to go to shop, blackstar network.com. And I want to check out y'all multifacety. All the candles are on there. It's great, great smell. Like, I literally burning one right now. So I want you to do it.

Now, y'all know, again, we support black-owned companies. And so if you go, I'm going to go ahead and take these candles right here. I'm going to go ahead and move them over here. So as you know, we got our shop blackstar network.com products. And so we got

all of them over here. So I'm going to place the multifaceted cameras. Let's see, candles right here. I'm going to move some stuff around. Place them right here. So I want you to go to the website, shop blackstar network.com. And y'all can check out

the multifaceted candles. And trust me, you're supporting black-owned companies. And then when you support these products, you're also supporting Roland Martin unfiltered the BlackSutnetwork as well. So go to shop Blacksutnetwork.com. You can check out Christina's candles.

They smell great. And it's always good not to have something that's toxic. So, Christina, great job. And trust me, I always have candles around the studio. So we'll be sure to be lighting them around here. Yes. Thank you so much. All right.

I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Okay, folks. I'm about to interview Tiffany Cross. I'm gonna go to a quick break. So just go ahead and pull the music up. I'm gonna walk over there, grab my iPad, walk on over there. So I'll be right back.

So hold tight one second. I came over to the other side of our set here, so they're getting a shot all straight, sitting here chatting. Tiffany, what's up? I want the audience at home to know this studio is so amazing. It's so expansive and fancy and got a fireplace. And if you, you will never be confused about what you play.

You got that right. I feel like I'm in the Alpha Frat House right now. You damn. I love it. I love me from y'all, so it's okay. You damn skipping. Hey, Terrell, I need you turn on television around. So, folks, we are, of course, we are, of course, glad to have Tiffany. There's lots of I want to talk about.

The first thing I want to talk about Tiffany, we'll talk about your upcoming book. We're going to do with that. But the thing I got to deal right now is how trifling and pathetic these media people are today. Today, I'm going to show in a second. Don Trump was going somewhere and said F you to a Ford worker and shot

the finger at him. And I remember how these people lost their damn mind over deplorables. How they lost their mind when Biden said stuff. And this man is shameful, despicable, pathetic, how he attacks folk. And they don't

say nothing. And it's just kind of like, oh, okay, no big deal. if a Democrat president said or did the things that this man does, it would be wall-to-wall craziness every single day. Yeah, you know, I understand the desire to put a political label on it, but honestly, Roe, I feel it's more racial

because when I say they, I mean them, I mean white people, white-run newsrooms. And it's really difficult, as you know, to be the first to say it. So often, we are the first person to say, I remember in 2016, all of us are... Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath.

When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game playing for your mental health at loveyourmind playbook.org. Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Ziers in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired.

I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective.

Join in on the Insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at IHeart Podcast Awards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible.

There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at Audible. dot com. St. Trump is a bigot. And that was a controversial statement to make at the time. Well, do you believe us now? We're still saying the same thing.

Also, we're seeing with the capitulation of media, and so many of us are leaving the industry, being fired, being kicked out of the industry, it's heartbreaking to see. So even today, if you look across newsrooms, only 6% of reporting staff are black.

So if you disaggregate that, that means even less black men in the newsroom, even less black women in the newsroom. And I'm so frustrated with it, Roland, because this is our path to democracy. This is what protects democracy, transparency. And so when I see time and time again, the media uplift and give a microphone to someone who's ill-informed, has no idea what they're talking about, who looks like us, they only do that in our community.

You and I've talked about this many times. And then normalize what we're seeing happening. The core pillars of our democracy fall apart. Listen, the media has never really been kind to us or fair to us. And so often what's considered fair and unbiased is rooted in what's white and male. So this is not new to us, but when we see how it's impacting lives and livelihoods, it's devastating to witness. I'm so frustrated. I've always wanted to be the Brown Murphy Brown.

And so to see CBS fall under this below-average-ass white woman who has no idea what she's doing, Barry Weiss doesn't know how to run a newsroom. And this is why your show, your entire career role, you have always lived in service to black people in Black Liberation. You're one of the first people to put me on television. You give a voice to people, a platform to people. You uplift issues. So if there are, any black thing that's happening in America, Ro and Ro-Mobile is there.

And that's so important right now. Well, and the thing is, perfect example. So Trump, we talked about on a show yesterday. Trump made these comments about about, oh my God, how the Civil Rights Act was just so bad to white people. Yeah. Non-story.

I mean, okay, no big deal. Like it, like, okay, fine, he said it. That's it. And I'm sitting there going, um, yeah, wanted I dissect that? And I was having, I was having a conversation with,

um, a host on a network. And, and this is what the host literally said to me, that it's so much, it's so many different things that they can't cover it all. I said, wait, I said, wait,

I said, wait, I'm confused. I said, if you're a broadcast network, and now you're, you have digital, you got 24 hours. If you're a cable network, you got 24 hours. I said, I don't understand

why Morning Joe and the show at 10 and 11 and at 12 and at 1 and 2 and 3, and Nicole Wallace at 4, and R. Melboro at 6, and Chris Hayes at 7, and Rachel Maddow at 8, and all

I said, you ain't got a couple of the same stuff. I said, CNN, same thing. I said, If you got, hell, let's just take prime time. If you got 6 p.m. to, let's say, 11 p.m. That's five hours. You don't have to cover the same shit in all five hours. To this idea that, oh, we just don't,

it's just so much being thrown at us. It's just nonsense. I think they're censoring the comfort of white people. Because even though we say echo chambers for a reason, because it is the same story regurgitated over and over. but it's also run by people who center conservative white people. What liberal networks are they talking about? There is no liberal network.

And so because he said, oh, well, it was bad to white people, the newsrooms will look at that and say, well, there's a significant portion of the country who agrees with that, so we have to be fair. We have to be legitimate. This is no lie. Yes. I sent this book, my book, White Fear.

Yes. To a number of media folks. And an African-American host of a show said, I would love to have you on. But my white producers don't like your title. And I said, you know I write

about those saying white producers in the book. I said, because they are part of the problem. I said, the problem in these newsrooms is that the reason the white producers, they didn't like how the brown and America is making white folks lose their minds.

Also, I objected to that. I said, so wait a minute. So, so I sent this person five stories one from the New York Times Newsweek NPR Axios and Time and those stories were all

on the same thesis I said now I'm confused how did the New York Times NPR Axios Time how do they all cover the same story but the book is not relevant I said the problem we have is that

white producers white executives don't cover this stuff because then they have to actually own up to how they operate and behave inside of these newsrooms. I agree, but also I think as the black host, your producer is not your boss.

It is your face, your likeness. Look, you have to push back on that. So I was told, that's what I was told. I was told, rolling, you're preaching to the choir. I said, no, I need you to be the pastor. Right, right. I don't give people a pass in that sense. You know, like, you have to be willing...

And have never got booked. Yeah, of course. But other people get booked, you know? Like, we have never asked Tom Brady, what would you do if you were president? But by all means, put Stephen A. Smith on air and ask him what he would do. I find that ridiculous and offensive.

They don't want someone like you who actually has background, has information, understands policy, politics, and the press. They don't want that. And so it's very frustrating to witnesses. And I think that's why it's important when you talk about newsroom staff, the producers, because there is this tendency to issue humanity to people.

So white producers feel like, well, my dad voted for Trump and he's not that bad. Or my grandmother voted for Trump and I love her. They have humanity for people who don't see ours. But when it comes to somebody getting shot in the face by an ICE officer or a 12-year-old getting shot by a police officer for playing with a gun, we have to be infallible. It has to be a complete, you have to live your whole life like you might not ever do anything. We have to prove that we didn't invite our own death or play a role in our own death.

And I will say the strategy is effective because we all saw with Renee Nicole Good what happened with her. And despite enough of them saying, no, she was charging her car at that officer. So now all of a sudden, we can't believe our eyes and our ears. The entire news media landscape had to treat it like it was a debate when it was clear facts. Their narrative is not supported by the video we see before our eyes. So I don't really give anchors, reporters, any of them a past. I feel like, you know, if you are in this and living in service to your corporate overseers or to yourself, if you're trying to build your own empire, then you are failing at the job.

I did this job in service to Black Liberation, which benefits everybody. I will lay my life on the line. There's not enough white man's money that's going to make me abandon my people. Because as you know, we can leave that world. You might be their favorite on Monday. and by Wednesday, you, up a de Negro, they don't like it anymore. We can leave that world, but we always have a home with our people. There's nothing that's going to ever make me abandon my people in service to that.

So the black host who was saying that is on some bullshit. To be honest with you, I don't buy that word. I'm ashamed. And I was like, are you serious? I'm saying. Are you serious? And see, here's the thing that, and this is what people, I think people have to understand who don't understand these systems, who don't understand what happens in these networks.

I remember when Campbell Brown went on maternity leave and I filled it and I filled it for two months and it was very interesting because there was a white producer, white female producer who was just incensed

because I would actually raise questions in the editorial staff meeting. So remember we were talking about Michael Vick that if Michael Michael Vick, should Michael Vick be allowed back in the NFL? And it was a trip because, so we're sitting there, and so, Claire, yes, her name is Claire, was at the wall. And they were deciding, you know, in terms of where we're going to play stores.

And they had the magnetic wall. And it was like, well, what's Gloria Allred's daughter? Lisa, Lisa. Yeah. Well, so-and-so believes this, Sosa believes this, and Lisa's a huge pita person, so she's going to be against him.

I said, did we ask her? Did we ask her? And they were like, well, Roland, this is Claire. Roland, we know where she's staying. I said, no, actually, you don't. I said, so why don't we ask Lisa

before we assume that that's her position? Lazy producer. So she decided to run over me. I go, okay. So Tara Metzler was a booker. I said, Tara, can you call Lisa and ask Lisa the question? She calls Lisa. Tara being tired.

She goes, hangs out. We've got a problem. Lisa says, yeah, if he serves his time, he should be able to come back. The whole room freezes. And I said, do you now understand? I said, here's the problem. That's what y'all do to me. y'all assume you know my position

and you don't ask me first she was so pissed that I was assuming frankly a managing editor's position that she said I want off this show she literally David Dawes was the

executive producer of Campbell's show and Anderson's show she literally went to Anderson Cooper show for the two months that I was hosting because she said, I will not work with him because I had the audacity to actually

raise my hand and state my opinion. Yeah. I mean, it's lazy producing and even if we just take ourselves out of it and just look at the landscape now because I don't want people to think like, oh, we're outside, you know, we hate him outside the club and can't get in. That's not, it is, we, it's a bigger picture.

The difference is because we were on the inside, It's a bigger picture. We know exactly. We know how people get booked. Right. You and I can watch a segment and we go, I know how that happened. Right. But even the whole setup of it, I think, you know, around 2015 when the news landscape changed,

you know, I've been in this business 25 years. I've worked in cable news a long time before I was ever on cable news. And there was actual news. It was reporting and information. At a certain point, they felt like, oh, well, let's platform white supremacist. Let's platform liars and let's call that news. Let's pair them with someone who disagrees with them. Put them in the ring.

Let them fight. And I have to ask the audience sometimes, are you not entertained? Because this is what you all were tuning into. You are the power. The audience, the remote control, you are the power broker. So as long as you watch that,

even if you hate watch it, you're communicating, this is what I want to be. So they love the fight, but we're like, time out. Are you actually listen to the conversation? The bullshit that's being spewed? We are giving people a microphone who do not see our humanity.

We are giving people a microphone who are destroying the core pillars of democracy in America, and we are normalizing it. So because of that format, we have normalized mass men disappearing people off the street. We have normalized sexual offenders walking free. We have normalized a president who cares about the Constitution, who dismisses the emoluments clause,

who dismisses birthright citizenship, because cable news had such an important role to play in that, and it has contributed to the dumbing down of America, along with our smartphones, and that's a really scary time. But we also normalized lying. And there are people who are just sitting there flat out lying. Yeah. And we're watching it and going.

I never forget. I never forget. It used to drive me crazy. We've been in a situation room, and there'll be this conversation back and forth. And this person is lying. And I'm like, I'm about to correct a lie. And it's all of a sudden, and they'll be, okay, we've got to leave it there. Or they'll be like, hey, literally I've had producers, hey, don't push it hard.

I said, stop. He was lying. Yeah. I said, I'm sorry. There's nothing about me that can allow a lie to be stated in my presence and go over the airwaves, and I not say, no, that's simply not true. And so part of this also, and for so long, these networks were afraid to call out conservative liars because, oh, my God, I'm going to get attacked by Fox News and Media Research Center

and on social media. And so what ends up happening is, well, let's just put, four or five or ten more. I said this long ago. I said that because the conservatives have locked down victimhood. Oh, my God, liberal bias. I said when I was at CNN, I was at CNN. I was not hired today.

1,000 conservative contributors, they would still say liberal bias. Yeah. You cannot satisfy because that's a part of their strategy. They're leading them around by the nose. It's all very intentional. And it's effective because we see this plan. It works. Exactly. It works again and again and again. But again, I have to come back to the audience.

They are the power brokers. And we have seen the black households particularly have been tuning out increasingly. I mean, with a cord cutters all across. And when we democratize who has a voice in media and who gets to share information and opinions, that has come with some challenges because that's how you had a rise in malinformation, misinformation, misinformation, and that has also impacted our elections. You know, with the Black Manosphere and podcast. have bros introducing some really toxic conversations around relationships, which also ended up

penetrating our politics when we looked at some of the voting patterns in the last cycle. So this one tiny thing casts a dark shadow across many facets in society for sure. Pam, let's get ready for your questions. I'm going to come to you after this next question. One of the things that just jumps out of me, and you said it earlier, and I made this point, and I've said this directly, I said it directly. Bro, if you're going to come over this side and you're going to start commenting, you need to bone up.

You need to read. You need to pick the phone up and call folk. I said, this is not, listen, on the sports side, I've been on ESPN. I guess hosted his and hers with Jamel. I've been on first take several times. You know what? We can sit here and have a back and forth throwing out our feelings and emotion about, last day.

CJ Straub, my quarterback to Texas, why won't he run the damn ball more? Why won't he take up? Why is he taking sacks? We can do all of that.

That ain't life of death. Cutting off A to USAID, USAID, that's life and death. Cutting food support. That's literally life and death. Well, I said, life and death.

And my deal is, if you're going to hop over here and have some life and death conversation, where you damn bit not bring that same history on the sports side over here because this actually matters over here. And then what then happens, what then happens is the media sites will pick up the inflammatory comments and then post it.

And then New York Post will post it. And then these people will post it. So all of a sudden, it now becomes circular. And so now it's like, oh, let's book him on the view. Let's book him on this CNN show. I said one CNN holds. I said, why did you have him on that conversation when there was literally nothing factual that was being discussed. And I'm like, we know why. It's all a ratings thing because what they want

is they want the hyperbott. They want all of the drama, all of the loudness. And I'm like, but you're doing a disservice to the audience. And this is the problem I have. And it's not just him. And here's what kills me. Because Malcolm X talked about a long ago as well. How many white sportscasters or white entertainers do you see? them going to to a pine on what's happening in white America. Like, you know, they have experts. They have subject matter experts. But you got black folks who are just, oh, you are, you know, you're a sports person,

your immediate personality. You are, you are, you are on a television show. Dave Sapiril had the famous joke. Why did Fox have Jarl Rule on after 9-11? He's like, yeah, I was really going, I need to hear what J'Rul thinks. I mean, the joke works, but that's what they do with Black. folks. Yeah, I think that's the point I was making about who they give a microphone to. And quite honestly, I don't really have anything to say to or about Stephen A. Smith per se. I think, you know,

I wouldn't debate my lessors. You know, I would teach him, but you can't feel a cup that's already full. My challenge is with the media ownership, the people in position who keep giving him a microphone. It's like they think to appeal to black people. You appeal to the lowest common denominator. It's either that or to make white people comfortable. You put a dumb person on TV across from a smart person and so now you feel better about yourself because I'm not racist because I had this stupid ass on my show and asked him its opinion

and that person does not speak for Black America any more than Van Jones speaks for Black America. We are not a homogenous group. So instead of finding intelligent people to have a healthy exchange of intellectual ideology, they don't do that. I wore a Malcolm X sweater on Abby show the other night

which you know I struggle with. I really is a challenge going on that show sitting across from people who are dehumanizing, quite frankly. They don't never call me. Yes, I know, I know. That would never happen. But so many people had, the panelists had so much to say during the, and I don't say

anything to anybody. And the commercials, I'm like, don't say shit to me. I don't care where you kids are going to college. I don't care what you're doing for the holidays. I don't care, you know. I don't have small talk with those people. But they had so much to say about my shirt. It was the iconic photo of Malcolm X at the window with the gun in his hand.

And I just thought of the ridiculousness of that. Like, you're sitting here defending a one. getting shot in the face by a masked man who was filming it. Right. But me wearing this sweatshirt, you can't even sit here and formulate your thought properly because you're so distracted by what I'm wearing. And that, in that set, I'm considered the controversial person. But, but they supposedly love the Second Amendment.

Precisely, precisely. But the things they say and the things that people get taken off air for, like Mark Lemont Hill, for example, you know, I do not believe Mark to be an anti-Semitic person. at all. I think he was making a point, long before it was cool or okay to say, I support Palestine. And he was taken off the air, but at the time Rick Santorum would go on there and say all kind of offensive shit about black people. And they had him time and time again. If you hear things Scott Jennings says on that network, Scott, I was on air, live on air with Scott. And he was so frustrated that he couldn't answer another panelist's questions.

He said, well, maybe I don't care about your stupid fucking question. How about that? Imagine I said something like that. I would have been escorted off set. So it's still this double standard that is so incredibly frustrating, Rowland. I just can't take it? But anyway, can we talk about my book? No, we are. Hold on a second. I got parents. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. We got your book.

Bree. You saw. Randy, what's your question for Tiffany? So, Tiffany, I'm just so happy to see you. I'm a big fan. You know, you talk a lot about the power we have as the audience, because right now it seems like the media, I don't know that ever has,

accepted black people who will speak different truths, particularly truths that make white people uncomfortable. So what do you suggest we do to use that power and to say, you know what, we won't even watch these shows anymore if you're not going to be representative to us? Thank you, Randy, for the question. I'm very happy to share the screen with you as well. So I would say, first and foremost, support independent media.

You know, Roland, for example, has this show, and people go where folks are tuning in. Yet, Roe, you know, I hope you don't mind me sharing that. Sometimes it's challenging to get people to come here. You know, so if somebody's running for president, running for office, if it's a good get, as we say in the business, they think let me run to the CNN Morning Show, even though significantly less people are watching that show than they are a role show. So we overwhelmingly support our platforms like my sister Joy Reed, like our good friend Michael Harriet with contraband camp in print. If we overwhelmingly elevate, uplift, support, post, share responsibly things that we see here, I think that could really shift the media landscape and stop playing. seeing value on these white platforms. You know, so many people think white is right. They think white folks' ice is cooler. And so even with black folks, it's like you will run, you know,

entertainers will run. I saw so many hip-hop artists go on Ari show, and this is no this to Ari Melburgh, but you're going to go on Ari's show and I can't get you on my show. Joy couldn't get you on her show. He is a guest of hip-hop culture. We are born of it. And so I think all around the audience, if you're an influencer, somebody worthy of being interviewed, I think we have to look to ourselves. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan Robinson.

When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field.

Make a game plan for your mental health at love your mind playbook.org. Love your mind. You by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Ziers in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely.

The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target. And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years. who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things

happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards

Podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. And start supporting our own platforms. Mustafa.

Yeah. Well, Tiffany, it's good to see you. Hi, Mustafa. I want to give you your flowers for all the black folks you brought onto your show, myself included. So I just want to say thank you. The book, could you talk a little bit about your journey in the creation of the book? And folks are the book is called Love Me, a letter to black women in a toxic country, career, and relationship.

Yes. Thank you for that question. And thank you for having me on the show to talk about it, Roe. So the book is available for pre-order now. The official pub date is May 5th, but please everybody order it now. The formation of the book is, you know, when my show was canceled, and thank you for coming on my show and being a guest, Mustafa. I love having you on. But when my show was canceled, I was so devastated.

I was so shook by that because my entire life I had spent a lifetime since I was 15 years old in the field of journalism. And so to be so dismissed by my career and be attacked by a network, I didn't know what to do with myself. And then I started dating someone and I was just on cloud nine, honey. Okay, I just thought, oh, well, this is some balance, you know. If this is what I had to suffer, then he and I will live happily ever after. And then that didn't go right. And I just thought, man, my career is sinking. My heart is broken.

And at that time, America decided that black women were the face of the enemy. And I was talking about it with our good friend Van Newkirk, an editor at the Atlantic. And he said, damn, you sound like every black woman I know right now. And so I thought about it. I said, yeah, we pour our love into this country. And it doesn't love us back. We pour our love into our men. And we don't always feel love back.

And we pour our love into our careers. and our careers are certainly not loving us back these days. And so I use myself as a variable, as a tiny microcosm, and then I branch out at a thousand foot level. So I tell all my business. I'm being very unfiltered about things that happen at MSNBC, things that happen in my relationship. It was Rowling Sprite, by the way, but that's a whole other story.

And things that happen in the... Well, I was an alpha-2 now. All right, well, you know, y'all got some shady people in a group. But anyway, I tell... I share these things with the intention of reflect. to my sisters that you are not going through this alone and trying to give us some hope because as we talk about saving America what we're going to do and how we're going to save it, I think we have to first give ourselves something to believe in. So I wanted to give a merit reflection to

black women to say yes, sisters, I too am bleeding, I too am crying, but I am in these trenches with you and I know in your arms and in your company I am safe. And so this letter really is me bleeding on the pages. And look, I hope the book is successful. I anticipate it to be successful, but truthfully, if this book sells 3,000 copies or 300,000 copies, the one thing that I ask that I pray for is that black women will tap into deeper self-love and that I have made black people proud. That is my only goal with this book, particularly with black women. I hope they feel seen. And when they see me and they've read the book, I hope they feel like you did that. I felt like you spoke for me. I felt like you wrote my thoughts. That would send me to

tears every single time, a lot faster than making the New York Times bestseller list or any other of the bestsellers list. It's for my sister's. I think, first of all, you just talked about, and Randy, you're going to be able to ask a question about the book coming up next. And also, hey, I'm going to go to headlines, let Brittany know

if she has a question for Tiffany, then I'm going to go to her too, so let me know if she has one. When you talked about the show and even in the relationship, I think one of the things that I think that we have to learn, whether you're men or women, your men or a woman,

that, one, a show, a job, a relationship, a church, a whatever, that doesn't define you. And I think, I love the movie The Insider,

which, of course, was about 60 minutes in the whole tobacco scandal. There's this great scene where Al Pacino is playing Low Birdman, 60 Minutes producer. And he said,

Lowell Bergman 60 minutes, I wonder if my calls get returned if that's not at the end of my name. And I think that, that right there, I think, is an issue for a lot of people in that they are defined by that. I'm soing so MSNBC.

I'm sowing so CNN. I'm sowing so CNN. I'm sewing so this. Where, for me, I never ever allowed everything about me to be defined by who I worked for. So it was very interesting when, so CNN ended 13 years ago in April. And it was very interesting how I would go out and people would go, CNN,

probably after about six months of the TV One show, that began to wane, Wayne, Wayne, and then it was, they always mixed up TV1 and BET, but then it became that. and then when the TV1 show ended December 2017 it was always TV1 TV TV one probably about six months after this then it was unfiltered and what it

and I knew this but what it also taught me was that that I'm not defined by the letters attached to my name it's the name that comes before the letters and that has to be a lesson and a lot of people have to accept that that TV gig that radio gig

whatever We'll end one day, but that can't define who you are. I agree with you, Roe, but I have to say, I don't think I was, I never considered myself defined by any role I had professionally. And I don't think the nearly 400,000 black women who are now unemployed define themselves by their job. But it is what we poured into it. But that's what I mean. What I mean by is we pour so much into it. and then when it ends, it's like,

what the hell I was doing as opposed to knowing exactly what it was. And so that's why I mean by defined, and so it becomes... But we pour into it, and we pour to us. Someone once said to me, I am my job. My job is my life.

And I said, so that job ends does your life end? And they looked at me. And I said, no, no, no. I'm asking you a serious question. if the job ends and the person had to grapple with that because they went, oh, I didn't realize I said that and I was trying to get them to understand that we can be committed to a job but it's not just us.

I don't think black women feel that way to be honest. I don't think we walk around with our company letters on our... Some folks do. Some folks do it. I've had to deal with some people and help them through that. But our work so often, like our humanity butts up against our ambition, you know, our work so often. I mean, you think about the black women in the federal government. Like they were living in service.

They had a role to play. It wasn't just about this was a path that's for the middle class, but it was living in service to our community. This was a way we could move dollars. We could provide goods and services to people. And every black person I know, when we are in these roles, we're not like, oh, I'm so happy to be working at this Fortune 100. It defines me.

It is, oh, I am defining my service to my community through the platform that afforded me right now. I never was defined by MSNBC, but I certainly thought I am going to use every all that's happened in the country right now with this platform, I'm going to use every minute of television, every time I have a microphone in service to humanity and liberation. And so when that is taken away, and you were one of the first people to reach out to me, like, who cares, let's move on, get in front of a camera, keep doing what you're doing, come on my show, you were so supportive. But it still felt like a gut punch. It wasn't like, like, a gut punch. It wasn't Like, oh, the white man kicked me off his plantation.

That wasn't it. It was how much do we have to do to be afforded some respect? Like, I am doing, I'm working harder than most people I know. For example, right now I'm working harder than most people I know. But this basic below average-ass white woman was gifted the platform of running CBS news. It's not that I'm defined by it. Well, that doesn't even get to also they bought her company for $150 million. Precisely.

That hasn't made any money. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Yes. I had a platform. I had 100,000 unique daily visitors reading the beat. Nobody came along and gave me, you know, hundreds, millions of dollars to buy that. Nobody said, oh, you're smart. You've been working in this business a long time.

You run a newsroom. And so I hear you, I think it's wise counsel role. But with the book, I'm trying to say, you have a righteous anger right now, and you are validated in that righteous anger. You deserve to feel that way. Don't let anybody talk you out of your feelings. It is not fair. I guess the reason I never feel like hard off.

and I've always joked about this here, that I start every job with the premise I'm going to get fired anyway. I laugh about it, but literally it's like, I'm telling you, like, there are people who still come up to me who I work with, we were at TV One, they were like, you were never pissed

when the show got canceled. I said, no, I wasn't. And it was like, literally, like, we're sitting in the office, you're Alfred Liggins and you're telling me shows canceled, and while he was talking, I was already planning. So it's... But it's okay, Role for you to sit in your feelings.

Like after CNN, you had every right to be upset after CNN, and you had every right to be upset after TV. Oh, no, hold on, but I'll tell you this here. The reality is here. I let CNN ended in 2013. 2009, I joined 2007.

2009, I brought a sponsor to the table. Tafwa Airlines were going to be the primary sponsor of a weekend show for me. They were like, what the hell? when they said they were not going to give me a weekend show. I walked out, John Klein's office. I wasn't even about 100 feet, and I called Jonathan Rogers, and said, they're not giving me a weekend show.

That's John said, okay, we're going to launch you one. But when I walked out of that office, the moment he said that, I said, I'll never get a show here. I will always be a contributor. This was the mindset. CNN from this day is about to become my personal venture capitalist for what I actually want to do.

So part of that also for me was just and understanding how these folks and how their games work and say, you know what, I'm not going to allow you to, in fact, was it quite interesting because he also wanted me to leave all of my black shit? We had lunch and wanted me to leave Tom Joyner, TV One, and I was like, why would I leave all my stuff?

And he got fired in 2010. My deal was up 2013. When I left in 2013, the black stuff they wanted me to give up. I still had. So that was just this. But you're talking about the economics and business planning. No, no, no, how I felt. I just, I did not.

But that's not how you felt. You're talking about I was planning. How you felt is I was disheartened after CNN or I was angry after CNN. Like those are the feelings. Now, how you handle, how you channel those feelings into other things is something different. But what I'm writing about is you have a right to be hurt. You have a right to be angry. You Roland have a right to be hurt.

I mean, this book centers black women, but I hope black men reach. because I think that's part of our challenge, you know, the focus on black excellence and make money and build an empire. Yes, but somewhere in that is our hearts. And I'm going to tell you, my heart was broken, okay? It was broken, not because I lost a job, but because of my life's goal to make my community proud, I felt like I failed them in that moment. My heart was broken because I was vulnerable enough to share myself with another person

who was disrespectful to me. My heart was broken because after all that black woman have done in this country and for this country, the country looked at us and said, fuck you. My heart was broken then and my heart is broken today. So, yes, I talk to you all the time and you tell me, we got to do this, this and this. I agree. That's a strategy. But I have the right to stand in the righteous indignation of my anger and my pain. And I think we have to take a moment to feel that, to have the strength to get up another day and keep going.

And for the person who, okay, so in doing that, having a broken heart, how long did you go, okay, I got the men to move on? Because the reason I'm saying that, there are some people who stay in that state. I dealt with the person who working with somebody who had been broken 20 plus years ago and stayed that way and was provided opportunities. and they still were stuck in that. So how long were you in that state? So I don't like putting a timeline on how long somebody should feel. Or how long did you say,

okay, you know what, now let me... Ro, I'm still in that state. But I'm putting one foot in front of the next. I'm moving with a broken heart. Like so many other black women across the country, I am moving with a broken heart. I'm blessed to be surrounded by people. Like you, Roe and I are in a group chat.

It's really like family. We talk every day all the time. Talk, argue, cuss, and pissing about it all of love. My family do. Yes. But then in that group chat, there's a bunch of women, and the machetes. We have our own group chat. And I feel.

They take trips and shit. Yeah, we see the Instagram. But when I'm thinking, when I'm thinking in the quicksand of my life, those are the people who are pulling me through. And yes, and they might be heartbroken while they're pulling me through. Like, if we're going to cry, we're going to cry together, but we continue to work. And I just don't want people to think,

I got to wipe these tears and I can't feel, I got to swallow this down. Like, no, you can feel with that broken heart. But I take your point, where we have to move as well. So I'm trying to move. Because the only reason I ask that question,

because unfortunately, I know some people who are still stuck and they're there. And it's like, okay, when we're going? They need some encouragement. Right. They need somebody to hold their hand and pull them along.

And that's a thing that you can have a broken heart. You can go through pain. You can be angry, pissed off, but you can also still move. And it's okay. Most times, but for a minute I couldn't move. Right. For a minute, I did have to sit in my stillness. Randy, your question about the book, does Brittany have a question?

Y'all didn't talk to me. Y'all didn't talk to me. Okay, first of all, okay, you ain't pressing the button. I can't hear you talking. So please use the microphone so I can hear y'all talking to me. I didn't pay thousands for a new audio system to make that shit work. Okay, Randy, your question. for Tiffany about her book.

Before I ask the question, I have to first tell Tiffany that, honey, sister, you have made us so proud. When you say that was your missing, you have made us proud. I know I'm speaking for scores of us out there and you continue to make us proud. Thank you. Thank you. Two, I know when you have those moments

when you realize like, you know what, I mean, I think a lot of black women are experiencing now, certainly I have. where you're like, I have done everything white and still white supremacy that's holding you down. Has that reference, has that realization helped you to say, you know what? Fuck it. I'm going to write my truth. I'm going to put it all out there on this book because we know when we speak the truth that makes them uncomfortable,

since you are speaking about, you know, your professional life too, that it could hold you back in the long run. I mean, in those traditional ways. Did it free you up a bit? you think that maybe you would not have been able to write so courageously had you still been in, you know, doing what you were doing? So I have to say I was freed up a little earlier in life. I never felt handcuffed by white supremacy.

I imagined a world where my truth would be okay to profess because their truth is okay to profess. I made a point. I didn't code switch on my show. You know, they're out here. Them and their kids trying to sound like us. So I was determined to sound like me. I dressed how I wanted to dress.

I talked about things that I knew other people, you know, all across America were talking about. And so I was always free. And I think that was part of the challenge of why my show was canceled because I was so free. So I would say I'm no more unfiltered in these pages than I've always been. Really, this is, I hope, an invitation to other people to be free. Because I feel like if you're always going to land in peril anyway, then why you're, not be a revolutionary? And so for at least 25 plus years, I hope I have lived my life as a revolutionary, and I think courage is contagious. And so I, that was the intention of this book, to give other

people courage, to offer a testimony, and to validate all that we're feeling right now. Like, Barry, I don't know you. You know, we haven't been to each other's house for Thanksgiving, but I know you. And just by, by nature of you being you, I know you. I know you. You want to go to a black restaurant in D.C. call Randy. Okay. She knows all of them. And speaking of black-owned establishments, I've been online trying to order the book,

and I'm not seeing it for pre-order on Mahogany books because I'm going to order it. It's not there, but if you actually go to my, if you actually go, pull on my iPad, if you go to hatchet bookgroup.com, H-A-C-H-H-H-H-E-T-E, bookgroup.com. It is available of pre-order. So the easiest thing to do is in the search box, type in Tiffany Cross. book will come up, and then you can pre-order the book, hardcover e-book as well as trade paper book as well. And audio book.

Yes, audiobook is here as well, all four there. But I hope people do the hard copy because I was intentional about the cover. If you combine the colors of the American flag, red, white, and blue, you get variations of that purple. And with the woman, I made it like decorative, so people will want this on their nightstands. I want you to buy that. buy whatever.

Me too, but buy the hard copy. Don't listen to what Tippett just said. I want you to buy it however you like, but get the hard copy too. If y'all want the e-book, if y'all want the audiobook, if y'all want the paperback book, large print, buy it damn all the house. I just wanted them to have something hard. I feel you. I feel you, listen.

If y'all don't do that, print the damn cover out. Listen in a row. Print the cover out and hang it up, put it in a frame. But buy it on whatever platform. Brittany Noble has a question. You know, Tiffany, I just really appreciate you for being so candid and sharing your story. And I know what it feels like to be stuck, if you will, if you had a bad situation in a newsroom and, you know, just trying to move forward. One of the questions for me is about love.

I know that you experience a little heartbreak from an alpha. Are you still open to find out? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, let's be real clear, okay? She experienced heartbreak from a dude. Okay, let's be really clear. We got to say from an alpha. I mean, we got 500,000 alphas. I do love my brothers, but for real.

You know, are you not afraid of opening yourself up again? Absolutely. I've never been. I have never been closed. I believe in love. I am a believer in our love. And I think black women can be love savior. I just don't think we can do it alone.

But I think a part of us, this disconnect that we have with each other, this chasm that has grown over the decade. I believe it can be repaired. I mean, that's how we have survived this 400-year-a-nightmare. It was our love for each other, so much so that when we got out those torture chambers and got here on the shores of America, we clenched so hard for it. The skin of that love was underneath our fingernails because we really loved each other. And so I think if we don't get back to that, then we have no chance of surviving.

And I know that black folks are survivors. So I personally believe in the daunting, daring love that happens in a relationship with a man and a woman or whomever you love. And I would never not believe in that. I won't let monsters turn me into a monster because I think if you don't have love, you're kind of a monster. It's something that's not human about you. So yes, I believe in love for sure. Well, I think. I think part of the issue of what we're facing today, this is where,

This is where I do believe social media comes in. And people don't, a lot of people do not understand how the algorithms work. The reality is the algorithm is positioned for rage. It ain't positioned for love. The algorithm is positioned to piss you off because they understand how to make you mad, to make you upset, and it feeds so much of that. So I had someone hit me and I don't know why this stuff keeps shown

through my timeline. I'm like, that's by design. You may have seen one thing and it's about to roll another 8 to 10. They want to see if you're going to stop and watch and keep scrolling. And so many people are getting this stuff from this because we've actually stopped having

conversations. And that was one of the things that during COVID, I said I really hope once we come out of COVID. I said I hope people will not go back to normal, but I hope

people will embrace the value of just getting together for dinner, for drinks, having a party just because inviting folks over for games or whatever talking, not texting. To where we are communing, we're eating,

we're drinking, we're laughing, we're crying, we're listening to music, we're dancing, as opposed to living in isolation. I just think that more people are actually living far more isolated lives today than ever before. I agree. But, you know, even in that, part of that isolation, I think when you talk about love, it has to be rooted in self-love, love of self.

Oh, yeah. So when you have so much love for yourself, the overflow is what you offer to someone else. And I think the isolation teaches us to hate ourselves because you're comparing yourself to filtered versions of other people, someone's highlight reel. So please, for God's, get off the phone, you know? People are constantly like this consuming phone slop, and that makes us ignorant to what's happening to the world around us, but it also makes us fearful of traveling our own interior world.

And this is Cole Arthur Riley. It says if you can't be trusted to travel your own interior world, you can't be trusted in the world around you. So I hope this book also helps people self-reflect and move in the world with humility and kindness and grace for everybody. Folks, the book is Love Me, A Letter to Black Women in a Toxic Country, Career and Relationship. Tiffany Cross, again, if you go to, Batchettachett, bookgroup.com.

H-A-C-H-E-T-E, bookgroup.com. You can pre-order, and again, you can pre-order the hardcover, the e-book, the audiobook, the audiobook, download Unabridged, or the trade paperback large print version as well. They're all right there. All of those sales count, and when you're a book author, you want sales, sales, sales. And so, Tiffany wants to...

And impact. Tiffany wants you to have the cover and you can have it there and you can see how the colors mesh and the purple and the red, white, and blue. Buy that shit. Okay, on any platform. Sale, sale, sale. Or as Frank Lucas said, America Gayson,

I'm going to get that money. So get it, however. Tiffany, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. I love you, Roe. Thank you for having me. Time for Black Southern Network headlines with Brittany Noble. Roland, a South Carolina man accused of shooting

at a black woman and her teenage son is back in jail. this time without bond. Sidney Pittman is now facing two counts of attempted first-degree murder. The charges come after Tashika Tremble says he shot at her and her son while delivering packages on December 14th. Trimble says she mistakenly pulled into his driveway after realizing her mistake. She delivered the package to the correct address as she was leaving Pittman shot at her car multiple times. He was arrested the next day in charge with one felony count of discharging a weapon into an occupied property. and a misdemeanor count of injury to personal property. In December, Pittman was posted a $200,000 bail and was released a few days later.

Well, a controversial probate judge in Michigan accused of making racist and homophobic comments will not be back on the bench. It comes from recordings in September of 2024 of Judge Kathleen Ryan making several offensive statements. At the time, the probate court's former judge removed Ryan from, the bench and filed a complaint with the judicial tenure commission. Judge Ryan has been on paid leave for 15 months. Now, her lawyers say she is voluntarily retiring. Democratic Senator of Arizona and retired Navy captain, Mark Kelly, is striking back at the Pentagon. He is suing the Department of Defense. Kelly is pushing to stop what he says is an unprecedented effort to punish a sitting member of Congress for political speech. This move directly challenges whether the executive branch can use

military authority to discipline lawmakers to criticize its use of force. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at

Soundedouttogether.org. That's sound it outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target.

And I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers, whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years. who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo.

Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at iHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd.

See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. We filed the civil suits on Monday against Defense Secretary Pete Hexteth and senior military officials. He is asking a federal judge to block a Pentagon review that could downgrade his retirement rank and reduce his military pay. Well, nearly 15,000 nurses have walked off the job making it the largest strike in New York City's history. Right now, there's no indication that they are close to a contract agreement with the hospitals that employ them.

The work stoppage impact staff in New York Presbyterian Montefour Medical Center and the Mount Sinai Health System, some of the city's largest providers. Nurses are demanding higher wages and greater security in hospitals following recent attacks. The affected hospitals have hired droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap. Both nurses and hospital administrators have urged patients not to avoid getting care. care during the strikes. Also, the University of Cincinnati launches a new grant providing free tuition to students from families making under $75,000. The program is called the Bear Cat Affordability Grant.

It kicks off this fall and will offer students pathways to tuition-free education. The initiative is only for Ohio residents who are eligible for the federal Pell Grant in 2018. UC launched its next lives here initiative to expand access to higher education for students. And since its launch, the university has grown by nearly 9,000 students. Roland, back to you. Brittany, I appreciate that. Thanks a lot. Hey, folks, a little bit earlier, we were talking about Claudia Colvin, who of course, passed away at the age of 86. She, of course, was arrested on a bus in Montgomery.

Part of that significant narrative that led to the Montgomery bus boycott. Well, a few years ago when I interviewed Fred Gray, found out that he was actually her attorney. And so Fred told us the back story of what happened with Claudia Colvin's arrest. Here's what he had to say. So you had people who got arrested one or two times. We knew about Claudette Carvin, a 15-year-old girl who did what Mrs. Parks did, but did it nine months before without any instructions and any prodding or any encouragement. He just thought it was wrong after she had been studying black history, incidentally,

that we before. But I represented her, and she was my first civil right case. And when I lost her case before Judge Hill in the juvenile court, where they found her to be a delinquent

and then placed her own unsupervised probation, which was saying nothing, I tried to get to judge and tried to tell him that what they were trying to do was to enforce the segregation laws, but he wouldn't listen to me. still found a guilter. So what we did, so

they, Joanne had that, and she had gotten the leaders in Montgomery and E.D. Nixon was the Mr. Civil Rights involved. And after that, she was convicted, had a meeting with the city

officials about it. They said, well, we're sorry what happened to that girl, but it won't happen again. We later, later then, was a Park's case came up on December 1st. Well, I knew her from my earlier days. And on the day of her arrest, we had had one of our conferences

that we had for about a year since I started practicing. And we had been talking about what you should do if you are arrested on the buses. I was going out of town that afternoon, and we had ended our little conference. So when I got back, I had to be. had phone calls from Mrs. Parks and a lot of other folks telling me that Ms. Parks had been arrested and she wanted to see me. I called her and she told me to come over to her house.

This was in the afternoon of December 5th. I went by and talked to Ms. Parks. She told me what happened and she said my case is set for trial for 8.30 Monday morning, December filth. That's just three days away. This is Thursday evening. She retained me to represent her. I said, fine, Ms. Park, don't worry about your case. But let me tell you this. She said,

you know, Joanne Robinson has been talking about for some time and particularly since Claudia Carvin's case, people ought to stay off of the bus as a unified effort to let them know we mean business.

And I say, I'm going to talk to her. and see, I think if we're going to ever do that, you're doing what you have done is enough, so you don't need to get involved in any of the rest of this. You just go on, take it easy, and I'm going to talk with you again between 9 Monday. I said, but I'm going to go and talk to Mr. Nixon, who has a majority of the black people following him,

and he had signed her bond to get her out. I went a few blocks to Mr. Nixon's house. Talk to him. He was a Pullman Carpota. Mr. Nixon was not an educated man, but he was a well-elevated man. And he was a man who didn't believe in a whole lot of plans, but he did action. He said, and I told him, I said, well, you know, Joanne has been talking about getting these people still off the buses. He said, well, you all go ahead, talk about it.

Let me know what you want me to do, and I'll support it. I go to Joanne Robinson's house. She lives on the other side of town, not far from Alabama State. We sat down in Joanne's living room, the two of us, and made the plans for the Montgomery bus board card. It couldn't come out that either one of us were doing it because she was employed by the state as an employee at Alabama State. I was a lawyer just admitted to the bar a year

and if I'm not careful, they'll disbar me like they had disbarred another lawyer not too much earlier. So I knew without saying to anybody that it had to be very careful of what we do and how we do it. She said, Fred, what we need to do is sit down and decide how we can get these people

to store off the buses. I'm going to prepare a leaflet that says another black woman has been off the bus and her trial is going to be on Monday. But we want them

to stay off after Monday. I said, well, join. If that's true, then we're going to have to make plans. Suppose they stay off. Then we're going to be, have to be prepared to go forward. So if I, well, this is what we decided we had to do. One, if that's going to have to, number one, you're going to need a spokesman

because somebody's going to have to speak for these black folks and not them try to speak all for themselves. In addition to a spokesman, if we're going to keep them out of the bus, we've got to somehow raise some money to take care of the expenses. And we're going to have to get somebody to plan a, you know, a business. a system of getting folks to and from wherever they are going. Normally, Mr. E.D. Nixon would have been the head, whatever you call it, because he had more followers than anybody else.

But Rufus Lewis, who was a former court at Alabama State, also had some followers. He was concerned primarily about registration and getting people admitted to when they are elected. they must be responsible. He ran also a nightclub called the Citizens Club. And guess what? In order to get in there, you had to be a registered voter. So I said, we need to find, so these two people, which one we're going to use? Joanne said neither one.

To use my pastor. Martin Luther King, haven't been his long, haven't been involved in civil rights activities or no other activities other than his church. But one thing he can do, he can move people with words. I said, that's what we need. Now, had you bet him by that point?

Had you met Dr. King? I had met him, yes. I had met him, but I didn't know him. I wasn't a member of his church. Did you think it was a good idea? That you... I told her, I agree with you. And then I said, Joanne,

let me give you a suggestion for these other two men because we need them because they have some poters. Martin doesn't have anything but the few people who had Dexter. I says, let's make E.D. Nixon treasurer

because he's a Pullman copter and he knows A. Philip Randolph and New York and he'll raise some money to help these black folks. What we're going to do with Rufus Lewis thanks to his wife. His wife

is half-owner of Ross Clayton funeral home, the largest funeral home for blacks and Montgomery then and steel is and they have cars. We need cars to transfer people and they have somebody who drive those cars.

So make him chair over the Transportation Committee and then you're going to believe it or not you're going to need something else. You're going to need a lawyer. So here I send me. Those were the plans that we made Martin to be, Dr. King to be the chair.

The spokesman is what we call them. Mr. Nixon, the treasurer, Rufus Lewis, chairman of the Transportation Committee, and Fred Gray was illegal for doing the legal adverse and part. Our responsibility was to get that word out to other people so that when the official meeting took place,

at Mount Zion, AME Church. Dr. King was selected chairman before he got to the meeting. Rufus Lewis was the elected chairman of the Transportation Committee. And, of course, Mr. Nixon was selected as treasurer, and Fred Gray had the responsibility of doing the legal work. And that seed was planted and passed on to other people. And when other people made the motions in the meeting, they didn't know where it came from originally. Somebody even thought they originated it themselves.

And I take it you and Joanne shot each other and looks like. Well, what happened when we won? When the buses started running Monday morning and black folks went on it, we both know that was good. Then we knew we had to go and have Ms. Park's case. Well, I knew it wasn't going to, they weren't going to find her not guilty. So I knew it was going to take air all the bit of about 15 or 20 minutes for a health case because I wasn't going to put on case. I was going to prepare and reserve my motions.

And we were going to appeal the case. And then these people can go and have these official meetings that they need to have and meet at Hote Street Baptist Church. And when they met and when they heard Dr. King and when Joanne and I sat there and listened, we looked at each other and said, well, Fred, and she said, well, Joanne, I think it worked. And it did.

So if we're going to work today and then all of these people got together and stayed off of the buses for 382 days, we don't get out there and try to do it by yourself. You need to be able to get somebody else. And if you do that, you may find us about it else who think like, who want the same thing that you want, even though they may think about doing it a different way. So is it, so when people talk about Ms. Colvin,

oh, this is the story, but they didn't want to use her because she wasn't right. She wasn't the right, you know, she had issues. They wanted somebody. I've heard all these different reasons why describing, yeah, this happened nine months before, but yeah, the respect to black folk, respectable black folk didn't want to use a young girl. All of that are things that came up a long time after the fact. I was a lawyer, and I know what those facts are. and I did not

determine not to file a suit on behalf of Claudette because some people said she were expecting. Whether she was or was not a material fact to me is something I would take

into consideration. But the reason we did not file the lawsuit for Claudette is because the community itself, there was a difference of opinion in the leadership of the community as whether we ought to do it at this time. And a lawyer represent clients.

And while Claudette would have been ready for me to have filed a case then, I would rather to have done with her case, what I later did with Ms. Park's case. Folks, you could check out that Fred Gray interview on our U.S. YouTube channel, Blackstone Network app. It's a fascinating conversation. And again, those just go out to Claudette Colvin's family. Folks, that is it for us for us. We want to thank all of you

all of you all for watching the show. Please do us a favor. You want to join our Brene Funk fan club. Please do so. Our goals get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year. That's 4.19 cents a month, 13 cents today. That raises a million dollars to defray the cost. And listen, it's $195,000 a month to run

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goal. Almost there. Go to startengin.com for fan base for more information. Folks, that's it. And shout out to my Houston, Texas. Terrell, you look like a damn fool. Terrell was sitting here. Terrell Murphy,

a little sigma in there, was talking all this trash yesterday. His sorry-ass commanders, they didn't make the playoffs. And his, they didn't play Deshawn, Antoine, and Henry, they cowboys, they suck. They did nothing. They didn't make the playoffs as well. So Terrell was to have to run

his little Sigma mouth trying to trash my Texans when his little sorry team didn't even make the playoffs or y'all y'all y'all gonna be joining us right on the couch or y'all gonna lose tonight it's amazing how he was real quiet last night on the text chain see that's what happens when you write checks uh your sorry ass team can't cash all right so uh so again uh let me real clear i'm only conversing with playoff teams if your team did not make it then you should remain until the NFL draft because that's all you have to look forward to. Terrell.

I'll see you out tomorrow right here, rolling Martin unfiltered on the Black Sun Network. Hala! Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says...

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The social media trend is slanding some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired, and the massive TikTok boycott against Target that actually makes no sense. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online, in media, and in politics. with the Bread versus Everyone podcast. Listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast

on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeard Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote

at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. This is an IHeart podcast.

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