#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump Harvard student visa ban blocked, Bernie Sanders rips Dems, Diddy trial, Dire economic warning

Episode Date: May 24, 2025

5.23.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump Harvard student visa ban blocked, Bernie Sanders rips Dems, Diddy trial, Dire economic warning Harvard just got a temporary win. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration--at least for now--from revoking the university's ability to enroll international students. Senator Bernie Sanders isn't holding back. On the Flagrant podcast, he called out the Democratic Party in a big way. We've got a clip you don't want to miss. Also this week, rapper Scott Mescudi--better known as Kid Cudi--testified about his relationship with Cassie. Legal analyst Candace Kelley will join us with the breakdown. Meanwhile, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, folks are standing their ground. A viral video captures what happened when a white man brought racist energy to the wrong town. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart podcast. I know a lot of cops, they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season One, Taser, Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Taser, Inc. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser, Inc.

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes, we met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs Podcast, Season 2, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position.

Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Friday, May 23rd, 2025 coming up on Roller Martin on filters streaming live on the Black Star Network. Guess what folks? Harper got a temporary win. A federal judge is blocked.

He did to the government ministration from revoking the universe's ability to enroll international students. Hmm, Senator Bernie Sanders isn't holding back on the flagrant podcast. He called out the Democratic Party in a big way.

Also again, whined about identity politics, and I told you all if he keeps doing that, I got some words for him. Also this week, the rapper, better known as Kid Cudi testified about his relationship with Cassie, legal analyst Candace Kelliboug. It was a breakdown, the latest in the Sean Diddy Combs trial in Holly Springs,

Mississippi. Folks are standing their ground. A viral video captures what happened when a white man brought racist energy to the wrong bar. They stripped his ass butt naked and beat the hell out of him. Also, we know Donald Trump is dumb. We also know he is a grifter. Last night, he had a private dinner for investors in his coin, and they openly admit, yeah,

we're trying to sit here and curry favor with him. Also the White House lied by calling this his personal time, so why was the President Jaseel on the podium when he spoke? Also we know that boy ain't smart. So when he tried to criticize Harvard and remedial students, he couldn't even talk right. Y'all, it's a lot we're gonna break down. It's time to bring the funk on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Stud Network.

Let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is he's got to scoop the fat to find. And when it breaks he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks

He's rolling, yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roroyo Yeah, yeah It's rolling Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martez. Well federal judges continue to kick Donald Trump's administration in their

butts when it comes to the law, and they keep kicking their butts in court. A federal judge ruled that the administration, they stopped them from trying to bar Harvard from enrolling international students. More than 6000 students go to Harvard. They come from all across the country. In her ruling district Judge Alison Burroughs put a tip or restraining order in place, stopping the government's directive just days before graduation, bringing some relief to students and faculty caught the chaos. See, these idiots actually said that if they did not comply with a list of demands in 72 hours, then not only

could they not enroll any international students, they also couldn't even they will force those students there now to transfer. Yeah, that's how stupid these people literally are. They're dumb. They're really, really dumb. And not only that, Trump in one of his usual nonsensical musings in the Oval Office. He was asked about this, and if y'all wanna see how just incompetent this man is,

listen to him complain about the students. But then he don't even know how to talk. So he's complaining about Harvard International students needing remedial math, but hell, I think he needs some remedial speech communications. Check this here out, y'all. Why would you not want the best and brightest from around the world to come to Harvard?

I do, but a lot of the people need remedial math. Did you see that? Where the students can't add to and to, and they go to Harvard. They want remedial math, and they're gonna teach remedial math at Harvard. Now, wait a minute. So why would they get in?

How can somebody that can't? Well, we know for a fact this fool can't even read. I mean, he loves to rip everybody else but he's that dumb he can't even read. And so he ain't the brightest bulb in a dark room. And so he loves to call other people low IQ and things along those lines, but no, you're the idiot. You're the one. You can't read. He sits here and lies, makes stuff up, says all sorts of crazy things that,

how are you gonna question somebody else's educational skills? Matt Matting, civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi, Jones us, Raven Schwalm-Curtis, content creator and speaker out of Chicago. Raven's first time on the show so she gets hazed. Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA out of DC as well. Glad to have all three of y'all here. Matt, listen, for lawyers, there's gotta be a whole lot to constantly look at these idiots.

And they keep getting they ass whooped. I mean, Trump judges, Obama, Biden judges. I mean, thank goodness that even when you have conservative appointed judges, they still understand There's a thing called the law Yeah, and you can actually move for sanctions if somebody has brought a case that is, you know baseless or groundless or that they know is frivolous and that's what we're really seeing DOJ and mr

Trump doing is I mean they're using the courts obviously to try to further their Mr. Trump doing is, I mean, they're using the courts, obviously, to try to further their ideological goals. But a lot of these are baseless cases, the same way they were when there were the, you know, election denial cases regarding all of these, this alleged election fraud that, if I remember correctly, was never proven in a court of law. Nope, never.

And it was routinely just decried by the courts as not having any value. So none of this is new. And you know, it's interesting that you talk about how unintelligent he is because Donald Trump went to Wharton, right? Now, why did he get into Wharton? Likely because he had money

and they were able to buy their way into Wharton. His daddy cut a check, that's how he got in. Precisely, right? But for most people out there know this, but you know, Wharton is like one of the top business schools perennially in the country. So it's nothing to shrug at. And to go to a school like that and then to routinely be saying some of the things that

he's saying and displaying some of the lack of intelligence that he's displaying, you know, is a problematic thing. And it's interesting because it's this juxtaposition between, like, the elites are bad, you know, these bad people are at the top of the heap, are the people we need to get rid of. We need to, quote, drain the swamp. But he's in that same rarefied air as the kind of people who go to Wharton and Harvard and, you know, the kinds of people who are able to exist in certain echelons. So I say all of that to say that there's a cognitive dissonance there, as we see with everything coming out of the Trump administration, the way that they're playing their base and trying to put on this show as though,

you know, they don't like Harvard or any of these other elite places despite being products of them. But you know, I don't know how he got into Wharton, but I would like to know how big that check was. Well, check this out, Raven. Pete Davidson was on S Saturday night live. And he talked about the radio interview interview how the idiot really can't read. Donald Trump, you were telling me.

I have one story I'm allowed to tell and it's hilarious. You have stories you're not allowed to tell? What happened with the Trump story? So he's like, he doesn't really know how to read. For real? Yeah. And he loves to improv. Yeah. For real. Yeah. And he loves to improv. Yeah. So during like the table read, he like

before, like we were good reading before he had to read each line and he's the host. So he's at everything. Yeah. He would go, uh, I'm not going to say this. I think I'm going to say it the way I want to say, is that okay? Is that okay? Lauren, is everything? Everybody's like, what? And then this is my favorite part is there was a sketch that we wrote where he's at Disneyland with his daughter and the line is, all right, let's get out of here. Turkey legs. Like, let's like, go get turkey legs. And he doesn't know how to read.

So he went, all right, let's get out of here. Turkey legs. He called his daughter, turkey legs. Maybe that was his improv. Oh no. And then he looked up like he doesn't get it. Like he thinks if everybody's laughing with him, but we're all laughing at him. And it was like crazy for he would be like, I did a good job. Right. And like, yeah. Did he need reassurance, a lot of reassurance or or was he pretty confident? He constantly kept saying how amazing

the ratings were gonna be. I mean, really? He's like, this is gonna be number one. It's what he is. So him calling somebody else incompetent, low IQ, needing remedial math. How about you, dude? Mr. Six-time Bankruptcer, Bankruptcy Man?

100%. I mean, I think what we see in Donald Trump, to build on your point, is really just someone who is emblematic of the rise of anti-intellectualism in this country, right? To me, the right is emblematic of that. I don't know when it stopped being cool to be smart and nerdy and intellectual and thoughtful

and capacious in your thinking. But apparently that's where we're at as a country, and that's a really sad day. And I think we see that position and that politics really manifesting in his isolationist position that he's taking up, particularly as it pertains to international students. You have to be deeply, deeply ahistorical as an individual to believe that international students and workers and folks who immigrate to this country don't add tremendous value to this nation, right? Aren't building these institutions, this nation,

our research, our infrastructure, brick by brick, side by side with us. That is a fundamentally anti-intellectual position to take up. And so, yeah, I mean, I think it's rich that he's out here calling, you know, Congressman Al Green, low IQ, and can barely bring his sentence together himself. And also, you know, that he's brazenly weaponizing anti-Semitism to enact this anti-intellectual politics, because that's what we're seeing play out on these college campuses.

This taking up supposedly of we're combating anti-Semitism to attack higher education, to take away funding from critical research that has nothing to do with what it is they say they care about, right? Which is supposedly cracking down on anti-Semitism. But what they're actually doing is pushing people who are already on the margins further,

further to the margins and doing it on behalf of people Myself included as a black and Jewish woman who did not ask them to do it for us So I mean all in all I think it's really just a Shonda a shame Mustafa, you know Raven talked about anti intellectualism. It's because they like their supporters dumb intellectualism, it's because they like their supporters dumb. You know, there's a lot of truth in that because you have low information voters. It's so much easier to be able to pull the wool over their eyes, to have folks who just operate off a bumper sticker sort of language and not have to dive deep on the critical issues that will have impacts in your life.

You know, and of course, we know that Trump is all about disinformation. When you talk about somebody who is uneducated and someone who has a lack of skills, all you have got to do is go back and look at what he tries to hide. Now, folks may remember when Michael Cohen actually came to Capitol Hill and shared during that hearing that he had to draft letters, both to Trump's high school, to Fordham, and to Wharton, so that you could never take a look at his transcripts. So we know that you've got that dynamic going on.

We also know, and it's been proven, that he said that he graduated first in his class. Lies. That was another untrue. So for him to degrade international students is really interesting because all of us who have went to college, or not even college, just in other situations with folks

who have come from other countries, they often speak multiple languages. They often, you know, maybe had already been a professional in their country and they came here to get the additional education to be able to practice whatever it is, law or medicine or dentistry or a number of other things. So once again, this is the disinformation. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley, comes a story about what happened

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

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. Have a for good plus on Apple podcasts. Hasman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug bans. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter. Liz Caramouche. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper.

The Paper Ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepaperceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is trying to rewrite both history that's happening in this moment and in the past. And we just have to make sure that we continue to place a spotlight

on both the misinformation and the disinformation that they continue to push forward. Absolutely, because he's a liar, they are liars, that's who they are. All right, gonna go to a break. But before we go to, kill it, before we go to the break folks, Netflix has a new show streaming right now called She the People, it stars Terry Vaughn. She's one of the co-creators of that particular show.

Here's a look at the trailer. You must be my new lieutenant girl. I'm ready for duty. I think I can make a difference. Just be a good girl. I'm gonna need some dinner and a lot of wine. Don't talk to him! I really don't think that he thinks I'm qualified.

What you gonna do? Cut my shoulders. Uh-huh, uh-huh. When you want something and you earn something, you fight for it. Kids, do you know who this is? Meredith Lodge! Ah! I knew he was about to be attacked by all of Nick Cannon's kids at once. You're fired for. Kids, do you know who this is? Meredith Lodge.

I knew he was about to be attacked by all of Nick Chana's kids at once. Folks, that's in conjunction with Talapeira Studios, and so go to Netflix and check out She the People, starring Terry Vaughn, streaming right now. We'll be right back. right now. We'll be right back. This week at the Black Table, we discuss a place, an idea, a dream, and a reality that everybody on the planet should know about. A place called Mound Bayou. What about Black people creating their own country, not from the outside in, but from the inside out. That's next on the Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network.

Hey, what's up? This is Sammy Roman. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Sheppard Talk Show. It's me, Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you're watching, action rolling Martin unfiltered. Well, Senator Bernie Sanders is doing his usual tacking. The Democratic Party still upset because he lost a 2016 nomination because many of the party's officials got behind Hillary Clinton and not him. So he went on the Andrew Shoals podcast and talked about a number of things. And then he claimed that the party is not for the people.

Okay, all right, listen to this. I have to ask this, I'm sorry, I hate to interrupt you. We have a question we wanna ask about what happened to you in 2016 with this Bernie Bros. movement, where your followers are seeing they have a racism problem, a massaging problem. Do you think that's a super PAC thing behind that? No, it was the Democratic establishment.

That was the... Oh, wow. Okay. You know, that was just... They were sitting there. We had a lot of young people. We had people of color. And, you know, they create this kind of myth with the help of the corporate media and all that stuff. You know, it's kind of interesting to that note is during this election, the podcast space, which the Democrats largely avoided, they feel had some influence in the election,

and they started to label us the podcast br bros and said that we were sexist and we were racist and bigoted. It's almost like it's the exact same strategy to get you out of there. Yeah, that's what the liberal elite China does. They run away, look, getting, again, I would hope that everybody who's watching the program is that we as a nation have got

to end all forms of bigotry, right? Yes. And I start off as a basic assumption. And let's just see your close friends, right? Yeah, whether it's racism or sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, whatever it is. But and you know, liberal Democrats talk about that all the time. And then you get to what we call identity politics. You're black, you're wonderful, you're tremendous, you're gay, you're the greatest human being on earth.

And rather than say, what do you stand for? You're gay, that's fine, who cares? But what do you stand for? You know, is every gay person brilliant and wonderful and great? No, of course not. Everybody's a human being. So the issue is what you stand for, which gets you back to what we discussed earlier, class politics in the sense of which side are you on? Are you gonna stand with working families? Are you gonna raise the minimum wage to a living wage or not? Are you gonna fight to guarantee healthcare

to all people or not? Are you gonna demand fight to guarantee health care to all people or not? Are you going to demand that the wealthiest people start paying their fair share of taxes or not? Those are the issues. No one cares what color you are, what your gender is, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. Allow me to unpack what you just heard.

If there's been a blind spot of Senator Bernie Sanders for a very long time, it's on this issue of race. Were there African Americans supporting Senator Bernie Sanders? Yes. I've been jealous, Cornel West and others. But the reality is Bernie Sanders had a black problem. He did. Bernie Sanders could not. Get the black vote. Bernie Sanders right now still complains about what happened in 2016 and 2020,

and he's convinced that he was going to get the nomination. And then there are people who are far left progressives who believe that. I don't. I don't. Because the reality is here, America is not a far left progressive nation. It is not.

We can sit here and play games all we want to, but the fact of the matter is, it's not. You're a Democrat, you're likely gonna have to be a centrist or close to a centrist because part of the problem of the Democratic Party is the tent is so big and it frankly is not as narrow as the Republican Party. Okay? The other thing is this here. Bernie Sanders really has a problem with what he keeps calling identity politics. Bernie Sanders sounds like a right-winger when he does.

See, he keeps saying the whole deal, oh, you're black, oh, you're gay, you're great, you're amazing. Well, first of all, Bernie, there was a reason that was a song called Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud. There's a reason Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway had their song as well. There's a reason Aretha Flack and Donna Hathaway had their song as well. There's a reason Aretha Franklin remade the song, Respect, after Otis Redding did it,

and he actually became a women's anthem. Bernie Sanders doesn't wanna deal with the reality that yes, in this country, women, especially black women, have been grotesquely marginalized. And we know what happened to African-Americans. Now I know some Bernie Sanders supporters right now say, Roland, wait a minute, he was riding hard with Reverend Jackson, he was on the campaign,

yes, that's absolutely true. But it's not like Vermont does not have issues with mass incarceration. It does not like, it's not like Vermont doesn't have issues when it comes to race. See, I just want people to understand really what we're dealing with here. And I remember when, when this was a couple of years ago,

maybe three years ago, I can't remember, Bernie had done an interview with GQ and was complaining, railing against, railing against, railing against all these identity politics. I remember sending a text message to the guy who ran his campaign, Jeff Weaver, who was with our revolution.

I said, Jeff, I'm going to tell you right now. Bernie Sanders keeps doing this. I'm going to light his ass up. So Jeff's like, hey, hey, hey, can I set up a meeting between you and Senator? Yes, you can. So I went to Capitol Hill and I met with him. And I told Senator Bernie Sanders to his face.

I said, you keep railing against identity politics and what you don't understand is you're speaking negatively about black people. See, Bernie's whole view is this thing's about class. Nah, bro. That's about class? You could be black in upper class, middle class, lower class, your ass still black.

This is Bernie's problem. And see, Bernie Sanders doesn't want to admit that yes, Bernie bros were sexist. Some were sexist, some were racist. There's a reason why a number of former Bernie bros supporting Trump. Because what Senator Bernie Sanders represents, and I'm telling y'all, I know this, see people need to understand why they're so, where there's a symbiotic relationship. Because Senator Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in many ways are the same.

Tear the system down. So the people that backed them are like, yo, tear this shit down. I don't give a damn, tear it down. It's very similar language. So they identify with one another. And so the Bernie people, they're mad at Congressman Jim Clyburn.

First of all, Congressman Jim Clyburn endorsed then Vice President Biden. He couldn't cast every ballot. Congressman Jim Clyburn represents one congressional district in South Carolina. He don't control the whole state. Do people respect him? Yes. Do they value respect him? Yes.

Do they value his perspective? Yes. But people made individual decisions. And see, this is what Bernie Sanders and all of these other white progressives don't understand. Black people are some of the smartest political minds you will find. So let me tell, let me show y'all what happened in 2020.

Black people, so remember, Iowa, well I think Buttigieg won, then they went to Nevada, Bernie won at the caucus there, then they come to South Carolina. Bernie one at the caucus there Did they come to South Carolina? And if y'all want to see the racism among these white Democrats Especially Bernie's people they shit it all over the black do it. I have these are blackly black the rule

We have no chance of winning the state So we don't care what they think. Really? Here's what black people did in 2020. Black people went, who do I think can beat Trump? I think can beat Trump. Black people said, we got Vice President Kamala Harris. We got Senator Cory Booker.

We got Pete Buttigieg. We got Amy Klobuchar. We got Tulsi Gabbard. Lay in, Bloomberg jumped in, Deval Patrick jumped in, Lisbeth Warren, Bernie Sanders. I know I'm leaving off by two or three people, but that literally was a democratic field.

And black people went, Who do we think can beat this white man, Trump? This white man right here. This old white man, we think he can beat Trump. And they picked Biden. Was Vice President Biden the most charismatic candidate? Nope. Was Vice President Biden the most energetic candidate? Nope. Black people are pragmatic voters.

Black people, see everybody forget, black people weren't sitting here riding for Obama. August of 2008, hell, he was down, no August 2007, he was down 20 points to Hillary Clinton. His black numbers were real low. Cause black people like, man, I don't know what this brother got shot. Cause black people said,

I don't know white folks gonna vote for him. See, we gotta wake up to a reality. 71% of the electorate in 2024 were white voters. If you put all the black voters and Hispanic voters and Asian voters and Native American voters all together you get 29 percent. So Bernie Sanders is still bothered. So Bernie, because he lost. So then Bernie Sanders talked about the elites, the elites and you know, this is what the elites say. And this is what the elites think. Well, Bernie, can you?

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

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

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug band. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamouche. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper.

The Paper Ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepaperceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Can you please name the elites? See, this is why I don't let people get away with that language. It's the elites. Name them.

Name them. Name them. People go, well Bernie, how many bills have you actually passed? It's a fair question. So he is still bothered because he could not get the votes. And Brianna and all these people could run around, oh, he didn't have a fair shot.

No, Bernie Sanders would have got dusted even more so. Because you know what they would have did to him? What is what they, hell, they did to Obama, they did to Biden, socialist. hell, they did to Obama, they did to Biden. Socialist! How well did Republicans calling Biden a socialist work in Florida? What the hell do you think they would have called

Senator Bernie Sanders? So Senator Bernie Sanders keeps talking about class. Okay. Let's see here. Bernie Sanders and AOC tour. And they keep talking about, oh my God, how popular they are among Democrats. Okay. So it was the Fighting Oligarchy Tour. Okay. So they went to just, keep it right here, keep it on me. So they went to Omaha, Nebraska as the first stop.

Y'all know in Nebraska, it's a sea of red and there's a blue dot, that's Omaha. Then they went to Las Vegas. Then they went to Denver. Then they went to Las Vegas. Then they went to Denver. Then they went to LA. Okay. They didn't go to West Virginia. Then they go to North Carolina. They didn't go to Georgia.

North Carolina, they didn't go to Georgia, they didn't go to Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, I can keep naming them. So if Senator Sanders wants to have a conversation about class, why don't you go where the class discrepancies really are? I'll be honest with y'all, being a Democrat and doing a tour fighting oligarchy and going to Omaha Denver Las Vegas in LA That shit ain't fight first of all help me understand something. See y'all Since we really want to go there You say it's about class you keep talking about working class working class working class working class How many working class people do you know walk around going, so Mustafa, what are your thoughts that oligarchy?

They don't say that. They don't even use those phrases. So you're talking about how we're not for the people, we're not for the, no, sinners, sinners and AOC are actually talking to the elites! He's sitting down with those four dudes. I have never received an invite from Senator Bernie. Matter of fact, I'm just gonna go ahead

before I go to my panel, I'm about to mess y'all up. When Bernie Sanders ran for president, Bernie Sanders wasn't doing no black media. That, his folks are trying to get him to do it. I called Marcus Ferrell, called Teslin Figaro, called his sister who was his campaign man. I'm trying to tell y'all. They were trying to get him to do that.

We booked him on the Times, you're on the morning show. Let me tell you what happened. I got the text message. Don't make me pull out receipts. Bernie was out west. He canceled. I lit that ass up. Being jealous called me, yo, roll, hold up. the times you're on a morning show. Because he didn't think it was important. Now he eventually came on.

He was like, well, you know, that's just too early for me to get up. You run of a fucking president. Get your ass up! That video we just showed y'all is the Achilles heel of Bernie Sanders. Is that he acts like you can remove race and only focus on class. And that is absolutely stupid. And he keeps making the same mistake,

and I'm just gonna let you know, Senator, you were never going to get the nomination because you could not win enough core voters to get it. And the places that were not gonna vote for you, you could not get black votes in any of those southern states, including North Carolina and Georgia. So can we please stop fooling ourselves

with this ridiculous game of you going on podcasts with mostly white dudes whining about the elites when there's actually the elites that support you. Mustafa, you first. Do you know what's interesting? I've sat down with him in meetings, done different interviews with him. And there is a problem that exists.

And I don't know if it's a part of politics or what it is, but we love to extract race out of the conversation and try and replace it with class. And we have huge sets of examples, all kinds of studies that are out there that show where the real disparities lie. That's not to say that if you are poor or lower wealth and white, examples, all kinds of studies that are out there that show where the real disparities lie. That's not to say that, if you are poor or lower wealth and white, that you're not impacted.

But we know there is a difference in that. And I don't know why he has not yet evolved into understanding that, when you extract race, you are sending a message to the folks who are dealing with and carrying that burden that this country places upon them. I will also say, you know, I have sat in the room before and heard how conversations with one set of folks went. And then I'm sitting outside in the chair sort of digesting the meeting I just came out of, and then heard how conversations went with a different set of folks who look different

than the people who were in the room when I was in there. And there was more time given. Now, I understand I worked on Capitol Hill. And sometimes you may have limited time, but I would expect there to be equity in that from an individual who says that they are for the people. So, you know, it's just a real interesting thing. The other part of it is, is that if you're really about, you know, the folks who are being impacted, then you have to go and spend time with them, not spend time with them on the campaign trail, but you actually got to spend time with everyday folks on their back porch, in their kitchens, having conversations with them so that you have ground truth what's going on,

so there's real authenticity in what you're sharing. I say that because when politicians come, whether it's Mississippi or West Virginia or a whole bunch of other places, if you're a millionaire, it's sometimes hard for people to actually believe that you understand what they're dealing with on a daily basis.

When you're trying to keep the lights on, put food on the table, trying to figure out how you're going to pay for asthma medicine, or if you're going to actually have to go and pay the rent. So you have got these individuals whom I think have some real caring, but there is this huge disconnect between what they're sharing and what they're doing. There's a quote that says, I can't believe what you say because I see what you do. Folks who need to really take that to heart if they want to be authentic and helping folks who have been vulnerable or who have been unseen and unheard. Hey, Raven, Democrats haven't done enough for working class people. The last administration was the most pro union administration

since FDR. What the hell is he talking about? You know, I'll start by saying this. I really like a lot of Bernie Sanders politics and positionalities. I think he gets a lot right. But to affirm what you all have been saying, I think in this instance, he really missed the mark. And I kind of want to scaffold out

why the mark was missed. First of all, when we're talking about a class analysis, a class analysis that does not also account for gender, for race, for sexuality, for disability, is an incomplete class analysis. So even this idea of talking about class in a way that is devoid of identity, also socioeconomic status is an identitarian factor. It is one that is porous and that changes and moves, but it is still an identitarian factor. So to frame it as if it's completely separate from these other lived experiences

is a faulty place to start. The two things I wanna talk about in this situation, first is this idea that the liberal elites are levying these unfair claims of bigotry, and secondly, this idea that identity politics is devoid of utility or isn't working for us. To that first point, when we're talking about the liberal elites, whatever that means in Bernie Sanders' imagination, there's an important distinction to be made here.

There is a difference between accountability and moral absolutism. One thing I think we do very, very well on the left is we hold people accountable. We do not, we do not worship our politicians. When politicians do right by us, we praise them. And when they do wrong by us, we hold their feet by the fire. And I do think that is a huge distinguishing factor between how we move on the left and how they move on the right. The right feels way more cultish to me. They fall in line, OK?

And so I value that on the left, we have the ability to hold people accountable when it matters. Now, where that gets dangerous and where I sort of see where Bernie Sanders is coming from is when that veers into moral absolutism, this idea that my positionality is the absolute correct one and anyone who doesn't fall exactly where I do in this spectrum of belief is somehow inherently wrong. That is dangerous.

And I think that's where our coalition falls apart sometimes because we opt into these carceral logics of discarding one another when someone isn't perfect. And at the end of the day, perfection is white supremacy culture. Expecting perfection is white supremacy culture. opt into these carceral logics of discarding one another when someone isn't perfect. And at the end of the day, perfection is white supremacy culture. Expecting perfection is white supremacy culture. And I think that is a very, very dangerous trap that we do fall into sometimes. But that accountability piece is still there, and we do get it right a lot. And so I think it's also intellectually lazy to imply that when we hold these manosphere podcasters on the internet, like Andrew Schultz accountable

and call them bigoted or call out moments of bigotry that that is not true or is always false or somehow just this liberal elite tactic. The last thing I wanna talk about is identity politics because real talk, Bernie Sanders doesn't understand what identity politics is. And I'm gonna break it down for you. I have a master's degree in African-American studies.

I'm deeply learned and read in black feminism's and I say feminism's with an S intentionally. If you know, you know, black feminists coined the term identity politics. Okay. The term identity politics was coined in the Combahee River collective statement, which is a statement that was made by a cohort of Black women in the late 1970s. In this statement, they break it down for us, and I have the quote for you, because I like to bring my receipts. Very briefly, they say in this statement, quote, this focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics.

We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression. So what that means is, in this moment where the women's liberation movement is not contending seriously with race, and the black liberation movement is not contending seriously enough with gender,

this cohort of black women are like, you know what, we're gonna focus on getting us free. Because we fundamentally believe that if we can figure out how to get us free, we'll figure out how to get everyone else free, because our oppression is interlocking with everyone else. So to focus on oneself, to turn in on oneself is a particular sort of political taking up,

right? That is being offered through identity politics. That is not what Bernie Sanders is saying, which to me demonstrates he doesn't understand what identity politics is. His reading of identity politics is, well, I'm black and they're black, so they can do no wrong. So I'm team them. No, if that were the case,

then I'd be rocking with Candace Owens and I'd be rocking with Clarence Thomas and I'm not. For me, that's not the end all be all. And in that sense, I hear what he's saying, right? It's not necessarily about how one identifies. It's like, what are your politics? Do you wanna get free the way I wanna get free? If you do, you're my people.

I don't care what your identity is beyond that, right? If you wanna get free the way I wanna to get free. If you do, you're my people. I don't care what your identity is beyond that, right? If you want to get free the way I want to get free, dope. But to water down identity politics to this weird identitarian solely based fidelity is anti, it's just untrue. It's not rooted in truth. And frankly, erases the labor of black feminists who create identity politics as a particular way

of imagining freedom in the first place. And some of that I definitely hold him culpable for, but also I think a lot of that is just emblematic of how people relate to language. This is not the first time that as a community, we've invented language to imagine our own freedom, and it has been taken up and distorted and turned into something that it was never intended to be

and made to perform work that it was never intended to perform. And I perform work that it was never intended to perform. And I think we see that really showing out in this conversation he's having with Andrew Schultz. Sorry, Matt, you have to follow that. Yeah, I definitely don't want to follow that, but I am gonna steal that rhetoric of, I think she said, talking ourselves

into carceral positions, which is just chef's kiss. I mean, what a beautiful way to say that, because I think that's emblematic of a lot of what we hear when we have these conversations about the silos and the far ends of the spectrum when we're having conversations about politics. So, I think that's a great way to frame it. But all I'll add is this really in two parts. The first thing is, I think there, a nuanced analysis allows us to look at what Bernie's saying and see if there's any value there. I will say, I have a lawyer that I have lunch with often, he's a dear friend. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

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

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season Two of the We're On Drugs podcast. Yes sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug band. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcast. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars.

Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepaperceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I went out with him and a group of people today and he has told me more times than I can count brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. some of the people on this panel do. But I do think it's important that there's at least some sentiment out there that there's some contingent of people

in the Democratic Party who think there's been too much focus on identity politics. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I think Bernie is speaking to that to some extent. And I think in order to think critically and to analyze this truthfully, we have to consider if there's any value in that statement. Now, the full stop part of that is,

the reality is, Raven's exactly right. I think on the left, we do hold people accountable when we think they've done wrong. But what we do not do is we don't parse out what they're saying and what they actually mean and what makes sense and what doesn't make sense. And the irony of all of this is the United States is definitely an oligarchy. We know that. But both Forbes and Yahoo Finance in the last two years have published numbers that say the number of households in the United States of America that have a million dollars or more are between 8.8 percent and, like, 12 percent.

So let's call the average 10 percent. That means if Bernie is worth more than a million dollars, which my understanding is he's worth more than $3 million, he's in that rarefied air. So I tell you that to say, populism is leverageable. You see it on both sides of the political aisle. You see it with Bernie and you see it with Mr. Trump. That's exactly what Mr. Trump has tried to do in his base in riling up poor people in southern states, primarily white people, telling them that the government is too involved in their lives and taking away things that they're just as reliant on as the people he decries

that don't look like them, you know, black and brown people and people in urban population centers. I say all of that to say I think some of that is true with Bernie. I think for a long time he has just been seen as this, you know, perceived populist icon, but if you look at it, he's a part of the very oligarchy that he speaks against. So I think what we have to do on the left is be more critical sometimes at what we put up as our icons and whether those icons are living the truth that they espouse, number one. But, number two, I think we have to consider, you know, electorally, is there any value in what he's saying?

Because I'm hearing that on the ground. I'm hearing that from that and the World Democrats, where they think that. And, of course, that's anecdotal. That's not every single person's opinion. But I don't think that that's a conversation we shouldn't have. I think that is a conversation we're having. However, I think Bernie is also an 83-year-old man, and old people tend to say what they say without filters. And that may not be the marching orders we need to have as a Democratic

party going forward for electoral success. But I have heard it with my own ears from a man I had lunch with today that he has the same sentiment. So I think there's a question about what value is there, if any, in the statement. All right, so, okay, so let me ask this. So when he stated that, did you say, name them. Name the issues.

Did that happen? I honestly don't remember what we talked about after that. Cause here's my whole point. He didn't mention it today. No, no, no, no, no, but here's my whole point. Here's my whole point. And I guarantee you, I guarantee you, matter of fact, I might just go down the panel.

Raven, when that happens to you, do you say, name them? Name them in terms of like naming. When somebody says, oh, you know, I really think Democrats are focusing too much on identity issues. Do the people who say that, do they ever name it? No, I mean, oftentimes I feel like that's just a stand in

for I don't wanna take seriously the experiences of people on the march. Right, right, but I'm saying they never name it. Hold on one second. Mustafa, when you ever hear that phrase, do you ever hear them name it? No on one second. Mustafa. When you ever hear that phrase, do you ever hear them name it? No, they don't. Now, so let me unpack it. When I force people to name it, do you know what they actually do? You know what I hear the most? Trans. What I hear

the most when I force people to answer that question, this is what I've heard, black people, white people, they felt that Democratic Party elevated trans issues to the same level as African Americans and women and others, and that that became a dominant issue. What I've heard from people, people say out of their mouths, that they felt that the Biden administration in so many policies was trans, trans, trans.

How do I know that that's what happened? What do Republicans do? What was Donald Trump's most effective commercials? What was Donald Trump's most effective commercials? When he pulled a clip of Vice President Harris talking about surgeries for trans prisoners. That actually started under Trump. But here's the point that I make. We allow people to use that phrase

and not force them to say, no, no, name it. We allow people to use that phrase and not force them to say no no name it. You keep saying you keep saying oh well you know these I think the Democratic Party went too far. Name them. See I want them to say Democratic Party went too hard went too far for black Lives Matter. Say it! I want them to say, yeah, yeah, Democratic Party, you know, went too hard for this breaking the glass ceiling stuff with Hillary and Kamala. Say it!

See, none of those podcasts is talking to Bernie. None of them made him. See, these people, throw the phrase out, I see this on mainstream media, I see it everywhere. They never force them to name it. My deal is name and acclaim it. And I just think that that's what we have to do. We have to start forcing people

to actually put their name on it. No, no, no, no. Name me the specific issues or groups where they went too far. Yeah. They don't want to do that. Cause see, it's real easy to stay broad. That's supposed to be a specific.

Yeah. Well, people, we're all people don't want uncomfortable conversations. And that's the problem that we have. Because if we have people to name it, and you know me, I automatically ask folks, you got to show me the proof. Yeah. They can to name it. And you know me, I automatically ask folks, you gotta show me the proof. Yeah, they can't name woke, they can't name, it's always something.

My deal is I'm not letting them off the hook. And Senator Bernie Sanders, I've seen him do this way too many times. No, Bernie, I need you to name it. When Bernie Sanders says, Democratic Party hasn't done anything for the working class. Shit. Pull a whole damn thing.

This, this, this, this, this. And then, okay, Bernie, tell me what more, what more you want done. Tell me the bill that you sponsored to achieve that. I'm just, I'm all about accountability. I'm not letting people off the hook. the bill that you sponsored to achieve that. I'm just, I'm all about accountability. I'm not letting people off the hook. I'm not letting them off the hook. I just can't.

So that's what I think what we have to do. And between now and the midterms next year, we cannot let people, at least Slock can run her ass around Democratic Party, for, no, hell no. I need black folks in Michigan to put her ass around Democratic Party, for woke. Now hell no. I need black folks in Michigan to put her ass on the spot and say, no, no, no, what the hell do you mean when you say too woke? What do you mean by that? We cannot allow, I mean, say this very clear.

This is for Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Slotkin. This is for Senator Chris Murphy, James Carvey, all of them. We cannot allow white Democrats to use the same language as Republicans when really what they're saying is, I think we are too black. I'm gonna leave it at that. Candace Kelly joins us right now. Candace has been, of course, covering the Sean Diddy Combs trial. Candace, a lot been popping and going on. This testimony brings us up to date.

Well, listen, this week was really interesting, especially for the prosecution, who I think made a lot of headway. This is not to say that Diddy is going to jail directly, even though I think there's a very good chance. But you know, we heard from a lot of very interesting witness that certainly, not the least of, was Kid Cudi. But I do want to say before I get to Kid Cudi,

that we did see the mother of Cassie take the stand, Regina Ventura, very interesting. This is someone who took out $20,000 as a loan on her house in order to give it to Sean Cone. That was his request. And we really got to see if this is true, the tentacles that he had on Cassie, not just within her confines, but within her world, in her family group, a place that not just within her confines, but within her world, in her family group, a place that you would find, you know, safety in.

He was getting his mother to give him $20,000. The $20,000, by the way, was something that he said he was recouping because he heard that Cassie was dating someone else. We also heard from a psychologist, a forensic psychologist, to really contextualize what Cassie was going through. And we learned about the dynamics of domestic violence

and things of that nature, and bonding over this type of domestic violence with someone and being economically unstable because of somebody's hold that they have on you. So a lot of things that we learned, but what everyone is talking about certainly is kid cutting. This was the first time that he has said anything about this particular case, of things that we learn, but what everyone is talking about certainly is kid-cutting. This was the first time that he has said anything about this particular case, and we are talking

specifically about the fact that his car, his Porsche was blown up right in his driveway. This is the first time he's talked about it. He did file a police report about it, but to hear him and see him on the stand, what was different in that regard. What he said was that he was dating Cassie, and Cassie called him and told him that Sean found out about it, and that she actually gave Sean Combs his address. Well, she feared for her safety,

and he took her to a hotel. At that time, he got a call from his assistant, allegedly. He said, his assistant said she had been kidnapped, brought to Kid Cudi's home with Sean Combs and another party, and they were all inside of the house. Again, this is while Kid Cudi is in a safe place with Cassie Ventura at a hotel. It really all unfolds like a movie, Roland.

I mean, some of the details of this case are just incredible. So the burglary happened because, according to law, that is a burglary when you go into someone's house and you are not supposed to be there. By the time Kid Cudi got back to the home, Sean Combs wasn't there. But by the way, he did call Sean Combs,

he said on the stand, to say, are you in my house? And he said, yeah, and I'm waiting for you to see me. Got there, his dog was in the bathroom, door locked, Christmas gifts, because it was during Christmas time. He had gone, or someone had gone through a number of them. Pete Cuddy said he believes that it was Sean. Now we fast forward to the explosion.

Two or three weeks later, Molotov cocktail inside of his Porsche burns it. You can see all the pictures online. Everything is charred. This after Cassie had mentioned in her testimony that when she found them, he found out that Cassie was dating Kid Cudi, that he said, you know what?

I'm going to burn his car because of this and I'm going to explode it. And when that happens, I'm going to burn his car because of this and I'm going to explode it. And when that happens, I'm going to be out of the country and you won't even be able to blame me. So Kid Keddie believes because of this, right? This is something that he knew ahead of time. Then it actually happened. Well, and I'm not saying that we have video evidence

of Sean Combs doing it. And I'm not even saying that he physically do it. But if you connect those dots, this was pretty damning testimony. And when we look at the RICO charge, one of the charges that it takes in order to kind of get to RICO is arson. And that's what this would be considered. This would be a predicate crime for RICO.

Very good week for the prosecution. All right then. Candidates, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. All right, you too. Folks, gotta go to break. We come back, we're gonna talk about

new show launching on Roland Magnon and Filchard and the Black Star Network. Two talks, we'll talk to two of the co-hosts coming up next. Also, Justice Follett drops a statement after he has ended his battle with the seat of Chicago over that there was a constant back and forth. Also, 50 black churches will be protesting and picketing outside of Target on Sunday,

the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. All of that, plus my interview with Terry Vaughn, star of Netflix's new show, She the People, all that in the second hour of Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Don't forget, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Goals to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year.

That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. If you want to support our work, via Cash App, here's the Stripe QR code. This is what you use to contribute via cash app. You of course can also see the check and money order to make it payable to Roland Martin unfiltered. P.O. Box 57196 Washington D.C. 20037.0196. PayPal is R. Martin unfiltered.

Venmo RM unfiltered. Zell Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinunfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app. Zayel rolling at rolling S Martin dot com rolling that rolling Martin unfiltered dot com download the Black Star Network app of course Apple phone Android phone Apple TV Android TV Roku Amazon Fire TV Xbox one Samsung Smart TV and we want you to also get our rolling Martin unfiltered Black Star Network swag of course so you can get that we've got all sorts of items, T shirts, mugs, hoodies, wall art.

You name all that good stuff. And you of course you see the folks really love our shirts. Don't blame me. I voted for the black woman and of course it's so I have a man Kenan change the shirt. Go to my iPad. I want to isolate it.

This is our new shirt. Hashtag we tried to tell ya, FAFO 2025 with project crossed out. And so you can get that at RolandMartin.creator-spring.com. Back in a moment. This week on the other side of change. We're talking centers, we're talking the Met Gala,

we are talking about black and Asian solidarity just in time for AAPI Heritage Month, and we're talking with our brilliant friend Melavica Cannon. Nothing about these alliances is like necessarily natural except for the fact that we all are people who are trying to stay safe. Tune in only on the other side of change on the Black Star Network. This week on A Balanced Life, we are talking about the many women and female role models that play an integral role in our lives, from helping to boost our self-esteem to checking us when we get out of line. These women deserve their flowers for helping us to become who we are today. The women in my lives who have just impacted me so much have challenged me.

They're women who made me want to live right and love right. That's all next on A Balanced Life here on Black Star Network. How you doing? My name is Mark Carrot and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered, deep into it, like pasteurized milk, without the 2%, we getting deep. You wanna turn that shit off?

We're doing the interview, motherfucker. I told you we were cooking some great things up in 2025. And beginning on Monday, this new show will be airing on this network. Check this out. Coming soon to the Black Star Network. Let's go. Truth Talks is the fastest growing show about pop culture.

And now exclusively on our own channel. What I'm saying man. Attention! We're back. We gotta stop letting this shit slide. Bigger and stronger than ever. I mean, I just have questions. Season two is reloading May 26th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

What's up? With new hosts. Let me tell you what damn time it is. And big celebrity surprises. Kiss my behind, kiss Oprah Winfrey. Subscribe today at Truth Talks Live. Give Black people what they need and we'll show them for you.

And don't miss out on all the upcoming viral moments. Simulcasting weeknights at 8 p.m. on Roland Martin Unfiltered and Black Star Network and Truth Talks Live. I'll see you there. Well, joining me right now, two of the co-hosts, Dr. Cheyenne Bryant and Turek. Let me have both of you here.

So, Dr. Bryant, let's talk about season two. First of all, for people who don't know what Truth Talks is, this is gonna be the second season of Explain It. Yeah, yeah, listen, we are season two, fired up. I gotta give shout outs to our executive producers though, two powerful black women, Lori and Jodi Gomes, who are financing this entire season two

and show all on their own. So I just have to put that out there because, you know, it's not often that that happens and we're grateful for them. But, Roland season two is just, I mean, we have so many different guests coming on. You never know who's gonna pop up. We are the only platform that is united the multi-generational representation

and voices of black people. Okay, as we know, black media is being silenced and we're not allowing that on our show. We are speaking black, very black, standing on it, doubling down on it. And we have four hosts with revolving guest hosts that are gonna come in and give a different representation of what black is, right?

We also blend, you know, politics to trends and cultures. And what I love a lot is that we embrace the liberal and conservative perspective. And it's not for us to argue about in debate. It's more about allowing our viewers as long, I mean, as well as the co-hosts and the host to have a better understanding of black politics, black legislation, what

works for us, what doesn't work for us, and to bridge the gap between the different representations of a diverse, a marginalized community that has so many different marginalizations that people try to group us into one that just isn't always representation of us as a whole. So. Well, I don't mind having black conservatives on. They just have a problem lying when they come on. So it doesn't end well for them here. Tare? Well, no, I mean, like, I find the same thing

with black conservatives. But I do welcome them to our show. And we actually have somebody who I'm actually finding some intellectual Congress with in Dr. Sarah Fontenot. She's a conservative, but she's actually coming with really interesting ideas. She's a really interesting person. So we have at least four really interesting, real, honest,

smart black people, multi-generational, who wanna just get in there and have an argument about the big things that we are talking about as a people. So we're going to have that awesome conversation that you have with your friends. When you sit down, dinner with a glass of wine and start arguing about what's really going on in the news and in the culture, that's the show we are.

Obviously it's a whole lot going on in terms of pop culture. A lot of things happening from Hollywood to music, Dr. Bryant, and was killing me on social. If I gotta listen to another damn 50-50 conversation of these people, are they getting on my nerves? It's just, I had a sister on, a personal finance expert, Seanan Curry, who was just like, angry as all, get out.

I love these people who whine about 50-50, but right now they paying 100-0. Come on. Like, I just think like that's just the stupidest shit in the world. So you paying 100 right now, but you saying, I ain't going 50-50. Okay, keep your ass at 100.

Roland, don't get me started, because I already have a thing 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, on podcasts of just like business people. And I first go, what business are you running? What business do you have or have? Oh, I'm sorry. You will set us up at the back of your trunk. Okay, yeah, let me go ahead and listen to your number one entrepreneurial podcast. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, wait, wait, wait, I got something to say about that

because, Torrey, and I'm gonna tag you in, because I love what you said, right? I'm single, I've been engaged a couple times, caught off to weddings, and I'm not a mama bear yet. Can't wait to be married and be a parent. However, folks ask me, similar to what you just said, what makes you think you can give relationship advice? And I say, listen, I don't wanna hear you've been married

15 years and miserable 13. I don't wanna hear you've been in two or three marriages that failed, and you wanna give me your failed advice. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley, comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated.

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

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glodd. And this is season two of the World on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts are wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcast. Here's the deal.

We gotta set ourselves up. See retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things.

Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. A pass. What I'm doing is not teaching people to be married, I'm teaching them to get out of their own way. Two happy people make for a happy marriage. Two unhealed, miserable people with a lot of pain

make for a trauma bond. So no one teaches you how to be married. We teach you how to be a wholesome, happy person. So you can bring that to your relationship. Roland, I've tried to tell the brothers, when you go on a date, it's beyond 50 50. When the bill comes, don't look at it. Just hand your car.

Don't even look at the bill. Like I got this. I got you. Like I don't want to, don't be looking it, just hand your card. Don't even look at the bill. Like, I got this, I got you. Like, I don't wanna, don't be looking at an item, I don't did the server get everything. Just give her the card and keep it moving. But if you really wanna provide, it's not just financial. You gotta tell them what you feel. And we don't talk about that with the other guys.

So we gotta exercise different muscles when we're trying to create relationships with women. Talk about your feelings, we're not used to that. We gotta get used to that, because that's what they wanna hear about. What's going on in your heart, less what's going on in your wallet and more what's going on in your heart.

That's harder for us to figure out. Hey, my show called Unfiltered, I ain't dealing with none of that bullshit. Let's just, I'm just gonna keep it real, keep it straight. If yo ass don't have a passport, don't bring yo ass to me about taking you out the country. Rowling, listen, and if yo ass can't book flights in the whole trip, don't come to me

with a date wanting to be with me and date me and be upset. Because listen, you taking me on a trip, I do wanna hear emotions like Torrey said, I do want some vulnerability, but damn it, can you front the bill? And it's not about the paying part, it's the principle that you are providing for something that you want us to enjoy.

Doesn't mean that at some point I won't spoil you as my man, but I wanna see that my man is vertical in who he is, and he can afford to do the things and contribute to a lifestyle that I have created and I am sustaining for myself. And there's nothing wrong with women wanting that. And I'm just, I don't give a damn. Listen, I'm serious.

I don't give a damn about all the popping of balloons. I don't care about all the rest. I think what has happened is, and this is why I believe you have to have honest shows that don't waste time with bullshit because the reality is there is a significant amount of bullshit that exists that is circulating in our community.

I am highly, and I'm highly critical of so many of us being so inundated with entertainment and sports. And then when something pops off, we go, man, I ain't know, because yo ass don't watch no news, that's why. But I just think that there's a moment to call out a lot of the craziness that exists out here.

And when I look at things that y'all have done on Truth Talks, I think that has to happen because, and I think we also gotta put some names on it, because it's a bunch of folk people shouldn't be listening to. Just like I tell people, y'all should be listening to these dumb ass talk about the news because they don't know what they talking about.

We talked about that, Torrey, I'm gonna tag you in. We talked about that in one of our episodes where we were saying that our social media black news is world star, it's shade room, right? And that is not our news. Our news is much more bigger and global and it expands past that. And so we don't get to hear about politics or legislation. We don't get to hear how these policies systemically are not fucking created for us. They're not authored for us. And because we don't have a seat at the table doesn't mean we can't author

legislation. Because we don't have a title doesn't mean that we can't be in the room at the fucking table, excuse my language, having a strong opinion and moving legislation and moving seats and moving the table. People and folks seem to think in our community that if you're not a doctor, attorney, elected official, then your voice doesn't matter. Every single person that looks like us has a responsibility

and their voice holds weight. Absolutely. Questions off of our panel, I'll start with Mustafa. Yeah, well, congratulations on season two. I'm looking forward to it. You know, I'm curious, there are all these different attempts to pull our community apart, you know, whether we talk about misinformation, disinformation,

all these different types of things. Can you talk about three or four of the sort of hot issues that you hope to help people to garner additional information about, but also how we begin to heal as a people? I think that is a great, great question. I think that we need to realize that real estate isn't the real wealth, that family is. And that as long as we continue to create broken homes

and broken houses, guess what? We don't have no wealth because it takes a team and that team to build generational wealth has to be a generation that's called family. We don't family, we don't commune. And guess what? We are the brokeest social economic community and race of people that exists.

And it's to that point, Asian Americans or Asians in general, they family, they commune, they hire their family, they create these corporations, they operate in that space. So do Caucasians, so do a lot of the Latin communities. We don't do that. And until we do that, we can't have generational wealth.

Who are we leaving our life insurance to? If we have 10 kids by six different women or six different men, we have to create more husband and wives, we have to create more families and less baby mamas and baby daddies. And I stand on that. I'm very, very triggered by that because of the fact that we are talking about a collective of people, right?

Which is called community, but we don't even have community in our household, which means, and I'll land on this, if our household has no community, that means what? Our block doesn't, our neighborhood doesn't. If our neighborhood doesn't, our community doesn't. And if our community doesn't, guess what? Our whole race of people does not have that. It starts at home, in the house,

with the person making the better fucking choice. Roland, the thing that I want folks to hear from me and perhaps get from this show is that there is nothing inherently wrong with black people and there's nothing inherently wrong with black culture. Black people's greatest problem is white people. White supremacy and the legacy of slavery and segregation.

Add one more and add white validation. Absolutely. White victimhood. We can keep going on, white fragility. But those are our biggest problems. And I love black culture. You know how I love black culture, spent so much of my career uplifting great black culture. And I wanna continue to do that

and talk about how great we are and identify our actual problems, which fall under the umbrella of white supremacy. Uh, Raven. Raven. Yeah, I mean, a big mazel tov to both of you for the show. It sounds super exciting. I can't wait to watch. I think my question is really around the utility of having conversations. They follow you on TikTok. Oh, you follow me?

You're black and Jewish, right? I follow you on TikTok. Oh, you follow me? You're black and Jewish, right? I am black and Jewish. I am too, and it's a late in life finding and I have been following you as part of trying to understand what that even means, that mixture. Boy, this ain't no damn family reunion. Brother, let's connect after this. That's so sick.

Oh my God, wow. Well, shalom. No, I mean, so awesome. But really my question is about, you know, what is the utility of having a conversation intra-communally with other black folks across a political spectrum of beliefs? Because I feel like a lot of the conversation I'm seeing right now on the internet, like ether, is that this is just like not generative. Like there's this really isolationist thing that's happening where people are pulling away from one another, folks don't want to be in dialogue.

So yeah, what is the utility of having that inter-communal political spectrum conversation with less? I mean, we are not monolithic as a people, right? We are, some of us are conservative. Some of us are LGBTQ, some of us are whatever. Also a multi-generational conversation. It allows us to interact with all different sorts of ideas. Most of our, most of the people we talk to

are our peers, right? And when you're suddenly dealing with, you know, a 35 year old conservative talking to an 80 year old like me, it's like, wow, like we're having like a conversation and a clash of ideas that we didn't really expect to have. Or when I'm talking to Dr. B about like her relationships and her, where she's come from politically and socially, we don't always agree.

And we're, but those are where you have to really identify what you really believe. When she starts saying, I disagree with what you're saying, you have to really come to grips with like, what do you really believe when she starts saying, I disagree with what you're saying, you have to really come to groups with like, what do you really think? So that makes you really sharpen what you really believe. Tori, I love that. I wanna add to the, great, that was great.

I wanna add to that. I think there's two different groups of black people and our responsibility as leaders is to bridge that gap, which is called cleaving. There's one group that knows politics, knows legislation, loves to have that conversation. It's not a challenge for them because they have been talking about,

they've been in think tanks, they've been in rooms. Maybe their family talked about it as a young child and so learned behavior is innately, they understand the conversation. Then there's other group of black people who are afraid of the conversation. They don't understand it. Not because they don't want to,

it's not in their normal conversations. It's not in their think tanks. That is not their daily text messages to their friends. That's not what they're watching. That's not what their social media allows them or their algorithm is having them see. And so I think it's important for us to bridge the gap where instead of us looking at the differences like Torrey said, the folks who do understand, the folks who it's not a challenge for, should be attempting to meet these folks where they are so that they can understand the logistics of it without judging them or feeling like they're ignorant or that they don't vote or that they don't have

a desire to understand. And the folks that are in this group should be open-minded to allowing the people to say, listen, let me teach you, let me show you, let this be a learning space where we can bridge the gap so that we don't become so divided because a house divided can't stand, but a community as we see that's been divided,

ain't standing. So we gotta bridge that gap. Matt. So I'm gonna add to the family reunion element and just say to Ray, I read the portable promise land my first year at Howard and I've loved your work. So it's a great. Oh my God.

Can you ask a question? Will you stop rolling? Yeah, this is every week. He don't like it when he don't have the attention, but that's a different kind of thing. In any event. Man, I will turn your goddamn microphone off. I know you did not. You got my number, call me.

This audio is peaking on my end rolling. I will cut your shit. Go ahead. Mic off, mic off. Three, two, one. Here's my question. So I haven't had the pleasure of watching the show, but my understanding is the format is kind of a departure

from a lot of the normal shows in terms of music and other things on there. And I'm interested in what went into how you formulated the show, like how you thought to present it with purely conversations and not some of the other things you normally see. I'd be interested in seeing kind of how y'all approach that.

Well, the producers talked about, like, let's get that vibe of you just got together with your friends and you want to keep it real about what's going on with your life or with it real about what's going on with your life or with the news, what's going on in culture and that conversation you have. But I think it's critical, as we were saying, that it's four different people

coming from four different walks of life, all black, but different. And I find, I don't know about you, Dr. B, I find I get a lot of hope for the future, talking to the younger folks who are like, they have great ideas, they have great passion, they have great energy, they have great intellect. And I think they're looking at us,

or at least me, because Dr. B is also very young, but they're looking at me like, oh wow, the older folks aren't so bad, right? The unks aren't so bad. Yeah, well Torrey, I'm actually an auntie. I'm 42, I'm embracing it now, but you know, I'm an auntie. You're a grandpa, I'm an auntie. But I want to say season one,

Wow, I gotta be real. Because you're a damn grandpa. Damn, you made his ass feel old as hell. But I want to say season one, we started off pretty much with our set that had a bar. We were the unapologetic black voice that had a conversation that happened after happy hour, after that first drink you have,

and it was just raw and unapologetic. And we made sure that those voices were very loud and represented something within the black community that made sense. As president, as me being the president of NAACP in Los Angeles, for Sanet, Wilmington, and Palos Verdes, I've noticed that Palos Verdes being predominantly white, right?

And I represent that jurisdiction, that the black folks in that community have a different representation. They have a different identity as being black. And so what Truth Talks does is it blends all of it and it allows the viewers to say, I identify with this person who's been in the suburbs. I identify with Dr. B, who comes from the inner city,

who went from the hood to the hills. I identify with Torre, who's this East coaster, who has a different perspective on things. But, or I don't identify with nobody and I can make my own identity. And I can also have some type of pushback toward that without feeling demonized or weaponized, but I can learn my own identity and I can also have some type of pushback toward that without feeling demonized or weaponized, but I can learn from different perspectives

so that we again can become a collective and unify not in having to be in one box, but understanding that we do represent just like we look different, we represent different. And that's one thing that True Talks brings is, folks don't always agree with half of the shit that we say. Some people are like, Dr. B, you're always smoking, killing it, throwing gems. Some people are like, this woman is bananas.

Where does she get this very tidy ideology from? But my black is different than other people, but it doesn't make me or them less black. It brings in a unified, you know, thing that doesn't doesn't doesn't further the marginalization or that deficit. All right, folks, 8 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday. You can check out Truth Talks streaming right here, following my show on Black Star Network on our Roland Martin Unfiltered YouTube channel.

And folks, if y'all are not subscribing, do so. We're sitting at, we're now, of course, moving towards two million followers on our YouTube channel. We're at 1.8 million, so we can't wait to hit two million. And so things have been going great. Dr. Bryant, appreciate it. Taree, thanks a bunch. Good luck with season two

and look forward to the conversation on Monday. Thanks, Bruce. Hey, really quick, Roland, really quick, Roland. Yes. You and I did, you and I did, oh my gosh, why am I having a brain fight? I work with him all the time. Well, can't you remember? No, be quiet, okay, be quiet.

Attorney Crump, we did his event last, I think a year or two ago. We work a lot, because I'm president of NAACP, and obviously he works with my branch on many issues. You mean the awards event that took place in LA? The awards, you got awarded. I hosted. Yeah, it was at the LAX Marriott.

And he does it every year. So yeah, we worked that event together. You got recognized and I was like, keep hosting or doing something there. So good to see you informally again. Likewise, all right, good luck. Appreciate it. See y'all soon.

Got it. Going to a break. When we come back. We'll talk, Jessie Smollett, we'll talk Target. 50 Churches gonna be picketing at various targets on Sunday. So we'll talk about the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Then of course, I'm gonna hear from Terry Vaughn.

We'll talk about her new show. She the People on Netflix. You're watching Roland Martin unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. On the next get wealthy with me, Deborah Owens. Have you ever had a million dollar idea and wondered how to bring it to life? Well, it's all about turning problems into opportunities. On our next get wealthy, you'll learn of a

woman who identified the overload bag syndrome and now she's taking that money to the bank through global sales in major department stores. And I was just struggling with two or three bags on the train and I looked around on the train and I said, you know what, there are a lot of women that are carrying two or three bags. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. I'm Russell L. Honore, Lieutenant General of the United States Army Retired,

and you're watching Roller Martin on Viltage. So the ordeal between Jesse Smollett and the city of Chicago is now over, completely over. This thing happened six years ago. You remember he said that he was jumped by a couple of folks, a couple of guys, and he was attacked, and that led to the city of Chicago saying, no, he made it up.

And then there was a trial and then there was a second trial. It was just drama. They went after the black, you know, state's attorney in Chicago. And so it was just crazy. This is a statement that Justy dropped today. He'd sent this to me. It says, over six years ago, after it was reported reported I had been jumped. City officials in Chicago set out to

convince the public that I willfully set an assault against myself. This false narrative has left a stain on my character that will not soon disappear. These officials wanted my money and one of my confession for something I did not do today. It should be clear they have received either the decision to settle the civil lawsuit was not that was the was not The most difficult one to make after repeatedly refusing to pay the city I was presented with an opportunity to make a charitable donation in exchange for the case being dismissed Despite what happened there politically Chicago is my home for over five years the people became my family therefore making a donation

To benefit Chicago communities that are too often neglected by those in power will always be something I support. I've made a $50,000 donation to Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts, a local nonprofit doing incredible work nurturing self-expression, creativity, and exploration of the arts for Chicago youth. This organization was of my choosing and I'm confident that there will be at least one winner from this experience. Though I was exonerated by the Illinois Supreme Court in a unanimous decision, and the civil case is now dismissed, I'm aware that it will not change everyone's mind

about me or the attack I experienced. However, despite arduous and expensive attempts to punish me, I am innocent both in the eyes of God and of our criminal justice system. What I have to do now is move forward. I will continue creating my art, fighting passionately for causes I hold dear, and defending my integrity and family name with the truth.

Lastly, I am grateful to have had the resources to defend myself. So many do not. They are backed into corners to take deals or confess to crimes they did not actually commit. In their honor, I'm donating an additional $10,000 to the Chicago Torture Justice Center, who provides resources to communities healing from the violence of the Chicago Police Department.

To anyone who has had to prove they have in fact been violated, you know how difficult this can be to navigate. I stand with and for you. To everyone who has supported me. Thank you. Your prayers and belief in me mean more than words can properly express.

I will never take it lightly and will never forget onward with love and respect. Justice small net Matt, I want to go to you. I mean this is I mean this was just I mean back and forth. It was national international just you name it was just craziness.

And he says he was says he's been cleared, exonerated by the Illinois Supreme Court. And so what the hell happened here? Well, first, that press release was not a press release, it was a manifesto. That was, I wanna get my narrative out and do what I can to try to clear my name. But you know, it's interesting,

people probably don't realize how often this happened, and to be very clear my name. But you know, it's interesting. People probably don't realize how often this happened and to be very clear and upfront, I didn't follow all of the different parts of this case and the appellate stuff and all of that. But you know, this happens often. This happens often where prosecutors will, and I know this is not a criminal case, okay? This is the civil.

Well, there was a criminal case, then became a civil, so it was really both. Right, right. No, this settlement is a civil case. Yes, yes. Not the criminal case. Yes. But it happens where, in both was really both. No, this settlement is a civil case, not the criminal case. But it happens where, in both, really civil and criminal cases, there is some kind of payment made in exchange

for dismissal of a case, whether it be civil or criminal. So that's old hat. Nothing is new about that. This kind of thing is obviously a unique situation because he's a celebrity. And this was like in the National Zeit guys for a while. A lot of people know what happened in this situation and know what the accusations were, know that there were false accusations. So I say all of that to say none of this is really

remarkable to me. A donation to a nonprofit is always a good thing, of course, but here it's being leveraged to help his reputation. What I do think is interesting is, it just seems like, you know, there are some elements of this because he's high profile, where it seems like prosecutors maybe got more involved than they needed to, or the city of Chicago felt like they wanted to make an example out of him and dig their heels in and seek all the, you know, investigators over time and all that kind of stuff.

People make false reports all the time. People get prosecuted for false reports. They usually never see the light of day because he was a high profile actor. And that's what they were accusing him of. That's why we're sitting here talking about it. But this, the settlement of the civil lawsuit, I'm sure everybody wants it to be done.

And I'm sure his camp, you know, recognized that this was gonna be a drop in the bucket for his resources and donated, made this donation and gets to leverage the goodwill from that. I mean, really, beyond that, this is something I see every day. Normally, in these situations, though, as your viewers surely know, there are confidentiality clauses that go along with the settlements of cases I have every week, right?

I settle a civil case and what the defense, because I'm a plaintiff's lawyer, I'm not a defense lawyer, but the defense almost always wants there to not be any conversation about what happened or the amount or anything like that. I would suspect here, of course, I don't have a release in front of me, but I would suspect that part of the express terms here was that he got to talk about what he did to settle the suit. You know, I paid X amount of money to this organization for the express purpose of being able to boost his reputation.

And when you're a celebrity and that's a part of your, you know, how you make your money, essentially, your reputation and your name, it makes sense that they would do that. Beyond that, I don't really think there's anything remarkable with this beyond how long it took and obviously the underlying allegations. The thing that people have to remember, Raven, is that that was a plea deal. But folks in Chicago pissed off as the United States Attorney, Kim Foxx, and they were targeting her because she was a plea deal, but Folkess Chicago pissed off as then state's attorney, Kim Fox, and they were targeting her because she was a black woman. So then they pushed to appoint a special prosecutor

who then went after him a second time. That led to the criminal trial. And that's the case, they went all the way up to the Illinois Supreme Court. This case had been adjudicated. It had been taken care of, but it was like, oh hell no. To Matt's point, we are going to make an example out of Jesse. How dare you? And so, and screw you, Kim Fox, we're going to come out to target you as well. And

that's what happened. So this was a huge mess. I remember the superintendent, he was showing his ass and pissed off later, had to resign because they found him drunk behind a car. Then of course, Rami, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he got bounced. That's what happened. They found him drunk behind the steering wheel, but part of the car was kind of like, Superintendent? Like what the hell? Rami Manuel ran his ass out of town as well. And so of course, and he's the same one who was mad as hell, but he sat on the Laquan

McDonald videotape for a whole year showing him being killed by cops and then was forced to release it. And then those cops got convicted. So this entire ordeal with Justice Smollett was just insane. Absolutely, I mean, cosine, I think, and this is not atypical, right?

The amount of carceral logics that get deployed onto black people and onto black bodies always feels disproportionate to what has actually taken place. So that doesn't surprise me in the slightest. When I think about this situation, I just wanna say first and foremost, the intersections of anti-blackness and homophobia are real, right? I wasn't there and none of us were there, but I just wanna hold the reality of that and the pain of that and the lived experience of that. And in this situation, I think Tashuvah or this idea of like being able to right a wrong is always a powerful reprieve, whether it's, you know, to Matt's point, because there's a desire to alleviate some issues with,

you know, public appearance or whether the intention is good-hearted or it's a combination of both. I think the net effect is that he's— I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the We're on Drugs Podcast. Yes, sir, we are back.

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

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

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcast.

Here's the deal. Plus on Apple Podcast. to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. It's $450,000 into community. I'm based here in Chicago. These are my people. I'll take it, you know, whatever the rationale. I think many things can be true at the same time.

You know, harm can be caused. Teshuv think many things can be true at the same time. You know, harm can be caused, teshuvah is always possible, and simultaneously this doesn't negate the importance of thinking anti-blackness and homophobia and how we can eradicate these methodologies of hatred with one another. Mustafa.

You know, I'm country. And it was interesting in watching how they tried to sacrifice this brother. There's nothing new. We have been trying to sacrifice black men and others since this country first came to be. And you saw it play out in front of your eyes. Now, if he made a mistake, if he said something that wasn't true, that's one thing. But all the energy and all the money that went into trying to dehumanize him, to sacrifice him was quite real. You watch the vultures circle above and come down and try and feed on him. So my grandmother used to talk about, you know, if someone makes a mistake, give them

the opportunity to be better. And I hope that, in this particular moment, we see him making these donations, we see him evolving, that we give him the opportunity to be better. And the reason that we should do that is because we have always been people who would invite folks to come back home, if they're coming back home authentically, if they're coming back, wanting to do what they can to be a part of community and to uplift. And I hope that that is a part of the journey that he plans on taking. Folks, this Sunday will mark the fifth anniversary

of the day that George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin in that city. It set off massive protests all across the country, but also the world as folks were shocked to literally watch nine minutes go by and see the life of George Floyd snuffed out by Chauvin. Chauvin was convicted. Several other cops were convicted as well in state and federal court.

That led to what I called a third reconstruction, but that was a huge blowback. White America, white conservatives were angry with what took place. And so so much has happened over the last five years. And as part of the focus, remember, a lot of the D.E.I. initiatives were born out of the murder of George Floyd target based there in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have been the target of a boycott by various entities.

Nina Turner's group, Until Freedom with Tamika Mallory and also Pastor Jamal Bryant. We see that Target has announced massive changes, dismal earnings, and they say that could be the case for the rest of the year. Foot traffic is down and so guess what? Folk stay the hell out of target. Well, in conjunction with commemorating

the murder of George Floyd five years ago, as well as the boycott against target, Pastor Jamal Bryan said 50 churches across the country going to be holding vigils and pickets at various targets. Go to my iPad, 50 churches across the country are going to be holding vigils and pickets at various targets. Go to my iPad, Anthony.

On Sunday at 12 p.m. at the Target in Conyers, Georgia. And then there are going to be other preachers at Target in Atlanta, Conyers, Hiram, Georgia. Also it's going to be taking place in North Carolina, in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Ohio, and others. And so this is taking place. The thing here, Mustafa, the energy obviously is a lot different this year than it has been in the last four years. There's been a massive, a clear and direct attack. White folks who were angry that young white people, Latinos and blacks and others were uniting after this, they began to target this entire movement

because they were scared. They targeted Black Lives Matter, tried to destroy the folks involved with that, gutted every effort. That was in 2021. 2022, everything was critical race theory leading to Mons for Liberty winning races in the country against stoking white fear.

2023, it was attacking woke 2024, it was attacking DEI. Everything that has happened in the wake of the death of George Floyd, you had white folks of the country saying, we have to shut this down because they were, the book bans everything because they were the book bands everything because they were scared to death of a generation of Americans learning the true history of this country and they said no we got to stop this now. Yeah not only learning the true history

of this country but finding an opportunity to come together in solidarity and to say that we want something different that we want this country to evolve, that we want this country to actually live up to the words that it continues to say and share around the planet, but never fully embrace. So it was that moment. And we have to make sure that we continue to bring the lessons that came out of after our dear brother died, or excuse me, was murdered. We've got to make sure that we continue to bring those forward and continue to put a spotlight on exactly what's happening in relationship to Project 2025 and, you know, this current

administration and everything they're doing to try and demonize. So we've got that opportunity. I hope that the seed that was planted out of that tragedy finds ways to be watered and to continue to grow. But that means that we have to be truthful in our storytelling. We have got to continue to put it forward. And we have got to continue to push for accountability. And when we look at places like Target, when they are trying to take steps backwards, then we've got to make sure that they understand

that there is some pain that is associated with the decisions that they're making. And we've got to highlight folks like Costco and others who are continuing to, at least on the surface, stand up and do the right thing. And what you have going on here, I mean, you've got this administration right now that is attacking anything with DEI, Raven.

And what I have been saying is to all those white folks and Latinos and Asian-Americans and others who are out there protesting, where you at? No, that's real. I mean, we need inter-communal solidarity now more than ever. And I think when we're talking about Target, you know, we're really seeing performative allyship, the consequences of performative allyship that a lot of these organizations and companies that are giving us the hashtag black lives matter. And we really care about diversity, equity and inclusion in our organizations and throwing up those web pages weren't about the praxis of what they said they were about. We didn't see the pedagogy. Where's the there there?

Because the second it stopped being convenient to care about communities on the margins, there you are. I mean, we see a similar thing with Paramount, which is so deeply ironic. I think a lot of people don't know this. Paramount is the parent company for BET, the Black Entertainment Television Network.

What? What do you mean you're foregoing, preemptively foregoing your DEI initiatives and policies? You literally, how is the Black Entertainment Network? What's going on, right? So I feel like, you know, when we're talking about this, we're really seeing people's true colors. And also to Mustafa's point,

I think we're seeing people who are really standing on business. You know, we're seeing Ben and Jerry's, for example, really standing on business. I don't know if you all saw just a few days ago, Ben Cohen, the one of the original co-founders of Ben and Jerry's who also happens to be Jewish, was arrested for protesting the crisis in Gaza and for protesting these horrendous cuts to Medicaid that are being proposed. Right? So I think there's a really major both end happening right now. And we're also seeing

that we're leaning into our culture as a people, our culture of resistance as a people. When I think of this exciting moment of resistance and protest that is coming up as it pertains to target, I think of the black power era. I think of civil rights movement. This idea of consolidating our economic power

is not a new one, but it is a powerful one. It is a very powerful one. That being said, I think I want to encourage people not to abandon the black owned businesses that still happen to be housed at Target, right? So maybe instead of going into Target and supporting those businesses, that looks like going directly to people's websites

and on their pages on Instagram and their TikTok shops or what have you and supporting them that way. We're about us, we need to stay about us and to do so strategically. And to Raven's point, this is that video when they dragged the protesters out, including Ben Cohen. And so they roughed them up in a significant way.

That was during the hearing for that crazy fool, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Matt? Well, you know, in like fashion as my earlier statement, please don't ever put me after Raven again, because I just got to steal half of what she said, particularly though the use of the word performative, because look, the reality is in this country,

we tend to ascribe to corporations far more noble goals than they actually have. So if you remember right after this country, we tend to ascribe to corporations far more noble goals than they actually have. So if you remember, right after this happened, as she alluded to, all over social media, all you saw was all black profile pictures and all of these conversations about how all of these corporations were gonna do all of these things.

Now, I didn't know what the future would hold, but I always had a suspicion that it was about making money. It wasn't about anything else. So, when you get this orange man into office who's attacking all things DEI, I mean, so asinine that they're trying to not teach new Air Force cadets about the Tuskegee Airmen, you get to the point where you're seeing that this was never about anything other than performance. That's all it was. It was about performance, incidental to making a dollar. So none of this is surprising. I'm glad that

there's some backlash to Target. And I think when I read a few days ago that Target's revenues are down like 2.8 percent, I still don't know that that's really enough. I mean, it's a good thing for us to do that. It's a good thing to hold them to it. But I think what we need to learn from this is that performative allyship does not have a long runway. It's a good thing to hold him to it. But I think what we need to learn from this is that performative allyship does not have a long runway. It's only going to be there as long as is necessary to make the dollar or to leverage it or as a means to an end for whatever you want at that time. And what they wanted at that time was to not miss the national zeitgeist about a man being murdered on basically national TV. Everybody could see it. Exactly what happened to him for nine minutes. And that's why you have companies

that people don't normally even care about their DEI stance coming out and saying that they're gonna be, you know, a supporter of DEI for whatever dog food. Like, this is not a company we really care about, and it's all performative. So none of this is surprising. It's just rolling back to where they were before. But if we don't hold them accountable

and do something to say, no, there will be an economic consequence for you playing in our faces, then there will be no consequence for doing that. So hopefully this cascades into a greater consequence for any company that does that kind of performative allyship at a point like that. Oh, trust me.

There are some other companies that are on the list. Folks in Charlotte City Councilwoman Tijuana Brown, the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the Council. Look like she might be going back to prison. She's been indicted. Federal prosecutors say Brown misused COVID-19 relief funds to throw herself

a lavish birthday party that cost $15,000 complete with a throne and a horse drawn carriage. She and one of her daughters also accused of using those funds to purchase luxury items from Louis Vuitton. At Thursday's news conference, Brown claimed she paid the money back.

When I found out that there may have been some scrutiny in the application, I paid it back. I have one loan, $20,000, 833. $20,000, 833. When the application was processed, I paid it back. No one had to tell me to pay it back. When I found out that there may have been some stipulations and how the application was processed, I paid it back.

Now, on the other hand, that Hillbilly Barbecue that has $1.5 million that never went into the courtroom, they were able to pay it back civilly, through a civil matter. OK? So there's some PPP loans out there that just came up that never touched the courtroom. So if it's about justice and I paid it back, why are we here? Why are we here? I paid it back on my own. No one had to tell me to do that. I paid it back.

Folks, a court tree federal indictment filed in the US District Court, Brown and her daughters allegedly submitted fake IRS documents and lied on loan applications to obtain the funds they face up to 20 years in prison for each of the two charges. Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud related to fraudul

obtaining pandemic relief loans in High Springs, Mississippi. Folks there aren't taking any racist mess and non viral video is showing exactly what went down when a drunk white man pandemic relief loans in High Springs, Mississippi. Folks there aren't taking any racist mess and nine viral video is showing exactly what went down when a drunk white man rolled up and brought the wrong injury to the wrong spot.

The video now making the rounds on social media shows the white man getting beaten, stripped, butt naked, and robbed outside of CJ's Lounge, a well known black club in town. Here's how the local affiliate Fox 13 reported this story. Video surfaces of a man police say might have been a victim of a hate crime. This happened after officers say an intoxicated man walked into a Marshall

County club and used the N-word when referring to the patrons. Investigators say that the bar is also a problem spot. They say that they respond to it several times every weekend. Box 13's Daniel Wilkerson is live outside CJ's Lounge on Memphis Street in Holly Springs. So Daniel, how is this man, police, or calling a victim? Darrell and Darcy, good evening to you. Good evening to you at home. They say he didn't go to the hospital.

They say he didn't go to the hospital until today. He believes he may have a broken jaw. Meanwhile, CJ's lounge is now closed. Police say they were operating without a beer or a business

license. Holly Springs police say cell phone footage they provided to FOX 13 news shows a Tipper County man who has been stripped naked. They say the people who attacked him are seen pouring on him what investigators the police.

The man who was attacked by a police officer in the area, Fox 13 news shows a Tipper

County man who has been stripped naked. They say the people who attacked him are seen

pouring on him what investigators believe to be beer. Offic guys in the area was listening, trying to remain calm. We asked them, they asked them to leave quietly. But police say the man continued to call the patrons the N-word.

Holly Springs police provided another video of the man outside the bar. Speaking erratically, throwing what investigators believe to be gang signs when they was scuffling this stuff outside, he was still trying to fight. He still was saying inward inward. May F U N F U N officers say the attackers use poles and sticks to beat him. So you don't think this is a problem spot? I do nothing. I think it's a positive spot. But Holly Springs police disagree. The police chief estimates they've been to some 30 calls over the last three months. CJ's has been open.

They say there have been fights, guns found inside and a man shot in the foot. The chief tells me they're pushing the district attorney to declare it a nuisance. I'm not standing for anything like that. However, we have to live with our choices and he made a choice by going into there aggressively and he has to live with our choices and he made a choice by going into there aggressively and he has to live with the choice he's made. Back out live here in Marshall County. Again, you're taking a look at that letter that was placed on the door. We should mention that police tell us right now they have a person of interest who they

would like to speak with. Meanwhile, if you were here, you have information you're asked to call the Holly Springs Police Department. Well, what does the victim remember about what happened? I'm working on that part of story for Fox 13 news at six. Um. I'm just saying that. Thanks for letting me go first, brother. Thanks for letting me go first. Uh,

I'm just saying that. I'm just saying that. I'm just saying that. I'm just saying that. I'm just saying that. I'm just saying, Matt. Thanks for letting me go first, Roland. Thanks for letting me go first. Because I just went to CJ's lounge while this was playing on Facebook, and they have some footage up of him coming in, acting a fool. It's a lot of black people there. I don't know if that part of the surveillance footage cut out. It may not be there.

I don't know. But it sounds to me footage cut out. It may not be there. I don't know. But it sounds to me like it might be a lot of not-guilties. You know, I'm not going to advocate for violence ever. But I will say that a lot of times, as even prosecutors will say, you know, some people got what's coming to them, you know? And this sounds like a situation where he went looking for a problem, created a problem.

They're going to try to make it a hate crime because obviously a very salient racial issue. But jokes aside, I mean, you go into this club, you know it's a primarily black club, you go in there, you're throwing around the most vitriolic racial epithet for black people generally speaking. I mean, what do you expect is going to happen? And the CJ's Lounge is already mounting its defense saying the police are not showing you what really happened. In that 20 seconds that I watched,

he went in, started dancing, nobody was bothering him, didn't look like anybody was even surprised he was there. So I think it's really important to see what fully transpired, because what I anticipate is that we're gonna learn that this person was either high or intoxicated, came into this place, started a problem, and, you know, I don't know if they're gonna learn that this person was either high or intoxicated, came into this place, started a problem, and I don't know if they're gonna prosecute it,

but I know that these kinds of situations are obviously pretty nuanced, and the way the news is reporting it is they want the clicks, right? They want people to be commenting on something that's in the national zeitgeist now because it's gone viral, but it looks like it may not be

what is being reported on the media. And until we know more facts, we can't really know what happened, but I don't know, especially if he didn't go seek medical care the same day, he went a few days later, it could be because he was drunk or high or whatever. And when he came to, he wanted to try to cover his bases,

but he really went in there and F'd around and found out. That's what it looks like to me. So, just keep my microphone up. Matt talked about the CJ's lounge on video. So this is what, go to my iPad. This is what they posted on Facebook. You see the guy, he and I, you know, he's sitting there. He hugged a brother at the door and he's sitting here.

I don't know if he thinks he's stepping or what he thinks he's doing. But I'm just saying, keep y'all, we gonna talk over the video, but I'm just saying Raven, I mean, you know, Raven, you might be half Jewish, half black, but if you walked into a Jewish spot and you start throwing around the K word,

they might not whip your ass, but I mean, you ain't gonna be welcome. You walk into a black spot as a white man throwing around the N word, hashtag teen whip that ass is about to show up with the quickness. Absolutely. I mean, just to reiterate what you're saying, Roland,

what Matt said, if you don't want no issues, don't start no issues, right? I mean, similarly to Matt, I think I'm a fundamentally nonviolent person and I do not think all violence is equal. And by that, I mean, you know, the violence of our ancestors who were enslaved, rebelling during the Nat Turner's Rebellion

against their enslavers is very different than the violence of the white enslavers denying their humanity in the first place. Not all violences exist on the same moral or immoral plane and spectrum. And so, you know, I'm not an anarchist. I'm a nonviolent person. I don't relish this, but I'm also thinking that people— I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the World on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs Podcast season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcast. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before.

I mean he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptUSkids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. They need to treat others the way they want to be treated. How about that? I think about that scene from the movie Double Take when my man Orlando Jones said to Eddie Griffin,

you campaigning for an ass people and you about to get elected. Without a doubt. I mean, so we talked about this before, you know, white privilege makes people sometimes think that they got superpowers, right? That you could just go into spots and that you're gonna be able to do things

that you saw just go into spots and that you're gonna be able to do things that you saw on TV. Did Mustafa freeze on us? I think Mustafa froze on us. But his point is, pull that shit on TV that's fiction. Do that in real life, your ass gonna get beat in real life. Just letting y'all know.

So I'm just saying, my man, he woke up to the wrong spot. You see they sitting there talking to him, you see he's talking to some other brother right there, and you can see, oh, you can see them hand movements. And you see, uh-oh, you see that, see, we can't even hear, but you see that neck movement and the brother looking at him like, dog, really?

You see the one brother on the left trying to put his arm like, say, dog, you don't wanna do that. You don't wanna do that, player, you don't wanna do that. I'm just telling you, you see the brother on the right and the left going, hey, man, get his ass outta here. And then you see how many people are filing out. They like some shit is about to go down. Let me get my ass out of here

because this white boy is about to get his ass whooped. Y'all have to tell what's going on. They sitting here like, say man, you might want to calm down bro because this ain't going to end too well for you. I mean, look, y'all sit there, they throwing the trash out. They know what's about to happen.

What's about to go, oh, oh, he ain't put his finger up. He ain't put his finger up. Uh-oh, so then he goes outside. Then he goes outside and let's see here. That's the end of the video. Oh, oh, he walked his ass back in. And right there is where, and then he pushed the brother. And that's when

hashtag team whip that has made an appearance. So, can't wait to see the full video, but I'm just saying my advice to all white people. Don't roll into black spots yelling the N word. into black spots yelling the N word. You not, you're not going to get a welcoming committee. Oh, in my fact, you will get a committee, but it won't be a welcoming committee. Let me thank Raven, let me thank Matt, let me thank Mustafa for being on today's show.

I certainly appreciate it. Raven, good job, your first time. Thanks a bunch. Look forward to having you back. Folks, I told you about Netflix's show, She the People starring Terry Vaughn. I had a chance to catch up with her a week ago as I was coming back from the Afro peak golf tournament.

We talked about how this show even came about. And here's our conversation. All right, Terry Vaughn, you're busy, I'm busy. Netflix show, but you are directing stuff and you do all kinds of stuff and I'm making my way into Washington DC and that's the setting for this new Netflix show from Tyler Perry, tell me about it.

So, She the People, this is my passion project, Roland. This is a project that I've had for about seven years now when my girlfriend London Breed became the first black female mayor of the city of San Francisco, which is where I grew up. Yep, I know London. I know London. Yes. So, London grew up the hood, just like me. She grew up in a underserved, drug-infested neighborhood in San Francisco. And knowing her upbringing and watching her

as she just thrived with her brilliant mind and ended up becoming the mayor of one of the richest cities in our nation was really huge. The first black woman to do that. And she got so much pushback and so much drama. And we're just watching her as her supporters and she's smiling the whole time going through this and figuring out how to maneuver through it.

So watching her do that was inspiring to me. It was so inspiring. And I was hit with the thought, like this would be a great television series. I love Veep, which, you know, star, Juliet, Juliet, what's her name? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Juliette.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love that show. And I was like, it would be great to do it from the perspective of a black woman that comes from the kind of neighborhoods that we come from and her in this situation as being a lead, someone in charge in politics. And so that's where the inspiration came from.

And so I teamed up with a writer, her name is Naya Palmer. And we started working on this show idea about five years ago. And when the strike hit our industry in 2023, she was writing on Run the World. And I have been directing and acting. And so we hadn't really put in more time on our show. So when the strike happened and all our jobs went away,

every directing job, every acting job, everything went away, I found myself picking up that material again, calling Nya, and asking her, you know what, would you think about shooting a proof of concept of this show idea while everybody's on strike. And when the strike is over, we'll have something to show as our pitch.

So people will get it and see exactly what our vision is. So we set off to do that. And in the interim, I was like, okay, I know I wanted to add more levity, more weight to the project. So it would be hard to get a no, because I've been trying to sell my own television series for 20 years.

And I've gotten close sometimes, but it just had never happened. And so I was like, this time we're going full steam ahead. So I decided to shoot the proof of concept to show so it wouldn't just be a verbal pitch, but you can visually see the vision. But I wanted to add weight to it. So I called our friend, Ms. Keisha Lance Bottoms,

who was the former mayor of Atlanta, because this is where I live now. And I asked her if she would be interested in joining me in producing this show, if she would be interested in joining me in producing this show. If she would be interested because I had no idea what you know if she had any interest in being in entertainment business. And so I met with her, I pitched her the show, I told her what it was about, and she loved it. And she said, absolutely Terry, I love this idea. I would definitely join you as an executive producer. I love this idea. I would definitely join you as an executive producer.

And so I was floored. So everything is going. And so now I got Keisha Lynn's bottom as the EP. I got Nya working on our script and teamed up with the production company here, a gentleman named Errol Sadler and his company, Tycore Films. And we all came together and we shot a proof of concept,

a 15 minute proof of concept of our show while everybody was on strike. Had some amazing actors in it, including Joe Murray Payton, Jade Nova, Christopher Duncan joined me, Zaynab Johnson joined me. So I had some really great talent attached in our proof of concept.

So when the strike was over, my agents, they sent the materials out into the world and I had a list of people that I really wanted to work with, Tyler Perry, of course, being one of them. So we sent it out to everyone and we immediately got calls for meetings. And so our first meeting was set with Tyler Perry Studios. And we're prepping ourselves, me, Nya, Keisha,

we're prepping ourselves for our big pitch meetings. And we get on with Tyler's team and we get ready to pitch the show. But they start pitching us why ready to pitch the show, but they start pitching us why they should be the network, be the production company to do our show. Hold on, I bet you were like, hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold up.

Wait a minute. Hold up. Y'all pitching us? That's exactly what happened. So, y'all the meeting going, what is going on? Is this a break? Yep. That's exactly what my sentiment is. Exactly. Because this had never happened to me before. And they make us an offer right there in our first meeting. Wow. And so, we're like, okay, well, can you just hold on a second?

Because we have some more meetings to get to. And so they do, and we go on and we have about five meetings and they're all the same. We get offers. We had five offers. And we had to decide. That's not normal. No, that's not normal at all.

It's never happened to me. I've been pitching TV shows for 20 years. That's never happened to me. So again, God timing is just divine order. From Keisha to even The Strike, all of it. I feel like all of it was divine timing. So in the end, we decided that Tyler Perry Studios was the perfect partner for us with the collaboration,

with his deal already set, with Netflix. Like, it had all the things that I already wanted, that I am a big journaler and believer in manifestation. So I had written all these things out, and everything was there, laid out for us. So we chose to go with Tyler Perry Studios, and here we are one year later after doing all that, the show's coming out May 22nd on Netflix.

And it's a- So how did you decide on tone? So for instance, Tyler has a show called Oval. It's a drama, but it's really not a political, it's really like a soap opera. Then you've had, of course, political shows like Commander in Chief. You had the West Wing.

You had what you mentioned in Beat, which is a comedy. And so when you were, when y'all were sitting and deciding it, how'd you make a decision where you say, you know what, I want to go this route in terms of the tone, more comedic as opposed to drama. What was your calculation in that? So, you know me, I love comedy and I have built most of my career on doing comedy.

I love and can tackle drama at any minute, but comedy speaks to me for many reasons. I believe that laughter is healing. I believe that we should spread more joy in the world than darkness. And though every story matters, for me, I wanna focus on bringing joy into people's lives. But I'm also an advocate of making sure our messages

get heard and get out there. And we are really talking about something relevant. And if I can champion and challenge people and really bring to life all the issues and all the disparities that we are living in, especially right now in this political climate, if I can deliver those messages in a way where you're laughing and you can take it in and it's not just like punched in your face, I feel like you can

be more thought provoking, that we can have more conversations, that people get more comfortable with talking about the things that need to be talked about, that we can laugh at ourselves, we can laugh at the silliness of all the isms that exist in this world and especially in this country. Like, let's talk about it. Let's take down our guards. Let's be more inviting. But let's listen, learn, challenge.

And I think in a comedy space, it just delivered better for me. We obviously had a black female vice president for four years. Yes. When you're putting together your content, what are you drawing from? Were y'all looking at what she had to go through? Were you looking at, you mentioned London Breed, obviously Keisha Lynn's Bottles,

so were you looking at just different subjects and figuring out how you want to tackle different things? Absolutely. I mean, we had the baseline of where the inspiration came from, you know, London's journey of getting into the office and all the stuff that she had to deal with. So we do start our story with me becoming the lieutenant governor. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your

gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

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

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug van. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got Be Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

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

two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcast. care. up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. The first black lieutenant governor and on female in the state of Mississippi. And that alone just sets me up for so many things, so many struggles, so many challenges

that we have to watch the character Antoinette Dunkerson deal with. And she does. Okay, so how'd you pick Mississippi? So originally when we shot the proof of concept and we pitched the idea out, we were based in Atlanta. Once we went with Tyler Perry and Tyler started adding his creative juices, he knocked it up a notch by suggesting we take this to Mississippi because I mean even when I say that to people that everybody goes whoa, you know,

way bigger than what we have presented. So he added, and that's the thing with this whole partnership with Tyler Perry Studios, is that it's been super collaborative, super collaborative. It was like our tone, we presented, and he added his sauce to it. And now we have this beautiful, beautiful show that feels like Veep meets Schitt's Creek.

And it is funny. And it's, you know, it's all the things that I love. And so that's why I know we made the right decision for many, many reasons. Um, so when you're a writer, when you're a creator, when you're a director, that's a different thing, what it is. You're in front of the camera.

And so how do you relinquish parts of that for the folks who are directing? Or is everything collaborative? How does that work out? So that's very funny that you bring that up. Because it was very difficult for me to, because I had to let go of the directing hat, even the producing hat while I was playing this character, because the load was on me.

Like the load of the scenes, the dialogue, all of it, it was heavy on my character, obviously. And I had to go in. I had to go in with her. And, um, you know, we not only worked with Tyler, he, of course, directed the first eight, but then we have a second eight, um, that will launch on Netflix August 14th. And for that eight, Tina Gordon was the director

on those eight. And, you know, just me being a director and a producer and wanting to control everything, I really did have to relinquish and trust the both of them that they got it and they did. And they brought new things that I hadn't imagined or thought about. So it was super collaborative. And in the end, it was the perfect combination.

And I did have to have quite a few come to Jesus moments with myself to be like, Terri, you are acting right now, just let it go. And it was the best thing I could have done. Well, it's interesting. I was talking to Reggie Hutland about first on the call sheet. And didn't she also direct the women's side? I'm trying to think.

I'm trying to think. No, that wasn't Tina Gordon. Okay, so here's what happened. It was a woman who directed it. Yeah. And so here's what was interesting. So when I was watching it, when I was watching it, the women's interviews were shot totally different than the men's. And so I hit Reggie and Reggie said, yeah, I forgot the woman who did it. Oh, the woman who did the Luther Vandross documentary. Her name is escaping me. My apologies. But the bottom line is she had a different aesthetic than he had. And that's why I asked that question because again, a different director has a different vision and one has to trust

that they are going to you know how they want to move and flow which may be different from yours. Yeah well I mean the woman just to remind you her name was uh is Shola Lynch. Yes, yes, yes. Um, but, you know, you're right. And that was where the trust had to come in. It's like we had several meetings, we did all the prep stuff, we-we talked for weeks before we started, you know, shooting anything, talking about all the things.

And I just had to, when we-we did all that, and they-they know my vision, they know what I have, they share it with theirs is, and we've come to an agreement, and I have to let it go once I got on that set as the actor, because I had too much of a weight to carry to still try to hold on to a little bit of directing or hold on to a little bit of EPing hold on to a little bit of EPing.

I literally had to just focus on her. And she was the most important thing for me in that moment. All my energy, all my love, all my heart had to go to Antoinette Dunkerson. And she's so layered and she's so flawed. And, you know, she's a mother of two teenage kids that she's co-parenting with her ex-husband. She has a really boisterous, loud, bold family that she has brought now into the spotlight with her. And they don't like the spotlight.

And, you know, just dealing with all of that. Her teenagers can't do this on social media now. So everybody's hating it, and I'm balancing my family, I'm balancing the politics and all the things that that brings. And that's why I love this character so much, that she's real, it's a real woman. It's a real mother, a real wife,

a real black woman in America. So there's so many things, so many things. When you do a traditional linear network show, that show airs just domestically in the United States. The difference with Netflix is when you launch, you're instantly worldwide. The difference with Netflix is when you launch, you're instantly worldwide. So that also, I think, makes this a lot different than traditional TV fare. True, true. But from my viewpoint as the artist, as the actor,

I don't, I'm not thinking about that. My commitment is to telling a truthful story. Right, right, right, what I'm saying, but as the artist, but the business side of the business is that when this show launches, it won't just be folks here, you also, there'll be people all across the globe who will also be watching and checking it out

and getting an understanding of this character in this show. That is so right. And again, again, God's divine hand on this, this is a message, a show, a message, a show, stories that need to be told beyond just in domestically, beyond that. It needs to be told worldwide because our images that go out into the world is how people view us. And that's important, the images that we're putting out. So that's always been very important to me too. And my wish was to be on Netflix

because I wanted a bigger platform, because I thought this story was worth being told worldwide for so many reasons and we all know it. So to me, this is so much bigger. And I know people say that all the time, but it is way bigger than me, way. Because if it was just about me, I feel like if it would have been sold many years ago, it would not have the impact that it's having right now at this divine time that God has placed

she the people out to the world. It needs that. A couple more questions. First, how the heck did you get 16 episodes? A lot of shows these days, it's just eight episodes. And explain why the break, why the separation is supposed to run in them continuously or why watching them over having eight drop in the next eight drop in the next. Yeah, so that is something, I don't know why they separate them, but how we got the team,

that's the Tyler Perry power. That's what his deal was. So again, several reasons why he was the perfect pick for us. We walked into a Netflix deal by teaming up with him and the deal was for 16 episodes for the first season. God, he's so good to me. All right then, so see the people, okay hold on one second, okay there we go, there we go, I'm back, I'm back. So see the people drops on Netflix when? May 22nd on Netflix.

She the People, May 22nd on Netflix for the first eight. The second eight will drop August 14th on Netflix. All right, very well. Looking forward to it. And of course, you've got your hands full with a whole bunch of stuff. And so glad you could squeeze us little people in for a moment of your time.

Rowling, you know what you mean. You know what you mean to me, sir. You know what you mean to all of us, to our culture. So absolutely, thank you for calling. Thank you so much for offering me the opportunity to come on your platform to talk about our show. And I just want to make y'all proud and make y'all happy. All right, looking forward to the last. All right. Yes. Laugh, laugh, laugh. I appreciate you brother. Thanks a lot. Take care. Thank you. Bye folks. That

is it for us. We want you to have a great Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy the family. If you're traveling, please be safe. Don't forget, support the work that we do. Join our Brain to Funk fan club. If you wanna give it a cash app, do so. Here's the QR code right here. Click the cash app button to continue to contribute.

Check your money or to make it payable to Roland Martin Unfiltered, mail to P.O. Box 57196, Washington,196 Washington DC 20037-0196 PayPal is on Martin unfiltered Venmo is RM unfiltered Zail Roland at RolandSmartin.com Roland at Roland Martin unfiltered.com download the BlackStuck network app Apple phone Android phone Apple TV Android TV Roku Amazon Fire TV Xbox one One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to, of course, get my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Get the audio version I read on Audible. Also, of course,

don't forget you can get our merchandise, new t-shirts, that's right, we proud to tell you, FAFO 2025 project has crossed out. Of course, don't blame me, I voted for the black woman, the weekend. Y'all take care as we always close the show out with the list of the donors, the people who contribute to our show, who make it possible. Do we do 35,000 people have donated since we launched this show.

So guys, roll those names right now. Not that roll those names. Let's roll the names right now as we'll take it home. All right then. So we always do that and we do that every single Friday.

I didn't we'll just put it on the list. We'll do it every single Friday. We'll do it we always do that and we do that every single Friday. We'll just put it on the website, stuff along those lines. We actually want to be able to show those names to give tribute to the people. People who have given awards, people who have given every single month. Lisa Jenkins from Ohio. She's contributed every single month since we launched this show and

there's several others who have done the exact same thing. So we appreciate them and their support for the show. Don't forget, Truth Talks starts on the, follows me at 8 p.m. Eastern beginning on Monday. So a lot of stuff happening. I'll see y'all on Tuesday. Holla! I know a lot of cops. And they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season Two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war this year,

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

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

Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart podcast.