#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump tariff fallout, S.C. lawmakers' assault on DEI, MLK's Last Speech

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

4.3.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump tariff fallout, S.C. lawmakers' assault on DEI, MLK's Last Speech Virginia Senator Tim Kaine will join us to discuss the Senate's approval of his measure to reject Canadian tariffs. We'll also cover the federal budget, proposed budget cuts, and the massive layoffs. In South Carolina, the House has passed a controversial anti-DEI bill that targets state agencies and schools involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, training, or practices. We'll talk to a state representative who has shared his personal story about his father being threatened by the KKK, emphasizing that DEI benefits everyone, not just Black people.   We'll speak with the mother of a California college student who died in a hazing incident in 2018. Her advocacy contributed to the passage of a law allowing hazing victims to sue educational institutions. Today marks the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s final speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," delivered at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ Headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Thank you. Hello. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media. Today, for just $399, you can own 60 shares of stock in Fanbase at $6.65 a share. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest today. While the big platforms have grown too massive and disconnected from their users, Fanbase is building a platform where creators and users truly come first. We've already raised $8.6 million from everyday investors who believe in this vision, and now you can join them.

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All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Monday, April 7, 2025, coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

The twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon in the team, Donald Trump, has slapped tariffs on all imports, igniting a global trade war. Oh, my God, MAGA is breaking down. Even some of his people are just complaining, they're crying. You got poor little Meghan McCain sounding like a fool because she supported all the policies. Now she's complaining. Oh, we're going to show you all of the drama. In yet another attempt to whitewash American history, the National Park Service under this racist administration, remove Harry Tubman's photo and quote from his Web site.

They also are reimagining the Underground Railroad. Plus, you have them targeting the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. We'll talk with Chicago pastor Dr. Odin Moss III, who recently told his congregation we will not be erased. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says all U.S. visas from South Sudanese passport holders are revoked effectively immediately because they won't just accept whatever the Trump folks give them. Also, why is our State Department declaring the Bahamas a risk for travelers? In tonight's We're On Money segment, I'll talk with Blavity Inc.'s founder and CEO, Morgan Devon, about the importance of independent Black-owned media. Lots to break down. Also,

over the weekend, indivisible had their marches. Reverend Bishop William Barber. He spoke here at DC. Well, here what he had to say. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go.

Whatever it is, he's got the stupid fact the fine and when it breaks he's right on, whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rollin', best belief he's knowin' Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin', yeah, yeah It's on go-go-royale Yeah, yeah

It's rollin',, yo. Yeah, yeah. It's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin. Yeah. Martin. Can we be as clear as possible?

MAGA stupid. I mean, I don't mean they a little stupid. I mean, these people are really absolutely positively stupid. Donald Trump ran on, oh I'm gonna jack up tariffs, we're gonna make so much money from the tariffs. And these idiots believe the twice impeached, criminally convicted, felon in chief, the con man, who also filed for bankruptcy multiple times. See they held him up as this amazing economic genius.

Oh, he's a businessman. Oh, man, what's wrong with y'all? We're going to do so much better from him. Now, all of a sudden, we've ignited a global trade war. The stock market has collapsed. People are saying it's going to be a recession. J.P. Morgan raised its odds of a U.S. recession to 60 percent, up from 40 percent. Other banks have similarly adjusted their economic forecast downward. We literally are witnessing

an economic catastrophe. But hashtag, we tried to tell you. Today's morning trading in Europe began with a sharp decline. German DAX fell by more than 6.5 percent. The Brits, 5 percent. The French, 6 percent. These losses are a continuation of the wave of horror. He called it Liberation Day as a result of the tears. Asian markets have already demonstrated a sea of red. Japanese Nikkei at the peak was down almost 9 percent. And Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell by more than 13 percent. South Korea and Taiwan also in a deep red zone.

Chinese investors warning on terrible Monday. And remember, he said on Wednesday, I'm going to jack up Chinese tariffs even more. The folks at Fox News are having to own up to, oh, my God, what the hell is going on? Things are going bad. You are introducing companion legislation. Investors have seen in their lifetime when this crash is done, but you don't want to try to be a hero and pick the exact bottom. So if you're positioned correctly, you could be nibbling today.

I prefer to call it a collapse rather than a crash. That's a very emotive word. All right, folks, now that was just one Fox show. We ain't done yet. Here's Maria Bartiromo finally admitting might be a recession. What Senator Cantwell. We will see some products actually, you know, be raised in price because companies will pass on the cost of tariffs to consumers. I would expect that. That's why you have some people saying that we could see a recession. We'll see a growth slowdown this morning. Nancy Lazar, who I follow very closely, and I think she's terrific, from Piper Sandler.

She says if the tariffs stay in place for at least the next six months, even if only 50 percent of the price shocks where we're seeing products go higher in price show through the economy, U.S. real GDP is on track to decline about 1 percent in the second quarter and in the third quarter with unemployment rising. Really, I thought this was supposed to be the golden age. What happened? Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon, even he's like, yo, Congress, we got to handle our business. I know you are introducing companion legislation to what Senator Cantwell just laid out for us. But as I understand it, in the House, Republican leaders have already restricted the ability to rein in changes to the Mexico, Canada and China tariffs. They tucked language into the continuing resolution. Does that get in your way when you are trying to now claw back some congressional control of tariffs? Well, first of all, good morning, Margaret. Thanks for having me on.

And I enjoyed listening to Senator Cantwell. I support the legislation that Senator Grassley, Senator Cantwell, we have a total of seven Republicans in the Senate, and I have some beginning support on the House side, which we'll unveil tomorrow. It will be harder to pass this in the House, no doubt. I think if we get 60 votes in the Senate, they'll put pressure on the House to look at this. And if we continue to see the stock market go a certain direction, or if we see inflation or unemployment shift in a bad way, I think then this bill becomes a very viable bill. So it will not pass tomorrow or maybe in the next couple weeks, but this will be in the queue that we can use.

And it's time that Congress restores its authorities here. And the Constitution is clear. The House and the Senate, Congress has the power of tariffs and taxes. And we gave some of that power to the executive branch. I think in hindsight that was a mistake. He's saying that's a mistake. Well, guess what? Little, little, little, little Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, he doesn't think

so. Y'all want to see an idiot who's in a coat? Listen to this. We have to give the president space. His strategy is playing out. It's been less than a week, so I think he's okay. His strategy, I love that. He's got a lot of time.

He's got a lot of time. He's got a lot of time. He's got a lot of time. He's got a lot of time. He's got a lot of time. We have to give the president space. His strategy is playing out. It's been less than a week, so I think he's okay. His strategy, I love this. His strategy is playing out. The economy is tanking. And he's like, but things are just going swimmingly well. Really? Hmm, that's interesting.

Congressman, Democrat leaders Hakeem Jeffries, said this. Thank you. Jameson Greer, the new trade representative, will testify before the Senate and House committees the next couple of days. What would be your question to Greer about these tariffs? the Trump tariffs, which are a tax on the American people, are so reckless, so unstrategic, so lacking in any sophistication, that the only conclusion that one can draw is that Donald Trump and Republicans are intentionally tanking the economy. Is it because, as Donald Trump has indicated, that during tough economic times, the rich get richer? And it's a buying opportunity?

Those are Trump's words. Can you confirm? But what's your question? These people, these people literally are idiots. And, oh, he's executing his plan. I don't. What is he actually executing? I don't understand.

Does anybody know what this fool is doing? And what was cracking up to me is that they literally spout lies with no backup whatsoever. Here is the liar in chief, Donald Trump, sitting in the Oval Office, lying about the European Union impact the United States. Again, what you're about to hear is 53 seconds of utter, complete bullshit. Mr. President, you said that the EU has said that they have offered zero-for-zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods. Is that not enough? The President Well, the EU — no, it's not. The EU has been very tough over the years.

It was — I always say it was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade. That's the reason it was formed. It was formed with all of the countries from Europe, I guess most of them, not all of them, but most of them. And they formed together to create a little bit of a monopoly situation to create a unified force against the United States for trade. So they have NATO, which is largely the same countries, and they took advantage of us dollar-wise and militarily until I got there.

You know, I was able to get $600 billion from NATO. Y'all, so... First, the European Union was not created to penalize the United States. That's a lie. Then the idiot said they have NATO. We are in NATO. We created NATO. How about you read a book?

How about you actually study something? But no, we can't do that. Then, you're going to love this one here. So Trump gets asked, you know, you guys slapped some tariffs on some islands that are uninhabited, where penguins actually exist.

But there was one country that was missing from the tariffs. Putin's Russia. This is what the Russian agent masquerading as the commander-in-chief actually said to that. Listen. A little bit about your meeting, potential meeting with Vladimir Putin. Do you still plan to meet with him?

Could that happen in Saudi Arabia? And maybe you could elaborate as well a little bit on not providing tariffs on Russia, sir. So the reason we're not talking about tariffs with Russia is because we're not doing business, essentially, with Russia because they're in a war. And I'm not happy about what's going on with the bombing because they're bombing like crazy right now. They're bombing. I don't know what's happening there. That's not a good situation. So we're meeting with Russia. We're

meeting with Ukraine. And we're getting sort of close. But I'm not happy with all the bombing that's going on the last week or so. Confused. I'm confused. So we have slapped significant tariffs on our allies, but not Russia. Does somebody want to explain to me why not Russia? Does anybody want to explain, you know, what that problem is? Then you always have got to count on these really stupid people. Do you know who is one of these really stupid people? Meghan McCain. Now, let's be real clear. The only reason we're even talking about Meghan McCain is because of her father.

Her father, her father, her father, her father, her father, her father, her father, her father, her father. That's it. That's all. She is the poster child for for nepo babies. That's what. That's all. She is the poster child for for NEPO babies. That's what she is. She's a NEPO baby. She's only gotten her jobs because of her father. We only know about her because of her father. That's how she got her media jobs because of her father. That's how she got her media jobs. Because of her father. So Fox News, MSNBC,

The View, like, I mean, we could just go down the line, y'all. All of these people hired Meghan McCain. Not because she's bright. Not because she's smart. Because she's the daughter Not because she's smart. Because she's the daughter of Senator John McCain. So you can always count on just sheer stupidity from Meghan McCain. Now, when I was at CNN, Meghan McCain said she was a fan of mine. She's since gotten upset because I've criticized her because she's blocked me on Twitter.

Okay. But when you say dumb shit, I just don't have the capacity to ignore dumb shit from nepo babies who then criticize other people for using their name to get things. So if you want to understand the sheer stupidity of MAGA, I believe Meghan McCain says it all. Really two people, Meghan McCain and Bill Ackman, the billionaire. So at 726 p.m. on March 4th, 2025, Meghan Nepo baby McCain posted this on Twitter. Inject every single one of these policy proposals directly into my veins. In my veins. That is Meghan McCain saying,

everything, everything that Donald Trump is proposing, inject into my veins. Don't, I'm not going to take it orally. I don't want a suppository. Put it right into my veins. That's what Meghan McCain said.

At 7 a.m. on April 7th 2025 Meghan Nepo Baby McCain posted this. I'm not pretending to be a financial expert, no shit. But there are so many hypocriticals talking heads on TV saying they don't care about losing money or being in financial pain for a while. Most of your married to finance bros come from rich families.

Megan, you come from a rich family or have huge media contracts. Megan, that's you. You have a cushion if shit goes south. One of my best friends buys her groceries for her family based on what coupons each store has. I assure you a possible recession or huge rise in prices everywhere will be a different experience from her family than you. I don't want people who have already suffered so much to suffer anymore. But hey, that's just me. America

is the land of plenty. And this is normally a thing And this is normally a thing. Got a little bit. This is normally a thing the left does asking Americans to suffer. I may be the emperor's new clothes here, but this needs to be said. That was Meghan McCain. What did Meghan say, oh, 24, 30 days earlier inject every single one of these policy proposals directly into my veins.

That that was Meghan McCain the brilliant Analyst Meghan McCain So she's Now crying because her friend Buys these She's now crying because her friend buys these groceries. And it's rough. Bill Ackman, the billionaire, decided to attack the Commerce Secretary Howard Lucknick

complaining. What the hell is he talking about with these tariffs? Now you have this idiot. If you haven't noticed by now, I speak the truth regardless of the consequences to me personally or what other people think. Then he says, I have no anger toward Dems, just disappointment. I don't think this was foreseeable. I assumed economic rationality would be paramount. My bad.

He said, y'all, I didn't see this coming. Kamala did. We're doing tariffs on other countries. Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done for the world. And the tariff will be substantial in some cases. I took in billions and billions of dollars, as you know, from China. In fact, they never took the tariff off because there was so much money they can't. It would totally destroy everything that they've set out to do.

They're taking in billions of dollars from China and other places they've left the tariffs on. When I had it, I had tariffs, and yet I had no inflation. Y'all see Kamala like, is he really saying this bullshit? And does he actually think we are stupid enough to not hear what he's saying? Go to iPad.

We are all paying a price for the policies which have resulted in the Trump trade tax. We are paying more for washing machines and shampoos. We are paying more in terms of our farmers having to eat the cost of having soybeans that they have been growing rotting in bins. We are paying more in terms of auto workers losing their jobs. It has not been smart and has not been in the best interest of the productivity and the workers of our country. Do y'all know when she said that? That was May 31st, 2019. She said that the first time this idiot was in the Oval Office. Yeah, she said that then.

So this is not when she was running. She said that in 2019. So if you're Bill Ackman, how did you not see it? Because the idiot did it last time. We had to cough up $25 billion to farmers because of this dumbass's tariff policy. Okay, maybe you wanted something more recent of Vice President Kamala Harris warning America, don't elect this dumbass, because the tariff is going to jack us up. Watch. Let's be clear that the Trump administration

resulted in a trade deficit, one of the highest we've ever seen in the history of America. He invited trade wars. You want to talk about his deal with China. What he ended up doing is under Donald Trump's presidency, he ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernize their military, basically sold us out when a policy about China should be in making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century, which means focusing on the details of what that requires, focusing on relationships with our allies, focusing on investing in American-based technology so that we win the race on AI, on quantum computing, focusing on what we need to do to support

America's workforce so that we don't end up having on the short end of the stick in terms of workers' rights. But what Donald Trump did, let's talk about this, with COVID, is he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID. Look at his tweet. Thank you, President Xi, exclamation point, when we know that Xi was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origin. Hmm. Teresa London, the principal and founder of TML Communications out of Philadelphia. Dr. Omei Kongo, the Bingo Senior, professorial lecturer at the School of International Service, American University.

Also author of the book, Lies About Black People, How to Tell, y'all know, lies about black people. These are all a bunch of damn lies. So just lies, lies, lies, lies, lies. And Caleb Affair, communications strategist, also out of D.C. Omicron this is real simple. I mean, like,

she said it. We predicted it. Everybody else talked about it. So all these people go, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening. Where y'all been? Yeah, it's so hard to hear Vice President Harris talk, man, because of the opportunity that America wasted by not putting her in office after all we did. And she has every right to, I know people like she shouldn't say, I told you so and everything. But the fact of the matter is she did. The fact of the matter is you did. The fact of the matter is you did.

The fact of the matter is the entire Black Star Network did. And all of us did. But America didn't want it. And this idea, you know, Ackman and all of these guys, we didn't know. We didn't think this was possible. Meghan McCain and so on. Y'all knew it was possible because this is exactly what he ran on. And all of these people who don't want to acknowledge the fact that people didn't want to vote for a Black woman, all the people who don't want to acknowledge the fact that people didn't want to vote for a black woman,

all the people who don't want to acknowledge the fact that this man ran on white male Christianhood, even though he's the farthest thing away from a Christian, all of the other Republicans had better economic policies, you know, better for Republicans, right? All this man had was tariffs. Tariffs was going to pay for daycare. Tariffs was going to pay for everything. These other guys had actual policies, and Americans rejected them and voted for him. So these guys knew exactly what they were getting. They could have went with DeSantis. They could have went with Haley, Varma Swamy, all of these guys. This is what they wanted. They wanted to bombast. They thought that they were going to be closer to him and that they were going to be

exempted from everything that he was going to do that would hurt other people. Because as long as he was going to inflict pain on other people, deport the illegal criminal aliens, as long as he was going to get rid of, quote unquote, woke policies, they didn't care. And now they're realizing that this man's plan, as you said, Russian agent style, is to tank the entire U.S. economy. How are you going to say you didn't put sanctions on Russia because they're at war, but you have sanctions on Ukraine? Everything this man says is a lie in every way, shape, or form. And the question, which you've already answered,

is who's he doing this for? It's clearly not for us. I think it's very simple. Who is he doing this for, Kelly? I'll tell you. What this is doing is taking... I've had multiple people send me this text message. He's tanking the economy because it makes it a lot easier for very rich people to buy stocks at depressed prices.

Absolutely. And it's interesting that you mentioned the economy in this particular context, because as of this morning, if we had a competent president, he would be declaring today the start of our recession. That's how bad the economy tanked over the weekend. So to me, like Makanga was talking about, he does nothing but lie. He has been lying his entire life. And I'm going to say it like I did during the election season. And now we need to listen to Black women. And this country was clearly not ready for a Black woman president

because otherwise she would be in office. That woman worked three times as hard, got a third of the result. And we have been nitpicking and nitpicking and examining under the microscope of all microscopes as to what went wrong. Nothing went wrong. You were wrong. You were wrong in your thought that a black woman could not do this job, even though she has proven time and time again in her station as senator, in her station as AG for California, in all of these roles that she is able to do what she said she's going to do and has strategies for such, and nobody wanted to listen to her. So we are here now because you didn't want to listen to a black woman

and what she had to say. Well, also, let's be clear, a whole bunch of black men also voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. Actually, two largest groups were black women and black men, Teresa. But again, they got what they wanted. Now they're complaining. Hashtag, we try to tell you. Yeah, that hashtag needs to go to work today because

you just don't know what to expect. And I think that's what we're seeing right here with Donald Trump and some of the nonsense just coming out. Listen to to both of my colleagues point, you know, we have to realize who Donald Trump was talking to. He was talking to the American that did not understand trade policy, did not really understand policy or what's going on in the economy. He was talking to those that with a simple message of making America great again, no matter what that looked like to them, he got reelected. Indeed, indeed. So that's just according to the tariffs is one thing these fools are doing.

Now we also seeing how they are rewriting history. When we come back, we'll check with Pastor Otis Moss III about how these this racist administration really wants to just dismiss black folks and just make shit up. That's next. Roland Martin on the folks on the Blackstone Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, think about for a moment some of those icky behaviors that you display every now and then. Are you a petty Betty or a crabby Kathy? Where did those less than attractive traits come from? We all have them. And more importantly, how do we get rid of them to make certain that they don't infect other people? Pettiness is something that we all carry.

It's just make sure that you carry it well and you don't use it to intentionally hurt. On the next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. This is Essence Atkins. Mr. Love, King of R&B, Raheem Devon. Me, Sherri Shebron, and you know what you're watching. You're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Thank you. Thank you. So before we start today's show, y'all, I went outside where we are located here and I took a photo of what used to be

Black Lives Matter Plaza. Now, when you used to go to Black Lives Matter Plaza, you used to see color. Come on. You used to see color. You used to see, you know, the letters Black Lives Matter there in gold. Well, now when you go to Black Lives Matter Plaza, it looks just like the Republican Party, pale.

No color. This is emblematic of today's Republican Party. They're the ones who forced Washington, D.C., to tear apart this memorial. It is an effort by them to erase us, erase monuments, National Park Service. What did they do? They removed Harriet Tubman's photo and quote from their Web site, replacing with images of postal service stamps that highlight black white cooperation in this in the secret network. And that featured Tugman, among other abolitionists of both races. Now, this goes right. The pattern, because remember, the attack on DEI led to them removing the the the pages of Jackie and what his role played in the U.S. Army, removing Medgar Evers and others as well, removing historic women who are in combat.

I mean, we go on and on and on. What we have is is a whitewash. We have Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk and MAGA. They really want this to be a white country. This is really a throwback to Jim Crow, how they're attacking books, the Navy. They've all, they announced all of these different books that they are whacking as well. We can go on and on and on. So this is truly about erasure because for them, this is a white country. Chicago pastor, Reverend Otis Moss III, recently told his congregation, had a sermon and said, we will not be erased.

Here's some of that. On Thursday, the Trump administration signed an executive order entitled, quote, restoring truth and sanity to American history. This order targets two institutions, the Smithsonian Institution and the Department of Interior. This order states, over the past, quote, over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite American history. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting the founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. Human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, and oppressive, end of quote. The executive order takes specific aim at the

National Museum of African American History and the Museum of Women's History that is yet to be built in the United States in Washington, D.C. The order specifically directs Vice President J.D. Vance. As I mentioned previously in the five minutes, he is an acolyte of the so-called philosopher and anti-democratic promoter Curtis Yarvin, who believes that some races are built for servitude of the so-called philosopher and anti-democratic promoter Curtis Yarvin, who believes that some races are built for servitude.

And also Peter Thiel, who is the billionaire funder of J.D. Vance, and it should be noted that he is a South African, Afrikaner, and J.D. Vance has been instructed by the person who occupies the White House currently, but not permanently, named Trump, to root out any American divisive ideology and exhibits that make America look bad. This executive order also seeks to reinstall Confederate monuments taken down during the Black Lives Matter movement. Joining us right now is Reverend Dr. Otis Moss III. Joining us from Chicago. Of course, I wore the appropriate attire today.

So glad to have you on the show, Fred. So let's, here's the deal. Product 2025 lays all this out. This this was all by design. I laid all of this out. I lay all this out in my book, White Fear. OK, so the book ban in Florida, all of these different things we saw in 2000. 2000, here's the real deal. These white folks have been mad because they are pissed off with the racial reckoning that took place with the murder of George Floyd. They attacked

Black Lives Matter in 2021. They attacked CRT and used it during the election in 2022. They attacked WOKE in 2023. They attacked DEI in 2024. It's fundamentally clear anybody who doesn't see this is purposely blind and crazy. Absolutely. Absolutely. We've witnessed this over and over

again with this administration, but this is a movement by not only conservative forces, but I call them Confederate fanboys. And this executive order was specifically targeting the National Museum of African American History. But it was also designed as a distraction because the day before, the news cycle was about Signalgate and then an executive order targeting, again, black people. And it is our responsibility as people of faith, as black people, to ensure that no one erases our history. And that is why we placed the National African American Museum, the National Museum of African American History into our budget. We had a church conference right in the middle of worship

and said, you know, all those in favor of doing this because we will not be erased. But there is a problem here, Pastor, and that is there is something called the Wilson Center. The Wilson Center was created by Congress. It is a think tank. The Wilson Center is made up of Republicans and Democrats. And what Donald Trump did was he has shrunk this from 130 staffers to four. So it technically still exist. One of the executive orders he launched targeted this, where he announced that, and again, this is something that Congress created, and he directed the elimination to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law

of the Wilson Center and other federally funded entities. But here's what they've also now done. So the CEO of the Wilson Center, Republican, fired that person. They replaced the board, including Republicans who he appointed last time. But here's what they've also done. They're returning donor money.

I am trying to warn people, this is what they're going to do to the Smithsonian, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I believe that they're going to do to the Smithsonian, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I believe that they're going to fire Lonnie Bunch. I believe that they're going to end up laying a lot of these people off. I believe that they want to completely destroy the number one attended museum in Washington, D.C., because they do not like the fact that it tells the true story of America.

I agree with you, Roland, that there is a concerted effort in reference to erasure. One of the challenges that they will face is that the Board of Regents is 17 individuals who also are a variety of people, some Democrat, independent, you name it. This is a public-private partnership, and we have authority in terms of protecting this institution. And that is one why I believe that faith communities should support the museum and educate the congregation about what is happening. Two, that we have to also create spaces where we are teaching history. Chills Defense Fund does a tremendous job with what is called Freedom Schools during the summertime. This is a five alarm fire for our community to understand that there are forces at work. And this didn't happen last year. This didn't happen 10 years ago.

Ever since the civil rights freedom movement, there has been a concerted effort to return America to a particular moment, mythic moment, in history. And the civil rights movement was an interruption of a white supremacist project, and they have been trying to regain power since then. I did a piece for the church talking about Curtis Yarvin, the anti-democratic so-called philosopher who influenced Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel, who then funded J.D. Vance, and Curtis Yarvin has clear white supremacist ideology. I did another piece about Lewis Powell, who wrote the attack on the American free market system because he believed that the civil rights movement, what black churches were doing, was destroying America. That was 1971. And his memo that he wrote in 1971 went viral before there was anything we call viral. You said Lewis Powell?

Yeah, Lewis Powell. And Joseph Coors read his memo. When Joseph Coors read the memo, he then took the money from the Coors beer dynasty that he was a part of and put that money to build what? The Heritage Foundation. Boom. These people have been working because they witnessed what black people did when we organized. And they are trying to, quote unquote, take back what they think mythically is theirs. And we have to understand some of the puppet masters that are behind the puppet who is in the White House. The reason I've laid this out in the show, in American history that a black movement had a majority of Americans supporting it. What they saw never before in the history of America has a black movement ever had a majority of Americans agreeing with it. Not Dr. King, not A. Philip Randolph, nobody.

And what they saw was they said you take that, you take with America becoming a nation, majority people of color by 2043, depending upon what Latinos do, whether they want to call themselves white Hispanics or not. And all of a sudden, you had young white people, young Latinos, Asian Americans, who now were seeing, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. And so these conservatives said, oh, no, no, no, hell no. We cannot have the hearts and minds of non-black people now learning the true history of America. So they start attacking the 1619 Project. Trump comes out with the 17, supporting by also Robert Woods in the 1776 project.

Oh, we're going to create this garden of American heroes. His defending of them removing and changing the names of military bases and removing Confederate symbols and plaques. After 10 black people were killed in Buffalo, you only had one Republican, then Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, support a resolution calling for the end of racism and the end of the target of neo-Nazis and white supremacy. Republicans are like, no, no, we ain't voting for that. And so they saw a new generation embracing Black Lives Matter, and they no, no, we ain't voting for that. And so they saw a new generation embracing Black Lives Matter.

And they said, oh, we got to destroy all of this. And so they went after BLM. They followed the money. They focused on dissension. You had right wingers who were infiltrating various events, starting fires, creating mayhem, blaming BLM. Oh, it's Antifa. Various events starting fires, creating mayhem, blaming BLM. Oh, it's Antifa. Then you begin to see, again, all the attacks.

It was because they said, this thing has gotten too far. And that's when the book bans. That's when the targeting of that. They said we have to completely destroy the entire black civil rights and economic rights, social justice infrastructure. If we are going to maintain this thing for another 50 to 100 years. You know, this is why it's so important what you do, Roland. You're creating an ecosystem of not only education, but an ecosystem of information, because one of the aspects of this that we need to understand is what is called techno-capitalism, or this new movement by Silicon Valley to create an ecosystem that assists those who are, quote- quote unquote, in power or think they're

in power. And they are utilizing that ecosystem, an ecosystem that drives fear, an ecosystem that continues this mythology that makes white people think that they're actually white, the social construction, an ecosystem that is what I call the digital Henrietta Lacks syndrome, where they're taking our data and they say that they own it. And then in the process, they are attempting an erasure of black people. But this has been consistent in America

since we have been here, the mythology and the removal of our contributions, and that is why we cannot depend on other people to tell our story. We need what you are doing. We need what other people are doing in terms of creating an ecosystem of education. And that's why I believe that churches and mosques and synagogues and community spaces must band together to create spaces where we are telling the story. I love the African adage that is told, that why is it that the lion is always losing in every story? And the story that the old man shares back with a young child is simply this. When the lion learns to tell his own story, he will be the hero of the story.

Otherwise, the hunter will always come out on top. And we've got to tell our own story. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I have been imploring our people. We've got to support black owned media because we're going to be asking somebody else to tell our story. People are all up in arms and upset when MSNBC canceled Joy Ann Reid. And what I say is when you own it, the only person who can cancel you is God. That's right. Well, what you laid out is critically important. And here's what I hope. And this is the last question for you.

What is your message to other black churches? Because as I travel the country and look, our numbers have been exploding with our subscribers. Somebody put together a chart, and the chart that they put together sort of laid out, you know, who has seen the growth on YouTube since the inauguration, and they showed folks, they put a blue dot, they broke it down by red and blue, Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, however you want to frame that. Matter of fact, I had my digital guy, Kenan, change it to put a black bar on ours because I said that's where we land. But the whole point here is that when you look at the growth over since the first quarter, we have been able to dramatically increase our following. And in fact, out of all the people, so this was the chart, fastest growing political and nonpolitical adjacent YouTube channels. We were number 21 ahead of the bulwark, Bernie Sanders, Piers Morgan, Benny Johnson, Jordan Peterson, Robert Reich, Glenn Kirshner, the New York Post, Sam Seder, Bill O'Reilly, Vox, The Rubin Report, all these people. The reason this is important, because if we are depending upon folk who don't look like us, who think like us, then what happens is, to your point, they control the narrative.

But more importantly, they control the information flow to the hearts and minds. And so with them, we already see this happening with the algorithm on all the social media channels because you click one thing and they're going to flood your feed. Or with Elon Musk now just force feeding you right wing content, we have to have a counter. Yes, absolutely. And that's why I'm excited about what you are doing and my message to churches across the nation. And I first have to give this addendum in reference to this, that there's the black church tradition, and then there are churches that have black people. The black church tradition is the tradition of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, is the tradition of Fannie Lou Hamer, is the tradition of Martin King, a prophetic tradition that seeks to alleviate suffering

of not only black people but all people. There are churches that have black people in them and they are committed to a white evangelical or sometimes really a capitalism and ecclesiastical garments. So for those that are part of the black church tradition, we have a responsibility. We stand on the shoulders of others. So it is our responsibility to tell our story. It's our responsibility to support the Smithsonian. It's our responsibility to share with our congregants what you're doing, Roland, and other forms of independent media. It's our responsibility to educate appropriately.

And if you don't have the information, please don't stand up in the pulpit and act like you do. Find someone who does. Pick up something known as a book. Read it. Get the information and bring in the necessary experts who can break down certain issues and policies so that our community can be educated effectively. The black church is one of the few spaces we completely control. No one can cut off a grant and say to us, you can't do that. We control it. And when the KKK wanted to bomb, they were not bombing NAACP offices. They bombed churches because they were black controlled. They bombed, yes, Tulsa in terms

of other spaces in there, but that was also because it was black controlled. So we need to recognize that we already have power. And the response that is happening right now is because they witness what happens when black people are organized, faithful, praying, and know that there is a vision to build, in the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, the yet-to-be United States of America. And the reason I have a mural in my office called hashtag Black on Media Matters. Y'all should have a video. The reason on that mural that we put this whole thing together is owed to black on media. The reason you do not see the cover of Ida B.

Will Barnett's newspaper is because not only do they firebomb churches, they firebombed her newspaper. That's right. She was writing about lynchings. Then they put a bounty on her head. And so, yes, when you cut off the information flow, then you're able to control the medium. So you laid it out there. So I look forward to what the heck. I think I need to come back to Chicago and visit trendy and we need to do something together with my book, White Fear. Let's do it. Let's do a book signing. Let's have you educate. You do such a great job, Roland.

We really appreciate you. The folks at Trinity love you. And we just continue to do what you're doing, brother. You you have a ministry, a prophetic media ministry that is transforming people's lives. And we are grateful. Appreciate it, Fred. Thanks a bunch. We'll chat soon. All right. Take care. All right. Go to panel here. I mean, this is the Teresa. You're in communications. It's called mass media for a reason. There's a reason why it's called mass media. And we have to wake up to understand that everything that we see, billboards, television commercials, shows, radio programs, everything, media is designed to impact this. Yeah, mass media is very important.

As the brother from Trinity Church was actually explaining, one, I have to say congratulations to the analytics there as it relates to your podcast, because that is a huge step. And actually understand, Probably the only media outlet that's really independently owned. So congratulations to that. Well, guess what? Ain't nobody else in this list black other than Shane Black. They got Candace Owens

on here. So yeah, I'm the only black person on here. Yeah, the real rolling mark. The real black. But yeah, as we talk about just you know even mass media and some of those uh areas from digital print you know um the the podcasting but being consistent is always you know the number one point into making sure that you know people are following people are listening they're paying attention. And I think it all actually, that's how history started, right? They started in radio, started in print. And once the voice was cut, you know, especially Black voices were cut in history,

what happened? Riots start to happen, more out of control, narratives was pushed for different directions. And so the importance of protecting communications really means having an educated sender. And I think a lot of people, you know, watch these different podcasts and shows because they're looking for thought leaders to guide them to different perspectives that they may not know. So it is, you know, incumbents of us, you know, I could even say with this show, I've been on here probably four plus years, but I'm not on here because I look good. I'm on here because I'm bringing, like our other panels, something to the table based upon experience and the education that we receive. So it's in tandem for us to give back, more importantly, each and every day.

Hey, folks, if y'all are having some issues with audio, it's not us. We're sending a clean feed. Some folks are saying you should log out of YouTube or sign out and then sign back in. So, again, that's not on us, so that's on them. The thing here, this erasure issue, Kelly, is so important because it is by design. They want, again, if you strip it away, if you change the narrative, then you now are creating an alternative facts for for a whole new generation which is how we got here to the first place all these white folks in this country and lots of black folks them controlling the education system force-feeding us how great and wonderful the founding fathers

were and how they loved and cared for all mankind uh and others, we begin to learn that a lot of that was BS, but that's what happens when you learn true history, not his story. Definitely. I think that a racist's biggest fear outside of the fears delineated very well in your book, Roland, is a grandchild asking questions, right? And we see that in what you just outlined with the Smithsonian and our museums and our places of entertainment that are

being attacked and our history trying to be revised. But you also see it, as you've also said on this show, in our our education system i was actually just seeing a tiktok where a teacher um obviously she was the camera was facing her so the children were not um videoed but they were arguing with the teacher because they had learned before coming to her class that the enslaved were paid and they legit thought that slaves were employees of plantations and the like. It's already starting. This revisionist history has already started because these babies had been asking questions that, frankly, their grandparents can't answer without them becoming the villain, right? And when you see my favorite museum in D.C. for sure, I call it the Blacksonian,

being under attack not because it's spewing misinformation, not because it's giving alternative facts or anything like that, but because it's really one of the few, if not the only museum in the Smithsonian conglomerate that is as accurate and as forthcoming as it is. And it is in your face, right? You have no choice but to ask questions when you are in that museum. You have no choice but to learn something new every time you go in because that's just how much history, that's just how much information has been hidden and frankly tried to be destroyed by others so that we don't know what's going on.

So it is not surprising to me that history is being under attack. What I do think should be happening is the preservation of it, such as what you're doing with your show. TikTokers out there, social media influencers out there trying to preserve history, preserve fact. But I don't think that this is going to be a situation in which Trump is going to win or conservatives are going to win. It's going to be an uphill battle, but I think we'll come out on top. Well, Mekongo, the reason what Reverend Dr. Otis Moss talked about, we're talking about here, we're going to continue the conversation with Blavity Founders CEO Morgan DeBond after this next break, is something that many people have talked about, including Marcus Garvey. In Message to the People, the Course of African Philosophy, edited by Tony Martin, this is what Marcus Garvey said in Lesson 16. Propaganda. Propaganda means to prepare or to make known

extensively some particular phase of human intelligence. The desire is to convert or influence the people to the acceptance of the truth of that particular intelligence that is sought to be spread among them. Propaganda can be true or false in its origin or intent,

but it is always directed at the public for the purpose of winning the support of that public to the sentiment expressed in the propaganda. He then goes on to say propaganda is, as I said earlier, propaganda is all around you to make you buy a special brand of cigarettes, although no good, but advertised to be the best to make you drink or use a certain brand of tea, telling you of its wonderful qualities and its everlasting benefits, when thee is absolutely nothing to it, and so on. He then also says the press, cinema, pulpit, schoolroom are all propaganda agencies for one thing or the other. The pulpit carries religious propaganda.

He says the press carries out written propaganda. The platform carries on oral propaganda. The cinema carries out demonstrative propaganda. The white man is a great propagandist. He fully and completely realizes the value of propaganda. Therefore, you must organize your propaganda to undo the propaganda of other people. But here's something else that I thought jumped out that I really think is important. Text, tear from your walls all pictures that glorify other races. Tear up and burn every bit of propaganda that does not carry your idea of things. Treat them as trash.

And that sort of evokes for me the scene from Do the Right Thing when he said, Sal, why you ain't got why you ain't got no black people on the wall? But here's the thing right here. Have your own newspapers, your own artists, your own sculptors, your own pulpits, your own platforms, print your own books and show your own motion pictures and sculpture your own subjects. Never accept as yours your subjects of another race, but glorify all the good in yourselves. Finally, watch the newspapers, magazines and journals daily for propaganda against your race or your institutions. It says particularly against the UNIA rush into print immediately a defense of your race,

institutions and organizations from any attack. Never allow an insult propagated to go unanswered by you. This is why we talk about why we must not just sit back and wait to see what Trump and Doge and Musk and J.D. Vance are going to do. They are going to attack the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. They're going to attack every institution. We must right now be mobilized and organized to prepare what our response is going to be and, in fact, not even wait for them to do it, to go on the offense. Well, that whole part of what you read from Marcus Garvey was so powerful. But that last part, it really explains what you mean when you say, when people say, well,

why are you talking about this? Why are you talking about that? And like you said, the algorithms out there, people need to see that we are responding to the nonsense that's out there because it feeds into the algorithms. And if people don't understand what he's saying about propaganda, Trump, his whole brain, his whole mindset is about propaganda. Hitler said, he who controls the media controls the race. And that's why Trump and Republicans know that, right or wrong, whether they repeat something long enough, people are going to start

saying it. Whether they repeat something long enough, people are going to start believing it and acting accordingly. And we're too spent in so many different spaces not bringing it together. And that's why the Black Star Network is so important, because if we don't do this, particularly what he was saying about, you know, tearing down things that don't represent you and make sure that you have a rapid response team when people are trying to denigrate you,

look at what they're throwing at us every single day. How many Black outlets today have responded to what we've been talking about today about Harriet Tubman, that what's been talking about South Sudanese visas being retracted. Like, the responses can't come by Friday. They have to come in real time. And if we don't do this, we're going to lose the narrative. What you said, Roland, in terms of how you laid out why there are all of these attacks on, you know, black history and everything, it came from the support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

People are not connecting those dots. People are acting like, well, Black Lives Matter was over. It was then. And now we're just on to something else. And it's all a system. And if people like you who aren't out here to identify what we're dealing with, it's like James Baldwin said, if you don't know what's happening behind you, you can't understand what's happening around you.

And so we have to continue to build these platforms. We have to continue to support books like White Fear. I'm so glad you asked Reverend Moss that last question about other black churches, because like you said, there are black churches and then there are black preachers in churches. It's night and day. And we have to continue to build together to control our own information structure and platforms. And nobody's leading it better than you. Folks, going to a break. We come back. We'll continue the conversation about where's our money segment about the importance of

black owned media. Talking with the founder and CEO of Blavity. We're going to talk about what's happening. You got these up fronts where a lot of money, billions of dollars are being spent by these agencies and brands. So few black people are invited to the upfronts. That's another way to freeze us out. Don't forget, support the work that we do.

Join our Bring the Funk fan club. We do that. We're doing the work, folks. Nobody else is doing. You talk about this show two hours a day covering the issues of the folks don't talk about, especially all these other different networks. And then, of course, the other shows on the Black Star Network. Your support is critical. We're working on launching a business show as we speak.

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We'll be right back. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. I'm sure you've heard that saying that the only thing guaranteed is death and taxes. The truth is that the wealthy get wealthier by understanding tax strategy. And that's exactly the conversation that we're going to have on the next Get Wealthy, where you're going to learn wealth hacks that help you turn your wages into wealth. Taxes is one of the largest expenses you ever have. You really got to know how to manage that thing

and get that under control so that you can do well. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. It's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show. This is your boy, Herb Quay. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. We're being frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now.

You're not going to have black on you. So you know what? I get a kick out of the people who tell me, man, you be out here. Why are you begging a white man for here. Why are you begging a white man for money? Why are you begging a white man for money? Well, the fact of the matter is this industry, the media industry is completely controlled. It is run based upon advertising. Some 350, almost $400 billion a year in the United States is spent on advertising.

The number worldwide is almost 700 billion dollars. What is that industry about? It is about selling products. It's about touching the hearts and minds of people, getting them to buy those products. And so the question is, where do we stand in that? I can tell you right now, the studies show that when we talk about black owned media spend, these agencies and these companies are spending anywhere from 0.5 to 1 percent. That's total. Y'all, that's all black-owned media.

Federal government, same thing, 1% of all money being spent. And so whenever we talk about this, see, people are always saying, well, we need our own CNN. We need our own New York Times. We need our own Washington Post. Well, don't you understand that they get advertising money. It is not an easy thing for us to do because we are dealing with Jim Crow practices. We're dealing against people who don't necessarily want to support exactly what we're doing. In fact, they literally create all of these loopholes. You got to jump through. I mean, you'll see, you'll see see and the media participates. You'll see a company. They ain't

even launched yet. You'll see a white company. They ain't even launched yet. Get a big old story in the New York Times and the Washington Post and the trade publications and Deadline, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, the Rap, all these things. And I'm like, they got nothing to show for it. Y'all remember Quibi? Y'all remember Jeffrey Katzenberg?

That app came out during COVID where you're supposed to be able to, you could turn your phone and you could see the videos in vertical or horizontal. And they sold out. Y'all listen to me. They sold out their entire first year inventory of $150 million before they launched. Now, let me help y'all out. They had zero metrics. What do I mean by zero metrics? Meaning they had no proof that it'll work. They were like, oh, oh, Matt Whitman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, $150 million. When iHeartRadio launched the Black Information Network, they had no metrics, no ratings.

They had nine founding sponsors. McDonald's was one of them. Nine. Y'all, ain't no black media company could launch and have no metrics and lock up $150 million. So I need y'all to understand what we are up against and have no metrics and lock up $150 million. So I need y'all to understand what we are up against when we talk about trying to raise money,

trying to raise capital, trying to build media companies, trying to be able to grow, trying to be able to prosper. The reality is that black owned media today is surviving, not thriving. When you look at the companies, you look at an urban one, they own Radio One, they own about 50-plus stations, TV One, Clio Network, on the digital assets, the largest, if you will, black-owned media company, publicly traded company. They're operating with a different scale.

When you start talking about, like even with Essence, y'all need to understand something. The Essence Music Festival is responsible for 90% of the revenue of Essence Communications. That's it. And you heard Reverend Dr. Otis Moss talk about the importance of having platforms that we own and control because we don't have to ask somebody permission for us to do it. We don't have to explain to somebody why we're actually doing this show.

Joining us right now is Morgan DeBond. She's the founder and CEO of Blavity under the Blavity umbrella. They've got Afrotech. They've got other different conferences they do as well. Morgan, the upfronts are starting very soon. This is when all of the networks are going to be in New York and they're going to be rolling out, presenting all of their new programming and plans to all the media buyers.

And all the folks are going to be there. Group M is going to be there. We've gotten zero dollars from them. Publicity is going to be there. We've got zero dollars from them. You know, IPG, Horizon, McCann, everybody's going to be there. And 80 percent of that almost 400 billion dollars is going to be spent between April, May and June. And what happens is they have a secondary ad market, which is in September. And then what ends up having is called the scatter. We call that the crumbs. And that's when they call black media maybe and say, hey, we got fifty thousand. We got sixty thousand. We maybe have seventy thousand because they're just trying to spend it before the year end. Just give folk an understanding of the realities of what you and Blavity has had to deal with when you are a black owned media company trying to crack the nut of this advertising Jim Crow. Yeah, Roland, I think you painted a great picture in terms of the realities of what

we're dealing with today. Blabity's been around for over a decade, and we started off with one brand. We now have five brands. And more importantly, we have a huge publisher network of black-owned media publishers that are independent-owned that don't have the resources necessarily to have a huge sales team and run the ad technology that's required. Because the reality is that every year it gets more difficult to live up to the standards that they're requiring Black media to actually hit. Everything from viewability of the ads on the website to the keyword blocking. You didn't mention that in your open remarks, but that's one of the key reasons that they don't advertise huge amounts of money with black audiences is because they don't deem us as brand safe.

So over time, you've seen more and more black media websites move away from news. No, no, no, no, no. Stop, stop there. Stop there because people need to understand something because so when they say brand safe what they say to us is well you know a lot of brands you know you know they don't want opinion then what happens is even on youtube when we if we show a video of a cop shooting someone that video gets demonetized because brands i don oh, I don't want that. But here's the crazy thing.

While they tell us brand safety, boy, I can turn on Fox News and see all sorts of brands, major brands. That's right. And further, you know, we have a website called Shadow and Act that is an entertainment site. And we'll write articles about things like 50 Cent Shows or all the types of content that goes online. But because we're a black site and you see us talking about a cop show or you see us talking about drugs, you think that it's not brand safe

when we're talking about some of the top shows in the world. Right, right. You know, and I think what happens too, Roland, is that systemically what happens is we have to fight for every dollar earned. So let's say that example, we're talking about, you know, a Starz show and it comes out, that article goes viral. But we find out after the fact that all of the ads on that site no longer count because it was deemed brand safe.

But hold up, hold up, hold up. Hold on, let's start right there, though. Because here you are writing about that Starz show. Is Starz advertising? You already know the answer to these questions. See? See right there. So what happens is and I've made this perfectly clear, and I've literally had the folk hit me. I've made this perfectly clear, and I've literally had the folk hit me. I've said to, you know, I don't mind entertainment.

There are people who I know on those shows. There have been people who have texted me, hey, I would love, man, can I get on your show? And I've had to say, say, bro, say, sis, I love you. I think you're great, but I can't put you on my show because your streaming service, your company never calls about advertising. They never call. And so I've said to Amazon Prime, Prime Video, Netflix, Stars, Max, Own, Hulu, Paramount+, all of them, I am not going to do any segments of your shows on my network because y'all publicists, listen, I just told this to a car company

that invited me down to a music festival. I said, I'm not giving y'all three days in coverage. I said, when you're a car company, don't advertise. And it's not a quid pro quo. I'm not saying I'll do this if you advertise. What I am saying is, if you think my audience is valuable enough to showcase your talent to bring their black eyeballs, then my audience is also valuable enough to showcase your talent to bring their black eyeballs, then my audience

is also valuable enough for you to cut a check. And I think, Roland, that's the challenge with black media is we're always having to make these choices. I mean, you were just reading conversations and theories from Marcus Garvey about, well, when there's artists and creators and stories that are promoting our culture that are out like entertainment and news and publications and movies and TV shows, but they're controlled by white capitalists. You know, what what decision does a black owned media do? Do we say we're not going to cover some of these shows when it's written or produced by someone black, even though it's owned and distributed by a network that it's not going to give us a dollar? Are we going to write the articles about HBCUs? Are we going to write the articles about gun violence when we know that we're going to

make negative money every time we write that article? How do we sustain ourselves when we're given these types of requirements? Let's talk about this here as well, because you touched on it earlier. We've experienced this. Just share it out, folks, the requests that they make. My good friend Todd Brown at Urban Edge Network, co-founder, he always says they always want that one thing that you don't quite have. You can have 30 things.

It's like, but do you have this? Ah, you know what? We were really, we really need that one thing. In essence, these agencies, and it's really the agencies. I let the brands off hook, but what they're doing is their whole goal is to search for a way to say no. They can say they tried. Right. So they can say, well, we had intent to commit. We made a commitment to spend a million dollars, two million dollars, three million dollars in our upfront.

And then throughout the year, there's all these reasons why it didn't happen and why they have to pull back. And I think that's the reality of what we're dealing with today. We saw it when George Floyd was murdered, all of these giant commitments you've talked about on the show before, huge commitments to Black-owned media. And then when it didn't pan out year over year, despite us applying a ton of pressure, all of us building tons of inventory and capacity year over year growth, they said, oh said oh well now we have this new requirement where you need to give us 20 in-kind impressions or you need to show all of this has to be in media we're not going to sponsor your content tent poles we're not going to sponsor your events it needs to be 100 media and it also needs to be 100 viewable which is impossible it's an impossible standard it means

i'm throwing out i have to give you 120 impressions so that you can throw out the 20 percent that weren't viewable. Yeah, absolutely. And so and so what it is, is it is a it is an effort to say no. You mentioned there's a word there you mentioned that that immediately struck me. You said events. And here's something else that they do. And let me real clear to everybody who's watching. I don't begrudge, let me be real clear, I don't begrudge any black-owned media company that has receptions, award shows, conferences, or whatever. But here's what they do, Morgan. What they do is they'll sit here and say, oh, what's your calendar?

Do you have any events? Do you have an awards show? Yeah, we'll sponsor that. So what then happens is you have to, in essence, create a whole separate entity that is event-driven. That's a whole staff. That's a whole different core business. As opposed to when you have a media company,

you ingest ads, you press a button, it goes out. You don't have to build it. So you're running around now spending months putting on a conference, putting on a summit, putting on awards program, and then you're doing all of this sort of stuff. And then when you look at the numbers, the margin, frankly, is low because it's not like they're spending significant amounts.

And I've literally said to brands and to agencies, no, I ain't doing it. And I literally have said, and this is my grandmother, the catering business, so I cater since I was seven years old old I stopped when I was 30 so I kind of know a little bit about events and how to put on events and I've said no we're in the media business I want to do the same thing Disney and Comcast does

that's press the damn button I am not going to go create a second if I wanted to create an event business I would have created an event business that's another thing that they do that sort of just that. So they freeze us out of the advertising money and they force black owned media into the event business. Yeah. Quiet as it's kept most of our peers, 80 percent, as you mentioned, Essence and others are in the event business. That is where the majority of the revenue comes from.

I, too, also build an event business. right? Afrotech is the largest professional gathering of young Black professionals in this whole country. And it is a separate team. It's a separate sales team. It's a separate whole freaking team. And it was a lot of money to build. And it's a lot of money to maintain. And it's been interesting, as times have changed, how more and more of our media advertisers who originally weren't that interested in technology or innovation or Silicon Valley are now like, oh, how do I sponsor this? And I'm like, no, you need to stay where you're at on the digital side. Yeah, it is. It is. People have no idea the hell we come to. Last question I'm going to throw to you before I go to my panel is this here. Let's talk about and how have you had to navigate the battle between the brand going, oh, no, it's the agency.

And then the agency going, oh, no, no, no, it's the brand. And then the brand said, no, no, no, no, it's the agency. The agency is the brand. Like, I've literally had to tell some brands, yo, it's your money. Stop. Stop all this back and forth is your money. I've even had an experience where a major brand. I'm talking about a major, major, major, major brand. We did a deal, a high six-figure deal, and the brand was like, yo, let's go. The black folks in the brand said, hey, you need to call the agency, do all the paperwork stuff. So I, okay, I email the agency, and let's just say Molly.

In fact, that was her name, Molly. So Molly sends me an email back with a question. I'm like, okay, well, I answered the question. Molly asked me a second question. And I'm like, the hell is going on? Like, am I being vetted again? So then I hit the black people, oh no, no, no, it's just, you know, it's the paperwork stuff, whatever.

So then Molly comes back with a third question. So I don't even call the black people now. I called a white guy who was over the whole thing. I was like, yo, what's up? He goes, who the hell is Molly? I said, say man, that ain't me, that's your agency. So they had a meeting the next day. He said, you know what? There's a call tomorrow. He said, I'm going to jump on this call. So he gets on the call. Molly is shocked he's on the call.

Molly goes, are y'all aware that he has a segment on his show called Crazy Ass White People? Damn right. The white exec goes, am I on it? He goes, yes, we are aware. And it's a segment that's highlighting racist attacks on black people just trying to do their jobs. Molly, with the agency, tried to block the deal after the brand has already signed off. He goes, you know what? We're just going to pay him direct. Now, here was the crazy thing, Morgan.

I had described this very issue to the CMO of the brand and others four months previously. They saw in real time how an agency will try to block a deal because you know what the agencies hate? The agency can't stand when you go to the client and the client issues a dictate because the agency, they want to decide how the client's money is spent. And they are pissed when you do that. That's right, Roland. My best advice to every single entrepreneur and founder that I talk to is it's okay to be difficult. The difficult people are the ones who win at the end of the day. I tell my sellers every single day, well, who is the decision maker behind the agency? I don't want to talk to the agency. The agency is going to execute. We're going to have a relationship with them, but they work for the behind the agency? I don't want to talk to the agency. The agency is going to execute. We're going to have a relationship with them.

But they work for the client. So if you don't know who's actually signing the check to the agency, then you haven't done your job. You need to get in the field. You need to go to these meetings. You need to be super annoying. If you need me to send an email, you need me to set up a meeting when I'm in that city, I will do it because that is the only way that we've been able to survive a decade is actually going straight to the decision maker and making them uncomfortable. But nine times out of 10, they don't know. They actually do not know what's going on behind the scenes because we are such a small rounding error in their total marketing budget. Even if they have

all good intent, it's so small that they are literally like, oh, yeah, sure, we can give you $700,000 or $1 million because it's nothing actually compared to their total budget spend. This is my last question before you go to my panel here. So this, go to my iPad, Anthony. So this here is the upfront and new fronts 2025 calendar. I just want people to understand if y'all see how extensive this is. And you see all that you see right here. Reach TV, April 4th, 14th at 2 p.m. in New York. That's a black owned companies.

We just can keep going. Y'all see all this. So agencies and different media companies, they put on... Mirror Digital. There's one. Huh? Mirror Digital's black. Sheila Mormon. Okay, Mirror Digital right here. Let's see here. Okay, so you got all...

So this is all April and May in different deal. Now, here's the other thing, Morgan. The agencies will invite brands. They also have these equity up front. So basically, Anthony, come back.

So basically what they do is they don't invite us to the main show, so they created these equity up front. This is after George Floyd's death for us to go present, and hell, we do that, and we don't get no money from the equity up fronts has Blavity been invited by any agency to present

at this year's up fronts no which we're invited to the equity up fronts which were a few weeks ago so they're also not happening at the same time so we're not in the city you know we fly into the city because our team's setting up meetings But it's not designed for us to be a part of the ecosystem when the decisions are being made and the deals are being made. So so for folks to understand, they created the equity up fronts for us to talk to diverse media. But the real up fronts is here and they don't invite us to this. And I get, you know, I see what Mir is trying to do, Sheila, and reach TV as well. But guess what? You could spend a lot of money putting a whole show on everything. Like at the end of the day, are you getting any money in return?

And more often than not, which is not not you ain't getting jack in return and more often than not, which is not not, you ain't getting jack in return. You're spent. They don't mind you flying to New York and come and meet with them. And all you're being rewarded with are meetings. Or as my friend Todd Brown says, everybody in this meeting is being paid except me. Y'all are paid to be in the meeting. I'm paying to be in this meeting. Questions? Questions. Kelly, you first. Sure. With the talk of DEI policies going away and things of that nature, how has the erasure of DEI policies, specifically in this industry, impacted your bottom line, if at all? And do you see, you know, news of, you know, possible recession and things like that? How do you think that's going to be impacting your business as far as media

and advertising dollars? Yeah, the Blavity brands are strong. You know, we're one of the few publishers that has a diversity of brands because we have a variety of lifestyle brands and we have our publisher network. So our revenue is actually very strong compared to even last year or the year before. The reason for this is because even in downturns and recessions, we actually see an increase in advertising and spending, particularly for the types of products and services that people like to advertise to black people, which is fast food and kind of things of that nature, entertainment. And I think when it comes to D&I, it's really interesting, actually, because you see the news in the press on one side, and then I see an RFP and IO come in on the other side from that same company. So, you know, Roland, I don't know if that's been your experience, but so far that's how what we've been seeing is that there's a lot of politicking.

And then at the end of the day, they still need growth for their business. And black people are one of the undertapped markets in this country. And so they know we can potentially grow our top and bottom line by getting more black customers. Indeed, indeed. Omicongo. Thank you so much, Mr. Vaughn, for all your incredible work over the years. My question to you is, similar to when we see what's happening with the Trump administration, we start to see a rise in more Black people applying to HBCUs and the like.

Do you see a larger turn towards Black-owned media when these attacks on the Trump administration are happening as well? Or is there sort of like a problem? Do your numbers pretty much stay the same? Our traffic has gone up year over year. And I do believe that the reason that that's happened is because people are looking for a source of truth when there's so much misinformation and propaganda going on mainstream news. You know, the moment that the news, mainstream news basically showed us, hey, we're going to be beholden to the Trump administration. We're going to let go of people like Joy Reid. We're

going to let go of people who are like tellers of truth. That was the moment that I think Black people said, okay, I need to switch my information input. So our newsletter goes out every single day to a million plus people. And that is a place where people are able to get the news and information. You know, one of the challenges that we have is how do you finance the news and information that is chronically underfunded, knowing what I talked about earlier in terms of keyword blocking, that that has not changed. So how do we manage that? That's something that we're actively working through. I mean, I'd love your guys' model in terms of keyword blocking, that that has not changed. So how do we manage that? That's something that we're actively working through.

I mean, I love your guys' model in terms of having direct contributions. We've talked about doing that. But really trying to figure out how can we strengthen our financing for reporting, which is very different than lifestyle content. Yep. Yep, absolutely. Teresa. So, Morgan, thank you so much for coming on. I am definitely an admirer of your work.

I am in the PR space, so I have been on the other end of making sure that some of those media ad buys go out. I know you guys have a I think you call it Blavity Fest, and you have it every year. How have you seen some of the turnout in terms of interested individuals and those who are sponsoring the event, especially since Donald Trump came into office? Yeah, Blavity Fest is at the end of May and May 31st, June 1st in Atlanta. We're going to get straight to the people. We've got lineup with 2 Chainz and Kirk Franklin and tons of incredible speakers that will be there. Sponsors are not bullish. I do think that there's been a bit of a pullback on anything that they can't measure the return on investment. So we're seeing more and more of our partners ask for things that

they can track, which is, you know, digital display advertising, social media, creator posts, influencer posts, things like that, and less of things that were brand affiliation or brand association plays like a sponsorship of a festival. You know, the good news is that festivals do have ticket sales. And I believe that the Atlanta audience, people in Alabama, the Carolinas, are going to come in droves to be able to come together and celebrate, especially when it's a rough economy right now, and I think people want to be together. Last...

We need that in Philadelphia here. You guys got the Roots Festival, which I think is pretty strong. It's good, but I think Blavity offers a little bit more programming than entertainment and music. True that. Last question I have for you and I had this conversation over the weekend, Morgan.

What has been your experience in trying to collaborate with other Black-owned media brands. I was talking this morning over the weekend about this, and I said, listen, I said, I think for a lot of the larger ones, they want to live in silos. They don't want to partner. They see people as upstarts. I said, the bottom line is with 13% of the population, We should be going into these places, operating as a collective, and then going in asking for a large number, and then we split the money up later. But also I think a huge problem is that there are too many people, they want to be the only one. They think they can eat all of it.

I said Disney can't eat all of it. Comcast can't eat all of it. I have a very simple philosophy. I want everybody to eat. I said Disney can't eat all of it. Comcast can't eat all of it. I have a very simple philosophy. I want everybody to eat. I want Blavity to eat. I want Black Enterprise to eat. I want Urban One to eat. I want Revolt to eat. I want Black Papers to eat. I want us to eat. There's actually enough, and if we operate in the collective, I think we can take down more. The problem is it's a bunch of folk with ego who do not actually want to collaborate and don't want to partner. What has been your experience? Roland, every year behind closed doors, I try to buy or sell myself to

another company because I truly believe that we will only win if we consolidate. I've done three acquisitions in the last 10 years of Black-owned businesses, bringing them under the Blavity fold. And I believe that it's the right way to grow and scale. Pretty much everyone that you've named, I've talked to. But to your point, they're comfortable. Some of these are family businesses. Most of them at this point are family businesses owned by wealthy individuals or families that have $700 million plus in net worth. So they want the

power. They want the power of the distribution channel so that they can be the kingmakers. And that's nice, but that doesn't really serve the people because it doesn't allow us to consolidate the resources of all of this overhead that we all have to carry in order to be able to tell the truth. It doesn't make sense for all of us to have a CFO, for us to all have our own ad technology stack, for us to all have the same media sellers that are going against the same media agencies is absolutely a waste of money. And if anybody wants to call me after this, you all have my number. Yeah, well, I mean, listen, there were a lot of folk who I personally sat down with, traveled to before I even started this. And I said, I said, I'm doing what you're not doing. So there's no competition here.

And folks didn't want to partner. And I said, OK, fine, we're just going to do it ourselves. And you're right. I've been preaching consolidation for a very long time. I remember, God rest his soul, Jim Washington, who was the owner and publisher of the Dallas Weekly. When I ran the Dallas Weekly in 1998 as managing editor, he was like, Mr. Martin, why are you always trying to put my competitors out of business? I said, I'm not trying to put them out of business. I said, I just think it's stupid as hell. You got seven black newspapers in Dallas. I said, Dallas ain't big enough to support black news, seven black papers. I said, it ain't big enough to support two daily newspapers. So what, what makes you think that these seven black people

is going to be surviving and thrive? I mean, thriving. And the reality is that was seven different people, seven egos, seven people who wanted invitations to the mayor's event, to the Christmas party or whatever the hell. And I said to him, Jim, I said, we're getting we're not getting ad dollars, Jim. We're getting community affairs dollars. I said, one thing I'll say to Roland is behind the scenes, a lot of us are collaborating on the revenue side. So many of the publications you mentioned are on our ad network. So we are running their ad technology and doing their sales. But what we're not collaborating is for people who own and dominate different distribution channels. Like you are the best on YouTube. And when it comes to digital video, there's no one

that comes even close to your reach and your distribution, right? Then there's people who have television and radio. That's actually where I think the consolidation needs to happen, where we'll have a lot of strength. Oh, no, absolutely. And I can tell you, and I'm going back. Matter of fact, I always use George Floyd as an example. That happened on May 25th, 2020.

And so we were watching. That was a moral day. It was a Monday. And we were watching the protests unfold. And remember on Saturday something was burning and everybody is talking. And I think it was like a nine o'clock at night. I sent an email to like 20 plus different people. And I said, why are we all watching white mainstream media break down what's happening? I said, why don't we all come together and produce our own show? I look at them, this done, this is not, we were not in this studio. We were not in

this 5,800 square foot studio. We were off across the street and there's, we were, we were co-leasing, sub-leasing this place. All we had was one main room and three offices. That's all we had. And I said, we have the studio. We got the technology. And only out of the 20 people, one person responded. And they actually couldn't even get their technology together. We went ahead and broadcast our own show. I think we were live three or four hours. We did.

We were only. We four hours. We did, we were only, we were only, my God, we were only a year and a half old. We had about 400,000 views that night, but the point that I raised was, like, let's not wait, let's stop watching the white media tell our own story. Then that

December, I reached out to the folks and I said, hey, we all individually can't cover this Warnock Ossoff runoff race. Same thing. Let's get together. And it was only like two people who responded about less partnering. And then even we couldn't pull that together. So we just went ahead and just did it ourselves. But that's precisely the point. I've been saying, hey, we don't need everybody doing news. But to your point, if we're able to say, hey, we can run this content here, run it here. Now, what do you have that we can run as well? Now you're to your point, you're maximizing resources to maximize reach. That's right.

And, you know, all I can do is control myself at this point. So I think you and I should have a conversation after this about how we can support you on the digital distribution side as well. Because it really just has to start with us taking it one step at a time. You know, I can't control essence. I can't control Ebony. I can't control, you know, what Revolt is doing. But we can. We have a lot of power sitting right here on this conversation. Oh yeah. Well, we, there are some things that

we are doing on the AI side with how we take this digital content into written form because people still read written form. And one of the things that we're also doing is I've already signed the deal with a black owned company out of LA. We're completely revamping blackstarnetwork.com turning into a news portal I'm actually hiring two staff writers I know exactly

what content I want every how many stories for a week because part of the other issue is you know this here because that was I hate I really do hate aggregation because the problem is we're rewriting somebody else's stuff and then a lot of times we don't the problem is we're rewriting somebody else's stuff.

And then a lot of times we don't actually, you know, we're not aware of, well, who wrote the story and what their agenda is. So the opportunity is there. So we'll definitely have that conversation because at the end of the day, again, if there's something that you're doing that I'm not doing and I'm doing that you're not doing it doesn't hurt us to actually work together and again I want everybody to eat that's and we can all do that so that's what's critical for you looking forward to it all right Morgan appreciate it oh first of all again you said the conference when was it you said at the end of end of the fest yes May 31st June 1st Atlanta get your tickets now blabityfest.com.

Is that Memorial Day weekend? Is that the same time? It's the weekend after. Oh, it's the weekend after. Got it. OK. All right. So May 31st, June 1st. That's right. OK. All right. Morgan, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks, everyone. All right. Going to go to break when we come back. A couple of more things we want to talk about that you need to be aware of.

You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change, the attacks on education, book fans and what it means for us. Our guest, Aaliyah Logan, who will join us talking about what are the implications for the lack of investment in education, both locally and internationally, and what this will mean for future generations. Fighting back against any of the administration's attempt to essentially make sure that people are uneducated and destroy history and make sure you forget history and historical things that have happened. Check us out on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of the Proud Family.

Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin. All right, y'all. Teresa Lundy. Let's go from our panels with Teresa. We appreciate you joining us on today's show. Thank you so very much. Folks, let's talk. Talk South Sudanese. A bold new immigration crackdown from the racist the Trump administration. It's already stirring concern among African countries over the weekend. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, you know, the one whose parents from Cuba,

because he ain't from here, announced that all U.S. visas held by South Sudanese passport holders are now revoked, effective immediately. In a statement on the State Department website, Rubio said it is time for the transitional government of South Sudan to stop taking advantage of the United States. Enforcing our nation's immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States. Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them as South Sudan's transitional government has failed to fully respect this principle,

effectively immediately the United States Department of State is taking action to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry into the United States by South Sudanese passport holders. We'll be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation. It comes after a deportation dispute between the United States and South Sudan. Washington says the African nation refused to accept the return of one individual, and now an entire community is paying the price. During a news conference, South Sudan's foreign minister responded to this revocation by the United States. The government of South Sudan has noted the United States announcement on April 5th, 2025, regarding the immediate revocation of visas for South Sudanese passport

holders. This decision was made as a consequence of what was described as the failure of South Sudan's transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner. We would like to clarify that the government of South Sudan has consistently maintained open communication and cooperation with U.S. authorities regarding immigration and deportation matters. The government welcomes all its citizens whether they are returning voluntarily or through deportation processes. It is imperative to highlight that South Sudan has consistently demonstrated goodwill and

cooperation with the United States on immigration and deportation issues. In this context, the South Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC, has issued emergency travel documents for 21 out of 23 individuals identified by US authorities, with some successfully repatriated and admitted into South Sudan without issue. Of the two individuals confirmed as non-South Sudanese nationals, one is a Congolese citizen, namely Mr. Makula Kintu, and the other is a South Sudanese national. The government deeply regrets that despite this history of collaboration and partnership,

South Sudan now faces a broad revocation of visas based on an isolated incident involving misrepresentation by an individual who is not a South Sudanese national. South Sudan reaffirms its commitment to engaging constructively with the United States to ensure the proper verification and acceptance of bona fide South Sudanese nationals consistent with international standards and practices. South Sudan values its strong partnership with the United States and appreciates the significant contributions

made by the American government and people as well as the South Sudanese community residing in the U.S. The government remains steadfast in its commitment to resolving this matter through constructive dialogue and collaboration. The Republic of South Sudan looks forward to working closely with U.S. authorities to address this issue promptly, fairly and in a manner that is mutually beneficial. Now

tensions are high in South Sudan. Their vice presidents under house arrest after tensions between militia and the government are rising fast. The UN is warning a possible civil war in South Sudan and no new no new visas will be issued. No existing ones in honored and no South Sudanese new visas will be issued, no existing ones and honored, and

no South Sudanese nationals will be allowed into the U.S. until further notice. This is the first countrywide visa ban for the Trump administration. Here's the real thing, Omicongo, here. The fact of the matter is Trump folk, they just want to send anybody anywhere. You heard them say that was a Congolese resident. We've seen this with other countries. Their whole attitude is we don't give a damn who we send to you. You just take them.

Yes, and on top of that, Roland, kind of going back to the importance of your first segment, this was the first time I've heard with this story, I've heard about the Sudan story all day, but this was the first time anyone's actually talked about the person who was rejected actually not being Sudanese. So that goes to the importance of accuracy as it relates to these stories.

Furthermore, they want to make examples of this. And you know why I'm kind of like a little bit out of it right now? Because my mind is, as I'm thinking of the Duke basketball player, Malouak, who's from southern Sudanese. And I'm wondering, like, are they going to make an example out of him? You know, he's at Duke, and that's where Stephen Miller went, and he probably doesn't think Black people should go to Duke or something. But this is when people need to rally together, because it's another example of Trump also starting with small nations and small countries that people—that he thinks that people aren't going

to give a damn about. And if you think that it's only going to be South Sudan, it's going to be other countries. So this is a time when people need to rally around, have accuracy, respect other countries' sovereignty. And just like you're doing with, you know, El Salvador, you know, not just shipping people wherever you feel like you can ship them. People need to stand for their sovereign borders. This administration has no patience and they just want to make examples out of everybody. And I'm really interested to see what's going to happen at Duke if they're going to try to make an example out of him.

Roland, there are less than 50 visas that have been issued to South Sudanese here in the United States, right? This is who they want to target? It's not surprising. We got to stand together. Kelly, real simple. This is called African Asians are shithole countries.

That's what Donald Trump thinks. And we're going to make an example out of you, shithole, your shithole country. That's all this is. They don't give a, they do, Donald Trump, MAGA, Elon Musk, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, they do not want black people in this country. They will happily take white Afrikaners from South Africa. They do not want black people from Africa. Right. You know, you heard about the what was it, the $5 million gold card for people who can afford it that was basically advertised to white European countries and Russia. You hear about it in the dog whistles of exactly who they're going to welcome here and exactly who they're not.

You know, said dog whistle is becoming a little bit louder and becoming a real whistle now than now. But you're absolutely right. It is sad. It is sad and it's pathetic how this administration is just living in their racism out loud through these policies, through their rhetoric, through their behaviors, everything. But what I am more concerned about now is after this administration, should there be an after to this administration ideologies have been so mercurial from presidency to presidency as of late. the United States from here on out because they can't afford to govern their foreign policies based off of specifically who's in office at the time. There has to be some type of uniformity on their end. So what does that mean for us? If I were in their shoes, we would be treated like a third world country until there was a history, a new history of, you know, decent behavior. And right now we don't have that.

We haven't had that for at least a decade and a half as far as how mercurial and flip-flopping we have been as far as foreign policy is concerned. So my concern isn't just about Sudan. While it is terrible, this is a now problem. But what are the implications of this? It is how other countries are going to be viewing us. Sudan has partnerships with other countries. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're not the only country that has business with Sudan, who has diplomatic relations with South Sudan. So how are those countries looking at us? How are those countries going to converse with us and be diplomatic with us?

Are they going to be diplomatic with us from here on out? And right now I am looking at a pattern of hostility, not just towards Black countries, but frankly towards the world that isn't Russia. And that's very concerning. Well, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. On the Congo, Kelly, we appreciate both of you being on today's show. Thank you so very much. Again, appreciate Teresa as well. Folks, tomorrow we're going to talk about a lawsuit against St. Augustine's University. Of course, we're going to be there on Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina. So the school having more drama.

Now you got to spend more money on legal fees. So it's like, what the hell is going on? We'll tell you about that tomorrow. Don't forget the town hall. Doors open at 5 p.m. Martin Street Baptist Church. No, they're not naming the church after me because we're coming. That's the name of the church.

So we're going to be there in the fellowship hall there broadcasting live. So we want everybody in Raleigh come on out. I'll be signing copies of my book White Fear. If you are a graduate, faculty, student, staff of St. Augustine's, we want to see you in the house. I know my Alfred brothers are going to be there. They've been spreading the word as well. So we look forward to, again, broadcasting from there on Friday. So also tomorrow we're going to talk about, remember we showed you the racist video

of Marjorie Taylor Greene's ex-husband? Well, now that racist is apologizing for verbally attacking a couple of Muslim women as they were praying. Mind of their own business. And so we'll have that for you tomorrow as well. Lots to break down folks and so we look forward to seeing it don't forget support the work that we do join our bring the funk fan club the goal is very simple we want

20 000 people can uh of course uh supporting us uh on average 50 bucks each which is four dollars and 19 cents a month 13 cents a day first of all, let me say this here. A lot of y'all who have sent checks and money orders, it takes a while for us to actually deposit those checks and money orders. Between the last two mail runs, we literally had almost 900 checks and money orders. Let me just share the holders for you.

So I did go to the post office today. And just so y'all understand, a lot of people have been supporting us. Yes, I had to bring a duffel bag in to get the mail. So please be patient. I understand folk balance their check check check books. But when you send a check and money order it's a it's a much lengthy process it's not as just simple as just us sitting here because what happens is some people have actually they make the check out to roland martin they make it out to black star network they make it out to roland martin unfiltered y'all that's three separate accounts so we literally have to go through every single envelope, open the envelope, look at the check, put what categories in. We then have to we then have to log every single check because we put

your name on our list on Friday. We then have to sign the back of every check and then go through. So it's a lot more process. And so, again, this is so y'all understand this is so this is all what came in today when i went to the post office uh so please if you sent a check or a money order i ask you to be patient we absolutely appreciate everybody who is supporting our show the people who don't believe in electronic uh payments uh who are sending stuff i appreciate all of that but just understand uh there's yes there's still more in here uh there's a process that we have to go through when it comes to checks and money orders and so please uh please be patient yes that's like literally that was what's all in the today. So if you want to give me a cash out, please use the Stripe QR code.

This is it right here on the screen. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com. That's Stripe QR code. If you want to use a credit card, you can also use the Stripe QR code. As I said, our target goal is to have 20,000 people give on average 50 bucks each year. The goal is to raise a million dollars annually from our fans uh so here's the thing y'all i don't charge a subscription fee i don't do patreon i don't do substack um there's like perfect example midas touch uh the progressive network they've got

you know they've got they do 350 million views on their YouTube channel. They make a lot of money off their YouTube channel. They also have 40,000 people pay $8 a month on their sub stack. Well, do the math, y'all. That's $96 a year. I purposely did not want to charge a subscription for our content because I wanted this widely available. So I wanted people to be able to access our content on our Facebook page, on our YouTube page, on our other pages. I want them to be able to access it. We post clips on our social media

and so that's why we do that. And so i knew if we had done a subscription model people would not be able to see it we would not be doing 200 million views a year uh and so that's why we do it so we asked you to support our brena funk fan club as a way to donate to our cause uh in order for us to be able to build this and grow as i I said, this show started September 4th, 2018 with just this one show. On September 4th, 2021, we launched the Black Star Network. In February 2022, we start debuting our shows. We debuted four shows. You know, three of those shows have gone away. We added new shows. And so Dr. Greg Carr, his show is still with us, The Black Table. That's a weekly show. Reverend Dr. Jackie Hood Martin showed the balanced living. That is a weekly show.

We just launched the other side of change with Bria Baker and Jamia Burley. That is a weekly show. I am working with some folks right now to launch a business show. We are working on a health show. We are also, I had another call today. We're looking at creating a Black-owned business marketplace for you to be able to buy Black-owned products through our channel. I've already signed a deal with a Black-owned web developer for us to completely redevelop BlackstarNetwork.com and turn it into a news portal.

I'm negotiating with two people to become writers for us to write stories that appear on my show and other shows. We'll have that content on blackstarnetwork.com. And so we're looking to be as robust as possible. When you look at our merchandise, we've actually grown that as well. All of that pays for all of this here. Y'all the numbers do not lie. All of this when we talk about staff and we talk about travel, we talk about listen, our lease in this place is up in 2026.

This is going to cost several thousand more dollars a year than what we've been paying for the last four years. So when you talk about our fiber four years so when you talk about our fiber optic lines when you talk about upgrading our equipment uh i am right now as we speak about to go through about a hundred thousand dollar refresh of our lighting system because we need to do some lighting in some different places we're looking at potentially adding additional robotic cameras. So all of this stuff actually costs money, real money. And so you already heard the conversation with Morgan DeBond.

We don't get the money from these ad agencies. I told you the major ad agencies, Group M, even when they had a black CEO, zero dollars. Publicist, zero dollars. Dentsu, $0. Horizon, $0. I can name all of these agencies and we've gotten $0. We've gotten support from certain brands, Coca-Cola, General Motors. We did, what, two, three years ago, Procter & Gamble. haven't heard from them since so listen our fan base is critically important uh to our success so again cash app use the qr code from strike you see it right here uh and of course go to blackstar network.com please if you're going to send a check a money order please make it out to roland martin unfiltered it makes it so much easier to process your checks and money orders.

Please do that. And so make it payable to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. PayPal. You can go to R. Martin. Use our PayPal dot me for slash R. Martin unfiltered. Please, when you see that, don't freak out because the parent company of us is New Vision Media. So you see New Vision Media on there? That is us. I've gotten y'all phone calls and emails. Is this Roland Martin? Yes, it is. But it's New Vision Media. So don't freak out. PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com, roland at rolandmartinunfilmo.com forward slash RM unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Roland S. Martin.com. Roland at Roland Martin unfiltered.com. When you buy our merchandise, our hoodies, our crew necks, our T-shirts, wall art mugs, those are dollars that we also split between the company

as well as us as well. And so please, and also if you got a picture of your hat or your shirt, post it on social or email it to me at rolling at rollingmartin.com or rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com and we'll show it on the air. Get our two newest shirts, hashtag We Tried to Tell Ya, FAFO 2025. Also, don't blame me. I voted for the black woman. Go to rollingmartin.creator-spring.com.

The cure code is there as well. Go to blackstarnetwork.com. When you get my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, proceeds from that book go right into the show as well. And so you can get from these online stores, bookstores. You saw we took Target off because we're not supporting, we are not supporting Target until they accept the demands laid out in TargetFast.org. If you want the audio version I read on Audible, download it from there as well. Also, download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. All of y'all folks who are on YouTube, hit that like button,

y'all, because that helps the algorithm to share our videos. And lastly, download the Black Star Network app. Now, here's the piece. We want you watching on the show on YouTube because we generate more money on YouTube. We don't generate money from the app. We have the app as our way of being able to have a platform. And if anybody says that our stuff cannot run, we will always have our own channel. That's why we have our app. The app costs me $150,000 a year. Why do we do it that way?

It's because we want to be independent. So if YouTube or Facebook or anybody says, nah, we ain't running it, we're like, cool, we're still going to run it. So download Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. And, of course, download Fanbase. Get Fanbase. Get the app.

We're trying to build it to another million followers. $11.4 million has already been raised. The goal is $17 million. Go to startengine.com forward slash fanbase. Y'all, that's it. I will see. Anybody have a birthday? Anybody had? Nah, anybody birthday? Anybody my family birthday?

My daddy birthday later month? I'm trying to, what you want? What do you want? What? Is one of y'all birthdays something? Nobody care about y'all Deltaversary? I got two Howard University talking about our Deltaversary come up. Do y'all see what this is? This is the only, I got two Deltas and a Sigma in the control room.

It does not matter. They don't get shout-outs. The only versary that's going to get a shout-out is on April 27th when I celebrate my 36th year in the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. So the rest of y'all, first of all, don't be saying damn because that's how you get paid. So don't be doing that Kevin Hart damn, okay, because you don't be saying damn when that check come in. Uh-huh.

See? See? Uh-huh. Oh, that was dumb. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. I don't care. I don't care.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I seen y'all ass home for good. Y'all going to be saying damn. Yeah, I thought so. Now they like, oh, no, that wasn't me. Wasn't me. All right, y'all ass home for good. Y'all gonna be saying, damn, yeah, I thought so. Now they like, oh, no, that wasn't me, wasn't me. All right, y'all, that's it.

I'm gonna see y'all tomorrow. Right here, also, we're gonna have for you Bishop William Barber. He spoke Saturday at the Indivisible March. We're gonna play for you his comments from that march as well. So it's a lot I had to get to. Y'all, this could have been an easy three, four hour show, but we gotta go home.

I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on Black On, unfiltered, unapologetic, y'all know how we do it, Black Star Network. Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. No punch. I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? This is an iHeart Podcast.