#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Trump’s Voter Data Grab, Guard Exits LA, Judge Strikes Down Medical Debt Rule, CARES & U‑FIGHT Act

Episode Date: July 20, 2025

7.16.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump’s Voter Data Grab, Guard Exits LA, Judge Strikes Down Medical Debt Rule, CARES & U‑FIGHT Act The Trump administration and its allies are pushing to obtain voter data from states and inspect voting equipment. We'll discuss the implications with the Director of the Voting Rights Project. Two thousand National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles over a month ago, following protests against immigration enforcement raids, are being withdrawn. A federal judge strikes down a Biden administration rule removing medical debt from credit reports. We'll talk with a former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about what this means for consumers. National CARES is a pioneering initiative tackling the devastating impact of intergenerational poverty. We'll speak with the organization's new president about their mission and impact. This week, Senator Angela Alsobrooks and Congresswoman Shontel Brown introduced the U-FIGHT Act, a bold step toward expanding early detection and funding research to save the lives of Black women. Congresswoman Brown and a medical expert will be here to discuss the importance of this Act, especially for black women. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969

when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You, the listener, ask the questions. Did George Washington really cut down a cherry tree?

Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair? And I find the answers. I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How serious is youth vaping? Irreversible lung damage serious, one in ten kids vape series, which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure like yourself. Not the seriously know-it-all sports dad, or the seriously smart podcaster.

It requires a serious conversation that is best had by you. No, seriously, the best person to talk to your child about vaping is you. To start the conversation, visit TalkAboutVaping.org, brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council. Today is Wednesday, July 16th, 2025, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Donald Trump and the allies are pushing to obtain voter data from states and inspect

voting equipment. What the hell are they doing? We'll discuss the implications with the director of the Voting Rights Project. Two thousand National Guard troops deployed to L. A. Over th protests against immigrat being withdrawn. A federa a Biden administration ru debt from credit reports.

director of the Consumer Bureau about this issue. a pioneering initiative t impact of intergenerational with the ornai Also this week, Senator A congresswoman Chantelle Br Fight Act. A bold step to

detection and funding res of black women dealing wi We'll talk with congressm medical expert about this particular issue. Also, I did a little test on Instagram dealing with the issue of Costco and black owned businesses. A whole lot of y'all failed the test. I will explain. Plus Bill Maher, he still continues to show how much of an ass he is.

Wait till you hear the latest one. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. ["Rollin'"] He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is he's got for scoop, for fact, for fun. And when it breaks he's right on time and it's rollin'.

Best believe he's knowin'. Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks he's knowin' Puttin' it down from Spots to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' It's Uncle Roroyo It's Rollin' Martin Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin There we go.

Oh, Donald Trump and his allies are seeking voter data from various states and have requested access to inspect voting equipment. They cite concerns regarding election officials and the integrity of the electoral system. Oh, they keep going on with this nonsense. Of course, this is what we can expect from a twice impeached, criminally convicted, felon in chief, Donald A. Conn Trump, who continues criminally convicted felon in chief, Donald the Con Trump, who continues to lie about him losing in 2020 to Joe Biden.

Dude, suck it up. You actually lost. In Colorado, a White House consultant asked Weld County clerks to allow federal officials or third party to examine voting machines. Republican election clerk, Carly Copps, denied the request. Separately, the Justice Department requested copies of voter rolls from nine states, and

at least two states comply with their request. Joining us now is Robert Weiner, director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Robert, what the hell is going on here? What's going on is a concerted effort to undermine public confidence and the integrity of our voting system. The fact is that the problems with our voting system really relate to who's excluded, not who's included. We don't have a fraud problem of any significance. We don't have a problem with

non-citizen voting. This is an effort to undermine confidence in the election. For what purpose? You can figure that out. You know what he's gonna do come November and he's well on the way. Well, what's so crazy about this is that you've got these, you've got Republican secretaries of state who said, no, there were no issues with the voting and they don't care about that.

And all of these different states, Texas and Georgia and others begin to change their procedures after 2020 and just goes to show you just how insane they are about constantly raising this particular point. And it just literally makes no sense whatsoever. You know it's important to remember that back in December of 2020 Trump had drafted an executive order to seize voting machines and you know adult supervision prevailed then and it didn't happen but I don't think any of us has confidence that adult supervision is going to prevail now. And you know, the executive order he issued really goes after voting machines. And we've established that voting machines

are not a problem. That they have integrity, they work. It's not an issue. Well, listen, it seems like this is a constant fishing expedition on their part. And they keep trying to bring it up over and over and over again. Well, we just need to get the message out to the public that this is not something they have to worry about, that our electoral system, whatever issues it has, it is reliable and the effort to undermine confidence in it should not take hold.

It is really not a problem that we have to deal with. All right, Robert, we still appreciate it. Keep up the good work. problem that we have to deal with. All right, Robert, we still appreciate it. Uh, keep up the good work. We'll keep pressing this issue as well. Good. Thank you very much. Keep on plugging. I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Again, folks, I need us to understand what we're dealing with and the kind of people, uh, we are dealing with and the kind of people we are dealing with. We're talking about Republicans here who are trying all they can to sow seeds of doubt in everything. And again, the do can't stand the fact that he lost. I mean, he lost. And so all they do is complain over and over again. And this is five years later.

I mean, even after winning again in 2024, it's just the whining and the whining and the complaining and it's over. And that's all you see coming from Trump and the Republicans. And it's just one thing after another. This is what they do. And, you know, and again, they want to target blue states. And frankly, look, I'm with these folks. I don't trust these people at all. I don't, I don't trust them at all. I don't trust any of them. I don't trust this, this Trump Department of Justice. These people will do all they can to muck up these

election. That's what they'll do. So I'm just letting you know, I don't trust them in all. I want to bring my pal, Joy Chaney, Found of Joy Strategies out of Washington, D.C., Rebecca Carruthers, President and CEO of Fair Election Center out of D.C., Kendall Brown, content creator out of Wichita, Kansas. Glad to have all three of y'all here. Rebecca, we go through this over and over and over again with these nutcases, and it never ceases. You know, absolutely, Roland. If Republicans actually want to make sure that we have integrity as millions of Americans go to vote...

All right, I'm back. I was having tech difficulties. ...then they need to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, millions of Americans go to vote. They need to support the John Lewis voting rights event, which has been introduced every year, it's going to be introduced in the next coming weeks. It's an opportunity for them to look for ways to strengthen the voting processes in this country, making sure that every person who is eligible to vote and who wants to vote and participate in the

elections are able to do so. It's very simple. They could do this through legislation. The Supreme Court even asked the Congress to act. And that was the justification for rolling back parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court did. They said, hey, Congress, actually, we're going to kick it back to you. You need to do a legislative fix. So there is a legislative fix that Republicans can sign on to that can contact Senator John Warnock, that can contact, you know, if they were actually interested in making sure that our rules are current, that our rules are good.

But one thing I would tell all of the viewers is going into the 2026 elections, we need as many folks as possible to show up to vote. Because if we're seeing that this administration is trying to meddle into the integrity of the elections, the only way to overcome that is if we have so many people, overwhelming number of people of good conscience who show up to the polls. Absolutely. Joy. No, I mean, that's, you know, Rebecca is right. And let me just say this is serious business, but I'm have to acknowledge my link sister, my story look really beautiful tonight. It's good to be on with you. You know, what she said is right.

I remember when we won, I think it was when Barack Obama won the second time, one of the things that people said is we went to the polls not just for him, but for ourselves because they had attacked the right to vote. And they were threatening our ability to go to the polls. And so this time we must overwhelm them with it. Do not worry about whether or not your vote is going to count. Don't let lawyers worry about that. You just have to show up and be careful about trying to,

you know, doing things that would depress the vote and making people think it doesn't matter if you do go to the polls. You must go. No matter what they do, if they say bring ID, you bring ID. You have to instruct your people around you to do the same. They are trying to take your vote. They are trying to scare you. One of the tactics is if they scare people and they make people think their vote won't count or it's a fait accompli, there's nothing they can do about it,

then you won't vote. Don't do it. Challenge them, go to the vote vote. If they're gonna steal it, they're gonna have to steal it in front of our faces and they're gonna have to do it in face of lawsuit. Don't stay home and make it easy on them. But yeah, I mean, data is part of it.

I think that we have a real problem on our hands and authoritarian state, we've been talking about it. It's time for lawsuits, it's time for lawyers and we're going to have to fight that. Kendall, but the thing is, we know they want to rig the election. We know what they want to do. We know the games they're trying to play and they can't be trusted. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that it is particularly of note that, you know, the state that they're most heavily attacking and trying to get this data and get a hold of their voting machines is Colorado. While most people think of Colorado at this point as being blue. It wasn't that long ago that it was much more of a swing state.

And it has multiple statewide offices that have no incumbent. It'll have eight house seats. It'll have a Senate seat, like a massive number of seats. It's very obvious by him targeting this. His goal is to, like she said, suppress the vote, get people freaked out enough to comply in advance. And if they can do that, they can take over, not only protect their majority in Congress, but also take over some key state level positions in multiple states. And so I think it is of the utmost importance that everyone vote all the way down the ballot

in 2026. If it wasn't important, he wouldn't be doing this. And again, what people need to understand what's going on here, they are absolutely desperate to control the house. So what they're trying to do is they're trying to pick off as many house seats as possible because they are afraid they're going to lose eight to 10 races. And so if they can gerrymander seats in Texas, in Ohio, in North Carolina, some other places, they're trying to protect losing 8 to 10.

That's what's going on. And so I don't trust anything that they do, because it's all about them trying to hold on to the House in 2026. Going to a quick break. We'll come back. We're going to talk about a number. Okay, about 20 seconds real quick. We can also expect them to try to do immigration things at the polls right now to scare anyone who you know is obviously a citizen but who might be trying to vote and they're going to try to say,

you know what, if you're voting, you know, you might do things to your families. We can expect that. Yep, yep, we can expect all of that. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We'll be right back. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On a next a balanced life, we talk about how to get in touch with your feelings, emotions, how to find your North Star and how to move your life along. Because oftentimes what we'll do is we'll accept what the world says about us as the truth and how we see ourselves, which that can be completely contrary to what the Word

of God says about who you are. That's on the next of Balanced Life here on Black Star Network. This week on the Other Side of Change. We're digging into the immigration crisis that's happening here right now. It can impact each and every one of us. We're going to break down the topic of this constitutional crisis that is being led by the

Trump administration and with you as ordinary citizens can do to speak up and speak out to fight back. This is The Other Side of Change only on The Black Star Network. up and speak out to fight back. This is the other side of change only on the Black Star Network. Farqua executive producer of Proud Family. Bruce Smith creator and executive producer of the Proud Family. Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin. Well folks, the National Guard is packing the hell up and getting out of Los Angeles. They've been there more than a month. Of course, the first federalized National Guard members arrived in LA on June 8th after

some protests against immigration enforcement operations. Approximately 4,000 California National Guard troops and 800 active duty Marines were sent there by Donald Trump despite opposition from California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Today Mayor Bass emphasized the deployment of National Guard troops to LA was absolutely positively unnecessary. You had an important victory. I think because Los Angeles stood strong, because we understood what it meant that the federal government came in and seized power away from our governor

regarding the deployment of the National Guard and inappropriately sent the National Guard here when they were not needed. The administration has finally understood that they need to withdraw the troops. Let me say that this is what happens when the city stands strong because we have been united. When people peacefully protest, when people raise the concerns about having National Guard in a situation where they were, as far as I'm concerned, used as props. You know that their primary mission here was to guard two buildings that frankly didn't need to be guarded. And I frankly think of the young women and men who serve in the National Guard, who go about their lives normal at school with their families

and at work and they are called to duty and deployed and in this case deployed unnecessarily which means they had to leave their families, they had to leave their education, they had to leave their work, they were here in some cases sleeping on floors. It's not clear what conditions they were in. And now they have been withdrawn. 2000 troops are being withdrawn. We don't exactly know where they're going. I certainly hope that these young people will not be used as props in some other city. I have said from the beginning that what is happening in Los Angeles is we are being used as a test case and I am hoping that this experiment with the lives of people

ends here. This has been a blow to the economy of the nation's second largest city. We are an immigrant city, a city where there are sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor. We have rebuilding that needs to be done, whether we are talking about the wildfires or whether we are talking about preparations for the major events coming up. And the idea that troops would be used, the economy would be hit, who do you think does the building in this city? We know that the construction industry has significant percentage of immigrant labor. Some people have said 40 percent. I believe that's a gross underestimation. You can't impact the nation's second largest

city, the largest city in the state of California, and the state of California has the fourth largest economy in the world. When you do that, through stunts like have taken place here over the last month, you hurt the economy of our city, our state, and indirectly our nation. So with that, I want to just reiterate, this is a victory and this is a victory that is the result of our city standing strong and standing united and saying this was not necessary. I hope that the administration heard that. And that's why they made this decision. With that, I'll open up for questions. Mr. Pete.

Well, you know what there is? I am hoping that this is the beginning of a complete withdrawal of all National Guard troops and of all Marines. Our soldiers are trained to fight to kill foreign enemies in foreign lands. There was never a need for them here before, and there isn't a need for them now. And frankly, Pete, if they didn't go about the raids in the manner in which they did, originally this was targeted arrests for the worst of the worst. We never saw that materialized. What we saw was masked men, unmarked cars, drawing guns, snatching people off the street. If they got overwhelmed, that has an awful lot to do with it.

Waste of resources. Really what this all was about, Kid, was just Donald Trump flexing and creating a reality TV show. That's all this was about. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that it is not a coincidence at all that they're pulling them back out right after they hit their 30 day mark,

given that once National Guard has been deployed for 30 consecutive days, that's when TRICARE benefits, healthcare benefits for them and their families kick in. And I think that Trump and Pete Hexeth realized when TRICARE benefits, healthcare benefits for them and their families kick in. And I think that Trump and Pete Hegseth realized it was about to get a heck of a lot more expensive for them to keep them there for a photo op and, you know, pulled out. But that doesn't change all of the resources they've already wasted on this and all the

damage they've done to people's businesses in the process. The billions of dollars Texas Governor Greg Abbott spent on the border building a wall, and I think they only built something like eight miles, and even lawmakers like, yeah, we're going to end this. I mean, so they love wasting money as all about show. And literally, this is a reality show. This is how they think and operate what plays to the cameras. That's right.

I don't know who that was, too. Rebecca? Rebecca? Rebecca? So just like you said, this is a smoke and mirror show. It's a reality show. It is to distract people with what's actually happening within DC. What we're seeing that's happening in DC

while all this mayhem is on our television sets or on our phones that we're streaming is that State Department just had another mass layoff. Department of Education is going through a mass layoff. There are essential services within our government that is being dismantled and now it's going to start to impact people in their day-to-day life. So while people are focusing on I guess the one by one block area where there was an electric vehicle that was on fire, that

if you watch Fox News, they made it seem like the entire Los Angeles county was on fire when it really wasn't so. In fact, the entire protest was no more than I think a one square mile. I don't even think it was a full square mile where people were protesting inside of. So while people are distracted by those things, and like the other co-panelists rightfully pointed out, is that the reason why the Trump administration pulled back National Guard is because the acceleration

in money that is getting ready to cost once you hit that 30-day mark. So I think people need to be paying attention to the other things that are happening within DC. Just like yesterday, Congress signaled and the Trump administration signaled that they're going to remove the charter for the National Educators Association, aka the Teachers Union, which is currently run by a black woman, Becky Pringle. So I think those are the things that are happening inside of government, but instead we're seeing

this constant distraction. And like you said, it's billions of dollars being wasted and there really is no objective other than having, other than smoking mirrors and having people pay attention to that shiny eye. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969

when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes.

Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines

and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. -♪ America history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know,

99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary,

this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How serious is youth vaping? Irreversible lung damage serious, one in ten kids vape serious,

which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure like yourself. Not the seriously know-it-all sports dad, or the seriously smart podcaster. It requires a serious conversation that is best had by you. No, seriously, the best person to talk to your child about vaping is you. To start the conversation, visit TalkAboutVaping.org, brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council. Our iHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One,ung Association and the Ad Council. Hello, Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McCrack, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com.

Object, instead of the real damage that's being done, that's gonna hurt every single American in this country. I'm gonna pick up where Rebecca left off. Other things they want to distract us from. While they had National Guard and they were bothering people in Los Angeles doing things that no one needed them to do, they weren't protecting folks in Texas. People who most likely voted for them from a flood. They weren't doing that work.

You know, all attention is one place. That was a failure. So they need to distract us. So now even the removal, 30 days is important, but also this becomes a storyline. Anything that can do to distract the fact that his trade policy is failed. The reason why it hasn't been as damaging macro is because people don't believe him. But it is incredibly damaging on a micro level to small businesses. The fact that unemployment may be fine for many, up for black women, up for others that are being impacted by some of his policies around federal government and federal workers. He doesn't want us talking about those things. He doesn't want us talking about his foreign policy

being failed. And so he has to keep up the game, putting national guard, deploying military troops where they're not needed, to man things that are basically very localized, not even something the state of California should be focused on, something that absolutely could have been handled within the very large, very sophisticated city of Los Angeles. But no, he had to insert himself.

But all governors, all mayors should know if he did it there, it was advantageous to him. He did. He will do it in your state, in your city. What he has not done was protect people from harm, which is actually what we need from government. Folks, we come back. We want to talk about a federal judge saying that you cannot put medical debt when you file bankruptcy. That's a huge issue for a lot of people. We'll discuss that next. Don't forget support the work that we do. Join our brain the funk fan

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We got hoodies, mugs, all kinds of different stuff like that. And so you can check it all out. Back in a moment. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's wealth coach, black women are starting businesses at the fastest rate than any other segment. However, finding the funding to build them is challenging. On our next Get Wealthy,

we're going to talk with author Catherine Finney, who wrote the book, Build the Damn Thing. And she's going to be sharing exactly what we need to do to achieve success in spite of the odds. As an entrepreneur of color, it's first, you know, building your personal advisory board. I think that's one of the things that's helped me the most. The personal advisory board of the people

who are in the business of you, you personally and wanna see you succeed. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Me Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin unfiltered. The federal judge has just handed down a ruling that could hit your credit in your wallet. The federal court has struck down a Biden-era rule that would have removed medical debt from credit reports.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had planned to raise nearly $49 billion in medical debt from credit files, providing millions of Americans with relief But with this ruling that debt stays on your report Which could make it harder to get approved for loans mortgages or even rental housing road heat choke Roe heap choke brother former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau joins us right now We're he glad to have you on the show. Look I get this Look, I would say 2004 2004 I filed for bankruptcy largely because of medical debt.

And that was a huge issue. My appendix ruptured covering the Democratic National Convention in 2000. Serious debt that then, you know, they tried to foreclose on the home. So this impacts a lot of people. And prior to the Affordable Care Act, upwards of 70% of the people who file for bankruptcy was because of medical debt. That's right, you know, medical bills in America can ruin people's lives financially. And one of the things we did after an extensive study on this issue, Roland,

we really looked at the law and made a determination that we should forbid medical bills from being parked on people's credit reports, often to coerce them into paying a bill that they already paid or didn't even owe. We've actually all been in the situation where we go for a procedure or even a doctor's visit, and all of a sudden you're stuck in this doom loop between the insurance company and the hospital. And what happens? It ends up on your credit report. And that has a real negative impact on people's ability to get an auto loan, to get a mortgage. Our ban would have really done so much for people who were subject to a lot of abuse from debt collectors. So I think this is just another example of how some of the federal

regulators now are really turning their back on their core mission and doing the dirty work for debt collectors and credit reporting conglomerates rather than for consumers. Well, and the thing that people need to understand here is that when we talk about what's going on here, Republicans want to stop everything that's actually helped people. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina wants to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They want to get rid of it. They don't care that it's returned billions of dollars back to regular ordinary people.

Donald Trump hooked up Navy federal credit who screwed over veterans who was supposed to get 80 million in reimbursement up, not going to happen. So there's a distinct difference between one party that actually cares about consumers and one that wants to reward big companies. You know what really gets me, Rowland, is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it's not controversial anywhere in America except for with lobbyists in Washington and with big executives on Wall Street. This is an agency that is enforcing the laws on the books. And what have we seen from new leadership at the agency?

During my time there, we aggressively prosecuted a practice called redlining. This is where whole neighborhoods are just excluded from mortgage lending. And what have we seen new leadership do? They have been asking courts to undo those law enforcement actions and actually refund the defendants for the penalties that they've paid. And I think whether it's student loans or medical bills or mortgages, loans or medical bills or mortgages, those are the monthly bills that are really stretching people's budgets. And we have heard a lot of talk about helping people in their everyday life financially, but we haven't seen much action when it comes to really addressing the treadmill of debt

that people are facing or the high cost of groceries that people see when they walk down the aisle. All we see is big benefits for those big companies who paid campaign contributions. And I just think that's fundamentally wrong. So, you know, again, I raised that point about the Financial Protection Bureau because this was started under President Obama, and this was really the brainchild of now Senator Elizabeth Warren. And I just don't understand why Democrats don't know how to message around this Bureau.

We're talking billions of dollars. You let it. I mean, and it drives me crazy. Like how do you, how do you not make this a major thing when you're helping people, when you're helping people in red states and blue states when you're helping people, when you're helping people in red states and blue states? You're helping a whole lot of, frankly, broke white conservatives who vote for Republicans. What do you see as Democrats' issue in, frankly, knowing how to talk about the impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

Well, I think we see too many politicians, no matter what their party is, they're sometimes afraid to speak up about abuses of some of the most powerful companies in America. And those companies- Boom. Have a sized voice in Washington. Look, it's great for people to argue for expansion of Medicare, expansion of

Medicaid, Social Security. But sometimes I fear that those politicians don't want to call out the companies that are calling the shots to shut down and defund the police that oversee Wall Street and Silicon Valley and other big companies in the economy. And I think most people know that a lot of the reason that the economy feels rigged is that there are too few people who now own so much of sectors of the economy. For the past decades we've seen banks get even bigger, tech companies get even bigger, even grocery chains and stores and hotels, and the list goes on and on. And we have to make sure that our politicians are standing up for consumers, for small businesses, for patients, for farmers and others who don't have an army of lobbyists in Washington.

Questions from the panel. Rebecca, you first. Can you walk us through the devastating impact, especially after the big ugly bill with up to 17 million Americans losing their health care insurance, seeing reduction of SNAP benefits, and we know quality food and good food and nutrition is health. Can you talk about the impact with all these millions of people losing insurance, losing things that will keep them healthy, and that connection to now having even more medical debt? Yeah, you know, this is not, to me, just an issue about people's health care. This is also about our economy. And if we have more people who are just going to decline healthcare that they need, that is going to mean that there are fewer people who can get to work, fewer people

who can start small businesses, fewer people who can power the economy. And you know that same bill that has now got signed into law, it completely destroys the funding for core law enforcement, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It is going to make it harder for so many people to pay off those student loans. The provisions in the bill is going to be a big hike in payments for student loan borrowers across the country. All that means is that a whole generation of people is going to struggle even more to even get close to the core pillars of the American dream. And for many of them, they now think that buying a home or hitting those milestones is not even any.

It is my pleasure. Joy? You are so right. First of all, thank you so much for your service. I have many friends who worked for you at CFPB. So one of the things I'd like to address is just reminding the people, your viewers, the difference between medical debt and other types of debt vis-a-vis your credit. Why is it that that kind of debt shouldn't be included?

I know the answer, but I wanna make it clear. There is a very good reason that's different kinds of debt than regular consumer debt. It's such a good question and what the analysis shows is that having medical debt on your credit report isn't really all that predictive at all on whether you can pay off a certain type of loan like a credit card or a mortgage. And honestly, this makes sense. When you take out a credit card or when you take out a mortgage, you're filing an application, you're giving your income, you're agreeing to terms and conditions, but medical bills just happens to you. Sometimes it's because you have an emergency room visit.

Sometimes it's because a family member has a serious medical illness. And what bugs the hell out of me is that so many debt collectors opportunistically use the credit reporting system to coerce people into paying bills they may not even owe. We have found that many of those bills weren't even accurate that were put on the credit reports.

They might've been the responsibility of the insurance company, or some of you know this one, you have to pay one copay, but you're getting multiple bills for that same copay, one from the hospital, one from the doctor. So all of it is a bureaucratic mess, and we need a much simpler system, but there is really no place based on the evidence

for people to park medical bills on credit reports that aren't even predictive of your ability to pay another loan. Kendall? You are on mute, Kendall. Kendall, you are on mute, Kendall. Kendall you are on mute. All right folks, not sure what's going on. We can't hear Kendall. So we'll try to get her audio fixed. Rohit, I'm telling you, I think people don't, it just amazes me. We see this all the time, how a lot of these red state people are voting against their

own interests. They're getting screwed. They're getting screwed by financial institutions, and you have Republicans who literally are doing the bidding of these companies, who have been whining and complaining, oh, how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, y'all have just been making it so hard on these companies

that it's just unfair that y'all are making them have to comply with the law and stop screwing regular ordinary people. Just how shameful is it? So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown.

There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there

a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they loved to cut each other down.

I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said. It would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. And here's Heather with the weather. Well, it's beautiful out there, sunny and 75, almost a little chilly in the shade. Now let's get a read on the inside of your car. It is hot. You've only been parked a short time and it's already 99 degrees in there.

Let's not leave children in the back seat while running errands. It only takes a few minutes for their body temperatures to rise. And that could be fatal. Cars get hot fast and can be deadly. Never leave a child in a car. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council.

Our iHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas! September 19th and 20th. On your feet! Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen.

Brian Adams and Sheeran, Fade, Chlorilla, Jelly Roll, John Fogerty, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McCrae, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at axs.com. Get your tickets today, axs.com. This is what's just insane to me. Roland, here's what really gets me too.

We all saw after that 2008 financial crisis that our government and the system was pretty quick to bail out the biggest players on Wall Street. But what we saw happen to the economy, millions of jobs lost, trillions of dollars in wealth lost, and by the way, I might add a gigantic increase in the racial wealth gap that occurred because of predatory and subprime mortgages. And I just really think that the basics that we can do is enforce the laws that protect borrowers on mortgages to make sure that they don't get put in a mortgage that will set

them up to fail or to make sure that their credit card interest is calculated accurately or that an auto lender doesn't repossess a car where the borrower has been paying on time. Our work at the CFPB was reducing fraud. It was helping people achieve their dreams, and it was keeping the market honest. And anyone who believes in a real economy that works shouldn't spend time pardoning some of the biggest corporate actors for their wrongdoing. And that's what we have seen over the last few months, not just Navy Federal Credit Union for their scam

to unfairly and egregiously overcharge members of the military, but so many other law enforcement actions we took and rules we put into place, just to make it a little bit easier for Americans to get by every month, to pay their bills and to support their family. I think we got Kendall's audio straight. Kendall, what's your question?

Yeah, so I know as a healthcare advocate, I know that there are still rights that people have in dealing with these debt collectors for their medical debt. Can you talk about any practical first steps that people should take if they start getting calls again now that this decision has come down, or if they start seeing stuff pop back up on their credit, what should their first step be to make sure that they're not getting taken advantage of by bad faith debt collectors? Well, Kendall, thanks. That's such a good question because I don't want anyone feeling powerless about this. Under federal law, when a debt collector

is attempting to collect a debt that is incorrect or invalid, you absolutely have the right to dispute it and to request that the debt collector show you some proof that you actually owe it. And if it shows up on your credit report, you have the right to dispute it. You can go to annualcreditreport.com and check your credit report for free. And if you see any inaccuracies, you have the right to dispute that information. And those big credit reporting conglomerates, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, they have to investigate your dispute. And I really hope that we don't see a flood of wrongful or invalid medical debt parked on people's credit reports. And if you hear of anybody who is being subjected to this, don't let them feel a sense of shame. Don't let them feel like they're the guilty party.

Sometimes I see it over and over again. People get those calls, they see it on their credit report, and they just pay it. But we cannot let people be forced into paying something that they don't owe. So I encourage people to really exercise their rights. You should report it to your state attorney general, and you should also report it to the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov and let's actually see if they do anything about it.

But the answer cannot be silence and the answer cannot be to surrender. Well up right now, folks go to my iPad, Anthony, let's go. Right here you see annualcreditreport.com and it says right here, and I didn't realize this Rohit, it says free weekly online credit reports are available from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. And so I didn't realize that you can get free weekly reports. Oh, and by the way, that's not something charitable they're doing. Federal law requires them to provide those and do not let them enroll you in some sort of monthly service. You have the right to get that report for free.

All right then. Well, we appreciate that. Again, folks, you heard what he said. Go to annualcreditreport.com. You see it right here on the screen, annualcreditreport.com. That is great information. Rohit, we certainly appreciate you joining us. Thank you so very much for joining us right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Good to see you, Roland. All right. Thanks a lot.

All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. How dumb is Donald Trump? He blamed Biden for appointing the Federal Reserve chair. He did. So why isn't Sean Hannity, Fox News, Jake Tapper and mainstream media questioning the cognitive abilities of Donald Trump? I'll have that next right here. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. This week on The Other Side of Change. We're digging into the immigration crisis that's happening here right now. It can impact each and every one of us.

We're going to break down the topic of this constitutional crisis that is being led by the Trump administration and with you as ordinary citizens can do to speak up and speak out to fight back. This is The Other Side of Change only on the Black Star Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We look at one of the most influential and prominent Black Americans of the 20th century. His work literally changed the world. Among other things, he played a major role

in creating the United Nations. He was the first African-American and first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And yet today, he is hardly a household name. We're talking, of course, about Ralph J. Bunch. A new book refers to him as the absolutely indispensable man. His lifelong interest and passion in racial justice, specifically in the form of colonialism.

And he saw his work as an activist and advocate for the black community here in the United States as just the other side of the coin of his work trying to roll back European empire in Africa. Author Cal Rastiala will join us to share his incredible story. That's on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network.

Hi, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Schreffer Talk Show. This is your boy, Irv Quade. And you're tuned in to Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, Donald Trump is not a very smart person. In fact, I think the dude is actually an idiot in the rain. Miss who's losing his mind. And you know, mainstream media love to talk about the cognitive decline of Joe Biden.

It's amazing how quiet they are about Donald Trump. Check this out y'all. Today he was whining and complaining in the Oval Office about the fan chair, Jerome Powell. Listen to this. ...end what you've been seeing over the last couple hours. Mr. President, you've set a fire on Jerome Powell. Mr. President, Jerome Powell, do you have plans, or if you're back considering firing Jerome Powell, what's your justification if you're thinking about this? He's always been too late, hence his nickname too late.

He should have cut interest rates a long time ago. Europe has cut him 10 times in the short period of time when we cut him none. The only time he cut him was just before the election to try and help Kamala or Biden, whoever the hell it was, because nobody really knew. Obviously, that didn't work. But he tried to cut him for the Democrats, Kamala. And how did that work out? You'll tell me.

It didn't work out too well, did it? But he's — I think he does a terrible job. He's costing us a lot of money. And we fight through it. It's almost, the country's become so successful that it doesn't have a big impact. But it does hurt people wanting to get a mortgage. People want to buy a house. He's a terrible, he's a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed. I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him. But they did. So, no, we're not planning on doing anything. We're very concerned. He's doing a little renovation for 2.5 billion of the Fed. That's interesting. That's interesting. That was Biden, huh? I recall seeing this video by 2017. Maybe it's just me.

Maybe, maybe, maybe Biden changed his looks. Anyone agrees with me on this one? As president, there are a few decisions more important than nominating leaders of integrity and good judgment to hold trusted positions in public office. And few of those. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969

when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, Lon drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes.

Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a

dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If a baby is giggling in the back seat, they're probably happy. If a baby is crying in the back seat, they're probably hungry. But if a baby is sleeping in the back seat, will you remember they're even there?

When you're distracted, stressed, or not usually the one who drives them, the chances of forgetting them in the back seat are much higher. It can happen to anyone. Parked cars get hot fast and can be deadly. So get in the habit of checking the back seat when you leave. The Message from NHTSA and the Ad Council September 19th and 20th, streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Adams, Ed Sheeran, Fade, Glorilla, Jelly Roll, John Fogarty, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar,

Tate McCray, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. Trusted positions are more important than the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Accordingly, it is my pleasure and my honor to announce my nomination of Jerome Powell to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Congratulations, Jane. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.

Hm. Kendall, am I wrong? Is that Biden right there? Is that Biden standing next to Jerome Powell? That's definitely Joe Biden. Yeah, I'm just like, I don't understand like what's wrong with these people. Yeah, I mean, between the decline in his

obvious cognitive health, I think when you lie as often and as freely as he does, you reach a point where you just, you can no longer keep track of what you said when and things like calendars and, you know, remembering what year it was when you took a particular action or whether or not it was even you that took the action, probably does get quite a bit harder. I mean, I just, I, again, maybe something wrong with me. I don't know, maybe something wrong with me, Joy,'t know. Maybe something wrong with me, Joy.

But and this is the thing. I mean, this dude says stuff, screws up stuff, forgets stuff, stumbles over stuff. And they go, oh, that's just Trump. Where every little thing Biden said was, oh my God, look at this. He can't talk. He can't walk. He's being steered here. I mean, it was like,

you know, it was like 911 every single day. This goes to show you the double standard of mainstream media when it comes to Biden being there and what Donald Trump is doing. Absolutely. Look, one of two things are happening. He either is experiencing cognitive decline and does not remember that this is actually his nominee or to his line because he believes in the cognitive inferiority of his voters and believes that they will just believe whatever he says. So whether whoever nominated him, he says it's Biden, it becomes Biden. And that becomes the narrative that they have to reinforce instead of saying, obviously, Donald Trump nominated and confirmed and put in office Jerome Powell.

So, you know, that's what's happening here. Cognitive decline is the best of the two, I would think. But this is a person who is lying on a regular basis, who is rambling on a regular basis. And if it were anyone else but Donald Trump, the media would be all over him. Instead, you know, they just they've normalized it. And they're just so glad he gets on TV and gives them ratings in the afternoon. They're willing to trade anything for that. And it's why they are failing us as an institution in America. Uh, engineer Rebecca, um, maybe this is a right wing thing because I played this yesterday. I just got to play it again. Um, Bill O'Reilly was on Leland Vittert show on another right winger on news nation and maybe he's drinking the same stuff that Donald Trump is drinking because it's amazing how they just want to blame everything on Biden.

Watch this. Trump administration has on Epstein. Exactly. Right. Epstein was convicted during the Biden administration. Not one time did Hakeem Jeffrey call for any exposition of what the Biden Justice Department knew. Not once. So this guy's a top phony. OK. He's a political player. He doesn't care about the truth. He doesn't care. Bill Bill says. Hold on. Bill. Hold on. You said Epstein was convicted during the Biden administration. Epstein committed suicide during the Trump administration.

the Biden administration Epstein committed suicide during the Trump administration. Yes. How is he convicted? How do you convince you guy who's dead? He's convicted into I believe okay under Merrick Garland's justice department. That could be am I wrong on that? I don't think so. And then he was incarcerated and then he committed suicide. Okay.

The suicide thing is bull. Whether you committed suicide or should be murdered. Bill, I think this is important. He was arrested in 2019, and he committed suicide in 2019. He died August 10th of 2019. So the Biden administration was not involved in a conviction or a trial of him. They were in the, of his madam, of Elaine Maxwell.

And that's a good point of clarification. But he was arrested and indicted under Merrick Garland. No, under Trump. Who had all of the information. Under, Epstein was arrested, indicted, and committed suicide under Trump in 2019 Trump was president Merrick Garland was not the attorney general Okay, I

Guess that I guess that's something Rebecca is going around. He's like, yeah. Oh, okay. They must be all drinking the same stuff Oh, OK. They must be all drinking the same stuff. OK, if we're going to do this, can you also play the Nazi clip too from yesterday? Nazi, the word be reclaimed by Fox News. And they're going to use it the way the blacks have reclaimed the N-word. Look, up is down, down is up, left is right, right is left.

This is the bizarre world that we're in. The bottom line is we know that it's not Trump who's running this administration. We know it's Stephen Miller and crew that's running this administration. In fact, there are rumors now around DC saying that they're going to, at some point, 25th Amendment Trump, meaning that they'll have a

formal process to remove and say that Trump lacks the mental capacity and competency to serve as commander in chief, which we all know that because we're watching in real time and then we're watching the man run around DC in a cloud of flatulence. It know, it's kind of a bizarre time here under Trump as president. And unfortunately, JD Vance will be the same, if not worse, than the way Trump is approaching running government. The bottom line is there are people who have been using so much propaganda, where they're believing the propaganda. And it's unfortunate because the American public

really doesn't know how to decipher what it is that they're seeing, what it is that they're not seeing, because unfortunately in this country, civics as civic education is not really taught in this country. So many Americans don't even have a foundation to compare what should be occurring versus what is occurring

out of this administration. And unfortunately it's very sad and ultimately it's going to hurt many Americans because they're not going to get what they need out of federal government. We need a competent leader leading and running the federal government. Unfortunately that's not what we have. We have a clown show. We have dismantling of American institutions that serve as safeguards to make sure that this country runs properly.

And I'm sure tomorrow night with your guests, maybe you all will get into foreign policy of when we have such a weak domestic front, that leaves us completely open for foreign actors to continue to disabuse us and cause America harm. And it's very unfortunate because this is what we have now. So please vote in your local state elections because you're going to need some type of leader to protect you from what's coming. Oh, absolutely. But they love to sit here and just make up stuff and just lie and like it's no big deal.

All right, y'all gonna go to break. We'll be right back. Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. We're gonna give you a cash out. Use the Stripe QR code. You see it right here.

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On a next, a balanced life, we talk about how to get in touch with your feelings, emotions, how to find your North Star, and how to move your life along. Because oftentimes what we'll do is we'll accept what the world says about us as the truth and how we see ourselves, which that can be completely contrary to what the Word of God says about who you are. That's On a Next of Balanced Life here on Black Star Network. You are now watching... Roland Martin unfiltered. Uncut, unplugged, and undamn believable. National Cares and Mentoring Movement is a community-driven initiative that directly addresses the effects of intergenerational poverty.

The organization provides programming on a national scale to support the advancement of children growing up in poverty. Cares offers a 32-week curriculum designed to help children heal from the traumas associated with this issue. Renee Daniel-Flagg, organization's new appointment president, joins us right now. I'm glad to have you here. Renee, how you doing? Actually, I think you're still on mute. All right. I can't hear you guys. What's going on? Why can't I hear her? Okay. Well, worked with

her to get her unmuted folks. National National Care Mentoring Project was started by Susan Taylor, a longtime editor in chief of Essence Magazine. We were in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and then organizing the event where Susan talked about the importance of really bringing families together and many of our kids needed mentoring. And so when they had their first big fundraisers in New York City, Oprah Winfrey had pledged $500,000. And at that particular event, Oprah pledged another $500,000.

She's been a huge supporter of National Care's mentoring movement ever since then. We have covered many of their events, live streamed them on the network. I participated for a couple of years as a host of the golf tournament for the Atlantic National Cairs chapter as well. So they've really been doing the work all across the country. Let's see, do we have Renee now? Okay, that's weird. I can hear you. Renee, Renee, can you hear me? I can hear you. Renee. All right. Okay, cool. All right, guys, let you hear me? I can hear you. Renee, all right, okay, cool. All right, guys, let's now go to Renee.

All right. Okay, guys, can we please, thank you. Can we please switch? Appreciate it, all right. So Renee, you're the new president. So talk about that. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here.

And yes, I am the inaugural, the new president of the National Cares Mentoring Movement, the amazing organization that focuses on inspiring hope, healing, and transformation in the most vulnerable children in the country, started by the iconic Susan L. Taylor back in 2025. So for folks who don't know, how many chapters do you have? How many folks do y'all service each year? Sure, so we have about 58 chapters across the country

and we have served over 150,000 students across the country in so many ways. And so when you talk about the program and the folks you help, as young as what, as old as what? As young as mostly in the middle school, all the way up to like young adults. And the ways that we actually help them is by doing the program, an amazing program that we call the Rising Programming. The Rising

Program, we have an HBCU Rising Program. It helps with professional development, mentoring. We also recruit, train, and dispatch mentors around the country, working in collaboration with other nonprofit organizations and youth service organizations in order to make sure that our young people have the mentoring, support, training, and programming that they need to thrive. And our major focus right now for the past few years has really been on black child suicide. The rates of suicide has gone up over 144% in recent years. And that's one of the things that we are really focusing on helping to eradicate with our mentoring circles, our healing circles, and the programming that we do to make sure that they are supported,

that we are helping to eradicate the impact of the traumas that they may be dealing with, and make sure that they may be dealing with, and make sure that they have the tools to thrive and to go to school and remove the barriers that they may be facing that will prevent them from being successful. One of the issues that obviously y'all are impacted by so many nonprofits is the anti-DEI stances really cause a lot of corporations to cut back on support for programs like national cares. It is, it really does. And some of the corporations,

you know, they're really brave and they're like, you know, the work that they do to support communities, they're going to continue to do it. But some of them are really impacted that. Some of them have even been threatened that if they, you know, provide certain types of support that they're going to have issues with, you know, funding and federal funding and things like that. And so one of the things that we have to do is appeal to our people. You know, we're helping our children. And so no one's coming to save us. So we have to make sure that we're getting the support to help do the work that we need

to do because no one else is coming in to make sure that our students, our children, our young people have what they need to thrive, to make sure that they have professional development, to make sure that they have healing, to make sure that they have the tools that they need. So when it comes to job opportunities, I call us the workplace, the workforce incubator. We're giving these young people the skills that they need,

and it's in a holistic approach because we are dealing with the traumas that prevent them sometimes from being able to thrive. So it's a holistic approach, and we need to be able to do the work. There are some organizations that are continuing to support us no matter what, because this is the work that they do.

Some things are just being renamed, but the work is staying the same. But we really have to appeal to our people to make sure that we have the support that we need to make sure that our children are taken care of and that they're able to continue to thrive. Questions from the panel. First off, Joy.

First of all, I think this is so important. One of the things that we often don't have, especially if we're in dire straits, is someone who's just telling us what, you know, other people just get through proximity, which is that, you know, there is a, all jobs are good, but there's a high limit out there for what you can achieve. And sometimes people only need to know that it's possible.

So, you know, when a student comes in your program, can you walk us through what happens from the moment they get there till like the moment they graduate out of your program? Absolutely. So when students come into our program, whether it's with HBCU Rising or the Rising program, one of the things that we focus on mainly also is healing, right?

So we have healing circles, mentoring circles, where these students are able to come into a place that they feel safe, they feel affirmed, they feel valued. they know that the people who are working with them, which includes psychologists, you know, people in social work, peers, mentors, that they have a space where they can come in, be who they are, don't have to worry about who they are, and have the issues that they face addressed, the social issues that they face addressed in a safe space where they can really tell the truth about what they're going through, that they can hear from other students

and be affirmed in that space that understand that they're not alone, and then to be guided to not only how to deal with the things that they're facing, but how to remove the barriers so that they can progress, so they can transform, so that they can engage in trajectory-changing work by giving them the tools, professional development, mentors on a consistent basis that is showing them what's possible.

Because access and exposure is extremely important, especially if you're coming from an environment where you may not see people thriving. You may not have an uncle or aunt or a parent in a condition or in a situation that is able to show you what's possible beyond what you see in your own frame of reference. So we wanna make sure that they feel safe. That's really important for our children,

that they feel safe, that they're in a place that they can speak to what they're dealing with and so that they can go through that healing process and then open the doors of Opportunity for them for that professional development giving them the soft skills Opening up opportunities to them taking them to businesses taking them to places where they can see what's possible Bringing people in front of them that look like them So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969

when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president?

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. America history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory.

Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When your car is making a strange noise, no matter what it is, you can't just pretend it's not happening. That's an interesting sound. It's like your mental health. If you're struggling and feeling overwhelmed, it's not happening. That's an interesting sound. It's like your mental health. If you're struggling and feeling overwhelmed, it's important to do something about it.

It can be as simple as talking to someone or just taking a deep calming breath to ground yourself. Because once you start to address the problem, you can go so much further. The Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council have resources available for you at loveyourmindtoday.org. Our iHeartRadio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas.

Vegas! September 19th and 20th. On your feet! Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams, Ed Sheeran, Fade, Glorilla, Jelly Roll, John Fogerty, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate

McGregor, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com. That have not only overcome barriers but achieved great things. We call those super mentors and through this process they're getting the development, the tools, they're being equipped with everything that they need to be able to thrive. They're being encouraged to pursue opportunities. And it's a very, very, I have to really say that it's a very holistic process because it's one thing to give someone skills. And it's one thing to open up a door for them.

But if they don't have the confidence or if they have so many emotional or traumatic or barriers to healing, a lot of times they can't get into that space and thrive. So we deal with all of that. And even with our HPC Rising programs, we make sure that they're getting the professional development that they need and to put them on the right path to leadership and opportunities and opening doors for them to be able to take that next step and truly create a career path or opportunities to thrive as well. I love that. Is Rebecca here?

Kendall, Kendall, Kendall. Yeah. First of all, Kendall, what's your question? Go ahead. Your glasses. Thank you. I loved what you said a couple minutes ago. I think it honestly could be the tagline for all of Trumpism when you said that, you know, nobody's coming to save us.

We have to save us. And in that vein, I would love to know how can people support the work that you're doing? Absolutely. So there's several ways, but I would say one of the most important ways is to donate to the organization. Every organization is going to face some type of funding gaps as federal funding starts to dwindle and the threat on corporations that normally support this type of work, starts to tighten up their pockets.

So we still have work to do and this is not going to change. And donating to the organization is probably the key. Like if you feel like you can't do anything else and no donation is too small and definitely not too big. So I would say starting, that's one place to start. If you're in any of the areas that we currently serve, we'd love to be able to have you reach out to us. I'll give you, you know, caresmentoring.org.

We're always looking for mentors to train and dispatch to the community. We need mentors. We're always looking for super mentors, and that's people with special skills, subject matter, expertise that can expose our students and that's people with special skills, subject matter, expertise that can expose our students and our young people and our children to amazing opportunities that they may not have access to or may not even know about.

So I would say those are the two main ways that you can support this organization. I love that. Rebecca, Rebecca. I second Kendall, Those are fabulous glasses. So, the other, my other co-panelists, Joy and I are both in

two national organizations where we do a ton of community service. So, my question is, for folks who might be busy or have multiple jobs or have families and other things that keep them busy, we understand the importance of being a mentor. Can you talk us through what is the time commitment for people who are

interested in signing up to be a mentor? So the time commitment varies. Some people have more capacity, some people have less. With our super mentors, that's an opportunity that no matter how busy your schedule is, you can participate. We know that subject matter expertise is usually attached to a person who has a very busy schedule, and that's fine. So those are times where we'll have you come out if we're doing special programs or you are only available one time a month or you know two or three times a year we can plug you into those locations where you can come out and talk to our students. If you are available on a monthly basis we are happy to have you join us

on our on the days that we do mentoring at those particular sites that you're available to. And we also train recruit and dispatch mentors to organizations who need mentors, like partner organizations, like big brother, big sisters. So our training really gives them the foundation to come in and do this work. Everybody can't just do consistent mentoring work because it can be a lot. And so our training helps to provide you

with that foundation. You have an understanding of trauma-informed training and things like that, so that you can be a lot. And so our training helps to provide you with that foundation. You have an understanding of trauma-informed training and things like that, so that you can be in an environment where you can really be an asset to help a young person. So it doesn't matter if you have a little bit of time or if you have a lot of time, we have opportunities and availability

and we can use you as a mentor to come and help with our young people. All right then. Well, Renee, we certainly appreciate it. Good luck being the president of National Cares. And of course, we've been long supporters on this show. We'll continue to do so. Yes, you have.

And we want to thank you for that support, Roland. I see that you have really been down with the organization in every possible way with your time, your talent, and your treasure. So I want to thank you for that. All right then. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Have a great night. All right folks, we're going to go to a quick break. We'll be right back rolling Mark on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's wealth coach, black women are starting businesses at the fastest rate than any other segment. However, finding the funding to build them is challenging.

On our next Get Wealthy, we're going to talk with author Katherine Finney, who wrote the book, Build the Damn Thing. And she's going to be sharing exactly what we need to do to achieve success in spite of the odds. As an entrepreneur of color, it's first building your personal advisory board. I think that's one of the things that helped me the most. your personal advisory board.

I think that's one of the things that helped me the most. The personal advisory board of the people who are in the business of you, you personally and wanna see you succeed. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker, Judy Proud on The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder on Disney

Plus, and you're watching Roland Mars, Unfiltered. All right, y'all. So I want to, you know, what drives me crazy is when I hear comments such as, well, he's a person of his time, of his moment. And that really pisses me off when I hear that phrase. And it pisses me off because it's it's bullshit. So John Legasamo was on Bill Maher's podcast. I don't know what the hell you want to call it. And the issue of Trump being a racist came up and Y'all have that clip?

Let me know when y'all have the clip. So come on, somebody talk to me. Do we have the clip? Do we have the Bill Maher clip? Okay, so, unfortunately, control, control were not talking to me. So y'all find that clip, let me know when y'all have it. And then I'm gonna come back to this particular story. I posted something today.

Social media that I thought was it was a test. It was a test, if you will. And I'm always challenging folk on how they do certain things. So check this out. This is what I posted. I said, does anyone have a list of how many black-owned products are in Costco? How are they supporting black-owned businesses? I need receipts.

Now, keep in mind, Costco announced earlier this year that they were standing firmly with DEI, that they were not backing down, that's what they said, at their shareholders meeting, that they were gonna support DEI. And Reverend Al Sharpton and others, they went to Costco and To shop them they people were talking about hey, we got keep supporting Costco. I mean they're standing with DEI and

And I purposely threw this out Because first it was a test. It was a test to see if people pay attention To what was actually said Do they pay attention to what was actually said? Do they pay attention to what was said? And were they listening? And then were they hearing something that I didn't say? Again, you know, this is right here. This is the post that I put on Instagram.

Does anyone have a list of how many black-owned products are in Costco? How are they supporting black-owned businesses? I need receipts. That's all I said. I didn't say boycott Costco, I didn't say any of that, but I want y'all to pay attention to the comments. And I think what it's going to show you, it's going to show you how one, a lot of people really, really don't pay attention and they are emotional when you've asked certain questions. So here we go. You look at some of the comments here.

Oh, DEI is far more than selling black owned products. While supply diversity matters, so too does other factors such as employment practices, promotions, et cetera. I like that they didn't cater to the pressure yet. I said, I didn't ask about all of that. I was specific. Look at this here. What are you talking about, Roland? Someone listed the black products, which you didn't even acknowledge. Costco didn't cave to Trump or DEI. I'll be shopping there. I shopped there. They stood up for DEI and diversity. It's baked into their product selection. They can do more probably, but in the meantime, carry on as usual. But as one person said, this is what I found. Black and bold specialty coffee debuted in

Midwest Costco stores starting May 19th, 2025. Capital City Mambo sauce, a DC based, DC based black owned sauce now available in select DC Maryland Virginia Costco stores nature aid plant-based protein chase carrot in southern California Hawaii Costco's and online partake foods algae friendly cookies found in Midwest LA and Hawaii warehouses mac and yeas by IE grass vegan mac and cheese and refrigerated sections in SoCal in Hawaii. Black Girl Magic Red Blend by McBride Sisters. Black-owned wine available in Southern California warehouses. And then, okay, Uncle Nearest Whiskey. Look at this, oh, thank you for doing the research.

Roland obviously didn't do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Costco is not our enemy. Come on, Roland, focus your energy on the enemy. I love black and gold. Thank you for this. Then all this, I don't know, but once I purchase

those bottles of vodka and tequila, it's black owned. Look at this, I can confirm one black owned brand. Costco took a stand against reversing its DEI policies and I'll support them. Then I go, Roland, let's not start problems with Costco. I just re-up my membership. And then the person goes on and on. Costco hasn't reversed the DEI policies

like many other companies There are many black businesses that have the bandwidth in production to accommodate the big-box story requirements blah blah blah blah We're not going after Costco period. Why would anyone care don't be an own barrier. This is a battle I'm not fighting. I need more to work with one of y'all about boycotting Amazon now rolling Costco. They pay 31 hours per hour I'm not fighting decent wages. Call them. Do y'all see where I'm going? All of these black people are mad. I didn't say boycott Costco. I didn't say shut them down. I didn't say any of that. So why do people jump to conclusions? But what I also, what I'm also not going to do, let them off the hook. Why do I say that?

Why do I say that? The system names six companies. I'm sorry. Am I supposed to be excited that folks only name seven black-owned products. We're talking Costco, massive stores. And we are excited because there are only six, seven black-owned products. See, y'all, this is one of the greatest mistakes that I think that we make.

One of those mistakes is that we accept crumbs and we think it's a meal. Y'all have heard me say this numerous times on this show. There's a certain scene from the movie Malcolm X that I love. This is that scene. Break it up. You got what you wanted. No, I'm not satisfied. Break it up. You got what you wanted. No, I'm not satisfied. See, I'm not satisfied with six or seven companies. I'm not... Do I have a Costco card? Yes. And do I love the fact that Costco said, no, we're not going to go against DEI? Absolutely.

But I don't just give up by saying, okay, well, you know what? Uh, uh, you know, they're doing good over here. And you know what they got? They're hiring people. That's all great. But also I want to see black owned businesses build capacity, be able to grow. See, we have got to get out of this silly mindset of being satisfied with, oh no, no, no, they released a statement that they stand with diversity.

Prove it. No, none of us should be excited or satisfied with six or seven. See, this is my problem. The fact I sat here and raised this question and all these people bought ages. I mean just oh my God. I mean y'all go to Instagram see the comments. Oh, it was like how dare I roll it. They're great. They're wonderful. They're done.

I want to see black on can good companies become a $100, $200 million a year corporation. We just had the toilet paper company. Y'all know I'm going to show you all right now. See, this is what y'all got to understand. See I'm not playing these games. There's a reason we have shop black star network.com. We go right here. We can see Jim wraps, leafy products, John towns, barbecue, fashion fair in booze,

cologne butter, HPC, you legacy fashion, uh, Kavan foods, Ezra coffee, renegade golf company, uh, Bittoys sweet treats. Okay. I want to see these companies grow to be one, two hundred, five hundred million, billion dollar companies because you know what that means? They're going to be hiring people. They're going to have black CEOs and CEOs and COOs and CFOs

and CTOs and vice presidents and executive vice presidents and directors and on and on and on. But what does it tell you that by me simply asking the question, the black folks immediately, how dare you? We can't. So what happened at Tappaquitac? Well, it really depends on who you talk to.

There are many versions of what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think in the New York Daily News, it's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes.

Will Ted become president? Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines

and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history, and I find the answers, including the nuggets of

wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't let biased algorithms, or degree screens, or exclusive professional networks, or stereotypes.

Don't let anything keep you from discovering the half of the workforce who are stars. Workers skill through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time to tear the paper ceiling and see the stars beyond it. Find out how you can make stars part of your talent strategy at tearthepaperceiling.org,

brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Our I Heart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. September 19th and 20th. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams, Ed Sheeran, Fade, Glorilla, Jelly Roll, John Fogarty, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McRae,

The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. You doing this? Oh, we can't, Roland, what's wrong with you? You can't, you, don't be doing that. Why, why are you doing that? What, what, what, what's wrong with you?

And see, somebody just said the good company is a black on can food company, but they refused to leave target and they shouldn't. Y'all, do y'all understand why the target boycott is there? Because we're saying to target stay true to the promises you made. So good food shouldn't leave Target. I want one of the folks saying essence should not take Target's money because part of the boycott was in Target. Honor your commitments.

My God, we have got to learn to stop being emotional about things and listen and understand how do we build. And we can't just be satisfied because somebody made a statement, we support DEI. If Costco is having a diverse workforce, great. Paying the way they are paying, great. They got folks and executives, great. But Costco, I want to see more than six or seven companies having products in your companies. I mean, your stores. Because we know for a fact, if it's Costco and Target and Walmart and Kroger and Giant and Safeway and Publix and Kohl's and Ross and Marshall's we can keep going on and on and on. This is one of the reason why black-owned businesses have not been able to succeed is because we have not been able to build capacity. I need everybody listening to me to understand what I'm saying.

95% of all black owned businesses in America do $5 million or less in revenue. I don't think y'all heard what I just said. 95% of all black owned businesses in the United States do $5 million or less in revenue. Prior to COVID when we had 2.9 million black-owned businesses, 2.8 million had one employee. I'm going to let that marinate for everybody who's listening. 2.9 million black-owned businesses and 2.8 million had just one employee. That means of the nearly 3 million black-owned businesses in America, 100,000 of them had more than one employee. satisfied with statements, then what, I'm sorry, what are we losing? What are we missing here? I'm confused. What exactly are we missing here? And no, the comments are the comments. Look at this here.

This is a battle I'm not fighting. I need more to work with. I didn't say fight a battle. Now, Roland, call them. Oh my God, y'all won't be happy until we're making all of our products by hand at home. I'm supporting Costco because they didn't listen to the 47th president and cut DEI. Plus they pay their workers a living wage.

I feel like you're posting this to be messy and divisive. Stop looking for problems. We already have enough of them. All I asked was how many-owned products are in Costco? I'm looking for receipts. When I sit here and go here, look at this here. Why? Nah, bro. Costco is cool. Um, they

hire a lot of black people, um, and pay fair wages. You must need to draw up some views. How about boycotting the politicians, nonprofits, churches and entertainers sitting on their butts doing nothing for the cause? Look at this here. Great reasonable question. We shouldn't blindly support. There has to be purpose in all that we do. Someone answered your question. Seems there are several black-owned brands.

Leave Costco, not boycott in Costco. Just wondering why you wanted to know. You could look up yourself. We're good. Okay. Give a whole team, have them research. Okay. Give a whole team, have them research. Since you didn't, there are plenty of comments educating you on this.

I wasn't starting an argument. How many black people are pushing their products to be in Costco? How black business is pushing themselves? Okay. Roland, I'm with you when you're right. I don't care to peer pressure either. I will continue to shopping at Costco. Thanks. Why would anyone care? Don't be your own barrier. Wow. Why would anyone care to ask how many black owned business products are carried in Costco. This right here, Rebecca, is why we accept crumbs. And then we think it's a meal. When I, and his was interesting,

Rebecca, if I post it right now, if I post it right now the fact that black-owned media only gets 0.5 to 1% of the $340 billion spent every year on advertising I can guarantee you it would not get 345 comments. But by merely asking the question a lot of these black folks lost their minds. And then we wonder why 95% of black owned businesses only do five million in dollars revenue or less. Roland, I'm afraid many people in our community have lost the plot.

So I'll use an example this way. So if I'm in elementary school and I'm on the playground and a bully comes up to me and starts to beat me up, if one of my friends is watching this happens and says to me, oh, don't beat up Rebecca, Unless that person is willing to actually jump in the fight with me, them telling the bully not to beat me up is not gonna stop me from getting my behind beaten, right? And so the plot here that people have lost

is that we are in a fight against an administration, against a United States federal government that's looking to figure out ways to increase the racial gap with Black Americans in this country, which are looking to, which isn't doing anything as Black unemployment rates are going up. This administration is intentionally cutting jobs that Black people overindex in, in the federal government. So now there's a fight against black people against black

economics in this country and it's not good enough just to say, hey, well, we support black folks. We support your economics, but actually do something. It's the reason why groups like color of change exists where they show up to those boardrooms and they demand these executives to show. Yeah, hey, you have your money where your mouth is. Here's a perfect example.

Yesterday, Lupita Nyong'o joined us on Capitol Hill with Congresswoman Chantelle Brown, as well as Senator Angela Alsthom Boots, talking about uterine fibroids that impacts black women at a greater risk than anybody else. They're talking about how do you fight for funding for that. which talk about uterine fibroids that impacts black women at a greater risk than anybody else. They're talking about how do you fight for funding for that. This is what we talk about on this show, why these things matter.

Congresswoman Chantelle Brown joins us right now. In addition to Julian Adams-Burt, president of the Georgia State Medical Association and president of Radiant Women's Health. And Congresswoman, this is what I keep trying to get our folks to understand. When we raise these issues in fighting for contracts, in fighting for funding, it has a direct impact on black people. We simply can't be satisfied with,

well, I mean, there's research dollars going here. No, this is what it means to fight for specific things that impact our people. That's right. That's why representation matters. You know that as well as anyone. We consider the fact that this impacts 60% of all women, but 80% of black women by the age of 50 will experience uterine fibroids.

And I was one of those women. Lapita Nyong'o, she took to the Hill to share her story. It was the first time of her sharing her story publicly. And I think that, to your point, just to add a little bit more to your point, the legislation that I introduced, along with the Senate companion, Senator Also Brook, is called UFIGHT, Uterine Fibroids Intervention, Gynecological Health and Treatment Act. That's what the UFIGHT stands for. As it currently stands, less than half of a percent, half of a percent of the budget for research goes towards uterine fibroids, less than half of a percent,

when it impacts so many people. And so representation absolutely matters in every aspect of our lives. When we're talking about how many products are on the shelves at Costco, if we are a certain percentage of the population, then we should have equal representation in the spaces and places where we are talking about things that impact us.

And so, it was important to me to introduce some legislation to fight for some research dollars, to go towards finding out how we deal with this issue. So many women get impacted. We go to our doctors. Our symptoms are often dismissed, minimized, you know, cavalierly, just, you know, this is just a part of life. And one of the things I think that was so salient that Lupita

said is that from a very early age, especially those of us who consider ourselves, you know, active in the church community, we learn from the days of Adam and Eve that women are supposed to suffer, that pain is a part of our life. But, so we push through. But the more conversations you start to have, just because something is common

doesn't mean that it's normal. Just because this thing is a thing and it's prevalent doesn't mean that we should accept it as our fate, our destiny, or the reality that we live with every day. When we have an opportunity by being in this space as black women who are represented more now than ever to uplift something, then we're going to use our positions to elevate these issues so that we can start to call to attention, call them to attention so that we can get the funding that we need to address them. So it was a very impactful day on the Hill yesterday with—alongside Congresswoman Yvette

Clark, the chairwoman of the CBC and representative of the People's Republic of Brooklyn. We also had Robin Kelly, Bonnie Watson Coleman, my colleagues in the House who have made it a point to form a caucus that focuses on Black women and Black girls' issues. And then we also were joined by the two sister senators, who, first time, two Black women in the history of this country are simultaneously representing the Senate. And so that gives us an ability to do exactly what you're talking about, to represent. We've made progress from the last time, Yvette and I introduced this legislation last year. But this year we have a Senate companion.

So we're continuing to push a little bit more and a little bit more. We currently have 36 sponsors, but I know you know, and many of your informed viewers and followers know that the magic number is 218. It's 218 that we have to get to to get this out of the House. And now we've got companion legislation at the Senate side. So we need 51 over there. So we need people like Lupita to elevate the conversation and amplify it so that more people are aware. And I can't tell you how many people

have just expressed their gratitude and how much attention it has garnered by having an award-winning, an Academy Award-winning actress and a New York Times bestselling author express her sentiments around the importance of this issue and how we need to start making more investments to deal with something that we have been suffering through

silently for far too long. Doc, so what drives me crazy again is whenever we're trying to, when we're talking about corporations, when we're talking about government, we're talking about business, and folk complain about a problem, I'm always like, okay, we're asking the wrong question. I had to sit through a presidential campaign to listen to some of the most ignorant, simple Simon Negroes say, oh, Vice President Kamala Harris,

she ain't talking about us. And I'm sorry, I don't recall hearing Donald Trump talk about black maternal health. I didn't recall hearing him talking about black women dying in childbirth. I didn't hear him talking about issues like this here. And yet, folk focus on other things. And so, when I talked about what I was just dealing black women dying in childbirth. Out of him talking about issues like this here, and yet folk focus on other things. And so when I talk about what I was just dealing with with Costco,

we get excited about a statement, but we don't get excited about a focus on what are the results. This is a perfect example. If we're talking about something that impacts women, but specifically impacts black women, then that should be a part of the agenda in advocating for the dollars that go with it. So first and foremost, people who don't know, what the hell are uterine fibroids and why are they more prevalent in black women than anybody else? So I don't know if the doctor was able to join us, but- She's here, but she's on mute.

OK, doctor, you can hear me. Doc, can you not talk? Go ahead. Go ahead. OK, I see. OK, yeah. OK, the question for you, what exactly is uterine fibroids? What is that? So uterine fibroids are what we consider benign tumors. They're solid tumors.

They grow from the wall of the uterus. The uterus is made up of what we call smooth muscles, and they grow from there. And I know the question on your mind and everyone's mind is why? Where do they come from? And we believe, we know that there's a genetic component. There could be an environmental component, hereditary component to fibroids. But we just haven't quite figured out, put our finger on the pulse of why some women have them, why black women have them more. There's plenty of theories, and we need to look at the risk factors.

We may not know where they come from, but we know some of the things that can decrease the fibroids, and we know that hormones make them grow. So folks who grow up with high meat diet, especially red meat, folks who may use certain chemicals, there are some studies around chemicals that may increase the risk. Think about our environment, what we are exposed to, the products that we use. We know that there are things that can increase the growth.

Namely, most young teenagers, before they hit puberty and in puberty, don't have fibroids. And on the opposite end, once you go through menopause, the fibroids, if you have them, can and will shrink. We know that there's a huge hormonal component to fibroids. But the best thing to remember though, although fibroids are not cancerous,

they are considered benign tumors. How they behave is not benign for most women, especially African- American women. Congresswoman Brown, so right now, you talked about the responses that you have. There's a lot of other women in Congress. So are y'all having to walk, let's just be frank, these white women in Congress through this

till they understand what's going on? Well, as we talked about, this impacts the majority of women. 60% of women, regardless of race, will experience uterine fibro. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond.

And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president?

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.

Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer.

Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In sitcoms, when someone has a problem, they just blurt it out and move on.

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at loveyourmindtoday.org. That's loveyourmindtoday.org. See how much further you can go when you take care of your mental health. Our iHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas! when you take care of your mental health. Golje, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McCray, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. And as the doctor pointed out,

in some cases they will be benign. But as I go around and I look for co-sponsors for this legislation, I'm talking to my white colleagues, even the men, when I have this conversation. You would be—perhaps, maybe not, but I am sometimes pleasantly surprised at the number of people who have been impacted, because it makes the conversation easier to have. When I am approaching my white colleagues, I have asked, have you experienced fibroids? And some of them have, some of them haven't.

But those who have, I am certainly elevating the—those who haven't, I'm certainly elevating the conversation and informing them and educating them and hoping that they will understand and bring—and come along with this—with the legislation that we are introducing to address this very, very common issue. But I've also found that when I'm talking to my male colleagues, I'm like, hey, if you like women, if you love your wife, if you love the women in your life, you should consider joining this piece of legislation. They're like, well, what is it, Chantel? And so, and then I get the opportunity to tell them. And when we start the conversation, you're like, they're like, oh my

God, my wife experienced that. Or, oh my God, I heard about this before. And so now we're normalizing the conversation. More people are becoming increasingly aware. And it's something that should not be a partisan issue. It is something that impacts so many. And that is probably the most frustrating part, Roland, is that the number of people that are impacted is so common, but the amount of research, the amount of knowledge associated with something that is happening so frequently

is so far. As the doctor pointed out, we know what they are, but we don't know why they are more prevalent in black women. So we deserve to know, right? If 80% of black women by the age of 50 are going to be experiencing this, we should be able to understand why this is happening to us. And it's the leading cause of hysterectomies in our country.

Now, for me, that was an ideal solution. But everyone isn't like me. Every woman doesn't want to have a hysterectomy. I had no issue with that. For me, it was the greatest decision and easiest decision of my life. I'm like, hurry up, let's get it done. But there are other women who feel like they don't want to lose those organs. They want to be able to reproduce.

This is a reproductive justice issue. This is something that is an epidemic, if you will, and so a health epidemic. So we need to be able to figure out how we can prevent something like this from happening that is happening with the frequency that it is. that is happening with the frequency that it is. Sorry, last question for you. Now you got to go, I know, last question for you,

she calls her own brown. What do you want the public to do? What do you want them to do? Thank you for giving the call to action. So what I want the people to do, we're introducing this legislation. My legislation, the You Fight Act, is really, really simple. It's you fight.

You fight. You remember. You fight. Tell your member of Congress to join and be a co-sponsor to this legislation. The more co-sponsors we have, the easier this will become to get across the finish line. So please, please, please, whether it is if you are social media, I see you got a lot of activity. If you follow your current member of Congress or if you follow your senators of your state,

let them know, because we got a companion piece on the Senate side led by Senator Angela Alsobrooks. So, contact your federal legislators and ask them to sign on to the You Fight Act. That's what we need. That's what we need to get things done. So, that's all I can ask for. And to start normalizing the conversations. Talk to women. Talk to the women in your lives. Talk to the young ladies and ask, is this something that they've experienced because it's also more common than we think. I think once we start to amplify the conversation and let people know that this is happening in great frequency because for so long, for so long, Roland, women have suffered in silence,

now is the time to amplify the conversation and to encourage your legislators to sign on to our legislation so we can start figuring out how we can prevent this thing. Yep. Absolutely. Congresswoman Brown, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Appreciate it to my panel. You got questions for Dr. Burt. I'll start with you, Rebecca. Rebecca, your question for the doc. Sure. So I have a lot of people in my life who are suffering with fibroids. Unfortunately, that has not been my experience.

Even though there still isn't a definitive, we don't know definitively what is the root cause of fibroids. What do you suggest that women and young girls can do to prevent fibroids, whether it's increasing vitamin D, I hear people talking about that, I heard you mention, decrease in intake of red meat, I've heard people talk about using chemical relaxers,

not using chemical relaxers and other chemicals on our hair, but can you talk to what are things that we can do to prevent the growth of fibroids? Absolutely. Thank you for that question. So the very first thing that I would say is every woman should be connected with a gynecologist, right, or a women's health specialist. be connected with a gynecologist, right? And or women, a women's health specialist. There are many family physicians who are very comfortable

when it comes to reproductive health. When you are being seen for your wellness exam, that conversation around periods, if your periods are heavy, painful, prolonged, if you just have pelvic pressure, something's not right, you're dealing with constipation, you're dealing with frequency of urination, then you should be seeking a specialist and having an exam and not being blown off as if, and I've heard the representative's statement about how so many women believe that some of the symptoms, even those that I just named are common and they are normal.

We call them normal and that just shouldn't be. So to your point, we should be eating healthier diets. If you remember nothing else, look up the Mediterranean diet, So to your point, we should be eating healthier diets. If you remember nothing else, look up the Mediterranean diet, but we need to decrease the amount of red meat that we eat. We need more fruits and vegetables, up to five servings a day, per day. We need to be increasing our fiber, whole grains.

Those are just some of the things that we can do. And start looking at packaging. Start thinking about getting a bottle that you can, you know, use over and over instead of water bottles, plastics, and if you're not gonna be too careful about the products and the ingredients in certain things. So definitely there are things that you could do. And remember that probably 50% of women

who have fibroids, you'll find it in your family line. So ask, if you're at the family reunion this summer, ask your auntie and them, ask others if they have been diagnosed, if they've had difficulty with fertility. Fibroids impact so many areas of women's lives that it is really important to not think that, oh, she's only 20 years old.

They normally start in our 20s. The most impact is between 30s and 50s, especially when women are nearing menopause and start having heavier flow. So we need to connect with a women's health specialist and not be blown off, especially when symptoms begin to show themselves. Roland, I have a question. You had a question? So one of the questions I have for you is like, what is heavy?

Because I think, you know, just to break it down for our audience, what would you describe as a period that is so heavy that you need to call your doctor? Great question. So first of all, I always tease with my patients. Every woman does not read the textbook. So what we've learned and what people experience can be slightly different, but the average woman, her period should come every 28 days, and we always

say plus or minus seven days. So as frequently as 21 could be normal, unless that's a change for you. If you've always been every 28 days, and now you're having oftentimes twice a month periods, they're not coming every 21 days, that should be a red flag. They're not coming every 21 days. That should be a red flag. They could be as far off as every 35 days. The heaviness of the period, if you're having to change your sanitary products every hour, if you are lightheaded, dizzy,

short of breath, then especially a lot of women know the sign of heavy bleeding. When women become anemic and they start chomping on ice or other products, especially not edible products, like pica, that may be a sign. You just have to look at what normal may have been for you. And if any of those things change, also a sign that maybe fibroids have grown. So definitely the period should not be something

that takes you out. You should be able to do your daily chores, go to school, go to work. And if you are living on your calendar, your social calendar, you plan it according to your period, that may be a red flag as well. I can't go to that white party because I'm expecting my period to come on this weekend.

Definitely you need to have those conversations. Okay. So, obviously, this legislation is hugely important in terms of addressing the issue of uterine fibroids, but it also strikes me that the legislation is incredibly important within the larger context of there having been such a massive disparity between research on medical issues as they impact men, particularly white men, and research as it impacts women, particularly black women.

Can you speak a little bit to that disparity and the consequences that it has and why it's so important that that be addressed? I'm having a little hard time hearing. But let me just answer like this, because I wanted to share something the congresswoman said earlier, we have to remember that hysterectomies are the most common surgery in the United States, only second to cesarean sections, only second to cesarean section second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second

to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second

to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second to the second in New York. And most of the women are African-American, 80%, as was said earlier, for women of color and then maybe up to 70%. But the difference is also the inequity also is not just in the number, it's in the severity. It's in the number of fibroids that we find at the time of an exam or sonogram, you know, or MRI or at the time of surgery. But the significance of her symptoms, because fibroids are just larger, they're more intense, the periods are more intense, pain is more intense. And unfortunately, as oftentimes we find,

black women are diagnosed at a later time. So now maybe your options are limited and not even just limited to not being able to choose a non-invasive or minimally invasive procedure to address it. But if you get to the point where you're needing a blood transfusion, and I have those patients, you get to that point, what if she's only 32 and hasn't even had her first pregnancy yet? And now someone is telling you, ma'am, you may need to really consider it directly.

So those inequities exist, and hopefully not just what is being done legislatively, but this message and the time we're taking here to discuss it will awaken patients and it would also awaken those of us in the medical field to consider these other things and consider them that they may occur earlier in African American women. All right then, Doc, we certainly appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Thanks for joining us. All right, folks. So we, so just so everybody knows what happened here. So we saw a massive storm that could be generating up to 55 mile an hour winds is moving through Washington, DC. And it's actually moved through where I am first. And so it knocked out the power. And so that's one of

the reasons why you see We lost power there with the panelists couldn't hear me. That's why everything got lost with the recent everything and so One of the folks in studio control room to be safe. I'm gonna go in the show here. We passed our time But let me think Kendall let me think Rebecca. Let me think you off me on today's panel. We're so appreciative. Thank you so very much And Kendall, let me thank Rebecca. Let me thank Joff for being on today's panel. We still appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Folks, it's a lot that we cover it again, that conversation right there. Lapita posted that. Some other people posted, but the reality is, guess what? You're not gonna have MSNBC, CNN, Fox, ABC, these networks talking about uterine fibroids is impact on black women.

It just ain't gonna happen. So this is why you need to have black-owned media having these conversations. So your support is critical to do happen. So this is why you need to have black on media having these conversations. So your support is critical to do that. So please join us, join others. The 36,000 people who have joined us as donors since we lost this show September 4th, 2018. So please, if you wanna contribute to us via PayPal,

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I'll see you tomorrow right here. So what happened at Chappaquiddick? Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News. It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns. And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you. The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes. Will Ted become president?

Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal. The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it. So is there a curse? Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family. Listen to United States of

Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well women said something like no 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they love to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history

has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And here's Heather with the weather.

Well, it's beautiful out there, sunny and 75, almost a little chilly in the shade. Now let's get a read on the inside of your car. It is hot. You've only been parked a short time and it's already 99 degrees in there. Let's not leave children in the backseat while running errands. It only takes a few minutes for their body temperatures to rise. And that could be fatal. Cars get hot fast and can be deadly. Never leave a child in a car. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council.

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The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. You're rolling Martin unfiltered on the black star network. Hey, today's Wednesday, Friday. We're gonna be live in Philadelphia at the alpha convention. We're going to be there, of course, broadcasting live. I'm going to be there speaking with Bishop William Barber, uh, the luncheon for terminal lunch, 1130 to one with broadcasting the show from the convention in Philadelphia. So y'all

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all on one device. Join iHeart Radio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one-year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows

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Well, it really depends on who you talk to. There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond. And left a woman behind to drown. Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control. Every week, we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.

Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You the listener, ask the questions. Did George Washington really cut down on a charity? Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair? And I find the answers.

I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American History Hotline on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.