#RolandMartinUnfiltered - TX San Antonio Prop A, Republican Proposed VA Cuts, Netflix Cleopatra Lawsuit, Earth Day

Episode Date: April 22, 2023

4.21.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: TX San Antonio Prop A, Republican Proposed VA Cuts, Netflix Cleopatra Lawsuit, Earth Day San Antonio, Texas, is putting police reform with Proposition A on the May 6 ballot, and Texas GOP is pushing back on the changes.  We will speak with the founder, and director of ACT 4 SA, about the group's efforts that got Prop A on the ballot. Republicans are trying to cut the Department of Veteran Affairs budget by 22%.  As a veteran, this indeed concerns me.  We'll examine how the cuts could have a catastrophic impact on black veterans and how Democrats are pushing back to fight to keep the department funded. Earth Day is coming, but what does this mean for black people?  We will discuss how the climate crisis disproportionately affects Black people more than any other racial or ethnic group and how we should use Earth Day to ensure our future. Today, in our education matters segment,  the Knowledge House.  A nonprofit organization aims to close the gaps in the education­-to-­employment pipeline by leading digital skills training in coding and design for underserved young people in the Bronx.  We will speak with the founder about the organization's impact and how they plan to expand access. And we'll tell you how the state of Minnesota is honoring Prince on the 7th anniversary of his death. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. San Antonio, Texas is putting police reform with Proposition A on the May 6th ballot, and Texas GOP is pushing back on the changes. We will speak with the founder and director of Act for SA about the group's effort that got Prop A on the ballot. Republicans are trying to cut the Department of Veteran Affairs budget by 22%. And as a veteran, you already know this indeed concerns me.

We'll examine how the cuts could have a catastrophic impact on Black veterans and how Democrats are pushing back to keep the fight and help the departments stay funded. Earth Day is coming up, but what does this mean for black people? We will discuss how the climate crisis disproportionately impacts black people more than any other racial ethnic group, and how you should enjoy Earth Day to ensure our future. Today in our Education Matters segment,

the knowledge that we have about the future is going to be shared with you by our community members. more than any other racial ethnic group, and how you should enjoy Earth Day to ensure our future. Today in our Education Matters segment, the Knowledge House, a nonprofit organization aims to close gaps in education to employment pipeline by leading the digital training skills in coding and design for underserved young people in the Bronx. We'll speak with the founder about the organization's impact

and how they plan to expand access. And we'll tell you how the state of Minnesota is honoring Prince on the 10th anniversary of his passing. You already know what time it is. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah, it's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo

Yeah, yeah It's Rolling Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with Roland now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rolling Martin now In a few weeks, folks in San Antonio, Texas, will vote for significant police reforms. The initiative on the May 6th ballot is Proposition A, also called the Justice Charter.

Voting yes on Prop A will do the following. Establish a city justice director appointed by the mayor and city council. Prohibit police from issuing citations or making arrests for certain misdemeanor marijuana possession offenses, prohibit police from enforcing criminal abortion laws, ban no-knock warrants and chokeholds by law enforcement, and use citations instead of arrests for certain misdemeanors. As you can imagine, this initiative to protect black and brown people is being met with heavy opposition. The San Antonio Police Officers Association

Political Action Committee, or PAC, is using scare tactics to deter people from voting for the reforms by putting out this ad. It's not about pot. Prop A would decriminalize shoplifting and theft of services up to $750 per incident. And graffiti up to $2,500. Radical activists want no arrests. No jail time.

Voters in other cities have been tricked with devastating outcomes. Don't be duped. Prop A is not about pot, but keeping criminals out of jail. Vote against. Get the facts at itsnotaboutpot.org. Joining me from San Antonio, Texas, is Ananda Thomas, founder and director of Act for SA, the police reform group that led the effort to get the justice charter on the ballot. Ms. Thomas, thank you so much for joining us. So glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered today. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Absolutely. You know, really appreciate you being on because when I read this piece, read it on Twitter, I was really, really taken aback. But first, I want to say this is the power of having people, activists on the ground that are actually seeing the issues and the connection between local and state government and bringing it to the people so people can, number one, be informed on what's happening specifically in their city, San Antonio. You are the second largest city in Texas with about 1.5 million people. And you have a large population of Latinos in your community who would be impacted greatly by the specific measures. So I was very impressed with the work that you all were doing on the ground. Can you just walk the Roland Martin Unfiltered audience through what Prop 8 is?

We talked about it very briefly here in Teeing Up before having you on, but can you talk about what Prop 8 is and what is the impact that it will have on those community members, those 1.5 million San Antonio Texans that I just spoke about? Yeah, absolutely. So Proposition A is the first time that abortion has been on the ballot in the entire South since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It will decriminalize low-level marijuana

up to four ounces and includes that the smell of marijuana or hemp by itself is not probable cause enough to search somebody. It will also codify the banning of no-knock warrants and chokeholds by SAPD. They're in their policies and procedures manual, but they are not law. So we know what the new police chief that can change. And then it will codify what is known as cite and release. So

certain low-level nonviolent misdemeanors already are citation eligible, which is a summons to court. So by doing this, especially for your Class C misdemeanors that are only punishable by fine anyways, you're not incriminating somebody, incarcerating them, where their job, their housing, their freedom, their time with their family, their education can be disrupted for something that's only a finable offense anyway.

When they get that citation, a court, that judge decides, hey, you're getting a fine, or maybe you're going to a diversion program, which is required community service. It is required classes and sometimes restitution back to the business. We have an 8% reoffender rate from diversion programs compared to 30% for somebody who's been incarcerated. So it is restorative justice. Thank you so much for sharing that, Ananda. And, you know, I'm really impressed by, you all gave a very

specific number when you talked about for people with the citations instead of arrests, for someone who may be found to have stolen something for a business if those items are valued under $750, rather than continuing to clog up the courts,

the person through an arrest have a bond that they may or may not be able to meet and actually sit in jail. And we already know how many people are sitting in jail without having received a court date, even that they're issued a citation. and you talked about the diversion programs. Can you also speak to, I mentioned when I looked up the census data, that San Antonio, second largest city in Texas, but that you have a demographic of about 65.7% of Latinos. When you are speaking to those specific community members, what are some of the responses that you are getting from them with regard to this measure that's on the ballot and actually how their engagement

is so critical in making sure that on May 6th that this measure does in fact pass? Absolutely. So pretty much everybody here, but especially in your communities of color, your Latino communities, your black communities, we know somebody who's been affected by mass incarceration and how that can follow them around for the rest of their lives. So this resonates. We all know somebody who has smoked marijuana at some point or does now or somebody who's needed to get reproductive health services. And that tie in, especially with the racial justice component of the fact that we've had cite and release, for instance, since 2019, but we're still seeing Latino people and especially Black people in our community get arrested more often than white folks for citation eligible offenses. That resonates with people and they understand the importance of this for their

community, especially for our young folks who are inheriting, right, our community and are scared because so many of their rights are being taken away and civil liberties are, you know, being stomped on every day here. Absolutely. And especially, you know, when you're looking at those specific groups and, you know, just thinking about the usage rate for marijuana across all racial lines is effectively the same. Before we go to a break, and I'd love for you to hang on and to stay with us, I really would love for you to talk a little bit about, because we do have to talk about how Republicans, we did mention how their political action committee committees packs that have spent upwards to nine hundred thousand dollars using scare tactics, talking about urban decay to get people really kind of riled up to ensure that they go out to vote against Proposition 8. want for you to share when we come back from the break, Ananda, is how you all are really, you know, using on the ground tactics to really help rally people to vote. And then also what Republicans are doing in partnering with the business community to really kind of wage a

fight to make sure that this proposition does not pass. So we're gonna have Ananda come back on after the break. We're gonna take a quick break, and there's more of what's happening in San Antonio. You do not wanna miss this conversation. And then later in the show, we'll tell you about an organization making sure black and brown people

are helping to shape the future of technology with free technology education for our youth. This is Roland Martin on Filtered Streaming Live on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch. It's a real revolution right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Lost my daughter. I didn't know where she was. So I had to figure out how to survive,

how to eat, how to live. I don't want to go into the details because she's here first of all. She may not want me telling that story. But possession of her. The family broke down. Fell apart. I was homeless. I had to figure out. I didn't have a manager or an agent or anybody anymore. And I'm a talent.

So I got to figure out how to be the agent. I had to figure out how to. I know a lot of cops. And they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

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

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Business work. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer.

Hello, I'm Bishop T.D. James. What up? Lana Wells. And you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Welcome back to Rolling Martin Unfiltered. I am Erica Savage filling in for Roland Martin. We have on Ananda Thomas, the leader of a group that's really pushing for a justice charter in San Antonio, Texas. And we just want to continue the conversation. And before I bring my panel in, I wanted to ask you specifically around, so with all of the wonderful efforts that you and activists on the ground are making that Republicans are using because they, you know, in the state of have already drafted, gotten the governor's approval for it, a bill that essentially says that local policy, local government would

not be able to really bring policy issues to the people. That's effectively kind of circumventing people engaging in things that do affect them. So when you're out talking to San Antonio's, are you also sharing with them how their power is effectively being circumvented by their Republican led state government? And this is why they need to make sure they get out and vote on Proposition A. Yeah, absolutely. The preemption bills are really scary. They're poorly written because it's not just the ability for us to hold our own ballot initiatives or charter amendment initiatives. This will affect us being able to control our local zoning, our employee benefits, right? For all of these things that so far we have local control over

to say, hey, we want well-paid city employees and we want the best benefits for them. Or we want to have control over zoning to make sure big development is not continuing to gentrify our neighborhoods. And we are talking to folks about that, letting them know we have always had the power to legislate ourselves. And that is exactly what we are doing here. Our local city leaders have been slow to move on protecting women, right, and pregnant people's rights and reproductive justice. They've been slow to codify banning of no-knock warrants and chokeholds, which we asked them to codify and was in front of them in 2020. And so when they continue to not protect us, to not fight for our rights, not to pass and codify legislation to protect our most marginalized communities, then we're going to take it to the people for a vote and have those conversations.

And if they choose not to back this up or fight to not enforce this, that's just one more reason for the people to be angry enough to vote them out and put in leadership that will listen to their voters. Absolutely. Cannot agree more, Ananda. And just thinking about it, it'll be on the heels of Cinco de Mayo, a famous celebration of Mexican defeating the French Empire. So I'm really hoping as many people celebrate Cinco de Mayo that they absolutely make sure that they turn out to vote

to ensure that Proposition A does move forward. So I'm going to go ahead and bring in my panel for questions for you. And on our panel today, we have Michael Hotep, host of the African History Network show in 313. That's in Detroit, Michigan. We also have Matt Manning, civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi, Texas. And then we have Joe Richardson, another civil rights attorney. I am going to start with the home team, Matt Manning from out of Corpus Christi, Texas. What is your question for Ananda?

So, Ananda, just to give you context, I actually wrote the site and police site and release policy down here in Nueces County. And we had a lot of the same pushback. So my question for you is what has been what you've seen in terms of the media and the government responding to the actual data, because I thought it was extremely important that you mentioned you only have an 8 percent recidivism rate. And what people don't know about these laws that you're talking about is that they've been on the books in the state of Texas for quite some time. It's not a new law. It's merely asking the police to use their resources better and not over-incarcerate people. So what has been the

response of government when you guys say, look, it's only 8% that we're seeing re-offending in these programs because that's extremely compelling? Yeah. So it's really interesting because our district attorney who implemented site and release here locally in 2019, won handily running on the fact that he implemented this program and what we're seeing now because there's so much pressure from the San Antonio Police Officers

Association and some other political entities. We're seeing some of our city leadership who supported site and release and decriminalization of marijuana actually walk that back right now because they are on the ballot and you know they're giving into those endorsements but at the same side we also have other City Council members in city leadership including one of our congressmen that are standing strong

with us and when we talk to folks on the ground it is exactly that this has actually been in place since 2019 this is is how many lives, right, we've saved from the carceral system. This is how much money we've saved. We calculated how many officer hours we saved in 2022 alone. It was 4,000 patrol hours because they were not spending three hours booking somebody for a joint in their pocket, right? Or a kid that tried to swipe a Monster Energy drink or a mom that took, you know, was trying to get diapers to be able to, you know, diaper her kids, right? When we're able to talk about the real situations, the money saved, the amount of officer hours that we have saved here, folks, you know, it clicks for them. It makes sense.

Thank you so much for asking that really great question. We're going to then take it to Michael. All right. Ananda, this is Michael M. Hotep. Thanks for coming on and sharing this information with us. So just curious, what has been the response from the African-American business community that oftentimes has to pay higher business assurance rates because of shoplifting, because of theft, or also because they oftentimes are in areas serving communities that may be at higher risk for shoplifting. So when we look at if it's a theft of something that is valued at seven hundred fifty dollars or less, from my understanding, they may not be prosecuted for this. So what is the response from the African-American business community regarding this clause in Proposition 8? Yes. So, you know, unfortunately, our police union has really done well to scare our business community. There's a lot of chambers of commerce that are worried that

this is going to increase shoplifting. And it's just a conversation that we've had site and release here for several years, right? This has already been a practice since even before that point, since before 2019, and that we haven't seen a rise in crime because of that, right? This has already been a practice since even before that point, since before 2019, and we haven't seen a rise in crime because of that, right? Cities that have sight and release and cities that don't, rises in crime post-2020 is literally because of the pandemic and because folks are in poverty. And if we are not doing something to invest in our communities to help folks rise out of poverty, then we're not truly finding a solution for the root causes of crime and what causes people to steal. It's out of desperation, right?

We need to invest in mental health care. We need to invest in restorative justice. We need to raise our city out of poverty to truly address this. And then on the other side, too, is that the money that we're saving from site and release, right, let's find solutions and ways for that to go back to the small business community, especially like our Black-owned businesses and our Latino-owned businesses, to help them even further as they are suffering from the aftereffects of the pandemic. And, you know, assuring folks, like, we want to make sure that all these funds we're saving are going back to the community, including small business, has actually brought many of them on board. And, you know, we'll be fighting for that together.

Okay. I appreciate your question, Nicole. All right. Thanks. And Mr. Richardson, your question for Ananda. Hi there, Ananda. I appreciate what you're doing, being there in the belly of the beast. And this is actually a question that I'm sure Matt will probably have some information on, but I'm wondering out loud not only about the political allyship that is there for you, you know, folks tooting the horn that way,

and whether people that are politically inclined and aligned with you are being of support because I think one of the things that's important is that people really need to know that a lot of people are negatively affected by what it is that you're trying to change. And then actually on some level it can transcend politics. And I think that's one of the reasons that the other side is fighting so hard to take away control when they talk all the time about wanting local control and wanting locals to be able to

self-determine. But now it's changing because it's going to change and go in another direction. So I'm wondering about the political allyship that exists. And I'm also wondering about the infrastructure that may be in place as it pertains to legal things, because I think it's only a matter of time before this ends up being in some litigation. Absolutely. So actually, one of the most beautiful things about this is the intersectionality and the coalition that we're building. So immigrant rights and immigrant justice groups have joined on this because we know that ICE here in San Antonio and across Texas is one of the first interactions that somebody

has in jail. We've been endorsed by the Bexar County Green Party, the Bexar County Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO labors with us, Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, a bunch of reproductive justice groups, criminal justice groups, groups that support and advocate for folks that have been formerly incarcerated and their families, racial justice groups. We have a broad coalition because these are all issues that we've been working on and been trying to speak to our city legislators about that we just haven't gotten movement on.

And we're having conversations at the doors about how you can't talk about reproductive justice if you don't talk about racial justice. And now because we are threatening doctors and patients with life in jail for reproductive health decisions that we've turned it into a policing issue, into a public safety issue. And we have to look at the whole picture of how we build a safer community with all of these things and these different groups and people in mind that have been marginalized by these policies and by the carceral system since its inception. So that's definitely a big piece and a big beautiful piece about this that's helping us

get these words out, but also helping us take down this disinformation and these fear tactics that folks are being hit with. On the other side, we have had six cities decriminalize marijuana with the same language in Texas. We've had two cities ban no-knock warrants already. We have cite and release in many other cities, and it's allowed by state law. Really, the only new piece here is decriminalization of abortion, and we're invoking that same home rule city power to direct our tax dollars, including our resources and police, for what their priorities are. And they aren't. We expect that that will be challenged. But that doesn't mean, one, that we can't win on this.

And two, we, at least at the back end, don't win that narrative. And really the policy direction of you can't say that San Antonio doesn't care about reproductive justice, or we don't want solutions for police reform, or we don't want to shrink mass incarceration and end it, because we've given a clear message to that. And every policy related to public safety moving forward has to follow that. And then one final piece is we did write in a severability clause at the very end. Should any one piece of this be struck down in court, the rest of this will still get implemented and go into effect because we knew that at least with the abortion piece and how politicized this is that some things might get shot down. And that's no reason not to win at least some of these things as we're trying to win all of them. Ananda Thomas, we want to thank you so much for being on Roland Martin Unfiltered, for really demonstrating the power of groundwork. Could you please share with us how people can connect with you very quickly?

Absolutely. So our website is act4sa.org. This is our Facebook and our Instagram and Twitter. It's at act4SATX. Specifically for the Justice Charter, our website is sajusticecharter.com. Okay. We have our social media links here. We have a ton of information.

You can donate. You can volunteer. We have options for folks that are virtual. And if you know some folks in San Antonio or you are here, right, and you believe in racial justice and criminal justice and a woman's right to choose, then you need to get yourself, your friends, your neighbors out to vote for Prop A. Thank you again for being on Rolling Martin Unfiltered.

Be well and keep us updated on how things go. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. Come on that soil! You will not replace us! White people are losing their damn lives. Ooh. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm

to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress,

whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at every university calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is Whitefield. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hi, this is Essence Atkins. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond,

and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, unfiltered. The grand old party, also known as the GOP and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have unveiled a plan to raise the debt ceiling that will cut federal funding to several programs, including the Department of Veteran Affairs. The proposed 22% budget cut to the VA would threaten critical services for veterans. This would mean 30 million fewer veterans outpatient visits and 81,000 jobs lost across the Veterans Health Administration, leading to longer wait times for medical care and benefits,

reduced access to telehealth, and limited funding for construction projects and national cemeteries. These proposed cuts would also negatively impact veterans who access housing, food assistance, mental health, and substance abuse use services by eliminating funding for housing choice vouchers for up to 50,000 veterans, increasing their risk of homelessness. The proposed budget would mean that 4,200 fewer veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness would receive job training, counseling, and job readiness services provided through the Department of Labor's Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program. And you already know, you all, as a veteran,

this greatly concerns me. All right, so we're going to bring in the panel so we can talk about this really quickly. You know, one of the things that really did intrigue me, and so I myself am a veteran, but I know that we all have proximity to veterans within our families or within friends. These cuts don't affect the defense funding budget.

So that budget stays intact. But let's also talk about some of the other cuts that will be impacted as well. We're talking about not only to veterans, but we're talking about 25 million children that are in already low-performing, underserved schools will be impacted, and 7.5 million children with disabilities will be impacted by these 22 percent cuts that Republicans are proposing. And up to 108,000 educational professionals also could suffer job losses. When we're thinking about Head Start, which we know greatly improves how kids who usually are

black or brown kids do perform when they get K-12. You're talking about 200,000 of those children could lose access to Head Start, and up to 108,000 children would lose child care benefits, which means that countless parents would not be able to participate in the workforce. And then thinking about our seniors' Meals on Wheels program, this is a program that is a nutritional program for our seniors for people who are not able-bodied to go and get their meals some of them this is the only hot meal or only meal that they receive we're talking about up to one million people that are

impacted so i'm going to start with joe since you were one of the last persons on the panel to speak with our last person that we had on. Talk to me a little bit about what does this say about the grand old party as they look to increase the debt ceiling and to keep FY24 budget pretty much at the same space as it was for FY22? Well, they didn't have any trouble passing a clean debt ceiling bill three times during the Trump administration and weren't putting a gun to the head, as it were. Now that's happening. Oh, we'll raise the debt limit just a little bit, but we'll cut all of these things, these things, these things. There's a similar formula, keep tax cuts, et cetera, in place and be okay with charging the credit card, but not paying it off. Again, this is about paying things that we've already committed to pay and it threatens the full

faith and credit in the United States as it pertains to our credit. In terms of connections with VA, my dad was a 100% service-connected disabled vet. My mom worked for the Veterans Administration for 40 years. And so I saw up close through them the differences when services are what it is that they need to do, what it is they need to be. And my mom worked toward them every day. And so this threatens VA jobs. This threatens VA access. It's already difficult enough sometimes. There's been a lot of controversy about the VA, et cetera. But the remedy is not to cut it by 22 percent to make it so much harder for people, including people of color, because a lot of us are in or connected to the military or working for the government, making it harder, once again,

for people of color while you allow tax cuts and allow all of these other things that make it easier for those at the top, but much more difficult for those in the Middle East of us. Absolutely, Joe. And I definitely want to say thank you to your father and your mother for their service, having that close and up close impact. I myself am in the military. My father was in the Marine Corps for over 20 years. So definitely understand that with regard to having military parents. And so, Michael, as I bring it over to you, you know, again, you know, we're talking about how Republicans do not want to, in fact, cut defense funding,

but they do want these other programs to suffer, women, infants, and children, a weight program, a way that we keep children fed at very, very critical times in their life, that that program will be faced with cuts as well. And so when we look at how they don't want to touch the defense funding, ensuring that the war toys go forward, those people that actually

engage in theater, those people that actually do engage battle combat, when they come back home and maybe aren't able to continue their career in the military, well, what they're going to find, in fact, is that their service that they should be able to get virtually free has been cut. So talk to me about the economics of what Republicans are looking to do, what their priorities are, what their proposed funding for FY24. Well, what their priority is, is attacking policies from President Joe Biden. One of the things that they want to do is, they want to roll back his executive action on student loan, basically when it comes to student loan forgiveness. And they want to rescind some of Biden's top policy achievements. We know that the student loan forgiveness, if the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court rules

positively on it, we know it would disproportionately positively help African-Americans. And it will discharge. You're going to have about 500,000 African-American families who will move from a negative net worth to a positive net worth. And about 25 percent of student loan debt that African-Americans have are going to be discharged. Also, they want to roll back elements of President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act that no Republicans in the House or the Senate voted for as well. Even though they ran on fighting against inflation and reducing inflation. Somehow they have amnesia on that, and they want to focus on banning transgender athletes

and focus on the subcommittee on weaponization of the government and Department of Justice, things of this nature. So this is they also want to attack the climate change initiatives that are in the Inflation Reduction Act as well. And they want to roll back the additional funding to the Internal Revenue Service that was partly designed to go after potential tax cheats, maybe like Donald Trump. So what's important really to understand is the difference between Democrats being in control of the House of Representatives and continue to pass policies that are beneficial to African Americans and Republicans being in control of the House of Representatives and

voting against those policies is about a total of about 7,000 votes in a handful of House elections. Okay. So this is an example of how elections have consequences. So all the people out there saying, we want reparations, we want reparations. Explain to me how you're going to get Kevin McCarthy to allow a debate on reparations to come to the House floor and a vote on reparations

to come to the House floor. I'll wait. There you go. Yeah, we'll stay waiting, Michael, because we know how it's going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Exactly so. No Republicans support reparations, even the black ones. Absolutely.

They don't support reparations. Absolutely. You're talking about people that will take an inch and make it a mile. Republicans will do that. And they're doing that with that very slim majority that they have in the House that you so pointed out. And so, Matt, to you, you know, you were just having discussion about, you know, legislation that you have been a part of and, you know, moving. Talk to me a little bit about, as we continue to talk about how the grand old party, what their list of priorities are, and it's not people-centered, what do you say to people who continually want to say that both parties are the same,

they're going to do what they want to do anyway, that their vote doesn't matter? How do you take what we're having a robust conversation about now that impacts people of all backgrounds and tell them that this does impact them

and this is why it is important for them to engage in the power mechanism that they do have, which is the vote? I think that's a brilliant question. And I think it's a brilliant question because GOP continually stands for gets over on people, right? What they do is... I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself

to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Get people to vote on rhetoric, not on reality. The fact that you've got people who are in, you know, places like Mississippi and Louisiana who need Medicare benefits, who need SNAP benefits, right,

but they continually vote against things like welfare because some Republican is telling them that means the welfare queen is taking all their hard-earned tax dollars is a function of the Republicans, one, playing for keeps, and two, not caring about the fact that what they're saying is cognitively dissonant with the other things they've said for decades. So, you know, the reality of it is, all jokes aside, it's terrifying that people continually vote against their interests. Case in point, how many military members do you know who consistently vote Republican because they believe, you know, that's going to equate to a stronger defense system, right? Nonetheless, they're trying to divest money away from the VA. So what you see is, I think,

a lot of times single issue voters and also people who are just bought by the rhetoric. And the reason that is so problematic is because right now the Republicans clearly have the largest bullhorn or the strongest bullhorn, and they have the people who are coming out to vote most voraciously. So to answer your question, what people have to do, which I think Michael beats the drum on brilliantly every time we're on here, is you have to vote. You can't afford to sit out, because it has measurable effects on your life, particularly in the context of things like the divestment of local control. I mean, the idea that we have a system

that's founded on federalism, and across the country, state legislatures are doing everything they can to take away local control should terrify people. Because that tells you that the people you vote for have no meaningful effect on your you that the people you vote for have no meaningful effect on your lives if the people above them at a different level

can just take away their power capriciously. So I think we're in a fight for democracy right now, and I think the GOP is willing to fight a lot dirtier than the Democrats are, and that means measurable gains for them where they should not have such gains. I could not say it any better, Michael. And I just want to, you know, reiterate for the audience in what Matt, what Joe and Michael have said, you all know I've talked about I'm a veteran,

but I am a polytrauma patient from having sustained a moderate brain injury. And so the services that I receive are very select services that are across very select VAs. So if you don't think that your vote is important, let me tell you, I'm so glad that I am an engaged voter, that I am a person that raises my voice because the services that I receive are a direct result of the VA having the money and the funding to actually give me the services

that I need to continue to live. And so we definitely hope that you will take opportunity to check your voter registration and make sure that the next vote, not just the one that happens in the presidential race in midterms, but your local votes that you engage in. When Roland Martin Unfiltered returns, we'll tell you about news making headlines across the country. The new arrest connected to that mass shooting at the Sweet 16 birthday party in Alabama. Colin Kaepernick is helping a Georgia family

whose loved one was found dead, covered in bedbugs. And one Tennessee Republican who voted to expel two Black lawmakers resigns. Roland Martin unfiltered continues streaming live on the Blackstar Network. We will be right back. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, Dexter Jenkins is a faith-based financial mentor with more than 20 years in the financial services

industry. He's passionate about helping families build generational wealth. Even though I'm talking about things like prayer, I'm talking about things about reading the word, I'm talking about things like fellowship, I'm talking to members who are dealing with losing their houses, or I'm talking to members who,

because of a lack of the handling of finances, they're working two or three jobs, and so what I'm finding is that they're not coming to church because they don't have a handle on their finances. We're talking how to get wealthy through faith and our finances on the next Get Wealthy right here, only on Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders?

Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie.

Black TV does matter, dang it. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Yee! TV does matter, dang it. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Yee! Today's Black and Missing is Tremaine Orange. Tremaine Orange has been missing from Casa Grande, Arizona since March 12, 2023. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Maine Orange, you would please call the Casa Grande, Arizona Police Department at 520-421-8700.

Six people are now in custody and facing reckless murder charges for the mass shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party that left four dead and 32 injured in Dadeville, Alabama. Today, an unnamed 15-year-old was arrested. Thursday, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency arrested Willie George Brown Jr. and John Latron Brown. Wilson Lamar Hill Jr. and brothers Tyreek and Travis McAuliffe were arrested earlier this week. Four of the 32 injured victims remain hospitalized and in critical condition.

Four people were killed, and those are Phil Dowdwell, Marcia Emanuel Collins, Corbin Dometri Halston, and Shanivia Nicole Smith. The birthday party was for Dowdell's sister, Alexis. In Georgia, LaShawn Thompson, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, is helping a Georgia family discover

how their loved one died inside the Fulton County Jail. LaShawn Thompson was arrested on a misdemeanor charge and was found dead inside of his cell in September 2020, covered in bedbugs. Thompson's family members and a legal team led the demonstration outside of the Fulton County Jail, including civil rights attorney Ben Crump, as they rallied to get justice and close the facility. While three have resigned... This was the psychiatric ward of the Fulton County Jail. You know, Attorney Counsel Rogers, I think Brittany Griner in the Russian prison had a better facility than what LaShawn Thompson had here in Fulton County, Georgia.

And so we ain't going to let nobody pass the baton. We want justice for LaShawn. We won't pass the baton. We won't justice. I don't know why, but that's what happened. I looked at the pictures, and I could see bugs in his eyes, bugs in his ears, bugs in his nose. When we got the body, we looked looked and we was wondering, my God.

The funeral home man say, don't touch him. But you know, knowing his ain't he, she gonna look. I'm searching. I'm just looking. I see, I see bites, Percy bites, bites, bites. And I was like, y'all look, look. The funeral home man said, don't touch. So I'm thinking, why you don't want to touch? because probably from the infection in his body, we may have a cut and it would be something on us. So we didn't touch him. But can you imagine? Can you imagine him screaming and him hollering, saying, help?

They biting, they biting. And nobody come. Nobody come. Nobody. Nobody. Can you say nobody? Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody come. Nobody come. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. We had a press conference with the chair, but I tell you what I told him. I left out of there with still no understanding. I still have no understanding until y'all find out what happened

to him. And then I have some understanding. But God brought him here for a reason. He came to change things. While three top jailers resigned and Fulton County Sheriff Pat Lombada said they might switch health care providers, the family was unsatisfied. Thompson's death has attracted the attention of Senator Ossoff, chairman of the Human Rights Subcommittee, who launched an inquiry into conditions at jails across Georgia. The Justice Department also requested the case filed for a federal rights criminal investigation

into Thompson's death. One of the top GOP leaders who pushed back, who pushed to have two black Tennessee lawmakers expelled was found to have violated, get this,, in fact, sexually harass at least one legislative intern. The victim provided several examples of Campbell's behavior in an email to university officials, including inappropriate comments about the possibility of the victim and another intern performing sexual acts on one another. Campbell resigned from his seat Thursday following the release of the Ethics Subcommittee's report. And in updated news, a baby taken from a Texas couple was returned by the court. A Texas family is reunited with their daughter Mila after the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services

removed their baby for choosing a home birth over a hospital. Tamisha and Rodney Jackson's three-week-old baby, Mila Jackson, will be returned to her parents following a decision by the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. Before the scheduled hearing this morning, the district attorney returned Mila to her parents. Mila was initially removed due to concern over her parents' ability to care for her after her birth at home. Her pediatrician thought she was not receiving appropriate care given the diagnosis of jaundice. The case has been surrounded by controversy, particularly after the revelation that court documents authorizing Mila's removal had different names listed as her parents.

The situation prompted families, prompted rallies in the family support. And then two California men have been exonerated. A California judge exonerates two men who spent nearly 17 years in prison for a crime that they did not, in fact, commit. Dupree Glass and Juan Rayford had been wrongly convicted of attempted murder after a 2004 shooting. Still, they were declared innocent following a new trial that included a confession from the actual shooter. The case was brought first brought under California's law, which guarantees compensation for defendants who have had their cases thrown out and presents opportunity to prove their innocence. The men who were, get this, 17 and 18

years old when they were arrested were each awarded $140 for every day they spent behind bars, totaling $900,000 under a new law. Defense attorneys plan on suing the state, county, and district attorney's office for wrongful prosecution. And there's more to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered. When we return, we'll discuss Earth Day and why black people should not be left out of the environmental conversation. And why is Netflix being sued for having a black woman depicting Queen Cleopatra? We'll tell you all about this hot topic. We're rolling Martin and Phil Church streaming live on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

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

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Network returns after this commercial break. Next on The Black Table with me, Craig Carr. In mid-April, we lost another giant,

a man who we had the opportunity to have a conversation with here at The Black Table, Dr. Robert Charles Smith. We had a conversation with Dr. Smith about his life and times and his memoir, From the Bayou to the Bay. The opportunity to go to Berkeley got me out of that difficult situation and put me at the center of radicalism in California, the center of Black radicalism.

We lift his voice, we lift his name, on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we talk about a hard, cold fact. Not all health care is created equal in this country, especially if you're a person of color. So many of us Black families, we rely upon each other heavily. A lot of us aren't necessarily sure how to best communicate with our health care providers. How to take charge and balance the scales. Your life may depend on it.

That's next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. When you talk about Blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story

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PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, Dexter Jenkins is a faith based financial mentor with more than 20 years in the financial services industry. He's passionate about helping families build generational wealth. Even though I'm talking about things like prayer, I'm talking about things about reading the word, I'm talking about things like fellowship, I'm talking to members who are dealing with losing their houses or I'm talking to members who, because of a lack of the handling of finances,

they're working two or three jobs and so what I'm finding is that they're not coming to church because they don't have a handle on their finances. We're talking how to get wealthy through faith and our finances on the next Get Wealthy right here, only on Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross,

and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Want to bring the panel in. We're going to talk about one of those last pieces that we just covered, Dupree Glass and Juan Rayford, two young men who were arrested at 17 and 18 years old, you know, children, kids, teenagers, and spent 17 years incarcerated in the state of California for attempted murder, of which they have been found innocent of.

And now that they have been released, that they will be paid $140,000 for each day that they spent behind bars, which totals up to about $900,000. So we have two civil rights attorneys on our panel. I think it's really just that we do discuss this. Matt, I'm going to start with you. In thinking in terms of, you know, California has passed the laws for people who've been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated to receive some type of remedy. But talk to me a little bit about, you know, the outcomes, the emotional, the opportunities that they miss as 17- and 18-year-old kids, teenagers essentially,

now men having to re-acclimate to a society that has changed significantly and what the impact has been, is on their life now that they are free, but they are free after having served time for a crime in which they did not commit. These cases are so difficult to me because, uh, they're like taking a shot of cyanide and following it up with a shot of sugar water, right? Like you want to be happy about it, but you can't because there is absolutely no time that you can put or value rather on the time lost in someone's life. And Joe can attest to this, but we do this in the legal field a lot. We try to as much as possible quantify the, quote, value of a life.

But the reality is the value of a life is invaluable. So 17, 18, 20 years of somebody's life not only spent behind bars, but spent with their entire reputation impugned, right? The inability to get jobs, the inability to acclimate. A lot of times, strictures on where you can live makes $900,000 really a slap in the face. I mean, $140 a day is not remotely close to what would even get close to being remotely just in this circumstance. And while I'm happy for these brothers, this is a terrifying thing. This is what happens to people, particularly before DNA and other more kind of cutting-edge means of proving things. But my understanding is when they went through this appellate process,

they found witnesses who said, yeah, those guys didn't even have a gun. They weren't involved in the shooting. So there goes 18 years of their life taken away when they could have done a better investigation. And ultimately, to get at it, I don't think that there's anything that can ever truly be restorative. I mean, I like the idea of that, but $900,000 is a paltry sum for someone taking two decades of your life. And on top of that, in California, I guess this new law allows them to be repaid and restored as much as possible. But by contrast, here in Texas, if you look at someone like Richard Miles, who had a similar situation, it's my understanding that the state of Texas then taxes that money.

So to add insult to injury and injustice, you get a big, quote, you know, award for the wrongful conviction. But then the state says, you know what? It cost us this much to incarcerate you. So we're going to deduct your award by whatever amount it cost us to incarcerate you. So I'm happy for them, but I'm sad for them and their families because they can never get that time back. And $900,000 in the context of that, to me, is considerably too little. Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. And that's why I thought it was super important to ensure that we do have, in fact, the civil rights attorney that would speak to

what that $900,000 mean. And you talk about taxes. They have paid a personal tax, a human tax already. It's interesting to know that a state would apply additional taxes to that as well. So definitely want to keep the panel on ready. We actually are going to pivot a little bit and talk about something that does impact Black communities as well, and that's Earth Day. April 27th is Earth Day, and it's a celebration of advocacy for a green planet. However, some don't think Earth Day is for black people,

even though black communities are most impacted by pollution. The climate crisis is disproportionately impacting black people, with 50% of black people saying environmental issues are a big problem in their local area, and this is according to Pew Research Study. Despite this, there is a misguided stereotype that black people don't care about the environment. As black people lose their home, businesses, and families due to climate-related disasters,

the future of black folks depends on how we use Earth Day to continue pushing for climate justice. Dr. Olga Bolden-Tiller, Dean and Research Director of the College of Agriculture, Environment, and Nutrition Sciences, is joining me from the historic Tuskegee University to discuss why Black people should not be left out of the environment conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. So glad to have you on World of Martin Unfiltered today. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Especially from the historic Tuskegee University. Could not think of a better person to have this conversation with. So if you could, just before we get into our conversation, talk a little bit about the history of Earth Day,

what it came about, and then what is essentially the focus of Earth Day? So as you mentioned, Earth Day is really all about making certain that we have natural resources sustained for decades and decades to come. And so it is the bane of what we will need to have for when we get our water, how we produce food, et cetera. So our natural resources are essential. We take them for granted for sure. But in 1970, Earth Day was really revolutionized and established so that we would give it some thought and really kind of focus on it. And the first official Earth Day, of course, was held in 1990. And even though it became an official day around that time, individuals have been very much tied to the earth and how important it is.

Our indigenous people, African-Americans, et cetera. In fact, many argue that George Washington Carver, pictured here in the image behind me, played an integral role with the research that he does and did related to understanding our environment. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute season one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And making certain that natural resources were taken into consideration in all that we do, including agriculture. Yeah, I think that's such an important lesson to know because, you know, when you talk about those specific groups, we talk about black and indigenous peoples. I mean, we actually work the earth. We work the land.

But when we're talking about in current conversations with regards to Earth Day, some of the things that I've kind of read and listened to with regards to like, you know, many cities across these United States, there's a tax to use plastic bags. And you can probably go into any black and brown homes and see plastic bags are stored and used for a variety of things. I myself, one of the things that I do is I keep like the canvas, the cotton bags in my car so that I can use a cotton bag. But just talking about that juxtaposition between plastic or using a cloth bag, when we're thinking about black and indigenous people who have worked the land and been one with land, but also been moved away from the land and typically, unfortunately, just depending

on socioeconomic status, live in communities where there's high air pollution, children's rates of asthma are really dismal, three to one of white counterparts. There's Cancer Alley in Louisiana. We're going to be talking later with environmentalists around water crisis issues, water crisis issues that definitely are problematic in Jackson, Mississippi, and really kind of though, again, Black and Indigenous people have worked the land, how we have not been included in the conversations to moving away from materials that are damaging to the earth and bringing us into a space where we feel included in the conversation and actually seeing outcomes that do provide better health outcomes for Black and Indigenous people?

I think one of the things when we think about marginalization of communities, which we know has been a thing for a lot of Black, Brown, and colored communities is this marginalization. So it's not that we don't even understand some of the ramifications of things that happen in the environment. The reality is in some instances,

we were not able to be a part of the conversation. In other instances, we had damage done to our communities when we think about Cancer Alley, dumping from different companies, from pollution and things of that nature. And so that gets around environmental justice as well. And so a lot of those things were not by choice. In fact, there's a very powerful film out that says, See Me in Nature.

So we've been a part of nature, but we haven't always necessarily been able to be a part of the conversation. And our voices haven't always been able to be a part of the conversation and our voices haven't always been able to be heard. And so that's why it's so critical that institutions like Tuskegee University and other HBCUs really amplify these issues and really educate our communities while we now have the opportunity. And these critical conversations worldwide are so important. YAMICHE ALCINDOR. Absolutely, Dr. Tiller. And before I bring

my panel in to ask questions, I just want to say, could you speak to some efforts that you know that are happening in local communities to help really bring Black and brown people into more of the fold when we're having these conversations around environment as well? So I mentioned the See Me in Nature film by Asia Singleton. There are other films available like Water Has No Enemy that is directed by Will Baker. Lots of discussion around environmental justice, really enlightening individuals to challenges around the environment that are in communities

so that, in fact, we can start to have these critical conversations. We're doing that here at Tuskegee University. We're working throughout the 1890 land grant system to have system-wide conversations. And so these are very important, that we're making sure that we're having these dialogues. And then thinking about crops and how the utilization and selection of certain crops actually impact climate change and, more importantly, climate resilience. George Washington Carver, Booker T. Whatley, who was another environmentalist that worked here at Tuskegee, who built on the work of Carver.

Those conversations certainly need to be had. And so having workshops, having events within our community to heighten awareness, and really educating young people and their families about the careers that are in these green spaces, so that we can make sure that we have individuals from our communities that are certified and trained so that they can be a part of these conversations and make sure that the challenges and issues that are a part of marginalized communities

are a part of the conversation and addressed. Absolutely. I'm going to bring in Joe. Joe, your question for Dr. Tiller. Dr. Tiller, thanks for this important, incredibly important work that you do. I think it's important to be reminded that Earth Day and, you know, when they call folks tree huggers and, you know, all these other things, these are not, quote, white things. These are things that affect us probably, certainly disproportionately,

and it makes it all the more important that we're part of it. You started talking about it a little bit and just want to build on it a little bit more. You know, what are the things that you're doing in your position and that Tuskegee may be doing to really bring this home for young people early on? Because one of the things that happens, Earth Day started with me when I was in college. One of the things that happened is if we create an expectation with children and we make something part of their DNA and part of their experience,

then it doesn't get whited out literally or figuratively. It doesn't become this thing that belongs to other people but not to them. And it's not only can it be something that can build careers and be fun, but it's absolutely necessary and vital for our communities to fundamentally survive. So what are the things that are being done to really connect young people in their formative years to the idea of Earth Day and the underlying principles of being environmentally sound, connection to the land, and all of these other things that hopefully can spark interest and passion

and help lead to a better future. So there are a number of programs. A lot of people are, you know, aware of 4-H and FFA, but we also have MANRs, which is Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and San Juan. which is Minorities in Agriculture, Natural... ...which is a national organization that really focuses on the development of minority students in K-12. And so they get a chance to not only learn

about these different careers, more importantly, they have the opportunity to see role models who are currently a part of these different careers and understand not only the for bringing in the aspect of our youth in that. Dr. Olga Bolden-Tiller, it has been quite the pleasure having you on Roland Martin Unfiltered here from the historic Tuskegee University. How can people connect with what you all have happening there? So we have a plethora of activities throughout this entire month, in fact. And so you can log on to Tuskegee.edu and learn about our Earth Week celebrations. We have activities from natural resources, looking at forestry, looking at water, have exciting dialogues happening with individuals about some of the films that I mentioned,

looking at how this impacts our food as well. And so anyone across the entire world can connect to Tuskegee and our Earth Day celebrations that are actually happening throughout this week and the month of April. Tuskegee.edu. Thank you again for being on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Dr. Bolden-Tiller. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. And still to come, we'll discuss a trending topic on social media.

Honey, the social, honey, social. Netflix is accused of blackwashing docudrama Queen Cleopatra. One organization is trying to be the pipeline for black and brown people to enter the tech field. And later, we'll tell you how the state of Minnesota is honoring Prince on the seventh anniversary of his passing.

Stay with us, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on Black Star Network. We'll be right back. I lost my daughter. I didn't know where she was. So I had to figure out how to survive, how to eat, how to live. I don't want to go into the details because she's here, first of all.

She may not want me telling that story. But possession of her. The family broke down, fell apart. I was homeless. I had to figure out I didn't have a manager or an agent or anybody anymore, and I'm the talent. So I got to figure out how to be the agent. I had to figure out how does business work. hatred on the streets a horrific scene white nationalist rally that descended into deadly

violence deadly violence. You will not replace us. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks

voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. I know a lot of cops and

they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. It's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey, yo, peace, world. What's going on?

It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. A backlash is brewing over a new Netflix film by Egyptian-British filmmaker Tina Gavari. The TV drama documentary series about the life of Cleopatra, featuring black actress Adele James in the leading role, has sparked outrage in Egypt with accusations of blackwashing and stealing their history. While it is unclear whether Cleopatra was black, Gavarri feels it is unlikely she was white.

Huh. As history suggests, Elizabeth Taylor played the queen in 1963. Gavarri calls for a conversation about colorism and internalized white supremacy and for imaginations to be liberated so historical figures can be explored without fear. Queen Cleopatra debuts on Netflix May 10th. So, Michael, with the social media controversy that has brewed, that was the first thing that I thought about. One of the early depictions that I saw of Cleopatra was by Elizabeth Taylor, who is no doubt non-black and very white. Talk to me a little bit about what lens you believe that this is really kind of gaining a lot of momentum from and what this does when with, you know, kind of like this racial reckoning that was supposed to happen after the lynching of George Floyd.

What does it say about really where people hold their racial sentiments? Okay, well, thanks for asking that question, Erica. And I had been following this story for a number of reasons. And today I reached out to one of my teachers, Professor Jane Small, about this, who was a consultant on the first installment of the African Queens series, executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith. The first installment was on Queen Nzinga of

Matamba, which is in modern day Angola. He was a consultant on that first installment. And Professor Small put me in contact with one of my friends, Tony Browder, author of Nine Valley Contributions to Civilization. So this is a complicated issue. The reason why is in looking at different articles on this, the framework of black and white are contemporary frameworks, 17th century, 18th century, coming from people like Carl von Linnaeus and Dr. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach,

who are credited with really stratifying humanity into races, okay? In antiquity, we don't have that type of construct. So we're trying to look at something in ancient times. Cleopatra VII was born in 69 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt. We're trying to look at something in antiquity, in B.C. times, through the historic, through a contemporary lens. The question is, when it comes to her mother and grandmother and their what we would call

ethnicity. It's unclear. On the father's side, so she's in the line of what are known as the Ptolemies. The Ptolemy line comes in after Alexander the Greek, because there ain't nothing great about him, after Alexander the Greek invades Egypt in 332 B.C., and then Ptolemy I, Sotelagy, takes over in 323 B.C., and these are Greeks, okay? So she is looked at as possibly being Egyptian, African, partially on her mother or grandmother's side. It's not conclusive. However, I think it was, I like the depiction. So this installment comes out May 10th. Okay. So I've just seen the trailer. I like the depiction coming from this series dealing with African queens.

Now, the backlash coming from Egyptians, and we got to be careful of that term Egyptian, because we're dealing with Egypt basically after it was conquered by Arabs, and the Arabs invaded in 639 A.D. and conquered in 642 A.D. So we have to really be careful of what we're talking about. This is not what we call ancient Kemet, which was ruled by what we would term as black Africans who are relatives of the Nubians, OK? So you have an effort to whitewash, so to speak, whitewash Egypt and the history of it, and to discredit the indigenous African people when it comes to the pyramids, when it comes to the greatness of of ancient Khmer, ancient Egypt. So I think there should be debates on this. I think there should be historical presentations on this.

This can be the catalyst coming from Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith's production company. This can be the catalyst for this. But we need to get some African scholars in on this. People like Tony Browder, people like Sister Nubia Watford, who's a cultural anthropologist here in Detroit, who I have interviewed a number of times. And at the same time, we also have to refute the tour that Dr. Zahi Hawass is going on, starting in May, around the U.S. And that appears to be an attempt also to whitewash ancient Egypt as well. There's always an attempt to either separate Egypt from Africa or say that the Egyptians, the ancient Egyptians, were either brown-skinned Caucasians or anything but sub-Saharan Africans.

So this is something that we really have to analyze and fight against. Yeah, Michael, and thank you for bringing out those points. No doubt it's definitely complex. We know that there are white Arabs, there are people, you know, of Arab descent that are of different, you know, backgrounds. And so, absolutely, so we understand

that. And so, Joe, I want to bring this to you, you know, the claims of blackwashing when there are movies that, you know, I can think of like Gods of Egypt where white men played Egyptians. I'm thinking about The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise. He is a whole white man. a little bit about, you know, to essentially make the claim of blackwashing, which I did not know was a whole word, but I guess it is a whole word. Talk to me a little bit about what does it mean for other depictions in Hollywood that we've seen when we look at the background of what is actually being brought to film, and the background does not match the person that's embodying that particular role.

The shoe is on the other foot now, right? This lends to the larger narrative and the larger fear about being outnumbered, about being majority-minority where the rest of the world is. I mean, if they're concerned about blackwashing right now, listen, they should be much more understanding about what we've been dealing with for a long, long time, whether it's inventions, whether it's, you know, historical context for things that happened in Africa,

creating the pyramids. You know, we can go a long way and have a long conversation about things that had been misconstrued and directly actually lied about because one of the things that happens, frankly, is that when you're in charge, you decide. I mean, you know, I was getting ready to say H-E-L-L,

the word, but I was getting ready to say Jesus after the word. I'm getting ready to say, heyE-L-L, the word, but I was getting ready to say Jesus after the word. I'm getting ready to say, hey, Jesus is historically inaccurate on the board. They even took the Son of God and flipped that. Come on. And so at the end of the day, you know, what happens is when you want something,

you want it to be yours, you change it to look like you, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But if we want to be truthful, then let's do, you know, what we're talking about here in terms of let's get the information to be historically accurate to the extent that we can and then embrace it.

You don't have to feel any worse about anything just because we started civilization, but it is what it is, okay? So let's just go down the road, be truthful, you know, and get rid of this notion about, you know, being commercial, you know, whitewashing things, making things feel better, you know, making things look better and feel better when you're really just turning it on its head and flipping what you've been doing the whole time. Absolutely could not agree more. And Matt, you know, to bring in the last point that Joe just made in terms of the truthfulness piece,

you know, when you think about the depictions of Jesus, you know, he pretty much has a perm and is, you know, white, essentially, when, you know, it's described as something very, very different in the Holy Script. But we've been really dealing in a lot of elements of truth not being brought to certain communities, right? So when we're talking about, whether it's talking about Proposition A, remedies that will be made for black and brown communities that will be of good effect for them, whether we're talking about environmental you know, environmental impact for black and brown communities, truths that really do matter in terms of ensuring that black, brown, and indigenous communities are protected. Very quickly, before we go to break, can you just share a little bit about what it would mean if this film is essentially not allowed to

move forward on May 10th with the depiction of Queen Cleopatra as a Black, as a brown woman? I think that's another brilliant, insightful question. And to answer it very succinctly, I think it's just kind of part and parcel with the reality that we're seeing that the truth does not matter. It's the feelings that matter. So people are taking umbrage to the idea that the depiction that they have been sold for all these years about Cleopatra is being attacked, not the actual reality of who she may have been, to Michael's point, about not knowing the heritage of her mother. And what we're seeing, particularly as it relates to the fights in the state houses and as it relates to education and all of the things in the national zeitgeist right now, is that the truth doesn't matter. What matters is how you feel about what's being discussed, case in point, critical race theory.

One percent of people have any idea what that actually means. What they hear is race. So the truth of what's being taught or not being taught is immaterial. It's how people feel about that buzzword race, right? So that's what we're dealing with, and if you extrapolate from that, I think if this doesn't go forward, then it shows that, you know, people who are... don't care about the truth,

but who care more about how they feel about a potential truth have a louder bullhorn, and that becomes a problem because if we do not have a consistency and a demand for the truth at all time, then we have no idea what is true and what is false. And when you wade into those waters, it's easy to control the people, which is what we're seeing happening in our country. My, my, a word was preached by Michael, Matt, and Joe. We're going to head to break. Our Education Matters segment is coming up after the break. On this other side of it, the Knowledge House wants to make sure black and brown faces are helping shape the future of technology.

The Associate Director of Development and External Affairs will be here to tell us about their free, free, free, free 99 technology education programs for our youth. And we'll tell you how Minnesota lawmakers are honoring the late great prince. Stay with us, Rolling Mountain are filtered. We'll be back right here streaming live on the Black Star Network. Stay connected. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

In mid-April, we lost another giant, a man who we had the opportunity to have a conversation with here at the Black Table, Dr. Robert Charles Smith. We had a conversation with Dr. Smith about his life and times and his memoir from the Bayou to the Bay. The opportunity to go to Berkeley got me out of that difficult situation

and put me at the center of radicalism in California, the center of Black radicalism. We lift his voice, we lift his name on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we talk about a hard, cold fact. Not all health care is created equal in this country, especially if you're a person of color. So many of us Black families, we rely upon each other heavily.

A lot of us aren't necessarily sure how to best communicate with our health care providers. How to take charge and balance the scales. Your life may depend on it. That's next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. My name is Charlie Wilson. Hi, I'm Sally Richardson-Whitfield. And I'm Dodger. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

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

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, everybody, this is your man, Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. With the onset of AI, chat, GT, black and brown places need to be included in shaping the future of the rise of technology-based companies. The Knowledge House aims to close the gaps in the education to employment pipeline by leading digital skills training and coding and design for underserved young people. Antoinette J. Gregg, the Associate Director of Development and External Affairs of the Knowledge House, is joining me from New York to explain their free technology education programs.

Welcome. We're so glad to have you, Ms. Gregg. Hi. Thank you. Good evening. I'm so happy to be here. Absolutely. Oh, gosh. We're so glad to have you, Ms. Gregg. Hi. Thank you. Good evening. I'm so happy to be here. Absolutely. Oh, gosh. We're so glad to have you. So please talk a little bit more about what the Knowledge House is doing. I understand that the offering, the recruitment offerings, the mentorship offerings that you all will be bringing will be available in Atlanta, New York, L.A., and I believe it's Newark, New Jersey as well. Can you talk to us a little bit about what the Knowledge House is offering and then what specifically will you be offering in those four cities? Yeah, so the Knowledge House is an organization that has its roots in the Bronx. We make sure to help black and brown aspiring technologists really empower them to go into careers in tech.

We know that tech is the future. And so being able to train along four different tracks within our adult program and also helping high schoolers start a path towards tech is our main focus. We have two fellowships. The first, I said, as a high school program. Um, we actually was created, um, with Kareem Karbush. I don't know if y'all know who that is, but that is French Montana. Um, he saw the need of it in the Bronx and he, you know, really wanted to help out high school, low income students. And so our high schoolers go through coursework in the summer and they have

monthly times that they go in and they think about what careers they want, what does it really look like to be in tech? And we help them make decisions on whether they want to go to college or whether they want to do a career path in tech. A lot of people don't know this, but 40% of entry-level tech jobs do not need college. And we make sure that the target population that we serve, they're underemployed, unemployed, they may have stopped out of college, may not be able to afford college. So we really want to make sure that we empower them

with the skills to go straight into a job. A lot of our students come to us making $15,000 a year, but they leave us and they make upwards of $80,000 to $90,000. So that is what we are bringing to our four cities. We expanded to, as you said, Newark, Los Angeles, and Atlanta last year. And so we're coming into our second year in our expansion sites, and we are having a recruitment tour. What that means is we're coming to where everyone is at, and we are talking about the programs. We are bringing computers and laptops with us so that our folks can sign up right away. And we're

really excited. Our next one is this Saturday. It's in Atlanta at the Atlanta Tech Village. Mayor Dickens, he is a champion of tech. He has a tech background. He was an engineer. And so he wants to, you know, he's sending out a message to say, come out and be in attendance because it's so important. We are approaching over 500 applicants across our programs, but we only have 250 spots. So we see the demand and we are out here trying to meet that demand. And people are coming out. They really, really want to be involved. And after Atlanta, we'll be over in Los Angeles April 29th. And then we'll be in Newark.

And to round it all out, we did New York last week. And so we're ready to just have people come out, learn more about the programs, get into our fellowships. We also do a lot of digital literacy work, and we want to be able to meet our community where they're at and get them ready to go into tech careers. Because, you know, 10 years ago, there were so many more factory workers, but now all of that is going to automation. And so now we want to go into the future and we want black and brown folks to lead that future. Wow. It sounds like, you know, when you talked about that income, you know, those

would definitely be helpful as we continue to see rising housing costs. So that's definitely a bonus. Before I bring my panel in with their specific questions, just want to make sure this is for those age 16 to 36. Yeah. Yeah. We hope our core age is 16 to 36. We call them opportunity youth. But we also, you know, we help out seniors, anyone who actually career changers are really big right now, especially after the pandemic. And, you know, people trying to understand how to really get involved and get into a career that's going to last. Yeah. So but our core programming, yes, it's 16 and 36. Okay, excellent. And so before I bring in Matt, who's a civil rights attorney, just want to ask specifically why those specific four cities were chosen? Yeah, those four cities were chosen because we did a lot of research on what cities sort of

mirror the Bronx. Because we started in the Bronx, where in the South Bronx to be specific, where it's still to this day the poorest congressional district in the nation, we knew that there is this untapped talent, underestimated population that can really just go into a year-long program free, get this skill set that they need, and then be able to, be able to thrive with a real meaningful wage. And so when we were looking at other cities, we saw that Atlanta was that type of city. We saw that New York was that type of city. We saw Los Angeles was that type of city. Not only looking for that target population, but also looking at what tech is doing in certain cities. So these cities are also places where there's burgeoning tech ecosystems. A lot of startups are there. A lot of headquarters to different places are there. In Atlanta specifically, there's Delta there. There's Mercedes-Benz.

You know, everyone really thinks about the sort of quintessential sales forces, the Googles and things like that. But every company, for all intents and purposes, is now a tech company. They need a website. They have an app. There's all these different ways in which engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity specialists, UX, UI design folks can go in and be a real value add. So we definitely want the population. We want the employers to actually pipeline students into these jobs, because if there's no jobs, then we can't be in that city. And then the last thing is just making sure that we have, you know, just this sort of cyclical need and the community really, really wants it,

because the target population can be there. But if the community really, really wants it. Because the target population can be there, but if the community isn't invested, you know, then it's harder for us to go into a city and find those people and meet those people where they're at, help them with wraparound services, like, you know, when you talk about housing insecurity, food insecurity, and to make sure that they can persist through our program. So that's why, you know, we chose those cities. That was a really good question. Thank you. Excellent. That's good information to know. Matt, your question for Antoinette. Yeah. So my question for you is what conversations are y'all having or what training are you doing as it relates to ethics in tech? And I ask because with the, you know, onset of AI, there are a lot of

conversations about responsible use of tech, right? And even social responsibility in that respect. So how does that, you know, fit into the program at the Knowledge House, if at all? Yeah. So for our direct service, 90% of our staff is black and brown. So our students see technologists every single day in every aspect. When we have tutors and mentors, we go to the ERG groups within these big companies, and we make sure that we're getting to the black people, we're getting to the brown people, so that we're able to make sure that, you know, all of the sort of imposter syndromes and the ideas that you don't fit are there. The first step is getting people in the door. Tech is still very white and very male. So our sort of main goal is to first get people in the

door and get them stayed in the door. We do have a lot of panels with elected officials, with community members, workforce development organizations, companies about how to, you know, hire diverse talent, how to retain them, how to keep them. And then after that, we then go and we help to advocate to make sure that within workforce development and within these corporate entities, they really make sure to think about, you know, as a black technologist, what are the things that, you know, we may not have seen before, you know, when you talk about AI. A lot of people also talk about when, you know, you go to the bathroom to do the automatic hand dryers and it just doesn't work. It's because when they go to test those things, it's normally white hands that test those things. So being able to make sure you have a diverse array of people to actually test these things, to make this code, to just be there, to actually bear in mind

what we need and how technology is going to affect Black and brown folks means that we have to have the numbers first. YAMICHE ALCINDOR That was such a great question, especially in your response, Antoinette, in talking about, you know, something as simple as when you use the soap dispenser out and how that soap doesn't come out or it takes a long time to come out. And it's because we don't have black and brown technologists in those spaces to ensure that it does recognize when a hand that is not a non-black hand,

that we do receive the soap on command. Antoinette J. Gregg, thank you so much for coming on Roland Martin Unfiltered. If people are interested in the Knowledge House, you already talked about having 500 applicants and only 250 spaces. Could you tell them how they connect or get more information? Yeah, if folks want to apply, they can always go to thenowledgehouse.org slash apply. We also have, like I said, a lot of digital literacy opportunities so that folks in the community who just want to know what the computer does, who wants to know the different applications that you use in offices and just get more acquainted with technology. We

have a lot of opportunities there and we're growing. So, you know, this year it's 250, but we want to be able to get more and more black and brown people into tech. So stay tuned, definitely. And like I said, this Saturday we'll be in Atlanta at the Atlanta Tech Village and, you know, come out. If anyone who's in Atlanta, please come out.

It's from one to 4 p.m. You know, we'll have some refreshments, there'll, come out. If anyone who's in Atlanta, please come out. It's from 1 to 4 p.m. You know, we'll have some refreshments, there'll be some music, and, you know, we'll be able to tell folks why it's important for us to have a diverse tech ecosystem. Thank you for having me. Oh, gosh, it was such a pleasure having you on. Antoinette J. Gregg of The Knowledge House,

we certainly appreciate you being on Rolling Martin Unfiltered today. Good night. Absolutely. And for those of you in the Atlanta area, the call has been made 1 to 4 p.m. tomorrow. Make sure you turn out. And when we come back,

we'll tell you how the state of Minnesota will honor one of the greatest artists to ever create music. Y'all already know we're talking about Prince. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network streaming live. We'll be right back. We talk about blackness.

I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated And it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at LavaForGood Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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especially if you're a person of color. So many of us Black families, we rely upon each other heavily. A lot of us aren't necessarily sure how to best communicate with our health care providers. How to take charge and balance the scales. Your life may depend on it. That's next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Hey, I'm Cupid, the maker of the Cupid Shuffle and the Wham Dance.

What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan. And if you're ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Minnesota lawmakers approved a bill renaming a roadway in honor of Prince on the seventh anniversary of his passing. The Minnesota House of Representatives passed the Prince bill designating a portion of Highway 5 in Chaston as Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate before it can be signed into law by the governor. Prince passed away on April 21, 2016, of an accidental overdose in his Paisley Park studio.

So I definitely want to bring in the panel for us to talk about Mr. Purple Rain himself. I don't know if you all can see, I am donning purple today in honor of Prince. It's still very hard to believe that he's no longer with us, but

Joe, just talk a little bit about what this means, him having, being honored this way, even though their team in Minnesota did not win in the playoffs the other day, but you know, that's for

another time. Get it together. The Nuggets did beat them. But what does this mean, Prince, having this part of this roadway hopefully be approved in the Senate in a Minnesota State House. What is your fondest memory

of the artist that we formerly knew as Prince? Oh, to get asked a music question, this is what it's all about. Years ago, long ago and far away, I thought that I would be primarily an entertainment lawyer because I was a liner notes person. I did a Billboard magazine.

I knew what song was number one, who had the publishing, who had the label. So Prince, five number one pop hits, 19 top 10 hits, 47 on the chart. On the black chart, R&B, eight number ones, 23 top 10s, and 60 songs. He's probably the most prolific artist that I ever saw in terms of how often he kept coming out. And years ago, after the church that was occupying the forum decided not to occupy it anymore, Prince decided single-handedly to try to keep the forum open. He did about 10 or 15 shows in L.A. This is in 2011. I was lucky enough to be at one of those shows with tickets for $25. And that night he had Maceo on the horns and he did five encores.

Five. And I'm so glad that I was able to see him. And I saw him twice. I saw him also at what's now Crypto.com with Staples back in 2004. Yeah. And the Prince family tree, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Alexander O'Neill, Mars Day and the Time, all of these guys that were influenced by him and who are so prominent in what we do now. I've had the privilege of interviewing Jimmy Jam. And so I was so glad that I was able to see him and bear witness to what he did live. He was so prolific, and he could leave everything

to the imagination or nothing at all. He played every instrument. He was truly a self-contained artist. And even though I love Michael, and I hate that I didn't get to see Michael, people would compare him. If you had $10, you would buy one album or the other. But they were very, very different artists.

Prince was just an incredible storyteller, wrote for a lot of other folks, but he was all about his music and all about his art. And so I am glad for this piece of recognition. My wife grew up in Minneapolis, and of course, as a Prince fan, didn't want to go with me to those concerts, so I said, well, baby, I told you.

But in any event, we're just glad he's getting the recognition. Wow. Thank you for hitting us with all of those fact toys and a little bit on the personal as well, too. I mean, he definitely impacted music and he's just a once in a generation. We're going to round it out with Michael. Michael, a fond Prince memory. And what are your thoughts about this part of the roadway being named in honor of Prince Rogers Nelson, a prolific artist of our time? Well, number one, you see I'm wearing a purple tie, number one. Two, I'm a big, I'm a huge Prince fan. I think this is very important, but also Prince did study history as well. So I think it would be important. I don't know if they already have it, but they need to

have some type of music scholarships as well and do something also centered around history because Prince studied history also. So he played 27 instruments. I think I first found out about Prince in 1981. I was in like sixth grade. Okay. And, you know, controversy came out. I remember when 1999 came out, double LP. I bought the double LP. I remember when Purple Rain came out. I went to go see it in the theater. Totally blown away. Not just by Prince, but also by Apollonia Cotterra as well.

That's just out also. But this is... I mean... Prince changed the game with his high heels, you know, his ruffles, things like this. He was an innovator when it came to fashion also. I mean, Prince changed the game with his high heels, you know, his ruffles, things like this. He was an innovator when it came to fashion also. Yeah. And I never got to see him perform live.

I did see Morris Day and The Time perform live. They put on a hell of a show. Yeah, they do. They blew everybody away. So I think we need to study Prince. And one thing I take away, I used to play the saxophone. So I have an affinity for live instruments. Not sampling, but live instruments and creating music organically.

I used to be able to read music also. So long live the king, Prince Rogers Nelson. Oh, gosh. And we're going to wrap it up here very quickly. Matt, your thoughts, fondest memory on Prince in about 30 seconds. I'm not quite as long in the tooth as Michael and Joe. Shay!

I'll be 52 June 7th. Shout out to Julius Shepard, my good brother from Howard, who has been making that Prince versus MJ argument for the 20 years since we were in school. So he's been right. He stays right. And I hope everybody puts on their raspberry berets, gets in their little red Corvettes, and drives down Highway 5 until the doves cry.

So shout out to the GOAT. That is such a beautiful way to round it out. I want to say a special thank you to the panel for joining us tonight. Matt, Joe, Michael, such a pleasure to be on with you all tonight. And that does it for us on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I want to thank you,

the Roland Martin Unfiltered audience, for being connected. Make sure that you contribute. I also want to thank Roland for allowing me to keep the whole seat warm for today. Thank you for all that you do watching and supporting. And be sure to download the Black Star Network app. Have a great weekend.

And in the words of Roland, holla. Be well, everyone. See you Monday. Thank you. Thank you. The The The The The The The The The The

The The The The The Thank you. I'm Martin. Thank you. The The The The The The

The The This is an iHeart Podcast.