#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Tyre Nichols funeral, College Board buckles to Desantis on Black Studies, Miss Coppin St. Blasted…

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

2.1.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Tyre Nichols funeral, College Board buckles to Desantis on Black Studies, Miss Coppin St. Blasted for not being Black Hundreds show up to pay their respects to Tyre Nichols, who was laid to rest today.  Vice President Kamala Harris spoke and demanded congress pass The George Floyd Justice In Policing Act.  You'll hear from her, Ben Crump, and Tyre's parents as they say their final farewells.   The disbanded Scorpion Unit is stirring debate over whether specialized police units cause more harm to black and brown communities.  Retired LAPD Sergeant Cheryl Dorsey says that the team was set up to fail from the beginning.  She'll be here to explain. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's blatant dismantling of diversity is growing has reached a new level as the Florida College Board strips down the A.P. Curriculum for African American Studies. The Senior Vice President of the College, Career & Digital Access College Board will be here to break down what this means for education in Florida. People are outraged about the new HBCU Miss Coppin State, because she is not black.  We will speak to the 91st Miss Coppin about her experience and what HBCU representation can look like. In our Tech talk segment, we will be speaking with the CEO of Metric Mate, a patented Training Accountability Partner, about how to make your workouts easier with this new technology to seamlessly count reps and sets.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Wednesday, February 1st, 2023. Coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Hundreds show up to pay their respects to Tyree Nichols, who was laid to rest today in Memphis. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke and demanded Congress pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

You also hear from Ben Crump as well as Tyree's parents as they say their final farewells to their youngest child. The disbanded Scorpion unit is stirring debate over whether specialized police units cause more harm to black and brown to their youngest child. The disbanded Scorpion unit is stirring debate over whether specialized police units cause more harm to black and brown communities. Retired LAPD Sergeant Cheryl Dorsey says that the team was set up to fail from the beginning.

She'll join us. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' blatant dismantling of diversity is growing and has reached a new level as the Florida College Board strips down the AP curriculum for African American Studies. The Senior Vice President of the College Career

and Digital Access College Board will be here to tell us exactly what this means for education in Florida. People are outraged about the new HBCU Ms. Coppin State because she's not black.

She will join us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered in her first appearance and talk about her experience and what HBCU representation can look like. In our Tech Talk segment, we will be speaking with the CEO of MetricMate, a pattern training accountability, a patented training accountability partner about how to make your workouts easier with this new technology.

Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the Black Sun Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, 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, yeah With Uncle Gro-Gro-Yo Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah

Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling' Martin, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's Rollin' Martin now. Martin! Martin! No other Street like no other Reaches to me Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis for the funeral of 29-year-old Tyree Nichols.

Vice President Kamala Harris was there along with many others, including family members who have also lost their children, mostly black men, to police violence. Reverend Al Sharpton preached the eulogy. Attorney Ben Crump, he also spoke during the service as well. Here is Vice President Kamala Harris sharing her remarks at the funeral. Keisha Lance Bottom, Mitch Landrieu. We are here on behalf of the people of our country and our President Joe Biden. And we are here to celebrate the life of Tyree Nichols.

Mrs. Wells, Mr. Wells, you have been extraordinary in terms of your strength, your courage, and your grace. And we mourn with you, and the people of our country mourn with you. And I just have, I'm gonna be very brief. Mothers around the world, when their babies are born pray to God when they hold that child that that body and that life will be safe

for the rest of his life yet we have a mother and a father who mourn the life of a young man who should be here today. They have a grandson who now does not have a father. His brothers and sister will lose the love of growing old with their baby brother.

And when we look at this situation, this is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe. And when I think about the courage and the strength of this family, I think it demands that we speak truth. And with this, I will say, this violent act was not in pursuit of public safety. It was not in the interest of keeping the public safe because one must ask, was not it in the interest of keeping the public safe that Tyree Nichols would be with us here today? Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe? So when we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form.

Tyree Nichols should have been safe. So I'll just close by saying this. I was as a senator, as a United States senator, a co-author of the original George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. And as vice president of the United States, we demand that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. Joe Biden will sign it. And we should not delay. And we will not be denied. It is non-negotiable. And with that, I'll just pass it. If you don't mind.

One of my favorite verses in scripture is Lukeke chapter 1 verse 79 which tells us god will help us to shine a light upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace. Let our memory of Tyree shine a light on the path toward peace and justice. Thank you. The funeral of Nichols wasn't just about, obviously, his passing. It also was about activism. As I said, a number of family members who have lost loved ones were attending the funeral as well to show their support to his parents. When we come back from this break, we'll hear from Attorney Ben Crump. We'll hear

from Tyree's parents as they spoke about the death of their son at the hands of five Memphis police officers who have been fired. In addition to three fire department personnel, they've been fired as well. So we'll have that for you when we come back from this break. You're watching Roland Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Be sure to download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. You can also support our show by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered.

PayPal is RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide, as well as you can download the copy on Audible. We'll be right back. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, white nationalist rally that descended into 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. 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. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie,

a relationship that we have to have. We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money. And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. 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. This is Judge Matthews. What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, Mack Wiles, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

It was quite an emotional day today in Memphis as folks gathered for the funeral of Tyree Nichols. None more so than his parents who both addressed those attending and those watching across the country as it was broadcast on cable networks nationwide. I'd like to start by saying thank you for everybody's support. This has been a journey that's not going to end here. It's just the beginning. Amen. We're looking forward to passing some bills. We're looking forward to getting justice for all the families over there.

Not just ours. This is a continuous fight that we have to fight for. We have to fight for justice. We cannot continue to let these people brutalize our kids. To have my siblings up here, my wife. And it's very hard for my wife. You know, this is her baby son. And it's nothing like your baby boy. When we got the news, it was very, very difficult. It was surrounded by lies, deceit, trying to cover it up.

But as they say, what's done in the dark will always come to the light. And the light of day is justice for Tyree. Justice for Tyree. Justice for all the families that lost loved ones through brutality of police or anybody. And I can't say enough about how this community, how this nation, and how this world has came together to support my family, to support my wife, and to support me.

I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for coming out to pay tribute to my son. Tyree was a beautiful person. And for this to happen to him is just unimaginable. I promise you the only thing that's keeping me going is the fact that I really truly believe my son was sitting here on an assignment from God.

Yes, ma'am. And I guess now his assignment is done. And he's been taken home. I want to thank... Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I want to thank, yes, yes, yes. I want to thank all the community activists for being there for my family. I want to thank the chief of police for acting swiftly. The district attorney, the state of Tennessee.

I want to thank my lawyers, Mr. Ben Crump. Yes, sir. And especially Kareem Ali. Where you at? He has been our rock. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. He has been our rock.

Amen. I just need whatever that George Floyd bill we needed passed. Yes. Yes. whatever that George Floyd bill we needed passed. Yeah. We need to take some action because there should be no other child that should suffer the way my son and all the other parents here have lost their children.

We need to get that bill passed. Amen. And because if we don't, We need to get that bill passed. Amen. Because if we don't, that blood, the next child that dies, that blood is going to be on their hands. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Attorney Bannon Crump, he also addressed those gathered.

Call to action. It really is a plea for justice. It is a plea for Tyree Nichols, the son. It is a plea for justice for Tyree Nichols, the brother. It is a plea for justice for Tyree Nichols, the father. But most of all, it is a plea for justice for Tyree Nichols, the human being. The human being. And when we watch, we don't see the Memphis Police Department Scorpion Unit extend one ounce of humanity during that one hour and seven minute video.

So, ask your neighbor, why couldn't they see the humanity in Tyree? Turn to your neighbor and ask them that. Why couldn't they see the humanity in Tyree? For his mama, turn to your neighbor again and ask them, why couldn't they see the humanity in Tyree? And then finally for his son, turn to your neighbor and ask, why

couldn't they see the humanity in Tyree? Because we have to make sure they see us as human beings. And once we acknowledge that we're human beings worthy of respect and justice, then we have the God-given right to say,

I am a human being and I deserve justice. Not just any justice, but equal justice. And that's what we're going to get for Tyree Nichols. Equal justice. 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

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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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

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

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to,

you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.

Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Adhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. And Ms. Marv, Ms. Ravine, Rodney, Jamal, Michael, Kiana, to all his family, grandma, his son. I know we can't bring Tyree back, but in this call to action, we establish his legacy. And let's never let them forget Memphis, because his legacy will be one of equal justice. It will be the blueprint going forward.

Because we have to remember that in less than 20 days, when it was five black police officers captured on a video engaging in excessive use of force, when they were committing crimes on video, that they were terminated, they were arrested, and they were charged. And the police chief Davis, and I have respect for her saying this. The police chief said that it was important that the community see us take swift action. They said it was important that we move swiftly towards justice. Well, when Laquan McDonough was killed in Chicago and by white police officers. It's important that the community see swift justice too. When Alton Sterling was killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mitch,

it's important that the community see swift justice too. When Stephon Clark was killed in Sacramento, California, it's important that the community see swift justice too. When Eric Gardner was killed in Staten Island, New York, it's important that the community see swift justice too. When Pamela Turner was killed in Houston, Texas, it's important that the community see swift justice too. When EJ Bradford was killed on Thanksgiving night in Birmingham, Alabama, it's important that the community see swift justice too.

When Terrence Cratchit was a black man rubbing out having car trouble in the broad daylight in Tulsa, Oklahoma, walking away with his hands up and they shot him in the back on video. It was important that the community see swift justice too on that. When Botham Jones eating ice cream in his own apartment, police woman come in, shoot and kill him, say, I thought it was my apartment and say self-defense in her position. It was a need to have swift justice too. And so no more, no more can they ever tell us

when we have evidence on video of them brutalizing us that it's going to take six years. That's going to take a month. That's going to take three years like Laquan McDonough. No, no, no. 20 days. We're going to start counting. We can count to 20. And every time you kill one of us on video, we're going to say the legacy of Tyree Nichols is that we have equal justice swiftly.

Swiftly. Swiftly. And so, Reverend Al, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge a sister who also deserves swift justice, and that is Breonna Taylor, whose mother, Tamika Palmer, is here. And many of you may have heard about this coincidence, that Breonna Taylor and Tyree Nichols were born on the same day and the same year, June 5th 1993 so I want to acknowledge Tamika Palmer and I know

you said it brought back so many memories and pain when you found out it was the same birthday so if you would stand Tamika Palmer let us at least acknowledge Breonna Taylor's mother we come back from break. We'll talk to retired LAPD Sergeant

Cheryl Dorsey, plus our panel as well about what is next. Also, do we believe that Republicans are going to do what's necessary to actually pass the George Floyd Justice Act? Now they control the House. Will it be blocked in the Senate by Republicans there? All of that next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Be sure to download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that like button. Same thing on Facebook. Hit the share button. We'll be right back. Next on Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Listen to this.

Women of color are starting 90% of the businesses in this country. That's the good news. The bad news? As a rule, we're not making nearly as much as everyone else. But joining us on the next Get Wealthy episode is Betty Hines. She's a business strategist and she's showing women how to elevate other women. I don't like to say this openly,

but we're getting better at it. Women struggle with collaborating with each other. And for that reason, one of the things that I demonstrate in the sessions that I have is that you can go further together if you collaborate. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Network is here. Oh, no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Pull up a chair. Take your seat. The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network.

Hello everyone, it's Piera Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up y'all, it's Ryan Destiny and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. The Scorpion unit, that is the unit that these officers were a part of.

It has already been disbanded. Now, of course, the deliberate misconduct by this unit in the beating and the cover-up of Tyree Nichols' death has renewed questions regarding is do they actually matter? That's what many people are saying. Now the officers involved in the vicious beating were in a specialized unit. It was called the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods or for short Scorpion Unit. It was created in 2021 to target violent offenders and decrease crime in high-risk communities. Now, the new police unit deployed 40 officers in Memphis using punitive policing for major and minor offenses. The task force lacked proper

supervision and was allowed to use questionable tactics to make 566 arrests. The debate of whether these specialized units work to cut crime is contentious with cities like New York and Baltimore disbanding specialized units for misconduct. Joining us right now is Cheryl Dorsey, retired LAPD sergeant. She joins us right now. In addition, we have Rebecca Carruthers, who also, again, joining our panel. A. Scott Bowden is attorney. I'm glad to have the two of you. Robert Portillo will join us shortly.

Cheryl, I want to start with you because the police chief of Memphis had a similar unit in Atlanta where she was fired. And she brings it to Memphis. Now she's done interviews where she says that this department lacks enough sergeants in terms of people to supervise. It raises the question, why then would you have a unit if you don't have proper supervision over those officers? And what is the purpose of the unit? If you're trying to target high crime areas, why are you focusing on minor offenses and not major offenses? So understand this. Chief C.J. Davis is a 20-plus year veteran law enforcement officer, and she spent time on three different police agencies as an administrator, so she knows better, right? five black officers and not using that same energy, efficiency and expediency to get rid

of this one white officer that just was relieved of duty, not fired, who tasered Mr. Nichols, Preston Hemphill. And so she's in damage control right now. She's trying to cover her butt because she understands that she serves at the pleasure of a mayor. She also understands that she's got a pack of liars on her hands, officers who have proven and demonstrated, and we know now that they engaged in giving false and misleading statement. That's the term we use in law enforcement. And when a police officer provides false and misleading statement, lies on an arrest report, that's a terminable

offense. And that makes them ineffective as police officers. And so all of those 500-plus cases that they were bragging about that those officers arrested people on, and maybe others on that Memphis Police Department, now the DA is mandated to look and review all of those arrest reports that has a name of a Scorpion unit member, a liar from the Memphis Police Department, gets dismissed. And so Chief Davis understands all of that. And she fired those first five officers to just make everybody comfortable and happy and think that she was doing something when she's really only taken a baby step. And as far as I'm concerned, she's just as culpable. She's just as guilty. And the mayor should be asking for her resignation as well. The what has to be dealt with is when you have these out of control units and in essence, by giving them this level of authority, you're feeding the beast. I mean, what you're saying is, oh, you guys can go as hard overboard as you want to, and

we already know you have cops who are already amped up. And we also know that in many of these cases, you have African Americans who are the targets of minor offenses and many times where black folks have been killed is the result of a minor traffic stop escalating to death. And so we know that these young officers had between two and five years on the department. They had no business being out there in a specialized unit to begin with. It's reported that they received, I think, a day or two of training, one day on the gun range, and then a PowerPoint presentation. She set these officers up to fail. She put inexperienced, ill-trained, unsupervised, by her own admission, basically rookies out

there and gave them free reign. And we know that people have been coming in and complaining about these officers. And I know that great deference is given to an officer's version. Those officers know this too. And that's why we heard them create an audio record that was very contrary to what was going on there on the scene with Mr. Nichols. We know that these officers went to Mr. Nichols' mother's home and lied and told her that they had arrested her son for DUI and we had to pepper spray

him because he had superhuman strength, and we're going to book him in the house. We're going to book him in jail as soon as he's treated at the hospital, all of which was a lie. And so Chief Davis, she's got a problem on her hand. And you can't unexplain this. You can't make this go away with firing a couple of officers, giving them some charges that we don't know if they're going to get convicted of. And so all of this was predictable. She knows this from the Red Dog Unit in Atlanta that was disbanded. She knows that if you don't have the supervisors, common sense would tell you three times an administrator on other agencies,

why put these officers out there? Because as a supervisor, it's my responsibility to roll up on these calls when I hear my officers go code six. I don't need to let them know I'm coming. I just need to be there. And if I see them using force, and it's not reasonable and proportionate or necessary, it's my responsibility to make sure that that use of force is managed to stop that use of force. And so if she doesn't have a supervisor out there, then she's culpable. She's just as guilty.

And like I said, she needs to go. Scott Bolden, I mean, look, we've seen so many other cases where these units, the role that they played has been a very negative one, if you will. And it's led to problems such as this. And we still don't fully understand why he was targeted, why he was stopped. And we know, based on the New York Times report, they just flat out lied in the police report. Yeah, you know, we had that in New York. I'm a former prosecutor from Matt Adda's office, as you know. We had those units in New York,

and those units are worse than, can be worse than the worst street cops because they do have an air of not only of arrogance, but of superiority. That is, you know, it takes bad folks or people with bad attitudes to deal with the worst of our criminals. And 20% of the bad apples commit 80% of the crimes. I mean, that's how they would defend themselves or those who are on the side of the bad apples commit 80 percent of the crimes. I mean, that's how they would defend themselves or those who are on the side of the police. But the reality is, is that they, because you have that almost impunity, then you carry yourself that way. When I was in the complaint room, they would come in and they would call

black and brown defendants, mopes, dogs, perps, right? So how do you think they treat black and brown people on the street? Well, they don't treat them as humanity, if you will. They treat them as perps, dogs, animals, whatever the case might be. And to me, that mentality is very, very, very problematic and always has been. It's kind of us versus them. You look at the video. I don't know if your people will put it up. It's not clear what the police were trying to do other than beat the hell out of him.

But I heard some of the video, and it was this theory, in my opinion, that the police believe that they can use deadly force to bring about compliance with a police order. That is, give me your hands, put your hands behind your back, sit down, stand up. And if you're beating the hell out of them and they don't do it, they just beat them harder, or they give them a taser, or they beat their asses with nightsticks, arguing that he disobeyed a police order or that he was out of compliance.

He resisted arrest. He assaulted a police officer. All of these reasons when if you've beaten that defendant or the arrestee the way they beat him, it's hard for him to comply with anything. They had him sitting up. They had him down. If they were going to make an arrest, there was only two things to do. Put him in the handcuffs, put him in the back of the squad car, and transport him. It's not that hard. It's five of them.

It's shown by this video. Cheryl, to the point Scott made there, an analysis showed they gave him something like 71 different commands. Yeah. 71 commands in 13 minutes. And we never saw them really trying to get him in handcuffs. They were creating what I said was an audio record. Yeah. Yeah. even comply. There was no place for him to really even lay on the ground because he was completely surrounded by officers on one side and his car on another. And then they just

commenced to punishing him. Rebecca, we always talk about accountability. That was so much of what you heard at the funeral today, that they want to see action, legislative action, but then you have these Republicans. I saw Jim Jordan meet the press this weekend and go, well, you know, I don't think that a law can fix this. Okay, well, what the hell can? So two years ago, I think as a community, we would have accepted the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act,

but it's now two years later. The George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. But it's now two years later. The George Floyd Justice and Policing Act is the floor. It is not the ceiling. And we're going to have to negotiate harder. The reason why I say that is that before the conversation was about police reform. But now as we see more things, as we see that there's been at least 2,000 more people killed since the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act was first introduced, because over 1,000 people are killed at the hands of law enforcement in this country every single year, we need more. We really need to think about what does it look like to actually have public safety in this country. Some of the opponents of the George Floyd, or I should say some of the critique, not the opponents like Jim Jordan, of the George Floyd Justice and Police Act has reminded us

that on its surface, it does look like it is simply a police funding bill, and it doesn't go far enough. It doesn't address, like I've talked about on this show before, it doesn't really address qualified immunity. It doesn't address some of the other issues, such as having more mental health professionals who are able to help in certain issues, rather than having people with guns showing up when it's actually a mental health situation that's going on. George Floyd, so I would say the George Floyd Justice and Reform Act isn't enough at this point. Over 2,000 more people have died since then. They're going to have to come stronger than what they did two years ago.

Cheryl, final comments. The George Floyd Justice and Reform Act is a joke. The vice president understands that. Ben Crump understands that. The changes that would be made would be made on a federal level, has nothing to do with local police departments. And you see the kind of autonomy that Chief Davis has over there. So if you don't hold the chief responsible because the fish rots from the head. If you don't hold her responsible and these other chiefs across these 18,000 police departments, we're going to continue to have this. And so it's great that she disbanded the unit. But know this, those officers are still out there.

They're working patrol today. They're in a uniform and they're pulling folks over. There needs to be an audit of these specialized units. You need to make sure that they have supervisors out there knowing what these elephant hunters are doing when they're out there. And when you find someone who's been complained about when they're racking up use of force complaints, then they need to be pulled out of that unit and tied to a desk until you can determine

whether or not they're worthy to stay on your department and certainly should not be working the field. Indeed. Cheryl Dorison, we really appreciate you joining us. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, we'll be right back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network.

Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people. And I gotta tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk

that are the creators, the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. The people don't really want to have this conversation. No, they don't. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future. African genius is saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Arnaz J.

Black TV does matter, dang it! Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Stay woke. 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.

We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Folks, out of Chicago, check this video out where a Chicago police officer was caught on video beating a man while holding him down in a jail cell. Damian Stewart says police pulled him over for no front or back license plate and expired tags. Police found an illegal gun in the car and arrested him. The officers who initially pulled him over, Gerald Williams and Delgado Fernandez,

woke Stewart up to search him for a third time while in a holding cell. Now, Williams began striking Stewart with a closed fist several times. Fernandez appears to hold Stewart down while Williams delivers more blows to the head. Stewart's lawyer is calling for Williams to be fired. Williams was given a 15-day suspension while Fernandez received a 10-day suspension. Chicago Police Department said both officers have served their time on the back of the street. Stewart filed a civil suit against the police department and received a $45,000 settlement. Okay, so Scott, let's deal with this here. Why in the hell are you beating the guy?

It's three o'clock in the morning. You're just, all of a sudden, you walk in and again, folks, go back to the beginning of the video because, again, I want to go back to the beginning of the video. Take it back so I can walk people through this because it literally makes no sense whatsoever. Is this the beginning

of the video? Okay. All right. Now, press play. Press play. Press play. So do you see anywhere in there where this guy is like going crazy? No. All of a sudden, it's like they're sitting here beating a guy and here's what's crazy. Scott, they keep their jobs. Okay, 15-day suspension, 15-day suspension. That's it? That's it. That's it. But what's most telling about that video

is the fact that you have two other police officers on the outside that opened the doors for him to go in with his partner, right? And it's just open season on black arrestee. Just open season. Look at the other two who are doing nothing. And this is why, this is, this is why, this is why at the funeral today, at the funeral today, uh, attorney Crump announced that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was going to include in the bill a provision that deals with cops who stand by and watch things unfold. And that's also part of the problem.

You don't have other officers stepping in and saying, hey, what the hell are you doing? They're just like, all right, we're just going to stand back and watch them beat the hell out of somebody. Because it's acceptable and it's their culture. It's this blue culture that it's okay to abuse people and beat them up with a gun and a badge and an American flag on your arm. This blue culture, and whether you call it Tyree or George Floyd, here's the scary part, Roland. Watch this.

That threat to black men and women and brown men and women is still out there. Right now, somebody in a badge and a gun and a police uniform is abusing a black or brown person in this country. I guarantee it. Guarantee it. As we speak, as we talk about this, some young black kid or brown kid is getting beat up by the police right now. And Rebecca, that speaks to, again, what you have here, this problem. And the reality is these cops have significant authority. They've got a badge and a gun, and they use it, they abuse it. And unlike in Memphis, 15-day suspension, you back on the job. Brooklyn, I just pulled up the minimum qualifications to be a police officer in Chicago.

So I'm going to just share that with your viewers. So it says you have to be at least 20 years old. You have to have served at least two years in the military or have at least, it looks like maybe two years of college or community college, or you could have had two years full-time employment as a peace officer. No offense to peace officers, but I do think that those might be security guards. I would say that is not enough to be able to have a gun and a badge where you can have, you could state sanction, kill someone or take their property or take away their rights to actually be, to be out into society, that taking someone's rights and actually to be able to arrest them. That isn't enough. We ought to require more. And when I look

at the state of Alabama, I believe that you can have a GED and that is enough to then go and become a police officer. I think it's only maybe six or seven weeks, if that, in police academy. And we're really going to give someone a gun and a badge without proper training? You know, it's a shame on our society that we think that that is the best way for public safety to look in this country. I mentioned earlier that the George Floyd Act isn't enough and we need to have actual national standards. And this just can't be on a federal level. We have to figure out how to tie this to some type of federal funding for this to be implemented on a state level. But what we're doing right now isn't working.

It's not just police departments, the Department of Justice. They are now investigating why restrictive housing has skyrocketed in prisons over the last several years. When President Joe Biden took office, he pledged to end solitary confinement with limited exceptions. However, from December 2015 to January of this year, restrictive housing or solitary confinement increased by 29% for inmates held in the Federal Bureau of Prisons special housing units. Now, the DOJ also reported that the number of inmates placed in other forms of restrictive housing,

including high security, extremely violent, or escape or escape prone, has dropped over that period. The DOJ said it is working to fully implement a 2016 report issued under the Obama administration with recommendations to ensure solitary confinement is used rarely, applied fairly, and subjected to reasonable constraints. Okay. So, obviously, here's the issue here, Rebecca. I'm not going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge.

I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a perfect example where they have to be

demanding to the Bureau of Prisons, what the hell are you doing? Why are you doing this? Why is there more solitary confinement when we know how detrimental that is to inmates? Just like you mentioned, that report is seven years old. I bet you that there should have been updates to that report. So even if they're implementing a report that's now seven years old, it's out of date. And I also want to mention that not only does this impact the federal bureau of prisons, but also D.C. residents who commit crimes that require them going to prison because D.C. doesn't have a state prison. And so they actually send their inmates across the country to carry out their sentences in federal penitentiaries. Scott? Yeah, you know, the prison environment is difficult to

navigate, not just with other prisoners and gangs, whether it's federal or state, the prison environment is difficult to navigate, not just with other prisoners and gangs, whether it's federal or state, but prison guards also. A lot of corruption in a lot of different prisons. We've talked about this on the show. The reality is, is that these conditions and the use of solitary confinement is often used to punish prisoners for either minor offenses or just because a prison guard doesn't like them, or they get into an altercation and they're left there, not to die, but left there for enormous amounts of time that we know is mentally and physically

draining to them. I've had clients who have gone into solitary confinement. Windows have been broken. Toilets don't work. There's nowhere for them to clean confinement. Windows have been broken. Toilets don't work. There's nowhere for them to clean themselves. And so they exist there in these sub-conditions that absolutely make no sense. And here's the thing.

Prison guards don't care. The leaders of these prisons don't care. You know, prisons are to rehabilitate and to punish, right? Well, we get the punishment right most of the time, but every time we talk about prison reform on this show, you can see that they do punishment well, but the rehabilitation is lagging behind. And this private, this putting them away in solitary confinement is just another way for them to do punishment real well, but nothing else.

And obviously we're talking about the federal level is even worse on the state level where 90 percent of the prisoners in America actually reside in state and county jails. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back in our second hour. We're going to talk about the college board. Are they buckling to the demands of Governor Ron DeSantis when it comes to an African-American studies class? We'll talk about that. We'll also talk about the controversy regarding Miss Coppin State. She's a Guatemalan American and there's a lot of people who are

unhappy that she is not black because she's representing an HBCU. She will join us right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, don't forget a couple of things. On Friday, we are going to be in Daytona Beach for a community town hall related to Bethune-Cookman University. Hope Fellowship Church is the location.

Doors open at 5 o'clock. We'll be live from 6 to 8. So we'd love to see you there. Again, community folks, faculty, staff, alumni, students, all welcome, open to the public, it's free. So look forward to having that conversation. Also, don't forget to vote for us for an NAACP Image Award.

We have been nominated in the outstanding news category. And so go to vote.naacpimageawards.net. Scroll down to that category. Look for hashtag Roland Martin Unfiltered. Black Votes Matter. Election night 2022. Cast your ballot for us. You can only vote one time per email. So if you got three emails, you can vote three times. So cast your ballot for us. We certainly would appreciate that. And again, you can vote in all the categories. You don't have to be an NAACP member. It's open to the public. And so we want all of you to do that. Support us to win our first image awards for this show. I've got four all from when I was at TV one, but we definitely want to do that.

Voting ends at 9 p.m. Eastern on February 10th. And so please, we want you to do that. And of course, support us in what we're doing. One of you watching on YouTube, hit the like button. We want to exceed, of course, 1,000, 2,000 likes. Hit the share button on Facebook. Download the Black Star Network app. We have a million, we finally crossed a million threshold on YouTube.

We want to do the same thing for the Black Star Network. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One. You can join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible to travel to places like Daytona for the Bethune-McCoopkin Town Hall. You can see your check and money order at the P.O. Box 57196

Washington, D.C. 20037-0196 Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered PayPal is RMartin Unfil, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. 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. There's 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 if we can't pay for it.

This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Waits $100,000.

We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. The Cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people. And I gotta tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk

that are the creators, the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. The people don't really wanna have this conversation. No they don't. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice

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

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. All right, folks, black and missing. Of course, we do our part to try to assist those in our community who are missing. We don't get lots of attention from media. Brandon James has been missing from his Stafford, Texas home. That is a area outside of Houston since November 22nd. The 16-year-old is five feet six inches tall, weighs 130 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Brandon James should call the Stafford, Texas Police Department at 281-261-3950. That's 281-261-3950.

Folks, I've been telling you about, of course, for a very long time, my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. It's been focused on, again, this white fear in this country. When you look at the attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, affirmative action, multiculturalism, you name it, the Supreme Court lawsuits dealing with affirmative action at Harvard and Yale, we can go on and on and on. We're seeing this happen. Well, one of the folks who is leading this is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis, of course, led the Stop Woke Act. He's been applying that to everything, alleging that race is being infused

and everything. You might remember he was even saying that critical race theory was in a math book. They quite couldn't give us an explanation of how CRT was in a math book. But now, of course, the latest was him going after this AP African-American studies class. And so he has been, he's now been demanding that changes be made. Well, again, he's faced harsh criticism in the wake of his announcement that Florida is blocking accurate teaching of American history about black people with this new AP course. He then tried to say, oh, no, it was all of this gay, gay curriculum stuff that was in it, throwing it out. Now the College Board, what they've done is removed most of the original subject matter deemed controversial by the governor and conservatives.

The new course will remove mention of black writers and scholars associated with critical race theory, the queer experience, black feminism, contemporary topics, and the Black Lives Matter movements. Sanders suggested that the original curriculum draft was not historically accurate and violated state law. He announced yesterday that all tenured college professors would be subject to employment review in public colleges to report spending related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Joining us now is the Senior Vice President of College, Career, and Digital Access for the College Board, Steve Bumbaugh. So, Steve, glad to have you here. So explain to us, first of all, this curriculum. Was it finalized or was this a draft? My understanding, a draft was leaked to National Review, and that's how this whole thing took off. So I first want to give you a nod and say on behalf of the community

that I appreciate you using your platform to generate funding for HBCUs. Appreciate it. That's what people in a position like yours should be doing. Appreciate it. To address your specific question, here is a copy of the actual framework. A pilot, by definition, is an experiment.

So this course is being piloted in 60 high schools right now. 60 high schools in how many states? Oh, gosh, I should be able to say that. 30-something states, including some of the states that have been in the news. Okay. So a pilot, by definition, is an experiment. So every single week, our team engages with teachers and students who are taking the course to ask, what's working?

What really resonates? Where do we see students really building their critical thinking skills? And we tweak the course in real time in an ongoing manner throughout the pilot. Now, what I'm holding, which is the framework that is going to guide us next year and the year after as the course moves to more schools and is fully launched, this was largely finished by the end of 2022. So the narrative that is now unfortunately taking place, taking hold of the media, that we spent a week putting together a 236 page framework at the behest of politicians that have objections, that is simply not true. And I will say the quote that keeps coming into my head when I'm reading stories from people who should be natural allies of this course is the one from Malcolm X, where

he said, be careful when you read the newspaper. They'll have you hating those who are oppressed and loving their oppressors. So pass this prologue. So, this 230 page plus report, how long was it put together and how many people were contributing to this process? We've been trying to generate support for this course for about a decade. We finally felt two years ago that we had enough support so that colleges would offer college credit for the course. That's the beauty of APs is that it allows students in a high school to, if they show mastery of a course, to actually arrive on a college campus with credit in their pocket. I think there's something really elegant about a course that celebrates the African American experience being one that can get students on campus arriving with credit in their pocket. But in terms of how it was developed, it's really been a very intensive process for about two years. We hired a brilliant scholar who had a dual PhD, one of which was in AP African American Studies, to be the chief

architect of the course. She collected over 300 university level scholars who have all provided input into the framework. So you could, you're welcome to flip through it if you want to. This is a real course. It's comprehensive and it's rigorous. And It's been developed by scholars. So DeSantis comes out, he Criticizes it, and I saw where The head of the college board Said we didn't make these Changes because of any Politicians.

So what was actually changed and Why? So when you're doing a pilot, You're often throwing a lot of Things up against the wall. And you're trying to see what St're often throwing a lot of things up against the wall and you're trying to see what sticks. I think part of what we discovered when we were engaging regularly with teachers and

with students was that some of what was in there worked really well and some didn't. And so there's always a revision process that happens with every single course. What many media stories are focusing on is a teeny tiny, you can look through that and see there's thousands of artifacts, there are thousands of events and dates and persons and it seems that some of the stories in the media are highlighting a very tiny number of sources that they claim have been taken out. And frankly, even some of that reporting is not entirely accurate.

So what's not being taken out? So, for instance, the Associated Press story suggested that Dr. Kimberly Crenshaw, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and others are being removed. Yes, true or false? False. So what we decided to do with this course that we don't do with very many other AP courses is in addition to an end of year exam,

probably all remember those. And also Bell Hooks was one of the names we saw too. Bell Hooks. I took five courses with Bell Hooks when I was in college. There's no way I would have given my blessing to politicizing the woman who is the finest college professor I ever had in my life, who I consider a mentor and a friend.

But in any event, what has happened with some of the more contemporary authors and historians and writers and such, is that we've added a three-week project to the course okay and the project is the place where students if they choose can dig more deeply into some of the movements that have been mentioned by politicians they can spend their time really digging deeply into those rather than making those a survey the other one of the other points that was mentioned

was that some politicians have mentioned their discomfort with what they're calling queer theory. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by queer theory. Sometimes these terms get thrown out and they're not defined. Well, just like they slap woke on everything, but yeah, I got you. Or CRT or whatever it is, there's a boogeyman that remains undefined and kind of scary. What I want to make clear is that we continue to highlight black feminism.

We continue to highlight folks who are LGBTQ. For example, there is readings that students will do on the Combahee River Collective. That was a group of black lesbian women who didn't feel that they had a place in a traditional civil rights movement that was mostly led by men. And they felt sometimes they experienced misogyny and homophobia from those men. They didn't feel as if they had a place in the white feminist movement where they felt there was less of a focus on race. So they developed their own movement. The Combahee River Collective was an ode to Harriet Tubman, who on the banks of the Combahee River in South Carolina, led a military campaign in 1863 that emancipated 750 people who

had been enslaved. That is the background for some of what students will learn in this course. For me it is difficult to know that that's in the course and to countenance an accusation that we have dampened down black feminism and LGBTQ folk. I've got a minute before I go to break. I'm going to put my panel in the next segment here. But it's part of the problem here also that the college board did not, as far as I'm concerned, respond fast enough and explain to people. Because bottom line is what you have is you've got conservatives coming out there framing this in their own language as opposed to explaining exactly what it is.

And so what then happens is you all get all this criticism and nearly all the people who are talking ain't seen it, haven't read it, have no understanding, and they're just repeating what somebody else said. Yeah. Well, I think at the College Board, a lot of us are nerds. We're former teachers. We read a lot.

We hang out with scholars. And we're up against, right now, a very sophisticated political machine. But the fact of the matter is... And a conservative communications apparatus. That is really good. And in fact, I feel that a lot of people who are natural allies of the course have actually stepped into a trap set by people who are not allies of the course. They're actually, as you might imagine, my inbox is flooded with people saying, why did you do this?

And my response is, why are you believing people who aren't, who have no desire for this course to succeed? Why don't you talk to me and let me show you the framework? First, read it first. Right, right, exactly. First of all, so before I go to break, is there any way folks out there, they can actually see this online? Absolutely. It is on the College Board website. What's the website? Collegeboard.org. And they can search for AP African American Studies Framework. And if they want to learn a lot over the weekend, they can read all 236 pages of this. All right. Hold tight one second.

I've got to go to break. We'll be back on Rolling Mark Unfiltered right here on the Blackstar Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, a relationship that we have to have. We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money. And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's

next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future.

African genius is saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. I'm Shante Moore.

Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapahoe, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. All right, we continue our conversation with the Senior Vice President of College and Career and Digital Access for the College Board, Steve Bumbaugh. We've got our panel that's here. Robert joins us.

But, Rebecca, you get the first question for Stephen. Go ahead. Stephen, I have a couple of questions. Who are the black academics that you rely on or consult with in order to determine what should be inside of the African-American studies, AP courses or offerings that the college board has? Yeah. Thank you for your question. There are actually too many for me to name. There are about, I think the exact number is 308 scholars. And pay back to Greg Carr, who's on our show, actually, was one of the folks. Greg Carr has been at my house after we ran an AP Summer Institute at Howard University. I invited a bunch of the scholars to come back to my house and have dinner and celebrate. And Dr. Carr was one of them. But some names you might be familiar with, obviously Henry Louis Gates from Harvard,

Evelyn Higginbotham from Harvard. The person we hired to architect the course is a young scholar, an African American woman named Brandy Waters, who got a dual PhD in African American studies and in Latin American studies from Yale. So we have scholars, the vast majority of whom are black, from HBCUs, from public flagship

universities, from Ivy League institutions, from across the spectrum of colleges and universities. So I can't name all 300 of them off the top of my head, but some of the names you'll be familiar with and some you probably won't be, but there are people who have broad expertise. There are people who have narrow expertise in diasporic sculpture. We put a dream team together to develop this course. Scott, I have a quick follow-up. I'm sorry, Rebecca, go ahead. So my follow-up is outside of the-American studies courses specifically for Florida that you changed. Did you change any other subjects at the request of Governor DeSantis?

We didn't change anything at the request of anyone who was not a teacher, a student or a scholar who provided input to the course. Just to be clear, this framework was largely complete long before this political firestorm started. And the thing about AP courses is the frameworks are the same no matter where the classroom is, whether it's in a rural community in Florida, whether it's in a big city like Los Angeles, the framework, the sort of resources, the digital resources that students and teachers have access to are all the same. MR. First of all, Scott, go ahead. MR. Hey, Steve. the digital resources that students and teachers have access to are all the same. First of all, Scott, go ahead.

Hey, Steve. Hey, Scott. My question is related to Governor DeSantis. He would argue that parts of the AP course is educational. You know, African-American studies is required on the Florida law. But he says the other parts that he protests and want to change was part of not education, but it was indoctrination. Is that a fair standard in reviewing the African-American studies AP course? Or is that just terminology? First, I want to add to what Scott just said. He never stated what they deemed had no educational value.

Because again, as I am going through this, I think back- Would you like to read some of that? Anybody black who is a, I dare say, Gen X or Baby Boomer might recall those four volumes, those black, those four leather bound Ebony magazine, the history of black America. And it is like I think that we I think we could afford three of the four. And as I'm sitting here going through this, I'm literally thinking about going through those volumes. And so I'm trying to figure out what the hell he's talking about that has no value. Well, let me just say this. We provide a lot of AP courses and And the process for developing the courses is always the same. This is the first time I've ever heard anybody say that one of our courses lacks educational value. I don't know how

anybody could look through this framework as you're looking through it right now, Roland, and not learn a lot. No, but it's the intent. And the bottom line is Ron DeSantis is pushing the buttons of white fear. That's what he's doing. And so this is a part of that whole process. That's the whole part of the whole game.

That's what he's doing. And so when you make a statement, let's be clear, and this is also again part of the issue. He comes out, nearly all reporters don't have it. So he makes a statement and so in the absence of

this and in the absence of frankly having black people who are out there who are asking the questions, he makes a phrase like, oh my goodness, what the hell is in this course? What are they teaching? Because DeSantis wants to, has his own agenda when it comes to anything dealing with the issue of race. That's really what's driving this.

Yeah. I don't think any black person in this country or in the diaspora is going to be surprised that a course on AP African-American studies has been politicized. In fact, well, except Candace Owens or Jason Whitlock. Well, I don't know them personally. I know those idiots, but go right ahead. But what I will say is I actually think in an interesting way, what's playing out right now is going to be an appendix to the course in 10 or 20 years. It's such a typical part of the African American narrative. Look, understand, I've got

live TV producers who do not want to put me on their shows. I've had black hosts call me because they don't like the title of my book. This book is the reaction to this. And what we're dealing with is, Rhonda Sanders is all about white fear.

It is about driving and getting white conservatives upset because they are fearful of 2043. They do not want their children learning this. In fact, I'm going to play in a second. I meant to play this coming back from the break. They had some congressional hearing today, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is not the brightest bulb in a dark room, she was asking somebody a question. And again, they're just saying crazy stuff. It was a Florida congressman, in fact, who also said earlier today that, oh, China's our greatest threat, but the Pentagon, Robin, I saw your tweet, China's our greatest threat, but the Pentagon, they're focused on being woke. Again, that's literally what they're doing and how they are attacking everything. They are, anything dealing with the issue of race, ethnicity,

diversity, equity, inclusion, they are attacking across the board, all over this country, and this is just how it's operating. Do you guys, so again, Robert, before I go to you, I'm going to play this here. And again, I just want people to understand that this is the person who is the right hand of speaker of the house republican kevin mccarthy watch this y'all can you tell me uh how much how much covid cash went to crt

crt critical race theory in education it's it's a racist uh curriculum used to teach children that somehow their white skin is not equal to black skin and other things in education. Yeah. No, I do not know that. But I do know that there's provisions that the federal funds generally are not used. They're supposed to be used for curriculum. Oh, that's a state. Oh, Mr. DeDaro, I have to tell you, in Illinois, they received $5.1 billion at an elementary school there that used it for equity and diversity. So it's being used for these things. Mr. DeDaro, can you tell us? So you know you've got to be stupid to think that one elementary school in Illinois got $5.1 billion.

Okay. Robert, again, Robert, what we're seeing here, Robert, this is an attack on blackness. This is an attack on teaching people about the history of this country. These white conservatives have been losing their minds since the 1619 project came out. And even before that, that's what's driving all of this. Well, you know, I find it ironic that Ron DeSantis wants to talk about this concept of indoctrination in our educational system, because as children, we learn, well, in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. They don't mention that he killed and enslaved and genocided entire populations there, bringing slaves back to Europe, because they want to indoctrinate you into the conceptualization of the heroic nature of white supremacy.

And we were indoctrinated that who chopped down the cherry tree? George Washington chopped down the cherry tree. Lie. He did not tell a lie. So he went to his father and told the truth. They don't mention he owned 300 slaves and would not even release them upon his death because it's all part of indoctrination. So, my question is, how exactly is the determination made between accurate history and indoctrination with so much of what is in the American educational system and even in the AP programs is still

political propaganda and indoctrination? We talk about settling the wild, wild west. The cowboys were out there. They don't mention they were literally committing a genocide and murdering indigenous populations. When I was in high school, our AP tech was still taught the Civil War as being part of the kind of the great Southern War secession and the war of Northern aggression, and was showing both sides of the Civil War argument. How exactly do they make the determination about what exactly is history and what is indoctrination? So I'm going to try to answer your question at a macro level. I have a 15-year-old son who is taking AP classes in high school right now. He was flipping through that this morning at the breakfast table. We can trace our first African ancestor to Sapelo Island in Georgia, but we don't know where he came from on the continent.

But before that? We don't know where he came from before that. When my son was flipping through there, he stopped on one page and he said, Dad, do you know the country in Africa where the most people who crossed the Atlantic as a slave persons came from? It was Angola. Did you know that, Dad?" I said, no, I didn't know that. He said, did you know that the the second highest number came from Senegambia? I said, no, I didn't know that. This is a kid who spends his time playing video games. He was completely captivated by what he read as he was

flipping through that and I imagine if we get through this political maw and hundreds of thousands of students are actually able to sit for this course they're gonna have a similar level of excitement and I do hope Roland that the people who are watching your show can keep their eye on that prize. Read the framework for yourself, learn something, and be excited about a fantastic course that isn't indoctrinating anybody. This is a course of empiricism and facts, but it is fascinating. And most people in this country know very little about what's between those 236 pages. Well, and I think to close this out, that really is the goal. And that is we've all, every single one of us growing up, we've been sold a massive lot.

And what they don't like is the fact that black historians now get a say-so. They don't like the fact that we now get to say, no, that's not how we should tell the story. And so what you're seeing, what you're seeing is this visceral reaction to us now getting to have a say. And, you know, Paul Harvey used to always say, now the rest of the story.

And so that's really what is angering them. They were so they were they are triggered by the 1619 Project. They are triggered by having African-Americans. I mean, understand the first real book on Reconstruction wasn't even written until 60 years after Reconstruction. Everything in this country has been redefined through the prism of, frankly, white America. And so you got people running around going, oh, no, no, Robert Lee wanted those statues. When you have actual, in his own words,

when he said, furrow that flag, because it was a treasonous flag. They don't want to deal with that. And so when you start telling the rest of the story, that's when they get upset. And that's really what Rhonda Sanders is doing. Again, tell folks where they can actually go look at this document themselves.

They can go on the College Board website, www.collegeboard.org, and they can search for AP African American Studies. I encourage you to read it and learn. It's a lot of fun. Steve, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. I appreciate you.

Folks, a lot of controversy in Maryland. Ms. Coppin State, she's not black. People are upset. They've been bombarding her with DMs. We'll talk to her next about her experience ass. We'll talk to her next about her experience as Ms. Coppin State and about her moving forward. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered with Blackstone.

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 And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

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

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for

yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. are losing their damn minds. 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. There's all the Proud Boys. 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 white fear. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network.

Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. I'm Bill Duke. This is De'Alla Riddle, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. All right, folks, there are 230,000 HBCU students in America. 20% of HBCU students are not African-American.

In fact, you have several, a majority of the students are not even black. In Kentucky, also Lincoln University in Missouri. And so it's not unusual to see non-black students on HBCU campuses. Coppin State in Maryland, oh, that's drama because the 91st Miss Coppin State is not African American. When folks found out that my next guest became Miss Coppin State, her name is Kaylin Perez. She's an Army reservist, has worked as editor of the Coppin Courier newspaper, is a senior nursing student. Man, folks got really upset, have been criticizing her, making a lot of comments online, on social media, filling up her DMs as well. And so the university had to respond

to these attacks on her. This is the statement the university put out. Y'all can pull it up, please. Y'all got it? Okay. Well, okay. We don't have, so, but Kaylin also posted some items on her IG page. Pull it up, please. Responding to various folks. I'm just going to read a little bit of that before I interview her. Pull it up. Thank you very much. The past 24 hours have been overwhelming, a whirlpool of emotions. This is not the first time I have

received so much hate for being the first Latina as Ms. Coppin. I just prayed I wouldn't continue to see those comments. It took a large toll on me last year when HBCU Buzz announced that I was the first Latina. The amount of DMs and comments on all social media platforms, including LinkedIn, addressing me in so many ways. I understand I am a non-black student serving as a student leader, and I completely respect everyone's opinion. I am not white, as many of you have assumed. I'm a proud first-generation Guatemalan American. I'm a

proud woman of color who has a passion of service. After seeing over 100,000 individuals viewing my story over the 3,000 comments on different videos, and after receiving many uncomfortable DMs, many of you would like to know why I picked an HBCU over a PWI. You can read all of that on our Instagram page. But Kaylin joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Glad to have you on the show. Thank you for having me. So first and foremost, we picked up there, why did you decide to attend an HBCU over going to a PWI? So for me, the most important thing was to be in a family-oriented environment. And when I came to Coppin State's orientation, I came to three of them. I was able to just connect with students here,

talk to the faculty in the reigning king and queen at that time. It made me feel very inspired, ambitious, and it just drew me here now. So then, so you're a student there, and then when did you decide to say, you know what, I want to be Miss Coppin State? And for those who don't know, it's a process, and so I take it you had to run for it. And who votes on Miss Coppin State? So we have the Royal Court, and the first time that I applied to be in Royal Court was my sophomore year, and I ran unopposed.

Same thing with my junior year. However, your senior year, when you run for Ms. Coppin, even if you don't have anyone who's running against you, you still have to campaign for a whole week and do a pageant where you'll be doing your speech, your talents, and a Q&A. And then the student body also has to vote. I look like I lost your audio there. Say it again. You're still there? Yes, I'm still there. Can you hear me? So you had to run. So who votes?

Students? Students. Even if I do run unopposed, they still have to vote. And the judges, they would rate the pageant. So folks are upset that you became Ms. Coppin State, but students elected you as Ms. Coppin State. Yes, I've had their support ever since I've been here my freshman year, and my acts of service, my love for the community,

they've seen it, and they've supported me each step of the way, and they've encouraged me to run for Ms. Coppin, and even though maybe I was scared, they were like, I think you should be Ms. Coppin. The faculty said that as well, and I just took the step, and here I am now. So did you receive the amount of hate on the royal court your sophomore and junior year, or was it until you became Ms. Coppenstead? It wasn't until I became Ms. Coppenstead. And what type of stuff has been coming your way? What type of comments that you've had to deal with? So I've had several comments such as I'm invading black student spaces, a safe space created for them, that I

am racist because I am taking a position that is deserving for a black woman. I've been getting messages to go kill myself or whether to go hurt myself in some ways because they don't agree that I have this position. Okay, what's crazy here, you're not the first non-black person to be a miss or mister of an HBCU. There have been non-black drum majors at HBCUs. And so this is not a, I mean, you're the first at Coppin State, but it ain't the first at an HBCU. No. So I'm trying to, go ahead, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yes, I've been in communication with some of the students at Jackson State, which is like the first Latino in the drum major and the first Latina in their dance team. And I've also talked to them, heard their stories. So it's not uncommon.

And there's also other HBCU queens and kings who are non-black serving in past years. Several of them have actually reached out to me through social media, saying that they were the first Hispanic at their HBCU a few years ago. So it was very inspiring to hear their story as well. Scott, I'm going to go to you first. I mean, it's interesting listening to folks who will make these comments as if we haven't had a first black Miss Alabama or Miss Texas A&M or whatever. And so folks would be pissed off as hell at white folks who were sending them racist comments. Your question or your comment?

Your critics are just really dumb people, and you shouldn't listen to dumb people. I sit on the board of trustees for Morehouse College. We've had a white top academic student about five, ten years ago, and we continue to have different races that go to Morehouse than Spelman and otherwise, because remember, a historical black college is just that. It's not historical blacks-only college, right? It would be illegal. So these are traditional historical black colleges, but open to everyone, although at

Morehouse you got to be a guy, or at Spelman you got to be a young lady. And so, you know, I congratulate you on just your excellence in service and, you know, being beautiful on the inside and outside. And, you know, you gotta keep it moving. You gotta keep moving past all of your critics because, as my mother used to say, they criticize Jesus, too.

And so, you know, you're not doing much out here if you're not being criticized. So, you know, you're not doing much out here if you're not being criticized. So make you, make you better. But the reality is it's, it's, it's quite hurtful, Kalen, to have folks who are, who are constantly attacking you when you simply ran and you were elected. Yes, it can be hurtful, but I just continue to reflect on why I am here, the path that God has instilled in my heart, and to continue letting my light shine. And that's what has helped me be so optimistic throughout this time and to continue serving my community, my institution, and, of course, everyone here on campus. Rebecca? So, Kayla, I want to say first congratulations for becoming the 91st Miss Coppin State.

To get that honor, you had to demonstrate that you have a love and appreciation for all things HBCU. And I guarantee you the majority of people who are talking to you online don't even support HBCU. So that's the first thing that I want to say. The second thing is I talk about how I'm an old head millennial, but Roland claims I'm not really a millennial, but I'm a Gen X. That's a whole other conversation. And I would tell you is that I grew up, like, in the middle of the whole digital thing. Ignore people online. Because if I listened to people online each time I talk, even on the Roland Martin show, I wouldn't be here.

They even make fun of me for my lipstick color choices. So you got to ignore those people. Keep demonstrating your love of HBCUs. They are among the finest institutions in our country. So you keep doing you and I applaud you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Robert. Absolutely. Congratulations on everything that you've done thus far and everything coming up. Is this an opportunity maybe to help educate the community about the historic ties between the African-American community and the Latino community, the work that Dr. King did with Cesar Chavez, the decolonization struggles that existed in Central and South America versus the fight for civil rights here in the United States. We have more things in common than I think many people know. So maybe this is an opportunity to help educate people on what has come before and how we

work together better going forward. Yes, most definitely. I feel like it's a very inclusive environment and diversity is amazing to just understand, to learn about each other's culture and to embrace that. I feel like it creates an open mindset. So I think it's very helpful. Well, look, there are so many people, again, who have no understanding of HBCUs and the same people who are critical of you don't even realize you got a white, you got a lot of white, Latino, non-black administrators. You got folks who are teaching classes who are not black. And so I think a lot of people in their minds, they have this idea that HBCUs are a complete, you know, oasis of

blackness and it's Wakanda. No, it's not. There are non-black people who are students, faculty, staff, and administrators on these campuses, and that's just reality. Kaylin, your final comment. Oh, I would like to thank you for having me on your show. It's an honor serving Coppin State as their Miss Coppin, and I will continue to serve with grace, with love, and letting my light shine throughout the community. Thank you. Well, I have not been to Coppin State. I've been to Morgan State.

I've been to Bowie State. And so hopefully I'll make it there and also University of Maryland Eastern Shore. So maybe we'll cross paths there. Good luck this year as Miss Coppin State and take care. Thank you. You as well. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back, our Tech Talk segment.

Next, I'm Roland Martin on Filter. Don't forget, download the Black Star Network app. Speaking of Tech Talk, folks, our OTT app, available on all platforms, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. We're now on Amazon News. So when you have Amazon Fire Stick, you simply go to Amazon News.

You can actually pull us up right there with CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and the others. Soon we're going to be on the other Amazon platforms as well. So look for the Black Star Network app. We are expanding. This is our 24-hour, seven-day-a-week fast streaming channel. So it's not just seeing the shows. You can see the entire network. We'll be right back.

Most people think. 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 One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. That these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people. And I got to tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk that are the creators,

the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. The people don't really want to have this conversation. No, they don't. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom

about our past, present, and future. African genius is saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. all right folks uh of course every wednesday we focus on Tech Talk, our segment where we focus on African-Americans who are operating in the tech industry. And so today we're talking about a new product that you can actually tap into.

You know, we always do our part to let you know about these things that you may not have actually heard about. And so let's talk about it's called the Metric Mate. That's right, folks, the Metric Mate. Now, have you ever had a trainer who didn't know how to count? Yeah, you do that. Now they try to tell you, no, it's on 10. No, fool, we already hit 14. And of course, you forget how many reps you've done when you're working on it as well. Well, three Morehouse graduates have created an app that can transform any strength training equipment into smart equipment. MetricMate's patented training accountability partner technology, or TAP, counts reps and sets and automatically analyzes workout metrics like calories burned, intensity, force, power, and fatigue. The CEO is M.T. Strickland.

He joins us now from Atlanta. M.T., glad to have you here. So how did y'all come about? What happened? One of y'all were forgetting your reps, and he was like, man, we got to fix this here. So how did y'all come about what happened? One of y'all for forgetting your reps and he was like, man, we got to fix this thing. So what happened? No, literally Roland appreciate you having me. And that's exactly what happened. This, this technology version from not remembering what we did in the gym the last time. So being able to

carry a pen and pad around the gym or utilize some of the apps that make you do manual entry. They extend your workout. They make you not as focused as you should be. And we figured all being electrical engineers that there had to be a better way to do that. And so we came together, brought our minds together and Metric Mate was born from there. And so so walk us through how does it work as you're working out? So, of course. So we have our tap sensor, which is right here. It's a sensor that you can plug into the actual equipment.

You put it on the equipment. It's battery operated, so it works on not only your barbells and your dumbbells and your kettlebells, but we see here that we have a pin that's attached. So for all of your machines, you can replace that dumb pin with our smart pin. And from there, it tracks all of your information. Like you said, not only your reps and your sets, but your calories burned, your force exerted, your power generated, your range of motion, your muscular fatigue, all of these data points that high caliber athletes use to make sure that they can hit their goals. We took it on ourselves to build something that every day person can use to make sure

that they hit their fitness goals and share that data to stay motivated. You can share it with your trainer, share it with some media, get those likes, get those endorphins going so that the next time you go in the gym, you're excited about it instead of begrudging it like a lot of people do when they wake up. And so for some people, I've seen some folks when they work out, they might have their iPad there because they want a larger device when they're sitting here, when they're sitting here tracking it or they use their phone. And so you can use it for either one? Yep, you can use it for your iPad, you can use it for your phone.

We're integrating into the smartwatches now so that I know a lot of people don't actually like to take their device while they're working out. We give them the opportunity to connect with their smartwatch. And now you can track that information and get that data analysis on the back end that makes it useful.

All right, let's see here. Questions from our panelists. Let's see who is the most in shape person. Let's see. Ain't Robert. Damn sure not Robert. It ain't Scott. So I'll go to Rebecca.

It ain't you, Scott. I'm losing. Well, I appreciate that, Roland. So this is what I'm trying it. It ain't you, Scott. I'm losing it. Well, I appreciate that, Roland. So this is what I'm trying to figure out. So what do I do with this thing? Even if I get data and I see it on my phone, how do I analyze it? Or does this thing or does this app let me know what I'm actually viewing? No, exactly.

The app would let you know. So we say that MetricMate is a data analytics company, and that's what we do. We actually analyze that data, and our tap technology allows us to be able to track that information and now get it into our application, which has proprietary algorithms to process it and then give you feedback on the back end to let you know how effective your workouts have been, how much more you should do, when you should go up in the weight that you're using. But the really key part is that we track your muscular endurance. And that's a data point

that changes a lot faster than the scale, which a lot of people use as their metric for when they're working out. You go home, you look at the scale, you're like, yeah, I lost two pounds. And you wake up in the morning like, man, where'd those two pounds come back from? With your muscular endurance, that's something that changes consistently because before you can go up in the weight that you're using, you control the current weight that you're working out with a lot more effectively. Your pace gets faster, where you go or how many reps you can do before your muscles stop putting out as much power goes a lot longer.

And so being able to come in and say, when I started, I started fatiguing at rep number five with 45 pounds. Now that I'm a month in, I'm starting to fatigue at rep 10. That's the type of metric that is sustainable. It stays with you and you could track it a lot more effectively. So it's dummy proof. We try to make it that way. I mean, our experience in the past with manufacturing and working with people, we did our best to try to make this as adaptable as possible. So it's easy to use a small, you can put it in your bag and take it wherever you go.

Cause everyone always has their smartphone. But then all you do is literally continue to do the same workouts that you've been doing. We don't change how you've been working out. We don't change how you interact with the equipment that you've been working out with. We just give you this small piece that allows you to now make that equipment more powerful, make that equipment smart. All right, Scott.

As a fellow Morehouse man, I'm not surprised that three Morehouse men put this together. It seems like an excellent product, but my question has to do with this. I hope neither one of y'all are cappers. Yeah. I won't get into that. No comment. MT, any of y'all in the fraternity?

I am. I'm a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated. Sorry, Scott. Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! 19-11 love, baby.

19-11 love. It's all right. You're not an alpha, but, you know 19-11 love, baby. 19-11 love. It's all right. You're not an alpha, but, you know, you had to go somewhere. My business partner is an alpha. Braxton Davis. I actually brained him. Oh, God. He's a member of Alpha Phi Alpha.

Hold on. But I love Omega's top five. Ain't nobody on your team capping. Sorry, Scott. Oh, damn. Maybe I could invest. But here's my question about what's the distribution plan who's your target market i know you all did shark tank i don't know what happened there but good bad or ugly but who's your target market and what's the distribution plan

so our target market is looking at people between 25 and 45, the technologically advanced ages. But we see that in our marketing and our customer research that everybody really has a place in the metric mate family. So we have ways for everyone to be able to utilize it, whether it's for personal training or physical therapy, whether you're trying to gain more muscle and strength or you're trying to fit into that dress that you couldn't two months ago. We apply this type of technology to allow you to be able to do that. So though we have a target market in that segment, we see ourselves being effective for everybody. And the way we've been introducing this to our consumer, because we are, as of this year, as of that airing on Shark Tank, we are going direct to consumer with deliveries happening in Q4 of this

year. Until then, we've been accessing our clients through personal trainers, through the gym facilities, which can give us the ability to be able to access a large mass of individuals in one place. And we've been seeing a lot of traction through them. People are excited about it. We have our leaderboards and our streaks, and we're giving out prizes for people who get the high scores on our power level, which is our proprietary score that takes in all of your fitness data. And now you have a power level that you can kind of monitor as you go up. And that's how we've been seeing a lot of good traction going from here. Yeah.

All right, Cy Chapter, good stuff. Thank you. All right. The most out-of-shape person on our panel, Robert. Hey, one day we'll tell you who a race rolling. It's going to be me and you running down in downtown D.C. So we'll work out. Robert, you know damn well. It's going to be me and you running down downtown in D.C. So we'll work out. Robert, you know damn well

you ain't going to get a quarter of the block. Roland, I'm smoking you. I'm telling you. It's going to be gone. We'll have to have a drone to find me because you'll see me at the start line. Right. You're going to be so far behind me that drone might just

spot your ass back there. And the only way you're going to stop me is pulling one of your guns out and shooting me. But that ain't going to work in D.C. So you got to do that in Georgia. Go ahead. All right. I did have a question. You mentioned earlier that the app does not interfere with what workout you're doing. But is there a functionality where you can insert your workout routine into the app and then use that to track whether or not you're hitting the goals. Like if you're doing P90X or if you're doing Max OT or

something so that you can make, so that you can see how well you did compared to what you were trying to do in a particular workout plan. Of course. So what we actually utilize is a service that we have called our TAP assessment, training accountability partner assessment. And that's a five exercise workout that takes about 15 minutes. And what that allows is for you to do your P90X, do your HIIT workout as you normally do, and then go in and take this 15 minute assessment and it tracks your actual progress over time. So we compare it to the presidential fitness test that a lot of people used to take. I might be aging myself talking about that, but that was the metric back in the day for the general public. We developed this TAP assessment that gives you that data, gives you your power level score,

so you can track yourself over time. No matter if you swim, you bike, you run, you do golf, you can still go in, take this 15-minute assessment, and then you can know how well that workout regimen is affecting your overall fitness. Hold up. So you can do this with golf? You can utilize our technology to track how well that golf routine if you do 18 or if you do nine how that's making you better in your endurance and your power in your work all of that information we can track through our assessment got all right so uh and i think so i

i think y'all supposed to be sending us one of those. And so I will test it out. I like to walk 18 holes. And so we'll try that. And we'll definitely let you know how it goes. MT, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Next time, have your Alpha partner on the show, the Alpha host. I'm just going to let you know. But I'll tolerate.

But again, remember, look, all of y'all are children of Alpha, so it's all good. Hey, y'all. Metric, mate. Shout out to the 5U chapter so it's all good. Hey, y'all. A metric mate. Shout out to the 5U chapter. That's my chapter. So we'll love you. Y'all get them on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. MT, thanks a lot.

Thank y'all. Appreciate it. Scott, you know, bow down, damn it. Bow down. All right. Rebecca, Robert, Scott. Robert, Scott, don't even start. You know better.

You know who your daddy is. You know who your daddy is. You know who your daddy is. And remember, Anthony, switch to camera seven. Scott, always remember, kiss the ring. Always kiss the ring. All right, y'all. We out. Don't forget, we're going to be at Daytona Beach on Friday.

Bethune-Cookman Town Hall, Hope Fellowship Church, 869 Derbyshire Road. Doors open at 5 p.m. We want all students, faculty, staff, alumni, community to come on out. So, please, we'll see you on Friday at Daytona Beach. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Brownie of America's Making White Folks

Lose Their Minds, and of course, vote for us for the Image Awards. Vote.NWACPImageAwards.net. I'll see you tomorrow. Holler! Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Hey, Blake, I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

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