#RolandMartinUnfiltered - UN's Highest Court Tells Israel To Prevent Genocide, Judge Blocks EPA Efforts In LA's Cancer Alley

Episode Date: January 27, 2024

1.26.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: UN's Highest Court Tells Israel To Prevent Genocide, Judge Blocks EPA Efforts In LA's Cancer Alley It's Friday, January 26, 2024. Roland's in Toledo, Ohio. Here's what's coming Up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. The International Court of Justice stops short of calling for a cease-fire but does demand Israel prevent genocide and ease the humanitarian plight of Gazans. Mark Thompson will join Roland to discuss the latest in the Israel-Hamas conflict. A Trump-appointed federal judge blocks the enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act's disparate-impact requirements against Louisiana agencies along Cancer Alley. Roland will talk to an advocate about how this ruling will affect Louisianians.  Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry wants to follow in Alabama's footsteps by finding other methods of executions. Alabama used nitrogen gas Thursday night to carry out a death sentence.  It's Time to Bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. of Black America rolling. I love y'all. 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 scape.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Friday, January 26, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live from the Black Star Network from Toledo, Ohio. Folks, Donald Trump slapped with a $83 million judgment in the case of E. Jean Carroll. He had already been found responsible for sexually assaulting her. He lost the first trial. Now he lost again. Every time he opens his mouth and trashes her, she's going to take him to court.

Oh, he is not happy about that. The International Court of Justice falls short of calling for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians over the battle in Gaza. But they also make demands of Israel. We'll tell you about those as well. A Trump appointed federal judge is blocking the enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act against Cancer Alley in Louisiana. We'll talk to an advocate about how awful that decision is. Also, last night, Alabama put to death a man with nitrogen gas for the first time. Now, Louisiana's governor, Jeff Landry, he wants to lift the ban on executions in that state.

And so we'll talk about that as well. Folks, that and more, a lot of stuff I want to cover on today's Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. 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 it's rolling It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin now Martin! Folks, a big decision from the International Court of Justice.

The folks in South Africa actually took their case to that court, calling what Israel was doing to the Palestinians in Gaza genocide. Well, the court ruled today that they fell short of calling for a ceasefire, but they did order Israel to limit the deaths and the damage. But again, they stopped short of calling for a ceasefire between the two. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said more than 26,000 people have been killed and more than 64,000 have been wounded since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th. The day the courts are now South Africa accused Israel of genocide and asked the World Court in the Netherlands to impose interim measures as the case proceeds. Folks, if we could play the video.

Do we have the video of the ruling from the court that was read in the court? If so, let's play it. All right, so if we could get that, please, because I want to hear what the court is saying, but right now I want to go to Mark Thompson. He's the host of Make It Plain Daily. Mark, you have been very much involved in a lot of efforts all across this country calling for a cease-fire, demanding Israel cease the attacks on Palestinians.

Your thoughts on this decision today? MARK THOMPSON, Former U.S. Secretary of State for Israel and the United States of America, Well, it's a big decision, and thank you for having me, Roland, in spite of the jersey you're wearing. This is a big decision. It is not a ceasefire. And I'm not certain that the International Criminal Court has the authority to say that in that way.

But what is important about this ruling is a 29-page ruling from the International Court of Justice. And the order that was given is that Israel is to prevent acts prohibited, and I'm reading from the ruling, prohibited in the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention, including killing Palestinians, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and, quote, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Now, if you just read that point blank, prevent acts of genocide, it's semantics, but it pretty much says that what's going on now has to stop, and that could be akin to a ceasefire. The other rulings, the other orders, prevent and punish statements that constitute incitement to genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian aid to address the adverse

conditions of life in Gaza, preserve evidence related to allegations of genocidal acts, report back to the court within one month on its compliance with the orders. So again, the language ceasefire is not there, but it's saying that the genocide must stop. This obviously was pushed by South Africa, and we carried that whole hearing, it was about three hours, live on the Black Star Network. And, you know, this was the folks in South Africa who understand what genocide looks like, saying, look, enough is enough. Well, not only that, South Africa knows what apartheid looks like.

It's not just metaphoric, as Jimmy Carter said about Israel, that it's an apartheid state. That's not just a metaphor. South Africa also knows and remembers from its history in the anti-apartheid struggle that it was the Israeli government that backed for decades the apartheid regime in South Africa, backed it fully, backed it financially, and helped the apartheid regime in South Africa, backed it fully, backed it financially, and helped the apartheid regime in South Africa roll and build its own nuclear weapon. There are countless, and people can look this up, there are countless resolutions from the UN General Assembly condemning the Israeli regime's support of the apartheid regime in South Africa. So Israel was literally supporting an apartheid regime.

So it's not a leap, one, for South Africa to recall that and demand accountability. Nor is it a leap when people like former President Cardin and others describe what Israel has been doing since the 40s to the Palestinian people. Itself is a form of apartheid, because it was an apartheid ally. It was an apartheid tool. So the question now is, what happens next? There's some speculation that there'll be another vote in the U.N. Security Council. And I know you've been talking about this politically, the risk for the Biden administration. You've got the state of Michigan. You've got young voters, millennial Gen Z voters that are watching what's going on in Gaza that are protesting at the White House, saying that Joe Biden needs to get out of this,

needs to stop supporting Israel. He himself needs to demand a ceasefire. To be fair, the Biden administration has started talking more and more and making demand of a two-state solution. In fact, it's been reported that Biden met with Netanyahu, not only said that, said, you know, you are bringing harm to your closest ally and you may cost me an election. I'm paraphrasing what Joe Biden allegedly said, to which Netanyahu responded, I don't give a damn. So it's not in the best interest anymore for this government to veto or vote against, once again, any call for a ceasefire or anything close to what the International Criminal Court

is demanding in the U.N. Security Council. It would do well for the Biden administration to wake up, as Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada has done, as Prime Minister of Britain has done, as President of France has done, and so many other countries are saying this has to stop. And even more and more members of Congress. Chris Van Hollen has introduced a bill that calls for accountability when it comes to spending and weapons being given to Israel. Raphael Warnock, the same thing. And there is a—well, it's not a growing—there's always been a large number of Jewish Americans and rabbis for ceasefire

that have spoken out and have said they're not comfortable with this. So that's where we are. This is a significant ruling. and that have spoken out and have said they're not comfortable with this. So that's where we are. This is a significant ruling. I don't think we've got a response from Israel yet. But, I mean, if they can flout the International Court of Justice, if they're going to push back against that, then ultimately what's the difference between Netanyahu and Trump as he fights back against the ruling against him today?

Well, that answers his own question. There is no difference because Netanyahu, Trump, and Putin are three peas in a pod. Here is the head of court reading some of today's ruling. It is that with regard to the present situation, Israel must, in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article 2 of the Convention in particular. A. Killing members of the group.

B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. C. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and D, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. The Court recalls that these acts fall within the scope of Article II of the Convention when they are committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part the group as such. The court is also of the view that Israel must take measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to the members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip?

You know, Mark, I saw something the other day where someone has suggested that Israel can never be charged with genocide because of the history against Jewish people. That really makes no sense whatsoever to suggest that because of what took place in the Holocaust that they can't commit genocide. I mean, you can. And so then you have the stories coming out about this tension between, as you alluded to earlier, Biden and Netanyahu about going too far. Here you have Netanyahu coming out saying absolutely he's against a two-state solution, where the United States is like, wait a minute, that's always been our official position. And so President Biden, the United States, does not obviously want to break with Israel, but there's going to have to be continuing pressure put on them to cease.

We had the bombing the other day of an aid area, and so people are saying, wait a minute, these are people who are going to save ground ground and you're attacking them there as well. And so how do you see this ruling impacting or putting additional pressure on the United States to say, Israel, you're going to have to back off? Yeah, I think it does put greater pressure on Israel. I think it puts even greater pressure on the United States. Here's the test, though. Israel, again, what Netanyahu said to Biden, I don't give a damn. They seem not to. That's one issue. The United States has to. Biden has to. This is the question. So he has to give it up. He's got to do something about it. I took note and I'm sure you did as well, Roland, when he was being protested at Mother Emanuel in at the church in Charleston, South Carolina. Biden got a little defensive and he all but said, look, folks, I'm trying to do something here. I'm trying to work this out. He did not. He wasn't immediately dismissive of even what the protesters were saying and calling for a ceasefire. I think he and Tony Blinken get it and get the political risk with this.

So, you know, Israel, Netanyahu's on the ropes. There is no indication whatsoever that he will be reelected if and when there's an election. He's using this war as somewhat of a cover. And so whatever he's going to do, he's going to do to preserve his political hide. He doesn't care about Biden's political hide. But if Biden keeps that wagon hitched, it may very well harm him. And we've got, obviously, bigger things. We can't go back to Trump. We can't do that. But we can't credibly say to millions of voters, let's just

give Biden a pass. So we got to figure out a way to walk and chew gum at the same time. And if Biden was smart, he would see what's happening in the streets. He would see the demands for a ceasefire as really better political advice and calculus than his own consultant class is charging him a million dollars is giving him. This needs to stop. He really has no choice but to bring it to an end. that Biden will have a hard time, even if Israel chooses to ignore the court. I think the United States and the State Department and the U.N., the U.S. delegation to the U.N. is going to have a hard time simply ignoring the International Court of Justice. Indeed. Mark Thompson, we appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you, brother. I need to get you in New Jersey. That's not going to happen because, you know, my Astros completely own your Yankees.

Juan Soto. I know it pains you. Juan Soto. It pains you immensely to have to see this jersey, but we'll kick your butt again come next year's baseball season. Juan Soto will be batting second. Aaron Judge will be batting third in the ladder. It's a wrap. So y'all pray for Rona.

I done heard that before. Okay, so trust me, y'all will be losing us again. So just go ahead and suck it up. We own the Yankees. The Astros own the Yankees. Just letting you know. All right. You and Spike Lee continue your Yankee tears.

All right. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, gotta go to a break. When we come back, we'll chat with our panel about this issue. Also talk about this huge judgment Trump was slapped with. Oh, he's responded, but y'all notice he kept E. Jean Carroll's name out of his mouth this time. Yeah.

Every time he mentions her, she gonna take us behind the court. Oh my goodness. In the words of the great singer from West Virginia, it's a lovely day. You're watching

Rolling Rock Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. We just have one of the oldest cultures that's desperately needed for mutual salvation. That's the consciousness. We have the keys and our roots to save mankind. We get to see the condition of other countries, other oceans, other cultures. And if we believe in God, a lot of us do.

He's telling us if you don't get rid of that stuff that makes somebody superior or inferior and work together for Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, nurses are the backbone of the healthcare industry. And yet only 7% of them are black. What's the reason for that low number? Well, a lack of opportunities and growth in their profession. Joining us on the next Get Wealthy is Needy Barton-Nillick.

She's going to be sharing exactly what nurses need to do and what approach they need to take to take ownership of their success. So the Black Nurse Collaborative really spawned from a place and a desire to create opportunities to uplift each other, those of us in the profession, to also look and reach back and create pipelines and opportunities for other nurses like us. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Handbook. Hey, what's up?

Keith Turner here in the place to be. Got kicked out your mama's university. Creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays, an air hip-hop comedy. But right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Thank you. All right, folks, my panel on today's show joining us is Michael Imhotep, host of the African History Network show out of Detroit,

Caleb Bethea, communications strategist out of D.C., Matt Manning, civil rights attorney coming out of Corpus Christi, Texas. All right, glad to have all three of y'all. Michael, I'll start with you. This decision from the International Court of Justice, do you think it's a significant one? Do you believe it's going to have an impact on changing how Israel operates? Just your take on it. Yeah, I think it's a significant impact. And I think this is really good for South Africa to step up also. Now, I'm not sure. So Israel is given a month to submit a report about how they're going

to proceed. I'm not sure what the consequences are going to be if Israel does not abide by the guidelines here from the international court. So, but this is something I think that's very good. And I think more pressure is coming upon Israel as well. And we see that Biden and the Biden administration is, over the past maybe week and a half or so, something like that, has become more outspoken about the need for Israel to be more targeted in their—and maybe two weeks or so—be more targeted in the attacks and the need to reduce the innocent casualties as well.

So, we'll see, you know, what comes of this in a month or so. But this is a good first step. Kelly? I think this is a wonderful first step, especially considering the fact that South Africa, a country that, frankly, is known for its apartheid history, blatant, modern apartheid history is calling out Israel for its apartheid present. And the world is watching and actually listened to an African country calling this out. I think that's a fantastic thing. I think that, like the article in Politico says, they did stop short of straight up saying

that Israel was committing genocide. I think that's really what needed to happen as far as a political landscape is concerned regarding Joe Biden, because I feel like if that language was used as strongly as it needed to be used, he would have to force his hand in regards to the money that is going over to Israel. So again, this is a great first step. Hopefully, Israel will listen and actually abide by the order. We'll see what happens from here. Matt, obviously, Israel is a sovereign country. They can make their own decisions. But to have this international court make this decision, it adds fuel to the fire of those who are saying Israel must pull back on the assault against the Palestinians. Again, when you look at what took place on October 7,

some 1,700 or so Israelis were killed in that. Already some 26,000 Palestinians have been killed. Yeah, you know, I'll be the dissenting voice here a little bit. I mean, I don't practice international law. It's, you know, arcane area of law. And people who practice it know it far better than I do. But the basic reading of this opinion, to me, seems like it is strong words, but not really anything that can be enforced or at least where Israel can be strong-armed to comply. And that's what I see as the issue here. I mean, not only did they go so far—not go so far as to say it was genocide, but in 2019, Gambia sued Myanmar in the International Court of Justice, and Myanmar decided to just completely disregard the order. And the problem with it is the decisions of the court are not appealable, and they're final, but there's not any authority above this court who can enforce

what the court has required of the states who are involved in the dispute. So what I am concerned about is that Netanyahu's messaging in the wake of this is that he's claiming that this is a ratification of Israel's right to defend itself. And what concerns me about that is it doesn't seem like there's going to be necessarily any adherence to the court's rule of law or the court's order here. And there's not really anything that the ICJ can do to make Israel comply. So that's what I see as the issue here. And, you know, there's precedent for that on our own shores. If you look at Brown, right, Brown v. Board of Education was not the case that

immediately made things happen. They had to issue another Brown, and still we saw ramifications of people's noncompliance with that order. So my point is I don't know that this is as earth-shattering as it's being characterized outside of the political context, but maybe there's something I'm missing with it. Well, I think the enforcement mechanism is something that is significant. We have seen before how the United States, how we want this court to govern other countries, Michael, but don't particularly like it when the court rules against the United States. And it's sort of like there are rules for everybody else and there are rules for us. Yeah. And, you know, here, once again, because I was rereading this article from the Washington Post dealing with this, and in the article it says, though the court's decisions are legally

binding, they can be hard to enforce. So, time is going to tell what happens here. You know, it's overwhelming evidence that the 2.2 million Palestinians are living in an open-air prison. Israel controls—they've had a 16-year blockade against the Gaza Strip and control what comes in, what comes out, control the electricity, things of this nature. And at the same time—and people may not like this—but at the same time, Israel, you know, does have a right to defend itself, but you have to be careful in how you do that. You have to preserve innocent civilians. You can't just go after Hamas wholesale and then say, oh, well, they're using the civilians as a shield.

Well, if you already know that, that would tell me that you need to be more careful how you go after Hamas. So we'll see what happens with this. Hopefully something good will come from this. Well, again, I think what this does, Kelly, again, for those people who have been raising the issue about the need for a ceasefire, this gives them more momentum to be able to make the argument, to have this official body come with this decision, as opposed to saying, well, this is just our view. They're able to say, hey, this is what this international court, they've examined this whole deal.

They've studied it. This is now what they've had to say, hey, this is what this international court, they've examined this whole deal, they've studied it, this is now what they've had to say. And so there are other governments out there that could also put pressure, when you talk about the French, when you talk about the U.K., Canadians, and other countries as well. I think that it's very interesting in a—it is interesting to me in a very rhetorical sort of sarcastic way that the only people in the world who are agreeing with Israel right now, by and large, are Western organizations who have and capitalized on colonialism, right? And that says a lot because this isn't the first international body

that has basically told Israel to stop. The UN has told Israel to stop. Several international organizations have begged Israel to stop. Ireland has said on their parliament floor, stop. Everybody except the U.S. and people, countries rather,

like the U.S. in that they are westernized or specialized in colonialism or they really want some oil, whatever the reasons may be. And it's very few of these countries, right? They're just major players on the world landscape. Those are the only ones who are saying Israel's

doing okay. Israel is doing what they're supposed to do. Israel is just defending itself. Twenty thousand civilians dead and basically no Hamas captured is not a defense. That's slaughter. That's a genocide. And the reason why it needs to be said that way is because words matter. Communication matters. And when you put that word out in the atmosphere,

when you manifest that word into the atmosphere, people, countries, governments have no choice but to act and act accordingly, one way or the other. But they can never say that the word wasn't used. They can never say, oh, we didn't know, when you have something of this magnitude on the floor right now. So even though, you know, points are made, the court can't force Israel to do anything. You're right. Israel is a sovereign state. But sanctions exist. Tariffs exist. Treaties exist. You know, there are instruments at play that can be revoked,

changed, tweaked to make Israel real uncomfortable. And that's what needs to happen. All right. Hold tight one second, folks. We come back. Let's talk about, speaking of uncomfortable, ooh, Lord, Polo Don Trump. He got slapped with an $83 million judgment today by a jury in New York. He is not happy about that.

Donald, you keep running your mouth, you're going to keep paying up. Can't wait to talk about this next. You're watching Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Be sure to support us in what we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club where dollars allow us to be able to cover the news and the stories every single day, not only on this two-hour day show, but also on the additional shows we have on the Black Star Network. You can see your check and money order at appeal box 57196 Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash out, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, PayPal or Martin Unfiltered.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Hatred on the streets. A horrific scene. A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not regret that.

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 every university calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise 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 people. Next on The Frequency, we have an incredible conversation with my guest, Nadira Simmons, talking about her new book, First Thing First, Hip Hop Ladies That Changed the Game. The founder of Gumbo Net tells us the stories behind the women in hip hop. Starting with the first woman that promoted

the hip hop party to Megan Thee Stallion. There's even a chapter on me. That's next on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Hey, what's up y'all? I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. A Trump-appointed federal judge has blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

This is disparate impact requirements as it relates to Louisiana agencies involving Cancer Alley. Judge James Cain ruled against residents of a stretch of parishes along the Mississippi River, again known as Cancer Alley, an epicenter of petrochemical manufacturing in the U.S. with disproportionately high rates of cancer. Now, this is a huge decision. And, again, it goes to show I always keep telling people how one federal judge could literally have an impact on decisions all across the country. Joe Banner is the co-founder of the Descendants Project. Joins me from Wallace, Louisiana. Joe, glad to have you here. I mean, here's the deal.

The EPA, by using this, they're able to show the impact and how a particular impacts people of color. Here you have a federal judge who now says, nope, can't use it. So what is at risk is the EPA using this tool in other areas all across the country. Yeah, it's really, it's a disappointing decision. It's not what we wanted, but we are, this is the first step. We want to make sure that we're going to keep fighting and making sure that these numbers are known. The EPA didn't use any special calculus to make these numbers. They're simply reporting on the data that is there.

So I think it's like watching a football game and not being able to say who wins based on the score. So we really want to make sure that these numbers, no, they're not, we don't want to ignore them. The point is to improve them. And that way we wouldn't have to be embarrassed by the numbers if that's what it is. But anyway, I just think that it's really important that we keep on fighting.

We keep on making sure that these numbers are reported and ultimately utilized to make these important decisions. What is next? Obviously, there's going to be an appeal of this decision. Right. We're going to keep fighting. We're going to make sure our advocacy won't stop. We are the groups that are involved in this, like myself and other groups, who are, by the way, we are community members who happen to be advocates trying to support our communities. A lot of times it's framed as we are just these advocates who have no connection to the communities. But we do this because we want to see our communities survive and not have to deal

with asthma and cancer and other diseases. So we will get together with our legal representation and come up with the next step. We know these fights are often many multiple steps, and we're all prepared to go the full round. You have a Supreme Court case that they had oral arguments about a week ago that that will also have an impact in terms of government agencies being able to make decisions in some different areas. You've had big, big major companies that have been trying to roll back an aggressive environmental protection agency. And so not only are y'all fighting these major companies there in Louisiana, this is happening all across the country where companies do not want an aggressive EPA under Democrats. Whenever Republicans get elected, their whole deal is, hey, let big business do whatever they want. Right. And big business doing whatever they want is the reason why you have areas like Cantor Alley and the reason why we're seeing the impact of climate change in

our communities. And one thing, too, when we improve our area, it just doesn't stay with us. It actually goes to everybody. We can't, the air doesn't choose to be good for Republicans and be bad for Democrats or vice versa. So whatever work we do regarding climate and environmental justice, it ultimately helps everybody. So it's not the big businesses. We are finally—we are pushing back, and we have good headway behind us. So we're going to keep on that momentum of winning. But it's a big battle.

It really is. I've been fighting battles like this since I was 10 years old. So the good thing about it is that we are, this is not a novelty to us. We've been doing it for a long time and we're prepared

to take on big business. And we have successfully. Give people an understanding of why this area is called Cancer Alley. This area is inundated with petrochemical companies, with other pollution-causing industries such as the grain industry. It's all concentrated and within an 85-mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Our area had a high density of plantations, and plantations provided

the ground and access to the river that these petrochemical industries could ultimately utilize to pollute us. So we have just an intense amount of pollution, air pollution, land, water, all of that. And we're seeing that indicated in if we say cancer, but there's really other ailments that we have to deal with as well. So we just continue to to really ultimately stop the system of enslavement that's continued since the 1700s. And now is manifesting as the pollution through petrochemical companies and other polluters along the river. And for folks who don't understand when we were railing against the lack of black folks voting there in Louisiana, your current governor, Jeff Landry, he was the one who sued to stop this disparate study when he was the attorney general of Louisiana. So it's not like y'all have a friend

in the governor's office when it comes to trying to stop what is going on there. Right. It definitely could be a better situation for us. But one thing about it is that it's good. This is a good time for us to strategize and for us to gather together to see what do we do when we have someone who is fighting against the improvement of our community or the health of our communities. So I look at this time as a learning experience. We also know this is not the first time we're dealing with a political figure who may be against what we want. So we are going back

in the past. We're finding out what worked. We are already talking with a lot of people who've been in the movement for a long time. And I think most importantly, we don't panic. We don't panic. We just make sure we find out. We know our game plan and move forward with that. And the ruling is weird because the judge says that pollution does not discriminate and that, quote, if a decision maker has to consider race to decide on enforcement, it has indeed participated in racism. Okay, now the reason that's crazy is because the National Minority Equality Forum says that 56 percent of communities of color are live within three kilometers of a site producing carcinogenic waste and in reserve in St. John the Baptist Parish. Cancer risks are 50 times the national average. So what we know with environmental racism, a lot of these places are located where there are poor black and brown people.

Absolutely. And these numbers, no one, we're not celebrating because we have these numbers. This is not a spot that we want to be in as a black community, a community of color. But what can explain this? If there's another reason for these numbers, and I wish somebody would give me the reason of why it just coincidentally seems to impact communities of color like ours versus not. So until they can give us an explanation, which no one has, then we have to look what's around us. And you really—you look at the plantations in this area. The fence line to plantations became the fence line to petrochemical companies.

The descendants of the enslaved, who had really no place to go, who were finally at least a little bit off of it but still around the plantations, these are the communities that were targeted and are now dealing with the manifestation of slavery in a different form, which is these chains of unhealth that we now have to deal with. So, you know, it's just, it's frustrating to have to really, to flesh out why it is that it is. It should already be known because these numbers have been available for. This is not the first time we know about numbers like this. Indeed, indeed. Joe Banner, keep up the fight there. We will continue to file these cases. Well, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Toledo, Ohio, back in a moment. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training, and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online training programs designed to put you on the fast track to jobs in high-growth fields. No experience is necessary.

Learn at your own pace. Complete the online certificate program on your own terms. Stand out to employers. Get on a path to in-demand jobs and connect with top employers who are currently hiring. Take one professional career certificate program or all six. Earn a Google career certificate to prepare for a job in a high growth field like data analytics, project management, UX design, cybersecurity, and more. All professional career certificate programs must be completed by December 31st, 2024. Scan the QR code to complete

the application. There are 1,000 scholarships available. Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're going to be talking about common sense. We think that people have it, know how to use it, but it is something that people often have to learn. The truth is most of us are not born with it and we need to teach common sense, embrace it and give it to those who need it most, our kids. So I always tell teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting from social media, and then let's get ahead of it and have the appropriate conversations with them. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. Hey, what's up?

It's Tammy Roman. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know, rough, rough for Donald Trump today, folks. He a jury was determining damages with regards to the case of E. Gene Carroll. Y'all might remember Trump actually was found liable for sexually assaulting her a few months ago. Okay? Judge Oriana put up a $5 million bond. Well, Donald Trump, he kept trashing her. He kept saying she was lying. So she said, okay, let's bring your ass back to court. Well, today the jury went off. Okay. Uh, they hit him up for $18.3 million. Uh, and then first of

all, we're going to break down, uh, the deal. So it's a total of $83 million. You throw in the previous $5 million, the total judgment against him is $88 million. Okay, y'all know how big this is. When they had closing arguments, Trump was so arrogant, he storms out of the court in the middle of the prosecution asking questions. The judge didn't take too kindly, constantly chastised his own attorney. It was unbelievably crazy. And so, again, this jury decided 7.3 million in compensatory damages, 11 million to repair her reputation, 65 million in compensatory damages, $11 million to repair her reputation, $65 million in punitive damages. Matt, you know it was going to be big when the jury sent a note out saying, how big can we go?

Yeah, I smile because notes are one of the most difficult things as a lawyer. If you try cases, you never know what a jury is going to say. And when they send out a note, lawyers essentially take bets on what that means in the grand scheme of things. But I'm really glad you broke this down, because for the viewers out there who don't know what those damages mean, the $11 million and the $7.3 million are compensatory damages, right, to essentially pay back. But that 65 million is punitives, which means that the jury found that Mr. Trump was acting maliciously when he defamed Ms. Carroll. And what is incredibly strange to me about this whole case is that we're really not

having the conversation we should have, which is that he was found liable for sexually assaulting her. So we're talking about basically the civil prosecution of a crime, a heinous crime, at that. But because of the environment that Mr. Trump and his cronies have fomented in this country, a person who was found essentially guilty but liable in the civil context of rape is still gallivanting around the country, defaming his victim to the tune now of $88 million in the two damages, or sets of damages. So I think this is good that a jury looked at the evidence and determined that he wasn't going to be Teflon Don in this situation. But it's still problematic,

because so many people around the country are buying what he's selling, despite 12 people sitting in the box saying they looked at evidence and rendering a decision in two hours and 45 minutes, which in the grand scheme of jury trials is very quick. That means they went back, they elected a four person. They looked at it and said, yeah, he's dead to rights. How much do we want to give her? And I think that's, you know, proof positive of how bad the evidence was for him in this case and how malicious what he did to Ms. Carroll was in terms of defaming her even after the first verdict. See, his was interesting here, Kelly. Donald Trump took the stand in this trial, in this

particular phase, which actually is nuts if you ask any real lawyer, and he didn't have any real lawyers. They were a joke, too. But when Judge Kaplan introduced him, he said, quote, he inserted his fingers into E. Jean Carroll's vagina. Trump has trashed her, trashed her deposition, saying, look at her, I would never be interested in her. But that was the intro of the judge of Trump when he went up there. And every single time after the first trial, he kept opening his mouth. He kept trashing her. So her folks are like, let's go back to court. Every time he trashes her, they're going to sue him again and they're going to win again. The, the statement that we're going to show you in a second, uh, he did put out a statement after this. Um, he left her name out of that one, uh, which made a hell of a lot of sense. But again, this is the person who cannot control

himself. And every time he brings up a Jean Carroll and then he says that she lied, she is going to haul his butt back in court. So we see 88 million today. This thing could go even higher. has to settle these cases. And I ask that not like rhetorically, but I am serious about it because for those who have seen trials like this happen before, where it's a defamation case or any type of civil case where it's like a high number settlement involved or high number damages amount involved, they shut up after that. You know, they stopped doing the dumb thing that they were doing once that number comes down. And it reminds me similar. And I hate to bring her up, but I don't know if you are aware of of Tasha Kay and her lawsuits with Cardi B and now with Kevin Hart. And she doesn't have any money. So she feels like she, what does she have to lose by keep going, right?

And I feel like Donald Trump's- No, no, no, no, no, no. Actually, no, no, no. Actually, actually, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. I got to correct you there. This is not true that Tashaidd does not have any money. Because here's the deal, all right? She's making money on her YouTube channel.

She's making money, all right? Now, look at Alex Jones. They want to beat him out of the judgment. He's still making money, and he's shifting money around and doing all sorts of things not to pay the judgment. So the reality is she got money. You can't keep talking every day. And, I mean, it costs money to do this whole thing.

And so she, I mean, she's making money from YouTube. Oh, sure. So it's there. Sure. Yeah, so she can, and that's what they're going after. And now Kevin Hart is going after her as well. So the bottom line is, folk out there, you keep running your mouth, you're going to get sued. And you also keep getting hit with punitive damages.

I had someone send me a text saying, you can't get rid of those in bankruptcy. Right. My point being is, I'm not saying she has absolutely no money whatsoever. That's not my point being is i'm not saying she has absolutely no money whatsoever that's not my point my point is exactly how much do these people have and to be confident enough to keep talking or maybe it really is just the ego that propels them to keep going i think the latter is the issue. Oh, it's ego. It's all ego. It's all ego. Yeah, like I think the latter is really the issue, but it makes, for me, for purposes of this conversation, it makes me think, right, exactly how much money do these people have? Is Trump really a billionaire such that he thinks that he can just keep going and pay these people

out? Because he's going to have to pay. I'm not doubting that he has $83 can just keep going and pay these people out? Because he's going to have to pay. I'm not doubting that he has $83 million. What I'm doubting is that he has X amount, billion, right? Because it feels like his campaign is paying for these things. His supporters are paying for these things. I don't know how much money he has. That's my point.

Well, here's the deal. He's got assets. And, Michael, he keep running his mouth. He may have to unload them. Keep in mind, we're still awaiting the other New York case that could determine he can't do business again in New York state. Exactly. And we know State's Attorney General Letitia James is asking for $370 million in damages. Okay. So if that's awarded, okay, hypothetically, that's awarded plus this 83 million, million, OK, $83.3

million. So, you're talking about over $400 million. Now, in the deposition, a video deposition for this case, Trump said he had assets of $400 million, I think it was, as well. Well, cash, like about cash, $400 million, I think it was, as well. Well, cash, like about cash, $400 million. So, he's in a world of trouble, and he's still dealing with four criminal trials. And one of those criminal trials most likely is going to happen—not all four, but one of those criminal trials is going to happen before the November election as well.

So, we need to be vigilant. E. Jean Carroll deserves this. And, yes, today, when Donald Trump posted on True Social, he didn't mention her name, but that's not going to last. He's going to go back to being stupid Donald. He can't help himself, OK? What we need to do is make sure we put him out of his political misery and make sure he does not become president again, November 2024.

Oh, absolutely. And listen, you know, I want him to go crazy. I mean, and she is driving him crazy. And again, Matt, he's the man can't control his mouth. If he trashes her again on Twitter, on true social, in a rally, her lawyer is going to know this, but when it comes to defamation of a public person or a public figure, you have to have a level of malice in order to be found liable for defaming them. And I think the inverse is actually working against Mr. Trump here, because he has such an enormous platform worldwide that, as the jury's evidenced in their damages award, that there's clear malice if evidence in their damages award that, you know, there's clear malice if you are clearly attacking a person and you have the platform that he had. So it kind of works in the reverse as would be the case if someone brought a case against him. But yes, her lawyer should take him back to court because it's obviously malicious. And what I think is so

important about this case that we haven't really talked about explicitly is so many of our conversations about Mr. Trump are perspective. You know, what's going to happen? How are people perceiving this? All of that. But the beauty of this is 12 people in New York seated in the box looked at evidence and determined he was liable, looked at evidence and determined the judge, at least in the other case, that he committed the fraud. And I think that becomes important because he can no longer spin it to say this is just a witch hunt, this is Mr. Biden, this is whatever. No, this is the people, especially from a populist like him, right? These are the people whom I want to represent, who I'm telling you are in my corner,

and they're looking at the evidence and rendering decisions that I'm liable and hopefully in a few months here guilty of criminal offenses. And I think that's important because I think that will start to hopefully turn the tide with some people who are still buying what he's selling and recognizing that their fellow Americans are not buying it in the confines of the courtroom. You know something is crazy when the judge, Kelly, tells the jurors, my advice to you is don't tell anybody you served on this jury. They actually protected the names of the jurors from the public, from each other. This basically was like a mob case. That was exactly what I was thinking. The judge knows that the MAGA idiots will be having death threats

against every single one of these jurors. Yeah, and it's sad because your analogy to a mob case, that's exactly what I was thinking when I heard that. And it's sad because you have to go back to the fact that this man is running for president of the United States. Let's just say, hypothetically, you got somebody on that jury who's a Trump fan, you know, who actually wants him to be president. You want to be afraid of your leader to the point where you can't give him, frankly, basic information and trust that it'll be protected just by way of being a presidential candidate, let alone, God forbid, the president of the United States. That blows my mind. Like, we still have to get back to the fact that this man is still trying to run this country terribly

again, right? And that the court found it important enough and vital enough to take those measures in a jury trial. Because if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, was this judge also getting death threats? And was this the same case where the judge and their law clerk and their staff was already getting the death threats and they didn't want that to happen to the jury? Because that's happened on the Trump case before too. So the fact that they have experience with this and they didn't want that on the jury because a, God forbid, again, potential president of the United States has a legion of losers to basically bully them into oblivion. That's that's that's crazy to me. And it's and it's more importantly, it's sad. It's really sad. Mm-hmm.

And of course, you know, this is going to be totally ignored by—almost ignored by Fox News, Michael. But again, I think what this also says is, Trump, you just taking more Ls, more Ls, more Ls, more L's, more L's, more L's. Yeah, Fox News may ignore this, but there's going to be a drip, drip, drip, because this is going to go viral on social media. You have people, D.L. Hughley. You have others, Joanne Reed.

This stuff is going to go viral on social media. This is going to be covered all this weekend into next week. Now, what's interesting is these black Republicans, especially the black male Republicans, who have just sold their entire soul to their newfound Jesus, Donald Trump, or Satan, however you want to put it, Senator Tim Scott, Byron Donalds, the rest of them, what's going to be interesting is what they say, OK? And I want to hear Elise Stefanik out of New York, Republican out of New York House of Representatives. I want to hear her comments on this also.

But yeah, Fox may not cover this, but the MAGA Trump supporters are not going to be able to run away from this. This is going to continue to follow them. It's going to get worse. This is not going to be a hot boy summer for Donald Trump. This is not going to be a hot boy summer for Donald Trump. This is going to be the worst summer of his life. Not hot boy summer. Hey.

Not hot boy summer. Hey, I'm here. I'm here for him losing more and more and more. Absolutely. It's the biggest L in November. All right, hold tight, folks. We've got to go to break. We come back.

Roland Martin unfiltered right here at the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do, folks. Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. So you're checking money or it's appeal box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. app dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal r martin unfiltered vimmo is rm unfiltered zale rolling at rolling s martin.com rolling at rolling martin unfiltered.com 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. 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. Back in a moment. 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. Rates $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 R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Koff. We look at the history of emancipation around the world, including right here in the United States, the so-called end of slavery. Trust me, it's a history lesson that bears no resemblance to what you learned in school. Professor Chris Mangiapra, author, scholar, amazing teacher, joins us to talk about his latest book,

Black Ghost of Empire, the Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation. He explains why the end of slavery was no end at all, but instead a collection of laws and policies designed to preserve the status quo of racial oppression. The real problem is that the problems that slavery invented have continued over time. And what reparations are really about is saying how do we really transform society, right? And stop racial violence, which is so endemic. What we need to do about it on the next installment of The Black Table,

right here on The Black Star Network. Next on The Frequency, we have an incredible conversation with my guest nadira simmons talking about her new book first thing first hip-hop ladies that change the game the founder of gumbo net tells us the stories behind the women in hip-hop starting with the first woman that promoted the hip-hop party to megan the stallion there's even a chapter on me that's next on the frequency on the black star The Frequency on the Black Star Network.

Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Folks, last night in Alabama, Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed using a new form of a method, nitrogen gas. Now, you might remember he previously was being executed. Huge mishap in that. And so they stopped executing, trying to find a different method.

So Alabama last night chose to go using natural gas, nitrogen gas for the first time. Now, on the heels of that, the governor of Louisiana, MAGA Jeff Landry, he wants to restart executions in Louisiana. They have not had them for the last 14 years, and he's trying to find new methods in doing so. Matt, one of the reasons why this is a significant issue is because when they had the previous mishap, then what happened was you had manufacturers who said they were not going to supply the materials to be used for executions. And so, therefore, there was, you know, they were not available. And so that caused a number of states to have to figure out, OK, how are we going to do this now? Now, all of a sudden, you're seeing seeing this new way.

You're looking at Jeff Landry, you know, what he's doing. And the bottom line is MAGA hard right folk call themselves pro-life, but they absolutely believe in death penalty and they want to continue executing people. What do you make of them now trying to find these new ways to, frankly, for the state to kill folks? I think it's abhorrent and immoral and dishonest, particularly if you're calling yourself pro-life. And I readily concede that there are a lot of people who think that the death penalty in the most extreme circumstances is appropriate. I'm very clearly against it. I think we have too long a history, particularly in our community, of it being

used where there was questions about a person's guilt or where the ultimate punishment was just way too incommensurate with the crime. And I think here, a lot of this is conservative virtue signaling, trying to show that Landry is tough on crime. I mean, I think he wants to reinstitute hangings and another method. I can't recall the other method. Maybe it was a firing squad. But in any event, I mean, the real issue with the death penalty, one is that I believe it's barbaric. I mean, I think many other nations around the world that we stand next to, at least in our minds, ideologically, you know, have said that it is not something that should be used. But beyond that,

the reality of the death penalty is that it doesn't have the deterrent effect that it's intended to have. And that's the issue. People are still committing capital murder. They're still committing murder. And of course, we need to have a severe punishment. But we also need to not reduce people to non-human status. And the reality is, I don't know that the state can ever credibly or morally be engaged in the business of punishing someone by death, because death is obviously the ultimate punishment. So I say all of that to say, I don't know how much of this is some deeply held belief of Landry, how much of this is a campaign promise, how much of this is virtue signaling.

But in any event, I think we need to have a national reckoning about the death penalty. And in preparation for this segment, I read that in 2022 and 2023, the uses of the death penalty went up significantly, something like 56 percent in 2022 and even more in 2023, because the Supreme Court has removed some of the roadblocks to its usage. And I think that's part and parcel with what we talk about often on this show, that elections matter. And when you have a supermajority on the Supreme Court of conservative justices, they're going to be inclined to allow draconian forms of punishment. So I think this is more philosophically we as a country have to reckon with this, particularly because we know the error rate with the death penalty.

Michael, what they did was in 2022, they had an issue killing him by lethal injection because they had a problem with the IV line and so then they chose to go to this particular method here now this is the first time a state has executed somebody other than lethal injection so the death penalty was restored in a 1982 now here's's also interesting here. The attorney general of Alabama said the following. He said that they predicted that by with nitrogen gas, he would be unconscious within seconds and dead within 22 within minutes. Well, the reality is it took 22 minutes for him to die as a result of nitrogen gas. Yeah, Roland, you know, I concur with Matt.

You know, this is very barbaric. It's inhumane. And Republicans, the Republican Party, they're not the pro-life party. They're the pro-birth party, because after you're born, they really don't care about you until it's time to vote, unless you're African American or Latino. Then they're going to pass bills like SB 201 in Georgia, which is crafted by Heritage Action for America, as well as many of these other boilerplate voter suppression bills, based upon the big lie that was pushed by Donald Trump. So, what you have here is the state of Louisiana that has one of the highest incarceration

rates of African Americans. And Louisiana is also where you have Angola prison as well, OK? And Angola prison sits on the land that used to be a slave plantation, and the majority of those slaves came from Angola, which is why it's called Angola Prison. You have Republicans pushing for the death penalty and another way to use the death penalty, while at the same time they want to suppress the teaching of real history, oftentimes in schools, one, to suppress the vote as well, put in voter suppression laws. So, they want to reduce your ability to change laws of the future and skew the history of

the past that tells how you got here. So, this is extremely dangerous. This is an example of why elections have consequences. He was voted into office. He needs to be voted out of office when the next election comes. Kelly, the point Matt made earlier, I think, is an important one that can't be overstated. And that is when you listen to people who support the death penalty, they routinely say that the death penalty is in place to serve as a deterrent. You can't show me anywhere, anywhere in this country,

and I would love for somebody to show me where the death penalty has become a deterrent. I don't know of any place, I don't know of any state where, uh-oh, hey, we've seen a drop because of that death penalty. It hasn't. It simply hasn't been a deterrent for capital crime, capital murder. I mean, I certainly haven't seen any evidence of it being a deterrent. I am personally conflicted as to whether I'm a proponent or an opponent of it. As someone who is still grieving the loss of her brother due to a murder, you know, my brother was killed. We still don't know who did it. It is an unsolved mystery up in Milwaukee. I am not in a space where I would be like, okay, should this person be caught and tried and

convicted? I'm not sure I would be okay, personally, this person just rotting in a jail cell. I personally would want that person to be dead. So I don't think that the death penalty is really like, while on paper, the rationale, the main rationale behind the death penalty is it's a deterrent for crime or something along those lines. What I really think it is, it's for the victims of the crime to truly have a sense of justice. That eye for an eye mentality still exists in our society today. It is very prevalent in our society today across the board in many different aspects, but specifically when it comes to violence, the balance of the scales is off when the justice only looks like incarceration for a lot of people. For some, that's enough.

As long as the person's not out there doing what they did to their loved one, that's okay for a lot of people. And I, you know, glory in their spunk. You know what I mean? Like, I wish I could be that way. I am not that way. If I were to find the person who killed my brother on the street,

I don't know if they would make it to see a trial. I will be completely honest with you. So I'm conflicted as to whether yay or nay. You know, politically, you know, the angel on my shoulder knows all the right reasons, all the right things to say regarding the death penalty. But the one on the other side? I don't know. You know, I can think of a lot of ways that are more efficient than some gas that I would

probably be more amenable to than, and frankly if we're going to talk about ethics and humane, would a more humane way to die, if we're really going to go that route humane, would a more humane way to die, if we're really going to go that route, be the more immediate way to die? You know, questions that need answers. Thankfully, I'm not in charge of them.

Well, it is going to be a continuing conversation without a doubt. And so we will see what they decide to do there in Louisiana. All right, folks, a lot more to talk about on today's show. Going to go to a break right now. When we come back, you've got more black head coaches in the NFL. Oh, my goodness. What's going on? In Michigan, they just announced the hiring of their officer coordinator, who's African-American, to be their head coach as well. Of course, Brad Flores filed that lawsuit exposing the NFL. So, hmm, are these owners now all of a sudden

paying attention? Well, let's talk about that. Also, our black and missing, we'll discuss that as well. And, oh, Texas continues to defy the Supreme Court and the federal government. Now you have all of these other Republican governors saying, we stand behind Texas. We stand behind them. Oh, so all of y'all will now know the law as well? Okay, we'll discuss that right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, broadcasting live in Toledo, Ohio. That's what we need for mutual salvation. That's the consciousness. We have the keys and our roots to save mankind.

We get to see the condition of other countries, other oceans, other cultures. And if we believe in God, a lot of us do. He's telling us if you don't get rid of that stuff that makes somebody superior or inferior and work together for the mutual salvation, everybody's gone. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A., and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard.

Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on the Proud Family. I am Tommy Davidson.

I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. All right, folks, more Republican governors are lining up with Texas Governor Greg Abbott in his fight with the Biden administration over securing the border in Texas. You know, the governor, they put the razor wire, the razor wire along the border there and to prevent folks from from crossing. Now there's a standoff where you have the Texas National Guard not allowing the Border Patrol to access the area, even though the Supreme Court ruled against Texas in this.

So now what you have is all these Republican governors now sitting here saying, we stand with Texas, Texas has a right to protect itself. The thing that's crazy here, and this is what you're dealing with here, Kelly, you've got people here who flat out owe a so-called law and order, but now they want to ignore a Supreme Court directive. Okay. I then say, what the hell? Colleges and universities ignore the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action. Ignore any, hey, if you're a blue state, ignore, you know what? If you're a blue state, totally ignore the Supreme Court's directive in the Dobbs decision. You go right ahead with abortion in your state.

The hell with them. And in fact, if you are a blue city in a red state, you also should ignore the Supreme Court and say, you know what? We're going to do what we want because y'all don't really mean anything. That's really what these Republican governors are saying. Roland, I hate for you to repeat yourself, but you broke up the first stanza. You were talking about the governors regarding the border. Yeah, I was talking about the governors regarding the border, and I was saying that these Republicans are now aligning with Texas on it, and they are simply defying the Supreme Court.

I see. I mean, Republicans are going to have to make up their minds one way or the other, whether they want intervention from federal sources or whether they want a no man's land where every man for himself, like how they, how the Confederacy was supposed to be right. You can't have it both ways, but Republicans have done an excellent job at trying. Um, the hypocrisy over there is real. Um, but we'll see where the chips fall regarding whether they're going to ignore it or not. Um, hopefully there's some repercussions if they do. The thing that's clear here is these people have no respect for the law, Matt. And let's also, the government talks about Operation Lone Star. Texas has already wasted billions of dollars.

Literally. He spent billions sending the National Guard down to the border, inspecting trucks, didn't have the authority to do so. And has any of that worked? Absolutely not. And now you have this ad happening while Republicans in the Senate and the House are abiding by Donald Trump saying, don't y'all dare strike a deal when it comes to border security and immigration reform because I want to use this to campaign. Well, the yellow rose of Texas has since withered and died with Greg Abbott in the office.

And the reality of it is this. You know, it's a moving goalpost situation. What Republican governors around the country are doing, including our governor here in the state of Texas, is they find a way to make the rules apply when they want them to apply, especially when it's to black people or poor people or whomever is not of their ilk. And then they find a way to say, well, I'm either going to rewrite the rules or they don't apply to me because for some reason I'm different. And the reality of this is this is kind of part and parcel with what we were talking about earlier about Landry's fight with the EPA over the petrochemical companies in Louisiana. What you're seeing Republicans do around the United States

is continue to make a states' rights argument. And it's ironic, because the federal government and Mr. Biden are so often accused of federal overreach. But what you have here is the exact opposite. You have the state trying to say we should be able to widen the purview of things that we control. And the reality is the conservative Supreme Court said, no, you don't control it. That is the federal purview of authority. So, you know, I think this is actually extremely troubling because it's what we're seeing around the country. And the more that these governors try to expand their influence, then the harder it is for

the federal government, one, to have the gravitas necessary to enforce the laws that it should have, but two, you're starting to have little fiefdoms. And that's the reality of the United States. That's why it's such an experiment from a political standpoint, because you have 50 disparate—and, you know, territories as well—disparate little fiefdoms that, to some extent, can govern themselves. But this is a problem because what we're seeing is the political dehumanization of migrants and immigrants, number one. But number two, you're seeing an out-and-out flouting of the Supreme Court. And this is similar to the ICJ.

I mean, if they decide not to honor the Supreme Court, well, you can continue bringing lawsuits, and DOJ can keep firing things off and trying to get Greg Abbott into court. But a standoff on the Mexican border, the Texas-Mexico border, is insane, because it shows that there is not a respect for the federalism that is supposed to control each individual level of government's sphere of affairs. So I think this is actually a huge issue. And I think we continue seeing that, that people are being used as political pawns, which is why Greg Abbott is spending my hard-earned tax dollars to send people up to Chicago and Mayor Johnson's area, just because they want to make people political pawns.

And I think we, as citizens, need to be troubled by this mightily, because as they continue trying to expand the purview of their individual states, it fundamentally upsets the balance of how things are supposed to work. I just get a kick out of these 25 Republican governors signing this letter, Michael, let's be real clear. There is no difference between what they are doing right now on this issue than what they did during Jim Crow. Right. Yeah. And, you know, during Jim Crow, they would I forgot which state it was. I know Joanne Reed covered this on MSNBC. They would ship African Americans or bus them from the Deep South up north, okay, and tell them you're going to have a better way of life and things like this. It was called a reverse freedom ride. They did this in the 1960s to African Americans. So, what's taking place here in Texas with Governor Gregg at it. And then, at the same time, what you're looking at, the obstructionists in the House of Representatives, led by Maga Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, against an immigration bill.

And Republicans have been calling for an immigration bill for probably the last 30 years. You have Republican senators saying, this is going to be the strongest, the best immigration bill we're going to get, even if Trump wins the White House and, you know, we win the Senate, you're not going to get a better immigration bill, because you need 60 votes in the Senate. But like you said, Trump wants to run on immigration. He's telling them, don't pass this bill. And then at the same time, you have Governor Greg Abbott in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, what came out today, and Huffington Post has an article on this, two Democratic members of the House of Representatives,

they're calling on President Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard regarding this growing border dispute, because Governor Greg Abbott is in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court. So this is going to continue. And at the same time, what they're doing is they are using migrants, OK, regardless of where they come from, regardless of where they come from, Mexico or Cameroon, what have you, you have a lot of them coming from different countries through the southern border, they're using them as a political pawn, OK, while at the same time they don't want to—many of them don't want to pass proper laws, because this is political.

So, once again, I can't stress this enough. This is why elections have consequences, OK? And Democrats have to take back control of the House of Representatives. But the next gubernatorial election in Texas, you know, they have to vote Governor Greg Abbott out of office as well, if he runs again. Well, people people have to understand that you can't look. We had 80 percent of voters, 30 and under, who did not vote in 75 or 80 percent of voters, 30 and under in Texas who didn't vote. Well, this is what you get when you got crap like Greg Abbott, who are in charge. All right, folks, going to break. We'll be right back. Roller Barton on the Black Sun Network. Hatred on the streets,

a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not be black. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storming 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 white fear. I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from LA.

And this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation. You and me, we talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard.

Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin Unkilled. Gertie Alexander has been missing from Fort Pierce, Florida, since December 29th. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Gertie has a tattoo of a heart with words on her upper left chest. Anyone with information about Gertie Alexander is urged to call the Fort Pierce, Florida Police Department at 772-467-6800, 772-467-6800. The Michigan Appeals Court found sufficient evidence for a former Grand Rapids, Michigan police officer who shot a Congolese immigrant to stand trial. That's right, folks. In the case of Christopher Schur, he's been charged with second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Patrick Laiola in April 2022. Schur pulled Laiola over for a faulty license plate. A struggle took place.

He ended up on the ground sure placed his weapon on the back of patrick's head and pulled the trigger sure is claiming self-defense he was fired from the grand rapids police department in june after waiving his right to a discharge hearing uh lio's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Grand Rapids. This is something that I think is important, Matt. And if a lot of people, a lot of people, they underestimate the impact of the Black Lives Matter national movement. And if anybody is paying attention, what they will see is that since the Black Lives Matter movement, since we've had the amount, the protests, and the

pressure applied, we have seen, we're seeing a gradual shift in terms of how police officers are being dealt with by DAs, by judges, by appeals court. Agree or disagree?

I don't know that I can agree or disagree? I don't know that I can agree or disagree, because I don't know that I have any data to back that up. I will say, though, to your point, I feel like, you know, in the last four or five years, which I think dovetails with a lot of the main movement with the Black Lives Matter movement, the national zeitgeist, I think, has made it such that prosecutors are willing to take risks to prosecute police officers in a way they weren't before. And that could be exactly what you're talking about, that phenomenon. And it could also be just that the larger conversation that society is having is about certain things being beyond the pale, and definitely not to the extent that we should be having that conversation. But in the wake of George Floyd and a lot of the publicized, you know, events of police brutality, it seems like prosecutors are

more willing to take this risk. Because as a former prosecutor, I'll tell you, when stuff happens in any jurisdiction, one of the last things the DA wants to do is prosecute a police officer, because he or she is worried that they're going to lose someone who is an inherent ally in trying to curb crime and at least theoretically trying to keep a community safe. So I think you're exactly right. I think that has contributed to it. But how much has contributed to it, I don't think I can speak intelligently to. I am interested, though, in this case about what the basis of his appeal was, because customarily you don't get to, you know, avail yourself of self-defense until you're actually on trial. So I would be interested in seeing what his lawyers took up to the Michigan Court of Appeals to have them to decide he actually needed to stand

trial, because normally that's a fact issue that is borne out in a trial, and then you would take it up to the Court of Appeals to say that there was some error with the trial that you had. Michael, again, I think when we look at, you know, we've done so many of these stories in so many of these cases, and I just think that what you're seeing, you're seeing the effect of enlightenment, education, but also protest in terms of demanding action. I mean, different places we've done first-time officer in 30 years has ever been indicted, ever been convicted. We can go on and on and on how we're seeing more and more of these examples across the country. We are seeing more indictments of police officers when they're charged with unjustly killing people. We're seeing more convictions than, say, 15 years ago, but we're not seeing nearly enough convictions.

But there is a sentiment that has been changing. We see the election of some progressive prosecutors, OK, whether you talk about Marilyn Mosby, who was in Baltimore, whether we talk about Kim Fox in Chicago. At the same time, we saw a backlash, like, for instance, when Attorney General William Barr was—when Attorney General William Barr was in office under Donald Trump. We saw a backlash against those progressive prosecutors also. So, historically, when African Americans have made advancements, there's also been backlash and around the setbacks also. So, I think we have to be vigilant with this.

And lastly, I can't stress this enough, there is a nationwide shortage of police officers. So, there is a golden opportunity for African-Americans who have a guardian mentality and who want to become the type of officers that we say we want to see, that will respect people's humanity and not unjustly kill people. There's an opportunity for us to go into these departments, gain these positions, okay, and abide by the laws that the activists have gotten in place, but also hold other officers accountable, because a lot of—because of the Black Lives Matter movement, a lot of police departments have adopted duty-to-intervene

policies, which means if you see officers doing things wrong and brutalizing people, you have a duty to intervene, OK? So there's opportunities inside the police department as well as outside of the police department to change this narrative? You know, I think on that point, Kelly, the fact that we're seeing a lot of these cops in these departments retire, many of them are just angry and upset. They don't like the rhetoric around it. No, what they don't like is they don't like the accountability. That's the real deal.

And, I mean, I've seen these stories in New York City, how they talk about how the number of retirements, people retiring before they even hit their pensions is on the increase. And it's because they can't stand the fact that they can't just do whatever they wanted to do beforehand with impunity. They now understand there are consequences to your actions. And this is real simple. Act right and do right. You ain't got a problem. That's pretty much it because I have friends and family who are, by all accounts, wonderful human beings and are really good at their job being in law enforcement. And they tell me all the time,

it's not hard to be a good cop. It's not hard to be a respectable law enforcement officer in any regard. You follow the rules, you follow your training, you apply your training, and you just do your job. You treat others the way that you would want to be treated if you were in that same situation. Sometimes even better, because you want to do your job. Like you treat others the way that you want to be treated if you were in that same situation. Sometimes even better because you want to do your job well, right? I think that in the grand scheme of things, you know, the influx of retirement and people

shifting away from law enforcement, I think this is the moment where people are actually getting the bad apples out the bunch. I think these are the bad apples leaving or the people who don't want to become bad apples leaving. Right. And that's a good thing because there are other careers out there for you to do and thrive in that don't involve you infringing upon my rights as a human being because I am at a traffic stop or I'm intoxicated or, frankly, I just caught you on the wrong day, right? So I don't have a problem with this shift, but I do agree that we do need more law enforcement officers out there. This is a perfect time for some good apples to come into the mix. Well, it's also, to that point, Matt, a perfect opportunity to remake these departments.

Because if a lot of these old head, want to just knock folk upside the head, cops are leaving. And as Michael said, now's the opportunity to say, how do you create a new generation of police officers, train them differently and now have a different mentality than what we've been accustomed to over the last 100 years? I think that's exactly right. I think, you know, it's due for an overhaul. The profession of policing is due for an overhaul. The profession of policing is due for an overhaul. And it is necessary that there is a cultural overhaul, because we would be being dishonest if we didn't say for a lot of police officers, to your point, especially those of certain generations, you know, they reveled in the opportunity to go out there and bust some heads and be out in the streets and, you know, knock people around. That's just the reality of it. You hear them tell these stories, particularly when they're talking to prosecutors

and they think they're talking to people who support that. We definitely need to remake these departments. I think we also have to be rational and honest, though, as a society that this is an important function. You know, many of us don't have the training to provide what police officers can provide. And it's not an inherently bad job. There are actually a lot of great police officers who are trying to contribute to the community and are doing things that are helpful. And I say that because I think too often this conversation doesn't have the nuance that it needs to have. However, what we really need to do is, I think on the local level, legislatively, city councils and county councils and county commissioners courts need to implement rules that give citizens complete transparency with their departments. And not only that, we need to find a way to actually enforce swiftly and strongly the bad apples, because

as we talk about often, the police unions wield so much power that I've seen cases where officers have committed heinous acts. They decide not to, you know, to concede or give up their job. They sue the county or the city, and they get paid back pay, despite having done something that would otherwise be illegal or, you know, highly objectionable. So I think there are some more institutional fixes that we need to make, coupled with data and coupled with a cultural change, so that we as a society know we have a safer police force and one that's actually committed to keeping us safe, but we have a greater leverage

to, you know, essentially hold them accountable in the event that they've done something wrong. Because the real problem is now most of the citizen review boards and the other mechanisms to police, police officers, for lack of a better term, are very often just ineffective, and they don't get the job done, and it doesn't root out, to talk about our prior issue, it's not a deterrent. It doesn't deter officers from taking that risk because they have a lot of protections. Well, and again, part of the issue that you also are dealing with is that you have these Republicans in red states who are doing all they can to roll back those type of panels in what we call what are called blue cities. And we saw that in Tennessee, how they, frankly, had to disband the Citizens Review panel in Nashville because Republicans on the state level passed laws doing so. And so even when you have cities that are trying to fix the problem, you've got Republicans

on the state level who are saying, oh, hell no, forget that. No, we're going to control what you actually do. And so I think that's one of the things you're seeing happen as well. All right, hold tight one second. When we come back, we'll talk about black coaches. Wow, the number of black coaches being hired this offseason in the NFL, pretty good. Guess what? Long, long overdue.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do. Our goal, folks, is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each over the course of a year. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. That raises a million dollars towards what we do here. It costs $195,000 a month to operate the Blackstar Network. And that's everything, folks. That's staff. That's folks. That's staff,

that's salaries, that's travel, that's paying for the studio space, the live streaming equipment. You know, I'm sitting here in the hotel room in Toledo right now using our LiveU, our LU800, which is the top of the live streaming unit. All the other networks have them. We own two of them. Well, the reality is that's costly. All these things actually cost, you know, we're not just sitting here, you know, uh, you know, in a basement, uh, just doing a podcast at, at, at mom and dad's house. You know, we're running a real news operation. And so we want to be able to grow. We want to be able to do more. We want to be able to hire additional people. Uh, I've been, and I've been perfectly clear, I have been talking, dealing with Group M and dealing with OMD and dealing with Dentsu and dealing with all

these ad agencies that have frankly been freezing black-owned media out of the dollars. We're continuing that fight, but we need your support as well. So please, send your check and money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash, Shappers, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. We just have one of the oldest cultures that's desperately needed for a mutual salvation. We'll be right back. And if we believe in God, a lot of us do. He's telling us if you don't get rid of that stuff that makes somebody superior or inferior and work together for the mutual salvation, everybody's gone.

Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Koff. We look at the history of emancipation around the world, including right here in the United States, the so-called end of slavery. Trust me, it's a history lesson that bears no resemblance to what you learned in school. Professor Chris Mangiapra, author, scholar, amazing teacher, joins us to talk about his latest book, Black Ghost of Empire, The Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation.

He explains why the end of slavery was no end at all, but instead a collection of laws and policies designed to preserve the status quo of racial oppression. The real problem is that the problems that slavery invented have continued over time. And what reparations are really about is saying, how do we really transform society, right? And stop racial violence, which is so endemic.

What we need to do about it on the next installment of The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not be black. 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 every university calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here'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 white fear.

Bye-bye, Papa. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Franklin. It is always a pleasure to be in the house. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay right here. The NFL has always had a problem when it comes to hiring of black coaches. I mean, it's simply been there. And you've had folks like Brian Flores file a lawsuit against the NFL over this issue. He was joined in the lawsuit by former NFL head coach Hugh Jackson.

Well, this offseason, we are seeing some positive movement, of course. Let's go to the numbers. Atlanta Falcons, they recently hired Raheem Morris. He was previously a head coach in the NFL. Now he gets another shot, again, hired by the Atlanta Falcons. New England Patriots promoted Gerard Mayo, a former player, who was a linebacker's coach. He replaces Bill Belichick as the head coach for the New England Patriots.

Las Vegas, they removed Antonio Pierce. He was the interim head coach when they fired Josh McDaniel, and they made Antonio Pierce the head coach, and so he gets moved up. Dave Canales was hired as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers. He's of Latino descent. The nine coaches of color, you also had the additional coaches that were already in the NFL, such as Mike Tomlin with Pittsburgh, got D'Amico Ryans out of Houston, Mike McDaniels, who's out of Miami.

So coaches of color now count for 28% of the 32 coaches in the league, where roughly two-thirds of the players are men of color. Now, you still have a couple of positions that are still open, but with the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Commanders. So we'll see what happens here. This really is important, Michael, because if you also begin to track this, what you're seeing is you're seeing also these coaches hiring additional brothers to be coordinators, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinators. What's also crazy is that Brian Flores really improved the Minnesota Vikings defense this year. He didn't get any head coaching inquiries. Now, normally, you do such a great job.

You're a hot commodity. You're going to get a phone call. So clearly that lawsuit is having an impact. But for the people who say that, you know what, these things are not important, I just want to remind people. I want to remind people why these things are important, because we're talking about coaches who are getting three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten million dollars. This has an impact on black wealth. They are able to hire additional coaches. When you hire additional coaches, you're giving them a shot to become coaches, head coaches as well, through expanding opportunities.

So I don't act as if this is no big deal. Well, Roland, I'm conflicted on this. Yes, they will hire African-Americans as coaches, right? And that creates opportunities for them. But one of the things that Brian Flores alleged in his lawsuit is that the black coaches would, African-ican coaches would be promoted to head coach they would uh have a losing season they would they would try to build up a team have a losing season they would not be given as much runway as much lead time as much grace as a white losing coach and then they get fired and then and then they a white coach would be hired for that team

to take that team that the black coach cultivated and take them to the next level this is one of the things that that he alleged so hopefully um this will be the beginning of something much better but as i said on this show before when we dealt with coaches, I'm waiting for ownership, because when you have African-Americans who own these teams, they can make a lot more progress if you have the right-minded ones, okay? They can make a lot more progress, ownership, and then hire the right coaches, create more opportunities for African-Americans. So if they're going to be subjected to a lot of the same things that Brian Flores alleged in his lawsuit, then this is not going to give us the desired result. Now, this could be something better. This could be something different. Hopefully it is. I'm not sure right now. But here's the deal, though. I get your point, but let's just be perfectly clear. You ain't getting that. You're not getting it.

First of all, let's look. If you look if you look at how NFL franchises, what they're now going for, they're now selling for five, six and a half, potentially seven billion dollars. The NFL's requirements are whoever is the majority owner has to have 40% of that. You buy a team, you buy a team for $6 billion, you got to have $2.4 billion yourself as part of the purchase price. So how many African Americans out there are we talking about? So I get your point. But let's say one. Because there are no black NFL owners right now. OK. Right. There are no black NBA owners.

Michael Jordan sold his majority interest in the Charlotte Hornets. OK. There are no black major league baseball uh major league baseball owners but the point that i'm what i'm talking about though is again i'm looking at steps i'm looking at step ladders if you have uh an owner uh excuse me if you have a nfl head coach that head coach now i'm looking at what they're getting paid. Now, all of a sudden, even if Houston Texans, David Culley was hired, it was a BS hire, but guess what? They signed David Culley to a five-year deal, and when he got fired after one year, they had to pay him $22 million. David Culley had never made that kind of money as assistant head coach. When Lovie Smith became the head coach of the Houston Texans and got fired after one year, guess

what? Had to pay him $20 million to walk away as well. What I'm talking about here, Kelly, is that when we are ascending to these levels, we are no longer in the three to four, 500,000, 800,000, a million category. Now we're talking about multiple millions. Now we're talking about African-Americans who are ascending to those positions. That money at that level has an impact on the the lineage of those families. And that's why I'm saying, hey, this is a value. It is a value.

And it does have a potential impact on Black families, provided that that money goes to Black families, outside of, of course, the head coaches, right? Because at the end of the day, the coaches can decide to have an all-white team to combat the whole, oh, all-black everything narrative that, you know, can come across. Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. Ain't Kelly. Ain't no NFL team can win as an all-white team.

That ain't going to happen. I agree with you. I agree with you in that regard. I'm just saying you know anything is possible anything is possible no it's not nothing no it's not kelly kelly kelly this ain't the 1950s ain't no way in the world any nfl team can win in 2024 with all white team that ain't gonna happen that's just not gonna happen i'm just talking about from a hiring perspective, because we still have majority-white staff in a lot of these teams. That's my point.

Yes. Staff, staff. Yes. Staffs and players are two different things. That's who I'm talking about. I'm not talking about an all-white team i'm talking about the coaches who are able to hire coordinators and the like for the team they can still hire an all-white staff for this team sorry if i got the words mixed up and and combat the you know all black everything narrative as far as who's in that suite that That's what I'm saying. Because just because you have the money doesn't mean, we have seen this in other industries where Black people do not necessarily give it to other Black people so they don't become this caricature of,

oh, I'm all-Black everything. I'm just aware of that narrative existing. I'm not saying it's going to happen. But I am very proud of the fact that we have more black coaches in the NFL that reflect the teams that are playing. And go Ravens. You know what? I'm looking at this. I'm looking.

Go hook girl gone by. I'm looking at this comment here on the YouTube channel. Matt, Akeem Smith says, it's about ownership, not just about money. Okay, Akeem, I really need you and other people to really right now pay attention what the hell I'm going to say. Okay?

You can't own shit without money. So to say it's about ownership and it's not about money, making the money puts you in a position to buy stuff.

Okay? So the reality is if you have a Raheem Morris and Antonio Pierce, a Mike Tomlin, the Miko Ryans, Mike McDaniels, if you have all the different now of a sudden, they now, again, we're talking, let's just say $7 million is the head coach. Sign a five-year deal. That's $35 million. That now means that for that family, that family, kids looking to buy homes, paying for college, setting up trust funds, things along those lines. So now all of a sudden, also that black head coach,

now you start looking at black offensive coordinators, black defensive coordinators. You start looking at opportunities created. Now you look at those individuals, what they are able to financially support, scholarships, churches, organizations. Now all of a sudden, that's how many people understand what I'm talking about. I get ownership, but I need everybody to understand there are only 32 NFL teams. That's it.

You throw in 30 some odd NBA teams and major league baseball. So the three largest leagues, we're talking about less than 100 owners. But you can't ascend to ownership without capital. And so that's what I need us to understand. So when we talk about, again, one of the reasons why people like, look, when Mel Tucker screwed up in Michigan, he had a guaranteed contract. He get fired. He lost 80 million dollars. We don't get them deals all the time. And so I need our people to understand when I'm talking about these crucial positions, you literally are creating economic opportunities.

As a matter of fact, I had a brother, Matt, NFL player, former retired, call me because this was last year and he was going to the Super Bowl and he was of the position that we're making too much about these head coaches. He goes, if they don't want us, man, to hell with them. But when I explained to him the economic piece, he went, damn, bro, I never thought about it. I'm like, I know you didn't because you're not thinking beyond just that particular position.

I think you're both right, but I think you're both focused on the wrong thing. Because you're not wrong, Roland. Yeah, it makes a grand impact on a very micro level. But the real conversation we should be having is not about individual coaches' earnings or about ownership. We should be having the conversation about leverage. In 2023, the NFL, 57.5 percent of their players were black. So what I think is important about this conversation as it relates to the head coaches is that it's pretty clear that there is a concerted effort not to hire the people who actually put the butts in the seats to manage the players who put the butts in the seats, which is why,

as an analog, I think the NIL deals, at least to a great extent, democratize sports. Because what we're talking about is, frankly, a lot of your major athletes, if not more than any other industry, are black people, right, are black people who are excelling at the highest level of athletics. And the idea that the NFL Players Association, you know, is comprised of 60 percent black men, but there is not in any kind of, you know, corollary to the C-suites is hugely problematic because it doesn't make sense from a logical standpoint. If you consider the people who would theoretically be most qualified to manage a team are people who played football at a high level in skilled positions, right? You got millions of

those, or not millions, but you have many of them who are retiring. And the fact that more of them en masse are not making their way into the C-suite goes to the fact that a very small percentage of people, to your point, who have the money to buy at the NFL's levels are the ones who are determining who should be the head coach. But to me, it's absurd, because the players, by and large, look more like us than they do Robert Kraft. And I only pick him out as an example, but the point is, that's the real problem. It's a leverage problem. And the question should be, how is it that we go and watch these college and professional athletes who are primarily black, you know, at least in this proportion, run up and down the football field, but we're still accepting and happy for a pittance when we get a few of them to manage the team? It's absurd. It doesn't make any sense that the people managing the teams are not, by and large, people who look like us. And that's just the reality of it.

It's a leverage issue. So let me. I don't know. Go ahead. So let me explain the leverage. So let me explain the leverage issue or the leverage problem. The average career of an NFL player is three and a half years. Right.

Three and a half years. Right. It's three and a half years. The NFL is the only professional league that does not have guaranteed contracts. Mm-hmm. The NFL is the most successful, profitable sports league. How they have structured this. So let's just say the players go, we're going to go on strike. What the teams have done is they have structured the TV contracts

where the owners get paid regardless of what happens at the beginning of the season. So the problem is a lot of people keep talking about how players should do. The problem literally is that the owners, they got it on lock. It would have to take a significant amount of unity among the NFL players. Do what you're talking about. And I absolutely agree. But now let's go to the next problem. When you're dealing with

X number of players, 65% black, not coming from wealth, now all of a sudden when you do strike, you got players who they can't handle a strike because the way they even structure their salaries, they get paid over an 18, 16, 18 week period. They're not getting a monthly check January through December. Many of these cats are over leveraged. When they strike, they ain't got the money. So what do they

do? They go, they go out, take out these high interest loans, predatory loans as well. So when you mentioned the NIL, this is why the NIL in college, I do believe Matt has the potential to change the game because now you may get black athletes who traditionally historically have been poor. They're now coming out of college and they've made one two three five eight ten million dollars and so now you have a differing mindset of this generation of college players and the ones in the past 20 30 40 years who man listen i gotta make this paper as fast as I can, try to last longer, because here's the other deal. You can't qualify for your NFL

pension until your fifth year. So the owners, they knew what they were doing when they were setting this system up. And so I totally understand your point, but that's one of the reasons why they have not had the ability

to use that leverage because the owners have been able to control, the owners have had the financial leverage. And that has been the biggest piece right there with what you described. Well, you know, you brought up something I didn't consider, and I'll readily concede that the guaranteed contracts in the short period of time that they're playing. But I think that's essentially what I was getting to. So I appreciate you connecting those dots for me. But I think the whole idea is what we're looking at is the democratization of power in sports. So with the NIL deals, we no longer have the subfuge that somebody is getting a free education, right? Because we know the reality is you're playing football at a Big 12 school or Big 10 school or wherever. You know, you're an athlete before you're a student in a lot of situations, if not most of them.

So the idea that they're getting compensated while the University of Texas or A&M or whomever is making $100 million a year and the students are getting a share, I think that democratizes things. Now, I think you really—you bring up a great point about the economics of it, because if people can be starved out, then it's harder to allow them the time to really galvanize the way they need to. But I think just generally speaking, it's an absurd idea that the people who actually produce the entertainment that puts the butts in the seats are not leveraged to the extent that they have a much greater fulcrum when it comes to negotiating with owners and with, you know, determining their own destinies. And particularly as it goes to managing teams, it just doesn't make sense that you would have 60 percent of the players be black and so few in management after long careers and careers, you know, in important, all of those positions are important, but particularly in skilled positions, you know, it makes sense that those people would transition to being your offensive coordinators and your head coaches.

And the fact that we don't see a greater proportion to me belies a much larger issue. Well, and that much larger issue in the NFL is nepotismism because when you look at who gets hired friends get hired sons get hired uh that's the whole deal uh jamelle hill has a great video go to her youtube channel y'all she talks about uh was she was she criticized dan campbell getting hired how on some of these nfl teams you have all these family connections uh And so that's also the deal there. And so guess what? They hire their friends. They hire their buddies. All of these white coaches happen on the college level as well. And so I just want our people to understand that when we start talking about expanding opportunities,

we're also expanding wealth creation opportunities in areas where we've largely been left out. You now have a situation where you can be a black, be an African-American, and you never even played the sport. But if you have the opportunities to then go on the coaching side and the management side, you're able to make the kind of money that players made as well. And so that's just something to actually think about. Folks, that's it. I appreciate the discussion today.

Let's see here. Okay, before I go, let's see. Let me poll who you got this weekend in the matchups. Michael, you first. Can't hear you. Michael, you're on mute. Even though I haven't watched. Michael, you're talking. You're on mute. Yeah, can you hear you. Michael, you on mute? Even though I haven't watched. Michael, you talking?

You on mute? Yeah, can you hear me? You should be able to hear me. Can you hear me? Yeah, now we got you. Even though I haven't watched the NFL game since Colin Kaepernick left the league, I have to go with the Detroit Lions. If they win this game, this will be their first playoff game.

They won on the road in 37 years, if I remember correctly. Shocker. What did you say? What? Shocker. All right, so you got Detroit over San Francisco. How about the other game? Who you got, KC, Baltimore?

Oh, I don't know. Damn it, it's only two. Probably KC because they have Patrick Mahomes. Probably KC. I really don't care about the other game because they have patrick mahone probably kc i really don't care about the other gang damn they did hard it's 14 just pick two but probably kc i know it's 14 matt who you got mc championship ravens and matt who you got ravens ravens and i gotta say the lions because i hate the 49ers with every fiber of my being. All right, Kelly. I mean, of course, the Baltimore Ravens are going to win the championship.

You ain't worn no Ravens. You know what? Hold up. Is your hat and jersey real new. Is your hat and jersey real new? Is your hat and jersey real? I bet it got that new smell. Because you ain't worn no Raven stuff since this show started. I ain't never seen you wearing no Ravens gear. No, no, no, no, no, no.

You ain't mentioned no Raven. You ain't mentioned no Ravens. You ain't. You ain't. A lot of stuff. What we're not going to do today, Mr. Roland Martin, is get on me for my staunch support of the Baltimore Ravens since 1996. All your gear got that new. All your gear got that new gear smell.

Ain't nothing new about this jersey. Ain't nothing new about this jersey. Ain't nothing new about this hat. This hair is real. That jersey, that jersey ain't never been washed. Come on, you know. First of all, this is Ann Reed. This is Ann Reed. How is it new?

How is it new? How is it new? They still sell Ed Reed jersey. They still sell Ed Reed jersey. Kelly, you ain't fooling nobody. Kelly, you ain't fooling nobody. No, and I got my Rice jersey in the back. Don't play with me. Don't play with me.

No. But to answer your question, Ravens Lions. Y'all know Doggone Will. Ravens Lions. y'all know y'all know doggone well uh raven raven y'all know kelly got that it's gonna win it's gonna be the black super bowl ever because usher is gonna be the uh halftime uh person and it's gonna be a great day it's gonna be a great day in february oh lord okay all right uh it will be great to see Lamar Jackson in the Super Bowl, but I cannot bet against Patrick Mahomes because, look, they won a Super Bowl last year.

I got Kansas City over Baltimore. And I know that, Matt, you hate the 49ers, but I think the Cinderella story for the Detroit Lions comes to an end. I think San Francisco beats them. So it will be the San Francisco-Kansas City Super Bowl. So we'll see what happens this weekend, and so we'll check it out. All right, Kelly, go on with that New Jersey smell. All right, Kelly, Matt, as well as Michael, I appreciate y'all being on today's show.

Thank you so very much. Hey, folks. Tomorrow I'm going to be speaking here in Toledo at a conference here. Let me pull it up for you. And also I'm going to be moderating a Q&A with Black Thought. And so tomorrow I'm going to be here at the University of Toledo for the 40th Annual Toledo Excel Conference for Aspiring Minority Youth. And so a bunch of high school and middle school students will look forward. They've got about 1,400 folks who are registered. They've got an overflow room. So I've got remarks and then moderating the Q&A with Black Thought. They're going to be recording it.

And so I'm going to be able to get that video so we can live stream it as well. And so for y'all to check it out. All right, y'all, that's it. I got to go. I got to get something to eat. I'm hungry. I will see y'all on Monday. Monday I'll be broadcasting from Florida because I leave here and go to Florida.

Reggie Jackson has his golf tournament in Florida at the Floridian. And so I'm going to be interviewing him on Sunday. So we'll have that for Monday's show. So I look forward to that as well. So folks, that's it. Y'all be well. Have a fantastic weekend. Take care. Holla! Black Star 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? This is an iHeart Podcast.