#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Voter suppression in Texas; Crown Act in Texas; NextDoor co-founder joins us; Staples singer dies

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

5.12.21 ##RolandMartinUnfiltered: Voter suppression in Texas; Crown Act in Texas; NextDoor co-founder joins us; Staples singer dies; Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner becomes the new President of the African American Mayors Association; Texas bill punishes cities that defund policeSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered 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. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper.

The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. so that's wednesday may 12 2021 roland Roland Martin Unfiltered broadcasted live from Jack Yates High School here in Houston, Texas. Well, earlier today, I awarded two students $1,000 scholarships.

We'll show you some of that also. We'll talk to Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis as well as State Senator Boris Miles about Republican efforts to enact voter suppression here in this state. They are specifically targeting folks here in this state. They are specifically targeting folks here in Harris County. They do not like how folks, black folks, have been turning out to the polls, and they are trying to actually rig the election. So we'll talk to them about that. Also, we'll talk to a state rep and a TV anchor out of Dallas, Tashara Parker, about the Crown Act, and that bill went to the floor of the Texas House that will outlaw hair discrimination.

We'll talk with both of them about that as well. Plus, Next Door is a thriving social community. We'll talk to one of the leaders about Next Door and exactly how that could be, how it could impact you in your life. You can actually get to know who your neighbors are. Folks, we've got a jam-packed show, lots to show, lots to talk about on Old Roller Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Houston, Texas.

It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. And when it breaks, he's got the spook, the fact, the find 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 on go-go-royal It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rollin' Martin Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Martin Martin!

All right, folks, we are broadcasting live from Jack Yates High School here in Houston's 3rd Ward. This is my alma mater where a little bit earlier today I awarded the first Roland Martin scholarships to two of the students here and so we're glad to be here and also of course we'll be talking to a number of top elected officials here in this area. Also folks this is take to go to the drone shot. We're also the campus of I graduated from here so that George Floyd what

you're seeing right now is the George Floyd mural that was painted here right in front of the high school and this of course was in honor of George Floyd who was killed of course in Minneapolis just a year ago on May 25th George Floyd played football here at Jack Yates and so this is one of the ways they honored him here this is literally painted on the street and you see there that was his football jersey that George Floyd actually wore when he played football here at Jack Yates High School and so we wanted to of course be able to broadcast this show and give you a sense of that as well, because so much, of course, has happened in this country in the wake of his death. One of the things that

we saw, of course, in the election in 2020, we saw significant turnout as folks went to the polls to elect President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris to their offices. In addition, Democrats took control of the United States Senate. John Ossoff, Raphael Warnock winning those Senate seats there in Georgia. That is what has ticked off Republicans today. Republicans threw out Liz Cheney, the number three in the leadership in the House, because of her criticism of Donald Trump. That's how they do it uh but what's been happening in the state level we have seen massive voter suppression

in the state uh and especially here in texas uh republicans here okay angry with turnout here in harris county where houston is located d County as well, changing the laws to rig the elections. That's what they have been doing. They have been the evil folks have been busy in the state capital of Austin, Texas. And let's go live to Austin right now, where Houston State Senator Boris Miles is right now. Senator Miles, my alpha brother, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. It's good to see you, Brother Martin. It's really good to see you back on the yard, my brother. Indeed. Indeed. Always glad to be back at J.Y. and the Trey. Let's talk about, again,

what y'all have been fighting in Austin. It has been a whole lot of evil taking place as Republicans, again, claimed safe elections when it happened, but now they're passing all of these laws. Why? Well, I can tell you why I voted for the margin, because we increased our voting. We had 1.6 million people turn out on our last voting site. We had a very, a team led by a young brother by the name of Chris Hollins who was our county clerk for the county of Harris and he and his team did a very good job of thinking outside the box with new things that we could get to turn our people out like 24-hour voting, drive-through voting. These things increased our numbers. So with the increase

of numbers for the Harris County area, it really got the attention of the Republican Party. You've got to understand, Harris County probably has one of the top, within the top five block of African-American Democratic voters in the country. So it put fear in their hearts. It put fear in their hearts to the fact that they tried to investigate and claim that some of our elected leaders,

our great elected leaders in the Harris County area, such as I think he's going to be on with us, Rodney Ellis, Commissioner Rodney Ellis, our great Sheila Jackson Lee and myself, they hired a private investigator, Brother Martin, at the tune of $250,000 to find evidence that we had committed voter fraud. After that $250 he spent on nothing, nothing was produced out of it. Brother Martin, there is no organized voter fraud going on here in Harris County. There is no organized voter fraud going on in the state of Texas. What's happening is we're waking people up. We're doing things that's innovative

and getting people to the polls. And just because the state codes, election codes, doesn't speak to a manner such as drive-through voting does not mean it's illegal. They're trying to make it illegal in this SB7.

That's what's going on now. So we're here doing a stellar job, continue to shake people up, to get them out to vote, to make sure they exercise their right to vote, to keep our democracy strong. And we've gotten their attention, brother. It's just that simple. Senator Miles, I've had folks hit me up on social media and they've said, hey, Democrats aren't aren't fighting hard enough. There's a stat that I came across last night, though, that people need to understand of the ninety nine legislative bodies in the United States, Republicans control 61 of them. And so for the people out there who complain about voting,

the people out there who say it's not important why y'all doing this again, it's hard to sit here and stop Republican led voter suppression when they control 61 out of 99. That means that two-thirds of all legislative chambers in the United States are controlled by Republicans. There are 31 Republican governors. They control 30 both chambers. And so that's the difficulty here in Texas. Democrats were five seats away in 2020 from taking control of the House. They were not able to do so. And so when you're trying to deal with gerrymandering and voter suppression, it's a little hard to do it when you don't have control of at least one of the bodies. That's correct. And, you know, my Republican colleagues get very offended when I refer to this as Jim Crow legislation.

That's what it is. It's intimidation. It's suppression. You know, too much power can be corrupted. And like you said, they have the control now, but they're trying to hold on to it because they now see in the wake of all the social injustice that we're dealing with. They now see that they're doing what I said on the Senate floor in my debate. They kicked the bell. And I'm hoping and praying, Roland, and going to be working toward it, Brother Martin, that we not only turn out more young voters, not only increase our numbers from 1.6 to 2.6, okay,

because now is a time that we, as people of color, African-American, Latinx, Asian. Now is the time that we have to stand up because they are trying to deteriorate our democracy for what we've made so many advances in. So it's time to stand up. We're going to be working very. We're going to actually be working harder here in Harris County than we did in the last election cycle. I'm going to see to it. You'll be proud to be all hometown. We obviously we talked about the voter suppression bill, the census gerrymandering. Again, Republicans in Texas refused to really put money into the census. I was reading one story. Democrats should be making gains in Texas because of the increase in the Hispanic population. Republicans are going to use that to gerrymander

to give them more seats. That's the thing that I keep trying to also explain to people that they don't seem to understand that lack of voting, not filling out the census, goes hand in hand with gerrymandering. Right. And as you know, we redistrict every 10 years here in Texas, and we're in the middle of a redistricting right now. Our census numbers are late, as you alluded to. We will probably have to come back for a special session in September, October, November sometime once we've received our numbers. And you've got gotta understand something else because they have the leadership now in this in this building they will be drawing the lines we'll have very little input onto what our our district lines look like our congressional lines look like um and i can tell you like you said we're supposed

to get three new congressional seats it's's predicted. Now they're saying two. And I can tell you that they are going to try to use that against us and hold that over our head. And we will have very little say, Brother Martin, in what our districts look like. But quite frankly, I can't see how they can gerrymander any more of some of our minority districts. I mean, my district goes from all the way north to south of the Beltway 8, as you know, all the way down to Rosharon, Texas. So where are they going to take me to? Galveston? Well, this is what happens again when you have power. And this is why I am consistently trying to explain to folks who watch this show, we cannot ignore voting on the federal and the state level. For the people who are watching who then say, man, I don't see any policies being enacted.

This is what happens when you don't have power. And so when they are in power, listen, 85 percent of the people who voted for Donald Trump were white. The Republican Party is a white party. 61% of the people who voted for Joe Biden are white. That means that 39% of Joe Biden's vote totals came from people of color, minority voters. That's what we need folks to understand with what's going on here. And so for the people who yell and scream voting is a waste of time, but then they turn around and complain about lack of policy. Well, guess what? You now see what happens when you don't vote.

So you can't act like voting has no direct correlation with policy. Brother Martin, you're exactly right. Elections have consequences. Not voting have consequences. And what we're suffering through right now, the lack of leadership and the lack of I've been serving for 15 years and 15 years, Brother Martin, I've never served in the majority. I can't wait till that day comes. But our people have to realize elections have consequences. And all those brothers that are telling you I'm not seeing no serious policy get moved, I don't see anything happening for our communities and our people,

well, you know what? As long as we're having to push the ball uphill and as long as we're in the minority and double minorities, we're going to continue to have what I call Jim Crow legislation popping up, and they're going to continue to push

it as far as they can. I mean, right here in Texas, I think you want to talk about that too. We're now going to have something called free carry, what they call unconstitutional carry. I don't call it unconstitutional carry, Brother Martin, because it has nothing to do with the Constitution. It has to do with this being the state of Texas. And when I say the state of Texas, they're opening up the doors and claiming this is the wild, wild west. And anybody can carry a concealed weapon. And it doesn't have to be concealed. Anybody can carry a firearm, Brother Martin.

They can carry it into police stations. They can carry them into the churches now. They can carry them into universities. You can be a felon. You can be a criminal. And you're able to carry and you'll be able to carry a firearm now I want you, as I explained in my debate

to my colleague, my white colleague imagine what that's going to do to communities like what you and I grew up in brothers freely walking around, brothers and sisters freely walking around with firearms on the side on the outside of their shirts imagine how much probable cause

that's going to give police officers to now start, you know, stopping people and pulling them over. And again, this is again, while we while we emphasize this again, this is why we emphasize that. Look, you can sit here and yell, scream, tweet, and whine all day on social media about voting and how it means nothing. But then if you don't, that's why I simply say shut the hell up. Texas State Senator Boris Miles, I certainly appreciate it, sir. Thank you so very much. Keep up the fight in Austin.

Will do, brother. Good to see you. Likewise. Thanks a lot. Let me go to my panel. A. Scott Bolden, former chair of the National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Monique Presley, lawyer, crisis manager. Also joining us is Pastor Lee May, Transforming Faith Church, former CEO of DeKalb County, Georgia. Glad to have all of you here. Scott, the point, that point. Well, first of all, let me do this here.

I'm in Texas. So, Monique, I go and start with you first because you got down the street. Monique's not here. Okay. Okay. Well, first of all, Scott, get over it. But, Scott, you lucked up. She's not here. So she'll be here a little bit later. So you lucked up.

So shut up. So, again, this is the thing that I keep. Again, there are people who sit here all day and they talk on social media and they whine, they complain. They sit here and say, I mean, I got and they whine, they complain, they sit here and say, I mean, I got these fools. Oh man, you sitting here, you know, shilling for the democratic party, you know, about voting for Biden. And I'm sitting there going, okay, take your pick. You got one party that wants to make it difficult to vote, wants to get rid of curbside vote, not wants to.

They have outlawed curbside voting. They're outlawing drive-through voting. They're now putting ballot drop boxes inside of voting locations. They're cutting the hours of early voting locations. They're changing all the rules. Democrats support expanding voter access, expanding same-day voter registration. But then you've got these fools saying, support expanding voter access, expanding same-day voter registration. But then you got these fools saying, oh, I can't believe you were sitting there telling folk to vote for Joe Biden.

It was two choices, Trump, Biden. Which one of your punk asses won it? Well, you certainly make a great point. I think the most telling statistic, Roland, is the fact that the Republicans control the majority of the state houses and the majority of the state senate and state rep houses across the country. You cannot forget about voting at that local level because you see now where we're gerrymandering, where the censuses come out, and you're going to see them stretch out. It's the most anti-democratic thing after you lose an election to then want to have fewer people vote and suppress more voters as opposed to wanting to expand your voting base to get more votes than the Democrat.

But the Republicans know their ideas, their legislation, and their views of the world just aren't that popular. And so they're left in this with this power vacuum. And the power vacuum says voter suppression, gerrymandering, and let's lock out and make it difficult for as many people of color or Democratic voters, wherever they may be in whatever state, let's shut them down. Because remember, the big lie is the narrative of the big lie is being driven not by GOP voters, but was driven by Donald Trump and other congressional leaders and state leaders. And so then the reaction was our GOP voters listened to that leadership and then said, we lack confidence in the result. You didn't lose confidence in the results. You lost confidence that you could win,

and you're upset about not being able to win. And expanding the voter base only hurts your chances to win in the future. Leah, I'll go to you. I mean, this is the thing that and again, I keep trying to connect. Voting who wins with public policy. What you are seeing is what happens when Republicans win state rep state Senate seats. And for the people who seem not to understand this, the state rep and the state senators, they control the lines that are drawn in the state. So then they are able, when we say gerrymandering, they are able to now draw lines that make it easier for them to win, for Democrats to lose,

to disenfranchise voters who did not vote for Republicans. And so even if you have a massive Democratic turnout, and we've seen this in Wisconsin and other states, they still maintain power because they have been able to gerrymander the districts. And the Supreme Court, the conservative Supreme Court said we don't get involved in political disputes. That's up to the state Supreme Court. Well, guess what? Those are gerrymandered. So Republicans control the state Supreme Courts.

So you're never going to be able to get out of this box. And so black power, Latino power is diluted because of gerrymandering. And for the folks who say don't vote, you are making this possible. Well, my good alpha brother, I'm going to say amen and let's go home. Oh, my goodness gracious. More alpha. You have said it all, brother. It's ridiculous, man. It is the quintessential example of moving the goalposts.

You don't like your election results, the fact that you lost, and so you're going to change the rules, man. That's exactly what happened in Georgia. It's happening in Texas right now. It happened in Florida. And they won the election in Florida, the presidential election and so many other seats, but they see the writing on the wall and they keep changing the rules to benefit them. And what are they doing? They're,

they're prolonging their power and influence by changing these rules. And let me also connect something to what you just said. When they tore up the Voting Rights Act some years ago, when they tore that up and they removed the formula of determining which state has to have preclearance before you can change rules. mander those districts. They put all the black folk in competing districts. And then they said, well, we wanted to make sure that our current black elected officials are safe in their seats. They put them all together, right? So that we couldn't be competitive in other districts all throughout the state. And so they use the Voting Rights Act, they reference the Voting Rights Act to actually prove their point of why they put black folk in the same districts, quote unquote, to call it safe for them, man. It's just ridiculous. In Georgia, you know, our current governor, a man who signed that suppressive voter legislation,

man, a picture paints a thousand words, right? In that private room, in his room, a room full of white men. It's nothing wrong with white men. It's a problem with all white men in the same room, right? And standing up underneath a painting that pictures a plantation, man, if that didn't tell you all that you needed to know about what was going on all along the while, a black woman is knocking on the door, trying to get in right outside the governor's office, a state legislature that says, hey, I want to get in, I want to talk, and they arrest her. Man, if we're

not back in the Jim Crow era, man, I don't know what else is, man. And unfortunately, you got games that are being played, man, with our voting rights. We support greater voter access, right? And anything that even looks like it is suppressing or reducing or limiting voter access to the ballot, man, we got to reject it, man. But they know what they're doing. It's a reason why the governor in Georgia signed that piece of legislation the next, the same day it was passed. It's a reason. Man, that's unheard of. Man, the governor is still signing legislation.

And our legislature has been out of session now for weeks and weeks now. The governor never signs legislation like that, let alone when it's so controversial like this, man. that is expanding greater voter access and restricting these voter suppressive actions that we've been seeing in Georgia and Florida and Texas and other places all across the country. Let's talk about Arizona, folks, where the governor there signed a new voting bill over the objections of many Democrats that's going to purge more than 100,000 Latinos for the voting rolls. Listen to this. This bill is simple. It's all about election integrity. If an individual is signed up to automatically be mailed an early ballot and then stops voting entirely for a full four years, their county recorder will ask them if they still want to automatically be mailed a ballot.

If they respond, they'll continue receiving one. If they don't respond, here's what happens. They will remain a registered voter. They can still request an early ballot. And they can also show up at the polls in person on election day. Compare this to California. They actually remove voters without any notice at all or opportunity to remain on the list. Our law is better and provides more accessible ballot access than California and many other places that opponents of this bill tend to point to as pillars of democracy,

like New York and Washington, D.C. This change will ensure that active voters continue to receive a ballot and free up resources for county recorders to use on priorities like election security and voter education. Let's be clear. Despite all the deceptive and heated rhetoric being used by some partisan activists to lobby against this reform, not a single Arizona voter will lose their right to vote as a result of this new law. Well here's the deal Scott, why the hell have a new law? See, this is all is election integrity.

It's all a lie. All we are seeing is a massive lie because Donald Trump has Republicans supporting the big lie. Lies, lies and all lies. I mean, just what it is. We can't hear you. We can't hear you. No, here's the deal. For some reason.

Can you hear me? I wish you know how to use your computers. Now we can hear you. Okay. Okay. So, so look what you, you just ran a clip on Arizona, right? So Arizona, if all of that's true, then why do you need the bill, right? So if you can still vote, if you can still get a ballot, then why are you passing legislation to purge hundreds of thousands of people from the rolls

if there's going to be a follow-up question, and if you say yes, then you can continue to vote? It's a solution in search of a problem. But they know that if they purge, that people aren't going to re-sign up, that perhaps they may not get that Q&A from the Secretary of State, it creates all kinds of potential problems. And then here's the kicker in Arizona. If those people aren't voting and they're on the absentee ballot rolls, then what difference does it make if they're not voting anyway?

And if you call them and ask them, they can still vote and they'll still be able to get an absentee ballot. It borders on the nonsensical. So that's why Arizona is so onerous, because they're creating these onerous procedures for voters, knowing that Hispanic voters, black voters, people of color voters are going to get short shrift on it. Exactly, man. And the reality. Lee, no, go ahead. Yeah, man, I was going to say, man, you're absolutely right, man.

It's like they're looking for a solution to a place where there's not a problem. Look, when you hear them talk about election integrity, election security, man, just say lie right after that, right? Because here's the reality. When any company really focuses in on security and integrity of their systems, guess what? You don't hear anything about it. Colonial Pipeline. I'm down in Georgia, man.

We got lines waiting on gas stations right now trying to get some gas right because of this ransomware hack that is going on with Colonial Pipeline I guarantee you they're not projecting to the world the next measure of

security that they're going to put in place to prevent this from happening man any level of security that they're going to put in place to prevent this from happening, man. Any level of security or integrity with that system, man, has nothing to do with what they're doing. But I'll tell you what they are doing. They are taking the number of people that voted in 2020 and 2021 during the special election in Georgia, and they're saying, okay, we're going to make sure it's going to be less people that are available to vote now. We're going to make it more difficult now for them to vote. Now we're going to put special things in place, special obstacles in place so that it'll make it more difficult for them to vote. What does that sound like? It sounds like Jim Crow era laws. It

sounds like a literacy test. It sounds like a poll tax. It sounds like a voting test. Measures that were put in place that didn't say black folk. It didn't say Negroes or anything else. It said it had their different things that were in place that were intended to reduce the number of black people that were available to vote, man. That's why it's so similar to what's going on in Jim Crow, because they're intentionally putting in place measures that are hindering people's ability to vote, man. It's as simple as that. But, Roland, here's one last quick one.

361 bills, voter suppression bills, in and around the country, right? In not one of those jurisdictions is there empirical data to support that we have a voter election security issue. The data doesn't exist. And so it's all political rhetoric on the GOP side. Think about it. 361 bills, no empirical data to support that there's voter security issues. And that's why it's called the big lie. Folks, we're going to come

back to this topic in just a moment. Let's now go back to Austin, where the Texas House will soon be considering a bill that could outlaw discrimination when it comes to hair. A House bill, three, first of all, look at the number here, it's called House Bill 392, the Crown Act. We've seen other states pass this. California was the

first that outlawed discrimination based upon someone's hair. There have been a number of folks who have been fighting this to impact African Americans more so than anyone else. Joining us right now from Austin, Texas. It's Representative Reda Bowers and also my fellow Texas A&M Aggie, Tashara Parker, who is an anchor at WFAA Dallas Channel 8. She has been quite vocal about this and talking about natural hair and her buns and her bun movement. And so we'll get to that in a second. Representative Bowers, I want to start with you.

I mean, this is an issue that black women face. I remember looking at, I remember I was engaged in a debate with a Republican. They were trying to tell me there's no discrimination in America. Then I went to the EEOC website and came across a story of a black woman who was a psychologist. She applied for a job at the Veterans Affairs there in Virginia. Impeccable credentials. Great interview.

When she walks out, a white guy on the panel says, I just don't like her hair. I do not like her cornrows. She didn't get the job. She sued. She won. Taxpayers had to pay nearly $100,000. Had nothing to do with her credentials, nothing to do with her knowledge. He didn't like her hair. That is what a lot of black

folks are facing. We've had cases here in Texas where young men have been kicked out of school, forced to cut their hair because it didn't abide by someone's idea of what's acceptable. That's right. Thank you, Roland. And, you know, it's great to have a moment to chat with you about it, but that you're exactly right. You know, we, we have plenty of women, men and children who are facing this type of hair discrimination. Some of those people were on were here in Austin with us talking about their experiences. You talked about Tashara's bun ministry and all that she's done.

We had young Maddox Cozart. He was here at the press conference. His mom, they're still continuing to take him out to check his hair on a daily basis. He was in in-school suspension. We had Dakari Davis who spoke at the press conference. He's a Dallas police officer. I do believe Tashara did an interview with him recently.

And he cut his hair he had his hair wore his hair in corn rows and he cut his hair to keep his job keep his family fed to keep a roof over their head heads and and it is um it is racism that we as a people are still facing. And as you said, just because they didn't like someone's hair. The day that we got a hearing and were able to lay out House Bill 392, to me, was movement for this bill that I really didn't think we would see. So I was elated at the idea that we had a chance to begin this conversation here in Texas and begin is really what I want to say because I really thought the press conference was all that we would be able to do. But having that conversation, starting the conversation was wonderful. I knew that we were also going to be having to do a lot of education and awareness.

But what I started to say was after the layout, I had a longtime Texas House male member come up to me in a very apologetic way and say that, you know, he had no idea. More than one of them said they didn't have any idea this was still going on. But in turn, he apologized and said, hey, Retta, I'm guilty of this type of discrimination. So it was voted out, Roland, unanimously, 12 ayes to zero nays. And I believe my deskmate even said we were all shocked that we got it out 12-0. It went through calendars last week. And y'all know this is way late in the game. It got set last, I guess, what, Tashara, I text you early in the week that it was by 930 the calendars committee met earlier this week.

And it got set for Wednesday. So today, you know. Go ahead, Roller. I want to pull Tashara in. You mentioned Tashara. I want to pull her in. Tashara, look, this has been a battle a lot of black women on television have had to deal with for a very long time. And it's only recent, very recent. And I'm talking about the last two or three years where you've seen more black women being allowed to wear natural hair on television

because what we're dealing with, and this is what people have to understand, these are examples of the stuff that black people have to deal with just to be able to coexist in America. We have had to conform to white standards when it comes to hair, clothing, how we talk, how we act. And this, I mean, you would think, why do you need to have a bill to say, don't screw me because of my hair, but that's the reality we're living in. Yeah, it's sad in 2021 that we need any type of legislation to make us be allowed. And it's sad that we even have to say allowed, right,

to coexist in these exact same spaces. It's really because of that Eurocentric standard of beauty that has been perpetuated, not just in our industry, but in many industries, but certainly for women that have to be on television and broadcast journalism all the time. And so you're right, as of the last few years, yes, we've had women well before the last few years wearing their natural hair on TV. But I think the movement has really gained steam. You

know, the Crown Act certainly playing a role in that, in gaining steam across the country and even across the world, because I'm actually participating in something called World Afro Day. But anyways, I do feel like, you know, in the last few years, people have become more aware of it. I think that's one of the reasons that I wanted to get involved because, you know, it wasn't until I got into this industry that I realized that me changing my hair was considered a thing. Right. You know, before then, black women, we change our hair all the time. These are styles that have been around for years. They're coming back in different forms. But these are styles that have been around for hundreds of years. And so that's why I thought it was important to get involved with it because, you know, that Eurocentric standard of beauty that you alluded to is something that's been around for far too long.

And I feel like it's time for us to step up and, you know, just be able to do our jobs without worried about being worried about, you know, how we wear our hair to work. We're going to be able to do the same type of work. And so, yeah, I agree with that. You know, I think time's up for all of that. And I think right now is the time to do it, especially with this legislation being discussed right now. Representative Bowers, so it came out of committee. When do you think it will be approved by the full House and then go to the Senate? Okay, so if we can get it heard, it's on the calendar right now. I want y'all to know we're on page 16. The Crown Act, House Bill 392 is on page 16. And as it stands right now, we are at the top of page four or possibly. Yeah. So today it won't be heard. I don't believe it's going to be heard.

And, you know, this may be because bills have to and only be heard on the floor up until midnight tomorrow. We may have, I hate to say it, but we may have pushed it as far as we're going to get it. But these are, you know, I listened to some of the things y'all were saying earlier. These are the type of games that are that are played. So, you know, in my mind, I sit on the floor or in my daily comings and goings and think sometimes, you know, did they just say, hey, give her give her her, let her bill be heard, set it for a committee hearing, get it out, we'll get it on the calendar, but that's all it's going to do.

Because we know this is way late in the game. I mean, the clock is ticking. Right. Final point here, Tashara, we are perpetually having to educate white folks. White folks in this country don't like 1619 Project, but this is the kind of stuff you heard the representative say this white colleague saying, oh, my God, I had no idea. And admitting that they actually did it themselves. And that's the whole deal. I mean, so when people have this whole notion that, no, we're all on the same page, like, no, we are constantly having to educate white folks about their racism when they even, and this happens with white liberals. This happens with folks who say, oh, no, no, no, I'm not racist. Yeah, but when you don't want to hire somebody

because of their hair, hell, we're looking at your strange-ass hair and not sitting there wondering why you got a job. Orola, let me be clear. You know, I'm still getting e-mails till this very day from folks basically saying, hey, I'm tired of y'all talking about black hair and professionalism, but we won't stop talking about it because I have a show that airs every Thursday on WFA ABC Dallas. It's called Rooted.

And folks are tired of hearing about the black hair conversations that we've been having simply to make sure that we're bringing attention to the Crown Act and to make sure people are aware of these things. So the fact that I'm still consistently receiving those types of emails on a daily basis, if you go over to our WFAA Facebook page and look at some of the comments underneath the stories that I've

been sharing. I heard Representative Bowers mention Dakari Davis, the dark police officer here in Dallas, who ended up cutting his hair because he was told the hairstyle, cornrows, braided hairstyle of left men, told that this hairstyle was unapproved and unprofessional. And so when you think about some of those comments and some of the things that are still happening right now, we know that this conversation needs to happen. And we know that it needs to continue to happen. Because if I continue to get those emails, people are still leaving those types of comments on social media and elsewhere. You know, it hasn't resonated. Even with the Crown Act, you know, I hate to say, it still may not click to some people why this is an important topic. So I would hope that people

would understand that this is important for everybody. Studies have already shown that when you're able to show up authentically as yourself, you perform better. So this isn't something that's just good for Black women, Black people, Black children. This is something that's good for your company, your business. I know a lot of folks always talk about money as the bottom line. Well, hey, bottom line is if we're able to show up as ourselves, we're going to perform better. So I hope they consider that as we continue to have these conversations. And like Representative Bowers mentioned, regardless of what happens with the crowd, we know what we want to happen. But regardless of what happens with it, I think this conversation needs to continue because people are still being impacted by this on a daily basis. All right.

Tashara Parker, Representative Bowers. We appreciate it. Hopefully it will get through the Texas House and go to the Senate and actually sign into law. Republicans, y'all can at least do one thing right this legislative session. We appreciate both of y'all. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thanks, Arlene. All right. Thanks a lot. As I said at the top, folks, we're here. I'm Rockets and live from Jack Case High School here in Houston, Texas. This is ground zero for a lot of the voter suppression battles that have been going on because of how innovative folks have been in this particular county. In fact, Republicans were so angered, were so angered by voter turnout by Democrats here,

they actually passed a law to outlaw straight ticket voting. Yeah, that's what they actually did. Joining us right now is Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis. And he's always riding his bike around. And so that's why he got his bike over here, got his little biking outfit on. I ain't going to say nothing about them black socks he got his bike over here, got a little biking outfit on. I ain't going to say nothing about them black socks he got on with them gray shoes. It's generational.

Oh, yeah, that's generational. Like, you ain't lying because I can't wear no black socks unless I got some black shoes on. That's just me. I can't. See? You see right here. I can't. I'm just glad you have socks on.

I can't. As youthful as you want to be. Hey, as youthful as I am. You just remember, this is my Major Taylor outfit. So I know you spent some time in Chicago. This is your black history moment. What is this? Long before Jack Yates was playing football and basketball, Major Taylor, who died in Chicago, was the most internationally known athlete in the world. And what did he do?

He was cycling. He was cycling? He was cycling. Internationally known. Google him. Seriously, you ought to do a show on that. But look, I'm glad you're here. You're right across from the home of George Floyd, by the way.

Not only did he go to high school, he grew up in the Cooney Homes. How'd you like coming down Cleburne Street? It was a county dollars it's like you at rice university a harbor with those trees a canopy that's why i could ride over here you notice it's so pleasant it feels like it's it feels like i'm in denver colorado instead of houston texas today welcome home see y'all see that's what happened with you the county commissioner when you say those county dollars what he's saying is he made that happen. Is that what you're saying? Well, I'm just trying to pay it back to my alma mater.

So, you know, I went to Worthington. I didn't go to Jack H., but I did go to Texas Southern. Oh, I got you. I got you. Well, you know, everybody couldn't go to the best high school in Houston. They had to go to Elderly School. It's all good. My uncle taught a long time there.

Who's your uncle? Huh? Who's your uncle? Jewel Martin. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he taught at one of the number of years. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So good genes. Huh? Good genes. Of course. That's how we do it. I talked about setting this thing up. This being ground zero. I mean, when 2018, I traveled around here when all those sisters were running for judge. And, man, Republicans, they saw what happened. They got so mad, they changed the state law to get rid of straight ticket voting. Because Republicans used to dominate straight ticket voting. But then y'all got, Democrats finally got smart in this county and said, why are we not taking advantage of the same law they've been taking advantage of?

Then it worked so well, they got rid of the law. You know that old saying, the same thing that will make you laugh will make you cry. So straight ticket voting did let Republicans take over this county. This is a big county, 4.8 million people. This is a medium-sized state. So Harris County is larger than 26 states in the country. And if Democrats can get Harris County, Tarrant County, which we did this last go-round, we have Travis County, we have that county. Tarrant County is Fort Worth. San Antonio, El Paso. San Antonio, Bexar County, San Antonio,

Travis County is Austin. Dallas County is Austin. Yeah, I mean, that's it. And the reason that they switched from straight ticket voting is it was scaring the heck out of them. You know, let me tell you, if this state just goes purple, it'll have a tremendous impact on what happens in any presidential race. And that's why they switched to straight ticket voting. So it's a little more difficult. We just have to educate our people from top to bottom. But that's the presidential race. The thing, though, that I am constantly trying to get our audience to understand is we cannot ignore state rep and state Senate races. You were one of two. There are only two black state senators in Texas. You served in Texas legislature for a number of

years as a state senator here from Houston, Royce West in Dallas. And when you look at it, it was a stat earlier that I gave. There are 99 legislative bodies in America. Republicans control 61 of those 99. Folks who say, all right, man, I ain't really voting on the oldest of all races. But that's where the laws are being made in the state capitals, not D.C. And for congressional seats, it's on the state level where the lines are drawn for congressional seats. You remember in 2003, we broke the quorum after the Republicans decided to re-redistrict.

Remember, you had to recall in California. You had to recount in Florida. And then they did the re-redistrict in Texas. Remember this, we broke the core Of course, I remember First of all, yeah, yeah with the oak y'all y'all House went to Oklahoma. Y'all escape. This is a went to New Mexico. Yeah. Yeah, and then I mean it was down We lost one our members and eventually they drew the last but look the point is the state races everything on the ballot matters

You know, so like even as county commissioner, my race was the last race on the ballot. Because you go federal, then you go state, then you go county. Judgeships matter, state rep seats matter. And that's why these voter suppression bills are really so awful around the country. And in Texas, it's more difficult to vote here than anywhere in the country. We're one of the more difficult states to register to vote. So what we did with Chris Hollins as our elections administrator, we put the money in. We use some of the federal money, by the way, because we're during a pandemic. So we took some of that money that we got from

our federal partners because of the pandemic and said, during the pandemic, we want to make it as easy to vote as possible, as easy to vote as it would be to go to the grocery store. And you had a record turnout, 24-hour voting, doing everything we could to make it easier for people to vote. And then there's a backlash to that. So the real tragedy is that with this Jim Crow 2 mentality, Republicans would prefer to change the rules

than try to win in the marketplace of ideas. At the end of the day, I remember when Jesse ran in 1984. You had a lot of people who were afraid because Reverend Jackson was pulling out people who normally didn't vote. Yep. But that's a good thing. Well, first of all, that's how Richard Shelby became a United States Senator in Alabama. He was elected as a Democrat. Of course, he later flipped to the Republican Party.

He's not a United States Senator. He was not a person. He's not retired. He's not a United States senator without Reverend Jackson winning and running in 84, 84 and 88. But now I will tell you why it's so important on the federal level for them to reenact the Voting Rights Act. Because if you got all these laws in all of these states, not just southern states, you would expect some low-down, dirty, chicken shit stuff like that in the south.

But we're seeing it in Iowa. In Iowa. In Maine. All around the country. And it's all a part of the big lie. You know, the man lost fair and square. He lost it.

And then they want to try and rig the rules, change it to try and benefit themselves. And so look, I hope we've given our county attorney, young African American brother the ability to go to court to fight these laws. I think you heard some of my former colleagues in the legislature here in Texas saying the bill on the House side is a little better than the one on the Senate. So the House bill is not quite as chicken shit as the one that came out of the Senate. They can go to a conference committee, Republicans

control it, and they may decide to put it all back in. They may not. I'm told that the lawyers told the Republicans some of this stuff is just so outrageous. Even in a dreaded, historically racist Fifth Circuit, you would probably lose it. And that's probably why they took some things out. And the Democrats had a great point of order that they brought up early on in the Texas House. So about 3 a.m. in the morning, Republicans decided to make some concessions. Still a bad bill. It's going to be a challenge. It's important that they reenact the Voting Rights Act before September. So then all this stuff has to be pre-cleared. So let me drill down

further. And again, and I'm going to keep emphasizing this point for people to understand it. When we talk about, so we talked about federal level, we talked about what's happening in Austin. But again, when you say every, you say your race was the last one, the reason you had innovation with the county election administrator here in Harris County was because you had folks who voted, folks like you in, who voted the county judge in. So you had control of the process. And so if you to go all the way down, yes, that county commissioner, that county judge greatly impacts the entire county and voting. And I keep going this over and over and over with people, and I fight with folks because they say, man, this really doesn't matter. But now we're talking about millions and billions of dollars.

Now we're talking about what you said earlier, roads and parks and trees and improvements. All of that is public policy. It is. And on the county level, this is a big county. County spends about, we control about $5 billion. A five-person governing board. Five people. Five people, $5 billion.

And Republicans ran it like a plantation, controlled it for decades. And in part because of great candidates, in part because of straight ticket voting, $5 billion and Republicans ran it like a plantation, controlled it for decades. And in part because of great candidates, in part because of straight ticket voting, in part because Beto O'Rourke raised $90 million running for governor, spent a good part of it here in Harris County. Lena Hidalgo, 27 years old, became county judge. She presides over our board. Adrian Garcia, former sheriff, former police officer, former city council member, won one of the seats on commissioners court. I was the only Democrat. So during the four years and five months I've been here, I went from being the only person of color, only Democrat, fighting what I hope was a good battle by myself with them wanting to kill me. I'd have to ride my bike with a staffer.

Now that Democrats in power, I can ride my bike over here by myself. Until I come off your show, I might get somebody to give me a ride home. But look, it's tremendous power and it matters. We could do things like after Harvey on flooding, we came up with equity guidelines on where we spend the money. So we fight that dreaded federal formula that says you spend money in the wealthier neighborhoods first. You'd never gotten to the ninth ward in Katrina using that federal formula that says you spend money in the wealthier neighborhoods first. You'd never gotten to the 9th Ward in Katrina using that federal formula. They got to it because of earmarking.

No longer have earmarks. We have equity guidelines on how we spend our money to go in and invest in infrastructure. We can take county dollars. People in the city pay taxes. Why not do the university corridor? Why not fix the road and a 10-foot sidewalk on both sides of the street in front of the CUNY homes, Jackie H., Texas Southern, going to the University of Houston? But it matters.

Every race matters. And they don't want to give up this power. This county and this city are a reflection of the demographics of America. Most diverse city in the country, one of the most diverse counties. It's not all black and white. It's black, white, brown, South Asian, Muslim, Christian, gay, straight, everything that you can think of. It's a melting pot. And that scares the hell out of people who've had power, who think everybody

ought to look the same way, act the same way, and have the same religion. Well, that's what they're fighting against. They don't want to give up the power, which is why I keep harping on this. And if people can get mad, they can get upset, they can holler Jim Crow, Joe Biden, all you want to. Y'all can talk about all the stuff you want to. But this is real simple. If we allow our power to be untapped, they will still be in control of it. And we're talking, yes, public policy.

We're talking about billions of dollars. And if they're able to gerrymander, that means you see what's happening with the Supreme Court, what happens with the federal judiciary. We can become a nation with a majority of people of color, but they're still in power. And that's the piece that people have to get. Yeah. And let me tell you, it's a big challenge. So regardless of what happens with that bill in Texas, the one in Georgia, we'll go to

court, we'll fight it out. We hope on the federal level that they will have the 50 votes. Whatever Senator Manchin wants, please give it to him. Whatever the senator from Arizona wants. At some point, though, Senator Joe Manchin is going to have to stop sniffing gorilla glue and all this constant talk. Here's my whole deal. He keeps howling bipartisanship. this is what every national anchor should say okay joe show me the 10 we'd never get them but no but but but he oh you got to gut the bill what i'm saying is but he you

can gut the bill it don't matter they are not going to support the bill. So my deal is every time Joe Manchin keeps hollering bipartisanship, Joe, show me 10. If you show me 10, I'll believe you. But you can't go get 10. Five don't matter. If you say I'm not going to vote for the filibuster, you need 60. Joe, show me the 10 and you bring the 10, then we'll talk. Well, what I hope is that it's a process. He's just going through it.

I mean, he's in a Republican state, the only statewide Democrat in that state. So maybe that helps him to stay in power, but at least through this cycle, if he wants to go through the little game to figure it out, do it. But at the end of the day, we need the Voting Rights Act.

Hey, everybody knows now the history of the filibuster. Maybe they didn't before. But this is my deal with Manchin. Show me the 10. It's real simple. Show me the 10. He'll never find 10. You can't find 10.

So damn it, stop giving me this BS about bipartisanship. Let's be clear. They are not going to support H.R. 1. They're not going to support the George Floyd Justice Act. And so if you do, you have to walk the things out. They won't support the stimulus package. They won't support the infrastructure bill. They'll spend the money. So show me the 10. And then press releases touting again. All I want to do is, Joe, show me the 10. Then I'll believe you.

Well, here's what I'm doing. The few people I know in West Virginia, whether they look like me, right as if they're Hispanic, if they're white, you know, you're right. You make the case. Now, here's what I'm thinking. I always have to remember, I was telling my county judge last night, they gerrymandered and they got somebody asked, well, Rodney, what's your precinct? What's your district like? Where is it?

You know what I tell them? Where are the Democrats? They drew the lines to put them all in this precinct. So I have to make sure when I come up with an issue that puts and put it on the table, I don't want to do, it was okay being by myself. I don't want to be here by myself again. Right.

You got me? So I know my other two Democratic colleagues have to appeal to some of their more conservative votes. Of course. So go, so Joe Manchin, if you got to go through the process, go through the process. Go ahead, a five or ten.

So show that you tried. Right. And then when you can't get them, they had a big show at the White House. I was listening to NPR on my bike on the way over. Go through the show. Show that they don't want to cooperate. And then at the end of the day, you tried to get bipartisan support. You couldn't get it.

And then just do what's right. My mind is here. If Siena and Manchin could keep this up with the filibuster, the Democrats would be in the minority after 2024. And they will be out of office. Right. And so my whole deal. They'll be pretty miserable in there by themselves.

So my deal is Democrats start acting like Republicans. Use power. Keep power. Roland, as far as I'm concerned, they ought to do the study on whether or not you ought to expand the size of the court. It's been expanded before. I mean,'m concerned, they ought to do the study on whether or not you ought to expand the size of the court that's been expanded before. I mean, this crew,

they're taking over the courts. First of all, Republicans expanded the Supreme Court in Arizona. Nobody said anything. So again, then West Virginia, they got rid of

the entire state Supreme Court, which were a majority of Democrats replacing Republicans. So they can't act like it ain't happening on the state level. It's only a number. There's nothing magic about it.

No, it's not. Let me tell you, they were skillful in the way they took over the federal courts. So where do you go to get justice? No, no, no, no, no, no. They were skillful. But there were people like me who were yelling it. But then you had other folk who said, man, that stuff don't matter.

And I'm like, now you see the reality of what happened when you put federal judges in. So focus in that. Commissioner Ells, I appreciate it. Let everybody know. What's the artwork? Hey, the gloves on. Y'all see it. My African art collection.

Y'all see his art collection. I'm looking at the camera. You can see it. He's wearing his art collection, y'all. That's right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Welcome home, man.

It's RodneyEllis.com. So y'all can go see all his art, all his stuff. So that's how he rolls. All right. Hop on that bike uh we're gonna go to commercial break y'all y'all get a shot of commissioner riding his bike off uh we come back we go talk with the co-founder of next door building community that's critically important we also talk with congresswoman sheila jackson lee broadcasting live folks here from

houston texas in front of my alma mater, Jack Case High School. We'll be back. I'll roll the Martin unfiltered in just a moment. Are you trying to say that as of January 20th, that President Trump will be president? That depends on what happens on Wednesday. President Trump won this election. Do you think the election was stolen? Absolutely. At this point, we do not know who has prevailed in the election.

This fraud was systemic, and I dare say it was effective. This is a contested election. President Trump won by a landslide. The outcome of our presidential election was seized from the hands of voters. We have to make sure that they look into what has been the theft of this presidential election. Joe Biden lost and President Trump won. Whatever happens to President Trump, he is still the elected president. I would love to see this election overturned. No one believes that this guy got 80 million votes. It doesn't feel right.

It doesn't look right. No ragtime group of liberal activists will be allowed to steal this election. The president wasn't defeated by huge numbers. In fact, he may not have been defeated at all. Over the next 10 days, we get to see the ballots that are fraudulent. And if we're wrong, we will be made fools of. Black women are fierce, brilliant, courageous, dope. Black women are making a difference, making history, and changing the world.

I think about all of the black women who have showed up to fight for justice. We are starting to finally accept all the skills and talents a woman can bring to the table. Urban One, thank you. This one is so special. Hello, everyone, I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. And whileland martin unfiltered and while he's

doing unfiltered i'm practicing the wobble all right all right folks welcome back to roland mart Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Jack Case High School here in Houston, Texas. Glad to have all of you here. Let's go right down to the congresswoman for this particular district. She is in the nation's capital right now. If she was in town, she would be here. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee joins us. Congresswoman, how are you doing?

I'm great, and you're absolutely right. If I was in town, I would be there. How are you, Roland? Thank you so very much for joining and coming home to your town and being at Jack Yates High School. Well, it was great to present those two scholarships to the students earlier today. And so, you know, we do our part, but let's get right to it. Let's talk a little politics. We just heard us talk with Congress, excuse me, County Commissioner Rodney Ellis. Earlier, we were talking to State Senator Boris Miles about

what's happening here in Texas. Bottom line is this here. The Senate must pass H.R. 1 in order for us to deal with what Republicans are doing across this country trying to steal these elections? Well, the Senate must pass H.R. 1 and H.R. 4, which is what I have to instill in people. The John Robert Lewis voting enhancement legislation is the Red Cross umbrella on a rainy day, the brick that stops the water, it's the levees, it's everything. And yes, H.R. 1 is crucial. Right now, the Senate is engaged in shenanigans, and not because of Senator Schumer, the majority leader, because he's working every tactic. But there are a proposal of 100 amendments in a committee markup, the rules committee that both

the Senate majority leader and the minority leader sit on. And there are equal number of votes for the Republicans and Democrats on this committee. Now, you can imagine what that means. And so and you cannot get a amendment passed on a split vote. So they'll go through this process and then it will go to the floor. And there is the amendment process there as well. So it's an important bill, but we must recognize that that bill is 800 pages. It has finance reform, ethics reform, and that's the trip-up that the Republicans are trying to use against us.

So the John Robert Lewis stands on its own two feet. It is restoring of Section 5, and it may have to restore Section 2. Section 5 is the big one, and that is all that the Senate and House were passing in Texas would be immediately blocked if Section 5 was in place, because under this Department of Justice, we would simply go,

and I think a reasoned member of the Department of Justice under the Biden administration would say that all of this in Texas was voter suppression, voter oppression, and it was strictly and predominantly minority biased.

So we have different routes to go, but I don't want people to forget the H.R. 4 bill, which is the restoring of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That is crucial. But my hat is off to Boris Miles, certainly my commissioner, because they've been fighting on the local government. Senator Miles, Ron Reynolds and others have been enormous fighters against these Neanderthal and vicious bills.

I am incensed because the bills in the House and Senate in Texas are pointed at the large counties. And where do people of color live? Dallas, Harris County, San Antonio, Austin. That's where these initiatives are being pointed to. And all of these bad laws or bad rules, bad laws now, the video, the stopping of different polling places, the ending of the ability to mail ballot in a larger scope, all of that is directed toward people of color. It is a solution running toward a problem that does not exist. And the only problem was we voted like we had never voted before in the 2020 election.

The big lie. This is not the only issue the Congress is dealing with. I've got a panel here, Scott Bolden, Lee May. Folks, let me know if Monique Presley is there. One of the issues, and I'm sure, Scott, you want to ask the congresswoman about, deals with the George Floyd Justice Act, where we have the United States Senate. Scott, go ahead. Yeah, Congressman, how are you doing?

One of the things with the George Floyd Act is whether a qualified immunity is going to survive that bill or not. I know Congressman Clyburn suggested on national news on Sunday that perhaps that might be something that's negotiable. But getting police where their pockets are when they make mistakes or they purposely kill young black men and women with their uniforms on is critical to police reform and cleaning up these police departments around the country. Any thoughts on that? Absolutely, Scott. and thank you. You would not imagine that I've been engaged in the qualified immunity now since Brother Clyburn made that statement and just got off the phone with one of the families, a young man out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brother Crutcher, who was shot with his hands up.

His family member was on the line. As you may have known, I met with the family members and made that tour with them in the United States Senate. My meeting was to be with Majority Leader Schumer. And I must say that our meeting probably was one of the strongest because we left out of there. The majority leader indicated that his preference was to do nothing that the families did not want him to do and to put the strongest bill on the floor. And we discussed qualified immunity. And frankly, he was very knowledgeable about it. So here's where we are. We appreciate our majority whip, and we know that he wants to give the widest landscape to be able to deal with this question. The people that are engaged from different perspectives are wedded to qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is on the table to be kept, not on the table to be your meal. So we are still fighting for qualified immunity.

30 years, activists have been fighting for that, along with 242. So what I would say to you is, no, it is not, at this point, an option for qualified immunity not to be part of this bill. This has to be a moment in history where the strongest bill has to be passed. And I'm committed to continue that. Right now we're looking at language that says the same thing in terms of qualified immunity,

but may be able to answer those who really don't fully understand it. Here's my simple interpretation as I close. Qualified immunity is a judge-made concept. It's not a statute. And all that we want to do in the modification of it, meaning changing it, is to let the victim get in the courtroom the same way the officer gets in the courtroom. And what has happened before is that the victim had a stop sign at the front door of the courtroom, and because of qualified immunity, they were immediately dismissed, i.e., the Robby Toland case right there.

Immediately dismissed. And that is an abomination, And all the good policing out there, all the good police officers, and they exist, understand the pain of families. And I believe they want justice as well. Lee, your question for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Thank you, Congresswoman. First of all, you are my dad and my mother's Congresswoman. They live in Houston, and they'll be happy to know that I'm talking to you virtually as well. Look, with the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, I know there's components in there that are mandating police body cameras, of course, for federal law enforcement.

And there's requirements in there for state and local law enforcement agencies to utilize existing federal funding for that. But, you know, I used to be a local elected official in Georgia, in DeKalb County. I was a county commissioner and chief executive officer. And one of the things that we always paid attention to, if there were penalties in place for, that, well, that didn't allow us to gain federal funding in place. And so I was wondering if there were any thoughts about putting penalties in place for those local and state law enforcement agencies that don't take advantage of police body cameras across the entire force. Any thoughts on that? That's a good question.

I think the power of the purse is what you're talking about and the idea that they would not be eligible for federal funds or burn grant dollars. And I think that has life to it. I think also there should be language now that we're seeing what's happening with Mr. Brown's case, that there should be a period of time where you are not allowed to delay the showing of the body cam to family and or community as requested. So why don't I call that next steps? I think that is something that I've certainly thought about to make sure that all of this is enforced. Inside the bill, there are incentives with respect to funding for community groups. And people have misinterpreted funding in there that it's for, you know, policing. It's for training and for things like what you have said, that there be no one that has an excuse that they can't get body cams.

And I think the very next nexus to it is what you said, is that if you get the body cams, then we should be able to enforce your wearing and having the body cams on. Because the last thing you want to hear as a family of a loved one is that so and so XYZ did not have it bought his or her body cam on and we know that there are cases like that all right it's always a pleasure we certainly appreciate we certainly appreciate the hard work and we're gonna keep pushing to see the George Floyd Justice Act become a reality in the United States Senate. Thank you, and push for H.R. 4 and H.R. 1. Those are the

voting bills. Thank you. Oh, hold up. I do have to ask you this here. H.R. 40, is that actually going to be scheduled for a vote on the floor of the House? Oh, I'm so glad you I'm so busy doing all this other thing that I didn't mention my heart. I was on the floor again today getting co-sponsors. We are aiming toward the Juneteenth date. As you well know, historically, this bill passed out of the judiciary. Never has that happened before in the history of Congress. H.R. 40 now a commission that will, in essence, study slavery, but present and develop reparation proposals. So, yes, we are aiming toward, we have been given a projected schedule before June 19th. So any of you who are listening,

we have members of Congress that may not be on this bill, and just about everybody is, but there's some that have not made it yet, you need to encourage them to co-sponsor HR 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals. And please let everybody know, this is legislation. This is a bill. This is an action item.

This is doing and telling others to do as well. All right. Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you for having me. Take care now. Thank you, folks. The drone. I want to go back to our drone shot to set up our next guest. The shot that you're seeing right now, this is what we call Third Ward, Texas. This is an aerial shot right over Jack Yates High School. You see all of those homes to the right when you heard Commissioner talk about the CUNY homes. That's public housing right there.

Across the street, you see those buildings. That's Texas Southern University. You see down here at the bottom where you see that open area of grass there. Well, that's where the old Jack Yates used to be where I actually attended. And then if we swing this around, folks, you're going to then see the University of Houston. That's how close these institutions are to each other. They're literally across the street and downstream from each other. And we talk about community, how we interact with each other. That really is what the social media app Nextdoor is all about. Actually, I've gotten on it. It's really

interesting being able to actually communicate. How many of us even know who our neighbors are? We talk about not just political stuff, but how do we also change neighborhoods? Y'all heard me tell the story of my parents, Reginald and Melvin Martin. They were co-founders of our civic club growing up. It was about how do we fix our community? How do we redefine our neighborhoods? And in many ways, that's what Next Door is all about. The co-founder of Next Door joins us right now is Prakash Janakiraman. I hope

I said that correct, is the co-founder and chief architect of Next Door. Did I get it right? You did, Prakash Janakiraman, almost like my mom says it. Prakash Janakiraman. Got it. All right, then. Well, can you send me the phonetic spelling? We had it straight. And look, I know we were talking earlier about politics and public policy and social movements. But the reality is when we talk about getting people to vote, going door to door, block by block, precinct, things along those lines, that was always the case when you knew who your neighbor was.

In many ways, we're disconnected. That, to me, I found to be very interesting with Nextdoor. It helps in so many of these different ways. So whether you want to talk about how do you as a community deal with crime, how do you deal with education? How do you deal with playgrounds? To basically, hey, I'm looking for, I'm new, I'm looking for a place to get my shoes repaired. That's really, I find it interesting how this community works.

Yeah, you know, when we founded Nextdoor almost 10 years ago, one of the key insights was that most people don't actually know their neighbors. There was a Pew Research study that came out when we started the company almost serendipitously as we were trying to find an idea that said that 29 percent of Americans claim to know only a few of their neighbors, which really implies one to two of them. And 28 percent of neighbors responded saying that they didn't know a single neighbor by name.

So that in and of itself was quite alarming. But when you compare that to the research that shows that social capital is instrumental in building strong communities, communities that have more social capital, neighbors that know one another, across the board, get better in those communities with higher social capital. So crime rates drop, property values increase, education and test scores improve, and people, in fact, live longer in communities where they have the support of their neighbors. So we built Nextdoor from the ground up to be about the neighborhood, about building that social capital. And our app is a way for you to plug into all of the neighborhoods that matter to you. And every day, millions of people come to Nextdoor to get recommendations for babysitters or plumbers or auto mechanics or exchanging goods and services with their neighbors, like trying to get rid of a used couch or a used bike,

or even just tapping into what's going on in the community from an event standpoint. And I know you're there in Houston today, and especially during natural disasters, floods, fires, and hurricanes like Hurricane Harvey that hit Houston really hard. We found ourselves almost a part, an extension of the public infrastructure. When 911 gets a busy signal, people can back off to next door, sending an urgent alert to get the help from their neighbors if they need. So next door can be everything from a day-to-day utility all the way to a lifeline in these critical situations. How many people are now using it? We're in 11 countries, 275,000 neighborhoods around the world.

We have tens of millions of members who use our product every day. So let's, again, I use the example of my parents. There are a lot of people who said, oh, man, y'all can't start this civic club. Are you seeing that, how people who care about the communities, they want to see things change, how they're using it for social good to change their neighborhoods, change the direction, things along those lines? Are you seeing people using it in different ways, not just, hey, I'm looking for a farmer's market, but really using it for social change in their communities? Yeah, absolutely. One of the really unique things about Nextdoor is that it's about proximity and not preference.

So when you look at other networks, you have to go build a following, friend by friend or follower by follower, in order to get utility out of those networks. Whereas when you come to Nextdoor, everybody that signs up for Nextdoor is a real human being verified to a real address. And so your residency in the community provides you entree into the network. And so when you join, you will find that all of your neighbors are there. So it's a great platform for local organizing because you don't need to go person by person and greet every single person or meet every single person. You actually have a broadcast medium that here at a local, hyper local level can help you to organize people. We've launched features like product groups that allow people to come in and create affinity groups around specific issues or shared affinities

like mothers groups or organizing groups. And we've also worked with larger organizations to amplify the good work that they're doing. So organizations like the NAACP or organizations like Stop AAPI Hate. We know that today there's a rash of anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander violence going on, particularly in our hometown of San Francisco. So when there are organizations who are trying to amplify their message, Nextdoor is a great place to do that at a hyper-local level where you can reach the people that you're trying to reach.

Question for Scott Bolder. You got a question about next door? I do actually. Congratulations. It sounds like a great initiative and program. I got to tell you, I'm one of the guys that doesn't know his neighbors. My wife knows all the neighbors and all their business, if you will. And it really is about being intentional, about taking time to do it. And I'm just not intentional about it. It's either work or something. And so what do you say to guys like me who really like the concept of next door, who really want to know their neighbors but just aren't intentional about getting to know

them and what's the bit what am i missing by not getting to know my neighbors yeah look it's a good question right we often i often as a founder of the company when people hear that i work in next door they will often say exactly what you said which is yeah, my wife uses that app. And I think, as we know, there is a lot of value to knowing your neighbors beyond just whether you're going to have a backyard barbecue with them or even spend time with them. We think of it as a utility-based service, a service where you can come and, without knowing a single individual, get a ton of value out of them. So there may be a case where you need to find a recommendation for network just as a hive mind of local knowledge as opposed to individuals that you're trying to connect with.

So we often say, come to Nextdoor for the utility first and then stay for the affinity because as you start to have those interactions, those helpful interactions, and our purpose, you know, the mission for Nextdoor, the 100-year vision, is to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on. And as you unpack that, it's about these helpful interactions that

happen every day that build towards that goal of kindness and that goal towards people having the support of the neighborhood when they need it. It doesn't need to be every day. It doesn't need to be 100 times a day that you're pulling to refresh to use our app. We're there when you need us, and your neighbors are there when you need them. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. I'm going to go meet another neighbor tomorrow. Yeah. Well, in fact, we conducted a research survey that said that knowing as few as six of your neighbors greatly reduces the probability that you will be lonely or depressed. So there are actually health benefits to knowing your neighbors, strangely enough. That is good.

That is good. I don't even have a response to that, but okay. Look, I have a question. Lee, go ahead. I am not a user yet of Nextdoor, but after your presentation, I think I'm going to go ahead and check it out, download the app and all that. Look, about a year and a half ago, right before the pandemic hit, someone, some kids kicked in our front door, the middle of the day, about two in the afternoon. And it was at that moment that I realized, although I know who many of my neighbors are,

you hit it on the head, I don't know all their names. Number two, we don't know enough about each other to be helpful. But then I realized when that happened, some of my neighbors were, they were at home and they came out and came running down the street and was like, Lee, which embarrassed me because they knew my name, I didn't know all this.

And so they came and just kind of began to share what they all saw. And the police department began to piecemeal the different things. And some of us had electronic security surveillance. I won't mention their name because I guess in some way they're a competitor. But it also helped to piece together all of what everyone saw, what was seen on camera, what people personally saw and heard.

I get the sense that Nextdoor can be actually helpful in situations like that to allow the entire neighborhood to know what's going on and allow them to be helpful in any way that they can. Yeah, I think anything that relates to neighbors helping neighbors is somewhere where we wanna play in the space. We don't wanna be necessarily a surveillance app

or thought of as a neighborhood watch app. There's lots of problematic use cases around that as well. But we think that when neighbors can support one another, that's when we're really at our best. That's good. Excellent. All right, then. Well, Prakash, we certainly appreciate it. And folks, we're looking forward to creating some unique and interesting content on Nextdoor. So look for that real soon. Can't wait to actually do that. And, matter of fact, you know what?

I think what might be interesting is I might pull on. Maybe we do something. I have my parents, and I bring them on, and we talk about how they built a thriving civic club by linking up with neighbors. Could be some people out there who are interested in doing it where they live. Yeah, absolutely. We would love to have you on the platform, Roland. We'd love to see your parents on the platform.

But I think at the end of the day, there's so much value in knowing your neighbors. And we very, very strongly believe in this purpose and mission of cultivating a kinder world because the neighborhood can be the unit of change in a world that's more divided and polarized and lonely than ever before. Again, let's go find a way to meet six of our neighbors and rebuild that crumbling community infrastructure and get back together on this. All right, then. Well, it's really appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And again, folks, you can download the app next door. Check it out and find out who your neighbors are. OK, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me, Roland. Appreciate it. All right, folks, got to go to a break when we come back. We're going to talk about the N-word. Is it a fighting word a court is ruled that's next on

roland martin unfiltered broadcasting live from jack case high school by alma mater in houston texas back in a moment the lonely the alienated the sad and the angry. In every country torn by strife, violence, and hardship, men and women are drawn to extremist leaders, promising to take on the enemies of their people. In America, some of our lost souls respond in a similar way to the call of influential voices, but instead of militant preachers or radical clerics. Every single night in America, they can listen to our own angry advocates of division and

conspiracy. Confused angry people hear the call of these voices and take on the camouflage of warriors to threaten and even kill civilians. The radicalized Republican Party and the twisted people on TV who speak for them use the very same language of intolerance and rage to provoke those alienated people actively pouring kerosene on the fire of social unrest and until we all reject these poisonous voices the result will inevitably be escalating violence and tragedy.

This is the year of the woman. We are here. We are capable. My optimism for our future has never been greater than now. Black women are making a difference, making history, and, the federal court has ruled that being called the N-word does not fall under the fighting words exception in the First Amendment. The fighting word doctrine allows the government to limit speech when it is likely to incite immediate violence or retaliation by the recipients of the words. What does that mean? It means that people who use the N-word will not face criminal charges.

They are protected by the nation's current free speech regime. But, Scott, it still might get you an ass whooping. Yeah, and you and I've talked about this and I think they'd get an ass whooping from you. So when I read this story, I was thinking of you and mine and the ass whooping that you would be given. But, but, but there's hope in this decision. Let me, let me break this down. You're right about what you're reporting, but this was a case where the N-word was used on a military base at a retail shop. And the context of when it was used, it was used by itself in a question. It was bizarre exchange between him, the lieutenant or the military person, and the salesperson.

There was no violence. There was no heated argument. There was no progression. And so the circumstances surrounding the use of the N-word was almost a rhetorical question in this context. And there the court said you needed more to fit into that fighting word exception, and the surrounding facts just simply weren't there. So I don't want to read too much into this decision because the state court and the appellate court in that jurisdiction should have done more digging. And so the court found that the N-word used in that context, under that circumstance and fact, was not, you couldn't criminalize it under that state statute. And so I think they were right

about that, given the facts. But if there were heated words and if there was a subsequent fight, I think the ruling would have been different. The facts just weren't there. Let's talk about these wild, out-of-control police officers, Lee. In Louisville, an ex-detective in Louisville is going to spend a year in prison for admitting his actions wrongfully convicted two men. Mark Handy pled guilty to perjury and tampering with evidence in the cases of Edwin Chandler and Keith West. Chandler spent nearly a decade behind bars while West spent seven years in prison before getting pardoned in 2019. As part of Handy's plea deal, he will not be able to ask for probation for his one-year sentence.

Lawyers for the exonerated men want the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights violations in Louisville. See, Lee, here's what's—so brother spends 10 years in jail. Another spends seven years in jail. This dude gets one year? Yeah, man. You know, it? Yeah, man. You know, it's ridiculous, man. And it goes to the people's mistrust of the system, the judicial system. It's mistrust of law enforcement officers,

regardless of even their color or background or experience. You know, it's things like this. And, you know know the minority can impact what you believe about the majority and all of that. Here's the deal. It even goes connected to the whole conversation about qualified immunity. People can be harmed by the police. They can be harmed by law enforcement. And they don't get their just due in court. They don't get a recompense in terms of getting their lives back, getting monies back that they lost as a result of all this, man. And there needs to be substantive change, man.

And, you know, you look at things like the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, things like that. It begins to make those steps forward. But but we got to do better, man. And I'll also say this about our law enforcement officers. You know, when people talk about reforming policing or reimagining or reframing or defunding and things like that, I think what people are basically saying is we got to do better. We got to do better. And I believe it's about training. Yes, it is about training. But we also got to look at who we are allowing to protect us and to serve us. We got to do a better job filtering these candidates out who are coming in to, quote,

unquote, protect and serve us, man. We got to look at that big time because, you know, you got bad in, it's going to be bad out, you know. And so we got to look at who we're bringing in the front door. Well, I got to give to my next one in the front door. Check out this crazy food in Georgia. Chief Magistrate Judge Kerry Hayes III says an inmate cursed at him numerous times during his bail hearing in December. According to the complaint, Judge Hayes followed the defendant out of the courtroom, grabbed him by the shoulder, and pushed him against the wall, all while he was still bound by handcuffs and p the wall all while he was

and in leg shackles. Now, for misconduct and violat code. But Georgia Judicia is set to review the case punishment to propose to Court. Judge Hayes could position or reprimand inf to propose to the Georgia Supreme Court, Judge Hayes could be removed from his position or reprimanded for his actions.

How about charting his ass with assault? You mad because somebody cussed at you? Oh, that judge should be removed. Quickly. Scott? He said he couldn't take that shit no more. If you read the report, he says he got cursed out while he was on the bench. And so

when they walked him back, he followed him back. And by the way, the prisoner, the defendant, was handcuffed and he had leg shackles on. And the judge in the back took him in the back and pushed him up against the wall and was cursing him out and did put his hands on him. And you're right. He could be charged or should be charged with assault. But talk about judicial temperament

or the lack thereof. Yeah, man. You know, I think it's... Lee, what's wrong with your Georgia people, man? Yeah, man, what's wrong with your Georgia people, man? Yeah, man, what's wrong with your people? I think the judges' theme song was, Nook, if you book, nook, nook, if you book. I don't know what he was thinking, man.

And let's be clear, I'm a pastor. Let's not forget, I'm a pastor, so I'm a man of grace, right? Because the Lord has been good to me even when I haven't been good, right? But this joker right here needs to get the maximum, whatever the penalty is, man. Then he says this. He said, in no way did I hurt or harm this individual. Yeah, I didn't injure him. I didn't injure him.

Yeah, I didn't injure him. That's what he's saying. I didn't injure it i didn't injury and then you oh you feel you you big and bad now because he is cuffed he's handcuffed he can't do anything to you and if he doesn't leg shackle the man handshake he had leg shackles on he couldn't even walk. Man, throw the book at this judge, man. Throw the book at him, man. Ain't no grace in this one.

I'm sorry. I don't care what the offender did. Throw the book at this judge. I agree. Folks, folks, we're here at J.K.'s High School in Houston, Texas. In front of the high school is this mural for George Floyd, Jr. And this is fitting for our next story here because Derek Chauvin, the man who was found guilty of killing George Floyd, y'all, he is going to be facing potentially a lot, a lot of jail time as a result of the action.

The judge ruled today that there are aggravating factors in the death of George Floyd. Cahill found that Chauvin abused his authority as an officer when he restrained Floyd with his knee on his neck for over nine minutes. He also said that Chauvin treated Floyd with particular cruelty and did so in the presence of children. Judge Cahill's ruling allows for Chauvin's sentence to be more than the standard 40 years for a second-degree murder charge. Chauvin's sentencing date is June 25th. Scott, tell us legally, what does that mean for the judge to lay out that sort of a ruling? Okay, so that means that the judge under Minnesota law can what we call upwardly depart. So under Minnesota law, he can only be sentenced with the most serious charge he was convicted of, which is murder two, which is a maximum.

You set up to 40. But this is his first time offense. I think under their guidelines, the max he could get under the guidelines is 12 years. factors where the court made a ruling and a finding that means this judge is laying the groundwork to sentence Chauvin above that 12 years and how much above will be subject of the sentencing hearing now be careful with this because this is a good thing at the same time though both sides can appeal the judge's sentencing, whatever his decision is, if he upwardly departs from that 12-year match. You follow me? So you got to be careful here because you may be giving the defendant an appeal issue if the record is not completely full, stacked, and clear of evidence on those exceptions or aggravating

factors. And then if he's sentencing, especially if he's sentencing, sentencing takes place and it's more than 12 years. So that's something for us to watch next month when he's sentencing. Oh, absolutely. So we'll certainly be looking out for that. Folks, just a couple other stories that I want to share with you. Purvis Staples, an original member of the legendary group

the Staples Singers, has passed away. He was announced today. He died on May 6th at his home in Dalton, Illinois. Purvis St. Tenor and his family's group, primarily backing up his father, Roebuck Pop Staples. He contributed to songs like Uncloudy Day and a rendition of Will the Circle Be Unbroken. He left the group over differences with his father before they achieved major success. Purvis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the Staples Singers in 1998 and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

He was 85 years old. Also, folks, since we are here, I'm going to close it out this way. I told you we're here at Jack Yates High School, and some great news for a graduate of Jack Yates High School in Houston, Felicia Rashad. She is the new dean of the College of Fine Arts being reestablished at Howard University. The decision was made today that the award-winning actress is going to begin her role on July 1st. She had served as a guest lecturer and adjunct faculty member conducting master's level classes at many colleges, universities, and arts organizations. She graduated magna cum laude

with a bachelor's in fine arts from Howard University in 1970. And so congratulations to Felicia Rashad, one of our great graduates of Jack Gates High School, headed back to our alma mater, Howard University. Folks, that is it for us. I want to thank Leah. I want to thank Scott for joining us. Again, broadcasting here tomorrow.

We are going to be broadcasting the march for Pamela Turner. I want to thank Lee. I want to thank Scott for joining us again broadcasting here tomorrow. We are going to be broadcasting the march for Pamela Turner. Talk about Black Lives Matter. That mural that we're showing you right now, folks. This is for George George Floyd here right outside of Yates High School. But tomorrow we're going to be broadcasting at noon. This rally, a black woman who was killed a year ago tomorrow in Baytown, Texas, shot and killed by an officer. She was pregnant, and that officer has not lost his job. He's still on the job.

And so we'll be live streaming that rally featuring Attorney Ben Crump, Until Freedom, and so many others who will be there. And so please join us tomorrow at 12 Eastern for that. And also, folks, we ask that you support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Your dollars make it possible for us to be able to broadcast here, to broadcast on location. And so we're certainly glad to be here. We want to thank everyone as well.

You can support us via Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. Also, of course, Venmo.com forward slash RM Unfiltered. Then, of course, you have PayPal.me forward slash RM Martin Unfiltered. Also, of course, venmo.com forward slash rm unfiltered. Then, of course, you have paypal.me forward slash rmartin unfiltered. Zell is roland at rolandsmartin.com. And then, of course, you have roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Thank you so very much, folks. Also, I want to thank the two students who gave scholarships out. We live streamed that a little bit earlier today. And so we certainly want to thank them as well. And so tomorrow what we'll do is we'll show you some of that ceremony. You can actually go look at it right now, folks, if you want to.

And so you can check it out as well. And so, again, I want to thank all the folks here at Jack Gates High School, the Houston Independent School District. Superintendent Grenita Latham, who is, of course, leaving to go to Springfield, Missouri. We wish her well. Principal Guillory, thank you so very much for folks allowing us to be able to do what we do to be out here again at my alma mater. Thank you so very much, folks. And also to the students at the Jack Gates High School, Magnet School of Communications, who helped us out. We want to give them some real-world experience, what it's like to actually work on a broadcast. And so they helped us out, set up running cameras as well. And so that's what we're all about, offering opportunities for the next generation.

So that is it for us, folks. We will see you tomorrow, noon, noon Eastern. We'll be broadcasting that rally. I'm sorry, noon Central Time, 1 p.m. Eastern, that rally in Baytown, Texas for Pamela Turner. Thank you so very much, folks. Y'all take care. Holla! a lot of times big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways four Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up.

So now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chaston. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data

and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a

company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest

names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an iHeart Podcast.