#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Voting Rights Contract, DSU's Filing DOJ Complaint, Charter Schools, Sit down w/Liberian President

Episode Date: May 14, 2022

5.13.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Voting Rights Contract, DSU's Filing DOJ Complaint, Charter Schools, Sit down w/Liberian President Could getting candidates to sign a voting rights contract force them to keep their campaign promises?  I said it last night in Kanas City, and Cliff Albright, the Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter, thinks it could work.  He'll be here to explain the voting rights contract Black Voters Matter in Pennsylvania. And U.S. Senate Candidate Malcolm Kenyatta will be here as well. President Joe Biden urges states to use American Rescue Funds for crime prevention. A North Carolina citizens review board overturns a police chief's decision to clear officers who held a teacher at gunpoint, detaining her before realizing they had the wrong person. Delaware State University President will be filing a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice on behalf of the school's lacrosse team, who got stopped and searched by some Georgia Sheriff's deputies last month. Brittany Griner will be staying in a Russian jail for at least another month. Deion Sanders says the NCAA has a problem. We'll tell you why he says the name, image, and likeness deals could become an issue. And in our Education Matters segment, it's National Charter Schools Appreciation Week. We'll look at proposals to reduce federal funds for charter schools.  The  Assistant Secretary of Education and Dr. Steve Perry will join me for that discussion.   Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Stay Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Friday, May 13, 2022. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Could getting candidates to sign a voting rights contract force them to keep their campaign promises?

I talked about that last night in Kansas City, and Cliff Albright, the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, he thinks it could work. He'll be here to explain the voting rights contract Black Voters Matter is he thinks it could work. He'll be here to explain the voting rights contract Black Voters Matter is asking candidates to sign in Pennsylvania. Also, we'll be joined by one of those candidates,

of course, Pennsylvania Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, who is trying to win Democratic nomination to be the United States Senator there. President Joe Biden urges states to use American Rescue Funds for crime prevention. Really? More money for cops? That's the best way to use American Rescue Funds for crime prevention. Um, really? More money for cops? That's the best way to use

the remainder of the nearly $2 trillion in COVID relief funds? North Carolina Citizens Review Board overturned a police chief's decision to clear officers who held a teacher at gunpoint detaining her before they realized they had the wrong person. Delaware State University president

will be filing a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice on behalf of the school's lacrosse team, who got stopped and searched by some Georgia Sheriff's deputies last month. But the NAACP in Delaware is asking, why did Delaware State wait three weeks to even raise this issue? Brittany Griner is going to be staying in the Russian jail for at least another month, we'll tell you, later in her case. And Deion Sanders says the NCAA has a problem.

We'll tell you why he says the name, image, and likeness deals could become an issue. In our Education Matters segment, it's National Charter School Appreciation Week. We'll look at proposals to reduce federal funds for charter schools. The Assistant Secretary of Education and Dr. Steve Perry will join me for that discussion. Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's right on time and he's rolling Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yow

It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real We'll be right back. Folks, we are in primary season. And on Tuesday, voters of Pennsylvania will go to the polls to choose their candidates in the Republican and Democratic primaries. One of the hotly contested races is going to be who is the next United States senator. The incumbent Republican chose not to seek re-election, and so therefore it is an open seat. Democrats absolutely want to win that seat in order to increase their majorities in the United States Senate. And so it's a major race, a lot of eyes, a lot of money been spent on that race on the Democratic and the Republican side. Not only that, there are other races for governor as well. Joining us right now is Malcolm Kenyatta. He, of course, is a state official there in Pennsylvania. He is seeking to win that seat there. Glad to have you on the show. First of all,

back, because you were on previously, I think, when Recy was sitting in the chair. So let's talk about this race. A lot of Democrats have been saying that the lieutenant governor, Fetterman, stands a better chance of winning in November. They say he can appeal to these white voters in the rest of Pennsylvania. You have been saying that people are making a mistake when they proclaim that Pennsylvania is simply Alabama outside of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, correct? Yeah, absolutely. You know, what we need in this moment, seriously, is somebody who's going to be able to speak authentically and urgently to folks in every single corner of the Commonwealth,

but particularly in southeastern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. I'm in Chester County right now, which is why I'm in my car. I've been going around Chester County today. This is where 52% of all the voters are. And so when you see Democrats winning in Pennsylvania, it's because we performed incredibly well in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

But you do have to have somebody who has a message that is not exclusive just to Southeastern Pennsylvania. And we do that by having somebody who can actually talk to working class people. And we're only not just asking them for their votes, but somebody who actually understands their damn lives. And so in my candidacy, we have somebody who can actually drive the turnout among the base voters that are saying right now through a lot of different surveys that they're not that interested in this next election or that their enthusiasm is deflated, as well as somebody who can go to

some of the small communities all across the Commonwealth. And I've been doing both. And I think we actually stand the best chance. I would just make this final point. There have been a lot of folks throughout this race who have acted as if this was a choice between two white guys from Pittsburgh. That was never the case. And I think now a lot of people are tuning in to my candidacy after the debates and seeing me on the stage with two career politicians and seeing the fresh voice and the vision that I brought to this contest. And I mean, look, you are you are in the legislature there in Pennsylvania. So you are a politician as well. And so so I get your point when you talk about career politicians. One of the things is interesting. I was looking at a piece earlier

today and I think I think was Ron Brownstein. I'm actually for, maybe with someone else. And he said that that the actions of Senator Joe Manchin has caused a lot of progressives and other Democrats to say, you know what, the hell with this whole idea of a centrist Democrat and that they say that that's actually hurting Congressman Conor Lamb in that particular state. You have been making the point that, look, if you want a progressive in the seat, then you must put somebody who is an avowed progressive, not someone who can dance in the middle. I think ultimately voters want to know what we believe. And I think that at the end of the day, we have a real problem when moderate, moderate suburban voters are frustrated and that shows up in a poll. Every story on every network, it seems like, is about what are the Democrats or what are the Republicans going to do to court those moderate voters.

But when young voters and black voters and progressive voters are registering frustration, we don't hear a lot about what we're going to do, what individual parties are going to do to try to earn their support. I think that that's a mistake. This is going to be a turnout election. And I don't think we're going to win this election by saying we're not the Republicans. I think people get that we're not the Republicans, but I don't think that's necessarily going to be good enough. It's why I've been talking about America's basic bargain every single day. Good job, good school, ability to go to the doctor and fill the prescription when you leave and then retire with a level of dignity in a community that's safe and clean and has clean air and clean water.

And that's why we've built really an incredible grassroots coalition, organized labor, elected officials in every single corner of the Commonwealth, and why we went on that debate stage and talked in a clear fashion about what I would do as the next United States senator. And if we don't do that, I think we're going to be in real trouble. Just a few moments ago, I was looking at some various tweets, and I came across this particular tweet here from Matthew Dowd. And then this was interesting. He said, bank it here.

Fetterman in Pennsylvania is going to win Democratic primary by large margin. He will then win general election. And at that point, he'll become a national voice in Democratic Party. And that will be good for the Dems. You have been fighting against this whole idea that, oh, that this is just pretty much done. It's done. It's a lot. This is who is going to win. And when you talk about those debates, I think back to when Congressman Harold Washington ran for mayor of Chicago and many people like, look, he has absolutely no shot that all of a sudden he goes into these debates and he's going against Mayor Jane Byrne. He's going against Cook County State's

attorney, going against, of course, who eventually became the mayor, Richard Daley. And then all of a sudden, folks are like, damn, that black guy is smart. And a lot of white voters, for the first time, got an understanding of who he was. He goes on to win, obviously propelled by the black vote, but he goes on to win the nomination. That's how he becomes mayor. It was his performance in those debates. Do you think, by you being on that stage and going toe to toe with Lamb and Fetterman that voters got a chance to actually see the three of you together and say, hey, we might want to give this guy Kenyatta a second look?

I think that that's absolutely I think that that's absolutely right. And, you know, we have seen it as we've gone all across the Commonwealth. I mean, literally, I was in Kerwinsville last Saturday, a little small town of Kerwinsville with some incredible folks who had said to me, hey, you know, we we have six voters in our house. You know, we were a Fetterman family and we saw you at that debate. We didn't know much about you. And this, you know, really changed our view on this race. You know, I'm the only person, you know, running out of the three of us, you know, who hasn't run for federal office before. And when you see Democrats win tough elections, we win when we bet on the future. What we need is somebody in their bones who knows what the hell people are going through

in a significant way. And I do think that folks have done a disservice by, you know, treating this race from its onset as a race between, you know, these two gentlemen, when frankly people have more choices and more options. And being on that debate stage, they got to see that we are a choice and we're an option. And we are somebody who, again, is talking about things that are bread and butter issues that matter to families, talking to that voter who's working two and three jobs and doesn't have somebody who is really focused on their needs, talking to the parents who are worried about the cost of child care and about the quality

of their kids' schools and about the need for mental health care. I'm talking about the fact that, you know, in cities like mine here in Philadelphia, you have a lot of folks who look just like me, who are being chewed up and spit out by a criminal justice system that hasn't worked, by a housing system where it is really difficult for people to buy that first home or get access to affordable housing. Those things matter. And me being a legislator but also having that type of lived experience, that's not something we have enough of in the U.S. Senate. And it's something that I'm going to bring when we win this primary on Tuesday and go out and vote. I'm not going to be listening to the cynics about what we can do or how this race is going to turn out.

Republicans are on the on track right now to nominate an African-American woman to be their nominee. And yet I've heard so many times throughout this race, you know, Republicans, you know, never vote for a black person. And here they are about to do it. All right. Pennsylvania State Rep Malcolm Kenyatta, of course, we'll see what happens on Tuesday. I'm sure you're not going to get much sleep this weekend traveling all across Pennsylvania trying to get every vote possible. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, brother.

Take care. All right. Take care. Folks, last night in Kansas City, I moderated a town hall there where residents there talked about police issues, discrimination in the police department, how they wanted to hold politicians accountable when it came to politicians there in Pennsylvania. And they plan to take this all across the country saying, look, sign a contract saying what you will do to protect voting rights. Joining us right now is Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. Joining me from Atlanta. Cliff, glad to have you here. Y'all have been taking these ads out in papers all across the state. This is what people don don't understand in many ways, this is what many people have done.

This is what the right, all the people who are anti-taxes have done, making people sign tax pledges and then when they were elected, hold it up saying, you signed this pledge,

we expect you to follow through. Yeah, thanks for having me, Roland. Yeah, let me start off by saying that we started this ad campaign with the Philadelphia Tribune, which is, as you probably know, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers, the oldest in the state of Pennsylvania, one of the oldest in the country. And so, you know, again, shout out to Black-owned media like Black Star Network. But, yeah, we took these ads out and we're calling on these candidates to sign these contracts because what we don't want to have happen is that, you know, we mobilize voters and black voters come out voting for these candidates. But there's nothing concrete to hold them accountable to.

We wind up sending two more or three more Joe Manchins to the Senate and people wind up having people that say, oh, yeah, I like voting rights, I just don't know if I want to vote for this bill, or I'll vote for this bill, but I'm not going to vote for filibuster reform, or, you know, I believe in voting rights, I just don't believe for voting rights for the 700,000 residents of D.C. So what we want to do is get them on paper.

We want to see some signatures on paper where they're telling us what it is that they're going to commit to do in regards to these three specific aspects of voting rights. And it's important that we do that, because a lot of times you'll have people telling you what they did in the past, right, which is important, right? Like, where you stood in the past, and more importantly, how willing you were to fight for that, right? Like a Malcolm Kenyatta who doesn't just tell us what it is that he's going to do.

We've seen him out there fighting for voting rights. I was at a rally with him in D.C. in the midst of the summer. So what you've done in the past is important, but sometimes these candidates will say, well, I co-sponsored such and such bill. I co-sponsored D.C. statehood. I co-sponsored John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Well, that doesn't mean a whole lot. Joe Manchin co-sponsored, in fact, he wrote the Compromise Freedom to Vote Act, and then he voted against filibuster reform in order to get his own compromise passed. So we don't want to just hear about what you co-sponsored in the

past. We want you to tell us and tell the public and put it in writing what it is that you're going to do in regards to voting rights. And see, the reason signing the contract is important because what it says is, oh, you have a choice. Sign it or you don't sign it. And those candidates that do, then Black Voters Matter tells the public, this is who actually signed it. This is who didn't sign it.

That's right. That's right. And when we put out the... You know, I did a tweet earlier today announcing that we were doing the ads and putting the image of the ad out there. And before I could even put my phone away, um, you know, Malcolm Kenyatta had already just gave a very simple response.

I'm in. Right? That's all it takes. But, you know, we got people who will try to say, well, I did this, you know, in the past or, you know, look at my website. It says I support. We don't want to see what's on your website. It's a very simple question. Can you sign this or not? Do you believe in these three things or not? If so, just say so. Right. It shouldn't be that difficult if you if you've done so much to say that you believe in in the past and just say, yes, I'm signing today. That's all we're asking for. That shouldn't be that difficult. If you've done so much to say that you believe in the past, then just say, yes, I'm signing today. That's all we're asking for.

That shouldn't be a lot. And what we're saying to these candidates is, are you willing to commit to voters that you are asking to commit to you? They're going to be out there all weekend going around, including going around to Black voters, asking Black voters to commit to them. But are you going to commit to us? That's all we're asking for them to do. And all it takes is a very simple response, whether

it could be social media, it could be by email. We email their offices. It could be by phone, whatever it takes. But we want to see those signatures on paper, and we want to see it public. That's what we're demanding, because at the end of the day, you know, it's voting rights. And we've said this before, and you talk about it all the time. It's voting rights that lets our movement on all these other issues be possible, whether it's reproductive justice or racial justice, you know, fighting police violence,

all of the economic justice, all these issues. We can't get a people's agenda if we don't have governance that reflects the people. And we can't have that type of governance if we don't have governance that reflects the people and we can't have that type of governance, if we don't have our voting rights. McCliff, this is also why I have been saying to people, you also have got to be mobilized. You've got to be organized. See, it's real easy for one celebrity to come out and say,

I want this. I want to see this. But if you don't have people behind you, if you don't have an infrastructure, then you can't do these things. And I think that's also the mistake that so many people have made in the past where they just think that, oh, well, this person said this, yeah, we getting behind that.

No, no, no, no, no, no. When you're able to sit there with a candidate and say, now, you know, if you don't sign this, you do know we got a mailing list. You do know we have cell phones. You do know we can activate people. And that was the thing I said last night in Kansas City. I said, if y'all are able to mobilize and get 40,000 people to commit to voting your way in the election next year? I said, ain't a politician in the city going to ignore you because you have mobilized and organized. That's right. And we encourage everybody. I say it all the time. There's a role in this for everybody. Everybody's got a role to play. And that's why we're doing the one million for voting

rights campaign. We're trying to get a million people to sign on to this place that they're willing to fight for voting rights. And that can be fighting with their votes. It could be fighting by going to a town hall and waving, as you said, waving this contract at the town hall or at the candidate forum and saying, we want you to sign on to this contract. There's a role that everybody can play with this. And guess what? If voting rights isn't your issue,

pick your issue. You know, if-if your issue is racial justice and there's a particular act that you want to get, whether it's George Floyd or the Breathe Act that Moving for Black Lives was-was talking about, pick your issue. You know, if-if your issue is racial justice and there's a particular act that you want to get, whether it's George Floyd or the Breathe Act that Moving for Black Lives was-was talking about, or whatever it is, whatever the, you know, student debt... Whatever your issue is, get it on paper.

And get a promise. And get it up front. And get it publicly so that we can hold these folks accountable. Can folks lie? Yeah, they can put their name on-on this contract and then get in there and do something, you know, different. But it's much more difficult for them to do. You know how it is, you go to the bank and you sign on

to something or whatever it is. Anytime you put your name on something, there's a higher level of accountability. And so that's what we're demanding of these candidates. And we really need to be doing this on a range of issues. We're pushing this voting rights issue because we believe that it's important that we keep it front and center in this election cycle. But we support other groups, you know, just like we support Poor People's Campaign and

what's going on in D.C. on the 18th and those issues of low-wealth communities. We support that, too. We need a contract dealing with those issues as well. We need a whole series of contracts by which we can hold these candidates accountable. They cannot keep coming, trying to get our votes and not coming with something concrete that we can hold them accountable to. Well, I get a perfect example, Cliff. There are people who are saying, well, President Joe Biden never actually said that he was going to cancel student loan debt. Well, guess what? If that was an organization out there that actually had that and said,

you want our endorsement, sign the pledge. Then all of a sudden when they're in, you can say, this your signature? Here's a video of you signing it. Why have you not done it? You exactly right, Roland. You got these different videos out there. Somebody tried to tell that to me a couple of weeks ago. They were like, oh, yo, why are y'all lying on him? He didn't say that he would do such and such. And then I pulled up the video where he said, I'm going to get rid of, for this entire generation, to get rid of the $10,000 in student debt. An entire generation,

right? But your point is that if he had a signature on a piece of paper on a specific item, then we wouldn't even have to have that debate. We wouldn't have to go fishing around trying to find audio clips and video clips because we'd have something very clear in writing that we could hold him accountable to. While we're talking about Biden, you know, I heard you talking with Representative Kenyatta about, you know, about the polling. And one of the things I just want to encourage folks, and this goes for Pennsylvania and every other state, and we say it all the time, polls don't vote, people do. I'm old enough to remember in the state of Georgia where nobody thought that we'd be able to win two Senate seats, one Senate seat, let alone two Senate seats. I'm

old enough to remember when Senator Warnock was polling at like four or five single digits percentage, and then a WNBA came out and started wearing those shirts, and all of a sudden he went up. I'm old enough to remember when people had written off Joe Biden, you know, during the primaries, and then Black folks in South Carolina came back and said, no, we got something different to say. Not the direction I wanted to go, but that's what Black folks in South Carolina came back and said, no, we got something different to say. Not the direction I wanted to go, but that's what black folks in South Carolina said. So my point being, polls don't vote, people vote, and until those votes are cast,

then, you know, people don't need to be going to the polls just thinking about what the polls have said ahead of time. If everybody polls based not on what the... or votes based not on what the polls say, but on what it is, who is it that best reflects your dreams and wishes? If everybody votes that way, it won't matter what the polls may have said ahead of time.

We can define electability. Black folks have always defined electability. We defined it in 2020. We can define it in this election cycle. And now more than ever, it's important that we do so. All right. Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. Man, I certainly appreciate it. Always glad to have you on the show. Thank you, Robin.

All right, folks. Let's bring in my pal now, Kelly Bethea, communications strategist, Michael M. Hotep, host of the African History Network show, Dr. Jason Nichols, lecturer, Department of African American Studies, University of Maryland. Glad to have all three of you here. Jason, I want to start with you. Again, I keep saying this over and over and over and over. If you look at the success of institutions, it is when people were organized and mobilized. And it drives me crazy when I see people on the city level, the state level, and they're talking about issues. They're talking about what needs to be done. They're talking about how we should be changing things.

And I'm going, if you're hoping people show up, you're going to have a problem. But when you've gone out and when you galvanize two and three and five and six and eight and 10,000 people, I mentioned earlier Congressman Harold Washington. One of the things that he did, he didn't actually think was going to happen. He actually challenged Lou Palm and others by saying, oh, if y'all go register X number of African-American voters, then I'll run. Then they went and did it. He was like, shit, damn, I guess I got to run now. Because that was not his intention. He didn't think they could do it. They went out and did it. And the reason he was elected, and the numbers don't lie, more than 75% of eligible and registered black voters voted for Harold Washington to become the first black mayor of Chicago. 75%.

I keep saying to black people, if we maximize our numbers, we can flip many elections. Ain't going to happen if we're not maximizing our numbers. And that ain't going to happen unless you mobilize and organize. No, absolutely. That's absolutely true. And I love the example of Harold Washington. Another thing that helped Harold Washington was that he built the right coalitions and built basically the second iteration of the Rainbow Coalition and got Rudy Lozano with

him, who went all over into the Latino communities, into the Asian American communities, and they all got behind Harold Washington to topple that Chicago machine. And I think we can do that in a lot of places where people have similar concerns. And that's one of the things I loved about the interview that you just had with Malcolm Kenyatta, was that he was not taking any votes for granted. He understood that his stronghold is southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly the Philadelphia area and the Philadelphia suburbs, but he was still going to those other areas and not ceding, you know, a vote saying, oh, they won't vote for a black man in this area or that area.

Every vote counts. So when you go out and you organize in your, you know, with your base, but then are also not afraid to expand beyond your base, you actually can start winning elections. And that's something that we're seeing. And, you know, I hope Malcolm Kenyatta, I find him to be a pretty compelling candidate. It'll be, you know, a tight race and a difficult race for him to win. But I think, you know, the way he's approaching it and the way that the Black Votes Matter people

are organizing in Georgia because they don't want to cede any ground that they've already won, and they're organizing and holding elected officials accountable. You can't just give lip service. We actually have your signature. That's going to be really powerful in the future. And I hope that people across the country take that, take note of what they're doing down there in Georgia. And look, Kelly, it's not that hard for people to literally say, hey, if you support these issues, sign here.

But again, there has to be an actual plan. And that to me is always, I think, the one piece where people start getting afraid because of what I'm talking about now requires accountability. Because it's real easy to say we should do these things. But you actually organizing, mobilizing to doing it. See, that's a whole different thing. That requires work. It does require work, but at the core of it, like you said, it does require accountability.

And what we have been dealing with for so long is politicians basically making empty promises to the Black community because they're taking our votes for granted. They're taking our entire lives and beings for granted because they understand and leverage the fact that Republicans do not give two craps about Black people, by and large, in a general sense.

So with the accountability aspect, it's interesting how, you know, when you have to put your money where your mouth is, all of a sudden there's an issue. But we don't have an issue, you know, putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to European countries having wars with each other. We don't have an issue when it comes to supply chain issues, when it comes to pretty much anything that doesn't just affect Black people, when it affects more than just Black people. All of a sudden, people have accountability

within themselves and for their platforms. But putting pen to paper regarding, yes, I am going to do this, it's going to take some, like you said, mobilization and, frankly, getting in people's faces and being like, hey, we're not going to take a verbal agreement anymore because you have a history of breaking those promises because you don't recall you saying that or you don't have proof that you said that. Everything in law, it is very much clear that once you put something on paper, for the most part, it is binding.

And that's the problem with a lot of these politicians. They don't want to be bound to their word, but that's what we're going to have to do if we want to get results. Well, I'll say this here, Michael. I mean, the work that Black Voters Matter does is extremely important. And thank goodness that they're doing this and that they started with the ad in a black newspaper. They did not ignore black on media. They could have easily run to the Philadelphia Inquirer, run to the other mainstream papers, but the bottom line is they've always had a respect for Black-owned media, and they have always been supporters of this show.

Absolutely, and Cliff came here as well to talk about this also. So this is fantastic, Roland. You know, this is something that one of my teachers, Dr. Claude Anderson, has been talking about probably since 1994, something like You know, this is something that one of my teachers, Dr. Claude Anderson, has been talking about probably since 1994, something like that. And this is extremely important because what it does is shows how serious we are about getting a return on our vote, how serious we are about politics. And it lets the politicians know that we're serious and also helps to galvanize support amongst our community to get a return on our

investment as well. One of the things I wanted to hear from Cliff, and we'll probably get more information on this, is after the election, if they go back on their word, how do we hold them accountable? There are ways to do it, whether we go after some of the corporations that helped to finance them and launch economic boycotts against them, whether we call their offices, have protests, emails, things like this. There are ways to hold them accountable even after the election. But I definitely want to hear from Cliff about this also. But, you know, this is excellent. And we need to do this nationwide. And what you're doing

is you're tying, you know, understanding how politics is the legal distribution of scarce wealth, pond resources. And he talked about how, well, if your issue isn't voting rights and if you're for racial justice, if you're for this, that, all that ties to the vote. You have to vote the right people in the office to get all these other policies passed and enacted that you wanted. So all this comes down to the vote. So this is fantastic. Look, I'll say this here. I'm not worried right now about how they're going to hold people accountable after the election, because we're in the primaries right now. So I'll wait until after the election. Plus, I don't believe in showing your hand early. Bottom line is the key is having that pledge. And So I think we're going to be seeing this happen all across the country. Y'all hold tight

one second. I've got to go to break. We come back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. We're going to talk about President Joe Biden saying to all these cities, hey, use some of that extra COVID relief funds to make the community safer and spend more money on cops. Is that actually the best use of the funds?

Really? We'll break it down next. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered with Black Star Network. Download the Black Star Network app. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Also, please support our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show.

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Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Actually, here we go. President Joe Biden renews his call for communities to invest more American rescue plan funding in strategies to make communities safer. To every governor, every mayor, every county official, the need is clear. My message is clear. Spend this money now that you have. Use these funds we've made available available you to prioritize public safety. Do it quickly before the summer when crime rates typically surge. Taking action today is going to save lives tomorrow. So use the money. Hire the police officers. Build up your emergency response systems.

Under the American Rescue Plan, President Biden is committed to the following to aid in crime reduction. One billion in bonuses for frontline public safety workers to help recruit and retain these public servants. Over two billion to prevent crime and ease the burden on police, including community violence interventions, crisis responders and substance use disorder and mental health services. Nearly one billion to reduce domestic violence with immediate crisis intervention, health support, and safety for victims of domestic violence, over $350 million in job training and other assistance to help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully reenter society and provide at-risk teens and young adults with meaningful job opportunities in the summer and during the year, $450 million in public safety and technology equipment like new police cars,

upgraded radio systems, body-worn cameras, and gunshot detection systems, $600 million to help clear court backlogs and support victims of crime. Biden hopes to deploy as many dollars as possible before the summer with many communities see an increase in violent crime. Guys, pull a video back up, please, and just freeze it. So it's very interesting. I'm going to show you something here. So you see to the far left there, that there is the mayor of the mayor of Kansas City. That's

Quinton Lucas. Quite interesting. Of course, I flew back this morning on a 6 a.m. flight from Kansas City. We happened to be sitting next to each other in first class. And then, of course, when we got off the plane, I had my mask on. He recognized who I was. We did exchange numbers. He said he saw our town hall last night. He said he would love to participate. I said to him, like I said to the urban lady, they should have invited him. So he said he is more than happy to come on the show to talk about what's happening with their police department there and the issues they have when it comes to discrimination impacting black police officers. The thing here, Kelly, that is interesting to me is,

is it really a winning argument if you're President Joe Biden to say, hey, use that extra COVID money to hire more cops? Now, I know I read a whole bunch of different things there, but when I earlier I saw a tweet about it, I'm sitting there going, I just don't necessarily know if that is going to be your winning answer when it comes to November. Thoughts? No, I agree with that. I am kind of tired of the constant rhetoric that police officers need more money. I still haven't seen anything to prove that that is the case. If anything, I have seen evidence of police departments getting more money than they actually need in order to keep communities safe.

There are ways to allocate those funds towards community justice that do not require putting more guns in racially biased officers. There are ways to protect your community outside of, you know, giving power to those who are, frankly, I don't want to say demolishing them, but certainly not making it easier to live in our communities. And I'm not saying every police officer is like that, but we have the evidence and the victims to say that, right? I mean, we have put together proposals and campaigns and promotions saying, you know, we need more mental health awareness. We need more councils that actually bring ordinary citizens and law enforcement together to come up with real solutions for their respective communities, as opposed to a blanket statement. Unless we have evidence that that money is going to those initiatives, I do not understand why the Biden administration continuously't listen. It feels like we're being ignored.

And it feels like they are perpetuating the stereotype that Biden is a little senile because he's continuing the narrative that no one is ascribing to. It's very frustrating. Jason, look, what we still are dealing with, though, is that last election, 72 percent of all voters were white. So the question is, is Biden playing to those voters, playing to those those white voters in these cities, as opposed to the younger crowd or African-Americans who who express a different perspective when it comes to just giving more money to cops? Yeah, I think we have to look at this from a political standpoint. And we have to understand that you have President Biden, who is historically unpopular, who is being blamed for everything, including inflation, which is a global problem. His political capital

is nil right now. And one of the things that's driving it down is the fact that he is unpopular with a lot of centrist and right-wing white voters. And I think the calculus that they're doing is that what drove them over the top against Trump was this idea that there's a center and that small sliver of the center chose Joe Biden over Trump. And if you have a huge spike in crime, particularly in urban areas, that's going to become a big talking point in right-wing media. As you know, Roland, if there's one thing I know, it's right-wing media. And one of the things that they will do, they will capitalize on that. And it didn't go well, the defund the police. As many times as we all tried to explain what defund the police meant,

as far as sloganeering, it wasn't an effective slogan. And it was something that, you know, even though the idea is correct, the slogan didn't work. And then it got conflated with abolish the police and, you know, all these kinds of things. And I think Joe Biden, who's being casted as someone who is a leftist, someone who is governing far to the left of what he said he was and what he's been throughout his career, is trying to make a political decision, a political calculus here that says that the way that we hold on in midterms, the way we win some of these areas like Pennsylvania, is to play

to this kind of centrist person, this independent voter. And we'll see how it works. Joe Biden isn't necessarily popular with anybody right now. So it's going to be difficult for him one way or the other. And I think he's trying to make a political decision here by saying that we're going to fund the police. We're not going to defund the police. We're going to fund the police. That's what he said during the State of the Union. And that's what he's holding to. And honestly, that's what he's been saying his entire career. So people who vote against or who are upset with Joe Biden saying this, you got to understand, that's what you voted for. You know, he's been saying this his entire career, is giving police more money.

And he said it during the campaign. But here's the deal. But here's the deal. Him saying that his whole career, though, Jason, don't mean damn, don't mean jack when it comes to where you are right now. It's also reading the room. The reality is this here. Democrats, this is a

base election. This ain't about, oh, let's see if we can try to pick up these suburban white women or somebody. No, no, no. This is about a base election. You don't get your base out, your ass ain't got no shot picking up anybody. Yeah, I would... Here's the thing.

I don't know too many progressives who like Joe Biden. You know, so the question is, is that Joe Biden's base? You know, and I think that from his political perspective, you know, they criticize him, you know, almost, you know, I'd say second to Republicans. And if there's a big spike in crime, he loses his kind of centrist Democratic, which I would say is his base, that kind of center Democratic base who didn't maybe they agreed with some elements of defund the police, but didn't like the slogan. So he's right now with inflation and the issue with that and people being upset and some people still being upset about vaccine mandates. I think Joe Biden is really afraid right now politically with a spike in crime, because

that will get run all over during the midterms, and Democrats could suffer historic losses. So I think this is a political decision here. You know, he's really, really trying to figure this out and toe a line, because he's historically unpopular. He's as unpopular as Donald Trump was. And it didn't work out very well for Donald Trump, who lost a historic amount of seats at midterms and then ended up losing in 2024. Excuse me, 2020. I apologize. JOHN YANG, The Press, Michael?

MICHAEL GERSON, The Press, I totally agree with this. This is what I have been saying all along. If you actually read the American Rescue Plan, you can go to WhiteHouse.gov and look at the American Rescue Plan fact sheet, page two, bottom of the fact sheet. It talks about more than $360 billion in emergency funding for state, local, tribal, and territorial government to ensure that they are in position to keep frontline public workers on the job and paid while also effectively distributing vaccine, scaling, testing, reopening schools, et cetera. They talk about, when you read this, you look at the article from ABC News, NBC News Today. I watched the press conference twice today. It's about 22 minutes and some change. They talk about, when you read this, you look at the article from ABC News, NBC News Today. I watched the press conference twice today.

It's about 22 minutes and some change. He took questions also from reporters. One of the things that $10 billion of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has already been allocated for policing, for community violence intervention, for mental health, combating domestic violence. And one of the things that he did I think that was really important today is he gave specific examples of different cities of how they had used American Rescue Plan money. Now, yes, these different cities still have problems with policing. OK, yes, they do. Detroit is one of them.

OK, but if you look at Houston, he talked about the city of Houston, 52 million dollars. This includes Houston, where the city's 52 million dollar plan puts 32 million dollars towards mental health, domestic violence response and victim service efforts, as well as 11 million million in police overtime, $3 million toward a new community violence intervention and prevention program, and $1 million for a gun buyback initiative. So I think this... Well, here's the deal, though, which means that if...

But this is how your messaging has to be different then. That should be the central messaging, not, hey, more money for cops. That's the point that I'm making. And so you can actually achieve both, but you've got to actually sell it that way.

Okay, I agree, but the way, if you actually, I know you watched the full press conference today. Michael, listen. No, Michael, Michael, listen. No, Michael, Michael. The average person out there ain't watching a news conference.

What I'm arguing is they are going to have to learn to message properly. You can't say, oh, here's our long-ass fact sheet. No, you got to be able to drive that home. You can't say, oh, here's our long-ass fact sheet. No. You've got to be able to drive that home. And what I'm saying is that's where they have been weak. And so if all of a sudden people take it as like, oh, Joe Biden said more money for cops, that's where you DOA. I'm saying they've got to learn how to message, take all of that and message different people differently. They ain't good at that.

I totally agree with you, Roland. Even though we argued back and forth, you're Alpha, I'm a Sigma. I totally agree with you on this. The way you had the bullet points up that broke down where the money was going to, job training, different things like this, that's how they have to really message it to explain to people how this money is going. I read about this more than the average person. But yes, they do have a messaging problem, and so they have to message this correctly. But overall, how they're using these dollars, I totally agree with that. They just have to message this better to explain to the average person how this is going to benefit citizens in these different cities. And once again, they talked about doing this to get ahead of the summer where we know we're going to have a surge in violence.

Of course. I mean, look, absolutely. But again, they have got to vastly improve, Kelly, how they communicate, how they talk to folks. And again, how you use social media, how you use memes, how you you can't just they kill me with this, you know, post a link, go to the White House dot gov. They ain't doing that shit. I mean, but it goes back to who is he really trying to reach, right? Because the notion of, you know, putting more money into law enforcement's hands, that's not a talking point or even something that my generation is ascribing to right now. And polls show that. Everything shows that. The way we vote as progressives show that. He's not trying to reach us. He's trying to reach people who act and sound and think like him. But they're not the ones who got him elected. We are the ones who got him elected. So until you come to terms with the fact that your generation is not going to be in

charge much longer, in fact, it is my generation that is taking over and my generation that is going to keep you in the White House. That is when you will, you know, have this come to Jesus moment and be like, hey, maybe I should do something on social media that's not Facebook. Maybe I should tell people a call to action that involves more than just going to WhiteHouse.gov. But until your communication strategy is tailored to the voting base that actually puts you in office or is going to keep you in office, rather,

we're going to keep coming across this issue of the disconnect of the communication, the disconnect between the constituents, the American citizens and the president of the United States. And when you keep having that disconnect, that's why your poll numbers are so low. That's why you're not getting through to us because you literally are not getting through to us. You are not trying to get through to us. You are trying to, again, talk to people who look and act and think like you, but they are the ones who are dying, sir. We are the ones who are still going to be here when you are gone, which isn't going to be that much longer. And I'm not saying that to be ageist. It is just very matter of fact at this point that I have more life in me statistically than my president. So my president needs to be catering to me and not people who look like him.

Well, well, well, the reality is, I think, first of all, you're catering to people who actually vote. But my point is you have to message to everybody. You have to message folks differently. It's a perfect example. So this here, this is what was posted earlier. The White House, on the POTUS website uh they put uh tune in as i highlight state and local leaders who are investing american rescue plan funding to fight crime

make our community safer okay got it okay literally y'all that's it that that's the only thing there so i'm just i'm just making a point so let me go here um joe biden so let me go here. Joe Biden. So let's go to this feed. OK, inflation, inflation. OK, agriculture. OK, baby formula. OK, Republicans deeply committed. Big spender. OK, baby formula. I got it. OK. OK. So. So, again, nothing on Joe Biden's Twitter feed with regards to that. That whole deal in terms of in terms of terms of crime. OK, so let me just go here. DNC. Let's go to Democratic Party. OK, so here we go. Okay, we're fighting for better, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, got it. So this is not their main page. It's actually, so let's see, follow us at the Democrats. Okay, let's go there, 2.2 million.

Okay, First Lady and military families. Okay, fertilization prices. Okay, ending Roe v. Wade. Baby formula. Okay, Jen Psaki. Let. Wade, Baby Formula. Okay, Jen Psaki. Let's see here, Farmers. Okay, let's see here. All right, so nothing on today's news conference.

Okay, so let's go over here to DNC War Room. Okay, let's see here, DNC War Room. This is supposed to be their rapid response now i'm gonna show y'all something so here we go president biden is using every tool is disposable to fight violent crime and keep our community safe they reposted an nbc news article y'all let's go up baby formula k republican extreme positions every single republican voted against legislation that provided funding to their local police departments and helped get officers back on the streets y'all that's literally their tweet that's the tweet right that that's it now let me just walk y'all through this here because y'all about to really trip out

this is the dnc war room this is their rapid response y'all what do you see right there it is 88.5k followers this is the official twitter account for the Democrats' war room. 88,000 followers. The Democrats. 2.2 million. Jason, I'm just saying, I'm not a mathematician, but if you're going to do messaging, you probably want to message with the account with 2.2 million people versus the one with 88,000.

I think it's a problem even with 2.2 million when you're trying to message to 180 million Americans. You know, even 2.2 million on social media or on Twitter, I think it's kind of a problem. And I think you laid it out perfectly that Democrats are not effective at using social media, at, you know, using the tools available. And I think part of that, when we look at the DNC, you know, I have my own kind of thoughts about Jamie Harrison and the way that they've been running it and the way they've been messaging. And I think that they're going to take some losses come, excuse me, come November, if they don't make some serious, serious changes in terms of messaging. And it shouldn't be up to

Roland Martin to do it for him. You know, they have to do a better job at getting the message out. It ain't that hard. What Michael laid out was, you know, is what it is. I think there is some funding in there for the things that the defund people were interested in, like mental health. You know, there were things in there that could be used in ways that I think would be amenable to progressive people. But they don't message very well. You know what I mean? And when there's a little bit of spike in crime, they're going to get hammered.

You know, the Republicans are going to do an excellent job. All those blogs, all those podcasts, all them, they're going to hammer it. And then, you know, Democrats, they're going to tweet something out to 88,000 people. I'm just saying. All right, y'all, got to go to a break. We come back, Black and Missing. We'll talk about also blaze with Delaware State and those Georgia Sheriff's deputies that stopped them and inspected their bags for some insane reason. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered

with Life's Art Network. Next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, summertime when the living is easy, or is it? Summer vacations, class reunions, kids in summer camp, all fun but stressful. You need to get into a summer mindset and have a plan. Oh, yes. Our panel gives us their favorite summer planning hacks. On the next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie here at Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives.

And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. That's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey, yo, peace, world. What's going on?

It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, the Montgomery County Police Department is searching for Samuel Herbert Laurent, who disappeared from Bethesda on April 29th. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 150 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Samuel Herbert Laurent should call the Montgomery County Maryland Police Department at 240-773-5400, 240-773-5400. Delaware State University President Dr. Tony Allen is speaking out after the Delaware State women's lacrosse team

was stopped and searched by a local Georgia Sheriff's Department last month. Allen says the university filed a complaint with the Department of Justice under the Civil Rights Department that took place during today's news conference. Today, I am announcing the university's intention to file a formal complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. The basis of this complaint will be police misconduct related to the April 20th incident in which Liberty County Sheriff's Department officers conducted a constitutionally dubious stop and search of a charter bus transporting the university's women's lacrosse team. That complaint as a public document will be made available to all of you when it is

filed. I do not intend to debate the merits of our complaint in the public square. From our standpoint, the evidence is clear and compelling. Our women's lacrosse team is one of only five Division I lacrosse teams fielded by historically black college or university in america they are exceptional student athletes and exceptional people coached by a standard bearer for the sport coach pam jenkins and her excellent staff now on tuesday liberty county sheriff william, a brother, his account of what happened contradicts what is on the body cam footage. We actually talked about that in terms of what he said. So, Bowman, he's got some explaining to do why things are so different. Folks in North Carolina, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Citizens Review Board overturned the police chief's ruling exonerating the officers who wrongfully detained a black

teacher in June. Jasmine Horn was detained when police mistook her for a suspect with the same last name and a similarly spelled first name. Jasmine was tracked down, confronted by officers at gunpoint in front of her home and placed in handcuffs for about 15 minutes Your hands up What's your name Car Jasmine horn. Yes Okay, thanks for your hand back OK, face the car. Put your hands behind your back. Drop the bag. OK. I'm right here. Let's go.

I'm just going to see Alex. Good for you. Deep breaths. Yep, good. This bag come off? You all right? Yeah. All right.

You got anything on you? Any kind of weapons, anything like that? No. All right. Put her, walk her back to her car, and then get a good search. Is your phone and everything? Yeah, it's her phone.

Spread your feet. Spread them wide. Keep spreading. Keep spreading them. Just take a deep breath. All right. You got anything in your shoes or anything? No weed, nothing like that?

No. Okay. I don't smoke. I'm a school teacher. I don't understand what's going on. Okay, I'll explain everything to you in just a second. I just finished working out. I don't understand what's going on. Okay, I'll explain everything to you in just a second. I just finished working out. I don't know what's going on. Okay.

Good? All right, have a seat for me. Yeah, she's okay. Okay. Her mom's on the phone. Okay, who are you? Now, y'all, keep rolling the video. Now, cops were looking for someone who was involved in a stabbing.

Okay? So, this is also strange. Now, Chief Johnny Jennings initially decided to not punish his officers. This is what he tweeted on April 8th. The actions of the officers who detained Jasmine Horne were found to be within policy of the CMPD as the officers were acting in good faith with the information that they were provided. Folks, it's rare that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Citizens Review Board rules in favor of individuals who bring complaints against the police. Since 2013, just seven of 21 appeals, not including this case, have reached the second phase. You know, this right here, when you look at that video there,

Michael, I mean, and this is the thing that we always talk about. And if y'all can actually go back to it, this sister is scared out of her mind. They literally could have induced a damn heart attack. And I know people out there will say, well, you know, look, I mean, she was hyperventilating. I mean, turn the audio up. You all right? Yeah. You got anything on you? Any kind of weapons, anything like that? I mean, I mean, this sister, this, again, one doesn't know, uh, uh, one doesn't know the mental condition of someone, but panic attacks, I mean, any number of things. I mean, this is what black people deal with when we get pulled over by cops.

And, I mean, that sister was straight up terrified, Michael. Right. And, you know, reading about this case, there's still some things that are unclear to me. So, one, they said that her name was similar to the suspect they were looking for. The same last name, but the spelling of the first name was different. Two, it says, looking at the article from the Charlotte Observer, officers tracked down her car, confronted her at gunpoint in front of her home, and put her in handcuffs for around 15 minutes. So

how, I'm trying to, was it the same car? It was the same license plate? What? There's still some elements that are missing here. I'm trying to figure this out. Maybe you have more details than I do, Roland. Yeah, she's okay. Okay, who are you to her i'm her grandmother

grandmother okay please turn the audio down so this is the thing that is that that's just that that's crazy to me uh jason when we see these stories okay if you're going to sit here and track someone, don't things should sort of like link? Because, okay, you're looking for a stabbing suspect. All you had was a name. That was it. No description. No car. I'm curious.

Did it just happen? Did it happen yesterday? A couple days? That's bad policing. I was thinking that very same thing about the fact that there was not some intelligence there. And I guess that's kind of a double entendre there. But, like, that they didn't have the intelligence, you know, for someone with a similar name, it's not even the same name apparently, and someone I suspect

that if you looked in a phone book in the Charlotte area and looked up Jasmine Horn, you'd probably get quite a few people. That's not some, you know, rare name. And the fact that they made that kind of a decision to run up on somebody, they went to her house, and they had guns drawn, I think is, you know, is terrifying for all of us. You know, that somebody with a similar name, you know, could have committed a crime and

police don't do their due diligence and they'll just run up on us with guns drawn. That must have been a terrifying experience. And to say that that is within the, you know, within the purview or what they do in Charlotte is also, I think, an indictment of the Charlotte police. You know, those are not best practices. It doesn't seem like to me, I think you definitely would want them to do, you know, better intelligence work to figure out that they're actually going after the right person. You know, Kelly, this took place, you know, almost a year ago. And I just, again, the thing that keeps just jumping out at me is, I mean, this sister was trying to calm herself down she was i mean you you can see her

uh breathing heavily trying to bring herself down uh and i'm trying to actually pull up a video here she talked to wc nc in charlotte where um where where she said that you know she is still traumatized traumatized she still uh has uh flashbacks uh she still um you know is is just um you know you know bothered by uh by by what happened and you know she should she absolutely should i mean i deal with anxiety myself um in all honesty, today was not a great mental health day for me. And just seeing this, putting myself in her shoes, I can only imagine what she was thinking, what she was going through. I mean, just the total fear on her face.

And honestly, looking like she's wondering whether she's going to make it home or, you know, die. And it's just like all of this could have been avoided had these police officers done their due diligence. Like, check her ID. Check for the spelling. Check anything. You have a database in your car to check these things. And it does not appear by the looks of this video that they did any of that.

They just saw her and was like, we got her done. And my thing is, if you have the name of the person, surely you have a picture of the person and what they might look like. Do they even look the same? We don't have the answers to these questions. But again, doing your due diligence could have solved all of this.

And then to tie it in with what we were just talking about with the Biden administration, this is where you want to put your money. This is where you want COVID relief to go to. Like law enforcement jurisdictions like this, where they don't do their due diligence with the budget that they already have. So they're just going to have more money to basically harass and frankly, abuse more black people because again, they don't do their due diligence because they don't much care. I mean, that that's scary to me. I'm not nearly as scared as this woman, but that is just scary to me in general. And of course, and then this took place

right in front of her home. This was an interview that she did with WCNC. A lot of time has passed since her encounter with C.N.P.D. last June. But she admits some days she's still reliving that past. It just brings back a lot of memories and issues that have occurred. This is body cam footage of the moment. Horn says officers pulled their guns and detained her after she was mistaken for a suspect who had a similar name. This week, she and the other parties involved shared their version of what happened to members of the Citizens Review Board. And in a nine to zero vote, the board voted in Horn's

favor. I was really surprised about that because I was told that most times. With the Citizens Review Board. Maybe it won't be in. The other side is favor when you're going up against the police department, yet Horn says nearly 10 months since the incident. Still no apology from police.

I think that giving an apology would mean admitting a mistake. And I think that when it comes to law enforcement, there's a sense of authority that they try to maintain and they don't want to lose that. Moving forward, she hopes police might prioritize mental health in hopes of creating more compassion and also require police officers receive additional education and training too. I do think that this will make the police officers a little bit more reluctant to just pulling out their guns and picking up people off the street. Now, CMPD released a statement on this case earlier this year. What jumps out at me, what just jumps out at me, I mean, my goodness, I mean, you're in front of your home, you're coming home, and you're staring down the barrel

of a gun. Just unbelievably crazy and absolutely frightening. So hopefully those officers are going to be disciplined and shame on that police chief for just simply allowing them to get away with it. Speaking of not getting away with something, y'all, check this out. A Georgia sheriff is facing sexual battery charges for groping Judge Glenda Hatchett during a conference. Y'all, the Cobb County Slicer's Office filed the charges against Bleckley County Sheriff Chris Coote for fondling Judge Glenda Hatchett at a sheriff's convention earlier this year.

After turning himself in, Coote is out on bond and says he's taking the charges seriously. Coote says he's looking forward to personally expressing his regrets to judge hatchett at the appropriate time now so so what happened here what happened here y'all uh was um uh judge hatchett uh was the guest of uh someone else and what happened was she was introduced to this sheriff who then apparently he approached her. The guest turned away and turned around and then literally saw him running his hand over her left breast. Now, this sheriff, Cooney, according to the other guy, likely was intoxicated and he literally slapped his hand back, cussed him out. Now, Judge Hatchett was not the one who filed the complaint. It was filed by the gentleman who invited her, but she did allow her name to be used,

and she was shocked and stunned by this. And so, Kelly, so here you have this sheriff. He wants to express his regret. How about you just plead guilty? I mean, there's so many things that went through my mind when I first heard this story, but primarily he was not arrested on the spot. That was the most concerning to me, the fact that he was not held responsible at the very moment with witnesses there assaulting this this black woman. And I was just I was just really, really speechless. And if I'm not mistaken,

he tried to flee the country or something like that. And then they convinced him to come back so that he could, you know, face accountability or something like that. And I'm just like, the fact that you had to go through all of that just to have a semblance of justice for this well-respected, frankly, world-renowned judge

who happens to be a Black woman, I mean, I really have no words. And I also saw some comments, you know, when I was reviewing this story of like, well, what about her date? What did he do? What have you. I mean, I don't I can't speak for how other people would react when third party to see that, you know, I know what I would do, but I can't put what I would do on somebody else.

Like, that was traumatizing for all parties involved, you know, less the assailant himself. So I hope that she gets justice. I hope that, you know, they bury assailant himself. So I hope that she gets justice. I hope that, you know, they bury him under the jail. He does not deserve any type of goodwill towards him because that is absolutely disgusting, no matter who's involved, but least of all, Judge Hatchett. I'm just sort of sitting here,

Jason, going, I want to express my regret. How about y'all just plead guilty and own up to it? I did it. Right. It shows you the hubris of an entitled

old white guy. It's unbelievable, number one, the disrespect to do that to a judge. Now, don't get me wrong, that shouldn't happen to anybody at any time. But I think he was aware of who she was and still was like, who cares? And was willing to break the law out in

the open. That shows you the disrespect he has for women's bodies, the disrespect he has for Black women's authority, and just his, you know, if he's willing to break the law so brazenly and out in the open, you know,

what is he doing behind closed doors? You know, it also, for me, it calls into question, I think there should be an audit of his department. What is he doing, you know, as sheriff? What are his deputies doing? If he is, you know, willing to be out, get so intoxicated that he's willing to grab or run his hand along, you know, a woman's breast, a judge, no less, at a public event. And the fact that it's, you know, just one misdemeanor count, like, they couldn't, they come up with charges after charges for a lot less. The fact that, you know, it's just one misdemeanor sexual battery charge, to me it sounds like there's probably more they could have come up with to charge him with.

And he's just going to express his regret and move on? That, to me, is, you know, something's broken with the system when you can do that. And something also tells me if that had been you, Roland, if that had been Mike, or if that had been me, I think that the charges would have been very different. Particularly, you know, we could go a whole lot with that scenario. But, you know, I think, again, a mediocre white guy can get away with a whole lot,

and he's just like, I'll just apologize and get over it. And he won't even plead guilty to what he did, even though he's acknowledging publicly that he did it. Yeah, I think that's where you say, player, you just need to go ahead and plead guilty and move the hell on. Real quick here, this story out of Russia, and that is a Russian court extends WNBA star Brittany Griner's pre-trial detention on drug smuggling charges by a month. According to a Russian state news agency, Griner will remain in Russian custody until June 18th in February. She was arrested at the Moscow airport where authorities allegedly found hash oil in her luggage, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Now, quote, it's not confirmed what substance was actually in the vape pen Griner had. The U.S. State Department recently classified Griner's arrest as a wrongful detention. Griner plays for the Phoenix Mercury. She was in Russia playing in the offseason. Michael, Russians are clearly saying, nah, we're going to keep extending this thing as they continue to fight Ukraine. I mean, that's what's going on here. So, I mean, she's now going to be going on five months now in detention in Russia. Yeah, that's what it appears. And hopefully she can get some justice. I was

happy to see that her status, at least as far as the U.S. government is concerned, changed to wrongful detention. And, you know, hopefully this turns out favorably for her. It looks like they're going to draw this out. But also, you know, if you look at some right-wing media and the stories they're running, they're talking about how she was called red-handed, things like this. You know, so it's because I look at right wing media also, those idiots as well. So once again, hopefully her as well as some others who've been over there even longer, hopefully they can get some justice also.

But I'm not waiting on Senator Ted Cruz to do anything because for the Marine that was just released, his father blasted Senator Ted Cruz for not helping. So we know that Representative Sheila Jackson Lee has been advocating for Brittany Griner's release. So hopefully she'll get some justice here. And also. All right, folks. One second. Go ahead. Sorry. All right, folks, hold tight one second. Go ahead, go ahead, sorry. All right, folks, hold tight one second.

We come back. A discussion, is the Biden administration trying to shut down or limit charter schools? We'll talk with the Department of Education official as well as charter school founder, Dr. Steve Perry. And my interview with Liberian President George Weah as we talk about the 200th anniversary of the first formerly enslaved Africans,

people of African descent, founding Liberia. Our conversation talks about that, also his plans for the country, how young the country is, and what he wants to see happen between African Americans and Liberia. You don't want to miss that conversation, folks. All of that next right here

on Roland Martin Unfiltered on The Black Star Network. Why is it so hard to see Panther? What? Right. I mean, if you go to AMA, I think I tried. So I have a collection of black DVDs. That's a hard movie. They tried you $300 on AMA. I was like, I'm not about to pay no $400 for a VHS copy.

What's the deal? Man, it is interesting, Roland. It is the movie they don't want you to see. Power to the people. It's funny. I made New Jack City. You can get it anywhere. Posse, you can see it anywhere.

But a movie that says that it is not an accident that we medicated the black communities right around the time when they were getting militant, when you had the Panthers starting to organize, the people starting to vote and march on Washington, we let these communities get medicated. In fact, that comes up in The Godfather, you know, where they say as long as it stays in the black communities. So we asked the question, they tried to say, ask us questions, I asked them, the reporters when we did, I said, listen, why is it a 13 year old boy in the hood can

find a way to buy a gun, some liquor, or a church, or some crack, and yet you can't find him to arrest those people. You can't arrest that dealer. Why is that? -♪ -♪ -♪ -♪ -♪

-♪ Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. I'm Shantae Moore. Hi, my name is Lat Charter Schools Appreciation Week. The Biden administration introduced a proposal to reduce federal funds to charter schools. The proposal would force charter schools to collaborate with public schools and justify their need in the community. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

placed this ad in the Sunday's New York Times, demanding the administration back off of public charter schools. Joining me now to discuss this is Robert Rodriguez. He is the Assistant Secretary of Education. Joining me from Washington, D.C., and also Dr. Steve Perry. He is the founder of Capital Preparatory Schools from Bridgeport, Connecticut. Glad to have both of you on. So, first, Roberto, what is the case here? Is the Biden administration seeking to cut money for charter schools?

And why would charter schools be collaborating with public schools to justify their need? Explain what's being proposed. Sure, Roland. Thank you for having me on. I'm pleased to be here. You know, by no means is this a proposal to try to cut funding for charter schools. In fact, these are a set of proposed priorities that Secretary Cardona put forth back in March for public comment. And the design here is around supporting high quality across the charter schools that are funded by the federal government. We invest $440 million a year at the federal level in our public charter schools. The Biden administration has proposed those investments before Congress and we're working with Congress in a collaborative and bipartisan basis to continue that funding.

But we also believe it's important to make some policy improvements to the charter sector to support transparency, to make sure that, as you mentioned, the schools that are funded by the federal government are responsive to community needs, and to encourage collaboration that's mutually beneficial between our public charter schools and some of their neighborhood schools, really in the interest of better serving our students. So that's the spirit behind these proposed rules. But what does that actually mean when you say collaborate? And that is because, again, when charter supporters, I'm a charter supporter, my wife and I, we co-founded School Choice is the Black Choice, which is a sponsor of this segment.

And so when we so if I hear justifying their need in the community, that I'm not understanding, because in many ways, charter schools are a are a response to failures of traditional public schools. Well, that that you're absolutely right, Roland. I don't argue with that at all. In fact, we know that the engine behind our charter schools is innovation and parent choice. You know, it's about many parents that have their students in neighborhoods where excellent public schools might be limited. And nothing in this rule would require a district school or a traditional school to sign off on any application for federal funds from a charter school. The collaboration idea here really is about thinking about how we look at examples with

teachers, where teachers are learning, our charter school teachers and our teachers in our traditional schools are involved in professional development, leadership opportunities together. We have cities here like in Washington, D.C., where there's about a third of kids that are in charter schools, and charters are collaborating with the district in providing choice and information around school choice to parents through one system. So it's encouraging, not requiring, but encouraging some of those types of practices. And I appreciate the chance because I think there's been a lot of misunderstanding around some of the proposals, particularly the sense that school districts would be able to veto funding for public charter schools, which is not the intent of this proposal. One of the folks who certainly has expressed his concern is Dr. Steve Perry. Steve, your thoughts on what you just heard from Roberto? I have to say, it's pretty amazing you said that with a straight face.

Forgive me, I'm a working educator, so we're actually on a school trip right now. I don't even know why we're having this conversation. Nobody asked for these. The only group that's asked for the changes to the charter legislation is the teachers union. It is as if Mr. Rodriguez has literally read from the teachers union hymnal. I mean, it's profoundly disingenuous. If you think that those strategies that you just offered are so important, how about we try them with the 94% of the children who attend neighborhood schools? Try it there first. Work it on them first. And then if it works for them, come back and mess with the only schools that are producing quality education in the hood. If you truly care about Black and Latin children, if you really do,

then how dare you do anything that will limit the access of Black and Latin people to create schools? Without the CSP money, I could not have opened the schools that I'm right now taking kids who 100% of our graduates have gone on to four-year colleges would not exist. Parents in the parking lot giving me hugs because they said they would not have had the opportunity but for the school. If you cared about our kids, if you really did, if you weren't just trying to protect the status quo

and the overwhelmingly white teachers union, if you really were about kids, and if this really was policy that you thought would work, then try it on the 94% of the children who attend the traditional neighborhood schools. But you're not going to do that. Put it on the Title I schools, but you're not going to do that. You're only going to do it on this very small group of people who are finally getting self-determination, Black and Latin leaders who are busting their behinds literally on school trips trying to save our community.

And here you come, a bureaucrat, trying to torpedo the work we're doing. How dare you, brother? How dare you? So again, so Roberto, to Steve's point here, is it requiring, because I'm trying to understand here, is it requiring, because I'm trying to understand here, is it requiring Charles Collaborate? And so, again, explain this, because I've had a lot of people in the...

Go ahead. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt, Roland. Just to answer your question, it is not requiring that collaboration. Again, this is important to correct the record here. And I hear your passion. I hear Steve's passion. I've met with many of those parents, you know, many of our students just this week for National Charter School Week, sat down with them, heard about their journey

and their quest to try to provide a better education, to try to provide a college prep education for their students. I met with parents from San Jose. I met with parents from Fort Worth, Texas, from Washington, D.C., and I heard from students. And nothing in this rule, despite some of the coverage that you've seen, nothing in this rule seeks to upend that choice. This is about quality, right? We know that 15% of grantees that have received dollars under this program in the past, and this has been an important program to help support public charter schools. 45% of our public charter schools have received some dollars, some support over the years from this program. But we know that 15% of those grantees have either never opened or have closed

their schools by the end of that grant period. That's 930 schools that received, you know, in total over $70 million in funds. So there is an important fiscal accountability and responsibility piece here that is part of this regulation. The other part of this proposal is responsive to what Congress has provided and put forth in the bill that they brought forth just a few months ago. And that was a provision to prohibit federal support to for-profit operated charters. So that's another part of this rule that would propose not allowing those federal dollars to go to for-profit entities. That's about 11 percent of our charter schools. It's not the majority. Again, I can tell you I have witnessed and spent time in wonderful, high-quality charter

schools that are providing that innovation and that choice to our Latino communities, to our Black communities. We know one in three charter school students are Latino, one in four charter school students are Black. So these are important schools and important options. And this rule doesn't seek to shut that down. It really does seek to try to raise quality and make sure for the minority of some of those federal funds, that federal grantees that have not been transparent with their dollars for some of those for-profit management programs, that those no longer are coming into the fold. And hopefully that opens resources to additional schools. Steve? Steve. So, again, if you were concerned about black and Latin children,

the first thing you would be doing is expanding access to charter schools, full stop. If you gave a damn about quality, if there was a litmus test that you actually genuinely cared about, then shut down every neighborhood school that's not meeting it. Do it now. I dare you. Take the same standards that you seem to want to apply to charter schools and apply unilaterally to neighborhood schools. You want us to maintain this quote. And as such, any effort that you're making is an undermining of the work that we're actually doing. This is what we actually do.

I don't visit charter schools. I run them. I don't visit the community. I work in it. We build schools that change lives. And I'm telling you, I'm not asking you that your proposal will undermine the work. I'm not curious about whether or not it'll hurt us. I'm telling you it'll hurt us. So since I'm telling you it'll hurt us, stop. Your secretary went to a school

of choice. Secretary Cardona did not go to his neighborhood school. And now he's working against the same choice to put him in the position that he's in today. How dare you? Are you serious? So, Roberto, here's my question, Roberto. So I don't see. Hold on, Steve. See, hold on. So, Roberto, here's my last question. So to Steve. So how will you ensure. So what what how will you ensure that charter schools would not be hurt? If it's about collaborating, if it's about sharing of information, and so what is in there to ensure that?

So here's the bottom line, Roland. I mean, we are going to continue to advocate for and continue to press forward for dollars to support high-quality public charter schools. We are proud of the work that's been underway. You know, the secretary supports high-quality public charter schools, right? He talks about the schools like the Stanford Excellence Charter School that he lifted up as an example of excellence, you know, in Connecticut when he was commissioner. And we know, like, through this pandemic, which has hit some of our black and brown families the hardest, charter schools have been a lifeline of support for our families. Again, this rule is not

designed to, you know, curb or attack or shut down those high-quality schools. That's not what this is about. This rule is about making sure that we're providing some transparency, the responsiveness to community need, that standard. That's a standard that applies across so many of the Department of Education's programs, our magnet schools program, our Promise Neighborhoods program. It is not unlike the standard that we have in Title I plans for our schools. So here's where we are. This is a proposal. It went out for comment. That comment period is closed, and the Department of Education is looking closely at comments from across the country, voices of our parents, of our students, of our educators, their reactions to this rule. We are going to consider those very carefully

and all that feedback before anything gets finalized. And I can just communicate to you what I know to be the values of this administration, which is to support high-quality public charter schools for students. If we didn't support that, we wouldn't put a budget forward fighting for $440 million a year for these schools. We wouldn't take our responsibility for stewardship and quality of this program. We wouldn't take that seriously if we didn't care about our high-quality public charter schools. So, you know, we welcome all the feedback. I understand folks are passionate about the issue.

And we look forward to advancing a policy here that is going to support the growth of high quality charter schools, not curb that growth. Well, I'll say this, Roberto, the most important thing for me, and I've said this numerous times, that I want every single kid educated. I don't care. I don't care how I support all forms of education. I went to public schools my entire my entire career, from elementary all the way through college. Even though I'm repping more house, I wear HBCUs on the show. And so that, to me, is the most important thing. And so I appreciate you coming on the show.

You're welcome to come back anytime. Dr. Steve Perry, I know you're going on a school trip. Say hello to your students as well. Gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Will. Folks, tell all the students hello. All right, folks, gotta go to a break. And when we come back, I sit down and talk with George Weah. He is the president of Liberia. We talk about the 200th anniversary of the formerly enslaved people of

African descent traveling from the United States to Liberia to actually founding the country, his plans for the country, and also what the future holds for the very, very young nation trying to rebuild, not young nation, young in population, trying to rebuild itself after the 15 years of war that destroyed so many aspects of the country. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, you're going to learn about the silver tsunami, which means that a million people are turning 65 every day and they're going to need some kind of care. You're going to meet two sisters whose situation with their own family led them to start a business in this industry and now they're showing others. This is our passion, our mission, our purpose, our ministry.

That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Why is it so hard to see Panther? What? The deal. I mean, if you go to AMA, I think I tried.

So I have a collection of black DVDs. That's a hard movie. They charge you $300 on AMA. I was like, I'm not about to pay no $400 for a VHS copy. What's the deal? Man, it is interesting, Roland. It is the movie they don't want you to see. Power to the people.

It's funny. I made New Jack City. You can get it anywhere. Posse, you to see. Power to the people. It's funny, I made New Jack City. You can get it anywhere. Posse, you can see it anywhere. But a movie that says that it is not an accident that we medicated the black communities right around the time when they were getting militant, when you had the Panthers starting to organize,

the people starting to vote and march on Washington, we let these communities get medicated. In fact, that comes up in The Godfather, where they say, as long as it stays in the black communities. So we asked the question. They tried to ask us questions. I asked the reporters when we did. I said, listen, why is it a 13-year-old boy in the hood

can find a way to buy a gun, some liquor, or a church, or some crack, and yet you can't find them to arrest those people? You can't arrest that deal. Why is that? -♪ Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hi, I'm Kim Burrell.

Hi, I'm Carl Painting. Hey, everybody, this is Sherri Shepherd. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, and while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing your wobble. Bring my pound back in here. Michael, Kelly, I'm going to bring you all in because the conversation we just had there, talking about the charter schools back and forth.

See, here's the thing that jumps out to me. And Jason, I'll start with you being an educator. Look, you got a lot of people who are against charter schools. You got a lot of folks who support them. I've always said this. If traditional schools were doing their jobs, charters have no business. They literally would be out of business. And I do believe that there's a problem in this country where we operate where there's one delivery system when it comes to doing things. And so again, for me, I look at traditional schools, neighborhood schools, magnet schools, home school, online school, charter schools.

I look at private schools, parochial schools, all of this, and we have to figure out a way to where folks are not saying, shut that down, end that, or this is the only way, as opposed to saying, wait a minute, they all can coexist if the goal is to ensure that students are being educated regardless of the delivery system. Yeah, no, I'm 100% in agreement. You know, I think that there are charter schools that are excellent.

You know, judging by the students that I've received from charter schools, there are charter schools that are excellent and there are charter schools that won't be around in two years. There are some that are good. There are some that, you know, you know, fall down on the job. You have New Orleans that improved. I believe it's New Orleans, that improved their whole school system by moving towards charters. And then you have Detroit, which has had struggles with charters under the DeVos family. So I definitely think that, you know, I felt the passion coming from Steve. And I understood everything that he was saying. And I'm pro-charter, I guess, in the respect that I agree with everything you said in terms of let's match kids with the best way that they can be educated. And some are going to do better with online learning. Some are going to be better with

homeschooling. Some are going to be better with charters. Some are going to be better in traditional public schools. Some are going to be better with parochial education, whatever it is. So I agree with you 100 percent there. I also, as a rule, am not against, you know, regulation. And so if there's some sort of regulation that's going to make educators more effective and make people, you know, make sure that everybody gets a certain quality of education. I'm not necessarily against that. And that's what I thought I was hearing from Roberto. Again, this isn't really my area, but in terms of the charter, public school debate and funding and all of that. But I thought I was hearing Roberto saying that we want to make sure that the quality of education that everyone is getting and the quality of training that the teachers are getting has some level of uniformity.

I can kind of understand that, too. So I guess I'm kind of in the middle of both arguments. Well, make your damn mind up. Kelly, there's this constant tension. You do have teachers' unions largely against charter schools. They want the teachers to be unionized. But then there are those who support them who say, look, the ability to be able to give people the creativity to not be burdened by rules. I had a young brother, Sean, out of D.C., who created a charter school for black boys. And he said, look, he said, we were able to make decisions on go buying things and innovative ways of teaching that if we had to go through a school district, we would have to go through all of these layers to actually get it done

where we can actually make a decision a lot faster. What drives me crazy, again, is when I listen to people who are for, who are against, have conversations and they are not centering the needs of the children. It's discussions about money. It's about contracts as opposed to are our children learning? Are they thriving? And that should be the goal for any system of education, right? So when I hear, you know, the arguments on both sides, I mean, I still have yet to hear how it is not beneficial for children to be in a charter school any more than it is for a child to be in a public school. But for the issue at hand, specifically for this segment, what you were talking about regarding the Biden administration putting more restrictions on charter schools. To Steve's point, I don't

understand why, if you're going to test a theory, why you wouldn't test that theory on an entity that, frankly, you already own, which are public schools. So for me, it doesn't feel like it is a benefit so much as it is almost an air of jealousies almost, where it's like, yeah, these charter schools are thriving because the Department of Education hasn't done its job in God knows how long, or hasn't done it well in God knows how long because of all the red tape you got to cut through in order to get one thing done. You know, you're not bound by standardized testing. You're not bound by, you know,

curricula that isn't beneficial to anyone, let alone the student. But again, to your point, until the child or the children are at the center of this conversation, what is actually in the best interest of the child? We're still going to have this disconnect and, frankly, unnecessary fight regarding education.

But here's the reality, Michael, and that is when it comes to education in this country, policy is not being set out of Washington, D.C. Education is local. It's happening on the state and the local level. That's where most of the funding also is coming from. You do have situations where you have people who play games and experiment. When you look at Betsy DeVos and her family, their involvement in Detroit public schools. And there are examples. And I've called those people out in the charter school movement who are only in it for the money. But then there are people who are in the traditional public school. I talk about all the time, who controls the contracts, who are in it for the money.

It's not about the kids. And that to me is the most important thing. And so, you know, so so for me, I don't I don't get get involved in the back and forth with unions and non unions all back and forth. I keep trying to get people to understand all the decisions we making. Do they benefit children? Do they benefit children? That's what matters the most. Yeah, I agree. Ultimately, due to the decisions we make, benefit children, how are children thriving, things like this. Having

lived here in Detroit all my life, having Jason and you hit on Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick DeVos and them being leaders in the charter school movement, especially for-profit charter school movement, things like this. against charter schools. But here in Detroit, we saw how charter schools in a way were used against traditional public schools. And the amount of traditional public schools we had here in Detroit in the Detroit public school system was cut in half. OK, shut down. You know, they were under emergency managers, things like this coming from the governor, a Democratic governor, as well as a Republican governor, but seeing how the charter schools

were misused, I would say, to also shut down public schools. And one of the things that this gets to, you talk about unions, okay? Part of this is a right-wing attack on unions, because the teacher unions, they tend to support generally Democratic candidates, especially when it members of unions, whereas with public schools like here in Detroit, Detroit public schools, generally speaking, those teachers are part of the teachers union. So when you can reduce the number of teachers that are in the teachers unions, you reduce the amount of dues that the teachers unions collect, reduce the amount of money they have to support Democratic candidates. All right. So at the same time, when we want the focus to be on children, you also have this political battle taking place as well. So but yeah, at the end of the day, we have to for charter schools, traditional public schools.

We want both of them to work well. The ones that are not working well need to be closed down. Also, incidentally, the Biden-Harris administration, $700 million is coming from the Biden-Harris administration to Detroit public schools, which is going to be used to renovate five Detroit public schools, which is desperately needed also. All right, then. Again, we certainly appreciate it. Kelly, Jason and Michael, thank you so very much. You two folks, y'all need to get those likes up. We should be over a thousand by now. So y'all got to get on the job. All right, folks. In February, I traveled to Liberia to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the formerly enslaved people of African descent leaving the United States and creating the country of Liberia. It is the first republic on the continent, and it also is the only country founded by formerly enslaved people of African descent.

While I was there, I got an opportunity to interview a number of different people, including President George Weah. We sat down in the newly refurbished or actually rebuilt, if you will, renovated executive mansion for a conversation. We talked about the 200th anniversary, talked about how young Liberia is, the impact of war on that country and how so much was destroyed, how they're trying to rebuild, and what he wants to achieve in terms of connecting African Americans with Liberians to create this partnership, because Liberia has the most unique relationship

out of any African nation with African American. Here is our conversation. President, we are glad to sit down with you here in Liberia for your bicentennial. Martin, good to see you. Welcome to Liberia. Let's start off with this bicentennial. The focus is not on Liberian independence.

It's on the first enslaved people from America, free enslaved folks, formerly enslaved, who came to this country. What do you want to achieve with this year-long initiative? I think it's the entire history of our country, how the indigenous and the settlers came. And then what we tried to do is to let our people know that we are one people, one people, and to keep the peace of our country, to understand that this is our land, not a particular people. So the Basque is bringing us together to celebrate our history

of how we Liberia came to be one country and one people. So we want to celebrate 200 years to make sure that we all have our liberty and our respect and our dignity that belongs in the country. And the reason we're doing this is because out of our past, we had a past that most of us felt that other people were not part of our society and they should not be governed. And so we want to show that we are bidons to the country.

All of us can be leaders in the country and we can live together in peace and harmony. And this is why we are celebrating the Bachelorette so people can have their right. Imagine you got a son that was born

abroad and he will be deemed as a foreigner. You know, you can't obtain a dual citizenship. That is wrong. A born Liberian, a Liberian is always a Liberian, no matter what you do. So we need to make sure that our people know that no matter where you are born, you're born with Liberian parents, you are Liberian. So we want to showcase and then celebrate our diversity. I think it's important for us. And this is why we are promoting the BASIS so people can come home and develop their country and have a place in their own home and not to be or to believe that they are marginalized and I accept it so it's just a reunification you know of our existence and that's what we would try to do you talked about that unity

let's say there's someone who has Liberian parents but they were born in the United States but they moved back here. Will you extend them the right to vote? Or will you look at doing what Ghana and Sierra Leone is doing, is offering citizenship for African Americans and others? So what are some of the things that you're considering doing? Well, if you're, if you're, if you had a Liberian parent, you are born in, you know, America or France, I mean, you're a citizen of the country. That's the first thing we have to recognize. We cannot alienate you because you were born in another country.

Automatically, you should be a citizen. So I'm promoting that a born Liberian is always a Liberian. So just like if I had parents and they were in the military and they were in Germany, even if I was born in Germany I'm still in the American citizen. Yeah, but you are a Liberian because you're born with a Liberian parents. Right. That's the point we're trying to raise.

It's the point. Imagine my son Timothy. He was not born in Liberia, but that's my son. Right. He was born in America, and he bears an American passport. How can a Timothy Weir, you know, he plays for the

American national team. How can a Timothy Weir is not a Liberian? I don't think it's fair to our children, you know. Our country, most people left here because of the Civil War. And they obtained citizenship everywhere, you know, for Green Apache.

But at the end of the day, they have to obtain a visa to come here or get their second passport. And some people are hiding their passports. You know what I'm saying? You shouldn't be hiding. You should bear a Liberian passport and the country that he's from. I think it's the right thing to do. That's the right, human rights. That's their right, the right of their forebears.

Your thoughts about extending citizenship to others in terms of wanting them to make Liberia a home, again, similar to what Sierra Leone and Ghana has been doing. Yeah, we're trying to do so. And that's why we proposed the dual citizenship the other day. And I hope that our people accept that because it's important. It also builds our economy. People feed at home and people believe that they have a place. They invest.

If you look at the world today, the United States and France, Europe, as you can see, a lot of people have immunity and they invest because they believe that it's their home. So they have huge investments and stay right there and invest. Let's just talk about what do you want to see in terms of a relationship specifically with African-Americans? I mean, the reality is this is the only African nation where African-Americans have found the country. And I can tell you there are many African-Americans who don't even know the story, don't even know the history. You have folks who came from Virginia and Mississippi and North Carolina, and Ohio. And so with the celebration, are you looking at doing bicentennial celebrations in the United States to also galvanize the one million Liberians there and to teach others about this history? Well, I think what we did here, I mean, it can be a standard everywhere in our community,

you know, to make sure that people are joined together, you know, for a common goal. And this is what we are doing. Liberians are a way to understand that other people came here, you know, for us to move on. And I think it is important for us to maintain the peace, you know,. The war today, it is a global war. We all have to work together. We all have to be one people. You have to understand my culture so I can understand your culture.

Remember, Martins, I'm a Liberian, but I live in Europe. I live in America. I was accepted by different race of people, different color of people. So I'm the leader today. And the world can be a better place when we all join hands and we all unite. It doesn't matter your color, your creed,

your religion, or whatever. We have to live together. You mentioned investment. What was the last major investment into the country We have to live together. You mentioned investment. What was the last major investment into the country? I was told it's been several years. So what do you see as the struggle? What do you see as the block?

What is it that you need to see happen here in order to make that a reality, to be able to provide economic opportunities, to be able to provide jobs, building a skill set, building of education, allowing you to execute your plan when it comes to infrastructure. It's a trade investment in every facet. You see our country and Liberia needs to be developed. Liberia needs to have rural connectivity. We need to have electricity, water, and we need to have more facilities that will attract people. But is there anything that's hindering that? Say that? Is there anything that's hindering that, that's preventing that from happening?

What is happening just bit by bit, and I believe that with rule of law and respect for human dignity and fairness, I think people will be attracted, they will come. And this is what we're doing. But we took charge already by making sure that we're building our roads and our infrastructure to make sure that they attract people. And that's the way we can build our economy. our infrastructure to make sure that they attract people and That's the way we can be our economy and if people are not attracted to our country definitely

they Business will be scarce and Opportunity will not be given to our people you talked about Connectivity so whether you're talking electricity whether you're talking about roads or connectivity. So whether you're talking about electricity, whether you're talking about roads. I mean, you've got, I talk to different people, they talk about beautiful beaches and surfing, but they say it's hard to get to. They say even this part of Liberia where you're from, they say it takes way too long to get there. Well, they understand what I'm talking about, road connectivity. You know, I came from the South Eastern region. And of course, for so many years, during the rainy season, there's no access to good roads. And this is why we're doing our best to make sure that all of the roads heading to our hinterland,

it will be paved, so people can get access to, and not just be in Moravia, but to have access to the entire country and to get to our neighboring country. You know, Africa, Guinea, and Nestle. We need to go, we trade, but sometimes it's very difficult during the reading season, and this is what we're pushing to make sure that the proper agenda works for those that really need it. And this is what we're doing. What is that going to cost? What does that mean in terms of, have you studied, obviously you've studied it, but even from a Rhodes standpoint, how much do you need to make that happen?

Well, I would say it's a huge investment. It's a huge investment. I can't put a number on it, but I'm sure. Exceeds $1 billion? Actually, it should be more than that. For Liberia to be connected, it should be more than that. And we hope that our partners understand that and bring the companies, bring the resources resources and help us to build this country.

Let's talk about education because I don't care where you go. That is a huge deal. You have a very young country. You talked about the war. Average age being 19 years old. Also need to have skill set developed. And so what this country is the oldest country, as I said to you. Today, more than 50 to 75 years in our sector, today we have digital education. So it tells you that we are doing our best to make sure the sector work because I believe in education Bain the country never had opportunity

I won't say go to go school. We've got every school that you go to it depends on the person, you know That never had opportunity and then to complete school here, but I went away Pursue my career, my dream, to be one of the best athletes in the world. And after that, I went to school. So I know the importance of education. And this is why we're doing our best. Today, if you walk around,

you see that all public universities are free today for children to have access to school. And because I believe in education, and this is why we're doing our best to make sure we promote this sector. Because every young person, every citizen has the right to education. But when it's not free, it's difficult. And this is why we give free education. And we're going to encourage every government that will come after us to make sure that librarians go to school free encourage them whereas a technical school review

it should be free are you are you concerned about brain drain are you concerned about uh your young folks getting restless and saying you know what i don't see a future in Liberia. I need to leave. I'm going to go to Sierra Leone. I'm going to go to Ghana. I'm going to try to get to America. How much of a concern is that? And so what are you going to do to ensure that you're talented, you're smartest, you're most ambitious, stay here to rebuild this country? Well, I think what I believe is not even leaving. You can have an opportunity and go away, prepare yourself, come back. That's not the point of promoting the education sector.

The point of what I'm trying to raise, they got some people here that will never leave. They're going to be here. They might never have opportunity to go away. Those people are the people we have to make sure that we save. Those kids that people believe that they don't have any future, that's the future we have to touch. And this is why we have to make sure we've got technical school, we've got free school, so they can be encouraged to go to school. And that's what I'm trying to say here.

And the point I'm trying to raise, I had an opportunity to go away. I never had a chance to pay my own school fees, but I had the opportunity to go away to play professional soccer. After that, I went to school and I came back. So, how many of us will go and come back? You still have children that are looking for opportunities to go to school, and this is what we have to fix. Build a future for tomorrow, because when you are educated, you have the possibility of being employed. You know, it doesn't matter. All forms of education, you can be employed because you have the strength, you have the knowledge.

Whether it's a technical school, a normal school, whatever. So we need to build our sector to make sure we promote the sector, promote education, and encourage young people to go to school. How do you also change the perception that some have? And I hear it a lot when people talk about trying to do business in Africa. First thing people bring up, corruption. They say, you know, I'm not paying bribes, I'm not dealing with folks who are

taking too long. It's slowed down. I don't know if I'm going to get my money back. You got that one thing. Then you have the people who have the perception that, frankly, you know what? I don't really see skilled labor to be able to go to these countries. And so the reality is you have to battle that perception that people have in other parts of the world, including America. Well, I mean, sometimes perception becomes reality. It becomes reality when people don't understand. But again, why would you have a perceived mind

if you come to a process that is fair? You shouldn't have any perceived mind of corruption because, first of all, you come to Liberia to do business. There are institutions, there are processes in place. Follow the process. If you circumvent the process, you may fall into people, you know, everywhere in the world, even in the United States, in France,

you got people that are co-actors. You're waiting for those people that they believe that they are vulnerable to take advantage. So the best thing to do is when you go to a country to do business, you have the processes there, you have the legitimate agency that you do business with. When those people corrupt you, then the government has a responsibility

to make sure that they question them. We're not going behind the curve to do business. And it's not the right thing to do. Because you know what I'm saying. Here, we have rules, we have autonomous agency, we have compliance institutions that are responsible to make sure that people come and invest. So you should be going to those people so you can invest and then follow the rules. So sometimes when people talk about corruption, I don't understand it. Last time I was in Dubai

it's the same question, the post Dubai, it's the same question. I asked the same question. If we have an investment commission here and you can't invest, why don't you go to the investment commission? Why are you looking for people to take you around? It's wrong. Go to the government institution. When the government institution corrupts you,

then, of course, they will be apprehended, there will be a question. Then you can go and say, well, the country is corrupt. But if you go beyond the curve because you believe that anybody can make you do business in a country that have the rule of law, then you'll be making a mistake. So what you're saying is if you want to do business with Liberia, go through your national investment corporation. You said go to them. Don't go to an individual in this city or this city. It's the best thing to do. You see, Martin, a lot of people, and I question what is the dream of corruption? You know, people come to do business and just get anybody. And those people corrupt and take money from them and they complain that, oh, they went to Liberia. No, you went to Liberia and you found somebody or you're on the internet talking to people that con you, you understand, that deceive you and bring you into the country. And at the end of the day, you don't even see the authorities and you get frustrated.

So those are the things. So coming to Libero to invest, you have the bureau, the National Investment Commission, a show when you pass through those entities and then the processes you follow, and then you don't have reason to say that the country is corrupt. Because if you tell somebody they're corrupt, if you go somebody they're corrupt, if you go beyond the curve, then you're also

encouraging corruption. So if you're an honest person, you honestly have to prevail. Liberia is obviously an ally of the United States. Has been for quite some time. What more do you want to see from America? What their African-Americans, the Liberians in the United States, are the African-Americans who say, hey, they can petition their members of Congress.

You're going to be meeting here with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. What more do you want to see from the United States when it comes to helping rebuild and grow Liberia? What the question I want to ask you, do Americans believe that Liberia is developed? I'll answer it this way. I don't think a lot of Americans even know about Liberia.

Okay, so we need to... First of all, they still see Africa as a country versus a continent. So you see? But those that work with Congress, Congress people, they believe that they have done well. But look at our institution. We are partners. Are they satisfied with what they see? Or they believe that Liberia needs to advance more than what it is.

Security, the rule of law and other people we are prepared we are willing to work with them so the Liberia which is the oldest independent African state you can see just a couple of years we tried to build our rules so how long we never had a real connectivity. Even our institutions, our government don't have their own building. They rent from other people. So this is a homeless country. Wait a minute.

You're renting from other people? From government offices? Wow. It's always been like that. And this is why we are trying to make sure that government get into our own facility so it can be able to reduce the the government budget the cost so the so we we are partner we still talking we still convincing them to make sure that this is the country that we all learned the history, we read, you know what I'm saying? Now we are leaders now.

So sit down with our counterparts and say, hey, the country needs to be more than what it is. But again, they are doing their best. They're doing their best. We're working together to make sure that we make sure the rule of love is in place and people have their rights and what have you we talk about democracy you know and for democrats to prevail martin i was i i'm the former former peace ambassador for this country and and what i always said to my people you listen to me the other day well our peace peace, our world would be difficult. You understand? So the only way

we can gain growth is when we foster peace and unity. Without that, it's impossible, almost impossible. You know, I during the disarmament,

you know, and I said to the kids, you can hold a gun as long as you want to hold it. It will never benefit you because it's the wrong thing. So you need to lay down arms and go toward a path of prosperity. We're heading toward a path of prosperity. It's not this type of politics. And I'm not a politician, and you know I'm not a politician now I'm a administrator that came into politics because I wanted to change certain

things right today we knew that in the village where I live in 1975 today we have a solar light we have a light we. We have a light, we have the huts being removed, and we build a home, free home for those people. And so in every part of our society, we want to see those things, we want to see change. Where people can easily live in their homes and they can use even a bathroom without going outside. So this is the thing we're doing.

The proper agenda is to awaken everybody so we can be a light to face our institution, to build the life of our people, to encourage them, to even invest in our education center in the rural area because everybody has a responsibility to the growth of this country. We need to fight very hard. You know, it's not just corruption and this and that.

Some people are limited. We need to help those people that are limited. One hundred years from now, there's someone who is reading, the Liberian student. And they're reading. And they come across your name. What do you want them to say, not about what you did on the field,

what do you want them to say 50 years from now about your presidency? As I always said, you know, when I leave here, when my children, I mean, in the society, with those people that I lead, when they point the finger at them, they must say, well, this boy, father, was a nice, a kind, and a good president. So they can live with them.

When I'm not here anymore, and this is why I do everything to make sure that we help our people. So tomorrow nobody can point finger on my children and say, well, look at him. If father was here, he didn't do anything. So everything that I do, I want the society to see honesty and to see that we try to improve the lives of our people. It's not about what I've done already on the field.

But I know when I leave here, those honest people will see there will be a legacy, there will be a mark, and they're going to see that, wow, George Weah, everybody thought that he was never going to make it. Today, this is what we got. And I'm fighting hard, Martin. It's not an easy task, but I want to build this country for the time that I'm here. And it's all honesty you know this is my country I live in the country I ran the street of this country everywhere in the ghetto you just name it you understand I went

outside to promote the image of this country during the war I was from one refugee camp to another refugee camp. And this is why when I talk about peace, I know how they live in refugee camps. And I'm back here, and I'm the president. And that's why I ask every Liberian, it doesn't matter what you think. Keep the peace of this country. There's no need to be busterous. There's no need to be rude, you know, be humble. Politicians or opposition, what have you, speak the language that will give you the opportunity to be leader in the future. is not just for the praise, to see my mark, the legacy is being kept and left. And this is how I want to live. So tomorrow, it's not just going there

to promote Africa in sports, you understand, but in my country. But today, you can see that every African knows that when it was difficult, it was not just playing this, kicking the soccer ball around. It was the message that we gave, that we all can work together. There's no need to be racist. You know, we can work together.

And this is a world of diversity. I have to know you, you have to know me. The things that you don't like, I have to make sure that I make sure that I don't do the things you don't like. We can work together. And I was successful in doing that. And I want to do this in my country. Peace in Liberia is the best way. No peace is the wrong thing to do. So, again, I'm honored to be here with you, you know, to answer your question. I think you should be coming. You should be coming often. Encourage people to come. This is a beautiful country. It is.

Warm people, kind, hearted, good people. In every society, you will see some. That's everywhere. Yeah, everywhere. But the good thing about it, like I said, I live in New York, Staten Island, live in Queens, I live in Miami for a lot of days. The world is like that. You got some good people, you got some bad people. But the most important, there should be more good people than bad people. And we are heading to a world growth. We want to develop our country. And we will do all we can for this country to be a better place. So when you come next time, you'll see that.

Wow. Wow. That's it. Well, tell me, so this is an eight-story building? Yes, I believe. And so you said bit by bit. So what they told me is you've already restored about four floors? Yeah, about two, three floors. And the yard, it's where you store the image.

You see where people, there's a capital, capital business. There's no conscious face. Not everyone is there. They can complement each other. Well, I gotta admit, when we came here, when we came here, I'll tell you,

when I step out here, I don't, it's gonna be a little hard for me to work with this view here. Because I'll probably step out here, it's gonna be a little hard for me to work with this view here. I'll probably come out here and just see a look at the ocean the whole time. Unless you're telling me to come here and just walk around, this is better than what I would before I ministered.

This is better. this represents our country. And this is why we did represent our country. We all know this story. How this building... But again, the question that I ask, one floor burned, but the whole mansion was looted. Why? Is that lawful country? I show if that one floor that was burned, today we're going to face that one floor.

The whole mansion is going to be restored. You see, so I just want to tell you there are some people that don't care. That don't care. We care, you know, because one floor flow got burned but the entire machine was looted nobody asked questions you understand but i think what we try to do is to continue to move on a peaceful path and and and it's leadership one after another it's not to criticize anybody, but to continue where they left it and what they do. And then after us, the next president comes in. That's the best leadership style.

A smooth transition from one president to the next. That's it. That's it. And we are partners with the Americans. We see how their democracy works. But there's sometimes other people that don't believe in that. And it causes trouble and chaos. Like the one who just left. Yes, I understand.

You understand? So it's the society that we live. But again, the best thing to do is to keep telling people, look, this is the right thing to do. You know, to again, the best thing to do is to keep telling people, look, this is the right thing to do. You know, to forcing and fighting, it's not the essence of life. Because when you destroy, there's no hope. You know, when everything is okay, when you can dialogue, then you have a hope. You know, you can be what you want to be. Anybody can be somebody.

You never know. That's what I say to my friends. I was here with you. I was in the street. I'm in the ghetto. Born with parents that have the possibility, but I ended up in the ghetto. But that's my destiny was not die in the ghetto. But then I experienced to continue to see

of how things are. Now, when I decided this is for myself, and I saw myself somewhere else, opportunity and today I'm here. So, but when you are alive, there's a lot of opportunity you can get. If you are no more, you're gone. So war and destabilization all these

things are not called for right you know i can be here tomorrow when i'm here i can see what you do when when you get there you know and maybe you'll need my advice then i can advise you to say well when i was there that certain thing i did and how I could have achieved it, but I could not. But I think that's the best thing to do. So we lead us today. We can work tomorrow for the country, even as an agent of the country. So we shouldn't see each other as just politicians. We are family.

We're one family. Most of my friends that grew up in school, they are running against me. You know what I'm saying? They run against me. But that's the beauty of democracy. You know what I'm saying? I went to two elections, 2005 and 2010. The first, I went as head of the ticket.

The second, and they boot me out. And then the third, I stayed on the head. And today I'm here. 2005 was not my, how do you call it, but again, what happened in 2005? If I were to persist and resist and believe that fighting was the way, there was not a rule of law, or looking at the country to move forward, maybe I was not going to be here. Maybe I was not going rule of law or looking at the country to move forward. Maybe I was not going to be here. Maybe I was not going to be here.

But the fact that I could even accept to be peace ambassador for what happened in the previous elections. Since I had a call today, I'm the president. So you can see that when there's peace, there's prosperity. So I want everybody to understand when I when I talk about peace was important important president George we appreciate it thank you very much for having us here thank you right we don't do the handshakes but we'll definitely do that well you know I was in Ghana for the year of return in 2019. Oh, that's good. So I have a designer there who hooked me up. Oh, that's good.

Yeah. I wasn't going to wear a suit. There's no suit in my bag. So I got all traditional gear. You'd be surprised. I'm the Propol, the actual Propol make up. I brought a star in the Propol. Oh, I know.

No, they made sure that I go back with several outfits. Propol, how you call it? Propo. Propo. Yeah. Oh, Propo. So when I go back, so it's called Propo Soup? Yeah, Propo Soup.

Okay. But I can't wear with the tennis shoes. You can wear with slippers. You can wear with anything. Yeah. I got to wear loafers. I can't wear tennis shoes. But that's good.

Loafers. I can't wear them. That's the best thing to do. I appreciate it, sir. Thank you very much and good luck. Okay. All right, sir. Thank you very much and good luck. All right, fam. So y'all are going to see me rocking the propo on Monday.

I want to thank President George Weah and all the officials in Liberia for making that happen. We got some other interviews that we're actually working on right now. We did a tour of the country country of actually Monrovia. And so we're going to show you that. Of course, those gorgeous beaches there as well. I sat down with a Liberian businesswoman. I talked to opposition leaders. There's a lot of different conversations that we had that we're going to be showing you over the next month. And so we can't wait to show you that. Folks, that is it for us. So let me thank everybody for watching.

Y'all, YouTube, y'all should be hitting those like buttons. Y'all keep telling me we should be at 1,000. Stop making me have to beg y'all to do so. Hit the like button. We're going to also be restreaming the interview with President George Weah multiple times over this weekend, so we look forward to that as well. And so, yeah, we're sitting at right now 831. So come on, y'all, 169 more likes and we hit 1,000.

Folks, we always, of course, on Fridays end the show, showcasing the people who support Roland Mark Unfiltered. I want to thank all the people who've done it to the show. And so thank you so very much. So again, folks, y'all download the Black Star Network app, support us with your resources, and we're just going to keep doing what we do, covering what's important for the African- Americans, but also the African diaspora,

and that's why we have the Black Star Network. Thanks so much, y'all take care. Holla! Să ne urmăm. Thank you. Martin!