#RolandMartinUnfiltered - VP Harris in Nashville, TN Legislature Expels Rep Jones & Pearson, 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop

Episode Date: April 8, 2023

4.7.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: VP Harris in Nashville, TN Legislature Expels Rep Jones & Pearson, 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop Vice President Kamala Harris is in Tennessee following the unprecedented expulsion of two of Tennessee's youngest black lawmakers, Nashville Representative Justin Jones and Memphis Representative Justin Pearson, after they participated in a peaceful protest on the house floor. We will discuss what she had to say and how this has renewed the white house push to ban assault weapons in the US. After Tennessee's historic and baseless expulsion of Jones and Pearson, more democrats and constituents are mobilizing. We will speak with Reverend William Barbara, Tennessee former county commissioner Tami Sawyer, Council member Joy Styles, and Reverend Stephen Green about ensuring we can protect our democracy. Hip-hop is turning 50 this year. Chuck D and Daddy O of Public Enemy are planning a new movement to help cure some of the systemic ills of the community and help artists succeed on their terms. They'll stop by to explain. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Today is Friday, April 7, 2023. Coming up, a Roland Martin unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. As we speak, Vice President Kamala Harris is in Nashville meeting with the Tennessee Three as well as other Democratic lawmakers

as well as students and other young folks who are demanding gun control in that state after a tragic shooting at a Tennessee Christian Academy where six folks were killed, including three children. On today's show, we'll be talking with former Representative Justin Jones, one of two expelled yesterday by Republicans in the legislature. Also, Reverend William Barber will also join us.

Commissioner Tammy Sawyer will join us as well. In addition to a member of the Nashville City Council, they will be determining over appointing the person to replace Jones, and people say it should be Jones. We'll also talk about what's happening in Shelby County, where Memphis, the Shelby County Commissioners, will determine who replaces former Representative Justin Pearson. Hmm, but why are folks saying that the mayor of Memphis,

Jim Strickland, is calling commissioners saying not to do so? We'll hear from Tammy Sawyer exactly what is happening in Memphis. Chuck D joins us on today's show as well. Plus, the mother of Ronald Green will chat with her about what's happening in Louisiana with her son's case. It is a jam-packed show. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. From sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' It's Uncle Roro, yo

It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funk, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's rolling, Martin. Martin. This is video of her arriving today in Nashville. It was a late decision by the White House to send the vice president there to meet with the Tennessee three. That is three Democratic lawmakers, two black, one white, targeted by Republicans in the legislature.

Two of those African-Americans yesterday were expelled. That is Justin Pearson as well as Justin Jones. The vice president is meeting, met with them privately. That meeting is taking place right now. She's on the campus of Fisk University. She also will be making public comments. We'll be carrying that live right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered as soon as she makes those remarks. Folks, it has been a tumultuous week there in Nashville.

As Republicans have been angry that these three Democratic lawmakers stood with the protesters demanding gun control in the wake of six people being killed at a Christian academy, three of them children. Folks, it has been, they've been criticized, they've been attacked by many people because of the decision they made. Because the three Democratic lawmakers, they say broke a house rule. A house rule, not a law, a house rule. The ramifications of this, folks, are significant. And what I have been saying to you, there's a through line between what happened here in Tennessee to what Republicans are doing in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina. So we must not understate exactly what is going on. This has

served as a galvanizing moment for Democrats in Tennessee, but also across the country. Now, what happens next? The Nashville City Council will determine, will appoint who replaces Jones. Lots of pressure being applied to them to likely appoint him. Based upon the folks I've talked to, it's a lock that he is going to be reappointed. A little bit later on the show, we'll talk with the city council member there from Nashville. Now, in Memphis, where Justin Pearson is from, the Shelby County commissioners will determine who fills his seat right now. Now, they need seven votes in order to get him appointed. My understanding, five votes right now, too short.

And Mayor Jim Strickland of Memphis, who does not have a vote on the commission, what we've been told is he's been calling commissioners saying not to appoint Pearson because Republicans will hold back funding for FedEx and other issues there in Memphis. Joining us right now is Tammy Sawyer. Tammy Sawyer served as elected official there in Memphis, in Shelby County. Glad to have you here. You tweeted out earlier what you're hearing there when it comes to Jim Strickland. Share with our audience. Thanks for having me, Roland.

It's always a pleasure to join you. So here in Memphis, the Shelby County Commission will convene next Wednesday in order to vote on reappointing Justin Pearson. And in the background, there's been calls to several commissioners asking them to either withhold their vote or to delay the vote while the city continues to try to get funding from the Republican state for the FedEx Forum or the Grizzlies play, as well as for Regional 1, our medical center. Now, you served as a commissioner there in Shelby County, and so you understand how things work there. Jim Strickland is a Democrat. And so, first of all, has he made any public comment? Because clearly, Democrats in Tennessee are angry with what Republicans are doing.

What is he saying? Jim Strickland is your classic case of a white dino, a Democrat in name only. Actually, there was an effort to get him de-bonafied over the last few years as he supported Republican candidates instead of Black Democratic candidates as recently as the last election cycle. So no, he has not made a statement. He actually sent out his weekly newsletter. It came out today with no mention of the expulsion, while everyone up to our Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, who is also a white man, has said something. But Strickland has said nothing and is ignoring anybody's attempts to get him to comment. Obviously, folks want a circling of the wagon.

The video we're showing right now is one of those parents at Covenant who lost their child. This was Justin Pearson, you know, hugging her. They were, of course, there in the chamber on yesterday. Just share with us your perspective on what you saw unfold there in Nashville yesterday. It was classic Nashville GOP racism. The fact that the two black brothers were expelled and Gloria Johnson, through no fault of her own, a white woman, was not expelled just shows exactly the deep racial animus that exists. Nashville, the Nashville House has worked very hard to punish Memphis for being independent,

for being majority black, for being the biggest Democratic holding in the state. And this is a continuation of that. And as you see in the video, Justin Pearson is wearing a dashiki and they told him that that violated House rules, which is why he has to wear a suit coat over his dashiki. So from the beginning, these two young outspoken black men are in their first term and they've just been penalized left and right, removed from committees, silenced continuously. Here in the video, we see them calling recess on these brothers and just over and over again punished for being outspoken and being the voice of black people in Tennessee. Do you believe that what this has done is served as a galvanizing moment? The vice president is there. And like I said yesterday, Democrats should be taking advantage

of this opportunity because people are pissed off. People are angry and rightfully so. This is tied to gun rights, but it also shows, again, how racism is just infecting our democracy more and more every day. And I hope it's a galvanizing moment. We just had an election, so I don't know how it will impact turnout in the next year or two, because outside of the re-election of both Justins, we won't have another election. But I think that this is, one, a launching pad for both Justins to be national leaders and have their voice heard on issues related to Black people, but also for people to see the type of organizing that we're doing in Tennessee. People write off Black activists and Black politicians who represent the South. They think we should leave the South, give up on the South. But why would we give up on the land that we built? And hopefully people will see that, like Georgia, like Mississippi, like Alabama, Tennessee, black people, we're organizing and leading too.

All right. Tammy and Saul, you were certainly appreciated. Thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you. Folks, on April 17th, a group of clergy from different denominations, they have invited Reverend Dr. William J. Barber and Repairs of the Breach to come and have a Moral Monday there in Tennessee. Reverend Barber joins us right now. Reverend Barber, this is Good Friday. We just, of course, commemorated the assassination of Dr. King three days ago there in Memphis.

And what you see unfolding here is a continuation of the battle where you had Dr. King going after Mayor Loeb there in Memphis with the sanitation workers of 55 years ago. And now you still have folks fighting these what used to be Southern Democrats who are now Republicans with, frankly, what is the rise of Confederacy again? You do, Roland. And one of the things that I think that we also have to think about in this moment, and I want to say this very clearly, you know, Dr. King, when those four girls were killed in the Birmingham jail, I mean, Birmingham church, and when Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed, James, he said, who killed them? And then he gave a list. Now, that list that Dr. King did, Roland, you and I have talked about it, it was quite harsh. He said every Negro that has sat on the sideline, he said every white politician that

is engaged in these policies, every sheriff, he named, he said, every preacher that has not moved. And so here we are in a situation where we've got this thing around the guns and these three legislators. And by the way, one of the things we should list is they were not out of order. They were trying to be in order. They were trying to do regular debate. And what happened was the speaker began to cut off the mics and stop debate and would not allow them to be able to say anything. So they were forced to do this. They were forced to do it.

But, Roland, you raised this point, and I want to raise it. However, we got to go deeper on this, because right now it's around these guns and the killing of our babies and bringing people together. One of the reasons we're going to do Moral Monday, and they wanted us to come, was to expand it. You know, Moral Monday is not just a day. It's a season. Because this same legislature, Marlin, has blocked Medicaid expansion. You know what happens when people block Medicaid expansion?

People die. This same legislature has blocked living wages and kept people poor. You know, 700 people die a day from poverty. This same legislature, when they wanted to pass a resolution around Dr. King's birthday, because they included remarks that had been made by the Poor People's Campaign and others and talked about poverty and dealing with gun violence and dealing with health care, they would not approve it until all of that stuff was taken out. So this legislature has been a death-threatening legislature for a long time. And the truth of the matter is, what even one of the clergy said today, we all need to repent

because we should have been standing up a long time ago. but since the time is now, let's do it. Let's keep it going. And let's not just stop with the critique on the gun laws. This extremist legislature, like so many in the South, is death-dealing because the policies it promotes are not benign. They hurt people, they destroy lives, and they undermine people's health and well-being. And when it's pushed to the empty degree, they care more about guns and bullets than the lives of babies. Video we're playing right now from the Tennessee Holler, this was shot earlier today. People are still mobilizing there. And I just think, Reverend Barber, again,

we always talk about how moments turn into movements. And look, these are so the actions of these Republicans to six people being killed in a school is to is to expel two black lawmakers, not deal with the problem. And so, you know, do you see the opportunity in Tennessee? What happened in North Carolina with more Mond, where it started with 17 people. It was African-American. But then all of a sudden, a whole bunch of white folks, a whole bunch of firefighters and police officers and teachers begin to realize, wait a minute, this stuff impacts us too, not just black folk. Exactly. In fact, it started with 17 people, seven clergy, 10 people. The first woman that got arrested was a white woman in a wheelchair.

But it also started over one bill when they decided to block health care. Then they decided to deny living wages, and they decided to deny voting rights. And people said, wait a minute. And guess what, Roland? It happened in April. It happened right—the thing that caused us to mobilize tomorrow, Monday, was during Holy Week in 2013, they passed the worst voter suppression bill in the history of the state since Jim Crow. And we said if they're going to crucify health care, crucify living wages and crucify voting rights, there always must be a witness at a crucifixion and declare that it's wrong. People stood up.

We didn't know where it was going to go. But as you said, moments can turn into movement if we think movement. And I think people are thinking movement. I think what you're seeing is we can galvanize black and white and brown people. If the narrative shifts, the South is not really red. It's unorganized and unmobilized. And so here is a powerful opportunity. They take out these—try to take out these three legislators. Watch what Justin Pearson and Justin Jones have done, though, and the white lady that's there. Number one, she wouldn't allow them to split them from her, even though they didn't expel her.

Notice how every time Justin goes to the mic, he's saying, look, this is not just about me being elected. This is about them trying to shut down the voices of my 70,000 constituents. This is a moral issue. This is about them trying to block public policy. This is about democracy. They are skillful. I've known both of them for a while, especially Justin Jones. They are being very skillful, and they're leading us. They're not allowing it to be about a personality cult. They're forcing this to be about a movement, about principle, and about shifting public policy. We stay here. Yes, this is a movement that can build across this nation. That's why we were invited to go there on April 17. We've got Muslims and Christians and Jews and people of faith, pastors, clergy, people who may not be people of faith, but who believe in the deep moral values of our Constitution.

On the 17th of April at 11 o'clock, we're going to be marching. And guess what, Roland? We're taking casket. We're going to be in full vestments. We're not going to let them change the subject away from this death-dealing public policy that will kill babies and block health care and block living wage. No, no, no, we're not doing that. And we're not stopping in Nashville. We're coming there. And when we go to Nashville, Rolla, I'm not going there to speak and lift up me. It's to lift up the prophets that are already there, the people

that are there. And then we are moving now toward Washington, D.C., and the Congress in Washington, D.C. So, yes, this is a moment that is a movement. And I'm so thankful that the two young men that are at the center of this understand movement building, understand how to keep an issue focused. And I'm also glad that when they chose not to expel the white lady, she didn't take the bait. She didn't take the bait, right? She said, oh, no, no, no, no, no. You may not have expelled me. And she said, but I know exactly why you didn't do it, because I'm a white woman and you're trying to separate me. And that's not going to happen. Last question for you. We talk about, you said again, people are not mobilized.

They're not organized. Look, you know, we have been making calls to the Tennessee chapter of the NAACP to find out what they're doing. Earlier today, the Nashville branch of the NAACP, they actually held a news conference there. I mean, this is one of those moments, frankly,

where NAACP, Urban League, National Action Network, Rainbow Push Coalition, Black Voters Matter, Until Freedom, Alphas, AKAs, Deltas, Divine Nine, Prince Hall Mason, Eastern Star, The Lynx, all of these black groups must be utilizing their power and their membership and putting them into action. Exactly. Now, let's be honest, Justin, both of them have done some things prior to this moment and they didn't have the support they should have had in other areas. Now they're here. Let's move beyond that. But we got to repent of that. Secondly, it's going to take more than a press conference, and you have to bring more than just a race

critique to this moment. You've got to be able to deal with race and class. You've got to be able to step into the issue. Look at the crowds today. Look now, you've got to be okay with being around white women and white men and children, and you've got to make

this about a moral issue, a press conference. This is a long-term battle. Look, even Governor Kasich, who used to be out of Ohio, said on MSNBC the other day, and I don't agree with his policies. He created a lot of this mess. He said we need something as long as what happened in Montgomery, over 300 and some odd days.

The same is true here. And this moment, we must mobilize. So I'm like you, Roland. Everybody that claims they're in movement building needs to be engaged in this movement. We need to repent for when we haven't been engaged. This is not the time to be behind the closed doors trying to cut little deals. This is about mass movement to shift mass policy for fundamental change. Reverend William Barber, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, Doc. Let's go live to Fisk University where Nashville Councilmember Joy Stiles is there. The video you saw there was of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson arriving there at Fisk University. Glad to have you with us, Councilwoman Stiles. Has the vice president arrived there yet? She's actually getting ready to make her way over. Our senators and our congresspeople just walked in, as well as Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and also Gloria Johnson.

And so the vice president, I understand there was a private meeting that took place. She's also going to be making some public remarks? That is correct. They just finished over in the library, and they are on their way over here to Fisk Chapel. This has been obviously very contentious. You're the city council. You all have to make a decision as to who is going to replace Jones. My understanding that council members there are standing strong and they

want him to return to the legislature to represent his district. We absolutely do. What happened this week was absolutely ridiculous. How do you expel someone who is fighting for their constituents? We are a city that is grieving and is mourning right now the death of six people. We have the worst gun laws in this country. And instead of focusing on that and beginning to have a conversation about fixing our gun laws, instead you expel people based on decorum. That makes absolutely no sense. So yes, the city council in Nashville, our mayor, our elected officials, we are standing with the three. And that's the right thing to do. And the city council to making that making that decision, obviously, it is a momentous one.

And for people who don't know, look, the Republicans have been attacking Nashville. They split the city up. It's district, into three other areas. They've been gerrymandering the place. They also are trying to penalize Nashville when it came to the Republican National Convention. They wanted it to come to Nashville. They were angry with Democrats there. And so people have to understand, this thing is way bigger than just these three members. There is a wholesale attack on Democrats in Tennessee. 100%. And this has been ongoing, as you said, since August, since we said no. We did not want

the drama of having the RNC here at this time. We would have had a week of Proud Boys and all of their cronies, and it wouldn't have been right to our constituents to have put them in jeopardy. Several people claim that they don't understand our concerns, but this is a reality that we're living in right now. So we put our constituents first. And to be frank, I would vote the same today if that vote was in front of me yet again. Right now, we are sitting, waiting to hear on the injunction as to whether or not we're going to be cut in half.

They passed a bill on March 9th, effectively cutting us to 20 members. The city filed a lawsuit, and we are waiting right now to hear about the injunction as to whether we're going to run as 40 members as usual, or we're going to be running as 20 members with brand new districts. Also, let folks know, what are they trying to do to y'all in the airport? Oh, so that's the other punishment. So we have an airport authority, and so the governor has decided

he would like to take some of those seats over, and he would like to appoint his own people. They're doing the very same thing with our sports authority. We're in the midst of voting on a Titan Stadium, and he wants to come in and take over five of those positions and be able to appoint his own people. At the end of the day, what we're talking about is a group of people that do not live in an urban area, do not understand urban governance, and are making decisions from rural areas. You cannot have people that are just sitting on 40

acres, don't know what it's like to have almost a million people to make decisions for and create budgets for, making decisions for us, because this seems exciting for them. Absolutely. Again, if you could just do our viewers a favor, just flip your camera.

I just want them to see the people who are there on the Fisk campus as they are waiting. They're waiting the vice president there. Obviously, you've got a lot of students there, but you got folks from all across the city and state. So just just set the scene for describe for us what what's happening there. So, we just got started. My colleague Zulfat Zawahra, who is our very first Muslim elected to office in the state of Tennessee, kicked us off very passionately. She's very close with Representative Jones and basically encouraged us to say, no more. What are we doing?

Hold our representatives accountable. Let us come up with some good gun laws. Right now, we have permitless carry. You can get a pint of vanilla ice cream and a gun if you feel like it right now, all at the same time. And that makes absolutely no sense. And so we have students that are here. We have local activists that are here that are speaking and calling out that we do the right thing. Technically, by law in the state, we're supposed to wait four weeks before we hold this vote. And we said, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to hold it on Monday. And the vice president, I believe, is making her way around the block. So when we start to see her, we'll certainly transition the phone that way. But yes, it is an amazingly weird time in Tennessee. We've been under assault since that vote. They have been coming after education. We just renamed the street

Representative John Lewis Way two years ago, and they put a bill forth this year to name it President Donald J. Trump Boulevard. And the only reason why that did not pass is because frankly the fool who decided to put the bill forth got caught liking some homosexual posts and putting comments on it and so they said we probably should just pull this one back because it's going to cause us a lot of trouble if we continue. Wow. Well, look, I know that is unbelievable. If you can hear, I think she might be making her way, but she's around the corner. Okay.

All right. So let us know if you have to get inside, because typically what happens, they close those doors and lock them down. So. Well, so far, so good. Since she's not in the building just yet, I'm okay. Okay. Thank you. All right.

Well, just let us know, because we don't want you to get locked out. I'm sure you want to be inside to hear her speak. So let's just do this here. What we'll do is go ahead and do that. And what we'll do is we will hopefully be able to carry her remarks live. Amber, we appreciate you joining us. And we definitely can't wait to see what happens on Monday. Well, thank you very much for having me,

and hopefully we'll be able to check in about how it goes on Monday, but I really do think we're going to be voting to have him reinstated. All right. Because it's the right thing to do. All right, Councilwoman, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Happy Easter. Likewise.

Folks, this is a live feed here from Channel 5, what's happening in the Fisk Chapel. We're going to go to a break. You should be able to – you have the audio? All right. So we are, again, we are trying to get – this is a feed from from the let's see if we now have it. Let's see here. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

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

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store.

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Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. So again, there are a variety of speakers there. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to go to commercial break, and we'll come right back, folks, on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network.

Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. our network. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys.

This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. We feel the hidden impacts of climate change that land harder in black, brown and native communities. Not many people talk about it because they clearly don't know our lives. But with President Biden's landmark infrastructure and climate plans, our issues are finally seen. Removing lead pipes means we know our water is safe. Cutting carbon pollution helps our kids breathe easier.

1.5 million new jobs means stable work in communities. The impact we need right now. Hi, I'm Israel Houghton with Israel, a new breed. What's up, what's up? I'm Dr. Ricky Dillard, the choir master. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon,

and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Good evening, folks. This is a live feed from the Fisk Chapel, where shortly Vice President Kamala Harris will be speaking there. I want to introduce my panel who joins me today on today's show, civil rights attorney Matt Manning, Michael Imhotep, host of the African History Network show, also legal analyst Candace Kelly. Glad to have all three of you here. Again, what we are seeing play here, Candace, is Republicans doing what they do. That is pushing hard when it comes to their power. They made this decision.

You listen to all of them, these interviews, talk about all the Constitution was being in trouble and all that sort of stuff. Give me a break. It was a simple House rule. No, this is meant to send a message to Democrats and to their voters. We have the power. We have the supermajority.

We can do what the hell we want anytime we want it. That's right. We can do what we want anytime we want it, and we can do the same thing that they did, and we won't get in trouble for it. And I think one of the things that we've been talking about tonight that's really important is that this really is a part and is going to be the beginning of another mass movement. Here we have young Black men who have been making their voices

be heard in a way that we really haven't seen before on a national level. This age, two of them on the floor, having their mics cut off, getting their fur ties cut off, making their voices be heard in a way that we really haven't seen before on a national level, this age, two of them on the floor having their mics cut off, getting their First Amendment rights just kind of cut out of the whole system. And so I think what we're looking at here is a culture shift that not just Tennessee is going to have to deal with, but the United States of America is going to have to deal with to understand that this next generation is not just up and coming. This next generation is here. What these Republicans

can't understand and can't grapple with is that these aren't the people that they could commune and interact with on a normal level. These aren't the people who are going to be at the Thanksgiving table, right? So this is all new to them. And so for them, this is a whole culture shift that is going to have to settle. People are going to have to understand that, you know, when you look at a young black man, you're not just looking at him in the way that the media builds him up anymore and how we see them in police videos. We are now seeing articulate, right, because they like that word. We have to be articulate. We're seeing articulate black men on the floor making their

voices heard. And that is something that Republicans are going to have to deal with just the same way that they're going to have to deal with these weapons that we don't want to see the laws move on. Michael, this email from the pool report, the pool that's covering, first of all, President Joe Biden is in Mississippi today meeting with folks who were impacted by the devastating storms that went through the tornado that killed a number of different people. I'll go to my iPad. This afternoon, the president spoke via conference. This is from the White House. This afternoon,

the president spoke via conference call with State Representative Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson, the three officials subjected to expulsion votes in the Tennessee Statehouse yesterday for peacefully protesting in support of stronger gun safety The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the president's election.

The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the president's

election. The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been

protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the president's election. The president has been protesting for the Tennessee Statehouse. The president invited the three leaders of the White House in the near future. Obviously, Michael, the White House did not waste any time. They dispatched Vice President Kamala Harris there to Nashville. This, again, is one of those moments where if you're this White

House, you step up and you recognize the energy that is around this issue, that this thing is way bigger than the three of them. It's way bigger than Jones and Pearson being expelled. This really is about a severe threat to democracy when Republicans have super majorities in state legislatures. Absolutely, Roland. And they did the right thing by putting this statement out. They did the right thing by sending Vice President Kamala Harris. But what we have to understand, Roland, we've talked about this here on this show before. Your book, White Fear, deals with this. This is a continuation of the collapse of Reconstruction. And this is a continuation of the Jim Crow era that comes after Reconstruction, which was designed to suppress African-American

political power. OK, what we saw that took place yesterday was a high tech political lynching. That's what it was in Tennessee, a former Confederate state that has a history of physically lynching African-American men. A lot of those white Republicans, I'm not going to call them white supremacists, but I think many of them are, but a lot of those white Republican men who voted to expel them 70, 80 years ago, they would have, many of them would have been involved in a physical public lynching. They couldn't do that. So they did a high-tech political lynching of these African-American men. And we have to,

the fallout from this, Roland, I can't help but compare this to 2015 in the state of Indiana, when Indiana passed the Indiana Religious Freedom Bill, which was the transgender bathroom bill, and all these corporations came out in opposition to it. And within one week, the Indiana state legislature was forced to change the bill. And then Governor Mike Pence of Indiana signed the interlaw. Where are the white corporations today denouncing this and putting economic pressure on these Republicans, who many of them helped finance? And also there are four, my understanding, four gun manufacturers in Nashville as well, and they finance many of these Republicans also. So we have to understand that we also, in addition to mass protests, as Dr. King correctly told us, we have to always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. We have to put economic

pressure on these corporations as well. It looks like I think either the representatives or the vice president, Seth Meyers, go back to the live chat, please, of what's happening at Fisk Chapel a few moments ago. So don't resort to silencing when you don't know what it means. Let's take this live. Now, Nashville has lost a voice in Congress to gerrymandering. And now we've lost a voice to expulsion. But this one we can recover. And on Monday, our council is going to do just that.

Thank you. So in the wake of this terrible tragedy at Covenant, let's be determined to make common sense. He said something there that was critically important when he said this is this is happened because of gerrymandering. And that's really what Republicans have done. They have gerrymandered themselves into power. Supreme Court ruled in a case that came out of Wisconsin that they cannot get involved in political gerrymandering,

which then means, well, if you already have gerrymandered states and they gerrymandered the state legislatures and they gerrymandered the state Supreme Court, hell, it's hard to overcome that. And that's one of the reasons why you have Republican super majorities in Tennessee, in South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and all these different places. It's because of political gerrymandering. I'm assuming that's for me, Roland, and that's correct. In fact, as it relates to Gloria Johnson, she had to run for a new district because they gerrymandered her old district that she was already serving in, and she had agreed not to run against the black people. Matt, hold tight one second.

I believe the vice president is now coming into Fish Chapel. Let's go live to there, folks. Thank you. Yeah! All right, Matt, go ahead and make your comment. Let's see here. All right, looks like the Vice President is now coming in. And our United States. I love you. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. I love you.

Please have a seat. Please have a seat. Please have a seat. Mayor Cooper, Mayor Cooper, it is good to see you again. And I thank you for your leadership and the courage with which you have led for your tenure, but in particular over these last weeks. Come on, Pat. for your tenure, but in particular over these last weeks. The mayor met with me every time I come, and you have been a clear voice around what smart governance can look like when people have the courage to lead.

Thank you. So before I discuss the reason for our convening, I do want to mention the devastating tornadoes that have taken place in the state over the last two weeks and across this region. Lives have been lost here in Tennessee. And as many of you know, the president, our president, Joe Biden, approved today a disaster declaration. And we will continue to support the families in the community.

And our prayers and our thoughts are with all of those who have been affected. So we are here. And as we know... I get that. I get that. As a proud HBCU graduate, I get that. So, as the students, as the young leaders here know, the legacy of this extraordinary place of education in America has produced leaders who have gone on to be not only national leaders but global leaders. And I'm reminded in particular this afternoon of two of those leaders, the late, great John

Lewis. And, of course, the phenomenal Diane Nash. And what they learned and then taught was that if one is to understand that you are born a leader and it is just a matter of when you decide to kick that in, then you know that we will see leadership at every stage of life if people choose to turn that on. And we have seen that here in Tennessee over the last couple of weeks. We have seen over 7,000 students and young leaders go to the Capitol to talk about what John Lewis and Diane Nash talked about, the importance of freedom, the importance of liberty, the importance of respecting the right of all people to live where they receive dignity, where they live in a place that they can be free from harm. And so we are here understanding the broad shoulders upon which we all stand.

Those fighters for freedom and liberty and justice. Those fighters who understood the truth must never be stifled or silenced when it is on behalf of the people. And so I want to start by recognizing the Tennessee Three. We are here because they and their colleagues, the Democratic caucus of the state legislature, and I'd ask you to stand as well, please. they chose to show courage in the face of an extreme tragedy, which is that 11 days ago, six people, three educators, and three babies, nine years old,

were murdered senselessly due to gun violence. They chose to lead and show courage to say that a democracy allows for places where the people's voice will be heard and honored and respected. And they understood the importance, these three,, who hears the demands of its people, who say the children should be able to live and be safe and go to school and not be in fear. They said, we understand when we took an oath to represent the people who elected us, that we speak on behalf of them. It wasn't about the three of these

leaders. It was about who they were representing. It's about whose voices they were channeling. Understand that. And is that not what a democracy allows? A democracy says you don't silence the people. You do not stifle the people. You don't turn off their microphones when they are speaking about the importance of life and liberty. That is not what a democracy does. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real

perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

You say you'd never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

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

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And understand. So they turned off the microphones. They tried to tell them to sit down and be quiet.

But they understood that the voices must be heard. So think about this. In order to make sure the voices were represented in that place where elected leaders are supposed to lead in a democracy, these leaders had to get a bullhorn. They had to get a bullhorn to be heard. Well, you know what? That happens in a democracy, too. That happens in a democracy, too. If the students' demand, if the moms' demand, if the people's demand is not being heard by those who should listen and care and contemplate and reflect and think about, maybe I should give

this a moment to listen. Give it a fair chance to be heard. If I feel like I'm so right, shouldn't I have the courage to debate it? Make your case. Make your case. You don't turn off the microphones. And then they do that. And then guess what? Because you know what? Can't have those voices in that room challenging notions about who should say what and when and where, let's expel them. Can you imagine? Let's get rid of them entirely. Let's remove them not only for that moment, but remove these people who have been elected to represent the people. And let us decide who should represent the people.

What is that? That is not a democracy. That is not a democracy. You can't walk around with your lapel pin. And you're not representing the values that we hold dear as Americans. You can't walk around and talk about protocol. Protocol and procedures were devised to require and allow and encourage debate and discussion and, yes, dissension. But these so-called leaders tried to shut it down instead. But we're not having that. We're not having that.

And so the thousands of young leaders who descended on the Capitol and continue to organize, continue to require that the voices be heard. Because let's understand, the underlying issue is about fighting for the safety of our children. Saying that, you know, our babies are going to school. It's been years now where they're taught to read and write and hide in a closet and be quiet if there is a mass shooter at their school. Where our children, who have God's capacity to learn and lead, who go to school in fear if their back is to the back of the door, that they don't know what might be coming through the door. Our children are being traumatized by this fear.

Parents are wondering and asking and praying every time they send their child to school or take their child to school that their baby might come home safe. Think about the underlying issue. You know, some things are up for partisan debate. Sure. And they will be, because that is also a sign of a democracy. But on the issue of smart gun safety laws, background checks. Background checks. The policy is really pretty straightforward.

It's to say, you might want to know before someone buys a gun whether they've been found by a court to be a danger to themselves or others. You just might want to know. You might want to know if someone has shown themselves to be violent before they can go and buy a gun. You just might want to know. It's reasonable. The mayor talked about red flag laws. When we know, and when a community or a family knows, shouldn't we listen? Shouldn't we listen? Shouldn't we listen? Assault weapons.

These are weapons of war. These are weapons that were designed to kill a lot of people quickly. No place on the streets of a civil society. Part of the underlying point is let's not fall for the false choice, which suggests you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws. We can and should do both. Don't fall for the false choice. So the underlying issue is one that we are witnessing over and over again.

This community experienced it firsthand just 11 days ago. I have been to Atlanta. I have been to Buffalo. I have been to Highland Park and Monterey Park just in the last several months. You know, and the thing is, is that it's not like we're trying to figure out how we should deal with a policy around smart gun safety laws. are there. The issue, which gets back to these three, is that we need leaders who have the courage to act at state houses and in Washington, D.C., and the United States Congress have the courage to act instead of the cowardice To not allow debate and to not allow a discussion on the merits of what is at stake. Courage. You can't call yourself a leader if you don't have the courage to know what is right and act on it regardless of the popularity of the moment. So I'm going to close with this point. I do believe that every generation has its calling.

That there are moments in time that find you and require and depend on your leadership. And so in particular to all the young leaders here, this issue is going to require your leadership. It is. I spent time as a United States Senate Senator in the United States Congress. Before that I was an Attorney General leading the second largest Department of Justice in the United States. I'm now Vice President United States and I'm sharing that with you. I'm sharing that with you, the young leaders here, to tell you we need you.

We need you. Every movement, every movement in my perspective that has been about progress in our country was led by the young leaders like John Lewis and Diane Nash and you. The best things. Every one of them. And so we are going to be depending on you in solidarity with the work we will all do in our respective positions to lead. You speak with such clarity. You speak by telling the truth through a lived experience. Your voices are part of the conscience of our country. When we need in these moments in time people who have something in them that is about empathy, about care, about a sense of responsibility for their brother and sister, we need you all. And your leadership in this movement is going to

impact people that you may never meet, people who may never know your name. But because of your leadership they will forever be benefited. So I say all that to say, we will not be defeated. We will not be deterred. We will not throw up. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

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

to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

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

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos.

You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock.

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

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on. All right. Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at Fisk University in their chapel, firing that audience up. Of course, she is there standing in support of the Tennessee Three, Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, as well as Gloria Johnson, Representative Gloria Johnson. She was the only one of the three who was not expelled by Republicans in the legislature on yesterday. You might remember Justin Jones said that he was being treated like he was an uppity Negro. As one of my fan members, I don't know who sent me this shirt. I thought it was appropriate to wear today. Matt, you were speaking before we left.

That right there definitely was, I would say, Vice President Kamala Harris in her bag. Yeah, definitely. She struck the exact tone that she needed to strike, and I'm glad that she did. I think the reality of this, though, is what we're looking at is, you know, in America, there are two different standards for black people and white people. We know that. But we know in about three months, people will be celebrating

the Fourth of July and they'll be celebrating the Boston Tea Party and the colonizers standing up to tyranny. Right. But this is what we see. We see that these rules and these moving goalposts are always applied to Black people when it comes to protests or when it comes to anything that Republicans can dog whistle and try to slide into not meeting decorum. And that's what's so heinous about this, is that the underlying thing that they're protesting is gun violence in the wake of yet another heinous, tragic mass shooting. I mean, it's absurd to me that,, they would take that political position, but two, that you would ostracize and expel two young men who are standing for their constituents. My understanding is the mother of one of the children that was lost was there thanking her,

her, you know, person who represents her. So it's an absurd idea that they would be vilifying this. And it's, I'm glad that Gloria Johnson took the position that she did and said, look, you know exactly why I didn't get expelled, because I'm a white woman, because that's the reality of what it is. We see this in all aspects. And it's abhorrent that it's happening. And it's frankly terrifying because what you're seeing not only in Tennessee, but in Texas and all these other places, are you seeing that Republicans are just not reticent to use their power and they're willing to change the rules at all times that it benefits them? But this is wholly undemocratic. I mean, especially considering George Santos has lied about everything a person can lie about,

and he's still sitting in Congress. If you can't figure out a way to expel George Santos, but you can figure out a way to expel these guys. It's because you want to expel these young black men who are standing up for the cause. Candace, you heard the vice president make it plain that she and President Joe Biden will be standing for those fighting for gun control. But she invoked the names of John Lewis, Diane Nash, and she said to young people, we need you to rise to this occasion. That to me is exactly what needed to be said. And I've been saying when millennials and Gen Z's begin to vote their numbers, they can change this country. Absolutely. And you know, the speech that she gave was so on point, especially because all of the dogs were barking at the same time. Everything was lined up. And she had that moment and the time. Look, she wasn't talking from a teleprompter.

She had a few notes, but she was really speaking from her heart to make her point that, you know, these young people who got into office, they got into office for the very thing that they were expelled for. You go to the floor, you ask questions, and you have a debate. And you have to have the courage in order to have the debate. You can't be a coward, like she said. So her message for young people to get out there and march on, as she said, as she ended the speech, I think really, really hit home. And it's just good to hear from someone like Kamala Harris take the floor at this time and really speak to those students in a way where it felt like, you know,

sometimes your mama was talking to you in the middle of your kitchen. Like, you go do this because it is incumbent upon you. The world has called upon you to do this. So go ahead and rise to the occasion. We have your back. It was a fiery speech, and I think that it was just perfect timing. And it was good to see her there at Fisk University. Michael. Yeah, Roland, this is a powerful speech. I think this is a flexion point. And she was absolutely

correct to invoke the names of John Lewis and Diane Nash. And it was about April of 1960 that John Lewis and Diane Nash and others like Reverend C.T. Vivian were involved in protests in Nashville, Tennessee, to break the back of segregation. And those and others engaged in the economic boycott of the downtown business district to break the back of segregation, and it was very successful. So we have to connect economic withdrawal strategies that were used in the past to what's going on right now, because this is one of the ways they were able to do that. Eyes on the Prize deals with this, the segment dealing with Ain't Scared of Your Jails, 1960-1961. They go in depth and talk about how they organize and how they impose economic withdrawal

strategies in the downtown business district. So it's important for us to understand, Tennessee is where the Ku Klux Klan was founded, December 24th, 1865, Pulaski, Tennessee. Tennessee is where Nathan Bedford Forrest was from, one of the first ground workers of the Ku Klux Klan. And it wasn't until July of 2021 that they removed the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a traitor to the union and led the Fort Pillow massacre of about 200 African-American Union soldiers, April 1864. They removed his bust from the state capitol in Tennessee in July 2021 to the protest of some of these same white men who ousted these two brothers yesterday. We have to understand this history and how it's relevant right now.

We do have some other, I'm going to do this real quick before I go to my next guest. We do have some other breaking news, and that is a federal judge in Texas has ruled it unconstitutional, has put a ban on the abortion pill drug that was approved by the FDA a couple of decades ago. Here is the ruling right here. It came out of Amarillo. Candace, many people say that the Republicans went judge shopping. This is a Trump appointee who made this ruling. There's a stay and the FDA is going to appeal. But this judge is saying that this abortion pill will be banned nationwide.

This single federal judge, this ruling will impact the entire nation. Your thoughts about this decision? Well, you know, it's just the way that Trump has worked over the years, right? He strategically placed, you know, over 100 judges in the place that he wanted them to be in for these types of moments to happen, and it is, in fact, playing out. The reason that we have this one judge doing this is because it sets a precedent for other areas in the country. And when there is no precedent to go upon, you have to look at the only precedent that's on paper. And so that's why this is going to have reverberating effects.

And what Trump has done, you know, some people have called it very smart, right, because he placed people in the places that he wanted them in order to make it happen. But as you talked about in this breaking news, the FDA is going to appeal this. This is something that we will not hear the end of. I don't think it's something that is going to work because it affects so many people. And we're not just talking about black and brown people. We are talking about masses of people. It certainly affects us in a different way. But when you are affecting the masses the same way we were talking about with the assault

bans and weapons, and you have young people who are out there and people from different races who care about things like this, it really makes an impact. They may have to say today, but this is certainly not the end of it. But as you said, its effects are real because this is the only game in town and this is what people are looking to. Going to a break here, but let me go ahead and say this before we go to the break. And I just want to be as clear as possible. OK, I'm not going to mince any words right here. For all of you trifling punk ass people who sit out there and you make comments on message boards and you post on social media and you say stuff in barbershops and beauty salons and you say that Judge Katonji Brown Jackson was performing in politics by President Joe Biden, when you say that voting doesn't matter, here's perfect proof where a single federal judge can issue a ruling that impacts the entire country. I have said numerous times why voting matters, because guess what?

Whoever is the president gets to pick federal judges. Whoever's in the United States Senate, the Senate who controls it, they get to confirm federal judges. And these people are there for life. And so for all y'all people who love to sit here and talk about who's the Democratic shield and this, that, and the other,

do understand that these federal judges can impact your black ass every single day. There are people who literally are sitting in prison because some conservative federal judge will not look at the evidence that could free them from jail. There are people who have been sent to prison and they have been freed because of federal judges federal judges the power that they have is enormous if you need any further evidence that one federal judge in Amarillo, Texas can issue a ruling and impacts the entire country But you still have these simple Simons out here who say voting is the waste of my time

I don't see anything changing. Well, guess what? The folks who oppose you, they are voting. They're voting in Tennessee. They're voting in Mississippi. They're voting in Florida. They're voting in Texas. And if you think for a second that they don't understand the power, well, then you absolutely are clueless.

Folks, this is why. This is called all hands on deck because what we are facing, we are facing folks on the right who absolutely want to control every facet of this country, the federal level, the House, the Senate, the White House, the courts, governor's mansions, state legislatures, county commissioners' courts, city halls.

And you better decide which side are you on, those who are in the game or those who get played by the game. Going to a break. Folks, support us in what we do. Guess what? The other networks are focusing on the abortion issue. We care the vice president's speech live. This is why your support matters.

We don't have millionaires and billionaires who fund us. Your dollars make the difference, folks. And so send check and money orders. Join our Bring the Fun fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks a year at $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. Trust me, y'all, every dollar absolutely matters, especially while I'm out here fighting

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Zale is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. When we come back, we'll talk the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. I lost my daughter. I didn't know where she was. So I had to figure out how to survive, how to eat, how to live. I don't want to go into the details because she's here, first of all.

She may not want me telling that story. But possession of her, the family broke down, fell apart. I was homeless. I had to figure out I didn't have a manager or an agent or anybody anymore, and I'm the talent. So I gotta figure out how to be the agent. I had to figure out how does business work. Next on the black team with me great call.

Doctor Quincy can not. Often scholar and he is one of the truly representative thinkers and activists of our generation. I had a dream, you know, a particular night, and when I woke up, several ancestors came to me, and they came to me and said, I really like what you're doing, but you have to do more. His writing provides a deep and unique dive into African history through the eyes

of some of the interesting characters who have lived in it, including some in his own family. The multi-talented, always fascinating Dr. Kwesi Kanadu on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Antonique Smith. Hey, I'm Arnaz Jane. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really, it's Roland Martin. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Folks, June marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

And there are many people who have been very much involved in the growth of this phenomenon created by African-Americans. Two of those folks, Chuck D and Daddy O, they are back, folks, 30 years after the release of self-destruction for a collaboration of a new project in the movement called Stop Self-Destruction in the vein of the Stop the Violence movement started by rapper KRS-One in 1989 in response to violence in the hip-hop and African-American communities. They've also partnered with the music label Opposition to help artists succeed on their own terms. Joining us right now are both of them, Daddy-O, as well as my longtime homeboy, Chuck D. Glad to have both of you here.

First, before we get into the collaboration, let's first deal with, I got to get your thoughts on what you see unfolding there in Tennessee. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown.

And never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

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

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Chuck, start. Well, it's major, and you see the exuberance and enthusiasm of, I would say, the hip-hop nation, since the hip-hop nation has had 10 generations in it for 50 years, every five years. And so the news and the sparks that I've gotten out of there is young people really stepping up and making some noise. And that's always been a hip-hop sensibility. And I didn't get it through the news better than I've gotten it through young people online. Davielle, go ahead. I think he said a lot. I think organizing is a force, and I think organizing is a factor.

And as we talk about hip-hop and its 50th anniversary, those are the type of things that we want to bring to the forefront. There's a lot of things that are happening that young people are not involved in. And we know that they should be involved. And we think that this music can help them. We've seen music be a force for that in the past. We've done it throughout our entire careers. Stetsasonic and Public Enemy

has done it throughout our entire careers. But with this self-structure movement, we want to move a lot of that forward and get a lot of the issues out, like be able to talk about it. But here's the deal, right? A lot of this stuff is not being talked about on record. And so, honestly,

that's kind of sort of the reason young people are not involved, because their whole life is music now. It used to be a little different when we was talking about records and 8-tracks and cassettes. The accessibility wasn't there as it is on the internet. Their life is music now. So we got to get in that. Hey, Brother Brolin. Yeah. Remember, you know, they blame hip-hop for so long, and they blame young people for the gun violence, and this was born out of the 1980s,

when the same thing they talk about as a national problem with the guns and the NRA and the lawmakers and the gun makers, we addressed these issues in the 80s because it got out of hand to silence. It was silence in the 1980s when there were shootings in schools, when there were shootings in the street. The gangs accelerated because there was this quick money

because all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you had guns and you had drugs. And this happened to be along the recorded ascent of hip-hop. So the biggest discussion of hip-hop at that particular time in the mid-'80s was going to say, like, well, you know, we're going to talk about this self... you know, this self-destruction, the gun violence that they're ignoring.

But this is number one on our charts. It's something we got to deal with. Fast forward to 2023. Fast forward to the 20-teens. And the biggest issue is like, why are all these shootings happening? And the faces that are actually behind a lot of it aren't black youth. So now it's come up to the top of the water chain, and everybody's like, wow, this is something we got to deal with. And then when the hypocrisy comes on how to deal with this, let's say, the manufacturing, the distribution, and how guns end up in all these hands, now you see the real color come out.

Ain't that something? So young people have seen these hypocrisies. I'm saying young. I'm giving it 30 and under, Roland. And 30 and under has been the language, hip hop has been the language to say, if we're not going to get on the news, we're going to actually step forward. And now technology has stepped alongside to be that extra springboard to the culture. So, and that's a long answer to your initial question. But once again, the language of hip-hop is speaking large to that. Howie, though, we talk about the music, we talk about the power in the music and the ability to

reach people, but it also is a question of what is being said in the music. And both of you can speak to that because obviously there used to be a different focus when it came to what is being said. just talking about whether it's cars or money or women or anything else, that they really can impact people in a very unique way if the message is speaking to them that's different. So I think one thing to understand about hip-hop is hip-hop has a non-violent origin, right? Hip-hop started, there's a movie, Rubel Kings, you can look it up. Hip-hop started because gangs in the Bronx made a truce. Then the Brooklyn guys came in, the Manhattan guys came in, wasn't too many gangs in Queens. They made a truce that they wasn't going to fight anybody anymore. And then all that competitive art, breakdancing, graffiti arts, DJing, the rapper came last, but rapping as well. That's what hip-hop was born

out of, right? So we're talking about music, former music, with a non-violent origin. What Chuck and I have figured out is that we are in the area of what we call absentee fatherism.

Hear what I'm saying? If Young Thug is not my son, if Future is not my son, then whose son is he? John Bon Jovi's son? Bob Marley's son? Maybe Kenny Rogers' son? No. So all these guys come out of us. But without the elders in the sport, like with anything else, we just talked about John Lewis, like with anything else, without the elders in the sport, like with anything else, we just talked about John Lewis, like with anything else, without the elders in the sport, without the elders in the game, then these kids are kind of going off in their own direction. We don't think that they're demons. We do think they're doing some demonic stuff, but we look to turn that around by being in the rooms with them. A lot

of what we're doing with Stop Self-Destruction is organizing the young people and us together, because I don't think that they've seen the likes of a Chuck D or a Daddy-O in those studio sessions. Also, to add on with Daddy-O, you know, because there hasn't been a reaffirmation in this society of knowledge of self and who we are and who we are to the world. There's a fear of aging. There's a fear of getting old because you might not have had it from the age zero or how to appreciate and graduate year to year, and to the age of young to older to old. So what hip-hop has done, or I would say like myself, Daddy-O, KRS-One, what we're trying to do at the Hip-Hop Alliance, with MC Lyton, Elder Curtis Blow, and others, we're trying to draw the line to say, this is a language that could go across 50 years.

And at the same time, at the end of that rainbow, you see that there is a great attribute to being able to age as a black person in a society that has still so much against you. But it's your GPS, so to speak. And hip hop has been a GPS when you use it right. When it's used by somebody else, it ends up being COINTELPRO. Hip-hop, like Daddy-O said, started out against COINTELPRO. Gentlemen, hold tight one second. I'm going to go to a break, and I want to pick up on that. My panel has some questions for you as well.

Folks, we're talking with Chuck D and Daddy L about the collaboration that they're doing. We'll be back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. And so we'll go to commercial break. But first, let's tell you about something that Candace, she actually has a company beyond her legal stuff, and that is Curl Prep Natural Solutions. Her product is organic. It's a two-step curl defining system. This video here, you can check it out. People have been lining up to see the product in action and the hair shows. When they take a seat to try it, they simply don't believe it is their hair. Now, you can, of course, access the products at CurlPrep.com.

CurlPrep.com, it works on any hair. It has two steps, sweet butter and a sweet defining gel, both at CurlPrep.com. And parents, you can also, you'll love this system because you can comb the product through your child's hair with your fingers. And, of course, our seasoned saints, they love the product as well. It has products that are great for twists, braids, locks, weaves, even those wigs and extensions. Folks, go to curlprep.com and you won't not believe it's your hair. We certainly appreciate, of course, Candace partnering with us. And so again, the website is curlprep.com. Check it out. We'll be are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcast. You say you'd never give into a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store.

So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.

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

We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Check some money orders. $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Y'all money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. The cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, re-entry anxiety. A lot of us are having trouble transitioning in this post-pandemic society and don't even realize it. We are literally stuck between two worlds in purgatory. How to get out of purgatory and regain your footing and balance what emotions they're feeling

and being able to label them because as soon as you label an emotion it's easier to self-regulate it's easier to manage that emotion A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network Hello, I'm Bishop T.D. James. Hi, how's it doing? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seales. Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What up, Lana Well, and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered

with music artist Chuck D and Daddy O. Questions from my panel. Michael, you're first. All right, Chuck D and Daddy O. Questions from my panel. Michael, you're first. All right, Chuck D and Daddy O. Hey, grew up on hip-hop, love Public Enemy and Stetsasonic. I know Professor Griff, he's a friend of mine. What I wanted to talk about, ask the question on, when we talk about the four elements of hip-hop, DJing, MCing, graffiti, and breakdancing. The fifth element is knowledge. How do we hold record companies accountable today to put the knowledge back into hip-hop like it was in the golden age,

late 80s and early 90s, when we can hear that on the radio, mainstream hip-hop, we can hear the knowledge. Public Enemy, X-Clan, et cetera, Stetsasonic, et cetera. How do we do that? It's like one of the struggles that Roland Martin has. We have to build our own. That's the best protest. And getting

the audience to come to our culture knowing that, okay, there's two forces next to each other and, yeah, we got colored on ours, but they got white on theirs and people think they got ice in their water.

I'm just like saying our culture, when you wait for somebody to tell your story instead of you telling your story just to make it to the radio, just to make it to these apparatuses and gadgets, you know, you have to have, you know, your best confidence of knowing who you are. And here's another thing, bro, in whole tip.

You know, if you ain't got no connection into the diaspora, why are you trying to bang the walls in a captive situation in the United States of America when we have advantages as opposed to disadvantages? I've been to 116 countries around the planet. Hip-hop has been in every single one of those countries. They brought me there. Right.

All right? Right. So what audacious nature do we think as USAers thinking that we're at the top of the food chain in our culture when we're really probably in the middle of the pack? This is like 50 years to the art form the whole world is you know uh 360 degrees so i mean really seriously there's other situations that have not only just picked up on hip-hop they could spit different languages and they found ways to integrate it into leadership so i think here and waiting that we got to box ourselves in a hot box

and think we have no connection to the world to learn from is one of our culture's biggest mistakes. And so if you don't have knowledge of self, you don't connect yourself with the diaspora, you know, you much slinging in somebody else's backyard. Daddy-O? Yeah, I mean, the labels are not part of our equation. I mean, I've been signed to Spitz Slam

for six years, seven years. I mean, Chuck's been doing an independent thing for most of us for the last few years. We don't look at the labels at all anymore. We're not thinking about them because I don't think it's... I think that's old, right? I think it's real

old to even think that a record label is going to partake in what we're trying to do. Especially when we talk about imparting knowledge. So because of technology, because of the way things are, again, going back to no more black lacquer records, no more 8-tracks, no more cassettes because we're digital distribution. I say this to everybody. Distribution could be a hot sauce bottle now because all you got to do is have a barcode on the hot sauce bottle. So the bottom line is that record companies

are not, to your question, record companies are not part of our equation. And also to add to that, you know, like, I mean, you have like in the world of jazz, you have so many of our people that don't know Sonny Rollins. And Sonny Rollins is still here on his own terms, making truth the power and knowledge yourself and all that. But the fact of what he's not on a major news network or major media machine every day. So we would know,

or he's not on a radio station. So my whole thing of always got to be shining on somebody else's platform in order for you to be known. And to my detriment, too, I've been so independent right throughout that I have settled to saying who comes to the party is who comes to the party. And that's what it is. We're going to deal with that audience and trying to beg an audience to come and saying this is good for them.

But we still got to keep on keeping on being honest and truthful to the art form. And the art form, it might have started as a term of hip hop in 1973. But our art goes well, you know, centuries and eons before that. And if you don't understand that we've always been creative people at the beginnings of time, and all of a sudden you want to start it at a hip-hop date, then you shorten yourself. Candace. All right, thanks. So a lot of these artists, especially during COVID, sold their catalogs. And I'm wondering, in the hip-hop community, do you get a sense that people are interested in selling or are there rumblings about some of the big artists that we know that might cross over into that arena

and say, you know what, it's time to sell? I'm surprised they thought they had it in the first place, right? Right. I think selling your catalog, that's a play for money, right? Because the bottom line with us as hip hoppers, and this is just the honest to God truth, I could sell my catalog and make 50,000 records in two more weeks. Like, that's what we do.

We rap on records. So the bottom line is that we we may not value these catalogs the way people from the outside see the catalogs they might see it as them we don't see the catalogs as us we're us so we can make more of that and i think that when you see people sell catalogs it it's a money play. It's a money play more than it is. Put it this way, and then Chuck, you can add on. Selling your catalog is not selling your soul. I'm saying that.

Right. You got all kinds of music and different things integrated into your music anyway. Understand this. The reason, there's always a reason for something to happen like it did. This is a play between the technology companies and the software companies, those that had the catalogs in the first place, or a partnership in it, and they know where it's going to go in the next 10 years. And matter of fact, the technology companies know where it's going to go the next 10 years. Many of us sitting right here have no clue or idea.

Here's a reason why there's a selling of a catalog, because they know where a song is going to sit in 2032. And we might not know how they all lined it up, because a lot of the tech companies are in partnership or now owning the software. So this is where, like Daddy-O said, yeah, it's a money play, but you gotta really know what this game is in order for you to play that game or you will get played. So, you know, it's almost like housing. Person sells a house

and they say, okay, it's the time to sell. Now I'm gonna buy another house. You gotta get in that game. Just can't be like, oh, you sold your house and the house is falling apart. It's all raggedy. They were going to take it away from you anyway. You got to really seriously know who you are and what you have. And then, you know, if you sell a catalog, it's like,

okay, is that the end of your lifespan? Is that the end of whatever you're going to pass along? Being in the music game is that you're a perpetual creator. You're always creating things. You know, me, I sold some song rights, but at the same time,

I'm also in the tech game creating an app that's going to probably have, you know, maybe 150 catalogs thread through it. But, you know, we as a people are like almost in fifth grade. We love

the music, we love our artists, but we know nothing about the industry that delivers to us. Same thing like being a ball fan. Like, oh, I love my sports teams. But we're nowhere into understanding the mechanics of why you're checking out a game in the first place, although the athlete comes from your neighborhood. But the game is created for somewhere else. So knowledge of the game is very important. In sports, we can't leave it all up to ESPN to teach us everything, but they do a better job of teaching sports than anything teaches us about music.

And my good brother, Daddy-O, he's called Professor Daddy-O for a reason. I looked at him as being a person that's taught me, and he's like really a modern-day griot of hip-hop and rap music. And our respect goes back like 40 years in understanding the seed of this genre. And when we actually hear something being said about it from left field, we look at it side-eye and examine it and say, you know what? They needed a more scholarly answer that had a little street to it that really would make people understand. Matt?

So my question is about the initiatives and how you brothers are populating the projects that you come up with. How are you identifying artists? How are you identifying initiatives that you want to include in the initiative? And it's my understanding that this came out of a conversation at South by Southwest. Is that right? In Austin? Not all of it. We we we've been talking about this for quite a few years. If you're talking about stop self-destruction, we've been talking about this for quite a few years. One of the things that we noticed is that

as we move into the political arena and some of the cultural arena of black folks, the troubles, the issues, music has become less and less a part of that, right? So in the first self-destruction, we talked about violence and that was the focus. Somebody got killed. A guy got killed over his chain and we all came out and spoke against it and spoke to young people about, you know, possibly stopping some of the madness that was going on.

This time around, like I say often, we never thought we would be hearing the words hip-hop and suicide in the same sentence, you know, hip-hop and fentanyl in the same sentence. But we have it, right? I mean, even, I guess, two days ago, it came out that, you know, the cause of death for Coolio was fentanyl. So, we aim to address all of these ills on this next project. How we identify artists is just based on what they talk about. So I always give the way we want to thread it, right? So I give the scenario of you take a guy like Moneybagg Yo from Memphis, you make a record called Where Did All My Money Go?

And then you lock him into somebody that's doing financial literacy. Because what we want to do with this, the identification for us this time is identifying with the people that do the real work, which is why we are unfiltered anyway, because Roland is going to blow us up, right? We want to identify with the people that's doing the real work. Right. We know who's feeding the soup kitchens. We want to know who's who's who's stopping them. Look, Tyrone Williams of cold chilling has a program in New York where he has 100 percent graduation rate for felons. That's what we're talking about. We want to identify with the people that's doing the real work. Because you know why? Most of the time,

the people that's doing the real work, besides for rolling open in his big mouth, nobody knows! Right. Nobody knows! They think we out here not doing nothing right listen to me man listen to me i've been rapping since 79 i'm 62 years old bro

so i'm around my age group all the time they think we're not doing nothing so i'm like okay i hear you i know what i've been doing individually. I know what Chuck's been doing individually. We friends. We business partners. Watch this. And, Chuck, to that point, the reality is why the media is important. First of all, you take the music. It's about messaging.

But also, if you do not have that media platform, to Daddy-O's point, folks, it is like a tree falling in the forest which is why again i keep trying to tell our people i'm we can't keep begging oh my goodness i hope perfect example okay you know the abortion pill uh ruling came down we were carrying vice president kamala harris's speech at fisk i said to my staff i I said, tell me what's on MSNBC and CNN right now. They weren't carrying her speech live. They were discussing the abortion pill ruling. Well, first of all, that's a ruling. It ain't going anywhere for a week, but she's speaking live.

Well, because I own this, we carried her stuff live. We can talk about that decision later. And so it's a matter of who controls that platform. And for our people, we just got to stop waiting and say the hell with white validation, hoping they cover our stuff so we can get information. We got to support our own. Go ahead, Chuck. You know what? White folks are going to come anyway.

The white folks are going to come in as fanatics if you do your thing right. We have that problem in news media on knowing who we are and where our news is at, and you've answered to that, Roland. You can imagine that culture and music, it seems like after 1980, the knowledge of what the music is, the artists, the labels, the songwriters, you know, it was just like erased from us. And radio was one of the first culprits when they used to say, more music, less talk. When the DJs were everything, they were our GPS. So hip-hop took over to become a GPS on its own. But we, you know, 50 years later, we said,

okay, that GPS needs interpreters and GPS almost in the same way that jocks used to break it down. They used to break down songs. And you knew the members of Earth, Wind & Fire. Right. And you knew Charles Stephanie. It wasn't a rare thing. The same thing in hip-hop and rap music.

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

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

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

You say you'd never give in to a meltdown And never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock.

Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Radio's been providing for a very long time. So we just realized and said, we have to create our own media machines, magazines and things that are serious. Yep. Sometimes you got to make a decision that better is better than bigger. Yes. Because once people think that bigger is better,

that's one of the first mistakes that you make in trying to get the word to black folk. You're absolutely right. I say that to people all the time. And I'm like, guys, look, I'm not waiting on them. Because if you wait on them, we're going to be waiting. And then we're going to get mad. Well, why

don't y'all cover it? Because they're going to determine what the hell they want to do. And again, just because you got black faces and white faces don't mean that they're running the show. Yeah, and I break it down like this. Daddy-O, if he sells a hundred records, sometimes we have to say, you know,

we moved a hundred of those records, not by begging to get a thousand through this other media. It's about being able to secure and lock in with an audience and deal with the, it's a slow process of one by one, get one at a time, but it culminates. And if you get an industry that also goes one by one, there's a, there's a respect in that. And this is one of the reasons I work with the hip hop Alliance. You know, it's only, it's only power, you know, uh, end of the road power conversations that's going to be relevant is the collective of many of us. Because the burden of individuals is just too much.

And look, you guys have been on, let's see, we came on, and just to your point, and I'm just telling you just from Cash App standpoint, when you talk about, you said one by one, Latoya Grigler, Tommy Williams, Color Girl Art, Larry Roundtree, Corey, Byron Wiley, Angela Good, Kathy Wiley, Keith Williams, Joan Warren, Tracy Dupree,

Audria, Eula Milon, Patricia Jones, Eric Merriweather, Shelly J, Daryl Dark, Erica George, Solomon Morris, Donald, Robert Brown, Vincent Williams, Brenda Lewis, Donald White, Derek Clarkson, Deidre Washington. All those folks have given since y'all have been on. And that's the thing I keep explaining to people. Hey, take your audience, build your audience to your point. If you sell 100 records, yeah, I'm not sitting here going, oh, man, take your audience, build your audience to your point. If you sell 100 records, yeah, I'm not sitting here going, oh man, I wish

1,000. Hey, we're going to appreciate every dollar. Look, it's 10, 5, 20, 150, but we can't wait for somebody else to build it and to save us. We have the capacity to do it ourselves. Gentlemen, you're certainly welcome back anytime.

I've known Chuck for years and so he has all my information we gotta talk absolutely absolutely and as I always say we ain't gotta ask permission here cause I own this shit and let us do whatever we could do to you know

help you brother Romo anytime you know and that's what it's about it's not even about making sure that we get to shine. We have a genre and an art form that's worldwide that we feel that can be an asset to such a power situation as you. And then it's reciprocated. It's just in the movement, man.

It's an organic thing when it's family. Yes, sir. Gentlemen, I appreciate it. Daddy-O, Chuck D, thanks a bunch. Good luck. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes, man. It's an organic thing when it's family. Yes, sir. Gentlemen, I appreciate it. Daddy-O, Chuck D, thanks a bunch. Good luck. Yes, sir. Thank you. All right, folks, going to a quick break. We come back. We'll talk with the mother of Ronald Green, get an update on that case. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Oh, and by the way, Candace says, I didn't have it. If you pull the video again, curlprep.com. If you use the promo code ROLAND, you get a 30% discount

using the promo code ROLAND. Lowercase r-o-l-a-n-d. Again, go to c-u-r-l-p-r-e-p.com c-u-r-l-p-r-e-p.com promo code ROLAND. 30% discount. Back in a moment.

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is not your fault. It's not your fault, and you don't deserve to be treated like this. 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 streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly

violence white people are losing their damn lives there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash.

This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs,

they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks. It's been nearly four years since Ronald Green was beaten in 2019 during a traffic stop by Louisiana State Troopers.

The officers involved will be in court next week to enter a plea to charges ranging from negligent homicide, malfeasance in office and obstruction of justice. Joining me now is Ronald Green's mother, Mona Harton. Hopefully we'll have Mona in a second. We're trying to get our audio straight. Folks, this story has been a shocking and stunning one for so long because remember, they told his mother, they told Mona and the family that he died in a traffic accident. It wasn't until the video was later released

that showed that he was viciously beaten. Matt Manning, this is one of the most egregious cases we've seen. It led to a change in Louisiana state troopers, numerous investigations. We discovered the line that was involved, and it went all the way up in Louisiana state troopers. One of the most shocking and damning cases we've seen in a long time. And each and every one of them needs to be buried under the jail. I mean, the fact that they not only didn't tell the truth about what happened, but covered it up. And then the state troopers continue to try to cast the family and people who were asking what was going on as though they were

either releasing information in an unauthorized way or not releasing it with full context, with the full context being that not only did they kill Ronald Greene in cold blood, but one of the officers had the audacity to joke that he hoped he didn't have AIDS because he had blood on him. I mean, we're talking as egregious as it gets, and it's going to be very, I think, difficult for the defense to make these officers look like anything other than cold-blooded killers. Now, I suspect that they decided to go with negligent homicide rather than murder because they were concerned about the mental state and having to prove that these officers did it intentionally. But I suspect that a jury that hears this is not going to have any

sympathy because all of that evidence about the lying is going to come in, right? And once that evidence comes in, it's going to show that this was done maliciously, and then they continue to cover it up in a conspiratorial way. So I'm glad this has finally come to light, but this is proof positive that this kind of thing happens and that it happens at the highest level, because customarily, state troopers are generally a higher caliber of officers in a lot of places, right? So for them to do this and to lie about it the way that they did is particularly heinous. Candace? Well, what he said is correct. One of the things that's going to be key here is just the evidence in and of itself that what is it that they were trying to cover up to begin with. So they obviously knew that they were doing something

wrong or they would not have tried to cover it up. It just also kind of leads you to just it's reinforcement of the fact that you always have to question the system. It may take years. This took years because of all the lying. It took years because of COVID. It took years because the family begged and finally a media outlet was able to get this information out to the public. You always have to question the system, even if you are dealing with troopers, which seem

to be on a higher caliber. If you're at work, you can't trust human resources. If you're on the streets and the police stop you, you can't trust the media. You always have to go above and you always have to question far and beyond to get to the truth. That's just the world that we live in. And that's what this family did, and that's why they were able to get this indictment. So it will be interesting to see what they plea.

Of course, they're going to plead not guilty, but they're going to have a very difficult time in court because of all the evidence that sits before them. Michael? Yeah, hopefully Roland and the family will get justice for Ronald Green. This is a tragedy. It's a huge cover-up, even though there was video evidence as well. I agree with my two colleagues here. And hopefully these officers get put up underneath the jail. But this is another reason why video camera footage is so important, dash cam footage, body camera footage, et cetera. And this is why it's important as well for us to, at the same time we hold these officers like this accountable and get them out of police departments is also important for those of us who want to be the type of officers we say we want to see to infiltrate these police departments as well.

Oftentimes we hear about, you know, white supremacists have infiltrated the police departments, which is a lie. They've always been there. You can't find a time in history when white supremacists have not been in the police departments. But there has to be effort for us to infiltrate the police departments as well to change a lot of these conditions also. Indeed. Mona, do we have her? All right. We're trying to get her straight with the audio, folks, just to get our thoughts on this. We may have to move this to Monday.

We're just trying to get it all together right now. And so, folks, it has been, again, this case has been one that people have been involved in. There have been protests. There have been rallies. A lot of pressure was put on state officials in Louisiana to come clean with regards to what actually happened to Ronald Greene. Again, there's an event taking place this weekend, folks. There, and again, you see it taking place, first of all, April 8th, April 11th. And so again, justice for Ronald Green, you see the flyer that's right there.

And so we certainly hope that folks participate in that and they actually support this family in the actions that involve again. So these cops are going to be headed to court next week. We'll be covering that. Seems that we've had some issues, technical issues, trying to get Ron Green's mother up. And so we will try to get her on next week. Michael, Candace, Matt, we certainly appreciate you joining us as well.

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