The Supreme Court's conservative majority has cleared the way for Alabama to revert to a congressional map that includes only one majority-Black district, eliminating Congressman Shomari Figures' seat, despite previously ruling that Alabama discriminated against black voters and ordered the creation of a second district. This contradictory ruling demonstrates how the Court has changed the legal test for Voting Rights Act Section 2 violations, making it significantly tougher to prove cases of racial discrimination in redistricting. The Court's inconsistent application of voting rights protections raises concerns about the future of minority political representation across America.
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Today is Tuesday, May 12th, 2026. Coming up on Roland Martin unfiltered, streaming live on the Blackar Network, the extreme court, their conservative majority, has cleared the way for Alabama to revert to a congressional map that includes only one majority black district, eliminating the seat of Congressman Shamari Figures. He will join us on the show. In South Carolina, the the Senate there uh they uh blocked they actually blocked the gerrymandering. Even the Senate majority leader says, "We've gerrymandered the state enough that protects the seat of Congressman Jim Klyber." Virginia Representative Jen Kiggins, a white Republican facing backlash for agreeing with a conservative radio host who urged Democratic leader Hakeim Jeff to get his quote cotton picking hands off Virginia.
Now she's like, "I didn't know what I was doing." We'll also examine the historical reasons the black unemployment rate has consistently been higher than the overall unemployment rate even during periods of economic growth. The competency of Donald Trump, the twice impeached criminally convicted felon and chief is being questioned once more. He recently called a black reporter an offensive name, fell asleep during an Oval Office event, and now he's mad at everybody else. In tonight's Shop Blackstar Network segment, we'll feature a kids skin care line that offers natural safe products for melanin rich skin. Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Sun Network. Let's go.
>> He's right on time and it's rolling.
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Rolling with rolling now.
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Folks, Republicans all across the South are targeting African-Americans. Not only are they wiping away seats held by African-Americans, they're also targeting African-Americans who even dare to speak up against them. Moments ago, literally um seconds ago, um Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones sent me a text. Uh, he has been rem Give me just one second. I'm going to read this.
Literally, he just texted this to me.
Um, he has been removed from all house standing committees and subcommittees.
That is done by the Republican Speaker of the House, Cameron Ston, in in uh Louisiana, a black state senator who jammed up uh the last week, been removed there as well. Then of course we have Republicans in Alabama uh who appealed to the Supreme Court to implement their new map. The Supreme Court said, "Yeah, you can go ahead and do that." Now he Now here's the problem, y'all. The same Supreme Court, this same extreme court, that's what my dad text me. this extreme court. What they did was they ruled that Alabama absolutely uh discriminated against black folks and ordered this creation of a second district second seat couple of years ago. Now the same Supreme Court turns around and says, "Oh no, you can move forward." It gets worse. In December, the same extreme court said, "Nope, it's too late to change the election because the Texas primary, remember they changed their maps, is in March, four months away.
They said to Alabama, oh, you got an election next week. Go right ahead."
One of the folks who was greatly impacted, Congressman Shamari Figures, he joins me right now. Uh, Congressman, glad to have you here. This is what is so shameful.
This is absolutely the extreme court doing the work of Republicans.
Everything that they say runs counter to what they've done. In fact, Sam Alo writes in his opinion that the ruling, the Louisiana vers ruling does not obliterate the Voting Rights Act if you can prove racial intent. Well, they prove racial intent in Alabama.
The folks responded.
The Supreme Court in 38 minutes rejected the 107 page response.
Surely they didn't even read it.
>> Yeah, it's a lot of a lot of, you know, problematic acts that we're seeing.
We're seeing the Supreme Court break with a lot of norms and precedents uh in these recent cases that have come before it. And it and it is it is certainly concerning uh in the state of Alabama.
You know, it's important to know that they did not dismiss uh the case that created this district. They remanded it back to the district court to reconsider it in light of the Cala decision. Uh so that's what we fully expect and there was another temporary injunction that was just filed earlier or late yesterday by the plaintiffs in that case and we expect the three judge panel in that case to give us fair consideration because these are uh as you probably know these were weren't just any three judges. These were three judges, two of whom were appointed by Donald Trump himself. The third was originally put on the bench by Ronald Reagan. They unanimously found that the state of Alabama had engaged in intentional discrimination against black voters and how they treat congressional maps. Um, so a lot, you know, has to be, you know, read into the fact of who these judges are and what they found.
I mean, and again, you sit here and go, wait a minute, hold up, hold up. How does the same extreme court agree with the lower court that Alabama racially discriminated? They they agree.
Then they come back and say, "No, no, race can't be used in the creation of a s uh but but y'all the same six that said this just a couple of years ago."
>> Yeah. Look, it's tough to reconcile the two decisions. It's also important to note that in the Louisiana decision, in that Cala decision, the last paragraph or the last full paragraph of that decision, Justice Alo explicitly says this case does not overturn the Alabama case because in that case, the state of Alabama did not even attempt to defend its maps as being a political gerrymander. So, they didn't even make the argument uh that was successful in the Cala case. And the Supreme Court acknowledged that the state of Alabama did not make that argument. Uh yet nevertheless, they were given the benefit as if they had made that argument yesterday when the Supreme Court agreed to lift the injunction. But again, case is not over. It is far from over. It was sent back to the same three judges that made the original finding, not just a section two finding. They also found a violation of legal protection. So, uh we fully expect the court to once again review the evidence, the same evidence has not changed. uh review the arguments and and and come back with a similar decision that they did in the uh in the beginning.
>> So So what you're saying is that so they revert it back so the same court could say we got it right the first time. Here you go.
>> Absolutely. Because in the Louisiana decision essentially what the Supreme Court did was they changed the test uh for what you must show in a Voting Rights Act. If there was any silver lining in that decision, it was the fact that they did not declare the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. So, it's still there for courts and lower courts to still be able to interpret. Uh, but they certainly made it significantly tougher uh to prove cases under. So, they changed the test. And so, essentially what the Supreme Court just did yesterday was they said, "Okay, since we've changed this test and since your uh injunction was in part, you know, based on applying the old test uh for considering a section two violation, we want you to go ahead and apply the new test uh to the evidence and the facts of the Alabama case and then come back to us." The unique part though was that given the proximity to the election, we literally vote next week.
I've already voted because I won't be there on election day. Uh the unique aspect of them sending it back was that they lifted the injunction and is allowing the state to proceed with a different map literally just seven day well at that point eight days uh from election day.
>> And again, same thing precedent when it comes to pursel. Oh no, you shouldn't make changes shortly before an election.
Here they are in December saying to Texas, "Sorry, it's too soon. The primary is four months away." And they say to Louisiana and Alabama, "Oh, Louisiana, oh, your election, y'all go right ahead. Oh, it's a week. Oh, Alabama, it's a week. Oh, y'all got time." I mean, I'm like, like, what the hell? What the hell changed from December to May?
Look, that that is certainly something that has all of us scratching our heads.
Uh, you know, because it it's not even that if they had to wait that it stops the states from doing what they ultimately want to do. Uh, they could certainly still do it. They certainly could have still called special elections. You just did not have to interrupt an ongoing election. Uh, for in and as my understanding is uh the first time in American history where that has happened where it's not been because of a natural disaster. uh that is um you know it's something that we're all confused about, something that we're uh left scratching our heads about and something that quite honestly that we have to be concerned about you know things going forward. Uh if the Supreme Court is literally allowing states to erase, stop, pause, undo an election, um then it is a it is a significant problem uh that we have to grapple with.
>> Okay. So this new election is next week um with with this Our our current election is next week.
>> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Your current election uh is next week. All right. So, where does that leave you?
Are you running for another seat? What What's going on?
>> Yeah. So, right now, our district is was drawn by the courts because the state of Alabama actually refused to draw the district in a way that the court instructed them to do it. Um and so the court actually drew this.
>> Hold. Stop right there. Stop right there. Hold on. Before you continue that, I just want people to remind the Alabama legislature defied a federal court.
>> Oh, significantly. Significantly defied them. It was so bad that you know, as you well remember, section five of the Voting Rights Act was where certain states predominantly in the in the deep south uh used to have to get uh their district lines pre-clared by the US Department of Justice before they could implement them. That was struck down in the Shelby v. Holder case. Uh but Alabama's defiance in this current case, which is some, you know, this was a decade later, it was so bad that the court threatened to pull the state back into pre-clance because of how much they were defying the federal court orders to redraw the maps. And so what the state of Alabama did in response to that was basically entered into an agreement with the plaintiffs to say, "Hey, we will not attempt to redraw our district lines unless the Supreme Court uh tells us that they're overturning the case." and that has not happened yet, but they're certainly construing the lifting of this injunction um as as the court uh overturning the case. I guess that's how they're construing it because they're certainly attempting to to move forward.
And Roland, I'll actually tell you it gets even stranger. It gets even worse in the state of Alabama because just last year there was a constitutional amendment put forth by the supermajority Republican legislature that passed uh by the people of Alabama in a ballot initiative that actually said we can't make any changes during an election year that happened less than six months before election day. Well, guess what?
The changes that they just made in a special session last week are shorter than six months before election day.
Yet, the state is openly defying its own constitutional amendment that the Republicans passed just a year ago.
So I was talking So So what's next for you? Uh again, uh are are you are you running? Are you not? What's going on?
>> Look, so we fully expect the district lines to stay the same as they are now.
Uh in the event that we have to run in a district uh a different district lines uh on the under the map that they want to go to, it would certainly reduce the uh black voting age population significantly uh by almost 10 percentage points. Uh but we'll assess that. will make that decision at that time. But look, I got in this race uh initially to be a voice for the people back home. Uh to to to better the people and places that actually made me who I am today.
And so I've been thankful to do that, going to continue to do that every single day. So right now, our focus is on continuing to do that with the expectations that the district lines remain the same. And if they do change, uh we'll certainly make that decision.
>> Um my panel joins me right now. Uh I want to bring them in, get opportunity to ask you a question as well. Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali Santiago Ali, former senior advis advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, joins us right now. Uh Texas State Representative Jalanda Jones, also an attorney in Houston. Khalil Thompson, executive director of Win with Black Men. Mustafa, you go first.
>> Yeah, well, it's good to see you. Um, what is your message uh to the voters in your state? What would you like to see them do?
>> Well, we have to stand up. It's not just a message to voters. is also a message to uh elected officials. Uh at the end of the day, what we are seeing these efforts that we're seeing across the country, but particularly across the deep south, they are rooted in a incredibly high level of confidence uh that Republicans have that black people are not going to show up and vote. That is what is the root of all of this. Uh the civil rights movement came with a an insurance plan called the right to vote.
uh it did not come with a supplemental insurance plan of how we push back against things like this if we choose not to exercise our right to vote. And so we have to get people out to the polls. Bottom line, period. Whatever uh means it takes to do that, we have to do that. But as elected officials, we also have to give people a reason to go to the polls and to go to the polls consistently. We have to take government to them. we cannot sit back in these positions and just act as if we are uh you know you know in a place where we no longer have a responsibility to make people understand how government is working for them, what we're working on, what we're doing, how we're benefiting their lives every single day and how we're taking the fight um you know on behalf of those communities. And so it's a collective message not just to voters to go out and vote but to elected officials to hey make sure that you're representing people in a way that gives them faith and confidence in showing up to vote for you.
Yolanda.
>> So, I have a question for you. I'm confused.
So, people are actually voting already, which you said, is this redraw for the current election?
And if so, if people are voting along this the current lines, are their votes going to apply to some new lines that could come up later? I'm just confused. I'm so confused.
So, the problem is is that we're all confused.
This is this has been incredibly confusing. It has been incredibly um just a lot of jumbled information, pieces of information. And I think the confusion is certainly part of the Republican effort here. But, uh basically what is happening right now, we already have an election ongoing for the way my district is currently configured. Uh that election is technically a week from today on May the 19th. What happened actually earlier today, a few hours ago, was the governor uh went ahead and announced the new special election under the map that they want to go to uh which is a map that they presented to the court in 2023.
She actually announced the date of that special election for I believe August 11th. Uh why you would announce that date uh a week before the current election date baffles me. I I I am confused by that as well. uh it is putting information out there that is certainly to keep uh some people from going to the polls because they were like, "Oh, wait. I thought the election was canceled. I thought it was in August now." Uh but nevertheless, uh that's where we are. In the meantime, litigation is proceeding and so we could end up with another injunction. We could end up with another decision from the three judge panel and possibly even another decision from the Supreme Court between now and then.
>> So, so I'm still confused really quickly. So they're voting now for the current seat that you hold.
>> So you win that, right? Let's I'm just going to claim it. You win that. They literally can draw another district and then is that new district going to replace you?
>> Well, actually, here's the deal. They they So, okay, so they've already drawn new maps.
>> So the So the election next week, what's the uh May 19th, right?
>> Correct. So the election next week is the maps that where you are the incumbent Congresswoman Tul two African-Americans. So that election is actually happening.
>> Correct.
>> Okay. So what the governor did today was she called a special election for August. So if they throw out if they if they invalidate these current maps then the new maps which wipes out your district that's going to be the August 11th.
>> Correct. Correct. And so we had a we had a special session in Alabama state legislature last week. Uh received a lot of a lot of attention just given the push back and and activism we saw down there pushing against it. But in that special session, Republicans basically passed contingency legislation. They said, "Hey, if the court lifts the injunction and allows us to make changes to the map, then we will go with this map uh which is the 2023 map um and we will hold and the governor shall call a special election within so many days."
And so that's what that's what essentially has happened now. So we are running in one district right now for an election next week. And if Republicans have their way, uh, literally the results of that election are meaningless, which is probably the the most confusing part. It's like, why am I going to vote on May 19th for something that is completely meaningless, >> right, Khalil? Real quick, what's your question? Cuz Congress, okay, we don't have Khalil. Okay, sorry, Congressman.
Uh, it is crazy. It is strange. It is it is unbelievable what's going on here. Uh but all of this lays at the feet of the Supreme Court for their schizophrenic nonsensical ruling that has completely thrown all of this in total chaos in Louisiana, in Alabama, in Tennessee, you name it.
>> Yeah. And I mean, listen, this is uh this is unfortunate. And what I hope people really realize, all voters uh but especially black voters, but this is not stopping with congressional districts.
>> Yep. That decision in Louisiana is going to filter down to state representative seats, to state senate seats, to state district court judge seats, circuit court judge seats, uh some supreme court seats, you know, depending on how states run their election. Any partisan election uh that is done in districts is subject to this. And so, you know, we we're on the precipice of seeing the face of black representation across America look significantly different. If you take a snapshot today and you take a snapshot a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, it's going to be a lot fewer black faces.
>> Indeed. Uh we will be in Montgomery, Alabama doing the show Friday. Uh but on Saturday, uh the kickoff of a national effort to register as many black folks as possible will be taking place at the capital, the Montgomery capital, uh beginning at 100 p.m. uh central, 2:00 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. All roads lead to the south, the national day of action uh for voting rights. And so we will be broadcasting that entire event there.
Congressman Shamar figures, look forward to seeing you there.
>> Thank you, man. We'll see you there, man.
>> All right. Thanks a bunch. All right, folks. Um again, it it is it is crazy.
It it is what they're doing. It makes no sense uh whatsoever. Again, so now let's talk about what also has happened today.
Uh in Missouri, the Missouri Supreme Court issued their ruling where they uh have have affirmed uh the Republicans wiping out the congressional seat of Congressman Emanuel Clever, the former mayor of Kansas City. He represented that city. Uh what they did was they actually passed uh their maps uh wiping out uh that particular seat. uh and uh they went a and the court uh the Missouri Supreme Court uh went ahead. So Missouri now is going to have seven Republicans, one Democrat. They left intact uh the seat of Congressman Wesley Bell in St. Louis, but they have wiped out the congressional seat of Congressman Emanuel Clever. Um and so the court um up upholds that particular change. Um, this is what now this is the point I keep making uh uh Jolanda that uh Supreme Court races matter. That's why you got two folks who are running uh frankly being supported by Democrats in Georgia for the Supreme Court there.
That election is taking place May 19th.
Folk need to be need to be voting them into office. We saw what happened in uh Wisconsin. Democrats now have a 5-2 majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court uh in North Carolina. Republicans definitely want to take out uh a sister Anita Earl. She's the only African-American on the on one of only two Democrats on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Uh they're trying to hold that seat. Three of those Republican seats are up in 2028 Democrats could get back control of the Supreme Court. And so again, when you have issues, obviously federal is one thing, but control of state supreme courts is critical. And here you have the Missouri Supreme Court affirming the decision to wipe out the congressional seat uh of Black Caucus member Emanuel Clever.
>> Yeah. And and it is terrifying because most people Roland, they can't connect the dots. They don't they don't see why it matters. They think the the political process doesn't work for them and so they don't vote. Which is why I'm so thankful that you're talking about this because it can get worse. It absolutely can get worse. But the Supreme Court, as you call them, the extreme court, and I'll say the extreme right court, consistently flip-flops on issues to the extent if the Republicans want something and Trump wants something, then it's okay. And they figure out how to perform intellectual gymnastics to get there.
And if it helps black people, then they find out a way to affirm that law.
That's what happened with us in Texas.
That's why when we left, I said I wasn't coming back until December 8th, which was the last day to file for Congress.
But what's happening in Alabama, what's happening in Missouri is a direct attack on black people. And so what I want to hear people say, and you say it, is that these attacks are on black people.
They're not doing this same thing to any to other people of color. They're just doing it to us because they know that we as black people are the heads of the snake that strangle white supremacy and the Confederacy. that squeezes a life out of it and lifts humanity. And people just are not having our back like that.
Everyone should be up in arms that they're wiping out black representation, including progressive whites. And I know people don't want to hear that, but I want to hear progressive whites as upset about what they're doing to the black congressional members, CBC members who have seniority and what they're doing at levels under that like at the state and the county and the city because it is antilack. It is anti uh guess constitution with its amendments. So to use the Constitution to destroy the Constitution and our constitutional rights doesn't make any sense to me. And black people have to vote like we've never voted before. That is the only thing that can help us when they are literally wiping out Democratic seats which will generally vote for the rights of black people.
>> Well, I I want to see not just them raise their voices, but I've been saying white folks need to be going hard registering white people to oppose uh MAGA. Uh, and so I I'm not interested, Mustafa, in them being allies, saying we stand with black folks. No, no. I need y'all to get busy and go register and talk to white folks in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and these other states.
>> Exactly. You know, it's reminiscent of the Freedom Riders, you know, where there were those uh well-meaning uh white brothers and sisters who who showed up and put some skin in the game.
So yes, you have a responsibility in this moment if you want to call yourself an ally to actually put some real action behind that. And that means that you are an ambassador to your community. You can have conversations that some black folks can't have with other folks um to be able to help uh them to understand why they should not only register to vote, but why you got to get in the game, how it actually helps um black folks, but it helps a whole bunch of other folks also.
um when we make sure that we have the right types of policies to make sure that you got your health care, to make sure that you can afford uh the groceries, to make sure that you can afford your rent or your mortgage, all these different types of things. So, there is a symbiotic relationship if we actually want it uh to be able to be a healthy one. And that means that white folks going to have to do something this time. You can't just stand on the sideline and talk. You can't just say, "Oh, this is such a terrible thing. You got to get busy." uh along with a lot of other folks who are going to make sure that we get out, register folks, and make sure that folks uh end up voting.
>> Um I'm going to pull give me a second.
Um you talked about allies there. Uh um Jalanda, Representative Darren Sodto, he posted this on Twitter. So the Washington Post did a story. Go to my iPad. Washington Post did a story and this was this was what their tweet was.
Under a new congressional map signed into law by Florida Governor Ronda Santis, the growing community of Puerto Ricans and South Americans in CMI, Florida will be splintered across four districts. Our voices shouldn't get diluted, one resident said. So Sodto said, "Dantis has declared war on all 1.3 million Puerto Ricans in Florida. He cracked our community into four different districts. We are American citizens. Our people died serving this country and we will fight this in court in the ballot box. Well, guess what?
This is where also I need Puerto Ricans penalizing Republicans for what they did. I need Puerto Ricans saying, "Okay, we going to take y'all out at the ballot box." See this and I I've made this clear. I've said this uh in terms of because because the Clay decision can all also impact Latinos as well, but they're targeting black folks as you said, Yolanda. And so this is where, okay, put up or shut up. And so I would have hoped, and I matter of fact, uh, Carol, reach out to Congressman Sto, get him on the show. I hope there's a massive voter mobilization in Florida for those Puerto Ricans saying, "Take out every Republican in November midterm election."
Jalanda.
>> So, I I a thousand% agree with you, but it's just really interesting when you're talking about the oppression of black people, people don't get up in arms.
Now, they want for us to vote for them, and they think that we should because they're Democrats, but they don't do the same for us. And they're not going to figure out that when they target us that their target is as well because the economy is going to get worse. It's going to be harder to get jobs, harder to to be able to afford groceries, an apartment, or whatever it is you need.
Nothing is affordable anymore. And this started with him get rid of qualified black people. And all the federal agencies that can make good policy to help everybody. And what you're going to find out is that people that consistently fight for everybody is black people. But other people don't consistently fight for us, which is absolutely a problem.
And when you have a stacked Supreme Court that are all Confederates that are going to figure out ways to keep the Confederacy alive and white supremacy alive, it doesn't matter what happens in the lower courts because even if the lower courts rule right when it goes up to the Supremes, they're going to strike it down and they will give inconsistent reasoning that goes against star decisives because they know that this is the last chance they have to keep power and control because white people are just not procreating. They don't have enough votes. So, they're going to crack and pack us. And Roland, I know you've talked about this on your show. So, that we may have one strong black district where we could have had two or three if they if we didn't pack everybody in there. And they're going to have more white people who are absolutely going to do everything they can do to hold on to white power. And I will say this that this is worse than Jim Crow.
This is trying to take us back to pre-Jim Crow, to reconstruction, to slavery, because if they could put us back on a plantation, they absolutely would. And if they can figure out a way to do it, they're going to do it. But right now, they're going to make sure that when we walk into the courtrooms that no one looks like us, which is how it was here in Harris County before a wave of black women got elected to see nothing but white people judging black people and for the most part judging our culture, judging against us and putting us in untenable positions. And that's what we see. And as you said, they are literally targeting people who dare to speak out against it. So this place is not a democracy anymore. People just don't realize it. And I hope I wish and I pray that the people that don't like MAGA that see that MAGA cares nothing about them, they get on and they fight with us in this because we black people cannot do it alone. We need our allies and we need you more, as Roland said, to just say that you support us. We need for you to vote for us. We need for you to blockwalk for us. we need for you to contribute to our campaigns because it costs money to go about to go up against this white supremacy machine.
>> Let me um so folks, let's talk about what uh took place today in South Carolina. Surprisingly, the South Carolina state senate rejected efforts to redistrict the state's congressional map, which would have eliminated the seat of longtime congressman Jim Clyburn. He is the only African-American and the only Democrat. A twothirds majority was required to allow a vote on redistricting, a measure that Donald Trump has been advocating nationally to maintain the Republicans House majority.
However, the South Carolina Senate vote did not achieve the necessary procedural threshold. All of the Democratic state senators in South Carolina voted against the measure along with five Republicans.
uh the South Carolina state majority leader. This is what he had to say about uh this uh >> I said earlier that if the House goes to the US House goes to a Democratic majority, it won't be because of South Carolina. That's because we've all we are already heavily gerrymandered.
We are the most gerrymandered Republican state in the country already.
Um, and we did that intentionally.
There have been celebrated changes in Florida over the last week. Those celebrated changes in Florida get them to where we are now.
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use a map that it had passed but had previously been stopped by the courts. Yesterday, they allowed Alabama to use this map that they' passed before. Alabama also has seven congressional districts. That map would allow Alabama to use a 61 map.
Right? The US Supreme Court decision yesterday allowed Alabama to do what we have already done.
That is uh Shane Massie. Um now Donald Trump of course he loves what's going on. Reporter asked him about Jared Manning that's taking place in the South. This is how he responded.
the voters who are confused about the changing map, the changing dates, and the African-Americans concerned that this is going to draw black members of Congress off the map. What do you say?
>> Well, I think it's been a wonderful process. They've been the Democrats, or as I call the Democrats, because they are dumb in so many ways. They've redistricted for years and now we took our shot and it looks like we're going to pick up a lot of seats and that's a good thing. That's a good thing. We want voters to have their choice. We want fair voting. We want fair elections. The Democrats have been cheating on elections for many years and all we're doing is winning >> and we know he's a liar. Um I start with you, Jolanda. Uh this is a big decision here. First of all, let's be real clear.
Uh some Republicans in South Carolina feared by going after Clyurn's uh seat that if a Democrats in the White House, they could get screwed. South Carolina really depends on the federal government for a lot of their budget. Uh and they and there were Republicans saying, "Hey, do we really want to do this here? Cuz if a Democrat's back in the White House, we could be on the outside looking in."
two, if they changed that district, that meant sending a lot of black voters to some other districts. And they said, "Wait a minute, you could be endangering uh other districts." That's actually what's happening in Texas right now.
There were some Republicans in Texas who are on edge that if Latinos if they flip if if they vote in a significant number for Democrats uh then Republicans could lose the edge they thought they were gaining by uh taking uh by snatch rigging the maps to take those five seats.
>> Oh, for sure. And we're actually seeing that here Roland where a lot of reliably Republican seats have gone to Democrats.
They've had Democrats all voting like Democrats and they've had Republicans, some Republicans voting with Democrats like the Senate seat with Tyler Reick.
We just had a black mayor get elected down in Perland. That's never happened.
Perland is ready country.
>> He's an alpha.
>> He is. He is. He's an alpha. He's friend. But my but my point is this.
There are a lot of safe Republican seats where they're getting antsy, right?
Because they don't want to be a casualty. So let's say if I have a district that's 85% Democrat and you and you put it down to 60% so and then move that 25% somewhere else those people could actually be the swing voters to unelect them. So, I think that the Republicans are playing a very dangerous game. And I'm actually looking very forward to see what happens in November, especially here in Texas, because for the first time, we got a Democrat in every race, even in reliably uh Republican seats to see if we could steal some seats, and we've been able to do that. So, let me tell you, this may be an example of what's meant for bad is going to end up being for good because God don't like ugly. And I'm just saying that the Republicans and Klyber is super I don't know how much seniority he has, but he's got to be near the top of seniority. And there will be black people angry around the states. And I am certain that if you screw with Klyber in South Carolina that you going to have black people across South Carolina seriously angry. And I know Klyurn is an omega. So then the D9 is probably get motivated. And you know how we are when we're motivated. So I think that the Republicans are playing a dangerous game, but we at the street level have got to pay attention to these attacks on black folks. And we in the media and we who are elected have to do a better job of connecting the dots for our constituents on the streets who are suffering right now who haven't been able to connect that the reason I'm suffering is literally because Republicans are hate black people and they are implementing policy that hurts black people. Um M uh Mustafa um I I keep saying this and the only way you stop these people is if you completely overwhelm the ballot box. Uh as I said, we're going to be kicking off uh a massive national voter registration effort uh on Saturday uh by go in Montgomery. We'll be broadcasting that on the Blackar Network. We're going to be sending our feed. Guys, could y'all could y'all please put the Thank you.
Come on. We got to move a little faster.
Um, we are going to be sending our feed to multiple uh channels all across uh YouTube and Facebook as well. Um, it is going to require a massive turnout, but it can't just happen one time. I've said it on this show numerous times. We voted in massive numbers for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Had we maintained that turnout?
Had we maintained that turnout in 2016, in 201 um 10 midterm elections, 2014 midterm elections, 2018 midterm, 2016 presidential election, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024, then we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation. Now, I know somebody's listening and they're saying, "Well, Rola, it's not all on black people." Guess what? I ain't talking to white people. Now, there are some white people who watch this show and I appreciate it. There's some Latinos who watch this show, but I'm largely talking to black people. And what I'm saying to black people, all we can do is what we can do. We can't control what they do.
But what I do know is that when our turnout drops the way it did, when I when when we don't show up, when we uh don't look don't push the same numbers, I mean, the stats are the stats. Go to my iPad. I mean, this is it right here.
You see the black line is white voters.
The blue line the the black line white voters, the blue line uh are are black voters. You see right here? You see right there that that that uh that blue line where uh we we out we are almost on par with them in 20 we outvoted them in 2012. First time in history. And in fact, Samo used this in that Klay decision by saying that talking about the black vote in two of the last five presidential elections. But here's the problem. Look at that drop off in 2016 and then it went up in 2020 and then it went way back down in 2024. This right here simply cannot happen. We have got to have black folks killing it at the ballot box to shut uh these folks down in their antilack agenda.
>> Yeah. Well, you know my quote, you have power unless you give it away. And that, you know, the particular charts you just showed really highlights that for everyone. When we show up, you know, when we vote in significant numbers, we win. We make sure that we hold on to our power. We make sure that resources are coming back to our community. We make sure that our voices and our priorities um have a place to not only be heard, but to be worked upon. And when we don't, then we know someone else is making decisions for us. You know, when you think about the South, Andrew Johnson was very he was a president after Lincoln was assassinated. And one of the things he was trying to do is to make sure that um the United States government was a white man's government.
Now, you see many actions that are currently going on today, whether through the Supreme Court uh or through the redistricting that we see going on, the gerrymandering of maps that folks are doing. So, how do you make sure that you combat that? One of the ways that you do it is by making sure that we vote um in some of the highest numbers ever seen. I'm one who also believes in partnership. So, you know, to my uh to my brothers and sisters who are out there, I always say meas what that means is that um that my people, you got to vote. Um so, whether it is black folks or brown folks, when we come together, we can actually make progress. And progress scares some folks in America because they think that they are going to lose something instead of realizing that when our communities are stronger, America is stronger. So, we can't wait on anybody else. Nobody is coming to save us. We have to make sure that we vote in the numbers that are necessary for us to make sure that we're winning, not just on the federal level, but the state, the county, and the local level as well. And that's how you make sure that you hold on to your power. Um now because of this Klay decision uh you now have folks trying to sue Illinois.
Conservative legal group is focusing on voter protection for black and minority communities. Uh again in Illinois the public interest legal foundation has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Illinois 2011 Voting Rights Act. The conservative group says the law is unconstitutional because it mandates that race be considered when drawing legislative districts. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of former Republican State Representative Jean Ives. The complaint claims that the protections meant to prevent the dilution of black voting power through redistricting have now resulted in unconstitutional race-based map drawing, violating the 15th Amendment. Civil rights advocates believe this case could become a significant effort to leverage the Klay ruling to dismantle state voting rights acts and weaken protections designed to ensure minority political representation across the country. Uh Jalanda, as we continue to say, we've told people this is what they do. The entire focus, it was all in project 2025. It was to and I've been yelling this. Their whole goal is to completely dismantle the black political, economic, educational, health, social justice infrastructure.
And by doing by now targeting state seats uh and again for the people out there, you got these you got these deranged negroes who out there uh talking about Trump and talking about oh how they support conserv I've been conservatives. I see these fools all on uh on Instagram with their nonsense.
Well, they don't quite understand. And I think a lot of people don't understand this is not just about, oh, you're going to lose u you're going to lose a black person because the Republicans are saying, well, like Steve Cohen, that's a white man representing the district in Memphis. But the question is, what are the resources coming back to communities? And that's the thing. Even when one is in the minority, they don't understand the role of politicians and how they are able to deliver when they get to decide what projects they want funded in their district. That person sitting in the seat plays a critical critical role. Uh and so a lot of people and I hear this all the time, black caucus ain't They ain't doing nothing. And I'm sure that people in Texas and Texas legislated Black Caucus, they don't do a damn thing when they have no idea what literally happens when bills are being drawn up, when you're in committees, how you can insert one thing or pull something out and all of that sort of stuff. That is going to be uh the end result. You are going to see the wipe out of billions of dollars on the federal, state, and local level by attacking and wiping out black political power.
AB: >> Absolutely. Uh and I can tell you the beautiful thing about us being on committees, even if we are in the minority, sometimes we can kill bills so that they don't even get to the House floor. I mean, the same is true in the Senate. But people have no idea when people are there, they can actually earmark money to go to their districts.
So if you get rid of somebody like Clyburn, then money that guaranteed went to his district will no longer be there.
And like I said, and like we said during the quorum break in Texas, we have to stay gone. And here, Donald Trump was brilliant when he was putting all these people on the Supreme Court because I really believe that the Supreme Court is going to undo every piece of voting rights. So that lawsuit in Illinois is going to eventually end up going to the US Supreme Court and the Supreme Court is going to validate states rights to control themselves with that case because the Republicans have been brilliant in in filing a little old lawsuit that nobody's paying attention to and then it gets appealed, appealed, appealed until it gets to the Supreme Court. The same thing happened in Texas. If you will recall that three judge panel said this map is okay, right? When when we said it's unconstitutional, they they were like, "Yeah, we affirm that it's unconstitutional." And what did the Republic and so Democrats were like, "We're winning. We're going to win."
They voted in our favor, Roland. I came on your show and I said, >> I remember Representative Jean Woo telling me, "Pcale pursel." And I was like, "Dude, they don't care."
And I and I told you, remember I came on your show when everybody was saying we won, we won. We shot the BB gun. No, we didn't. They appealed it to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court reversed it.
And so Democrats better learn how to fight in these gutters like the Republicans. Because the Republicans are coming for us. White folks are coming for us. You want to know why? Because they are terrified that we will treat them like they treat us. Which is why they're doing all these things they're doing to take us back to reconstruction and slavery. and the Supreme Court is going to allow them to do it. So you can sit there and say that when this stuff goes to the courts that what's always been right, the rights that we've earned are established. You're going to find out that this Supreme Court under a Texas uh chief uh Chief Supreme Court Justice Roberts is going to undo all of black rights. And the only way for us to stop it is to us to vote like we've never voted before. And I'm and I'm saying like with you, Roland, black folks, if you expecting white folks and Hispanic folks and other folks to come save us, they're not going to do it. We literally have got to save ourselves.
And if you go back and look at that graph that Roland put up a little while ago, you'll see when we vote in large numbers, we control elections. When we don't votes, when we don't vote, we're at the hands of everybody else. So, I bet you what? I bet you we better carry that damn ball. I bet you we better stiff arm these people that are trying to destroy us and and we better put people in office who gonna fight for us and then if they don't vote their asses out. That's what we need to do as black folks because we are our own heroes.
>> Yep. Uh again uh the the chart is the chart when we do turn out. Um um Mustafa Jalanda made a point uh as it related to as it related to um how how they how they do this in terms of these cases.
He's a perfect example. Uh this came out uh yesterday. This was a tweet and I've been I have been telling people for months about this. Supreme Court has scheduled three the three cases raising the question of whether the Voting Rights Act can be enforced by individual voters as opposed to just DOJ for conference this Thursday, May 14th. Uh the three cases are Turtle Mountain where native voters are seeking to reverse the eighth circuit ruling at the VRA does not provide a private right of action. The Mississippi NAACP case challenging legislative maps plus the Milligan case from Alabama. Okay. So now, Mustafa, the reason it's important because that the lawsuit was filed in Arkansas and the lawsuit said only the Department of Justice can file Voting Rights Act lawsuits.
Now, for somebody who's listening, they may say, "Okay, what's the big deal?"
What that means is that and then then uh appeal court affirm that decision.
Here's the problem. What the what what they're suggesting is that the NAACP, Legal Defense Fund, laws committed for Civil Rights Under Law, Transformative Justice Coalition, uh ACLU, any group out there that they would not be able to file a lawsuit, a voting rights lawsuit, if the Supreme Court agrees with these uh these these right-wingers that only the Department of Justice justice could file a voting rights act case. Well, guess what? If Republicans control the White House, they control the Department of Justice.
And so, as long as there is a Republican president and if they are as hardcore, and they will be as the twice impeached, crimly convicted con manin-chief Donald Trump. If they're as hardcore as him, that means for those four years, you are not going to see any Voting Rights Act lawsuits filed if the Supreme Court agrees with this. And this is what their goal is. As General said it, file that one suit, file it with a a conservative federal judge, get their ruling, go to a conservative appeals court, and run that sucker through, hoping the extreme court, the United States Supreme Court will agree with them. That's what this goal is.
>> Yeah. It's about the eraser of power, right? That folks understand the game.
And we've got to make sure that enough of our folks understand that what this is really about is about taking away those organizations who represent our communities, who care about our communities, who've been fighting for our communities, and making sure they no longer have power and no longer are a part of the process. And then of course the Department of Justice, we look at the Department of Justice right now, they have no interest whatsoever in doing anything that supports the upliftment of our communities or even the protection of our communities. And we have to understand that. Again, that goes back to why we got to vote. We got to make sure that we have a Department of Justice that does, but we also got to make sure that we've got judges. So, we just talked about, you know, how these types of things move through the courts.
You have the ability through your vote um and who gets elected to make sure that there are judges sitting on these courts that will be fair. That's the only thing black folks have ever asked for is for folks to be fair and to actually make sure that we're also healing the injustices that have happened inside of our communities. So that's why one, we've got to make sure that our IQ uh is up on these particular sets of opportunities that are out there that can be devastating if they go in the wrong direction. And we also got to understand how to leverage our power by making sure we've got the right folks that sit in these seats and these judgeships. Um, and also of course who's running the Department of Justice and then ultimately who's running the White House.
>> See, I I need folk Well, actually, you know what? I need folk to understand that this is why we don't expend any energy on irrelevant Now, let me explain what I mean.
Um, a lot of folk have hit me and been talking today, man.
Uh, you going to talk about uh um uh the um the Kevin Hart roast on Netflix, man. Uh did did you hear the jokes uh about George Floyd? Y'all heard it. Am I going to sit here and talk about it? No.
Now listen, if other shows want to do that, go right ahead.
But see this right here that people even asking me that um is people even asking me that um is why I'm like nah I can't uh like like like we like we ain't going there and I can't talk about that because there's so many things that are going on that are serious there there's so many things that we are having to deal with.
There are so many things that we are having to confront that are so serious that um that are so major that there's no time for this silliness there. There's no time to be fixated with entertainment.
Y'all, what we are talking about literally is the future of black America.
And what I tried to warn people of this in my book, White Fear, y'all, I I was talking about 2009.
Do y'all understand? This is after Obama got inaugurated. I'm waiting to go on CNN and I'm standing there with John Avlon, who's now in Congress, and I said, "John, we're living in the beginning stages of white minority resistance." It's like, "Ron, what are you talking about?" I said, "John, white folks cannot handle America becoming a nation majority people of color." He said, 'Well, he said, "White people make up majority of this country." I said, "Yeah, John, but they are moving and operating as if they are in the minority right now, y'all. That's 2009.
You can go pull speeches I gave all across the country in 2009, in 2010, in 2011. I said, "Y'all, it's coming." I said, "Y'all prepare. It's coming. It's coming. This war is I" I said, "Y'all, this is about to be a I'm telling you, you can pull the speeches."
Dropped this book in September 2022.
Tried to warn people. Bunch of TV TV anchors, all kind of networks wouldn't have me on their shows. I kept telling them, "Y'all, this is real." Folks didn't believe me.
So, this is why I can't waste any energy.
None zero zilch on insignificant things.
I can't.
And if you want to understand power, if you want to understand how these people are responding, this was the letter that State Repent Jones of Tennessee sent me.
Dear Representative Jones, you have been removed from all house standing committees and subcommittees. For any questions or more information, please contact Leader Camper. Sincerely, Cameron Ston, Tennessee Speaker of the House.
State Rep. Justin Pearson just posted this, y'all. It's not just Representative Jones.
Look at this right here. House Speaker Cameron Ston has removed Democratic caucus members from standing committees until next session due to quote disrupting processes and quote quote creating disorder during the special session. Pearson tweets, Speaker of the Tennessee House, Cameron Ston, just removed me and every Democrat and therefore every black elected official in the state legislature from any committee we served on. This move strips nearly two million Tennessans from the representation they deserve in Tennessee state legislature. This is what I said the other day, Jolanda.
>> No more business. No more business as usual. Every dem every every Democrat every Democrat in Tennessee should say, "Damn, this went when no meetings." That they they should be yelling, hollering, and screaming on the floor every single day. They should sit here and say, "If y'all going to pass some stuff, cuz y'all can do whatever y'all want to, you going to do it without us being here." The walk out y'all did in Texas. Now, I don't know how Tennessee works in terms of a quorum or whatever the hell, but if that's how they gonna roll, then it should be.
Guess what? This is the hell we we gonna bring the funk every day. And that needs to happen uh in uh in Tennessee in in uh in all these states. In fact, give me a second uh because uh I had sent this story to uh our group here. Um, give me one second because I believe according to this story, the exact same thing has happened in Louisiana. Uh, last week, y'all find that video of the brother in Louisiana when they had the hearing uh, and they cut his mic off uh, and they, uh, they were challenging uh, he was challenging him. Uh, his name is Gary Carter. Uh, this story here, give me one second. Uh this is from nola.com after that fiery me meeting last week. Um now sa same thing they have removed this black state senator in Louisiana Senator Gary Carter uh from uh committee. The story says right here uh Senator Gary Carter a New Orleans Democrat has stepped away. Give me sorry y'all. They got all come back come back to me. They got all they got all this sort of stuff uh to blocking this here. Um, but uh I think he has been removed uh from uh a committee in Louisiana for the same thing. If y'all can find that video, please uh it would be great. Uh we ran it last week. Um and it goes to show you uh h uh how they're operating. So they don't want any disscent, Jalanda. They want black legislators to sit there and take it >> and say, "Shut the hell up."
>> You know, I just wrote a check um because they said that people would give money to us to help us pay these these fines. We had to pay them ourselves. So, I just wrote a check for like $8,300 and some odd dollars uh 20 some odd dollars for the cornbreak. So, they're punishing us and if we don't pay it, they're going to cut our office budgets, which then causes us not to be able to have staff to be able to help our constituents. And they're talking about clearly finding them $500 a day when they break quorum isn't enough. So, they're going to go back and change that and they're going to try to remove us. And let me be clear, I I I'll get you a copy of my check that I wrote, Roland, where I said under uh I reserve the right to object and to appeals and this check because I do not believe and I know I did not break any rules. My constituents demanded that I leave to fight for their right to elect the represent the representatives of their choice. And that's exactly what I did. It's exactly what I will continue to do. But I fully expect next session for me to be put on dog committees, if any at all. Right?
Because they want to punish us. And and all I'm saying is, you know what? I'd rather down my feet than live on my knees. So if you going to whoop me, I'm not about to just let you whoop me without a fight. I'mma put mine in on you, too. So you knew so that you know you were in a fight because every dog has his day. But that's exactly what they're doing. And it makes me sad, but it's totally predictable. And black folks better wake up because they're not doing this to other people. And you know, it it it's really sad. And I don't know what their qu rules are either. I think they should leave.
I think they should corn break and not participate in all this anti-lack legislation and and anti-dei policy that specifically targets black people and see how well the government runs and and perhaps >> sometimes things have to get really really bad Roland you know that before people realize okay we've got to change the trajectory but but here's what I say to black people and I'm talking to us black people there are many of us who are doing okay and we're not worried about other people as long as we're doing okay. Well, it's gonna be really difficult for you when everybody but you is doing really poorly. So, at some point, black people are going to have to have the mindset that we had during segregation when we knew we were all we had. I'm going to say that one more again because it's worth repeating. when we knew we were all we had because right now we have too many people that are comfortable it we're too far removed from segregation and Jim Crow and we're just letting these white folks do to us what they want to do to us when it's time for us to all fight Roland and you have been telling us forever people like me when when I changed when we changed the Confederate name schools um back and and I went viral then because of that but at some point somebody's got to just be ready to fight we too comfortable Roland black people are too comfortable or those of us that have power are too comfortable because those of us that are struggling are struggling. And that's really what our focus is on is how to pay our bills, feed our families, have a place to stay.
>> Um, this is and and see this is no time to to wave the white flag. This is what the Nola story says. It says Louisiana State Senator Gary Carter Jr., a Democrat, is stepping away from the committee that handles redistricting matters after a contentious public hearing of Friday. He quote, "For the betterment of the committee and in order to help restore the decorum and focus that this moment demands, I've taken a voluntary leave of absence from the Senate Government and Affairs Committee.
Now is the time for clarity and purpose.
We cannot afford distractions when the stakes are this high for our democracy, our representation, and the people we serve." Carter said his voice in this process will remain strong, steady, and unwavering. This is the incident that sparked all this.
My suggestion to you to the courts to review your body of work. This the court said look at the totality of the circumstances. Let's look at the totality of your work. Your work has eliminated the elected seat of an African-American in the city of New Orleans. Your work has eliminated the your work has eliminated the the political power of numerous elected officials in the city of New Orleans.
And so as the courts review it, I ask them I ask them to review your work. I'm not trying to make suggestions about your part, but I really I'm not trying to make suggestions about your go and take a recess.
>> No, I DON'T WANT A RECESS. I ALREADY TOOK A RECESS.
>> I'M THE chairman of this.
>> YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN A SENATOR THAN I AM.
>> And you ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN A PUT MY MICROPHONE BACK ON.
>> MY MIC. HE SUGGESTED HE'S NOT RACIST. I SAID WE TAKE A LOOK AT HIS WORK.
>> You're out of line. You're out.
>> You're going to not have him address and not address that.
>> I'm just trying to pay the understand.
>> He told us to shut up.
>> Okay. You understand?
>> I'm sorry, Mustafa. Damn. Stepping away.
Republicans, they got they got a super major in Louisiana. They gonna do what the hell they need to do. In fact, I dare say, Senator Carter, no. You stay there and you keep kicking their ass.
Isaac Hayes just posted this on social media. Go to my iPad. This is the issue.
There are 300 to 500,000 eligible but unregistered black people in Louisiana.
What we need are folks who are fighting in the state capitals. You know what?
Cameron Ston did what he did in Tennessee. Every Democrat in in Tennessee should say, "Guess what? We about to bring this holy hell every single day. I dare you to call in the state troopers. I dare you to have us ejected. This is not the time for nice cute decorum when you know the other side don't give a damn about what you think. when the Supreme Court gets a 107 page uh response and in 38 minutes they rejected. They didn't read 26 thou. Come on, doc. They didn't read 26,000 words in 38 minutes. They didn't even No.
Done. We already decided this here. No.
This is no time for nicities, Mustafa.
This is no time for decorum. This is absolute time for civil disobedience.
>> Without a doubt. I mean, we've got all these insidious actions that are happening across the country and particularly in the South. You know, folks are looking for fighters. Folks want to know that if they're going to give you their vote that you are actually going to stand up, that you're going to roll up your sleeves. You going to throw some bows if you need to to make sure that you know your voice is being heard, that the issues that we care about are continuing to be highlighted. And that's what folks want.
And when you don't, if you roll over, if you get silent, these folks going to continue to do what they're going to do.
And they'll say, "Well, you know, the complacency must mean that y'all are okay with it." So that's why we need folks who are, whether you're on a county commission or you're in a state house or if you're on the federal level, folks got to see you. They got to hear you. They got to know there's some passion. They got to know that you're willing to go to war for them. And if you're not willing to do that, then, you know, things continue to stay the same.
And you know, we just can't be complacent anymore. We can't play nice, you know, with folks who have no um interest in any type of collaborative actions and anything that is going to help our communities. Um so, not only do we got to show up, but we got to show out sometimes.
>> Uh absolutely. And and understand uh how these folks think, check this out.
Republican Congresswoman Jian Keiggins of Virginia catch a lot of hell for agreeing with a radio show host that House Democratic uh leader Hakun Jeff should stay out of Virginia politics.
But listen to how they phrase this.
>> If Hakee Jeff wants to be involved in Virginia politics, then I suggest he does what a bunch of New Yorkers are doing. Leave New York, move down here to Virginia, run for office down here. You can represent us. If not, get your cotton picking hands off of Virginia.
>> That's right. I ditto. Yes. Yes to that.
>> Kiggins, a second term lawmaker representing Virginia's Southeastern Corner, participated in an interview with Rich Herrera, a conservative radio host on WRVA in Richmond to discuss Virginia's recent redistricting saga. H.
Well, ain't that something? Now again, now Christy Stevenson, a spokesperson for Jeff, uh said the comments are part of a larger trend among Republicans to turn back the clock on civil rights.
Jeff office released this statement.
Extremists who endorse disgusting, vile, and racist language um uh and racist language are pathetic. Jen Kiggins has no interest in our nation's progress toward a multi-racial democracy and apparently craves a return to the days of Jim Crow, racial oppression in the South. That's why MAGA Republicans and legislatores and courts across America have launched a full-scale assault on black representation.
Mustafa, they knew what they were saying when they said cotton picking hands.
>> Of course they did. You know, it's amazing how these folks try to pretend like they don't know, like they haven't even thought through uh some of these dog whistles that they continue to push forward. You know, they know what the triggers are. They know the history um of of the country. They know the history of their states. They know how they've tried to, you know, dehumanize us. Um, and they think that they can get away with it because they see at the top them using dog whistles, them using uh racial rhetoric, and they figure that they can do the same thing because there has not been any checks and balances in any significant way to the individuals who actually do it. a few years ago, you know, when people did that, um there was uh repercussions for their actions, but right now, you know, they're continuing to push the envelope as far as they can, and they're just like, "So, what you going to do about it?" Now, we know there are some other groups in this country that if you say something derogatory that there is a price to pay, um we have to have that same mentality.
When someone does something to our community, when someone tries to degrade our community, then there has to be a price to pay.
Well, we know exactly the game they're playing, Yolanda.
>> You know, we do, Roland. And here's what when you from third ward like I am, there's things you just learned from living in these streets. And you can't just roll over. If all you ever do is roll over, they will come for you all day, every day. And I hear far too many Democrats asking us, "What are we going to do to work across party lines?" the people across the lines don't want to work with us. The only person I can control is me. And so if you want to play a game, right, and live in the world you think it should be and and and and do as an elected official the the fair way, we're going to lose all the time. That's one thing I think President Obama didn't appreciate his first term.
He literally didn't appreciate that these people don't respect you. They don't respect you. They vote no on everything, even things that are good for them, because their goal in life was to make sure that you were ineffective and didn't pass anything. And so if you coming for me like that, I'm coming for you lower. And before anybody says I'm advocating for violence, let me go on and say I'm talking about figuratively.
So if you bust me in my face, I'm not just going to bust you back in your face figuratively. I'm going worse than that.
and whatever that is. Because here's what I learned being from third ward. If a bully can easily beat you, they will do it all the time. If you give them a fight, they going to find somebody else to bully. And it's at this point, I think every black elected official in whatever position they are in needs to bow up and fight the Republicans like we've never fought them before. So even if they win, there's a price to pay. So the next election, black folks come out and we vote them out of office because unless and until there's punishment, there's consequences for what they do, they're going to keep doing it to us.
And all this playing nice with my Republican colleagues, they literally in Texas will smile in your face, go out to eat with you, and literally vote legislation, vote legislation down that will help us or enact legislation that will destroy us. This is literally a time in life.
There's a fork in the road, people.
There's a fork in the road where black people are going to go back because they figure if they destroy us, everyone else will be destroyed because we are the leaders of the civil rights movement. We always have been. Even back when when women were marching for voting rights.
Even though black women weren't getting voting rights, they voted to support white women. We always do that. At some point, I think black people, we need to worry about our damn selves is what we need to do and make people respect us because if you allow yourself to be a rug, people will step on you. So, it's time to fight. If if we can't be angry, if we can't fight, if we can't disrupt meetings like the meeting that I just saw disrupted, then when can we do it?
These decisions are literally leading to our death and to the death of our people. And there is no way on God's green earth I would have stepped aside because of that. I'd have been just as much of a fool as they are. Probably more. I would try to make sure that they weren't able to conduct any business. Y >> but the only way for us to do that is to break a quorum so that they can't actually conduct any business.
>> Um it has to be constant hell. Constant hell in their faces. All right, let me go to a quick break. Uh we come back.
Donald Trump attacks another black female reporter.
I'll show you exactly what um he did and I got a response to it. You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do.
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Oh, Donald Trump said this was going to be the golden era of the economy. He touted how he was going to uplift black Americans. It was going to be amazing.
He rolled out all of these uh simple savage negroes saying how great Donald Trump was and how he was just going to be fantastic. He's going to be a businessman and it was just going to be just great. How his policies were just going to just sit here and just help all of us. And well, guess what? That was all Well, the overall unemployment rate in the United States stands at 4.3%.
Uh, the black unemployment rate is a lot higher at 7.3%. Trump's reduction in the federal workforce and attempts to eliminate DEI policies have hurt black workers all across the country. These actions have weakened a long-standing pathway to the middle class and worsen the affordability crisis that many Americans are currently facing. Uh, Bonja Agelori, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, joins us right now. Uh, glad to have you on the show. Been a while. Glad to have you back. Let's just be real clear here.
He was lying. He was He was questioned today by saying, "Oh, yeah, inflation has gone up to 3.8%. Oh, that was because we had it down here. Oh, it's the war. It's excuses." Okay, gas prices up. Now they trying to sit here and figure out, man, let's get rid of the federal tax. They're trying everything.
The reality is his tariff policy was idiotic. Doge was was a abject failure.
But what it did was it killed people in other countries. It destroyed jobs and has wiped out a sign a significant number of black jobs. And the downflow, his attacks on corporations, they've been firing black folks as well. And so we're talking about 7 800,000 black folks who have gone who've lost jobs since his inauguration.
>> Yeah. Everything you say is correct.
What's been happening is that, you know, basically the targeting of the federal workforce. And the thing we have to remember about the federal workforce is that that was the place where black people were able to experience social mobility, moving up to the middle class, upper class. You think about pensions, you think about healthcare. And now he's really targeted that. And even with with the loss of federal workforce, the jobs that people worked with the federal workforce and like nonprofits and the private sector that worked with it, those jobs are gone too.
>> Yeah. So by wiping out a lot of those grant programs that as you said that impacted nonprofits and other businesses and people also don't understand, listen, we got 10 there were 10 billion dollars in contracts black people got in last year of Biden Harris. 2% okay not a lot but it was a record number. Well, that's now down to 1.2%.
Uh, and so, not only are you talking about losing federal jobs, billions being cut in grants that funded a lot of nonprofits, now you're talking about decreasing in contracts, and I've talked to black folks who own businesses, and they've had to lay off or furlow workers because of contracts being snatched away or being frozen.
>> Very much so. And that's been and I think the thing that we have to remember is that this the federal workforce is about public services. And so it's not just about the people losing their jobs, but it's about the communities that lost the services that they were needed that were helpful and not just in DC, but all throughout the country. And so I think that's the thing that we need to focus on is that the communities were harmed themselves.
>> Um and so uh this has this has to be I fundamentally believe something that's talked about in the midterm elections.
uh to lay out. Not only that, listen, Trump has touted uh billions sending to farmers as a result of his tariff policy. But even there, they've been freezing out black farmers by saying, "Oh, yeah, we don't focus on DEI, but yeah, but you focus on on white boys."
Yeah. And so you're talking about the $12 billion program that went to basically large industrial operations in February. But the problem is even if that went to black farmers, it's still not enough. The tariff regime that you mentioned before has been very detrimental for the agricultural industry. You're having that tariffs on steel, aluminum, fertilizer. We've seen because of the conflict in the Middle East. Fertilizer prices are skyrocketing. They're being harmed that way. Also, the tariff uh the trade war has been impacting a lot of these farmers. So, now their exports have been down. Their costs have been going up and now they're getting squeezed. And that $12 billion was just a drop in a bucket and hasn't really helped anyone. So, what what do you say to these simple Simons, especially these black men? Uh, I see them. They they all on Instagram touting Trump, Trump, Trump. Oh, and they attack Democrats, Democrats, Democrats. And I'm sitting there going, the data is the data. Show me how Donald Trump has helped black people.
>> I think I think about the people that you had on before saying that sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better. And it's one of those things where now we're seeing the communities are being harmed. And that's even before talking about what they call the one big beautiful bill or mega bill where there being cuts to food assistance. People are losing health coverage. And it's just one of those things where the economy is getting worse especially for lower and middle inome households. And so you just have to look at what the data says. And more than what the data says, what's happening in the community?
What are people feeling? And so we're seeing that in the poll numbers.
>> Questions for the panel. Mustafa, you first.
>> Yeah. Well, it's good to see you. You know, they had some numbers that came out today also about the inflation rate.
I think it's at 3.8% something like that. Utilities are continuing to go up.
You know, how do we address this? I'm I'm even not sure if we address it through policy or there's other actions, but based upon where you said, how do we get our arms around it?
>> Well, the biggest thing is that this is all policy driven. Starting with the tariff regime that's caused prices to go up over the last year. Now with the conflict in Iran, it's been over 60 days. The closure of the straight of Hermuz has caused it's not just gas prices but diesel, fertilizer, all these things. This is all you know what people call like an own goal. It's our own policies that are causing these prices to go up. So the best way to kind of reverse it is to reverse all the policies.
Jalanda, >> my question is explain in lay people's terms what the connection is. We keep talking about the tariffs are doing this.
Explain to people what that means and and and why are they paying more. So don't make it a a conclusory statement.
Explain the details, please.
>> Yeah. So one example is if you think about you like to think about black small businesses say like beauty salons a lot of their uh inputs that they use a lot of things that they use to do their work they get it from overseas so before they may have gotten it from China and you put tariffs on goods all the goods out of China that makes it more expensive so they switched to say Vietnam or Malaysia but now we put tariffs on those so now their costs are going up now that their cost goes up they still have to get those products to be able to do their work Now they are b paying more for these goods and now they have to raise their prices to be able to make some money. And so that's why the prices that we see go up because the prices that these small business owners who are just trying to help out the community, their costs have gone up and they so want to be able to make a profit.
>> Thank you. Well, it is um as you say, it's going to get worse before it gets better. And people need to understand that where we are right now, uh all the trash that was being talked uh Biden, Harris, Trump has not made it better.
And and I saw who was it? Um who's that that that nutcase who's on CNBC? Uh Charlie Gasparino and all of them. They were sitting there going, "Oh, the problem, Biden's problem was he they they just put Biden and the Democrats just pumped too much money uh into the American economy and that's what led to the high inflation and things along those lines." And I'm like, and and what I kept saying was, uh, okay, did you idiots forget more than 70% of the American economy is consumer spending?
So if they had not pumped money in, what did they do? They pumped money in to help people pay rent, buy food, uh to get this economy back going after co this idea that we somehow and like like this is what drives me crazy. And again, I'm not an economist, but I I do keep it real basic.
You had a one a 100year pandemic where the economy was completely destroyed and disrupted. You had to get it back. So if 70% of American economy is spend spend spend and people were not working, you had to pump money into the system to keep it going. Otherwise, we were really, really screwed. So then you come out of that and you really didn't come out of it in 2021 and then you had 2022 and so there's going to be a byproduct of that. But you also had companies that jacked up prices because they didn't make money in 2020 in 2021.
And last, but certainly not least, which is kind of important, the American economy rebounded at a faster rate than any other major economy. So, I'm sitting there going, that's that duh, THAT'S THE PROOF IN THE PUDDING that what they did was what needed to be done.
And I think that's the key point. When people complain about too much money was put in and that we didn't need it, what they're saying is that not everyone needed to recover. So if we go back to the great recession in 2009, we put some money, pardon me, we put some money in and you know the economy kind of recovered but it was a slow recovery and not everyone did well and but there's certain groups of people who did well in the pandemic and at the aftermath of that you know the B administration said we're going to make sure that everyone recovers that we're going to have an inclusive recovery and not everyone likes that and so to your point yes it worked. It brought people back. It brought everyone back. A lot of communities were able to do better. But then not a lot of people want to see that because then when it happened in 2022, 2023, we had what's called a tight labor market. Wages at the low low end of the distribution was going up and so everyone was doing better. And so we had some inflation, but then they were starting to go down again. And then I think there's a lot of backlash to lower and middle- inome households doing better than they did in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
Well, first of all, uh when I listened to people with money uh say that too much money was pumped into the system, oh yeah, you were doing fine, but it was a lot of people who were broke as hell.
Uh it needed to happen. And sure, nobody wanted to see inflation where it was, but when we were going through it, I was like, y'all, uh we just went through something major.
And I think this was part of the problem. This is part of the problem I believe with too many Americans where you have this attitude of oh you should just snap back like I'm I'm sorry like what's the big deal? Well, why are we it should just snap back and and there were going to be there was going to be pain coming out of co and it's no different than what took place and I got to remind people 2008 uh when the economy crashed because of the housing market 2009 was awful. Our economy did not recover until the second we did not see signs of recovery until the second half of 2011.
We had to go through pain in 2009, pain in 2010, pain in the first half of 2011 to now begin to see a sliver of hope.
You don't go through an economic calamity and oh 3 6 months a year everything just snaps back. It just doesn't happen.
No, it doesn't happen. And one of the other things is that in 2010 2011 the federal government really started doing austerity and so they actually not only did not put money into the economy were taking money out of it. And this is why the even though the economy recovered, it didn't recover for everybody. There was a lot of communities 2013, 2014, 2015 that were still struggling, that still hadn't gotten back to the level they were before 2008. And so the Biden administration and policy makers in that administration recognized that and said, "We're not going to go through that again. We're not going to have a long dragged out recovery. We're going to do a quick one." And so if you look at the data, you know, bounced right back and it started doing really well. But even then, we still pulled back. there was, you know, unemployment insurance that we did, uh, child tax credit that was extended, but then those, uh, expired in 2022 and 2023. So, even if you said we spent too much money, we still pulled back a bit. And, and it's one of those things where it's just because everyone was doing well, I think there was some backlash from people who thought that we spent too much money because it was money spent on others. Well, and I'll be honest that part of this is because uh the people who were driving that are the people on CNBC on these networks who are high income earners uh and they were the ones who were driving this conversation.
I think that's exactly why you constantly saw those attacks on Biden Harris as a result because those are the folks uh who had the mouthpieces. And so there we go. Uh Bonja, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot.
Thank you for having me.
>> All right, folks. Quick break. Black Sun Network headlines and I got to talk about Donald Trump. Another attack on a black female reporter. You're watching Rolling Martin unfiltered on the Black Sun Network.
>> With medicine and science under attack, I want to keep you and your family informed and healthy. I'm Dr. Ebony Hilton, and I knew at the age of eight that I wanted to be a doctor. So, I studied hard and became the first African-American female anesthesiologist hired at the Medical University of South Carolina since it opening in 1824.
And I always say I was made into a doctor, but I was born to be a mom. And as a new mom, wife, sister, daughter, and friend, I understand how frightening a medical crisis can be. I care for individuals on some of the worst days of their lives. And it's my mission to provide you with a safe space to gain clarity on issues affecting your mind, body, and soul. I recognize that there are health disparities, particularly as it pertains to race, and I want to help bridge the gap between you and your healthcare providers. Join me every Thursday for second opinion on the Black Star Network, where each week I'll invite experts from various medical fields to share the latest health news.
We'll discuss topics such as the vaccine debate, mental and sexual health, medical bias, infertility, menopause, andropause, nutrition, and aging.
Together with my medical colleagues, we aim to provide you with a second opinion. Don't miss it. Thursdays only on the Blackar Network.
>> This is Bill Duke and you're watching the Blackar Network.
Well, Donald Trump makes a habit out of insulting and demeaning the media. They find it to be cute. Uh, that's what he's always done. And of course, right-wing media sit here and laughs at it, knowing full well if President Biden or Obama had treated the media, treated uh right-wing media or anybody like like Donald Trump has, or they would be up in arms. Well, um, last week, uh, Donald Trump was, um, questioned by ABC correspondent Rachel Scott, uh, and this is how he responded.
>> We are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects right now?
>> Because I want to keep our country beautiful and safe. Beautiful also. This place was a disgusting place. It was Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and we had a a terrible disc. I don't know. You You probably don't see dirt, but I do. And you walk down this this pond. If you would have walked down, they'll tell you better than anybody. They had to take 11 or 12 truckloads of garbage out of that lake, out of that water, and it sat there for years like that. And that's not what our country is about. Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people, not a filthy capital.
>> What is the status?
>> Such a stupid question would you ask.
You're we're fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and you say, "Why are you fixing it up?" Because you can understand dirt maybe better than I can, but I don't allow it. This is one of the worst reporters. Uh she's with ABC Fake News and she's a horror show. She's saying, "Why would you bother fixing this up? Why would I bother taking 11 or 12 truckloads of filth out of the water in front of the Lincoln monument? That's what made our country great.
Beauty made our country. People made our country great. A question like that is a disgrace to our country.
>> What made our country great was beauty."
Um, okay. So, so NABJ released a statement.
NABJ demands respects for black women journalists. Uh, and they say the National Association of Black Journalist is calling for an immediate end to to the continued tone of disrespect, hostility, and public denigration directed at black women journalists who are doing their jobs. The latest incident involving ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott is part of a larger and deeply troubling pattern. Black women journalists are too often singled out, insulted or demeaned for asking legitimate questions, reporting facts, and holding power to account. No pres no journalist should be subjected to personal attacks, ridicule or intimidation by any elected official for carrying out their professional responsibilities as protected by the first amendment. Black women journalists have the same right as their colleagues to ask tough questions, pursue the truth, and serve the public without being targeted or disrespected. The president's reference to dirt while insulting a black woman journalist was especially disturbing. Okay. And so they named uh him Donald Trump uh tearing into April Ryan, Yamish Elsynor, Jamal Hill, Jasmine Riley, disrespected uh as well, Abony McMorris. So let me just go ahead and say this here. Uh so NABJ did not name him by name. I will. Donald Trump is the person who is trash. Donald Trump is the person who attacked Rachel Scott. Donald Trump is the person who attacked the other black female journalist because that's who he is.
He's a despicable human being. He's a piece of crap. That's what he is. He has no boundaries. He has no bottom. He has no morals, no values, no principles, and no ethics. But this is who he is. He is a disgusting individual who does not deserve any respect whatsoever. And that's why on this show, I do not use the title president referencing him because he has no respect for the office. any president, any real president of this country would not treat people and talk to people the way he does. But you know what? MAGA laughs at this. They enjoy this. Uh they they they love uh how he demeanes people.
Adam Sur wrote a column for the Atlantic where he talked about uh the Supreme Court and Samuel Leo and he said cruelty is the point. That's also Donald Trump.
It is all about cruelty. This is who he is. this is how he sounds. And it was really interesting. We did that segment where Fox News said, "Well, you know, can't couldn't Michelle Obama just say something and speak up on behalf of Melania Trump?" Well, I don't see Melania Trump saying anything uh to her husband about his behavior and how he talks to people. This is who this man is. And so, I have zero respect for him.
None. That's why when in the first term when he met with reporters uh and uh we met with uh television anchors and I got invited to three of those and I went to two of them at a speech for the third and the first time and so of course you know normally when a president walks into the room everyone stands up you greet hello Mr. president, president so and so. Well, I was sitting going, I can't call his ass president. And so I sort of I was I was that Simpson meme going back into the bushes. I just stepped back and I was like, well, he got to walk past here anyway. And so he's sitting there shaking hands and they sitting here and shaking hands and shaking hands and he gets to me and I'm like I'm sitting thinking I can't call him president and I sure as hell can't call him mister. And when he finally got to me, I said, "Hi."
That was it.
He He does not deserve respect.
This man is trash.
We saw what he did on January 6. He's an insurrectionist.
And he was so despicable that he would not even show up for the peaceful transfer of power for the inauguration.
He was a spoiled brat who flew out to Florida because Joe Biden kicked his ass. And yes, Donald Trump, you lost the 2020 election.
And so this is how he treats black female reporters. And he trashes all sorts of people. He's a disgusting human being. And yes, we have human excrement sitting in the Oval Office.
Now, some may say, "Oh my god, that's not language we should be using for the occupant of the Oval Office."
Well, that's a language we use based upon how a person acts and that's who he is. He's a corrupt thug who is raping and pillaging this country.
There's no other way to put it. and he should be called out every time by name when he demeans and attacks black women, black female reporters and reporters uh total. Jalano, your thoughts?
>> Oh, I I agree with you, Roland. He's scum of the earth. He's excrement. Call him what you want. And he's a rapist. I mean, and he's a convicted criminal and he's a bully and he's a whiner and I don't call him president. In fact, I I don't even write his name with a capital T because he doesn't even deserve that.
And my problem when people are trying to make me do unto others as I would have other people do unto me when it comes to politics. Well, with Donald Trump, I think we should do unto others as they do unto us.
And so anyone should be able to understand when we talk about him like a dog, the dirty dog that he is, why we do it. Because he talks about other people worse than that. He literally has something negative to say about anyone who doesn't sing his praises and who is not a single fan of his. And he's disrespectful to everyone.
And he is arrogant. So are all the MAGA people. They're exactly like him and his family. And why would Michelle Obama, the best first lady ever, defend Melania Trump, a stripper who posed nude, who use men and and nab Donald Trump and who doesn't even like her husband? I don't think so. Her body language tells me that she doesn't even like him. So, I don't understand why people expect for us to treat him better than he treats us because I'm not going to allow someone to insult me or the people that I fight for and treat him with dignity and respect because he deserves none.
>> Mustafa Malcolm X once said that the most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected, the most neglected person in America is the black woman. and and if we are not willing to stand up and and fight uh for the black woman, then that says something about who we are. That's one point. Second point is folks should actually go and check the budgets that the person who's in the White House played a significant role in making sure that those cuts were in place um so that folks can't clean up uh parks in a number of other locations. So when he says that, you should actually go back to the root of why and where resources have been drained or erased and the impacts that happen when you make those federal cuts.
So um not only is he despicable, um he also can't stay awake in character meetings. He kept cut saying sleepy Joe, sleepy Joe. Like fool, what what do you do? Uh y'all want to see the latest?
Here's the latest video of uh poopy pants falling asleep uh in the Oval Office.
>> The perinatal improvement collaborative hospitals we have reduced maternal mortality by 41.5%.
Which is truly incredible and this is compared with a 5.9% decline in benchmark hospitals over the same period of times. In the perinatal improvement collaborative hospitals, we have reduced maternal mortality by 41.5%.
Which is truly >> y'all, that fool is straight ass sleep.
>> Okay, roll it again. He He ain't He ain't listening. Yeah, roll it again.
Roll it again.
>> Hospitals, we have reduced maternal mortality by 41.5%.
Which is truly incredible. And this is compared with the 5.9% decline in benchmark hospitals over the same period of time.
>> I mean, and all he does is whine and trashes the media. Oh, you ran a bad picture of me. He's asleep, Mustafa.
Period. He can't even stay awake. And again, all of these media people trash Biden constantly. Oh, he's old. Look at him. He talks slow, walks slow. This idiot is sitting there in the Oval Office just and then you all of a sudden you going to hear and we've all been there. That fake ass like you were actually listening. No, he's asleep.
>> Yeah, he been asleep. He >> didn't even do that.
>> Mustafa, go ahead.
>> Yeah, he's been asleep at the wheel for a long time. Everybody knows that. his folks know it as well, you know, and the other part is if it's not something that he finds a priority, then of course he goes into a deeper sleep. So when we talk about the mu maternal maternal uh rates and how um folks are protecting lives, then you also got to ask the question, if you truly cared about babies, if you truly cared about mothers, then you wouldn't be making it more difficult for folks to have the nutrition that they need. You wouldn't make all these cuts that have happened.
uh to folks around health care coverage.
So, of course, he's going to sleep because these things he doesn't care about because he doesn't care about the average person across the country. He doesn't care about black folks, doesn't care about brown folks, doesn't care about indigenous folks. He don't even care about white folks unless you are rich and you can do something that that helps to move his agenda forward.
>> Galana, >> he was sleeping. The whole world knows it. And and it wasn't a blink as they've said. But the thing that stood out to me, apart from Donald Trump pays attention to nobody but himself and his family, why are all those white women up there talking about cutting down uh maternal mortality rates, maternal mortality hits black women at at least four times higher rate as white women.
Why was there no diversity? Because he doesn't believe it. It's a whole bunch of white people telling us that they are saving us from maternal mortality when black women are dying at rates that are absolutely unacceptable. And it is because they don't provide us what we need in order for us to survive birth just like white women do.
>> Here's another angle of uh poopy sleeping >> years of their children's lives. Second, we are cutting unnecessary red tape. Red tape that forced providers to close, limited access to care, and made it harder for working families to find the support they needed. We're moving away from oneizefits-all federal mandates and instead empowering parents to meet their child's unique needs. And then what happens when you stay up all night uh uh rage posting on Truth Social because all you're doing uh is uh is watching TV.
And so again, he's just sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. Uh totally incompetent. Here's another video of him sleeping. So you have big uh sophisticated urban centers adopting smaller facilities and clinics so they can help moms deliver babies wherever they may live. You don't have to drive across state to get there. Now as great as this all is and as fantastic as it has been to have 50 governors in this case, Mr. President, even the Democratic governors are on board. It's such a good offer. Uh it's such a beautiful u way of keeping your people healthy that everyone's embraced this program. We still can't do it by ourselves. We have to invest in the American people. We have to have governors and private sector partners uh that make this happen as well as and I hope the secretary can speak to this in a moment uh because Maha is probably uh vital to this effort. You have to get moms healthy enough to do the most creative thing the universe knows which is making babies.
So Olivia maybe you can take the message around the private sector involvement and how your you and your family have gotten involved in this.
>> Only thing that woke his ass up when they said his name he's like oh it called my name. Oh my bad. They just called my name. let me let me let me wake up. Uh and that's what it is. And so uh he loves trashing other people. Uh but Donald Trump is constantly falling asleep uh in the Oval Office. That's all he's doing. He's just sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, nodding away, falling asleep. Uh that's uh that that that's what he does. Just uh just constantly napping. Uh, and um um and so hold up. I I I saw another video. Okay, this was pretty funny by the Daily Mail.
Okay, this was good. That's a good one.
Daily Mail, that's a good one.
That's a good one. Okay, that's pretty cool. All right, then. Uh let's see here. Uh uh let's see again. All he does is and and remember uh he sat here and he criticized uh uh Trump. Oh. Oh, here's Trump talking to Andrew Schultz. I want to roll pull audio up.
>> He can sleep. This guy goes on a beach and he lays down on one of those, you know, 6. They weigh 6 ounces and he can't lift them. Get me. So, I wonder when Andrew Schultz is going to run videos of Donald Trump sleeping, but he likely won't because uh the Pod Bros., all they did was kiss Donald Trump's sleepy ass. All right, y'all. Let me go to a break. I'll be right back. Rolling Martin unfiltered on the Blackar Network. A couple of things. One, be sure to join our Brin the Funk fan club.
You want to contribute via cash app, use a strike cure code. You see it right here. Uh check some money or sorry, uh that if you're listening, go to blackstaretwork.com. Check some money order. Make it payable to roller Martin unfiltered PO Box 57196 Washington DC 200037-0196 PayPal R Martin unfiltered Venmo RM unfiltered zale rolling at rollands martin.com rolling at rolling martunfiltered.com you know I'm not going to go to the break I'm going to do the headlines next uh and of course don't forget y'all we're going to be in Middleton Connecticut on Thursday uh we're going to be there on Thursday that's right uh at Cross Street am Zion church and so loved at Middletown Connecticut love to see y'all all there.
And of course, Friday in McGomery, Alabama, and Saturday, we'll be broadcasting beginning uh at 100 p.m.
Eastern. All road lead to the South, the National Day of Action for Voting Rights. Uh let's go to the Blackstone Network headlines of Britney Noble.
>> State of Alabama has initiated a civil investigation into the Alabama Southern Poverty Law Center. State Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a subpoena regarding the organization's fundraising practices and the use of its donations.
This investigation follows a criminal indictment from the Justice Department, which accuses the SPLC of fraud for allegedly using funds to pay informants with extremist groups. Marshall said the investigation will assess whether the SPLC has violated state laws governing charities or engaged in deceptive trade practices. The SPLC is nationally recognized civil rights organization known for tracking hate groups, monitoring extremism, and filing lawsuits all related to discrimination and voting rights. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch has accused the SPLC of manufacturing racism to justify his existence. The SPLC has denied these allegations, saying its informant program, which has long been known to law enforcement, is intended to gather intelligence to prevent attacks and dismantle hate groups.
Efforts are underway to stop a controversial project at the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool in Washington DC. The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit architectural group, is suing the Trump administration. The foundation says that the Trump administration began resurfacing the pool and painting it blue without completing the necessary congressional review and notification.
They're seeking an immediate stop to the resurfacing until the administration complies with federal law, including the National Historic Preservation Act. In late April, Trump told reporters that his administration planned to resurface the pool's stone bottom in American flag blue. Crews have been applying the new material to the surface of that drained pool. And the historic black theater in Kentucky has been transformed into a state-of-the-art library dedicated to African-American history and culture.
The Lyric Theater in Lexington, which once functioned as a museum, now houses a collection of books focusing on black history, identity, and achievements.
Visitors can explore interactive exhibits and digital screens showcasing influential African-Americans who have played significant roles in shaping the nation. Additionally, there will be an exhibit that honors local leaders and change makers from Lexington. organizers aim to educate the community about both local and national black history while fostering a space for learning and connection. Now, this library is free.
It's open to the public from Tuesday until Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. And media mogul Byron Allen has reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in BuzzFeed for $120 million. Once that transaction is finalized later this month, Allan will assume the roles of chairman and chief executive officer of the company. After nearly two decades, BuzzFeed founder Jonah Prey will step down as CEO and transition to a new role focusing on artificial intelligence and digital innovation. Well, Allen plans to expand BuzzFeed and Huffost by incorporating free streaming video and audio as well as user generated content powered by artificial intelligence. This acquisition adds another significant media brand to Allen's growing empire, which already includes the Weather Channel, the Grio, and multiple television networks nationwide.
A total of 565 future doctors, dentists, researchers, and health leaders will all graduate this weekend from McCary Medical College. This group includes more than 100 medical students, 82 dental graduates, and many others studying public health, pursuing graduate studies and working in data science. McCary Medical College, a historically black medical school, is celebrating 150 years since its founding in 1876 with the largest graduating class in its history.
And university officials say this class completed their training during a time of increased national focus on healthcare, public health challenges, and the urgent need for trusted providers in underserved communities.
The class of 2026, known as the Cesquisentennial class, will officially graduate during the commencement ceremony Saturday morning at the Grand Old Opera House.
That's in Nashville.
A black teen in South Los Angeles, California has 65 reasons to celebrate.
17-year-old Valley Victorian Lamont Newell has accepted was accepted into 65 colleges and universities. He ultimately chose to attend Colombia University that's in New York City on a full scholarship to study industrial engineering. He graduated for from Burbam Day Jesuit High School. He had a 4.4 four GPA. And throughout his childhood, he and his family experience homelessness, sometimes sleeping in their car. But he aspires to use his education to create an institution that teaches STEM skills to black kids.
Roland, back to you.
>> All right, folks. Don't forget to check out the breakdown of Britney Noble every day at noon Eastern. The breakdown of Britney Noble every day noon Eastern on the Blackar Network. Time for Shop Blackstar Network.
folks. Finding a skincare brand that truly caters to children's sensitive, hypoallergenic, and eczemarapone skin can be difficult, especially when so many products on the market are loaded with harsh ingredients or generic formulas that don't account for the unique needs of black and brown skin.
Well, Melon Brand Skin is taking a different approach by creating skin care products specifically designed for young melanated skin, including children with sensitive skin. Patrice Chappelle, co-founder and CEO of Melon Brand Skin, joins us right now. Patrice, glad to have you here. So, all right. So, explain to us why Melanated Skin is so different.
>> Yes. Good evening. So, when my son Braun was a lot younger, I could not find any skincare products for him. Uh we started this company because of him and for kids that look like him. There weren't any products on the market at the time. Now you'll find more skincare brands that cater to to kids, but they still missed a mark on catering to uh boys and to black and brown kids.
>> Uh and so when did you first start this research that led to uh launching your own skincare line?
>> Yes. So it was actually before Bron's uh 12th birthday. We started looking into formulations and ingredients that would work best on melanated skin. We are more prone to having eczema and other skin conditions that other ethnicities don't typically have. So, we started then uh we launched in May of 2023. So, we're actually three years in business as of this month.
>> Uh, and how has it gone thus far?
>> It's been going wonderfully, Roland. So, we're actually in Ronald Reagan uh National Airport as we speak. We were there um as of April 1st. We'll be in the airport uh throughout June 30th. And we are the first kids skincare brand in DCA. So, very exciting. We're meeting so many people, reaching new audiences. I mean, different ethnicities at that. So, not only are we catering to black and brown communities, but also to Caucasian and other ethnicities as well. So, it's very exciting.
>> All right, Finn. And so different products do you have? I see right here the Melam Moisture Face and Body Wash.
So how many different products do you have?
>> Yes. So we actually have about 10 SKs right now. Our latest is actually our towels. So as you can see it's our melon velvet towels. These towels are disposable. They are 50. They come 50 in a box. And there are other brands that have these towels but not specifically for children. So, we're we're starting to create a lane that is wide open and fulfilling a gap that has not been met yet. Um, we also have our fresh face cleanser here as well. So, this goes along with our discovery kit. And this comes with a toner and moisturizer. And this is great for ages 7 through 21. So, not just the school age children, but also the college age kids. Um, we also capture that age group, too. And then this is the melon moisture extreme cream. So, that wash trying to get it right here. So that wash that you have Roland um this accompanies that. This is great for the eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis. It can be placed on your scalp, your face and your body. And some of the main ingredients are aloe vera, you know, shea butter, collodial oats, which is good for anti-inflammatory um you know properties and and helping your skin to uh reduce redness and dryness and all those things and itching.
>> Um questions from the panel. Uh Jalana, you first.
Yes, there are there are some people in my family who have severe eczema. And so what I'm going to do is I'm gonna figure out how to get your products because I would like to have some relief for some people in my family who can't get a a handle on that. So what do I need to do to get to your product?
>> Yes. So we're actually on the marketplace with Roland Martin, so you can check us out there. Um, it's really exciting because I had a young uh girl yesterday and I believe she may have been Filipino, but she had eczema literally all over her body. And so when she walked up with her mom, she was maybe like six or seven years old and this was in the airport yesterday. And I let her try a sample and she was rubbing it on her, you know, hands and her her arms and her mom was like, "How does it feel?" And she was like, "It feels great." And so her mom purchased it. So, it's just really um fulfilling to be able to solve a true issue that moms and dads alike have been trying to uh resolve for a long time for their kids because they simply cannot find products like this that do not have toxins and we're also cruelty-free. So, we're Leaping Bunny certified cruelty-free.
So, we have that certification, meaning we do not test on animals. We're dermat approved. We're vegan. We're gluten-free and of course toxin free. So, we made sure that we covered all the marks with all of our products. I'm sure uh environmentalist Mustafa is loving all of that. Mustafa.
>> Yeah. No, thank you for that and thank you for focusing also on black and brown kids. Um I'm curious at the beginning when you first began to share with us, you also talked about boys. Um and I think it's the first time we've had somebody on the show who's been focusing on boys skin care. Is there a difference um in thickness um of boys skin and girls skin? Um can you just talk about why these products are so uh important for for young boys but of course for all kids?
>> Yes. So I think the the skin is actually the same as far as a skin barrier.
However, we don't typically cater to boys. So we kind of skip over that and think that it's a girl thing and that just girls should start their skincare routines when in fact boys should be doing the same thing as well. So I think that's the main difference. And also with boys, it's harder to kind of get them into routines uh because they're just not into like beauty and skincare like girls are. So start starting them young is very important. And that's why we preface with saying, "Hey, you need to start at least at age seven."
>> Oh, folks. So if y'all want to check the products out, do me a favor. Go to shopblackstaretwork.com.
Go right now to shopblackstaretwork.com.
You can check out the price the the all the products of Melon Brand Skin and uh you can purchase them there. Again, we created this uh for blackowned companies to be able to show showcase their products and when you support uh this blackowned business. You also support this show as well and this network and other blackowned business as well. And so again, support Melon Brand Skin right there at shopblackstaretwork.com.
Patrice, we certainly appreciate it.
Thanks a lot.
>> Thank you so much, Roland. All right, we appreciate it. Let me thank Jalanda and Mustafa. Uh Khalil uh was with us, but we had some issues technology-wise and so we'll get them back on. Uh thank you so very much to both of you folks. Don't forget support the work that we do.
First and foremost, give me a couple of things. On Thursday, we're going to be in Middletown, Connecticut, uh there with Dr. Steve Perry talking about his charter school and why state of Connecticut denying the number one ranked school from being able to get another school. Y'all know for me, school choice is the black choice. I support blackowned charter networks. And so we got a lot of questions that we hope to answer on Thursday. Friday we're going to be in Montgomery, Alabama. Uh doing the show there. And of course Saturday, uh All Road Lead to the South, the National Day of Action for Voting Rights. We'll be broadcasting live from Montgomery, Alabama. Uh we're doing covering, we're going to be live first of all at 1000 a.m. from Selma and then 100 p.m. Eastern uh from Montgomery. And so you want to check out check us out.
All right, folks. Support the work that we do. Your dollars make it possible for us to go to places like this here to travel to do these stories on the road.
And so uh our goal is real simple. To get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year at $49 cents a month, 13 cents a day. You support this show and the five other shows on the Blackstone Network. That raises a million dollars. Uh it really is critically important, y'all, because listen, we don't have millionaires and billionaires cutting us. check checks.
You know, I didn't I didn't leave TV1 and, you know, earning millions of dollars and being able to fund the network. Uh we've been bootstrapping it.
Your support has been critical critical from day one. And so, we appreciate it.
Uh we've had thousands of folks watching the show today. If you have not donated, please do so. Uh because it's important for us to have not just independent media, but blackowned media. You know, I could always talk about generic topics and cover everybody, but no, we want to center African-Americans and make make us the focus every single day uh with this show. And so, please support the work that we do. 47,000 donors have contributed since we started this show, uh let's get to 50,000 um uh this month.
And so, again, folks, if you want to support us via cash app Stripe QR code, you see it on the screen. If you're listening, go to blackstaretwork.com.
Checks and money order make it payable to Roller Martin unfiltered PO Box 571-96 Washington DC 200037-0196 PayPal R Martin unfiltered Venmo rm unfiltered zo Roland at Roland smart.com Roland at rollolen martinfiltered.com download the blast network approid phone Apple TV Android TV Amazon Fire TV Roku Samsung smart TV uh be sure to get our rolling Martin unfiltered swag our hats and t-shirts and mugs and All that good stuff. Our shirt, don't blame me. I voted for a black woman, blackowned media matters. How uh, of course, MAGA chose between woke or broke. They chose broke. Get all that stuff at shoplaststaretwork.com.
You can also support these blackowned companies at shopblackstaretwork.com by going to our marketplace. Every product that you see in our studio.
They're all available on shopblackstaretwork.com.
Download the app fan base, the black own social media app. Follow me at Rolandis Martin if you get fan base. And I appreciate it. Don't forget, check out Britney Noble every day on the breakdown with Britney Noble noon Eastern right here. Also, every Thursday, check out uh Dr. Ebony uh Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton.
Second opinion, Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton every Thursday right here on the Blackar Network, folks. That's it. Also, shout out to my high school Jack Yates. Yes, I'm repping Jay Wild today as I always am right here. Class of 87. All right, y'all. I'mma see y'all tomorrow. Power.
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