Day 15 Shutdown Drags On, Supreme Court Threatens Voting Rights Act, Black Groups Fight Back

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Star Network is here A real.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
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Speaker 3 (00:30):
I thank you for being the voice of Black America.
Rolling hello, y'all a moment we have.

Speaker 5 (00:35):
Now we have to keep this going.

Speaker 6 (00:37):
The video looks phenomenals.

Speaker 7 (00:39):
Is between Black Star Networks and Black owned media and
something like CNN.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
You can't be black owned media and be scape.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
It's time to be smart.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
Bring your eyeballs, hold you dig.

Speaker 8 (01:24):
Intubic, intubic, instlic, intact in laic, intublic inclubic, intblic, intombic,

(02:01):
instimblic intombic insut lmblic instic intimbic, instimblic into intomic instablic in.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
All right, folks, Day's Wednesday. I took about fifteen, twenty
twenty five coming up a rolling filter scree me live
for the Black Study Network. Day fifteen. The government shutdown
the Senate that's filled once again to reach a deal. Guests,
who's whining complaining? I'll speaker Mike Johnson, Tongsheno Morrell, and
DNC chair Ken Martin were joining us on today's show.
Supreme Court her oral arguments that could wipe out up

(04:07):
to have the Congressional Black Caucus, Folks. The Nation Justice
correspondent Ellie Mister will join us, and Hey, despite immaculate
arguments from the NAPED Legal Defense Fund Jenna Nelson, looks
like these conservative Supreme Court justices are going to gut
the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Act. Folks, this is real.

(04:31):
Another candidate running for the Texas eighteenth Congressional district joins us.
Amanda Edwards will be on the show. Of course, with
the Voting Rights Act hanging in the balance, black grassmen's
organizations are ramping up their efforts to protect our voting power.
We'll talk with the Florida advocate who was working to
get black folks out to vote. Plus, this afrotech comes
back to Houston. We'll be broadcasting live from there. We'll

(04:51):
talk about the conference. Plus there's white influence. There has
a lot to say about racism in the country. Wait
until you show you what he he has to say.
Pack show, It's time to bring the phone unfilched, the
blackstudd network. Let's go.

Speaker 9 (05:06):
He's got whatever the best, he's on it, whatever it is.
He's got the school, the fact, the fine and wait
it blaks. He's right on time and is rolling. Best
believe he's going putting it down from his Loston news
to politics with entertainment.

Speaker 10 (05:24):
Just bookcakes.

Speaker 8 (05:25):
He's stolen, it's rowing up.

Speaker 9 (05:32):
It's rolling Monte yeah, rolling with.

Speaker 10 (05:41):
He's bronk, he's breast, she's real.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Good question, No, he's rolling Monte.

Speaker 8 (05:55):
Morte.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
All right, folks, the US cena field again today to
move forward with a bill to reopen the government. It
was a nine time and it has fallen short. This shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says the House will not return
to vote on the eight hundred and fifty two billion
dollar Pentagon bill plated for Thursday unless Senate Democrats first
agree to reopen the government. Something tells me it has
to do with Jeffrey Epstein as well. Brasilia. Joe Morelli

(06:25):
joins us right now, glad to have you on the show. Congressman.
I mean, let's just be real. Let's just be real.
Speaker Mike Johnson is scared to death of the Jeffrey
Epstein files, he won't seat the Arizona Democrat who was
elected there as well, And so what games is he
playing here? This is not about, frankly, the budget where

(06:46):
we stand, he is trying to protect Republicans from this
very issue in using this government shut down this cover.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
Yeah, there's no question this is a really dark time
in Washington.

Speaker 11 (06:58):
Not only the shutdown, but you're right, all the efforts
to stop Adelita Grijalva from taking her seat in Arizona,
which has now been several weeks since her election, so
the people in that community don't have any representation, and
that is to protect the president apparently from what's in
the Epstein files.

Speaker 5 (07:17):
They keep saying nothing, but there's obviously something going on.

Speaker 11 (07:20):
And then you mentioned the Supreme Court oral arguments today
that would basically has the potential of decimating what's left
to the Voting Rights Act and the committee that I'm
the top Democrat on his oversight on federal elections.

Speaker 5 (07:33):
So I'm very very concerned about that.

Speaker 11 (07:35):
It is, you know, it seems surreal, but it's now
becoming the new reality in Trump's Washington.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
And listen earlier today, folks living on when you'll had
the clip ready. The speaker was whining and complaining because
a number of Democrats marched down to his office demanding
that he seat this duly elected member of Congress. And
forgive me if he sounded a bit like a hypocrite,

(08:05):
y'all roll this today.

Speaker 12 (08:08):
If it weren't for the bold leadership of President Trump
helping us to protect our military. Everyone needs to understand
that one point three million active duty service members would
be missing a paycheck. They'll get their check, thankfully, because
President Trump has shown strong leadership and under his direction,
the Department of War has now redirected unspent funds to

(08:30):
ensure that our troops are taken care of. And this
is while Democrats are playing political games. Last night they
played some games. They stormed my office. Maybe you saw
some of the video online that they themselves shared or
someone did. They berated a Capitol police officer, screamed at
him he was just merely standing his post. Shows again

(08:51):
they're disdain for law enforcement, as we see all around
the country, the Democrats and everyone in that party screaming,
assaulting ice officers.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
They did it right here in the Capitol last night.

Speaker 12 (09:01):
A few members of Congress went into the little foyer
of my office and tore down a sign that had
up and uh and and just engaged in all sorts
of political stunts and antics. They've been doing that every
day now, and it shows their desperation. It also shows
a very strong contrast between the party that is working
for the people and trying to keep the government open
and do the right thing, and the party that is

(09:24):
engaging in all this nonsense.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Really, Cozmarelli, this, Oh my god, look at this. How
dare you Democrats?

Speaker 13 (09:34):
Uh?

Speaker 14 (09:34):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
You know, uh expressed the First Amendment? And you come
down and you are you know, you're you're you're sitting
here and and you're making these demands and and and
then we listened, Oh my goodness, we we we we
listened to him say how they accosted, how they accosted
uh Capitol police, And oh my god, how bad this is.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Is this not the same speaker that has refused to
actually post a plaque that was passed by members of
Congress to honor the Capitol police. I'm sorry, this is
January sixth, so forgive me if it's Oh my goodness,

(10:21):
how dare they? This is just so wrong what they're
doing when that happened on January sixth.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yeah, this is the height of cynicism, hypocrisy.

Speaker 11 (10:33):
Look in truth, the Speaker has sold out the interests
of the American people protecting the Congress as a separate institution.
He's really become simply just an employee of Donald Trump.
He doesn't do anything without the blessing of the President.
And it's so frankly just beneath the office. And you

(10:55):
know what, we've sworn Republican members of the House in
during pro formace sessions when we're not in voting, and
the Speaker knows that very well, and yet he continues
to thwart the will of the people in Arizona who
elected Representative Elect Grihala.

Speaker 5 (11:15):
It is disgraceful. And to your point, I mean, we
have a federal law.

Speaker 11 (11:20):
It's not just a suggestion, a federal law that a
plaque be installed in the Capitol honoring the brave men
and women not only are the Capitol Police Force, but
the National Guard and all who responded on January sixth,
twenty twenty one, when President Trump attempted.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
An overthrow of the United States government.

Speaker 11 (11:39):
And you know, I know everybody wants a whitewash it
on the Republican side, and the President wants to pretend
it didn't happen.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
But where's Mike Johnson. There, Where's Mike.

Speaker 11 (11:47):
Johnson and upholding the law and protecting the interests of
law enforcement. It's disgraceful, but I've come to expect it
because he, in the long line of speakers, is the
first to not demonstrate any independence, not to hold in
high regard the institution of Congress, which is the direct

(12:07):
will of the people.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
I mean, we run every other year.

Speaker 11 (12:10):
The House of Representatives was established by the Framers to
be the closest voice to the people, and he is
doing things that will take decades, if not longer, to
repair the institution of the United States Congress.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
It is a sad and dark day here in Washington.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
You see them all of a sudden talking about the
moving over of resources and things along those lines. This
is though, all about healthcare, and I find it amazing
to listen to Speaker Johnson, as well as the twice
impeach criminally convicted felon in chief Donald Trump, talk about
the love of the military when they are also gutting

(12:48):
the Department of veteran affairs and the health of even veterans,
so not just non veterans in this country. They're screwing
everybody when it comes to healthcare.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
Yeah, they have no plan on healthcare.

Speaker 11 (13:01):
All they know is that they want to take money
out of Medicaid and Medicare, all in service of giving
huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, so they keep
helping their friends and taking services away from people who
desperately needed I was at the dry cleaners the other
day back in Rochester. A woman who's working said to me,

(13:23):
I will not be able to afford health insurance if
these subsidies aren't preserved. I don't know what I'm going
to do. It's thousands of dollars more and I'm working
every day, but I can't afford this. I mean, that's
repeated by the tens of thousands in New York alone,
one hundred and fifty thousand in New York, millions across
the country. When did we get to a point where

(13:44):
the United States government decides to turn it's back on
people who desperately need essential services all to give it
to billionaires who don't need it and frankly, have so
much money they're not even going to realize the benefits
they get.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
That's how crazy this is.

Speaker 11 (14:00):
But that's what the Republican Party has become, literally a
shill for billionaires and turn its back on American citizens.
So so much for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
They don't believe any of that. And I was commenting
today you mentioned the Supreme Court decision. You know, etched
into the granite of the Supreme Court building is equal
justice under law, but they're scaffolding so's you can't see

(14:25):
the engraved words, and in some way, such a perfect
metaphor for what's going on is the Supreme Court continues
to chisel away at equal justice under law and is
going to deny millions of people representation in the House
of Representatives. It is such a disgrace, and you could

(14:46):
tell from the oral arguments they're prepared to cut out
Section two, which is the last remaining part of the
Voting Rights Act and has allowed for representation of black
and brown Americans that never existed before. This is tragic,
and as I say, I am so fearful for our republics,
so fearful this democracy, so fearful.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
For all the gains we've made.

Speaker 11 (15:08):
We haven't gone nearly far enough, but we have made
gains in the last sixty years, and they threaten to.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
Be wiped out by this ridiculous argument that the.

Speaker 11 (15:16):
Equal Protection Clause doesn't allow us to take into consideration race.
When it comes to people's opportunity to access and vote
for people that they think will represent them is it's
literally like Alice in Wonderland.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
What's up and is down, what's in and out? It's
hard to serve process any longer.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
I have, of course, been trying to raise awareness of
this issue, been making it perfectly clear to people that
this court case today on Louisiana, it could do massive,
massive damage to black political rights in this country, especially
in the South.

Speaker 15 (15:54):
You know.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
And I sit here and as I think about that,
I think out this right here at least go to
my iPad that farewell addressed by George H. White on
January twenty ninth, nineteen oh one, when he was the
last remaining African American in Congress. And after you had
you had the election of eighteen seventy six, the Great

(16:18):
Compromise of eighteen seventy seven, you saw the rollback of
the eighteen seventy five civil rights law. You saw place
Verus Ferguson. You saw an absolute attack on black representation,
and unfortunately Congress Morelli, Morelli, we are going back to that.
I wrote a book called White Fear. And what these
concerned with these Republicans are doing. They are angry about

(16:41):
black success, They are angry about what we're seeing. And
what they want to suggest is somehow all, No, we
don't have to look at race. From the fact of
the matter, that is, they're using race to draw these
so called partisan Jared Manderin and this goes being on Congress.
This is going to impact black elected officials, Congress, state houses,

(17:04):
county government, city government, school districts. This is going to
wipe out sixty years of American progress in politics if
they rule based upon how they raise the questions today.

Speaker 5 (17:19):
And honestly, this struggle has gone on for so long.

Speaker 11 (17:22):
I represent Rochester, New York, where Frederick Douglass chose to
make his home, where he printed the North Star newspaper,
where he did much of the work in his life.
And it is in our DNA to fight for suffrage,
for voting rights, and to see what is happening. To
your point, this just as in the House of Representatives,
this goes to all levels of government.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
And I'm so.

Speaker 11 (17:46):
Disappointed in the United States Supreme Court. I'm not surprised, sadly,
but honestly, what's happening. We won't recognize this democracy from
what we have lived over the last fifty or sixty years.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
In the progress we've made halting.

Speaker 11 (18:01):
It has not been uniformed by any means, but there
has been progress, and this threatens.

Speaker 5 (18:05):
To wipe that all out.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
And then some oh, absolutely, and I just want people
to understand it. And you say, uh, you know where
Frederick Douglas, Uh, where he worked as also and when
you get the phrase rolling in the grave, this is
also Rochester, New York. Is also are Frederick Douglas is buried.
And when I was there, I went by and paid
respects to his grave site.

Speaker 6 (18:27):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
And this is somebody who fought for these rights. And
what we are seeing is and and and and last
point here Congressomarrelli and I used to I said this,
and he used to be honest. He used to piss
me off when I would see these Republicans go down
to Selma with Congressman John Lewis, and I said, this
is a field trip to them when it's life and

(18:49):
death for the rest of us, and they would go
down there, Oh, John is so great. They would get
all these plaudits and amazing, and I'm like, but how
dare you stand against the very thing that man fought for?

Speaker 5 (19:02):
And almost that the great privilege. John Lewis was a hero.
I used to see him in the chambers after I
got elected, and I always say, mister Lewis, how are
you And he'd say, you know, you can call me John.
We're colleagues. I said, I appreciate that, mister Lewis, and
I've been to Selma last several years, and you're absolutely right.

Speaker 11 (19:20):
But people should not forget that for most of the
last sixty years, the Voting Rights Act has received bipartisan support,
yes from Republican presidents, Democrat presidents, members of Congress.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
It's really only in the Trump.

Speaker 11 (19:34):
Maga era where they have completely done a one hundred
and eighty degree turn and they have now literally trying
to do everything they can along with their you know,
the partisans and the Supreme Court, to chisel away at
the foundation of this and it's so dispiriting in this moment.
Mount Hope Cemetery right in Rochester, New York. We encourage

(19:54):
people to come up and visit, and it's heartbreaking for
all the progress is just heartbreaking.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Well, we are not gonna stop on this show. We'll
absolutely focus on this. We appreciate you joining us and
keep up the fight.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
Thank you, sir, Thanks for all the work you do.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Thank you very much. Folks. We're gonna go to break
we come back. Lots we're dealing with here. We'll talk
with Ellie Mitstel again. We're gonna break down what happened
that Supreme Court hearing today, folks, just devastating, devastating what
took place. And we come back. We're going to play
you some of those oral arguments to set up our
conversation with Ellie Mitstel. That more right here Rolling Bark

(20:34):
Unfiltered on the black Stun Network.

Speaker 6 (20:43):
Afro Tech.

Speaker 16 (20:44):
It's a lot of beauty, a lot of brilliance, a
lot of intellect, a lot of innovation.

Speaker 17 (20:50):
Companies that are most diverse are more profitable.

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We're getting culture, we're getting community, We're getting the best
of the best.

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Not only are we here to greet each other, but
we're here to network with each.

Speaker 19 (21:00):
Other, everybody from all the major tech companies here, and
that means that now everybody's in the same domain.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
This is the premiere event every year.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
This is really where we could take off. You can
go fast by yourself, where we go farther together.

Speaker 19 (21:22):
This is where you're supposed to be.

Speaker 10 (21:29):
This week.

Speaker 20 (21:29):
On the other side of change, we are talking about
the government shut down and how it's impacting our everyday lives,
including our pocketbooks.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
These mothers are crazy as hell.

Speaker 13 (21:38):
They are willing to shut down the entire government, the
entire government to force people to pay more in their healthcare,
to subsidize tax breaks for the wealthiest people.

Speaker 9 (21:47):
Here, you're watching the other side of change only on
the Black Star Network.

Speaker 20 (22:00):
Is Essen's at King Christer Left, King of rb Yu
dubou Me series, Jebre and you know what you want,
You're watching rutland Mark.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
I'm filming folks always some interesting videos I come across
on social media, and I saw this video here as
a white gentleman talking about the issue that a lot
of white folks in this country have, especially on the right,

(22:27):
And so I saw it and I say, you know what,
We're gonna give us a love because I thought he
was absolutely on point with his breakdown. Watch.

Speaker 21 (22:36):
You non white people in this country can't seem to
wrap your heads around the fact that white people in
this country are grieving. And if you don't know what
I'm talking about, let me show you the five stages
of grief that white people in America have been going
through since Obama was elected. The first stage is denial,
and this happened right when Obama was first elected in
the office.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
We can't be racist.

Speaker 21 (22:56):
We elected a black man to serve as our president,
even though I voted for the other guy twice.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
The second stage is anger. Holy shit, a black guy
won again?

Speaker 8 (23:08):
Oh no.

Speaker 21 (23:09):
The third stage is bargaining, what do you mean black
lives matter? Don't all lives matter? The fourth stage is depression.
Stop calling me racist. That's not nice when you call
me racist. It hurts my feelings when you call me
racist for doing the racist stuff that I do.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
And the fifth stage brings us to today where we
are right now.

Speaker 21 (23:30):
Acceptance and I'm looking at you, Emily Saves the world,
You piece of.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
Shit, just openly supporting white supremacy.

Speaker 21 (23:36):
A restaurant opens is being called out for white supremacy,
and that makes you want to go there.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
You just say the quiet part out loud now, and
that's where this country is.

Speaker 21 (23:44):
If it's not grief that white supremacists are experiencing, what
else do you call it. I have lived as a
straight white male for thirty nine years in Los Angeles
and I have never seen so many sads boys in
my entire fucking life.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
And now we're just saying the quiet parts out loud,
aren't we.

Speaker 22 (24:04):
We are just.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
Okay with the way the world is, with these.

Speaker 21 (24:08):
Ignorant, stupid, fucking white people just putting their racism on display.
Let me tell you something, as a straight white male.
If you are a straight white male in this country
and you can't get a girlfriend, you can't get a job,
you can't pay your bills, you have nobody to blame
but yourself.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
This fucking country was built for you, you fucking loser.
And I don't care what state you live in.

Speaker 21 (24:32):
I know that you people in Arkansas and Alabama have
the worst fucking education system in the entire country. But
you know what, people in other countries will literally swim
here to get half the opportunity that you, a straight
white person in this country have. They will fucking fight
tooth and nail. They will leave their friends, their family,

(24:53):
everything that they know behind just to survive. And you
have nothing but time to make excuses and feel disenfranchised
by trans people in your sports, by fucking minorities taking
jobs that you would never even fucking apply to. Grow
the fuck up, grow a pair of fucking balls. I'm

(25:14):
not here for your comments. If you disagree with me,
I don't give a fuck about your engagement.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
I'm right, you're wrong. Go fuck yourself.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Wow, he was to the point. Now you may say, man,
ro you actually played that, Because I've got to understand
something what we did with right.

Speaker 10 (25:31):
Here, y'all?

Speaker 3 (25:31):
I wrote a whole book on this, did I not?
What have I been saying since two thousand and nine
that we're living in this stage of white fear, that
there are people of this country that are white people
in this country who are scared to death of the
browning of America and all that psycho bullshit. After Obama

(25:55):
got elected, we're moving to a post racial America. I
hated that crap when I was on this seeing it,
and I was like, no, we're not who the hell
is saying that? Because wasn't no black people saying it,
and so y'all need to understand all these all these
things that you're saying, This is what it's all about. So,
for instance, when we were watching I said another video

(26:17):
all this stuff with ice, how they're attacking black people
and brown people, slamming folks are on the ground or
whatever their mistreatment. You know, some folks are tired of this.
And this Caribbean sister from New York City, all I'm
saying is she brought the level of energy that all
of us actually feels when it comes to these folks.

(26:39):
So let me give a shout to uh, the person
who shot this.

Speaker 8 (26:43):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
But I'm telling y'all this was on point.

Speaker 23 (26:50):
Jump.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
What's going on?

Speaker 6 (27:01):
You guys?

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Let me just get.

Speaker 5 (27:04):
Give him space. You can do what you do, but
just give him space.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
I can't.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
I don't know what you want.

Speaker 23 (27:11):
Do what you know?

Speaker 13 (27:14):
What you guys?

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Why tell him?

Speaker 11 (27:20):
Why do.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
You come after?

Speaker 8 (27:26):
You'll call you that like I come.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Take it, stupid bitch. That's why I got you a
bunch of I wish you was I wish the fun yes,
the with his father about your make.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
What the fuck is?

Speaker 23 (27:46):
We don't like none of you?

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Okay, No, how can I be okay?

Speaker 3 (27:50):
You're okay? Are you okay?

Speaker 24 (27:52):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
I look like I'm okay.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Don't come up in my face because I had a fun.

Speaker 23 (27:58):
Try it.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
I wish you wore Try you try me and see
what the funk happens. They're gonna be angry, all.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Of us angry out here.

Speaker 25 (28:05):
So don't think it's y'all alone. You who you're telling
get out of here? Why you're telling me get out
of here?

Speaker 5 (28:11):
You asked me a question and I'm answering.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
You fuck wrong with you.

Speaker 5 (28:18):
Old stupid ass fit. That's why you gotta hide your face.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
You want me my mother, I'm.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Gonna tell you anything with you.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
You want to hit me, hit me me.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Nobody's karting me.

Speaker 26 (28:31):
You can't come.

Speaker 25 (28:32):
Come, I go raised on minil there you b you're
lossy bitch. That's why your kids that don't like you,
why your wife is fucking on you. That's why you're
gota hide your fad. My fancy't handed bench. I'm American,
You stupid bench. Wrong with y'all need to take me
to hide. I'm showing us on your price.

Speaker 7 (28:51):
You know what to do?

Speaker 8 (28:52):
Tell him?

Speaker 25 (28:52):
No, no, no, you want me i'drawng with y'all fuck
all on.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
You fuck out on the news.

Speaker 8 (28:59):
Let Trump.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Punk asses. They covering their faces, got the little baggers draped.
So Donald Trump is said, y'all can do whatever y'all want. See.
Remember all the more loudmouth, simple simon negroes who on
YouTube flapping their gums. Isn't amazing how quiet they are now.
Isn't it amazing? How and y'all know their names, y'all

(29:28):
know who they are. Isn't it amazing? How they ain't
got no smoke for Ice. They don't have any smoke
for these right wing Supreme Court justices. They have any
smoke for these folks, but they love running their mouths
about when I'm talking about when angela rioting Native lampod
talking about other people. And so y'all need to understand

(29:49):
what's going on. We told y'all what was going down, y'all,
we even got to the first year of Trump's second term,
and what these folks are trying to do. We have
been yelling and screaming this stuff, not for months, for years,

(30:13):
and it's happening. Is happening. We're gonna talk to Ellie,
mister Nixt and let me tell yall something. If y'all
want to understand again what's going down, If y'all want
to understand how these white these white right wing ideologues,

(30:34):
they don't give a shit about the nineteen sixty four
Civil Rights Act, they don't care about the sixty five
Voting Rights Act. They despise a nineteen sixty eight Civil
Rights Act. I told y'all what they said. I told y'all.
Robert Mercer is on record saying the fall of America

(30:54):
began with the nineteen sixty four Civil Rights Act. All
this praise, oh they all mad all NOCNBC didn't show
the middle of Freedom of ceremony for Charlie Kirk.

Speaker 15 (31:06):
Why why.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
They shouldn't have showed it or seeing in let the
right wing show it? Because Charlie Kirk despised the Civil
Rights Act, they couldn't stand the Voting Rights Act, because
that's who they are. And y'all's about to happen. I'm
gonna say it again. Everything that black folks fought for

(31:37):
during the period of reconstruction, during that ninety two years
of Jim Crow, the Black freedom movement some call the
civil rights movement from the day King was assassinated up
to the present day. They want to wipe all that out.
And I'm telling you what happened today in the Supreme
Court was so shameful and despicable. They don't even give

(32:03):
a shit what the loss says. They were just up
there just making shit up. And we confronted with the facts.
Just make up some more stuff. Listen here, I'm gonna
play for you right now. What they talked about. This
is just a set. It was supposed to only be
an hour. It went a lot longer. But listen to

(32:24):
the bs that was said. And a phenomenal job was
done by Jenney Nilson, who of course leads an NAACP
legal defense fund. Listen to this, y'all.

Speaker 27 (32:37):
Congress included a durational limit in Section five of the
Voting Rights Act. It created a mechanism for reauthorization. It
decidedly did not do that in section.

Speaker 28 (32:46):
The issue, as you know, is that this Court's cases,
in a variety of contexts, have said that race based
remedies are permissible for a period of time, sometimes for
a long period of time decades in some cases, but
that they should not be indefinite and should have an

(33:10):
endpoint and what exactly do you think the endpoint should
be or how do we know for the intentional.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Use of race to create districts.

Speaker 27 (33:20):
Well, jess Kevina, you raised a very important distinction, and
that's between remedies and the statute. So a race based
remedy can and should and usually does have a time
limit and a durational limit.

Speaker 10 (33:33):
Section two.

Speaker 27 (33:34):
Court ordered remedies have a time limit, and so that
is something that is grounded in our case law. What
is not grounded in case law is the idea that
an entire statute should somehow dissolve simply because race may
be an element of the remedy. So, for example, this
case has a firm Title seven, it has a firm

(33:55):
Section nineteen eighty two the Family Medical Leave Act, and
also Section four e of the Voting Rights Act in
kats and Back versus Morgan, and never has it suggested
that any of those statutes should dissolve in and of themselves.

Speaker 10 (34:09):
I don't think it's the remedy.

Speaker 28 (34:10):
I'm sorry, I don't think it's the statute. It's the
particular application of the statute that entails the intentional, deliberate
use of race to sort people into different districts that
particular aspect.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
I'm guessing.

Speaker 28 (34:30):
I'm asking what you think the time limit on that
should be, or there really shouldn't be a time limit.
I think you might be saying there shouldn't be a
time limit unless Congress chooses one.

Speaker 10 (34:40):
I am saying that. I'm saying there should not be
a time limit.

Speaker 27 (34:42):
But I also think it's critical to emphasize that Section
two does not require a race based remedy in all circumstances.

Speaker 17 (34:51):
Is that because I asked that, I just wanted to
filew up on just as Kevin asks question, what if
this is an exercise of congress enforcement power. If we're
looking at the city of Bernie test and we're saying
it has to be congruent and proportional, would that affect
Justice Your answer to Justice Kavanaugh's question that if it's
going above and beyond what the Fifteenth Amendment requires of

(35:13):
its own force, but Congress has actually chosen the Voting
Rights Act as a remedy, does that affect the question
of whether it can go on and definitely or not
that at some point it becomes not congruent and proportional.

Speaker 10 (35:25):
No, I don't think it does.

Speaker 27 (35:26):
First, Bernie should not apply to Section to you just assume.

Speaker 10 (35:31):
Assumes, assuming if my question is sure.

Speaker 27 (35:34):
Assuming that it does as you know, and Bernie, this
Court held up the Voting Rights Act as the paradigmatic
example of congruence and proportionality. The fact that the Voting
Rights Act at times may require a race based remedy
does not change the fact that Congress, with its enlarged
powers as defined by ex Parte Virginia and the line

(35:57):
of cases forward, can address conduct that is beyond what
the Fifteenth Amendment addresses. It doesn't need to simply parrot
the Fifteenth Amendment. It can address conduct that is even
considered constitutional in order to ensure that race discrimination in
voting does not go undetected, uncorrected, or undeterred. In the

(36:19):
words of the Senate reports, support somebody else, I.

Speaker 29 (36:23):
Guess I wonder if it would be helpful, at least
as I'm thinking about it, because I think this is
a very important question.

Speaker 10 (36:32):
To understand.

Speaker 29 (36:33):
I think that you're saying that Section two is not
a remedy in and of itself, it is the mechanism
by which the law determines whether a remedy is necessary.

Speaker 10 (36:48):
That's absolutely correct.

Speaker 29 (36:49):
So it's a law that is just encouraging or requiring
a check in. It's like a tool, it's like a
tape measure that we're looking looking as to whether or
not certain circumstances exist. In those circumstances that Congress is
worried about is unequal access to electoral opportunity. And Section

(37:12):
two tells you we have to look for those circumstances.
And then the court says, yep, they exist in this
situation under section two.

Speaker 10 (37:22):
And so now a remedy is required.

Speaker 29 (37:24):
And in our case law, we then say, okay, State,
it's up to you to figure out what that remedy
will be. And maybe that remedy involves race consciousness, maybe
it doesn't, whatever, But Section two itself is just the
measure by which we determine that a remedy is required.

Speaker 10 (37:43):
That's absolutely correct. So that's why it.

Speaker 29 (37:45):
Doesn't need a time limit, because it's not doing any
work other than just pointing us to the direction of
where we might need to do something that's right.

Speaker 27 (37:54):
And its usage becomes less and less as we see
racially polarized voting and residential segregation decreasing. The Cat's Amikas
brief in this case shows that in the past decade,
Section two cases have decreased by fifty percent.

Speaker 10 (38:09):
Because the plaintiffs can't make the showing.

Speaker 29 (38:11):
It's a pretty it's a pretty significant showing to establish
that unequal opportunity of electoral processes is happening in a situation.

Speaker 10 (38:23):
That's correct. Jingles is an exacting test. It is data obsessive.

Speaker 27 (38:27):
It brings in experts and many other forms of evidence
to establish a racial violation. There are many cases where
the plaintiffs fail in bringing the Jingles one precondition, or
Jingles two or Jingles three before they even get to
the totality.

Speaker 29 (38:43):
Talking about it's time limit, you would say, maybe it's
with respect to the remedy that is used to respond
to the to the problem that we've identified under Section two.
But the Section two tape measure itself doesn't need a
life cycle.

Speaker 10 (38:58):
It's no, yeah, that's correct.

Speaker 27 (39:00):
I mean, the fifteenth Amendment is permanently enshrined in our constitution,
and Section two is there to effectuate that prohibition of
race discrimination on voting and does not require a time limit.

Speaker 10 (39:11):
Thank you. With the time I have remaining, I'd like to.

Speaker 27 (39:17):
Mention that there are many proposals on the table that
have been presented by my colleagues on the other side,
and a number of them resurrect the intent standard that
this Court was very clear about in Congress, was extraordinary
clear about knowing that results is key to ensuring that

(39:39):
we do not continue to have rampant racial discrimination in voting.
And the absence of it, or the declining ability to
show a Section two case is because of the success
of Section two over the past four decades.

Speaker 10 (39:55):
And we would be.

Speaker 27 (39:58):
Reckless if we determine and that Section two somehow is
no longer needed simply because it has been so successful
in rooting out racial discrimination in voting. There's also, as
I mentioned at the outset, a very easy and elegant
solution to this case.

Speaker 10 (40:15):
If SB eight is not satisfactory.

Speaker 27 (40:17):
If the Court believes, as the Calai panel did, that
the state violated the Constitution in constructing SB eight, it
should Remand.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
All right, folks, join us right now. Is Ellie misto.
He is the Justice correspondent with the nation. Ellie, no
need need to ask some questions. Take it away, tell
us what the hell, what the hell happened today?

Speaker 2 (40:39):
All right, let me just first break down what y'all
just listen to right.

Speaker 13 (40:43):
Gret Cavanaugh and Amy Cony Barrett are making what has
become my least favorite argument that white folks make, and
that is saying something. What they're arguing is that racism
has basically been fixed. According to Kavanaugh and Barrett, racism
just about over and so now we really need to
figure out when we can end when the time limit

(41:07):
is to end the policies to end the statutes and
the laws designed to stop letting to stop white people
from being racist. When it comes to the Voting Rights Act,
like that was the essential part of Brett Kavanaugh's line
of questioning when he's asking about time limits and he's saying,
like other case, and what Nelson was saying with the

(41:28):
NAACP lawyer was saying is that, Brent, you don't read
the law because there's nothing in the actual law that says, hey,
the Voting Rights Act goes away once white people figure
out their business right, the Voting Rights Act goes away,
just disappears into the ether when white people feel like
we don't need anymore. That's not what the law says.

(41:50):
Congress could write the law to say that, but they didn't.
So there's no opportunity or there shouldn't be an opportunity
for Kavanaugh to just say, well, we have solved this issue,
so racism is no longer a thing, right, And so
that's really what that interaction was about that you guys
just heard. And at the end with Kataji Brown Jackson

(42:12):
coming in, what she's trying to say is that the
Voting Rights Act simply says that white folks can't be
racist when it comes to voting rights, right like, and.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
It's bare simple forms.

Speaker 13 (42:25):
How white folks want to address they own racism is
something up for debate now.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
The common way of doing it.

Speaker 13 (42:33):
When you have a map like Louisiana's map that is
racist towards black folks, the common way of dealing with
that is to make a map that is more inclusive. Obviously,
when you're making a map that's more inclusive on race,
you're gonna look at the races of the people in
the districts that you're drawing. Louisiana has six congressional districts

(42:54):
their original map, five of them were majority white, only
one of them was majority black. The thing is, Louisiana
is only fifty six percent white. It's thirty percent black.
Right Now, I am no MA athlete, but I'm pretty
sure that you've got to state this. Thirty percent black
should probably have congressional districts that are thirty three or

(43:16):
so percent black. And that's what they're trying to do.
That's this fight over the second majority minority district. What
Kataji Brown Jackson is saying is, yeah, we can draw
a second majority minority district if that If that's that's
one way to solve white people's racism.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
But there are other ways.

Speaker 13 (43:35):
And so one of the questions I would have liked
Kavanaugh to be forced to answer, or like Barrett to
be forced to answer, is that if you don't want
to draw a second majority minority district, how would you
like to solve white people's racism Brett? Because ignoring it,
because acting like it doesn't exist, doesn't seem like the
right answer. So if they don't want a majority majority
minority district, pick something else.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
But of course the conservatives on Supreme Court that they
like the racism.

Speaker 13 (44:02):
They want to allow Louisiana to keep doing its racism,
and so the argument was not about what other thing
we can do. The argument was whether or not we
can rule this part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional,
and that's probably what's going to happen. And so then
just to now broad in and out here to what
the actual stakes are. You know, even when in the

(44:24):
clip that you were playing was from c SPAN, that's
what I was listening to today as well, you see
the racist framing of the argument. They're saying Janay and
Nelson arguing for a second majority minority district.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Right, that's one way of putting it.

Speaker 13 (44:39):
Another way of putting it is that Janaya Elson was
arguing against white people being able to over represent themselves
in Congress. Right, again, second majority minority district, that's one solution.
But the key problem is that Louisiana is fifty six
percent white and controls eighty three percent of the congressional seats.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
That's the problem.

Speaker 13 (44:59):
So white folks were arguing that they deserved over representation
in Congress and Janae Nelson was arguing against that. Now
she's most likely going to lose this case. I think
even from the clips you play, you saw the Kavanaugh
was not on board, Barrett's not on board. You didn't
play anything from Alito or Roberts. But they're also not
you know this is going to be a six to
three case. When that happens, one thing will immediately happen Louisiana,

(45:22):
which currently because the Court forced them to have a
map with four white districts and two black districts, that
immediately goes back to five to one. And so that's
immediately one seat in the upcoming midterm elections that flips
from Democrat to Republicans.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
This was this was a story here, Ellie that was
in a New York Times. They said the Supreme Court
case that could hand the House to Republicans, And this
is what I'd said to say, current map, Democrats hold
twenty four seats plausible redistricting scenario, Republicans gain twelve. That
means that they take half of those seats. I've seen

(45:58):
others that say they could snatch nineteen twenty and those
gonna be those are black people. So we're talking about
right now. If you add in the eighteenth Congression district
in Houston, which is vacant because of the death of
Congressman Sylvester Turner, there are sixty two members of the
CBC we're talking about. I've seen some estimates that say

(46:20):
half of the CBC could get wiped out. So we're
talking about as many as thirty seats, and the Republicans
will draw this will they like you look at this
map right here, go back, so you see right here,
Benny Thompson, this is Mississippi right here, they gonna draw
this sucker to say we're gonna wipe out his seat.

(46:42):
They could wipe out the seat in Louisiana. You look
at the two seats in Alabama, Terry Sewell and Shamari Figures.
They can say, you know, damn Matt, we're gonna wipe
those two the guys of political Jerry manderin. You look
at that seat. You look at in Georgia, though, we're
gonna wipe that sucker out as well. Look at Florida,

(47:04):
Oh guess what congress and Jim Clyburn cad sure seat goodbye.
In South Carolina, look at those cities in North Carolina.
Right now, you've got Congresswoman all My Adams, you got
Congressman Don Davis. They're gonna wipe out bone right here
Don Davis's seat. And so they're gonna say, oh no, no, no, no,
we're not wiping out black seats. We are, we are

(47:28):
redistricting according to our red state, and that means black
people Bye bye, some of y Latinos bye bye.

Speaker 13 (47:38):
Here's another lie that was really important to the white
people's argument at the court today. There was as you
went out, the white argument is that we don't care
about race. We're just redistricting based on party. That you
can redistrict based on party affiliation to essentially make seats
us more safe for Republicans, And we don't know nothing
about no black people. We're just doing it on Democrat

(48:00):
Republican basis, right, And so one of the counter arguments
to that, and so sorry, and so they the Solicitor
General of Louisiana argued in open court that if Louisiana
didn't know the race of the people in the state,
they would have drawn the maps in exactly the same way,
because they were just trying to break up democratic districts,

(48:23):
not break up black districts. But here's the problem with
that argument, and it was brought up in court as
a counter to the Louisiana guy. White Democrats do not
vote for black candidates.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
They just don't.

Speaker 13 (48:36):
They don't Louisiana, they don't across the South. So even
if you take a district and you fill it with
Democrats of mixed race. If that district is not majority black,
it is unlikely that a black candidate will actually be
able to win that district, even if it's a majority
Democratic district, right, So it's a lot. Unless it's a

(48:58):
majority minority district, it is much more difficult for a
black person to win that district because white Democrats, you know,
as Martin Luther King might have pointed out, are not
willing to vote for black candidates, even when those black
candidates are Democrats.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
And it's a Democratic district.

Speaker 13 (49:18):
So you kind of can't do what Louisiana wants to
do unless you are, quite frankly, just looking at the
race of the people in your state. And that was
the other kind of big ticket lie that was just
driven through the Supreme Court arguments today. This idea that
Louisiana is acting in some kind of colorblind way doesn't

(49:41):
pass its first taste test with reality. So what the
Supreme Court was essentially saying is that white folks can
look at race when they are trying to be racist
to black people, but black folks are not allowed to
look at race when they are.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Trying to counteract the racism of the white districts.

Speaker 13 (49:59):
And again, and as you are pointing out with your maps,
this has huge, huge political implications for even the upcoming midterms.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
You brought out the thing with twelve.

Speaker 13 (50:09):
I've also seen the analysts that say nineteen of the
sixty two members in the CBC, I think only seventeen
are protected in majority minority districts. So you say that
you can't have essentially majority minority districts anymore, which is
one possible outcome of this case. And you could see redistricting,
as you said, Cliburne, you named that, Benny Thompson. You

(50:30):
could see redistricting across the South that makes it significantly
difficult for a black person to get elected in the South,
which is exactly what they want.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
And what was crazy. This was one of the stories
about these plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit. Is said none
of the plaintiffs testified at a three day trial in
federal court. According to transcript, the legal briefs list their
names but say nothing about their lives. Come on, guys,
go the iPad nothing about their lives on the reasons
each shows to participate in the case. Aside from assertions

(51:02):
that each quote suffered unlawful intentional discrimination based on race,
We call bullshit, Ellie. Bottom line is, all these conservatives
did was when found them some white people to put
their name in a lawsuit, because the whole goal was
we want to get rid of these black congressional seats

(51:22):
and put in more white Republicans.

Speaker 13 (51:26):
Remember the plaintiff's actually, the white plaintiffs's actual argument was
that creating majority minority districts hurt their violated their constitutional
rights to equal protection, that not over representing white folks
in Congress hurt their equal protection rights. I'm sure many
of your listeners have seen the line when you are

(51:46):
used to oppression, when you were used to privilege, a
quality must seem like oppression to you.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
And that describes the white plaintiffs in this case to
a t.

Speaker 13 (51:55):
The only silver lining, the only good part, I guess
of today's two and a half hour arguments was that
you know those white plaintiffs, they had their own lawyer,
right Louisiana.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Who wants to have the racist maps.

Speaker 13 (52:07):
They were represented by the Solicitor general the Trump administration,
the Deputy Solicitor General United States Moupan.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
He was arguing for the Trump administration.

Speaker 13 (52:15):
The white guys got their own lawyer, some Harvard grad
from Kansas City, and boy, I believe the scientific term
rolling is that he got dog walked by the liberal justices.
And it was fifteen minutes. And it was kind of
awesome because usually when especially when the liberal women are
like really going in on a man, usually one of

(52:37):
the white guys on the Supreme Court, they kind of throw,
they throw their brother a rope, right throw on the
lifeline man.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
Even the white justices on that one just shut up,
just didn say nothing.

Speaker 13 (52:47):
Just let that guy get got by the liberal women
for fifteen entire minutes. It was the best part of
the hearing. But the fact that these plaintiffs their core
argument lost, I mean, like, that's not going to happen.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
They're not going to.

Speaker 13 (53:01):
The Voting Rights Act violates the equal protection of white folks.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
That I do not think that's going to be the
whole thing.

Speaker 13 (53:07):
So even though their actual argument that got this case
to the Supreme Court is going to get trashed, it's
not going to matter because the argument that the Voting
Rights Act cannot be used to operate in this way
to protect the voting rights of black people. That's the
argument that's going to win the day. Brett Kavanaugh kind
of articulated what the final holding is going to be.

(53:28):
He's not going to directly overturn Section two of the
Voting Rights Act. He's going to say it still exists,
but he's gonna neuter it to the point where it
can't do anything and cause this ripple effect of one
to twelve to nineteen seats to be flipped from Democrat
to Republican, from black to white for the upcoming midterm

(53:48):
elections or certainly by twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
See, it is another mistake that the DAMS. I don't understand.
I saw this in Texas. Okay, they had a rally
south of Supreme Court today and Okay, the LDF had
these signs made up. And this is the problem, Ellie,
go to my IPEd. They had these science he had
fight for fair maps, drop a dropping low third, fight

(54:14):
for fair maps. Ellie, that's the wrong fucking argument. It's
the wrong fucking argument. The issue is not fair maps.
If you use fair maps argument, you can do The
Supreme Court has said political jerremandering is allowed. This is

(54:39):
about ending racist maps. You have to keep the language.

Speaker 13 (54:46):
Right it's about ending racist maps, and again it's about
stopping white folks from over representing themselves.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
One of the things, and like you and I have
talked about this before, but like one of the real mental.

Speaker 13 (55:00):
Issues that I've found with many white folks in this
nation is that they think they own the place. They
think they're more of them than there are because they
see us, because we are invisible to them, because we
all look the same to them. They walk around like
this country is like ninety percent white. And when they

(55:23):
see on TV, when they see Congress, which is I
think like eighty three eighty percent white, when they see
the Senate, which is, you know, ninety percent.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Light, they think that that is representative.

Speaker 13 (55:34):
And they see the Supreme Court that's, you know, ninety
two percent white, they think that that is representative of
how many white people are in this country.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
And it's just not there.

Speaker 13 (55:45):
They are in a bare, slim majority, a majority that
they are losing every day. That's one of the reasons
why we have Trump in the first place, because they're
scared about losing that majority. But again, in the state
like Louisiana, it's only fifty six percent white, it's only
fifty six percent white. This country is only sixty percent white,

(56:06):
so they should only have about sixty percent of their representation.
And when you tell even other white folks what you're
arguing for is over representation, you're arguing for more than
you deserve.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Some of them that hits differently. Some of them they
get that a little bit differently.

Speaker 13 (56:24):
There was it happened at the court this morning when
the Louisiana lawyer was like, these black people they came
in and they were asking for an extra district, and
Kataji Brown Jackson was like, no, they were not.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Black folks are not asking for anything extra. We're not
asking for anything more.

Speaker 13 (56:41):
We're asking to stop white oppression and simply have what
we deserve.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
By our population numbers.

Speaker 13 (56:49):
We're asking to be treated like five fifths of a
person instead of three fifths of a person, not more,
not seven fifths like the white folks want. We just
want what we already should have been given, which is
the right to one person, one vote. It's white folks
that want more than that. But our messaging, as you're

(57:11):
pointing out more Roland, it's never that. It's never focused
on the white need to over represent themselves. It's always
focused on these more gentler phrases like barreness, justice or equity,
and like, no, that's not even that's not even what
people are asking for. I'm not asking for equal representation

(57:33):
with white folks. I just want the same yep, right,
I just want the same as what white folks have
gotten in this country since seventeen seventy six.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Well, here's the reality you believe that's too much to ask.
I've said this numerous town Newer's town before, Alie, and
I'm going to say it again. And this is what
spaks volumes to me. And I've played this clip news times.
This was a Robert de Nero directed move. It's called

(58:03):
The Good Shepherd. This scene right here, I bruh, this
sums up one hundred percent what you just said about
what these white folks want. Listen, what do you want
to talk to me about the Government's about to deport
you for certain activities.

Speaker 10 (58:20):
I'm in his country since I'm two months old.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Does that make me Italian?

Speaker 16 (58:25):
I'm American?

Speaker 10 (58:28):
Are they trying to send me back?

Speaker 24 (58:29):
I could have the deportation order reviewed, have you classified
as highly sensitive for national security.

Speaker 10 (58:36):
I could take the government off your back if you
can help us.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Usually the guys would scare me.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
You the people that make big wars.

Speaker 15 (58:45):
No, we make sure the wars are small ones.

Speaker 4 (58:47):
Mister Palmer, let me ask you something.

Speaker 30 (58:52):
We Italians we got our families and we got to church.
The Irish, I have the homeland to choose their tradition.
Even the Niggas they got their music. What about you,
people missed the cosson.

Speaker 31 (59:09):
What do you have?

Speaker 22 (59:12):
The United States of America.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
The rest of you are just visiting. That's their mentality.
The rest of you are just visiting and just to
reinforce it. This is Republican Senator Eric Schmidt speaking at

(59:38):
a conservative Peter t O sponsored conference in September. And
that was fiction. This is real life.

Speaker 32 (59:49):
The Condinal Army soldiers dying of frostbite at Valley Forge,
the Pilgrims struggling to survive in the hard winter soil
of Plymouth. The Pioneers strike out from Missouri for the
wild and dangerous Frontier. The outnumbered Kentucky settlers repelling wave
after wave of Indian war Band attacks from beyond the
stockade walls. All of them will be astonished to hear

(01:00:13):
that they were only fighting for a proposition. They believed
they were fighting for a nation, a homeland for themselves
and their descendants. They fought, they bled, they struggled, they
died for us. They built this country for us. America,
in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed

(01:00:34):
down across the generations. It belongs to us. It's our birthright,
it's our heritage, our destiny. If America is everything and everyone,
then it is nothing and no one at all. When
they tear down our statues and monuments, mock our history

(01:00:54):
and insult our traditions, they're attacking our future as well
as our past by changing the stories we tell about ourselves.
They believe they can build a new America with the
new myths, new people. But America doesn't belong to them.
It belongs to us. It's our home. It's a heritage

(01:01:16):
and trusted to us by our ancestors. It's a way
of life that is ours and only ours. If we disappear,
then America too will cease to exist.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
Haley, he said, this is ours, y'all, Ain't it ain't
for y'all?

Speaker 13 (01:01:35):
Carjacker jacker putting a vanity plate on the vehicle of
yours that they stole right, like they steal your car
and then they put a plate on it said mine, right,
Like what the I mean? Obviously, I don't have to
tell your listeners. The white people didn't build shit. They
stole shit, and black people built the wealth that this
country is built on. I can trace my heritage back

(01:01:59):
all the way to a man who fled the plantation
behind Sherman's army as he was walking through Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Now, obviously, since he was there, my ancestor went.

Speaker 13 (01:02:13):
Back farther than that, But the white folks didn't keep
great records for exactly when he came here. But I
can trace it at least at that point. And I
bet you that my people have been here longer than
Eric Schmidt.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
And there we go. Ellie Mischtel, I wish we had
better news for our folks. But the other thing is
we told people this was going to happen. We told
them this was going to happen, and this is where
we are. And these Republicans and Supreme Court took forever
deciding previous cases. Oh, they are not going to take

(01:02:49):
much time at all deciding this one because they want
to give Republicans as much time as possible to redraw
these maps for twenty twenty six. Thank you so much
for having me, Ellie, thanks a lot, appreciate it. Folks.
We come back. We're gonna a woman running for the
eighteenth congressional seat in Houston. Guess what, that's one of
those seats Republicans have already wiped out. We'll talk with

(01:03:12):
Canada Amanda Atward's next right here, Rolling Unfiltered on the
Black Studd Network. Y'all support the work that we do.
Ain't nobody else having the conversation we're having. Your support
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(01:03:35):
RM Unfiltered, Zeo, Rolling At, rollingd s Martin dot com,
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Speaker 31 (01:04:01):
If in this country right now.

Speaker 23 (01:04:03):
You have people get up in the morning and the
only thing they can think about is how many people
they can hurt, and they've got the power.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
That's the time for morning, for better or worse.

Speaker 33 (01:04:13):
What makes America special, It's that legal system that's supposed
to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority.

Speaker 23 (01:04:21):
We are at a.

Speaker 34 (01:04:22):
Point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice
of outrag. We must raise a voice of compassion.

Speaker 23 (01:04:32):
And we must raise a voice of unity. We are
not in a crisis of party versus party. We are
in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and
a crisis of democracy itself.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
And guess what.

Speaker 23 (01:04:48):
You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy,
those that would hate, don't have the final say and
they don't ultimately win.

Speaker 10 (01:05:01):
Hey, what's up with Sammy Roman?

Speaker 26 (01:05:02):
As John mrit the executi producer of the New Sherry
Shepper Talk Show.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
If me Sherry Schabra and you know what you're watching?

Speaker 10 (01:05:08):
Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
Folks. Mary number Ken is running for the eighteenth congressional
seat in Houston that is to replace the late Congressman
Sylvester Turner, who plays the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
One of those folks former Houston City council Woman Amanda
at where she ran for the seat against Sheila Jackson
Lee and when she lost in the last election, she's
trying to winning the seat now she jose us right now, Amanda,

(01:05:40):
glad to have you back on the show. When we
look at this seat, we look at what Republicans are
already doing. If you win, you're only going to be
there for a year because of what they're doing with
these racist Jared mandry. But what is it that you
can accomplish in that year as the member of Congress
for the eighteenth Congression district.

Speaker 18 (01:06:01):
Well, first, thank you for having me on, and let
me just highlight a little bit of backdrop on this district.
When you count the time from when Congresswoman and Chila
Jackson Lee got sick and passed away, Congressman Turner passing away,
and the fact that our governor chose to play politics
with people's lives by refraining and declining to call the

(01:06:22):
special election in a timely fashion, and then the fact
that there will likely be a runoff. We are facing
a period of probably eighteen months where this district. These
seven hundred and eighty nine thousand people have had no voice,
no vote, no one to advocate for federal funding on
their behalf because there is no voting member.

Speaker 6 (01:06:43):
So in that time, things like the Big Beautiful Bill
got to pass on the first round. Of course, it
passed by margin of one vote.

Speaker 18 (01:06:51):
You now see the redistricting taking place when we had
no voting member, and this community is reeling. It's really
from the fact that they've had taxation with no representation,
and the fact that they haven't had the resources coming
in that ought to, and that the policies that have
been pushed have been counter to their interests. For example,

(01:07:11):
with the Big Beautiful Bill, it cut nine hundred billion
dollars from Medicaid and three hundred billion dollars from SNAP.
The eighteen congressional district has a disproportionately higher number of
people who consume those benefits, and so they are now
stripping away those social safety nets. So one of the
things I think is going to be a priority is

(01:07:32):
to bring back funding for.

Speaker 6 (01:07:33):
The district that hasn't had its valing member. One of
the places in spaces.

Speaker 18 (01:07:38):
Where I think there can be some common ground has
starts with things like the fact that we're in hurricane
season and we need those infrastructure dollars and we need
to keep residents safe. I always say, we cannot stop
the rain from falling, but we can be prepared to
catch it when it does, and that means making the
requisite investments in infrastructure before there is some type of

(01:08:00):
catastrophe like a Harvey event.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Well, so when we talk about I mean, obviously Republicans
control the House and show what will be your priorities,
what will be your top two to three issues that
you want to deliver on for the district.

Speaker 6 (01:08:20):
Yeah, so I mentioned one with it.

Speaker 18 (01:08:22):
That's the space and place I think if there were
ever a place where there be some common ground, I
haven't met a Republican or a Democrat.

Speaker 6 (01:08:29):
That likes to flood.

Speaker 18 (01:08:31):
If there could be some common ground, I think infrastructure
and disaster recovery is that space. We've heard our president
who has talked about gutting FEMA. He's talked about wanting
to do away with federal funding of disaster recovery. And
you know when you have states like California, Texas, Louisiana,
New York, and Florida for example, that are now on

(01:08:53):
the brink of insurance crises because of the fact that
we have these catastrophes and that you undermine the ability
for there to be federal support to come in. I
think that would be another space in place where there
could be potential address on bipartisan level. In addition, it's
the subject of the course government shutdown, but it needs

(01:09:16):
to be addressed, and that is healthcare. We are moving
in the wrong direction, and this is the basis for
the shutdown is we need more affordable access to healthcare,
period and so that is what I know right now
is part of the shutdown, but it will be one
of my priorities. I think a lot of what has
happened since the Affordable Care Act initially got passed in

(01:09:37):
the Obama administration, it did not progress in the ways
that people expected or it should have because all of
the litigation that immediately ensued once once that legislation was passed.

Speaker 6 (01:09:49):
But we've got to.

Speaker 18 (01:09:50):
Continue to build upon it because this can have the
impact of, you know, really compromising people's lives. When I
was growing up, my father was diagnosed with something called
multiple my loma, which is a very aggressive form of cancer.
It took his life when I was a teenager. But
I remember asking my father what would happen if the
insurance company, what if they said no to the life

(01:10:12):
saving treatments that he needed?

Speaker 6 (01:10:13):
And I'll never forget his responses.

Speaker 18 (01:10:15):
He would always just look at me and say, well,
we would just have to figure something else out.

Speaker 6 (01:10:20):
And I think we've got to get to a space
and place where we think about the lives that are
hanging in the balance of the.

Speaker 18 (01:10:25):
Decisions we make, the systems we create, and the people
that are impacted by our government.

Speaker 6 (01:10:31):
And right now we're not doing a very good job
of that.

Speaker 18 (01:10:34):
And there are people whose lives are lying in the
balance and who are not going to be able to
access health care and the very basics in society given
these cuts with the big beautiful bill.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
And beyond healthcare, I was is one issue, economics is another.
So what can you do the drive economic development to
this district in the year that you would serve in
that position, because if you win, you win, you wouldet
sworn in January the next college when into the follow January.

Speaker 18 (01:11:03):
Yes, one of the things that I think was a
noteworthy example in terms of economic opportunity stems from small businesses.

Speaker 6 (01:11:11):
Back in Houston.

Speaker 18 (01:11:12):
We love to talk about how Houston is the most
diversity in the nation, and as a result of that,
I asked the question one day, what good is it
to be the most diverse if we're not solving the
challenges that our diverse community space. And in particular, when
we look at our small businesses, the statistics are staggering.
At that time, it was a few years back, White

(01:11:34):
owned businesses were at two hundred and twenty five billion
dollars in sales and receipts and black owned businesses were
only at three point three billion. And it's not because
we don't have storefronts, it's not because we don't have entrepreneurs.
It's because we don't have intentionality and policy that really
promotes equity in our community. One of the things that
happened during the pandemic, when you saw those PPP loans

(01:11:56):
get distributed initially.

Speaker 6 (01:11:57):
Around it went out to a lot of the.

Speaker 18 (01:11:59):
Traditional banking institutions with whom a lot of our mom
and pop shops of color did not have strong relationships.

Speaker 6 (01:12:05):
And we're not prioritizing.

Speaker 18 (01:12:07):
You saw black and ground businesses shutting down left and right,
and so what they did on the second round is
something I think can be done now, which is to
start shifting dollars into the hands of CDFI's community development
financial institutions that lend at much greater rates than some
of the traditional banking institutions. I think we can start

(01:12:28):
making an effort to do that to help support push
for equity.

Speaker 6 (01:12:32):
I know this is a dangerous word and the Trump era,
but it should not be.

Speaker 18 (01:12:38):
And ultimately, we've got to create a community where people
have the opportunity to thrive and create jobs for their
community and support their families.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
Last question, as it relates to again in this particular position,
and I tell people all the time, the member of Congress, yes,
you're off on a national level, but you're also working
on a constituent level. Then wry constituent servicing those people
as well. So when you look at on the national level,

(01:13:11):
what can you do? Is there anything that you have
your site set on that you want to be able
to accomplish in the year that you would have this position?

Speaker 6 (01:13:21):
Absolutely.

Speaker 18 (01:13:22):
I mentioned to you that there is an insurance crisis
brewing in concert with the disasters that take place.

Speaker 6 (01:13:30):
People can't get policies.

Speaker 18 (01:13:31):
You saw what was happening in California when people's houses
were burning to the ground and they are getting dropped
from their insurance, and Texas the same thing. It's happening
people can't get insurance coverage, and so we're seeing that
happen across some of the major economic engines in our country.
I think there is a room and opportunity for real
legislation to create a federal solution to that because of

(01:13:55):
the fact that we otherwise as we've done with National
Food Insurance, and I think that's going to be something
that can assist people across a much broader spectrum and
potentially get some traction within the first year.

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
All right, then, Amanda Edward's good luck and the election
is set for the first Tuesday November.

Speaker 6 (01:14:14):
Thank you, and just wanted to tell people make sure
they go vote early.

Speaker 18 (01:14:18):
October the twentieth through Halloween is the early voting time frame,
and of course.

Speaker 6 (01:14:23):
November fourth is election day.

Speaker 18 (01:14:25):
I know a lot of people are confused by the
redistricting that has taken place. The redistricting, those new maps
do not apply to this special election if they withstand
the court challenge. They're currently being challenged in court. As
we said, they withstand that challenge. They would be applicable to.

Speaker 6 (01:14:44):
The midterm elections in twenty twenty six, not to the
special in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:14:49):
All righty, you appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
Thanks a lot, Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:14:53):
All Right, folks going to break, we come back. We'll
be chatting with Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic
National Committee right here, Nonfilter of the Black Sudden Network.
Support the work that we do. Uh, you can of
course support us by joining out Briena Funk fan Club
when you contribute to our grouping. This is what you
do right here on strike. Y'all use the cure, use

(01:15:14):
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nine six Back in the moment, the.

Speaker 18 (01:15:47):
Afro Tech it's a lot of beauty, a lot of brilliance,
a lot of intellect, a lot of innovation.

Speaker 17 (01:15:53):
Companies that are most diverse are more profitable.

Speaker 18 (01:15:56):
We're getting culture, we're getting community.

Speaker 10 (01:15:59):
We're getting the best of the best.

Speaker 6 (01:16:00):
Not only are we here to greet.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Each other, but we're here to network and to elevate
each other.

Speaker 19 (01:16:07):
Everybody from all the major tech companies here, and that
means that now everybody's in the same domain.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
This is the premier event every year.

Speaker 3 (01:16:21):
This is really where we could take off. You can
go fast by yourself, well, you go farther together.

Speaker 19 (01:16:26):
This is where you're supposed to be.

Speaker 14 (01:16:33):
Said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat,
so they erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the
Voting Rights Act in twenty thirteen, Republican legislatures moved fast
new voter id laws, polling place shutdowns, purges of black
voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it.

(01:16:54):
They joined in. In twenty eighteen, his DOJ backed Ohio's
voter purge system, a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters.
Their goal erase black votes and political power. Yeah, that happened.
These are the kinds of stories that we cover every
day on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Subscribe on YouTube and download

(01:17:14):
the Blackstar Network app. Support fact based, independent journalism that
centers African Americans and the issues that matter to our community.

Speaker 35 (01:17:32):
The original note King's Protest was two hundred and fifty
years ago. Americans decided they didn't want to live under
the rule of King George the Third. They declared their
independence and fought a bloody war for democracy. We've had
two and a half centuries of democracy since then, often challenging,
sometimes messy, always essential, and we've fought in two World Wars.

Speaker 22 (01:17:53):
To preserve it.

Speaker 35 (01:17:55):
Now we have a would be king who wants to
take it away, King Donald fuck that. We're rising up again,
this time non violently, raising our voices to declare no Kings.
I'm Robert de Niro asking you to stand up and
be counted in the nationwide No King's Protest on October eighteenth.
Visit No Kings dot org to find volunteer or host

(01:18:17):
of protests near you.

Speaker 15 (01:18:19):
We're all in this together him the visit Book with
Liberty and Justice for All.

Speaker 4 (01:18:28):
Next on the Black Table with me Craig Calker.

Speaker 7 (01:18:31):
Now the America we live in today, isn't that what
the founders intended or what they outlined in the Declaration
of Independence?

Speaker 31 (01:18:37):
And even the Constitution.

Speaker 7 (01:18:39):
Professor and author Kermit Roosevelt will join us to talk
about his book The Nation That Never Was, How history
was misinterpreted the intended realities of America's beginnings and missed
a much better story in the process.

Speaker 13 (01:18:52):
So, if you have to pick some group to marginalize,
I think it should be the people who are against equality.

Speaker 4 (01:18:57):
That's next on the Black Table right here on the
Black Star Network.

Speaker 3 (01:19:03):
Michael McMillan, President and CEO of the Urban League of
Metropolitan Saint Louis.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
And you were watching Roland Martin unfiltered.

Speaker 9 (01:19:13):
M m.

Speaker 22 (01:19:26):
M m.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
M m.

Speaker 14 (01:19:35):
M m m.

Speaker 25 (01:19:40):
M m.

Speaker 6 (01:19:45):
M m m m m m.

Speaker 23 (01:19:54):
M m m m.

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
Hm folks with attack on black voting rights, Black grassroots

(01:20:20):
organizations are doing all they can to protect our voting power.
Mike Gell, I'm the former vice mayor of Tamarack, Florida,
is founder of Black Vote Action, He joins us. Right now,
you see what's happening there. We see what's happening in Florida.
We see the attacks where Ron de Santis has wiped
out a congressional seat. We see you've got a Google

(01:20:42):
tooral election going on in Florida coming up soon. And
the bottom line is this used to be a battleground
state and we've seen black participation drop off the map
in addition to democratic participation. And so what are y'all
doing there in Florida to frankly rebuild? I keep talking
about out at this that the black political infrastructure that

(01:21:02):
has held many of the communities together has been just
slowly eroding away. So how are you trying to put
it together there in Florida?

Speaker 24 (01:21:12):
Well, you know, thanks for having me on Roland. There
are some model organizations that we need to follow. So
you're familiar with Color of Change, the Collective Pack, Fair
Fight Action, So the Black Vote Action is trying to
follow those successful models and target black voters by engaging them,
registering them to vote, finding voters where they are, Black voters,

(01:21:34):
where they are in the barbershops, on the basketball courts,
on the football fields, and having those real conversations and
letting them know why it's important to vote. You talked
about the numbers shift in Florida when Andrew Gillham nearly
won the election. That put fear in the hearts and
the minds of Republicans and they got to work. At

(01:21:55):
one point we had over three hundred thousand more Democrats
and Republicans. Now they lead by one point four million
voters in the state of Florida.

Speaker 31 (01:22:04):
So we need to register voters.

Speaker 24 (01:22:06):
And too many disaffective Democrats have gone to the NPA,
which takes them out of the primary process. So we
need to re engage voters Black voters, let them know
why it's important to register as a Democrat even though
we've had some dissatisfaction with them, and then have an
organized and collective effort to make sure that the right
candidates get into offense that are going to promote policies

(01:22:28):
that impact black individuals, right and others trusting the Second
Chance Act.

Speaker 3 (01:22:32):
All right, So I think the point there, I think
that actually has to be flipped. Here's what I mean.
And when I travel around the country, when I'm talking
to people, and I love these idiots who say, oh, well, god,
you're shilling. No, Well, I'm dealing first with people, are policies.
I'm saying policies first. Now, then okay, if you say

(01:22:54):
you want these policies, you now then have to then
say okay, now, letting the when we look at this
candids who is likely to advocate for my policies, it
might be that Democrat. So for me, I'm not even
saying I need you to registerly vote for a Democrat.
I'm saying I need you to identify the policies that
you care about, then look at who is going to

(01:23:16):
advocate for those policies, and then you make the proper
voting decision based upon that. Because for a lot of
black voters, especially younger black voters, if the conversation is
Democrat first, it's going to be an automatic turnof correct.

Speaker 24 (01:23:30):
So our goal is to present those policies, for example,
conducting a disparity study identifying the disparities that we know
exists in the city. I serve less than half of
one percent of the money we spent went to black
owned businesses, and that usually happens across the board. Maynard
Jackson did a disparity study back in fifty one years ago,
in nineteen seventy four, and that should have been modeled

(01:23:52):
after in every city where there were black majorities over
a ten year period.

Speaker 31 (01:23:55):
That hasn't happened.

Speaker 24 (01:23:56):
Now we can even have disparity studies or minority purfmense program,
the Second Chance Act helping returning citizens get a chance
to vote.

Speaker 31 (01:24:04):
We know affordable housing is a big issue.

Speaker 24 (01:24:06):
When we have people in power, they can say to developers, hey,
you can build here, but at least twenty five percent
of whatever number needs to be affordable housing. So we
need to leave with policies, get our people on board
with those policies, and then engage with elected officials once
they're in office to ensure that they advance those policies,
and then we communicate that while they're in office. Voters

(01:24:26):
get frustrated because we come and ask for their vote,
and then we disappear for four years, and then we
come back four years later and say what we did,
but they don't feel what we did and we didn't
communicate with them throughout the process. So our goal is
to engage current elected officials with the community, make sure
you know who's doing the right job, who's doing a
good job, and then work to eliminate those poort out
on our team.

Speaker 3 (01:24:47):
So curious, how do you then? How are you? Also? Again,
I say, voting is the end of one process in
the beginning of another, and black voters matters always talked
about it three sixty five, seven days a week. I
believe one of the greatest mistakes of organizers is that
we ramp up, we do all this investment, we ramp

(01:25:09):
up for the election as soon as it's over. So
the election is over, it dissipates, and we're not maintaining
the organizational infrastructure to then organize and mobilize those same
people to say, hey, now I need you showing up
to the city council meeting, the county commissioners meeting, the
state House. That to me is also one of the great.

Speaker 24 (01:25:30):
Mistakes, absolutely and probably is the whites, because we need funding.
But one of the things that we did to your point,
you know, and you reported on this, the fact that
some Democrats voted in agreement to censure Al Green. So
a local congressman in Florida was one of those representatives.
What we did is we sent a mass text message
out to all the black voters in his district letting

(01:25:52):
them know that he voted the center.

Speaker 31 (01:25:54):
Al Green, why did you do that? You rely on
us as black voters. Why did you do that?

Speaker 24 (01:25:58):
And so we heard from those voters go to him,
they called them, they texted him, so he felt us.
And so that's what we need to do. We need
to engage with the voters after they vote. You're right,
voting is the start of a new process and we
have to engage those voters throughout that time.

Speaker 31 (01:26:11):
How do we do that.

Speaker 24 (01:26:12):
We continue to knock on doors, we send text messages,
social media, but as you know, those things cost and
so we need to raise money to keep voters engage
outside and after the election cycle.

Speaker 3 (01:26:23):
When you talked about funding, so okay, as relates to
what's happening there, what is your focus with black vote
action in terms of if I look at the state,
you can't do everything. How are you targeting the state?
Are you? What are your top two three priorities in
terms of places you're looking to increase turnout? Three? Five, seven.

Speaker 24 (01:26:49):
So Broward is the black Democratic stronghold. Every constitutional officer
in the county except one is black. So what we
want to what we want what we want to do
is increase the voter turnout here Broward and then model
that in Palm Beach and maim Dade County because South Florida,
the Tri County area is a stronghold for black voters.
And then the following cities Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa are

(01:27:11):
the next cities we want to target, and we want
to work with other partners like Equal Ground to help
spread the message and to increase voter engagement and voter
turnout in those cities. But again, as you know, when
you send a mass text message or a mass email,
that costs money, and so we want to be involved
in the community, make sure they know that we're there

(01:27:32):
and continue to engage with them on a regular basis.

Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
How in terms of when you look at the state,
I got it, browurs number one. What are the other
two to three four? We should be paying attention to
counties in Florida where black folks can make a huge difference.

Speaker 24 (01:27:52):
So Jacksonville huge city and county. And as you mentioned,
Ron Santa's got rid of a congressional district there with
the approval of the floor to Supreme Court. So that's
another large, major city where we need to mobilize, activate,
bring voter registration to the highest level possible, and get
black voters to turn out and make sure that we
have elected officials that understand how to communicate and how

(01:28:15):
to speak the language so that you can engage and
increase black voter turnout. Outside of Jacksonville, you have Orlando,
you have Tampa, you have those major cities where most
of us are. And the unique thing about Florida when
you're talking about black voters, you're talking about Jamaican Americans,
Haitian Americans, Behaman Americans, and African Americans, and so there

(01:28:36):
are several languages, several people you have to talk to
in a certain way to get that vote out. What's
disappointing about the Democratic Party is they recognize that in
the Hispanic community and have a language for the Venezuelans.
They know the issues of the Cubans, but no one's
really focusing on the different issues of impacting the diversity
of the Black American community in Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:28:59):
Have you had any conversations with Nicki Freed, who is
the state state chair of dim Great Party.

Speaker 31 (01:29:06):
Yes, yes, we have.

Speaker 24 (01:29:07):
And you know, when you look at the success of
the major candidates who've done very well, starting with Barack Obama,
Andrew Gillam Stacy Abrams, you recognize that you have to
build your own infrastructure before the party finally joins in.
So we've had those conversations. We continue to have those conversations, uh,

(01:29:27):
and we hope that they view us as a viable
vehicle in future elections and they will need to. And
we try to get involved and engage with the Biden camp,
with the Harris campaign for president, but they wrote Florida off,
so it wasn't it wasn't a priority. But yes, we've
engaging with the party elected officials in Broward, Palm Beach,

(01:29:48):
Mimn Day County and the state representative Nikki Freed.

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
I've got DNC chair Ken Martin coming up next. What
would you ask him? What would you say to him?

Speaker 24 (01:29:57):
Provide the necessary funding we need to Black vote action
and let us take the lead and mobilizing, engaging and
increasing voter turnout of black voters in Brower County and
in South Florida and then further up throughout the state
of Florida.

Speaker 3 (01:30:11):
What's the number? The reality is if you're talking about
people and what type of investment. You got a googleatoral
election coming up next year, you got congressional racist What
is the number needed to invest in black voter turnout
in Florida? What's your number?

Speaker 31 (01:30:29):
You're looking at millions of dollars because you're no, no, no.

Speaker 23 (01:30:31):
No, no no no no no no.

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
I don't want a broad number, I want specific. Let
me is it five million? Is it seven million?

Speaker 24 (01:30:38):
Is it eight?

Speaker 3 (01:30:38):
Is it ten?

Speaker 13 (01:30:39):
What is it?

Speaker 24 (01:30:40):
So you're you're looking at about twelve dollars and fifty
cent per vote, So you're looking at about five million
dollars at a.

Speaker 3 (01:30:46):
Minimum, a minimum five million investment, and you're promising what
is it?

Speaker 14 (01:30:53):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (01:30:54):
A three to five percent increase in black voter turnout.
I'm interested in your data terms of if you say,
make this investment, this is what we're going to then
be able to do.

Speaker 24 (01:31:05):
So we're going to be able to engage unregistered voters
and get them registered, and we're going to be able
to take the current voter turnout which is about sixty
percent sixty five percent in the black vote, and take
that up to seventy maybe above seventy percent.

Speaker 3 (01:31:18):
Well, I've made the point that where you have black folks,
the minimum turnout has to be seventy percent if we
want to maximize our voting power. It cannot be you
talk about Andrew Andrew Gillum. The reality is the democratic turnout.
Remember tell has the Democrat had a chart you didn't
get to like number eleven or twelve. The top ten
eleven turnout counties were all read yes, and so that

(01:31:42):
was the case.

Speaker 24 (01:31:43):
And if you look at the video back then, especially
in the primary rates Gillum was down and Gillim kept asking,
did Broard hit yet?

Speaker 31 (01:31:50):
The broward hit yet? The brown hit yet? And didn't
hit once? A broward hit that took him over the
top and he came out the primary with the victory.

Speaker 3 (01:31:57):
All right, Mike, Well appreciate it, Thanks a lot, Thank you.
See soon quick break we come back. Ken Martin chall
the Democrat Natural Committee joins us right here. I'm rolling,
un unfiltered back in the moment.

Speaker 10 (01:32:11):
This week on a balance life for Doctor Jackie.

Speaker 20 (01:32:14):
We're continuing our series of putting in the Works a
chef's Journey. Are you an aspiring chef someone who already
has a business trying to figure out what your next
steps will be, who to talk to and how to
get there? Well, on this week's show, our great guests
and wonderful chefs will talk to you about what means
to discover your purpose, your why of being in the
kitchen and then knowing how to put a business together.

Speaker 16 (01:32:36):
The menu controls everything, it determines The menu determines everything,
but the business plan is where you have to go.

Speaker 3 (01:32:45):
Back to when you get into the business.

Speaker 1 (01:32:46):
At the end of the day, you know, social media
and TV, all of that stuff is cool, but you
still have to run a business, so you still have
to be in relationship with people.

Speaker 3 (01:32:54):
That's all.

Speaker 20 (01:32:55):
Next on a Balance Life with Doctor Jackie here on
Black Star Network.

Speaker 16 (01:33:02):
Melanie Campbell National Position on Black Civic Participation, the Black
Women's round Table, and we are watching Roland Unfiltered all
day every day twenty four to seven.

Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
Spread the word folks democratic response to this shutdown, as
as I said before giving them their sea legs, when
you look at how they have been responding. In fact,
today I sent Congress with how King Jeffrey's a text
message because they had a news conference today. We actually

(01:33:37):
live streaming here on rolland Martin Unfiltered on the caps.
They were on the outside steps. They actually had someone
talk who was an impacted person, talking about the cutbacks
on healthcare. And I have been saying this for the
longest I've been yelling this since Trump was inaugurated. Bishop
William Barbara always talks about this. You need to have

(01:33:58):
impacted people as the face of public policy as opposed
to political folks. So the question is How is the
DNC driving this issue to shut down in fifty states
across the country and not just send DC Ken Martin's
chair of the Democrat Natural Committee. He jines us right now, King,
glad to have you here. Here's the perfect he's a

(01:34:20):
perfect example. And this is what I said months ago
when the leader, Jefferies and some other Democrats were holding
an event in New Orleans, and I said, I don't
understand why I have five Democrats in New Orleans. I
get it, I said, but I would have actually sent
a member to each district office of Mike Johnson, and

(01:34:41):
I would have had simultaneous news conferences outside of those
district offices. That way, I can get local media, I
would get state media. I'll be impacting national media. So
what is your strategy in these states, in these counties,
in these places where people are impacted, to tell the
story of the shutdown, how it's going to negatively impact

(01:35:02):
regular ordinary folk.

Speaker 26 (01:35:04):
Well, first off, Roland, thank you for having me tonight.
As always, it's great to be here, and you're absolutely right. Unfortunately,
millions of Americans are being impacted by this shutdown right now.
They're being impacted by the disastrous big ugly bill that
passed this summer, and of course the policies that Donald
Trump and this administration have been pushing from day one.

Speaker 15 (01:35:25):
And where you're spot on is we need to tell
the real stories.

Speaker 23 (01:35:28):
Right.

Speaker 26 (01:35:28):
It's one thing for politicians to get up there and
talk about fighting for this, but what you're saying is
exactly right. We need to show people the real impacts
of this, and there's no one better to show the
real impacts and people whose lives are being impacted on
a daily basis by what's happening right now with this shutdown.

Speaker 15 (01:35:46):
So we're doing that.

Speaker 26 (01:35:47):
We're actually telling the story using people who have real
stories that we just rolled out a video and add
the other data from a farmer who has been his
life has been completely turned upside down because of the
tariffs that Donald Trump has been inflicted upon soybean farmers
and other farmers throughout this country.

Speaker 15 (01:36:09):
We're talking about with this big ugly bill.

Speaker 26 (01:36:11):
People who are losing their health insurance and seniors who
are actually losing their you know, access to nursing homes.
We're talking right now in this shutdown about people who
are already We're using people who are you know, already
seeing and getting their healthcare premium notices and seeing double triple,
you know, digit increases in their monthly premiums. And so

(01:36:33):
there's no one better to tell that story than people
who are being impacted. And I've said this before on
this show, but one of my favorite favorite quotes is
from congress Woman Aana Presley who said those closest to
pain should be closest to power. And that means that
not just you know, making sure that we have people
who are being impacted sharing their stories, but we need

(01:36:53):
more people who actually have real lived experiences and real struggles,
who actually serve an office. That's part of the challenge, right,
So many people who serve in elected office right now
have never really had to struggle. And you know, the
reality is for us to break through at this moment.
It's not just about standing up and fighting, but it's

(01:37:14):
actually leading from behind. You don't always need to be
the person at the microphone. Give someone else the microphone
so they can tell their story.

Speaker 3 (01:37:22):
You talk about that farmer and where's that at?

Speaker 26 (01:37:26):
It's all over the place. I mean, you can look
at it on our YouTube channel. We have it around
on all of our social media.

Speaker 3 (01:37:36):
Is this it right here. I'm just trying to understand this.
I see a five and a half minyone, I see
a thirty second one.

Speaker 17 (01:37:41):
Is this it?

Speaker 3 (01:37:41):
Can you see it?

Speaker 15 (01:37:42):
Is that it? Yes? I believe that's it?

Speaker 3 (01:37:45):
Okay, got it? All right? So I was looking on
your Twitter feed looking for that. But here's one of
the things that I see it, and trust me, I get.
While some politicians might disagree, this is the issue that
I have. You've got a lot of these farmers who
don't vote Democrat and they want they want Democrats now
to save their asses, but they don't reward Democrats want

(01:38:07):
to get their asses to save. Look at the teamsters.
Biden Harris saved their asses when it came to the
pension funds, and Sean O'Brien turns right around and screw Democrats.
And so I've heard. I mean, I had John Boyd
on here and my whole deal is okay. So these
farmers want Democrats to save their buds. But okay, but
are you going to stand with the folks who do?

(01:38:28):
Are you going to keep voting for Republican? How do
you break through to that? How do you and how
targeted are you saying? Hey, remember who do you want
to save your pension? Who save your farms? They didn't.

Speaker 6 (01:38:42):
That's right.

Speaker 26 (01:38:43):
Well, I think the reality is, and we've talked about
this before, Roland, right, I believe that what Donald Trump
is doing right now is he's creating opportunities for the
Democratic Party to actually expand our coalition, to have conversations
with voters who've left us many years ago, right, and
have been voting for Republicans for years now. And make

(01:39:04):
no mistake about it. You can look at a map
and see that most of our rural communities are bright
shades of red right. And wasn't that long ago that
we had a lot of vote share and Democratic vote
share in rural parts of this country. The reality is, though,
is he's creating opportunities for us to have the conversation,
and we need to have the conversation.

Speaker 15 (01:39:23):
It's not just about.

Speaker 26 (01:39:24):
Delivering and helping them. It's actually about developing relationships with voters.
And the flip side is true as well, and we've
talked about this, which is, you know, the Democratic Party
has made huge mistakes and how we approach communities of color.
We usually show up three months before an election, and
it's all about you know, mobilization and turnout instead of
persuasion and building conversation around shared values. And actually, you know,

(01:39:49):
we just make assumptions that people who have been with
us will always be with us, and people are opposed
to us are never going to be for us. I
believe when you organize everywhere, you can win anywhere. But
we can't do it just by resisting Donald Trump. By
the way, We've got to get up. We got to
show folks, whether you're in an urban area, you're a
suburban area, rural area, how their lives are going to

(01:40:10):
be better with Democrats in control. Secondly to your point
is this, you know, I don't think we do a
good job of talking about what we do to actually
help people. And while we end up bailing various industries
out are helping various communities, we don't actually go back
into those communities and remind folks what we've done to
actually make a difference in their lives. That's why what

(01:40:32):
I've been advocating for so long, and what I've done
these last nine months is start to change the script.

Speaker 15 (01:40:37):
Flip the script.

Speaker 26 (01:40:38):
We need to be out there organizing year round, having
conversations with voters that start around their hopes and dreams
and eventually around shared values, never talking about elections or candidates,
never talking about party, but really starting to build relationships
with voters throughout this country again. And that starts right
now by having organizers on the ground. The Democratic National Committee,

(01:41:02):
of all the committees here in Washington, d C. We're
the only ones that actually are organizing right now that
are doing direct voter contact, that are engaged in conversations
with voters, and frankly taken advantage of the opportunities that
Donald Trump's helping to create with farmers and rural voters,
with Latino voters right now, with communities of color that

(01:41:22):
are being targeted by this administration, with people are being
kicked off of their health insurance, people that are being
deprived of food assistants. Right these are all opportunities for
the Democratic Party if we take advantage of it and
start actually having the right conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:41:37):
So you talk about those things, where are those things
happening now? And are you lasting those events? How are
you how are you driving the messaging? Have you seen
the results of that in terms of show up in
fundraising and engagement, And how are you measuring the impact
of what all things you just described.

Speaker 26 (01:41:59):
Yeah, look, I mean, let me tell you what's been
happening around the country. There's been forty five elections on
the ballot since Donald Trump was inaugurated. In all forty
five of them, Democrats have overperformed at a historic rate
to the tune of about sixteen percentage points, which is
a historic overperformance. And that's as a result of our
organizing in those communities, of having the conversations, of making

(01:42:22):
the investments in down ballot races, and making sure that
we're organizing everywhere. And so you know, as a result,
we've won many of those elections. And of course there's
win at our back. Right right now, we just launched
a tour through HBCUs here, starting those conversations again on
historically black college campuses earlier than ever before, because we

(01:42:45):
need to build relationships with voters and not just assume
that they're going to be with us, and that means
starting now. We've already started that, right We're out there
right now talking to voters. We're organizing well before elections
to make sure that people know that we are the
ones standing up for them, we are the ones fighting
for them and their families.

Speaker 15 (01:43:05):
And it's already paying huge dividends, as I mentioned Roland.

Speaker 26 (01:43:08):
Now, look, we got a lot more work to do,
don't get me wrong, but there's certainly win at our back.
And if this trend continues, a sixteen percent over performance
combined with Donald Trump's low approval and job ratings, and
they continue to slide as he continues to decimate the
economy and break every promise he made to the American people.

(01:43:29):
We have real opportunities here to win big, both in
twenty five and in twenty six. But we can't keep
doing things the same way that this Democratic Party has
done things in the past, which is why we're already
out there having conversations and actually building relationships with voters
throughout this country.

Speaker 3 (01:43:46):
Last question for you, and that is this here when
we talk about the next step, we're facing Supreme Court
right now that could wipe out a significant number of
black congressional seats in the South. Bishop Barbara has said
this over and over and over again. The problem at
the South is not as guaranteed Republican Locke is simply unorganized.

(01:44:10):
Walk me through, and I saw walking through this investment
that you're making in Mississippi. What other southern states. I
just had the organizer on from Florida. You may have
heard some of what he had to say as well.
I've talked to Latasha Brown and Latasha Brown and Cliff
all Bright and others again repairs of the breach, and
what too many people say is that you have a

(01:44:32):
Democratic Party infrastructure that has fixated on white, suburban women
and educated voters without realizing that you are leaving votes
on the table where you have a lot of black people,
especially in southern states. I mean Georgia. The number of
black people who did not vote in twenty twenty four
was insane. North Carolina you need those two Senate seats

(01:44:53):
come next year. Texas has the most eligible black voters
anywhere in the country. You've got a Senate race coming
up next sure as well. So what is the priority
to invest in black voters in these southern states.

Speaker 26 (01:45:06):
Yeah, let me just tell you what you've been saying
is exactly what I said on the campaign, and we're
already doing. We made investments, a six figure investment in
Mississippi to help them elect local candidates. You know, it's
one of the largest investments in recent memory in Mississippi,
and we did it again earlier than ever before.

Speaker 15 (01:45:24):
We've made investments in states like Georgia and in North
Carolina already. I was the first person on the ground
in Texas helping them with their redistricting. I've already been
in Texas four times. And it's a you know, a
reality that the new battlefield for the Democratic Party is
the American South and what's driving the population growth there

(01:45:45):
and giving us opportunity, of course, is the black community,
black and brown communities, Latino communities, African American communities throughout
the South. You're absolutely right, and we're making those investments already.

Speaker 23 (01:45:56):
You know this.

Speaker 15 (01:45:57):
I share this on your show the last time I
was on.

Speaker 26 (01:45:59):
The fastest growing states in the country right now are Tennessee,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, followed by Florida.
Six of the ten fastest growing states are all in
the South, meaning that after the twenty thirty two reapportionment
and after the twenty thirty census, that's where the power
is going to be. That's where the next presidential race
in twenty thirty two will be decided. That's where the

(01:46:23):
power for majorities in Congress will be decided. And so
We're already laying down a marker right now. We've made
investments in those states in the South and will continue
to do it. As I said, I've been in Florida
already four times. I was down in Georgia campaigning for
Debor Shigley, our candidate running for state Senate there, and
while she didn't win, she overperformed by a significant margin.

(01:46:43):
I spend a lot of time down in the US South,
and it's really important part of our calculus moving forward.

Speaker 15 (01:46:49):
But let me say this, which is really important.

Speaker 26 (01:46:52):
We are not going to anymore as a Democratic Party
take any community of color for granted. Right.

Speaker 22 (01:47:00):
I would disagree with you a little bit that.

Speaker 26 (01:47:02):
It's not that the US South is unorganized, right, it's
the fact that we have a number. You know, Texas
is not a red state as an example, it's a
non voting state.

Speaker 4 (01:47:15):
And Mississippi is a good example.

Speaker 26 (01:47:16):
We have forty percent of their population as African Americans, right,
and it's a low turnout state. And the reality is
is if we change the laws there, made it easier
for people to vote, got rid of some of these
Jim Crow era voting restrictions that are on the on
the books, in states throughout the South made it easier
for people to participate in their democracys.

Speaker 3 (01:47:38):
Right, But mckinn. The only way you can make it
easier to change the laws if people are organized and
mobilized to vote. And look, I don't know. I mean
when Bette perfect example, Okay, you said you've been down
to Texas, all right, that two I fifty four counties
in Texas. How many county how many county Democratic officers

(01:48:01):
do you have?

Speaker 26 (01:48:02):
Well, this is one thing I've been actually talking about
because that's a good example of where we're not organized.

Speaker 3 (01:48:08):
Right, That's right, That's what I'm saying. So that two
fifty four the longest was only eighty one. That's two
thirds of the state where you do not have a
county democratic presence. Ain't no way you're gonna win if
you're not in one hundred and sixty plus counties.

Speaker 31 (01:48:22):
And so when I say when, I agree with it.

Speaker 3 (01:48:24):
So when I say not organized, what I'm talking I'm
literally talking about. Look when Beto lost to Greg Abbott
for governor, seventy five percent of people thirty under did
not vote, And so you know, you.

Speaker 26 (01:48:39):
Know the crazy thing here to your point, right, And
It's why I campaigned on in Every County strategy making
sure that in every part of this country we have
elected Democratic party leadership.

Speaker 15 (01:48:50):
That's organizing voters.

Speaker 26 (01:48:51):
To your point, did you know that there's three thousand,
two hundred and forty four counties in this country and
a quarter of the have no elected Democratic Party leadership.
That's why we have in Every County strategy, and that's
why we're challenging our state parties and other party committees
to actually make sure we do the basic organizing work

(01:49:12):
you're talking about. Think about this, and it's quite remarkable.
When you don't have elected county leadership Democratic party leadership,
there's a three to five percent decrease in statewide vote
share Democratic vote share, and the same corresponding decrease in
congressional Democratic vote share, meaning we lose votes in those

(01:49:33):
places because we're not organized.

Speaker 15 (01:49:35):
It's pretty simple.

Speaker 26 (01:49:36):
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what
you and I are saying here. And so some of
this is just basic organizing work that needs to be done,
and we're doing it right now with this Every County strategy.
But let me say this, I think the reality is
that's one step and the reason why I challenge you
on this a little bit is because we see that

(01:49:57):
there are a number of attempts with Latasha and others
today at the Supreme Court to Louisiana versus Calai case,
because this is a critical ruling that's going to come
that's going to completely gut the Voting Rights Act and
make it even harder for people to be heard in
their democracy.

Speaker 15 (01:50:17):
This is what's going on.

Speaker 26 (01:50:19):
The Republicans in this country know they're on the wrong
side of demographics, they know they're on the wrong side
of the issues. And at the end of the day,
instead of going out and trying to earn the support
of the black community, going out and trying to earn
the support of Latinos, going out and trying to earn
the support of Asian voters, what are they trying to do.
They're trying to make it harder for communities of color
to be heard in their democracy. It's shameful on the

(01:50:42):
sixtieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act that this Court
and the Republicans, under the direction of Donald Trump, are
trying to completely gut the Voting Rights Act.

Speaker 15 (01:50:52):
You know this better than I do. People literally died
for this right to vote.

Speaker 26 (01:50:56):
The civil rights movement was about what was asked in
nineteen sixty five with the Voting Rights Act. We all
of us should be up in arms about what's happening
right now in the Supreme Court. I was proud to
be down there today with civil rights organizations, legal rights groups,
voting rights groups, people who are nonpartisan, who know that
what this Court may do is completely wrong.

Speaker 15 (01:51:19):
Again, this is what it's about, Roland.

Speaker 26 (01:51:21):
When we think about about why, you know, a state
like Mississippi that has forty percent African Americans and African
Americans have no power down there. It's deliberate, it's by design,
and we have to make sure we're standing up and
organizing and making sure that people can vote.

Speaker 3 (01:51:39):
Yep, Well, listen, we're there as well. So it's a
lot of work to do, and it's going to be
darker times after today's or arguments. I am mootan prepared
and I've been calling this for years all year well,
this right wing Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Act,
to screw black political power. And I keep saying the

(01:52:00):
black voters, I need seventy eighty ninety percent turnout because
if we vote, our numbers. We can we can repeal this.
We can take over state supreme courts, we can win
statewide office. We can break these Republicans super majorities in
the legislature. But it has to be again organized and
mobilized efforts. Kid Martin, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot,

(01:52:20):
Thank you. Roland quick break. We come back. We're gonna
talk Afro Tech conference happening in a couple of weeks.
We're going to be there on the ground right back
rolling unfilied with the Black Student Network.

Speaker 23 (01:52:35):
If in this country right now, do you have people
get up in the morning and the only thing they
can think about is how many people they can hurt,
and they've got the power.

Speaker 2 (01:52:44):
That's the time for morning, for better or worse.

Speaker 33 (01:52:47):
What makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed
to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority.

Speaker 2 (01:52:55):
We are at a point of a moral emergency.

Speaker 34 (01:53:00):
We must raise a voice of outrage, we must raise
a voice of compassion, and we.

Speaker 23 (01:53:07):
Must raise a voice of unity. We are not in
a crisis of party versus party. We are in a
crisis of civilization, a humans rights crisis, and a crisis
of democracy itself. And guess what, You've been chosen to
make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate,

(01:53:30):
don't have the final say and they don't ultimately win.

Speaker 3 (01:53:34):
It's your boy earthquake, you know, giving Roland Martin something
to do because you know he don't know what to
do from Texas. Ain't his fault, folks. This year Afotech
will take place at the Houston's George or Brown Convention
Center beginning October twenty seven. Thousands will tend the building

(01:53:56):
What's Next conference, which will feature prominent figures Stacy A Bros.
Microsoft's Mustafa su Lemon, and Google's Adrian Loft, alongside thousands
of black engineers, foules and creators. Shape of the Future
AI obviously going to be a huge, huge issue. Jeff
Nelson Jones us from Atlanta. Jeff, First of all, folks,
who don't know how long has approtect been happening.

Speaker 36 (01:54:20):
This is the ninth year of Afrotech. So, first of all,
thank you so much for having me, Roland. We're excited
for year number nine. Next year we'll be year number
ten and we've got some great things planned this year
as we look towards the future.

Speaker 3 (01:54:32):
And so you being so because I went one year,
you used to be in Oakland, correct, that's right.

Speaker 36 (01:54:38):
So this is our second year in Houston, and let
me talk a little bit about our strategy in terms
of where we have afro Tech. So we started this
conference in San Francisco and Oakland because the thing that
we heard ten years ago was that tech companies couldn't
find black talent, and so we said, we'll bring the
black talent to you. So we took it to the
heart of Silicon Valley and that's where we had our

(01:54:59):
first afrotechs. After the pandemic, we made the decision to
move to Texas and we had afro Tech in Austin
for a couple of years and then we moved to
Houston last year and we'll be returning this year. And
the thinking is this, we want to go to a
majority black city, all the economic activity that comes with
afro tech and all the people that we bring to

(01:55:21):
the city. We want to make sure that not only
are we exposing our audience to the latest and greatest
in tech, but we are leaving an impact on a
community that looks like us and is going to benefit
from all that we do.

Speaker 11 (01:55:34):
And so.

Speaker 3 (01:55:36):
Who attends who is it for. For the person who's
not an engineer, does it make sense for them to
tend have for tech?

Speaker 36 (01:55:44):
Absolutely, afro Tech is really the intersection of community and
culture as well as being a tech conference. We welcome
anyone who is in tech or anyone who is tech adjacent.
There is something at afro Tech for everyone. As a
matter of fact, we've got a couple of new things
this year that will appeal to people who are not
directly in tech. In particular, we have a renewed focus

(01:56:06):
on health Roland. I don't have to tell you that
we are at a pivotal point in this country in
terms of just science and medicine and health. There are
questions about whether we can even trust the government to
give us accurate information as it pertains to health in general,
but especially for communities such as the African American community

(01:56:26):
or underrepresented communities that historically suffer from comorbidities and other
health disparities.

Speaker 22 (01:56:33):
And so we have a renewed focus on health at Afrotech.

Speaker 15 (01:56:36):
This year.

Speaker 22 (01:56:37):
We will be featuring a number of medical professionals.

Speaker 36 (01:56:40):
As well as health CEOs to come and talk about
patient care and health technology.

Speaker 22 (01:56:46):
At afro Tech.

Speaker 36 (01:56:47):
We have a creator summit as well, So for our
creatives who are interested in understanding how AI is impacting
their work, how they can use it but also protect
themselves in an age where AI can generate content.

Speaker 22 (01:57:00):
We have something for them as well.

Speaker 36 (01:57:02):
And then lastly, I'll note that we have a lot
of content for our entrepreneurs as well. We will be
having a founder summit and all of that is going
to be bookended by our content related to AI innovation
and cybersecurity.

Speaker 3 (01:57:16):
So all these things are happening, and you also are
up against a massive black job loss, especially related to
black women tech space, and we'll see the same thing.
We're seeing a massive attacks attack when it comes to DEI.
How has the anti DEI backlash impacted Afrotech.

Speaker 2 (01:57:38):
Yeah, So.

Speaker 36 (01:57:40):
First of all, I just want to underscore and emphasize
what you're saying, and this hits home because there are
people that we work with. So we're fortunate in that
over one hundred and fifty companies are showing up to
AFRO Tech looking to hire, looking to network with black talent,
black and underrepresented town talent. So there are companies that

(01:58:02):
are still showing up. But the reality is that we
are in an unprecedented time. I got an email earlier
this week from someone who was a champion of ours
at a particular company, who was championing championing their company
sponsoring afro Tech, just got laid off and they emailed

(01:58:22):
and said, Hey, I'm on the other side now, can
you help me get to afro tech and help me
find a job. And so we've done a number of
things through our nonprofit armblavity dot org, where we've given
hundreds of tickets to women who have been laid off.
We've partnered with a number of organizations to make sure
that we can bring access to college students and others

(01:58:43):
who have been laid off.

Speaker 22 (01:58:45):
But you're right that we have sort of this dual
set of challenges.

Speaker 36 (01:58:51):
There are a tax on D E and I, so
there's a question of whether companies even think it's necessary
to go to conferences like afro Tech. We also have
a oader economic climate where companies are laying off. And
then I'll also know the third headwind that's against us AI.
I'm in tech, and as much as I love AI
and I think it's great, there are companies who are

(01:59:12):
using AI as an excuse that maybe they don't need
to hire talent. Maybe they certainly don't need to go
and hire underrepresented talent.

Speaker 22 (01:59:21):
So there are headwinds.

Speaker 36 (01:59:22):
I am happy to report that this year, companies are
still showing up. But the future is what we're focused on,
and so part of our pivot this year with afro
Tech is to make sure that both our sponsors and
our partners, as well as our attendees know that this
is a conference and this is an event where you
can find a job, but it's also more than that.

Speaker 22 (01:59:44):
It's a place where you can.

Speaker 36 (01:59:46):
Hear the latest and greatest on innovation and technology, where
companies are going to be talking about new products they're releasing,
where we're going to bring other tech adjacent or non
tech disciplines to bear like health like creators as well.
So we're thinking about the future, both to make sure
that our afrotech is still relevant, but also making sure
that we can level up our attendees and prepare for

(02:00:08):
that future as well.

Speaker 3 (02:00:09):
Again, the conference officially begins when.

Speaker 36 (02:00:13):
It begins the last week of October October twenty seventh
through thirty first October twenty seventh through thirty first at
the Georgia Brown Convention Center, in Houston, Texas.

Speaker 3 (02:00:24):
All right, then, well, we're actually going to be broadcasting
from the convention October twenty ninth and October thirtieth, and
so look forward to bringing those stories to our audience
right here on the Blackstart Network.

Speaker 22 (02:00:38):
Thanks so much, Roland. We're looking forward to it, all.

Speaker 3 (02:00:40):
Right, Jeff, thanks a lot, Thank you. All Right, folks, again,
it's a whole lot. We've been talking about a whole
lot that we've been covering, and you know, listen, we
do our best trying to get folk to understand what
is going on, how we are impacted, and that's what
we do, and so we're gonna keep doing that. This

(02:01:02):
is in for us a today's show. Now, here's the deal. Tomorrow,
we're gonna be on location tomorrow live from Virginia State University.
We are gonna be of course, critical elections happening in Virginia.
Who will control the State House, who will control the
state Senate. You've got statewide elections are happening. We're gonna

(02:01:22):
be talking to candiates as well. It is open to
the public. We look forward to seeing y'all in the
Virginia State University Multi Purpose Center. Again. We're gonna be
broadcasting from six to eight pm Eastern, six to eight
six to eight pm Eastern at Virginia State. Now, loin,
let me walk y'all through some stuff. Doors open at

(02:01:43):
five a clock. Now, ain't no guaranteed Seaton and all
that stuff, So y'all need to get there on time.

Speaker 2 (02:01:51):
Come on through.

Speaker 3 (02:01:52):
Doors open at five o'clock. And again we're gonna be
talking about politics, talking about the issues that matter, speaking
to what is going on. And again, how do we
also mobilized and organized. We talk about mobilized and organized
all of the time. That's what we're going to be doing.

(02:02:15):
And listen, I said it repeatedly. When we maximize our power,
then we have the ability to be able to impact
who is going to get elected. And so that's what
we have to do. And so I'm really hoping folks
turn out. We want students there as well. And here's

(02:02:36):
the deal where we have HBCUs. It's amazing a lot
of students don't realize they can vote in those locations,
and so that's also hugely important for us to do.
And so I look forward to being back on the
campus of Virginia State. Twenty sixteen, December twenty sixteen. I

(02:02:58):
was on campus. I gave the commencement address at Virginia State,
and so look forward to going back, and said, when
I was there, they gave me this jacket right here,
so I need to get some new gear. So my
frat brother, who's the president, y'all know, we're gonna be
looking aware, so we'll see what happens. But I'm gonna
be wearing on the show tomorrow, so look forward to that,

(02:03:22):
and so good looking forward to seeing all the folks
again at Virginia State tomorrow. Doors open at five o'clock.
We'll be on campus Friday. I'll be actually, i'll be
out Friday, and of course we have what we have
a show, so the guest host look forward to that.
I'm gonna be speaking to the Canton Ohio. I'll be
at Kent State, Can't and Ohio NAACP, so I'll be

(02:03:45):
there as well. So a whole lot going on again.
We want tell U support the work we would do.
First of all, you two folks, misse, how many y'all
y'all should be hitting that like button? How many we
got just a thousand? Come on, y'all, we shoed to
be a fifteen hundred likes. Y'all, hurry up hit that
like button. Support the work that we do. Join I
bring the fuck fanclub. I told you. It's a whole
lot going on, y'all. We're launching a new daily midday

(02:04:06):
news show. We've got a weekly show coming. I am
working on a business show, a health show. We're completely
redoing blackstarnetwork dot com turning into a newsportal. That stuff
is happening as well. We'll completely focus on that, and
we want y'all support the goals raised a million bucks
by December thirty first, we have already crossed two hundred thousand,

(02:04:30):
so let's keep going. If you want to contribute to
us via a cash out, use a striped cure code.
Striped cure code you see it right here. You can
also use stripe curre code for credit cards as well.
Paypalas are Martin Unfiltered, venmo is RM Unfiltered, Zeo, Rolling
at Roland, Smartin dot Com, Rolling at rolland Martin unfiltered

(02:04:51):
dot Com. Check some money, order make it payable to
Rolling Martin Unfiltered po Box five seven one nine six Washington,
DC to You're a zero three seven DA zero one
nine six. Of course, download a bus Started Network app
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amaz On Fire TV, Xbox one, Samsung Smart TV. Be

(02:05:13):
sure to get a copy of my book White Fear,
How the Browning of Americas making White folks lose their
minds a Bayla at bookstores nation wide. Also, if you
want to get our roller markin unfiltered Black Start Network swag,
go to shop Blackstartnetwork dot com. We got shirts, We
got all kinds of stuff there, mugs, wal art, you

(02:05:36):
name it, we got it. Also, all these products here
you see to my left, these are all black owned products.
Right here, we got them on shop Blackstart Network dot com.
And so you see these backpacks. We've got some skincare products.
We got these chips right here. We've got black crossword puzzles,
we got black tilet paper. We got all we got

(02:05:59):
as you got the uh pull, give me give me
a watchhout y'all. You've got, of course, the the smocks
right here, we've got the smocks. All this stuff again.
We've got sauces. Remember we got missus Pruiz Gourmet Cha
Cha Hot sauce, all kinds of stuff, all black owned companies,
and so we want you all to support these companies

(02:06:21):
by going to again going to our site shop Blackstart
Network dot com. Go to shop Blackstart Network dot com
to support these companies. We always are talking about how
do we recirculate the black dollar. Well, one of the
ways we can do that is if we buy from
our own These are entrepreneurs who are doing the good work. Also,

(02:06:44):
of course, we want you to download the app fan Base.
It's a great social media app. Let's build this up.
We want to be able to have millions of subscribers
on the fan base and so let's let's do that.
Go to fan Base, Go to Fanbase. Go to Fanbase again.
If you want to invest, they raised thirteen pot four
million dollars thirty four four million dollars. So go to

(02:07:07):
start engine dot com, forward slash Fanbase. Start engine dot com,
forward slash fan Base to invest. So that said, folks,
I'll see all tomorrow right here on, give me the
wid shot. Get on blackstartnetwork dot Com again, live from
Virginia State University. Support our black owned products, support black

(02:07:28):
on media. I'll support our HBCUs. I'll see you tomorrow.

Speaker 14 (02:07:31):
Hu

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