NAACP Sues Musk’s xAI, Emanuel 9 Remembered, League’s Unite & Rise, InBooze Spotlight

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Martin seventeen, twenty twenty five coming up on Rolling Main
unfilterth streaming live on the Black stud Network. NAACP and
the Southern Environmental Law Center have put a billionaire Elon
musk Xai on notice they are planning to follow lawsuit

(00:25):
against his Memphis company over air pollution. We will talk
to a local leader about that issue. Ten years ago,
the Emmanuel Nine were murdered in Charles and South Carolina.
We'll talk to a victim's family member about honoring their
memory right here on the show. Also, Folks, Tonight, a
new wave of resistance is rising to leave of women
voters has launched Unite and Rise eight point five, mobilizing

(00:48):
eight point five million Americans to push back against anti
democratic policies. CEO Selena Stewart will join us and Tonight's
marketplace where Drinking Smarter. You'll meet the founder of n Booze,
the natural cocktail kit company, shaking up your happy hour
with flavor and wellness. Also, Donald trump craziness when it
comes to the issue of Iran will tell you what's happening there,

(01:10):
and a federal judge in Massachusetts makes it perfectly clear
the Trump administration is fled out racist when it comes
to getting rid of grants for people of color and
LGBTQ folks in the natural institutes of health wave to
I show you what this federal judge, a Reagan appointee,
had to say, it's time to bring the punk a

(01:32):
roller mark unfiltered on a black sid network. Let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
He's got whatever he's doing it, whatever it is, he's
got the fact to find to believes he's right on
top and is rolling.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Best belief he's going down.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Trump is Loston host to politics entertainment.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Just bunk keeps he's going.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
It's bron.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
He's prony, stress, cheese, built up question though he's rolling.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Folks. When we talked on this show about Memphis allowing
Elon musk Ai Company to put up these turbines, they
claim they have the proper amount. The others say no,
that's not the case. We've had Representative Justin Pearson on
about that. Well, clearly the NAACP agrees. They NAACP in
the Southern Environmental Law Center are going to sue Elon

(02:50):
musk Ai Company x AI, claiming it is polluting black
neighborhoods in Memphis without permission showing us right now to
the Thus, first one of those of news conference earlier
today are going to play the news conference, and then
we'll be joined by someone from the Memphis NAACP. So
here's what we'll see today at the news conference.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
This morning, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of
the NAACP, sent a letter to XAI and its affiliates
letting them know that we intend to file suits under
the Clean Air Act in response to Xai's continued use
of unpermitted methane gas turbines in southwest Memphis. For the
last year, these turbines have been pumping hazardous and smog

(03:32):
forming pollution into the air in South Memphis, a community
already overburdened with industrial pollution. These pollutants can cause increased
rates of asthma, heart disease, respiratory illness, and even cancer.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
The law is.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
Abundantly clear XAI needed to get an air permit before
installing and operating any of the turbines at their facility.
Its failure to get a permit is an obvious violation
of the Clean Air Act. Over the wad last year,
you've no doubt heard a lot about a three hundred
and sixty four day exemption that supposedly allows XAI to

(04:08):
run these dirty turbines without any permits or any oversight.
I want to be clear, there is no such exemption
that applies to turbines, and nobody, not the mayor, not
the Chamber of Commerce, not XAI, not the Shelby County
Health Department, have been able to point to a single
legal citation that would authorize these turbines to operate without
a permit.

Speaker 7 (04:30):
This opens the floodgates for more data centers to drain
our community resources and further polluted. Where is the impact
study on the number of jobs this would bring and
the effect on the environment? South and Southwest Memphis have

(04:57):
long been the dumping grounds for toxic corporate rast.

Speaker 8 (05:03):
Today is an extraordinary day in this movement for justice
rooted in love, as we demand that clean air is
a human right, and there is not a person, no
matter how wealthy or how powerful, that can deny the
fact that everybody has.

Speaker 9 (05:22):
A right to breathe clean air.

Speaker 10 (05:25):
It's not a feeling, it's a fact.

Speaker 8 (05:29):
This notice to sue Xai is a clarion call for
unity across our city and across our county to unite
in the fight. There's no more time for political platitudes
or to have leaders put their heads in the sand.
Now is the time to stand on the side of
the people. Mayor Young, Mayor Harris Director, doctor Michelle Taylor.

Speaker 9 (05:52):
Now is the time to stand on the side of
the people.

Speaker 8 (05:56):
I want to give special thanks to the President of
the National NAACS VP, Derek Johnson to NAACP.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Joining us now is A. Brey Connor, the NAACPS Director
of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. Break. Glad
to have you here. So how long have y'all been
looking at this? Folks represented Pearson has been talking about
it for a very long time. Other residents have been
talking about it, and when at y'all decide that now
was the time to launch this action?

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Well, thanks so much for having me this evening.

Speaker 11 (06:29):
The NAACP, as you know, because of our branches and
our state conferences who have been a part of many
environmental climate justice actions for a number of years, they
were on the ground looking at these issues since.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
XAI had started operating.

Speaker 11 (06:47):
They were asking questions, concerned about their health, they were
concerned about what this would mean for the community, and
so our branches and our state conferences, which are a.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
Part of our larger national footprint.

Speaker 11 (07:01):
They realized that there was an issue that needed that
garnered the attention not only of just the residents in
South Memphis, but also of the entire country to recognize
that South Memphis was being seen as a sacrifice zone
for this dirty data center.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
What I'm still confused by is that if you build
something in the city in the county, there is a process,
there's a process. And y'all have been saying that they
have thirty plus turbines. They've been saying they have fifteen.
I don't understand how hard this is. Doesn't the city
or the county have the actual documents that show how

(07:45):
many turbines they're using.

Speaker 11 (07:48):
Well, your question is a great one, and the fact
that the community had to uncover the extra turbines that
were operating in South Memphis, it tells a larger story
of the lack of transparency. The fact that the community
themselves had to go out and uncover these methane gas

(08:11):
turbines that have been operating in their communities.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
And these are the questions that we are asking.

Speaker 11 (08:16):
These are the questions that our branch leaders and our
state conference president, and those leadership members are also asking
why is it that we have elected officials, Why is
it that there is a county health department?

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Why is it that there are so many different.

Speaker 11 (08:34):
Entities who should be asking these questions, who should have
the answers to these questions.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
But it really has lied in.

Speaker 11 (08:41):
The hands of the communities to actually come forward and
say we actually, you know, operated drones and were able
to actually see that there were additional gas turbines that
were operating at this data center.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Saying what I don't even understand is why even have drones?
I mean, I I don't understand if you build something
in the city, in the county, if there's a permitting process,
there were inspectors, So no one from the city or
the county has physically inspected this facility to confirm how

(09:16):
many turbines are there.

Speaker 11 (09:18):
Well, what I can tell you is that these are
the questions that community members are asking. There has been
a lot of conversations that have happened without there being
any transparency. That was something that we highlighted in the
letter that we sent even before this notice of the
intent to sue, that the community members have been saying,
why is there not more transparency.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Why has there not been more public hearings.

Speaker 11 (09:42):
There's been a couple of flyers that don't have a
lot of information about what's happened since the beginning, since they.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
Started operating back last June.

Speaker 11 (09:51):
And now the community is saying, we're demanding answers because
if the city and if the county is not going
to do their job, then are going to file this
notice of intent to sue another clean air ap questions.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
I'm gonna introduce my panel right now, joining us doctor
Mustapa Santego Lee, former Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice at
the EPA, were also out of d C. Randy Bryant,
entrepreneurial author never say It's twenty five phrases you should
never ever say to keep your jobs and friends also
d C Joe Ridgarson and civil rights attorney out of
La Mustafa. This is your lane. I'll start with you.

Speaker 10 (10:30):
Yeah, well, Brad, it's good to see you and continue
the good fight. You know.

Speaker 12 (10:35):
It's curious, so there are, of course, are there the
state environmental regulations. On the federal side, We've got NIPA,
you've got Title five permits, You've got a number of
different things that folks have to go through to be
able to, you know, legally run these types of things
once the analysis look like in relationship, I'll just stay

(10:56):
on the EPA side of the equation, the various environmental
laws and regulations that folks have to be uh in
compliance with.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
A break right? Did you hear we're stop this quash questions?
I did not here, Let's see we can try the
again in let's stop a seeing you can ask it again, uh,
and then let's save the break in here.

Speaker 12 (11:28):
Okay, well, brand, First of all, I was saying, it's
good to see you, you know. Yeah, So let me
let me put it in context. So we know that
we've got, you know, a couple hundred thousand people who
are dying prematurely from air pollution. We know these turbines
are going to be uh, you know, causing additional impacts.

(11:49):
My question was, you know there are state regulations that
folks have to follow. Then, of course, on the federal
side of the equation, we've got everything from NEPA to
Title five permits to a number of other laws, statutes,
and regulations that folks have to be in compliance with
to even be able to get a permit. So my

(12:10):
question is, staying on the EPA side of the equation,
how are folks able to move forward on these various
sets of things that have to be in place before
you can even start business.

Speaker 11 (12:23):
Yeah, well, typically, I guess from the standpoint of the
company themselves, they have to look at what the different
standards are, for example, as it relates to clean air,
and so if you have, for example, thirty five gas
turbines that are running and operating, they have to apply

(12:47):
for permits to ensure that they are actually able to
run those to run those turbines actually in a community,
the community itself also has the ability to ask questions
because these processes are supposed to be open to the public.

(13:08):
So for example, if someone applies for a permit, that's
information that the community should be able to find out.
And that's how, for example, the community found out that
that these turbines were operating without any permits at all.
There's also the way that this could move forward from

(13:28):
a community standpoint as well, is that they also look at,
for example, their county department of Health or depending on
the state, there's other potential regulating agencies who are part
of that process. In this situation, we have the Shelby
County Department of Health, who should be saying whether or

(13:48):
not operating this many gas turbines at a particular time,
whether or not that is detrimental to people's health, And
in this situation, the Shelby County Department of Health has
also dropped the ball by not actually making that recommendation,
by not actually making that clear to Xai as well.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
But XAI also is supposed to.

Speaker 11 (14:11):
Be running permitted a permitted operation, which they're not.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
All right, joe.

Speaker 13 (14:23):
Ude I surmise, I understand why you're suing, why you're
suing the company, but given that the city is at
the very least complicit, is there any thought to possibly
now at some other point actually bringing something or involving
of the city and or what are supposed to be

(14:46):
the regulating agencies related to this, on top of bringing
claims against the company.

Speaker 11 (14:54):
Well, we absolutely have continued to say that we believe
that there are a lot of individuals and agencies who
have been a part of failing South Memphis, and so
we are keeping our options open as to additional ways
to ensure.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
That we're fighting with the community in South Memphis.

Speaker 11 (15:17):
And we have not taken any potential legal actions off
the table.

Speaker 5 (15:25):
Has anybody been to XAI to actually evaluate what is
happening right now? I mean it seems as if there's
like a dark mystery and we don't even know what's
happening there. Has anybody actually been able to tour the plan?
Have any inspections happened?

Speaker 3 (15:41):
I mean at all?

Speaker 5 (15:43):
Are they just allowed to run with no regulation?

Speaker 11 (15:47):
The community is doing what they can, and they're asking
questions when they can. Unfortunately, there have not been many
opportunities for the community to ask the regulating agencies embodies
what they've actually done in order to ensure their health,
in order to ensure their safety, and so a lot

(16:08):
of the information it's either bits and pieces of information
of just knowing the clear violations of the law or
the community having to take matters into their own hand
to figure out, for example, how many gas turbines are
operating at a particular time unpermitted in their community. But

(16:28):
I agree this is something where this is where your
elected officials should be standing on behalf of the community
to make sure that there's more transparency. This is where
your regulating agency bodies should be standing on behalf of
the community members to make sure that there's transparency about

(16:50):
any deals that have been created, about what they have
uncovered in their conversations, and unfortunately a lot of that
information has not been made pulp.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
All right, then, Brad, we appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Keep us abreast what happens in this story.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
Next, thank you.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
All right, then, folks got to go to break. We
come back more on rolland Mark and Unfiltered, including we'll
talk about this case out of Massachusetts where a Reagan
appointed federal judge rips donal Trump's administration for their blatant discrimination.
You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black stud Network.

Speaker 14 (17:32):
This week on the other side of change, state of
the Democratic part.

Speaker 15 (17:36):
What are the barriers preventing us from seeking true liberation
and including more voices in that process.

Speaker 16 (17:42):
They overlook black organizers, young black people, the work that
we do all throughout the year. But then when the
election cycle comes around, now, all of a sudden they
want to listen to.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Us, listen in fultation.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Marks.

Speaker 17 (17:54):
Now, all of a sudden they want our labor.

Speaker 18 (17:56):
And all contributions.

Speaker 16 (17:57):
And it's just like for me, I'm at the point
where it's like, no, we're not doing.

Speaker 14 (18:00):
Tune in only on the other side of change on
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Next on the Black Table with me, Greg call Doctor
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His writing provides a deep and unique dive into African
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The multi talented, always fastening doctor Quasi Can I do?
On the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network.

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Speaker 9 (20:12):
Now streaming on the Blackstar Network.

Speaker 22 (20:15):
In France, me and Tony and accidentally went to the
Little Bright but I had never been in. I saw
side door and we got the little bus and said, come.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Let's leave this old me.

Speaker 9 (20:25):
I'm just like, let's go to the We're here this.

Speaker 22 (20:28):
Black girl is at the door with this white guy,
black African girl and she.

Speaker 23 (20:32):
Said, oh my god, that's a good callaway.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
And I'm like this, you know it.

Speaker 23 (20:37):
And come to find out we read the wrong door.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
And she said, I'm like, you just go in here.
But I was in Paris, France, and that shot me.

Speaker 9 (20:47):
She knew my name, she knew me my movie.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
You know.

Speaker 24 (20:51):
So it's like this, guys, they.

Speaker 25 (20:54):
Say building, they won't come.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
I said, people will find it, they won't.

Speaker 26 (21:12):
Hatred on the streets a horrific scene white nationalist rally
that descended into deadly violence.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Well, white people are losing their their minds.

Speaker 9 (21:24):
As an angry pro Trump mod storms the US Capital Show,
We're about to.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
See the rise where I call white minority resistance. We
have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot
tolerate black folks voting.

Speaker 9 (21:38):
I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of
violent denial. This is part of American history.

Speaker 27 (21:45):
Every time that people of color have made progress, whether
real or symbolic, there has been but Carol Anderson, every
university calls white rage as a backlash.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
This is the wrath of the proud boys and the
boogaaloo boys, America, There's going to be more this.

Speaker 28 (22:00):
It's all the problem guy.

Speaker 22 (22:01):
This country just getting increasingly racist and its behaviors and
its attitude because of the fear of.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
White people, the people that they're taking our jobs, they're
taking our resources, they're taking out women. This is white Field.

Speaker 18 (22:29):
This week on a Balanced Life, where doctor Jackie we're
talking faith, family, fatherhood, and the pathway to reentry. Most
of us, in some way, shape, form or fashion, have
had someone in our lives, whether it was a grandfather,
a father, an uncle, a brother or cousin who has
been incarcerated or justice impacted. What does that look like

(22:51):
in rebuilding family and relationships? What does it look like
for us to be able to have substantive conversations.

Speaker 17 (22:58):
Come to the table, I love on each.

Speaker 18 (23:00):
Other and while at the same time get it all
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new journey together.

Speaker 29 (23:07):
You know, the last thing you want is in the
midst of trying to piece your life back together for
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Speaker 18 (23:15):
That's all Next On a Balanced Life with Doctor Jackie
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The next Get Wealthy with Me Deborah Owens America's wealth Coach.

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Dexter Jenkins is a faith.

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Based financial mentor with more than twenty years in the
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Even though I'm talking about things like prayer, I'm talking
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Speaker 31 (24:01):
We're talking how to get wealthy through faith and our
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Speaker 11 (24:13):
We begin tonight with the people who are really running
the country right now.

Speaker 14 (24:15):
Now.

Speaker 31 (24:16):
Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things,
but especially about history.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Wald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk in.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
The way of the unsetting news that MSNBC has canceled
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(24:44):
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Trump is unprecedented assault on democracy as well as co
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(25:06):
come together and never forget that information is power. You
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Speaker 33 (25:21):
You're doing My Man of Luck Kart and you're watching
Roland Martin Unfiltered, deep into it like pasteurized milk without
the two percent.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Were getting deep if you weren't turning that shit off.
We're doing an interview with Mother, buther folks. Ten years
ago today, Charles, South Carolina and the nation were shot
when a white racist at a Bible study shot and

(25:51):
killed non black people at Mother Emmanuel Ame Church folks,
it was absolutely studying what Dylan Roof did. He was
found guilty and sentenced to death. Reverend Clement To Pinckney,
also serve as a state senator, was gunned down along
with Cynthia Graham. Heard at the lance Reverend Payne Middleton,

(26:13):
doctor Reverend Daniel Simmons, Myra Thompson, Reverend Shiranda Coleman Singleton,
Susy Jackson, Tawanza Sanders, five others survive that horrific shooting.
A decade later, Mother Manuel still stand strong in their
faith in spirit. However, South Carolina still lacks eight state
hate crime law. It's one of only two states without one.

(26:35):
Reverend Sharon Richard joins us right now. Her mother and
two cousins were killed that day. There's a reception taking
place at the International Slavery Museum there in Charleston, South Carolina.
And so she is walking there, Reverend, can you hear me?

Speaker 3 (26:50):
I can hear you?

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Roland, do me a favor, remove your thumb from your
camera screen so we can see you. There we go.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
We got you.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Stand astead as you can, or if some actually, if
somebody is standing next to you, just asking to hold
your camera.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Nobody's standing.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
We got you. This obviously was shocking, It was horrific.
And I don't care how much time passes. No one,
whether you're a family member or church member, can get
over what took place ten years ago.

Speaker 25 (27:23):
Mother, Emanual, No, ten years still seems like a week ago,
the optual day.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
This big hole in my heart will remain there forever.

Speaker 22 (27:42):
But I must say, the city of Charlestonding, all of
us here will continue to advocate for them.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
We will not let anybody forget them. And why they
were killed in that church.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
One of the things Reverend I remember, I was MSNBC,
all these networks like, oh my goodness, look at this,
how they forgiven the shooter. They forgiven it. And I
was actually angry at that. And the reason I was
angry because all too often White America wants us to
immediately forgive. And I said, man, I said, nine to

(28:26):
eleven took place a long time ago. These white folks
still ain't forgiven. And I think that people were People
misunderstand the Christian ethos of forgiveness. Forgiveness don't mean we forgot.
Forgiveness does not mean that we don't stop fighting.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Exactly. Roland I was with you. I was very angry
and upset. My sister was the first one to say,
I forgive you.

Speaker 22 (28:57):
I hadn't even gotten out of Dallas texts yet because
that's where I was living when all of this happened,
and I just didn't.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Believe my ears. I'm hearing this on TV and all
I could do was scream and holler.

Speaker 22 (29:11):
It took me approximately two years to work out in
my soul and in my heart about forgiveness. I'm an
ordained minister and all of that, but God allowed me
to work through this process the best way I knew how.

Speaker 7 (29:31):
And.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
It was a God thing about the forgiveness.

Speaker 22 (29:36):
Everybody that I have talked to said that that was
not on their mind, but God stepped in and gave
them an understanding of why they needed to forgive. Because
we know if Charleston hadn't forgiven like they did, it
could have easily been another Fervison or another place. So

(29:58):
we thank God that they had the courage to know
what God was nudging them to do. Yes, forgiveness was given,
but that doesn't mean that we didn't want justice, And
of course that's a whole nother ballgame when it comes

(30:19):
to my advocacy work and what I've been trying to do.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
I think people missed that forgiveness doesn't mean we want
We don't want you to go to jail. Now, folks
may say we don't believe in the death penalty, we
don't want you to put to death, even though you
shot and kill nine black folk, But it don't mean
we want to see you get out. Doesn't mean we
weren't ticked off those cops took him the burger king
after he got arrested. It doesn't mean that. Like, for instance,

(30:45):
I was at an event. It was an off the
record event, and the question came up, and I sat
there and Nicki Haley was talking about all the work
that she did and how difficult it was and how
she got this hate. Crome's Law passed and I was
pissed off. In fact, her family was sitting next to me,
and I was mad as hell, and I was like, whoa, whoa.
Let me real clear, that bill got passed because the

(31:09):
blood of nine black people got shed. That's what happened,
and all too often in this country it is taking
black blood being shed for this country to move. That's
the only reason that Confederate flag came down from the
state Capitol.

Speaker 22 (31:25):
Actually it came down on July tenth, twenty fifteen, which
just happened to be my birthday, July tenth, And that
day I looked at the picture of my mother and
I said, Mom, look what your blood, your debt has

(31:45):
caused to happen. We will always remember them. They things
have been done in South Carolina, but there's still a
lot to be done. We are still steadily trying to
get the South Carolina Hate Bill passed, which it's been stalled.

(32:10):
You'd think the state of South Carolina would all of
this that have happened, that they would do this, but
they're not.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
So we will.

Speaker 22 (32:17):
Continue to fight to get this law named after Clemente. Pinkney,
the senator and pastor that died in that church. Me,
for one, will never stop advocating, will never stop calling
my mother's name epe Lee Lance, and I will continue

(32:40):
to advocate and say their names, talk against hate, racism,
gun violence, all of the.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
Things that God has put on my heart to be
an advocate for.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Well, I tell you that the fight does continue, and
I have to remind people that it was South Carolina
that was the first states to secede from the Union
that led the Confederacy, and the reality is and those
folks had to be dragged kicking to actually take that
flag down, even after those nine black folks have been

(33:16):
shot and killed, and they want to hold on to
that Confederate viewpoint for so long. They don't believe in
hate crime laws, which says that they don't want to
punish the folk who commit hate crimes against black folks
and other folk, and that to me is an absolute shame.

(33:36):
Yes very much, Reverend, we with you, Our prayers are
with you and the survivors and the family members, and
we do not want this day to pass without remembering them,
because all too often our folks are forgotten in history.
And again blood was shed, Black blood was shed to

(33:57):
make changes, and unfortunately, as a long emmanual, nine joins
a long line of African Americans in American history that
have had to die, had to die in order for
this nation to wake the hell up and do what's right.

Speaker 22 (34:13):
Thank you so much, Roland for having me to continue
to put our history out there, to talk about things
that nobody else wanted to talk about.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
God bless you, God bless.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
You appreciate it and I have yet to be to
the museum, but I will get there soon to check
it out.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Thanks a lot, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
I want to go to my panel here, Randy, I
want to start with you. But that point is that
we just can't deny that again too often. I mean,
look at all of something that happened after the death
of George Floyd. It took George Floyd's life being snuffed
out for this nation to say, yeah, we kind of
got to fix some stuff. That literally is the history

(34:57):
of black people.

Speaker 26 (34:58):
In America, sadly, and it's not just that we have
to die, and it's that we have to die in
such a public brutal way. You think about those nine
people who were in their home, their home of worship,
which you would think would be the safest place to be,

(35:20):
and are shot down by a young and they welcomed
him in, you know, they welcomed him in.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
And then what was so just it blew me away.

Speaker 17 (35:33):
As you brought up the Burger King.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
When they took this white young boy murderer to Burger
King afterwards to feed him a mill they could still
see his humanity, still were worried about if he wanted
something to eat, whereas black people every day are fighting
for people to see our humanity. So start contrast to

(35:56):
the way that we're treated. So yes, like you remember
that day back in twenty fifteen, I absolutely do too.
And again it's almost like a wake up call, but
we stay woke. We don't get an opportunity to ever rest.

Speaker 26 (36:09):
And relax, because if we can't be safe in our
homes of worship, then where are we safe?

Speaker 28 (36:21):
Did you say my name?

Speaker 10 (36:22):
I'm sorry?

Speaker 28 (36:23):
So it's interesting in South Carolina.

Speaker 13 (36:26):
I paid a little bit more attention to South Carolina
because my daughter's been there, been working there. We all
remember where we were ten years ago. And interestingly, all
these years later, there's still no hate crime built. Passed
and Conway, which is the next town over for Myrtle
Beach that has a black mayor, they've dealt with racist

(36:46):
doing crossburnings, and then you can't really prosecute them the
way that you need to because there is no hate
crimes built, and they've gone out of their way saying
in this particular instance that the reason why they're doing this,
doing these hate crimes, doing these hate crimes, what are.

Speaker 28 (37:03):
Hate crimes, is because they hate black people.

Speaker 13 (37:07):
The people were actually hard to evict and they were
really hard to exact justice against when you know for
a fact that these are hate crimes, and so it
is important for us to understand and realize it, for
society understand and realize that the only way that this
is often there's often progress, ever progress on these things,

(37:30):
is that somebody has to die, and too often it
is a victim of a hate crime, which can be
people of color. In this particular instance, Pastor Pinkney and
nine others. I believe it was ten total or nine total.
And so it's a shame that we're still there. South
Carolina still has moves to make and things that it

(37:52):
can do, but we just have to continue along the road,
speak truth to power, call it what it is. The
reason anything got done here is because black folks died
in a situation where they shouldn't have. And even then,
you're still not dealing with gun safety issues at the

(38:12):
level that we need to. We're still acting like there
should have been a consensus to do a hate crime builds.
Hate crime bills should have come quickly and soon after.
But we're still here in some of those ways, but
remaining hopeful and remaining optimistic. We can forgive like you say,
but still seek justice. People want to say forgive and forget,

(38:36):
but you're supposed to do justice. It's biblical that you're
supposed to do justice, just like it's biblical you're supposed
to forgive. They're not mutually exclusive. You don't have to
do one and lieu of the other. You don't have
to pick your poison as at work. You can still
do both and do the right thing. So we have
to continue along their route and continue to do that well.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Stava.

Speaker 12 (38:57):
I mean, this is a tough conversation for me because
I knew and pick me because of all the amazing
folks I had worked with in South Carolina.

Speaker 10 (39:05):
I mean, let's just be honest.

Speaker 12 (39:06):
We are considered sacrificeable people in many places across this country,
and as long as that dynamic continues to play out,
we are going to see black brothers and sisters die
through all types of horrific actions. And that means, yes,
we have to one put our arms around each other
build community, but we also got to whole people responsible.

(39:28):
We got to let folks know that if you take
a life in our community, that there is a price
to pay. Now, you know, I'm all for the legal system,
but I also understand that we have to protect our
communities because nobody's coming to save us.

Speaker 10 (39:43):
If somebody was going to come to save us, that
would have happened a long time ago.

Speaker 12 (39:47):
And that's why we have a responsibility to do all
that we need to do to keep our community safe.
You know, when I'm going through these traumatic situations and
thinking about what happened ten years ago, right because it
helps me to deal both on the mental health side
of the equation, but also to give clarity into the

(40:07):
moment and the things that we want need to do.
And I wrote this piece this morning, and it just
takes me thirty seconds. Here around Holy Ground got blood
in it. Ten years ain't healed. The pews still whispering
psalms through smoke. Some Sundays the choir don't sing, They
moan and key griefs stuck in their throats like gunfires.

Speaker 10 (40:28):
Echo.

Speaker 12 (40:29):
A man walked in with skin that the law don't fear,
carried hate like scripture and made a sanctuary bleed. Nine
names carved into air. Ain't no wind strong enough to
forget them. They were prayer and porch like Hallelujah, and hush,
black and beloved.

Speaker 10 (40:47):
But America got a blind spot.

Speaker 12 (40:49):
Whereas heart should be calls it, History calls it mental illness,
never calls it what it is.

Speaker 10 (40:54):
We ain't just mourning.

Speaker 12 (40:56):
We fighting, lighting candles while building barricades, loving God, while
watching our backs. We know peace don't come without a reckoning.
So we hold hands. Say their names like Armor, Cynthia, Suzi, Torranza, Daniels, Sharanda, Myra,
Ethel Depayne, and yes, Clementa.

Speaker 10 (41:15):
This ain't just a eulogy.

Speaker 12 (41:17):
It's a war cry wrapped in a hymn, a vow
made with tear stained mouths. We're gonna turn this grief
into something holy that fights back.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
All right, then I want we certainly appreciate that. And
Randy and Joe don't be getting no ideas of writing poems.
And then y'all gonna read him on the show. So
that's the one time only thing, all right, all right,
great job of styff for good job, frat folks, We
come back. A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan says

(41:48):
the Trump administration's ban on National Institutes of Health grants
it's the most blatant discrimination he has witnessed the Federal
Bitch in forty years. We will discuss next on the show.
Don't forget folks, you want to support this show on
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(42:13):
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(42:36):
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(42:58):
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(43:23):
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(43:45):
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(44:05):
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(44:49):
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(45:32):
I'll be right back next on the Black Table with me.

Speaker 9 (45:38):
Greg call doctor Quasi Cannot Do, author, scholar, and.

Speaker 19 (45:43):
He he is one of the truly representative thinkers and
activists of our generation.

Speaker 20 (45:48):
I had a dream, you know, particular knife and when
I woke up, several answstors came to me, and they
came to me and said, you really like what you're doing,
but you have to do more.

Speaker 19 (45:58):
His writing provides a deepail unique dive into African history
through the eyes of some of the interesting characters who
have lived in it, including something in his own family.
The multi talented, always fascinating Doctor Quasi Can I Do?
On the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network.

Speaker 14 (46:20):
This week on the other side of change, state of
the democratic part.

Speaker 15 (46:24):
What are the barriers preventing us from seeking true liberation
and including more voices in that process.

Speaker 16 (46:29):
election cycle comes around, now, all of a sudden they
want to listen.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
To us, listen in fultation marks.

Speaker 16 (46:42):
Now all of a sudden they want our labor and
our contributions. And it's just like for me, I'm at
the point where it's like, no, we're not doing that.

Speaker 14 (46:48):
In only on the other side of change. On the
Black Start Network, Hey.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
This is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland
Martin unfiltered?

Speaker 28 (47:03):
Boy?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
He always unfiltered though I ain't never known him to
be filtered? Is there anhing? Is there another way to
experience Rolling Martin than to be unfiltered? Course, he's unfiltered.
Would you expect anything less? Watch watch what happens next.

(47:29):
Across the country, women are building a powerful movement to
resist what many see as a fallen democracy. Uniting RISS
eight point five is mobilizing eight point five million people
to stand up against the anti democratic actions of the
Trump administration. This of course was launched in May of
this year, and so this is of course a critical

(47:50):
effort because we've always talked about the importance of again
mobilizing and organizing, mobilizing and organizing and run through the
twenty twenty six midterm elections. The initiative is really important
because people keep saying, Yo, who's doing, what are they doing?
What's happening. It's part of the Women Defeend Democracy campaign
led by the Legal Women of Voters. Selena Stewart is

(48:10):
the CEO of the Legal Women Voters of the United States.
She joins us right now, Selena, glad to have you
on the show. First and foremost, When we say to
stand up against the anti democratic actions, what does it
actually mean?

Speaker 30 (48:25):
That means being out here in these streets, and it
also means, I mean for Black people that being something
a little different, right, because I think Black people are
having to be more strategic about how we raise our
voice to be protests, right, and so the economic boycott,
the economic protest has been something that I think Black
communities have leaned into more. But when it comes to

(48:46):
the league, one of the things that we are talking
about is participating in the streets, understanding that when you
are white in this country, that the crime against you
during your protest is probably going to be less. And
so it means showing up. It means withholding your dollars,
It means going out to protests like the ones that

(49:07):
happened this weekend with the No Kings action. But it's
really about leveraging not only our voice but our bodies
to push back and show that this country is still
about the people in a democracy.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
One of the things that I'm actually working on a
book about this here is that one of the things
that I keep seeing is that I keep hearing is
that people in this country don't believe that their vote matters.
So how do you walk people through that and explain
to them that their vote does indeed matter. But to
be a be a part of change, it takes more

(49:41):
than just voting.

Speaker 17 (49:43):
Yeah, So I think that you're exactly right.

Speaker 30 (49:46):
And when we were touring during this last election cycle,
we did hear from people who were just like in
Arizona and Nevada, who are just like, our vote doesn't matter.
And I think what we have to impress upon people
is one we need to get to the core of
why you feel that way because it's likely more than voting,
But why do you feel like you are not valued?
But the second piece of that is that you have

(50:07):
to sometimes you have to show people data. I was
just in Indiana and Tennessee the last couple of weeks
and we were going through and we know both Indiana
and Tennessee have one of the lowest turnout rates in
the country in terms of of voters showing up on
election day. But one of the things we went through
when we saw is that some of these elections were
won or lost by twenty three or so votes.

Speaker 17 (50:29):
That's wild.

Speaker 30 (50:30):
I think if we're able to communicate with people about
how slim some of these margins are and how critical
these roles play when these people are in charge of
your life, whether that is the reading that your kids
have in school, whether or not the pothole gets fixed,
whether it takes five minutes or fifteen minutes to get
to your house, if a crime is committed, or if
you need support or help from police or fire.

Speaker 17 (50:51):
I think we have to drill it down to just
regular people.

Speaker 30 (50:54):
And I think that that's one thing that has been
missed in recent communication and messaging that has been done
We have to reach people where they are and let
them know just how critical it is to their everyday
lives and not just this one time thing that we
do for midterms or for the presidential election.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
You know, I'm glad you said that. I was having
a conversation in Columbus, Ohio on Friday after my speech
there in the town hall we had and we were
at dinner, and I was literally saying, I was talking
about what Joe Madison, my good buddy, used to always say,
you got to put it where the ghosts can get it.
And I said, you can't talk about this in a

(51:30):
thirty thousand feet way. You have to literally explain to people,
and there's no disrespect in a fourth grade reading level.
People understand newspapers are written on a fourth grade level.
We have to also connect the dots. We have to
have to be very mindful of the words that we use.
The language that we use, we can't use if I

(51:52):
really want to go there. As they always say high
for looting words, you shouldn't be using words that force
somebody to go to a dictionary. I know people might say,
Dany Bro, why you got to be that cold, But
that's just the reality we have to be really understand
that folk need you to make it plain for them
to really understand what we're trying to get them to do.

Speaker 17 (52:14):
That's right, and you know, rest in peace, Joe Mass
and love Love Love.

Speaker 30 (52:18):
He's well ustal warts of I think civil rights and
just an activists, and we really I miss them a lot.
But I think you're absolutely right. I think that we
have to drill this down to regular people speak because
the reality is that people care about things that they
do every day, and I think that when we are
talking about things that affect everybody and their lives, you

(52:41):
just have to connect with people. This is about connecting
with communities and connecting with people and not getting out
of politics, because when you get out of DC, you
start to hear real conversations farmers, you hear from people
who are trying to hold it down with two jobs.
We're trying to talk to people who are having hard
times paying six dollars for eggs. And so when you

(53:02):
were talking about political lingo, like what you're saying these
high falu language, don't know what I care about that,
don't know why.

Speaker 17 (53:08):
I understand that. So you just have to speak plain
language to people.

Speaker 30 (53:13):
But I think that's how you connect the dots for people,
which is bring it down to what matters to people
every day, their kids, their family, their houses, the taxes
that they're going to pay, how much they're going to
pay for gas and eggs, and that's what gets people
to understand. And when you layer on that the twenty
three votes that some counties are some people won by,
it really makes it plain. But one of the things

(53:34):
that stood out to me after this past election is
there were a couple of million I think it was
almost two million people who searched on Google how do I.

Speaker 17 (53:43):
Change my vote for president.

Speaker 9 (53:44):
That's a problem.

Speaker 30 (53:46):
That's a problem that people don't understand how civics and
how government works in this country. And it means that
it's also an opportunity on platforms like this and also
for the legal women voters to truly educate people about
the impact of their decisions, because there's a lot of
people hurting right now who voted for this president or
do who didn't vote for this president, and we're all
having to stuffer from the consequence.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Questions from the panel Randy, you first, I.

Speaker 14 (54:12):
Really I love what you're saying here about taking.

Speaker 26 (54:16):
The conversation, not dumbing it down, but make it where
everybody can relate to it. But I also wonder how
do you feel about asking why and listening? Some it
seems like we do a lot of talking to people,
but I often feel like we don't ask them.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
Questions like what matters to you?

Speaker 5 (54:36):
So they can find a reason, and we could find
a reason why voting all of a sudden should matter
to them, because sometimes voting seems like something and democracy
seems like something so separate from our daily lives. But
if we say what matters to you? I mean, we
talk about the eggs and things. But if you say,
you know, I see that you're your you know, wife

(54:58):
is pregnant.

Speaker 24 (54:59):
You know?

Speaker 28 (54:59):
Do you about medicaid?

Speaker 26 (55:00):
You know, since forty one percent of births come are
covered by Medicaid. Like it just where we set up
town halls again. I mean, I just remember the olden
days of town halls where we really got to hear
of people's opinions, and not just the same people we
hear from all of the time, but really getting a
cross section of citizens and listen to their voices, particularly

(55:21):
the people's voices that don't feel like they have a voice.

Speaker 4 (55:24):
I just wanted to know your thoughts about that.

Speaker 17 (55:28):
No, I think that's true.

Speaker 30 (55:30):
And one earlier when I was saying, you know, having
conversations with people and asking you know, why don't you
feel like you matter?

Speaker 17 (55:38):
Like that's a deep question.

Speaker 30 (55:39):
When I'm talking to young people in particular, it may
be because you know, when I go into court, the
judge doesn't care about me, and I'm like, well, do
you know that in this.

Speaker 17 (55:47):
State that you elect those people?

Speaker 30 (55:49):
So when you're talking about going before judge and either
it's for child support or whatever the case may be,
do you understand the power that you have to actually
elect the person who has the right to make decisions
over your life. And so I think it is a
conversation and I think that we do. I think you're
absolutely right that we have to listen to what people
are saying and what is going to motivate them to vot,

(56:10):
because it's going to be something different for each person.
But when we talk to one person, it may reach
multiple people because they may go back and talk to
their family members and talk about why it's important to vote.
But I think you're absolutely right asking more questions, being
intentional about listening. But also using that as an opportunity
to connect the dots with the power that they have
over their own lives to stop whatever problem that they

(56:31):
raise and why they feel like they don't matter.

Speaker 12 (56:43):
I think this I may be next. So since the
first of all, thank you, Thank you for everything that
you're doing. Thank you for being a leader who understands
how important it is to make sure that the unseen
and unheard, you know, have a platform and have a
place where they can go where folks actually care about them.

Speaker 10 (56:58):
For you to be successful, what does it look like?

Speaker 12 (57:02):
What does it take for your organization to be able
to hit the goals that you put forward for yourselves?

Speaker 30 (57:10):
Stuff a cultural I said what's up? As the first
and then second, I will say that you know, right
now I'm deep in prayer because I think a lot
about you know, we don't talk about this, it's not
always acceptable to talk about this in spaces, but we're
in spiritual warfare right now.

Speaker 17 (57:31):
This is a fight between light and darkness.

Speaker 30 (57:33):
And so when I think about what it takes for
me to be successful, just as a woman, as a
black woman leading a primarily white organization, it really means
leaning into my faith and my gut and my intuition
about what I think is the right thing to do.
And sometimes doing the right thing is hard because it

(57:56):
may put you in jeopardy. I know for myself it
puts me at risk in some ways. The risk risk
goes up. But the reality is is that if you're
living in your purpose, it's always.

Speaker 17 (58:07):
Going to come with risk. But you just have to
pray that that protection is coming based on how you
walk in your walk.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
All right, Joe, better up, peer up.

Speaker 28 (58:20):
Okay.

Speaker 13 (58:21):
I know that in the legal Women Voters Versus Trump case,
you've gotten a preliminary ruling for t r O to
hold off.

Speaker 28 (58:31):
Some of these terrible provisions in his executive order from
coming to fruition, at least for the time being.

Speaker 13 (58:39):
Talk about how you're using or if you're using things
that are very real, like what they're trying to do
with this Save Act, like what he's trying to do
with this executive order, to help explain to folks why
voting is important. Are are there ways that you can

(58:59):
you those things to show very very real examples of
why votes count and matter, and how this attempt at
undercutting the right to vote in so many ways could
be so devastating.

Speaker 30 (59:16):
So I think about the league's origin story and how
you know, the founder of our organization had a goal
of enfranchising half of the female population at the time,
which represented about ten million women in this country. And
when I fast forward to today, the Save Act is
one of the most, if not the most egregious.

Speaker 17 (59:40):
Pieces of This isn't even legislation. We have an EO
from a.

Speaker 30 (59:44):
President who's overreaching the bounds of his own authority, but
we have, you know, an attack on women. The Save
Act is an anti marriage bill, it's an anti female bill,
it's an anti trans bill. Because this bill will have
the impact of disenfranchising eighty percent of women who have
taken the surnames of their partner. And if we want

(01:00:06):
to put the math on that, lawyers don't really do math,
but I have some math theory for you. Anyway, sixty
nine million women would be impacted. Sixty nine million women
could show up in twenty twenty six and not be
able to vote. And if we think about that in
context of what this last election. How many people showed up,
but it's about one hundred and fifty six million people.
That's half the election. And so we have to think

(01:00:29):
about it that concretely that sixty nine million people, women
in particular, would be disenfranchised from voting. And when you
have worked for me, I'm not one hundred and five,
but the organization is one hundred and five years old.
When the organization, the work that we have been doing
for more than one hundred and five years has been
to enfranchise women, to make sure women understand, you know,

(01:00:50):
what's on their ballot, educated about who they're voting for, etc.
And now that works goes beyond women to anyone in
the country who wants to understand how to effectively cast
their ballot. And if we think about the reasons why
people change their name, not only marriage, if people are
changing their identity, but sometimes it's just for safety reasons.

(01:01:10):
You may have to change your name because of a
domestic dispute. So now because you have changed your name,
and that has been historically something that women have done
in this country and other countries alike, now you're being
penalized by a single effort by the President and Congress
with the Save Act that and they're just not being
honest about the real impact that it's going to have.

(01:01:32):
And this is not conjecture. We have in New Hampshire
where this is already passed, and just this past primary
women had issues voting. So this is not pretend, it's
not made up. This is real challenges that people are
going to play. That was just an example, a very
small example of how this will affect across the country.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Then well, keep up with a good fight. She'll appreciate
you joining us, and hopefully y'all will hit that eight
point five million. And wait, folks, up to what's happening
in this country.

Speaker 17 (01:02:08):
Thank you Royland.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
All right, folks, we come back from this break. We're
going to talk about this ruling out of Massachusetts where
a conservative appointed federal judge said a Trump administration's ban
on National Institutes of Health grants for people of color
in LGBTQ folks is the most blatant form of discrimination

(01:02:30):
he has witnessed from the federal bench in the last
four decades. Yes, we'll talk about that next right here.
Roland Mark unfiltered on the Black Stun Network.

Speaker 18 (01:02:44):
This week on a Balanced Life with Doctor Jackie. We're
talking faith, family, fatherhood, and the pathway to reentry. Most
of us, in some way, shape, form or fashion, have
had someone in our lives whether it was a grandfather,
of father, uncle, a brother, or cousin who have been
incarcerated or justice impacted. What does that look like in

(01:03:06):
rebuilding family and relationships? What does it look like for
us to be able to have substantive conversations, come to
the table, love on each other while at the same
time get it all out in the open so that
we can begin a new journey together.

Speaker 29 (01:03:22):
You know, the last thing you want is in the
midst of trying to piece your life back together, for
home to not be a comfortable place.

Speaker 18 (01:03:30):
That's all next on a Balance Life with Doctor Jackie
here on Black Star Network this.

Speaker 15 (01:03:36):
Week, on the other side of change, state of a
democratic part, What are the barriers preventing us from seeking
true liberation and including more voices in that process.

Speaker 16 (01:03:45):
election cycle comes around, now, all of a sudden, they
want to listen to us. Listen in quotation marks, Now
all of a sudden they want our labor and our contributions.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
And it's just like for me, I'm at.

Speaker 16 (01:04:02):
The point where it's like, no, we're not doing that.

Speaker 14 (01:04:04):
In only on the other side of change on the
Black side network.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Y'all, Look, fan Base is more than a platform.

Speaker 33 (01:04:15):
It's a movement to empowered creators, offering a unique opportunity
for everyday people to invest in black owned tech infrastructure
and help shape the future of social media. Investing in
technology is essential for creating long term wealth and influence
INDI digital age. The black community must not only consume tech,
we must own it.

Speaker 27 (01:04:34):
Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool
for funding black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly
through their community, through the jobs at.

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
This is Samplo Man, and this is.

Speaker 28 (01:04:53):
David Man, and you're watching roland Mark Unfiltered.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
How many times have I told y'all that Donald Trump,
jd Vance and this Maga Republican administration is absolutely racist,
that they are anti black. Now we know they anti LGBTQ,
we know that, but they anti black. Okay, And here
you of a federal judge in Massachusetts appointed by Republican

(01:05:34):
conservative Ronald Reagan. Now Reagan and white black people, we
all know that too. This federal judge and ruling in
a lawsuit regarding the canceling of grants in the National
Institutes of Health literally said that this is the most

(01:05:56):
blatant discrimination that he has seen in forty years on
the bench. Folks, this is crazy. This here is a
New York Times article and the ruling from the bench.
Judge William G. Young of the Federal District Court for
the District of Massachusetts blasted the Trump administration, ordering them

(01:06:21):
to restore much of the funding penning and appeal. Look
at this quote, y'all. This represents racial discrimination and discrimination
against America's LGBTQ community. That's what this is, he said
at the Look at this here. Judge Young, a Reagan

(01:06:44):
appointee with forty years of experience as a federal judge,
set the government's rationale for canceling some of the grants,
which also supported research into topics such as gender identity
and equity and all healthcare. He appeared to be rooted
in prejudice. He cited the administration's very public efforts to

(01:07:06):
eliminate any trace of diversity and equity initiatives from the
federal government, as well as its attax on transgender people. Now,
when you go through reading this article, he said that
over the course of his career, he had quote never
seen government racial discrimination like this, and felt duty bound

(01:07:28):
to state his conclusion about the government's intent quote, I
would be blind not to call it out. Folks. This
is crazy. It's unbelievable. Now, see this is not all.
That's y'all just saying this stuff.

Speaker 33 (01:07:46):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Now, when they had the trial, he was grilling Trump's lawyers, Okay,
hitting them up, blasting them about their decision making. Now
Andrew Nixon are spoken for the Department of Health and
Human Services say the agency stands by his decision to
end funding for research that prioritize ideological agendas. That's what

(01:08:10):
he calls it, ideological agendas. Look at this. Leading up
to the ruling on Monday, Judge Young repeatedly pressed for
details about the government's decision making and terminating the grants,
expressing deep skepticism that it had followed normal, dispassionate processes.

(01:08:31):
On several occasions, he expressed dismay that much of the
publicly available information about the cancelations had to be gleaned
from grant Watch, an independent database put together by a
small team of academics who worked to piece together the
extent of the Trump administrations cuts through their crowdsourcing the

(01:08:53):
way that y'all this is crazy. This is literally what
the judge said. Can you imagine can you imagine this
whole deal? I mean, and looking at this story, I mean,
Pro Publica had their breakdown right here. It says in
Monday's ruling, the judge determined that the directives that led

(01:09:16):
to the grant terminations were quote arbitrary and capricious and
say if they had quote no force and effect. Now,
this ruling only covers the grants at the plaintiffs identified,
but it was absolutely crazy, absolutely crazy what he said,

(01:09:39):
come back Republican story. He also noted the administration's targeting
of LGBTQ plus research.

Speaker 23 (01:09:45):
Quote it is.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Palpably clear these directives and the set of terminated grants
here also are designed to frustrate, to stop research that
may bear on the health. We are talking about health here,
the health of Americans, of our LGBTQ community. That's appalling, folks.

(01:10:08):
This is a Reagan appointed federal judge, pushed to side.
White House spokesman. This is how they responded. Quote, it
was appalling that a federal judge would use court proceedings
to express his political views and preferences, adding that quote
justice ceases to be administered when a judge clearly rules

(01:10:29):
on the basis of his political ideologies. Desi also definded
the administration's policies targeting diversity equity inclusion, calling it quote
a flaud and racist logic. He also said that the
administration was committed to quote restoring the gold standard of science,
which he claimed involved in a recognition of the biological
reality of the male and female sex. As the NIAH say,

(01:10:52):
it is shifting quote research spending to address our chronic
disease crisis instead, not to validate ideological activists. Joe, you're
the attorney. Can you recall a federal judge, a conservative
judge appointed by a Republican excoriating the government in such

(01:11:17):
stark racial language.

Speaker 28 (01:11:21):
No, is the short answer.

Speaker 13 (01:11:24):
You know, even some of Push one and Bush two's
appointees were more moderate, they were conservative.

Speaker 28 (01:11:31):
But this guy is He's a conservative. He's a conservatives conservative.

Speaker 13 (01:11:35):
It seems like, and to the extent that the government
wants to allege that he's stating his political ideology, Well
maybe so IF's political ideology is actually pro constitution. You know,
there are some conservatives out here who believe in the
Constitution an arbitrary and capricious is a big problem.

Speaker 9 (01:11:56):
Clearly.

Speaker 28 (01:11:56):
This is you know, Project twenty twenty five at its
and its spirit.

Speaker 13 (01:12:01):
So you just go and you just slash everything having
to do with DEI, having to do with LGBDQ plus
then incidentally of course next door to that having to
do with trans issues, etc. And you just get rid
of all of it just because and you just can't
do it that way, particularly at this level. And so

(01:12:22):
it ought to say something that a judge with this
political lending, how he's been who appointed him, and how
long he's been on the bench. It's not his first video,
He's been doing this long than a lot of these
guys an administration where puppies have been alive.

Speaker 28 (01:12:39):
So when he says something, it ought to resonate in
that if.

Speaker 13 (01:12:45):
Someone has any shred of believing in the Constitution, they
should know that they got it wrong here in terms
of how they did what they did.

Speaker 28 (01:12:55):
However, it's just like anything else.

Speaker 13 (01:12:57):
You don't even have to be in the law, you
don't even have to be dealing with legal issues and
constitution issues to understand what they're doing politically. They often
accuse someone, whether it's a judge, whether it's another politician,
or whether it certain people, whether it's Democrats, whether it's independence,
whoever it is.

Speaker 28 (01:13:15):
Of doing exactly what they're doing.

Speaker 13 (01:13:18):
So what they're doing is blaming the judge for being political,
when in fact, the judge is being constitutional and they're
the ones that are being political, which is why the
things that they're trying to cut are the things that
they're trying to cut. And so I'm glad that he
pointed that out. He pointed out also that this only
applies to the things that have been named. Maybe that means, hint, hint, hint,

(01:13:41):
you should bring a couple more of these other people,
other agencies as to other things that have been cut
as arbitrarily and as capriciously. But yeah, in answer to
your question, no, I haven't seen it like this, And
in another world, hopefully with someone it resonates to show,
to demonstrate that the administration has a problem with the

(01:14:02):
way they're doing what it is that they're doing, and
that this can be a template to allow us and
to remind us to keep going as it pertains to
the courts, because a lot of this is so latantly racist.

Speaker 28 (01:14:15):
So blatantly fill in the blank, etc. That we may
be able to come in understand it like.

Speaker 13 (01:14:23):
This, bring funding back in, make some things happen in
the meantime, hopefully when this election coming up, so that
some of these things can potentially change permanently and or
some of this ridiculous legislation doesn't get passed.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
Mustapha. Here's what's quite interesting here, and I'm just pulling
up give me one second. I want to pull this
up here. This is from the Federal Judiciary Center. This
judge eighty five years old, nominated about Ronald Reagan on
March eighth, nineteen eighty five. Couldn firm about the SA
in it April third, nineteen eighty five. First, well, that's

(01:15:03):
real quick. One month. He assumed senior statuts in July one,
twenty twenty one, undergrad Harvard University Law School, Harvard Law
US Army, Captain Law Clerk for Supreme Court of Massachusetts,
Private Practice, Special Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts, Chief Counsel

(01:15:25):
for the Governor of Massachusetts, Associate Justice the Massachusetts Superior Court.
And he's lectured at Boston College Law School, Boston University
Law School, and Harvard Law School. We talked a lot
on this show about how judges were so important and
a lot of people I don't want to hear about

(01:15:49):
no Biden Harris judges. I hope all these simple simon
yahoos now understand with all of these judges ruling against
Trump according to the law, I hope they now understand
why federal judges matter. A lot of these judges ruling

(01:16:12):
against Trump are appointed by Republican presidents, even some of
Trump's own appointees, not that fool judge Cannon in Florida
ruling against him on the rule of law. And what
these judges are saying is, I don't give a damn

(01:16:32):
if you're maga. I don't give a damn if you
believe in a theocracy in this country. You are to
abide not by your Bible, not by Project twenty twenty five,
not by the Heritage Foundation, not by the Federal Society,
but by the United States Constitution.

Speaker 10 (01:16:55):
And that's exactly what it should be.

Speaker 12 (01:16:58):
And you can always tell who's real right judges that
are actually living up to the level of the law,
but also bringing into their analysis what are the public
health impacts?

Speaker 25 (01:17:10):
Right?

Speaker 12 (01:17:10):
So when you see these other judges who you know,
are not doing the right thing. They often don't want
to talk about the public health impacts, right, They don't
want to talk about the public health impacts of the
LGBTQIA community. They definitely don't want to talk about the
health impacts that are going on in relationship to black communities.

Speaker 10 (01:17:28):
And I'm sure that this judge took that into consideration.

Speaker 12 (01:17:31):
He understood, based upon the folks that he talked to,
that we die at twice the rate from cardiovascular disease.
So if you're a real judge, you're going to make
sure that you're pulling that information in or that we
have the highest death rates from cancer, whether it is prostate,
cob rectal, or breast cancer. Black folks are dying from
that higher than anyone else inside of our country. So

(01:17:53):
as you're interpreting the law, you're looking at these grants
that are out there, then you've got to take that
into consideration. Are you intentionally trying to kill these people
by taking away the research, by taking away the training,
by taking away the dollars that are necessary, whether it
is in colleges and universities, or in community organizations, or
whoever it might be. He probably took into consideration also

(01:18:15):
that the infant mortality rate is two times for our communities,
twice as likely our babies are to die, or mom's
mortalities three to four times higher, or for both the
LGBT community and the Black community as a whole, forty
two percent of the new cases that are out there
are caught up into that or diabetes, with sixty percent
more likely to have that and then leads to other

(01:18:37):
types of diseases. So a good judge is taking all
this information and then asking the question to the folks
who are trying to take these things away, how does
this help, How does this actually help them move the
needle in a positive way, and how does it line
up with the law?

Speaker 1 (01:18:57):
Randy, I am reading the political story here, the judge
says mid Pat to Anthony, I'm hesitant to draw this conclusion,
but I have an unflinching obligation to droid that this
represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America's LGBT community. That's

(01:19:21):
what this is. I would be blind not to call
it out. My duty is to call it out. Go
down further in the story. This is crazy, He says,
you are bearing down on people of color because of
your color. The Constitution will not permit that. Have we

(01:19:41):
fallen so low?

Speaker 23 (01:19:42):
Have we no shame?

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Then?

Speaker 7 (01:19:47):
Then?

Speaker 1 (01:19:48):
Young said, the administration made virtually no effort to push
back on claims that the cuts were discriminatory. We're talking
about health here, the health of Americans of our LGBT community.
That's a pauling. I check this out, Department of Justice,
which defended it. Is the political story which defendant NIH

(01:20:09):
determinations aligned with congressional mandates to improve research quote. Research
programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little
identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the
health of many Americans. Many such studies ignore, rather than
seriously examine biological realities. It is an improvement to eliminate these.

(01:20:34):
DJ lawyer Thomas Ports Junior said during the hearing, Young
press the DJ ful explanation. Where's the support for that?

Speaker 23 (01:20:43):
I'm asking you to just explain to me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
Often used to support unlawful discrimination. I see no evidence
of that. Indeed, a federal judge, a conservative judge appointed
by a hardcore Republican Ronald Reagan, issues this type of

(01:21:08):
ruly and you know who's real quiet, Randy? All them Negroes,
who was skinning and grinning at the White House. I
don't hear nothing from Pastor Darryl Scott. Oh, he was
tweeting yesterday about how they they should bomb MSNBC and CNN.

(01:21:30):
No tweeted his ass, blashing him. Oh, then it was
sitting here. I ain't heard nothing from Mikayla Montgomery, little
loud mouth out of Atlanta, who was with Trump at
Chick fil A with Angela statean King.

Speaker 23 (01:21:44):
She ain't said nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:21:45):
She was on Willie Dee's podcast.

Speaker 23 (01:21:48):
She ain't talked about this here.

Speaker 34 (01:21:50):
Where you at, Joseph Pinon, where you at, King Rando,
where you at at Little elf uh Terms Williams, Where
y'all at, where you at, Davis Harris Jr.

Speaker 23 (01:22:08):
It's amazing how these happy go.

Speaker 1 (01:22:10):
Look at Negroes, where you're at, Paris Dinard, where you're at, Oh,
where a little child with the Florida and them Sharis Lane?

Speaker 23 (01:22:20):
Where you at? It's amazing. See they get mad. I
call him the help, because that's all y'all are. Where
y'r ass at Tiger Woods. You rolled up in the
black history with reception drape and your Congressional medal of honor.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
I'm sorry your president, your meddle of freedom, But y'all
don't say nothing about the racism coming from these folks. Oh,
I know what it is.

Speaker 23 (01:22:49):
Where you at, Alvida King, where you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
At Byron Donald's, where you at, Tim Scott, where a
Burgess owens where you're at, and one from Texas the
comp Wesley Hunt, where.

Speaker 23 (01:23:09):
You at, where y'all at. It's amazing how silent they are.
They don't say nothing about.

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
All of the racial discriminatory stuff that goes down.

Speaker 23 (01:23:24):
Where you at, Bruce Levelle, where you're at.

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
That's why I call y'all to help. They only call
y'all to help them look diverse. Y'all are the help,
pure and simple.

Speaker 9 (01:23:43):
Randy, go ahead, They're the absolute help.

Speaker 5 (01:23:46):
And they have no room in this conversation because this
is it's so refreshing to see integrity, because we haven't
seen that lately.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
And I appreciate that.

Speaker 9 (01:23:55):
The judge said, my duty, My duty.

Speaker 4 (01:24:00):
Is to call it out.

Speaker 5 (01:24:01):
Your duty is not like the people you just listed
to kiss butt, to shuck.

Speaker 4 (01:24:06):
And jive to gain favor.

Speaker 9 (01:24:09):
That's not the duty.

Speaker 5 (01:24:10):
The duty is to serve the Constitution of the United
States of America. And that's what that judge did, and
he recognizes that what they are doing, what they are
trying to do, attempting to do these executive orders is
honestly orders to kill us, honestly orders to kill us.
Because it wasn't until recently that black people willingly were

(01:24:35):
able to participate in studies that they did at the NIH.
We weren't even considered when they came out with statistics
or came out with health recommendations. It wasn't about us.
They didn't care about us. They weren't looking at diseases
like sick of cell anemia that affects us to a
higher rate. Just like brother Mustapha just said, they weren't

(01:24:57):
talking about the health disparities when we have children.

Speaker 4 (01:25:01):
It wasn't anything that was considered. And so that's what
they want to go back to that.

Speaker 5 (01:25:05):
The only people's health that are considered and studied and
paid attention to again are white, male and heterosexual, and
those are the people they care about. But it is
so refreshing to see someone who is basing his decisions
and has some integrity and basing his decisions on how

(01:25:27):
the Constitution bids.

Speaker 4 (01:25:29):
Him to and not on trying to please a want
to be dictator.

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
All right, folks, let's talk about a true legend in
American history, Robert Small. Soo many black folks don't even
know about Robert Smalls. He of course was a South
Carolina the legislator. But more importantly, this man commandeered a ship,
took it over, and led him and others to freedom.
Whether the new book out is called Defiant, the Story

(01:25:58):
of Robert Small's an illustrated book. Some call it a
graphic novel, but again, slavery to me was the most
graphic things. I don't necessarily think that this is as
graphic and as is and so and again as opposed
to a traditional book. There are great books on Robert Small.
This is all illustrated. Joining us right now is the

(01:26:19):
illustrateur of the book. And glad to have him join
us right now. Rob, how you doing?

Speaker 9 (01:26:28):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
Why don't you pick Robert Small's as the as the
as the subject.

Speaker 9 (01:26:36):
Well, you know, there's so many stories to just get
lost in history. You know that it wasn't until recently
that we found out about, you know, the twelve years
of Slave story. And Robert Smalls is one of these things.
A friend of mine who worked at legioname and he
told me about and as he told me about it,
I consider myself a pretty well read guy. I did

(01:26:56):
not know his story, so I had to kind of
go through. Fortunately I got a lot of research.

Speaker 12 (01:27:03):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:27:03):
Doctor Miyasha Eatman at Harvard helped me out with a
lot of the context. And Michael Bulwer Moore was great
great grandson of Robert Small's, helped me out with some
of the details.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
So why didn't you first learn about them?

Speaker 23 (01:27:19):
Man?

Speaker 9 (01:27:19):
I tell you it was on this project. There was
a meme that somebody had sent in to Legion m
and it said, man, we make all these movies about
all these other people, but here's a guy from history
that we've made no movies about. And why is that?
It's such a huge tragedy. And I agree. I think
that every kid in high school should be wearing a

(01:27:40):
Robert Smalls T shirt. Hopefully we'll fix that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:45):
Again. I mean when you look at when you look
at his story, I mean even after I mean just
I mean, first of all, it's crazy there's not been
a movie about Roberts Walls.

Speaker 9 (01:27:57):
Exactly. We make movies about everything, you know, I mean myself.
I mean I've written a black princess, you know, Captain America,
Black Captain America and no, you know, actual genuine uh
uh you know heroes from from history.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
So uh And I want to stop you right there
because you just use the keyword you said heroes. And
I think part of the problem here is that. And
I remember when Snoop Dogg and I went at it
when the Roots remake took place and he was complaining
about these slave movies. I saw this clip the other
day and I blasted that full uh some some uh
after some black Canadian sister was on Adam Carolla's podcast

(01:28:37):
and she was bitching and my own but they do
is make slave movies. When Will Smith's movie came out, Emancipation,
I said, the problem that black folks are have they
keep looking at these as slave movies, but they're not
looking at these folks as black super hero roles. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:29:03):
See that's that's that's where I started with these things,
is that the My problem is you always see the
same movie. You know, it's always okay, there's a slave,
he's uh, you know, he's there for whatever, you know,
good or you know, either he was free before or
he wasn't he escapes. In the entire movie is about
the escape, and then in the end, oh boy, he's free.

(01:29:25):
And that's the end of the movie. And Robert Small's
his move, his start, his story begins begins with his freedom.
He started a bunch of businesses. He because of the
bounty on the weapons that were on the Planter, the
ship that he commandeered. He became wealthy. He bought the
house that he was enslaved in. He ran for Congress

(01:29:45):
successfully five times. I made Jim crow in attempts to uh,
to frame him for bribery.

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (01:29:51):
And what I think is most heroic, you know, most
deserving of a superhero status, is that he died of
old age because there was a bounty on his head
the entire time. Now, think about this, that here's a
guy who's his story, if it had gotten out at
the time, would have been truly inspirational to people. Think
about what happened during the Haitian Rebellion, right, They dragged

(01:30:15):
people through the streets, through black neighborhoods to warn them
that if they ever did anything like this, this is
what would happen to them. And here's a guy who
not only escapes, but he meets Lincoln. He convinces Lincoln
to allow black people to fight for the Union, which
is you know, downstream from what you see in the
movie Glory. And you know, he fights seventeen battles. He's

(01:30:37):
an amazing, amazing guy. This story is inspirational whether he's white, black,
or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
The quote here says, my race needs no special defense,
for the past history of them in this country proves
them to be equal of any people anywhere. All they
need is an equal chance in the battle of life.

Speaker 9 (01:30:59):
Absolutely absolutely, I mean, think about it. This guy, among
other things, what he did was he disguised himself as
the captain, mirrored the captain's mannerisms, got past all military checkpoints,
and then surrendered the ship to the army because he
outsmarted the entire Confederate navy. And uh, you know, so bravely.

(01:31:20):
They lined the ship with gunpowder so that in case
things went wrong, they were going to blow up the ship.
You know, all of these things, and that was basically
the case that he made to to link it. So
I look at this as a story that we absolutely
have to tell that kids need to hear it, Kids
need to be inspired by it. You know that that
here's a guy froment who came from the lowest to

(01:31:41):
the low and and went to the highest, you know,
highest points of government.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:31:46):
It's it's it's it's it's a shame that we don't
know him. More about him right now?

Speaker 1 (01:31:52):
I love this here uh this uh he uh participated
in one of America's first mass boy consultiedicated public transportation
and street cars in Philadelphia were integrated in eighteen sixty seven.
And again when you're serving the state legislature, serving the
US Congress, I mean did amazing work, and of course

(01:32:15):
also tried to lead anti lead an anti discrimination amendment
to the US Army. Come on, go to my hipad.
This is history dot House, dot gov, and it lays
out all of these different things. Look at this. He
argued against transferring federal troops stationed in South Carolina, warning
that without the military's presence, private red shirt militias, all

(01:32:38):
white pair of militaries who backed the Democratic Party's effort
to win control of the state, we make war on
both the state government and the states free people. That
is exactly what happened when the Compromise of eighteen seventy seven,
and that's what as a result of that compromise, which
also reinstated Jim.

Speaker 9 (01:32:56):
Crow Yep, yep. And one thing that I love about
it is that he drafted the legislation that gave us
public schools. That he was it was so important to
him that he couldn't read. He was very well spoken
guy was basically raised as a bias slave master, is
kind of a rich white boy, and so he was

(01:33:19):
very well spoken. P. D. Barnamadden giving speeches everywhere, and
so when he was free, he had two tutors, one
in the morning, one at night to teach him how
to read. So when he got to Congress, one of
the first things he did was public schools. And it's
a shame to me that in public schools we don't
teach Robert Small's it's a tragedy.

Speaker 1 (01:33:39):
Question, Ron Panell, Joe your first.

Speaker 13 (01:33:44):
This is a really interesting project, and I wonder what
you would see as the takeaway the lesson.

Speaker 28 (01:33:53):
Is there some fifteen thousand foot view that you would.

Speaker 13 (01:33:58):
In addition to of course the obvious the idea you
hadn't even known about this, and you consider yourself learning
and looking at those things that this this undiscovered story
of this man.

Speaker 28 (01:34:09):
You know, that's a big thing as well.

Speaker 13 (01:34:11):
But but what is the piece that you'd like people
to take out of the story that they can turn
around and apply in their own lives and be encouraged
and inspired.

Speaker 9 (01:34:21):
Yes, two things. Actually. One is that here was a
man who he's never in his brain was he a
slave in my mind, that he he had a vision
of what of what he thought the world should be,
and he made the world kind of conform to his vision.
One of the reasons why he stole the Planner on

(01:34:43):
the night that he did was that he was afraid
that his son was going to get sold by his
wife's owner. That he was very bad with money, and
he had just had this child, and black boys, you know,
on the market would have bailed him out of a
lot of his uh uh financial jams. So here was
a guy willing to do whatever it took to make

(01:35:03):
the world a better place for his family. So that's one.
The second is we have to tell our own stories.
You know that this story there's a reason why you
don't hear it. I mean, you know, you guys have
been talking about it. There is a conflution, you know,
a a an effort right now, Pete texf is renaming
you know all kinds of uh you know, bases and

(01:35:23):
military shifts and uh, you know it's all but being
uh erased, I think what's going on in Florida. You know,
I'm not expected to do any book signings there anytime soon.
Uh but uh, but you know, there is an attempt
to stop telling our history, and we have to find
a way to tell it. See. Also, I have two sons,

(01:35:46):
and you know, if I gave them a book on history,
who knows what would happen to it? But a comic book,
a graphic novel. I think that, you know, you've got
to meet people where they where they are, and I
think this is a great way to tell it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:00):
Now, how are your son.

Speaker 9 (01:36:03):
Now? They're now, they're all now they're thirty two and
uh and twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (01:36:08):
But uh see you you see they're real simple. You
want to eat, you want to read. I would look,
it would have been like, hey, you gotta take your pick.
You want to be clothed and fed what you want
to do? Right? I understand, h I'm a hardcore reader.
I remember. Look, my niece, my oldest niece, Atlantis, she

(01:36:30):
not worked for me. She came to one man and
me one day She's like, uncle Roro can I watched TV.
I shot her look she went read a book. I said,
that's a good choice.

Speaker 9 (01:36:42):
They're good kids. My oldest my oldest kid was an
ivy league. He went to the heavy league, and my
little kid played Division one lacrosse. Uh so I want
to read. But when they were little, forget about bringing
a book into their bedrooms. It would uh would not
get ready.

Speaker 1 (01:37:01):
I'll tell you what. Thank God, this is the case.
And a lot of black people out there, y'all probably
have this here. Matter of fact, I'm gonna pull this
up here and well, let me ask you that you
have this, and actually pull up my guests and pull
up my three panelists. I want to know that they
all have this here. Did y'all have ebony magazines? Brown

(01:37:25):
leather bound editions of the history of Black America? So
that were like four of them? I think we only
had three of them, like you had to buy each one.
You had to buy each one, and we had That's
why for me, with the story of Robert Smalls, we

(01:37:46):
had three of them. And so I remember being five six,
seven eight going through that. So part of the reason
why I am the way and when it comes to history,
is because being able to have those books in the
and just reading them and seeing the pictures at that
early of an age impacted in terms of sort of

(01:38:06):
how I see things today. So when I say reading
is fundamental, they're absolutely right, Mustafa.

Speaker 10 (01:38:14):
Yeah, well, thank you, brother.

Speaker 12 (01:38:15):
And you know, we do live right now in a
society that doesn't like to read our big percentage of it.
So anytime we can create bridges to deeper, you know,
points of information, I think that that's important, and I
think graphic novels play that role along with other types
of things to get people to actually read more. I'm

(01:38:37):
curious about the illustrations that you have. How did you
come up with those and how do those help to bring,
you know, sort of pull people in to the story.

Speaker 9 (01:38:49):
Yes, well, yeah, that's great question because the artists that
we have are are just amazing. The cover is by
Nicholas draper Ivy, who draws Status Shock. The interiors are
John Damien Hill, who draws up Black Panther. The covers
interior covers Ray Anthony Height, who also does uh, you know,

(01:39:13):
a black Panther. It's beautiful, It's gorgeous. It's published by
Sebastian Jones and Stranger Comics, a black independent comic book maker.
So yeah, we we had an embarrassment of riches, which
is everybody that I asked, all the great comic book artists,
black comic book artists that I asked, said yes.

Speaker 1 (01:39:34):
So it was.

Speaker 9 (01:39:36):
The artwork that you'll see in it is just amazing.
The other thing we were trying to do with it
is do a movie on paper, you know, make a
comic book graphic novel that that if you read through it,
you would have a good sense of what the movie was,
and you would have a good sense too that it
wasn't gonna be your average every day you know slave narrative.

Speaker 5 (01:39:57):
Randy gonna let you hear often thrown away, thrown around.
And I also see it on T shirts and it
says we are not our ancestors. How do you feel
about that slogan?

Speaker 9 (01:40:09):
See, that's when people don't know, right, It's like it's
like there are heroic ancestors. I think we're kind of
you know, our history has been whitewatch at the point
where we don't really have a connection to our history,
and uh, you know, there were all these stories would
normally get passed down verbally. Uh, you know, we've we

(01:40:30):
you know, we write it on quilts, we sing songs
about our history and that. Uh, and that's pretty much gone,
you know in the information age, Well, the one piece
of information that doesn't get carried over is our history.
Most people don't know their grandfather's first name. So you know,
I mean, that's where we are. And uh, you know,
we need to fix it ourselves because I don't think

(01:40:51):
anybody else is going to come to our rescue.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
And just just so folks understand, uh this literally I'm
on here, I'm on Amazon. Here's how crazy this is?
So good to my iPad A. If you want to
buy the four volume box set of Ebudence Pictorial History
of Black America, use all fours nine hundred and forty bucks.

(01:41:17):
I mean, but I'm telling you these books were the
staple in many black households, and absolutely Robert Smalls his
story was a part of that. And so folks, if
y'all want to check out this illustrated book, you definitely
want to get it. So again, the book is called
Pull It Up Defiant the Story of Robert Smalls. It

(01:41:42):
is again his story is an amazing story. It is
one that we also don't talk about and author Rob Edwards,
we really appreciate it. Man, Thank you so very much.
And what did the book sales for record?

Speaker 20 (01:41:55):
For?

Speaker 9 (01:41:55):
First of all, get the book, yes, yes, on Amazon, Uh,
basically wherever books are sold. We're sold out at Barnes
and Noble. But you can also get it on the
Legion M website, and you can get it at the
Stranger Stranger Comics website.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
So the Legion M website, what is that so you
can or direct from them? So some people are boycott
on Amazon. So what's the Legion M website.

Speaker 9 (01:42:20):
Uh, legion M dot com. That's uh, that's the place
that we're hoping will make the movie. And I would
go to Amazon. We are you know, there's two versions.
There's a comic book that we were releasing it as
a uh issues of comic book, and then there's a
graphic novel. So make sure you go to the graphic
novel page. We are a best seller and two categories

(01:42:42):
on that. We were the number one best Uh, we
were the top new graphic novel and so so that's great.
We sold out everywhere and we are in a reprint,
but it will be available again in about a week.

Speaker 1 (01:42:57):
So so a question a half for you. All right,
so you have this as a book and a graphic novel.
What's the difference.

Speaker 9 (01:43:06):
There's a comic book, there's a couple of comic books,
the graphic this is basically four graphic novels.

Speaker 4 (01:43:14):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:43:14):
So yeah, when you get to a page like that,
that's the beginning of a new uh, the new chapters
or all individual comic books. Uh so this is all
in one. Yes, this is all in one.

Speaker 1 (01:43:28):
Hey, got it? So it's the grat Okay, got it? Okay, Okay,
that's what I was. Okay, got it?

Speaker 9 (01:43:33):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:43:34):
All right then, well, folks check it out. It's called Defiant,
The Story of Robert Smalls. And keep us a breast
about that book.

Speaker 9 (01:43:43):
Oh you got it? You got it?

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
And hope, keep us a breast about to make you
of a movie.

Speaker 9 (01:43:52):
We'll do a lot, thanks, folks.

Speaker 1 (01:43:55):
Going to a quick break, we come back. We're going
to talk about our news shot Blackstart work products. Don't
want to miss it. That's text.

Speaker 4 (01:44:08):
This week on a Balance Life with Doctor Jackie.

Speaker 18 (01:44:11):
We're talking faith, family and fatherhood from Rebellion to rebuilding.
Each of us has different things in our toolkit that
we need to look at to determine how to establish
a way forward. I know going forward is not easy,
and most of you like some people don't like change.
But as we talk about it, we grow together, we
love together, we live together, and we laugh together. It

(01:44:33):
gives us an opportunity to discover how to set the
pace for what comes next. For healthy, happy, and whole life, there.

Speaker 35 (01:44:42):
Has to be persistency in their lives that show that
you care for them to know that you're missing you,
and that that builds trust. And then once you build
the trust, they'll begin to open up because you have
become their safe place that they have been See.

Speaker 18 (01:44:57):
That's all this week on a Balance Life, Doctor Jacksie
Here on black Star Network.

Speaker 9 (01:45:04):
I'm Russell L.

Speaker 28 (01:45:05):
Honoree lieutender Gerald, United States.

Speaker 9 (01:45:07):
Sorrow retired, and you're watching Roland Martin.

Speaker 28 (01:45:10):
I'm felt.

Speaker 1 (01:45:28):
All right, folks. Your newest productized shop Blackstar Network dot
com site, UH is in Booze. That's right. It's a
product that llows you to mix UH all natural cocktails,
all that good stuff. Joining us is Ashley Evans. She's
the bold woman behind in booze. They're all natural cocktail

(01:45:49):
and mocktails infused kids that are shaking up drinks in
a healthy way. All right, So break us down, Ashley,
what the heck is in booze?

Speaker 24 (01:45:58):
So it's a line of control and kits. Or you
can use it for mocktails. Put a little pouch of
dehydrated fruits and herbs and then you just put it
in a mason jar and then you let it sit
for about three days with alcohol one day if you
put water in there, and then you get a posto
and mocktail from it. If you want to mix it,
listen to the mixture afterwards. But it's all natural. We
dehydrate everything in the house and it's just it's very

(01:46:19):
clean and easy to drink.

Speaker 1 (01:46:21):
So so you mix this with alcohol, do you mix
it with water?

Speaker 23 (01:46:26):
What do you mix it with?

Speaker 24 (01:46:29):
Yeah, so normally we say mix it with alcohol, but yes,
of course you can mix it with water and make
mocktails as well. So you want to do about two
or three cups of alcohol with it and let it
sit for free days and it'll rehydrate all the fruit
in there and it'll add the flavor for you. So
it's just all natural. Most of the immersiul you're free.
So it's just a really easy way to have nice
and light cocktails at home that are bar style cap

(01:46:50):
shop style.

Speaker 1 (01:46:51):
Yeah, and so how'd you come up with this? Where
did this start?

Speaker 9 (01:46:59):
So?

Speaker 24 (01:46:59):
I twenty eighteen. I just was looking for an easier
way to have good cotails at home, and I noticed
when I would make videos. And I was a food
writer before this, so when I would make videos, people
couldn't find the ingredients that they were looking for. So
then I just kind of dehydrating everything in sight and
then putting it in little pouches and it just induced
just kind of came there. I came up with the
word and then I was like, oh, what are we

(01:47:20):
doing with putting things in booths? So that's just where
the words came from, and then I just ran with it.
So we started with free flavors and now we have
over forty. So it's just one of those things that
keeps growing and growing over time.

Speaker 1 (01:47:33):
Question from the panel, Let's see who who would I
say the biggest drinker on this panel?

Speaker 23 (01:47:39):
That would be Randing. I knew it.

Speaker 5 (01:47:45):
I knew you were going to come to me, and
you're right because I want to know where you get
these because I'm ready and are there? Would they be
considered healthier than when you buy mixes from you know,
the nick the bar mixes.

Speaker 24 (01:47:58):
They have, Yes, so we do have a website, it's
in loews dot com. And then yes, they are much
healthier because there's just sliced fruit and we don't add
any sugars or anything like that, so there's much healthier.
It's very straightforward. What you see is what you get.
There's not any additives, and we have all the flavors
on our website and you can also order off of

(01:48:19):
the ft as well, so we have quite a few
different options. We also have garnishes, catail faults, and then
there's also sugar Field show.

Speaker 1 (01:48:27):
All right then, Joe.

Speaker 13 (01:48:32):
So tell us about the next frontier. What do you
guys see yourselves doing next? A very innovative, interesting product,
and I think it's great that mocktails.

Speaker 28 (01:48:41):
Are available as well. What would you think your next
frontier might be?

Speaker 24 (01:48:48):
So we're in a lot of boutiques and flower stores,
but I really think that there's a whole on tap
market with the bars and restaurants. We have a really
great product that also could be used behind the bar
works and things like that too. So we're trying to
look at like a larger scale and so like larger
top chill and fusion kits and just different ways to
help people have great, kind of healthier drinks in restaurants.

Speaker 1 (01:49:10):
Also we'll stop h.

Speaker 10 (01:49:16):
Yeah, I'm out my depth on this one.

Speaker 12 (01:49:17):
I'm the mocktail person, but I'm curious what of flavors
are the most popular?

Speaker 10 (01:49:24):
What does seems that sell out the most?

Speaker 24 (01:49:29):
So I would say for sure year round, very laven
and lemonade has been a great one that we love
to sell, spicy margarita that was featured by Oprah in
twenty twenty, so that was a big one. That's always
the top feller for us. And we love the buck
Berry smash too, and all these are also great as mackchoo.
So some pocktoos and matchails. You're really having an elevated drink.

Speaker 1 (01:49:50):
When first of all, when did you start this and
how sales been going since you launched.

Speaker 24 (01:49:59):
To se in twenty eighteen, and once covid hit, I
was really really nervous, to be honest, and with the
whole drinking at home, it really kind of helped us
kind of skyrocket. But it was one of those things
where it's like what am I doing? You know, It's
one of those things where it's like it's a blessing
in the curse at the same time. So from twenty
twenty one, we've been really scaling quick pretty quickly. We

(01:50:20):
are handmade, though we do have some limitations, but we're
just really working with it and just having so much fun.
And that's the biggest thing obviously right now. With the
economy how it is, there's always going to be some
hurdles that we have to get some packaging or just
even with produce and things like that, but we're just
kind of hitting those barriers whenever we get to them
and kind of work through it. But it's been great.

Speaker 1 (01:50:40):
All right then, folks, if you all want to Troy
out in Booze, go to So I'm looking do I have?
I don't have the I do? He's a product right here,
So hold on, let me just go hand grant this show,
all right, you'll see here let me read is here.
So all right, we got in bull whose alcohol infusion kit.

(01:51:02):
I don't drink, so it's gonna be the mocktail. So
we've got Miami Vice strawberry coconut infusion. It says, each
infusion makes eight to ten cocktails. We've got citrus grove margarita,
an orange twist on our classic margarita. So that's when
right here we got here, Randy getting so excited me

(01:51:23):
reading this. Here we got red wine sangria. Okay, that's
we got this one right here. I'm telling y'all, I
know Randy was like, yo, can you slide them to
the crib? It says, it says, an old fashioned, old
fashioned We got that right there. We got a BlackBerry smash,
lemon and BlackBerry paired with a hint of sweetness, a

(01:51:44):
refreshing flavor, all right. And then the final one is
a berry lavender lemonade triple berry infusion with a lemony
lavender kick. And so those are the six different in
booze is they have there, So Ashley, great job. We
appreciate it, folks, y'all Go to shop Blackstar network dot

(01:52:07):
com to check out the in booze products. Go to
shop Blackstart network dot com Control room. Come on with
the graphic shop, can y'all come on? Thank you, come
on faster, thank you. Shop Blackstar Network dot com. You
can check out of the in booze products. You can
get the other products. Give me a shot of the
other products that we have we have folks on the
on the show. Give me a shot of the other products.

(01:52:29):
Get the shot of we shoot, we're supposed to have,
like you know, a tight shot of the product y'all
over there. That's too wide, y'all can't see nothing over there.
So anyway, let's get that fixed for the next segment.
So again, we got a number of black owned products
on shop Blackstart network dot com. Please check it out, Ashley.
We appreciate it. Thanks you a lot.

Speaker 24 (01:52:48):
Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:52:50):
Right, folks, So let me thank Joe, Mustafa and Randy
for being on today's show. Thank you so very much.
I appreciate y'all being here. Folks. Don't forget lots of
we want you to focus on. First of all, do
we have the graphic on Saturday? All right? We sold
the show up. We're gonna be Saturday. We're gonna live broadcast, y'all.
Virginia Democrats have their Blue Commonwealth Gala. We're gonna be

(01:53:13):
live there. Oh my god, that graphic is way too busy.
We're gonna have to change that. That's a lot of
stuff on that. That's wait, that's way too much, way
too much. But we're gonna be live on Saturday, June
twenty first again for the Blue Coming Wealth Gala, broadcasting
from there. Lots of top Democrats are gonna be there
from across the country and show Yo will only catch

(01:53:35):
the live broadcast right here on the Black Star Network.
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(01:54:18):
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(01:55:04):
fan banks. I think that is it. I will be benefit.
Hold on, I got one more.

Speaker 9 (01:55:11):
I'm going to be.

Speaker 1 (01:55:14):
So Thursday. We are not going to be live on Thursday.
It is juneteenth. I am going to be speaking in Charleston,
South Carolina. I will will we have that speech live
right here on Roland Mark unfiltered during that time. So
that's why we're not having a show. So I will
be giving the June teens speech in Charleston, now South Carolina, Charleston,

(01:55:37):
I'm sorry, West Virginia. I'll be in Charleston, West Virginia
on on Thursday, June nineteenth. I'm in Saint Louis on
June twentieth. I have that graphic for you tomorrow. So
if y'all are in Charleston, West Virginia, tell your friends
folks to come on out. I'm going to be pulling

(01:55:57):
it up here. I'm gonna be at the T. D.
Austin Colisseum Little Theater. It's five point thirty to seven
free registration again go to again fireside check Charleston Coliseum
Little Theater. I ask Tanya on my team. It says
free registration, but the graphic don't tell you how to register, folks.

(01:56:18):
Y'all got to have stuff on point please, So we
will tell y'all tomorrow how you can actually register for
this and look forward to see y'all in Charleston, West
Virginia on Thursday and in Saint Louis with the jew
Lee Project on Friday, Folks that said I'll see you
all tomorrow right here, rolling markin unfiltered on the Black
Study Network. That's not a little Truth Talks

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}NAACP Sues Musk’s xAI, Emanuel 9 Remembered, League’s Unite & Rise, InBooze Spotlight