Keep on riding with us as we continue to broadcast the balance and defend the discourse from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios.
Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Ramsy's job. He is Rams's jah, I am q Ward. You are tuned in the Civic Cipher and.
We want you to stay tuned because we got more to talk to you about. On the show, we make a case for allyship. That is kind of the point of the show, and for some people that is a much further.
Journey than it is for others. We on the show at least.
Profess to be allies to people who don't look like us when they need us, and we believe that our listenership are people who sometimes don't look like us but also feel kind of a similar spirit. And so we're going to revisit a conversation that we had last week that will grant you an even wider aperture toward that end. So that and much more to stick around for. But first and foremost, we are going to discuss a becoming a better ally ba BA and today's bibby was sponsored
by Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for the free voter while from fotmglobal dot com just for black businesses and allied businesses as well as make an impact with your spending. Again, that's fotmglobal dot com. Quill you want to take it?
Sure? This is from the Daily? Is that Koser cost side? Maybe I couldn't tell you.
Pennsylvania's Central Bucks School District was one of the places where Moms for Liberty lost big in the twenty twenty three elections, with the right wing school board majority swept out and replaced with Democrats. On Monday night, Karen Smith, who had been serving on the board in a Democratic minority prior to this election, was sworn in as school board president, part of the wave of change from the anti LGBTQ oh book banning board voted out in November.
She made a powerful symbolic choice when it came to what book she'd be sworn in on or another religious book, but a stack of frequently banned books. Nice At the top of Smith's pile of books was Ellie Weisel's Holocaust survival memoir Knight, a choice with particular local residents. In January, after the board band staff from advocating on partisan, political or social policy issues, a Central Bucks librarian was told to remove the Wisel quote. I swore never to be silent.
Whenever and wherever human beings endorse suffering and humiliation, we must always take side. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented. The other books Smith chose or Tony Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Donna Gefferts, Lily and Duncan, which has a transgender main character, George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue and Memoir about Growing Up Black and LGBTQ, Mike Curedo's graphic novel Flamer, and Susan Cochland's Beyond Magenta.
Nice That is Allyship if I ever saw it, shout out to my favorite Karen Karen Smith.
Okay, I'm going to read.
A letter to you, but first i want to explain something to that we talked about last week. So if you've heard this already, forgive us, but I'll try to be as brief as I can. Last week we explained kind of a hypothetical situation, a hypothetical monopoly situation, So.
Follow us.
If you're not familiar, imagine we're all going to play Monopoly, okay, And that's the only game we're playing, and you have to play because you can't play anything else, can't do anything else. So in this game, you know that you and I are going to go first. We're going to just play amongst ourselves. We're going to spin the dice, you know, uh, circle the board six or eight times.
We're going to get houses and property and all that, right, And after we've circled the board that amount of time, then we're going to allow you to play the game. And when you first start playing the game, you're only able to roll one dice, okay, and we're going to call that.
Jim Crow. Ok And then.
For your first couple of laps, you cannot buy any houses or collect two hundred dollars or collect two hundred dollars, and we're going to call that. We'll call it like a land theft or you know, new deal exemptions or the unfair distribution of the GI.
Bill or segregations lining or well.
Yeah, and and for the first few rounds, you have these strikes against you, right, and I want you to have these strikes in your mind as real things that have happened in this country, as policy.
They were the rules in this country, okay, and then after a while.
Of all of these things, you have the opportunity to gain some ground. But by then we own I think, I said, like eighty percent of the houses we own. The wealth is ours, you know, everything like that, And we're comparing you to us. Why are community, Why are the rates of this in your community so low? Why are the rates of this in your community so high?
You know what I mean?
Which I believe to be very unfair, because obviously you didn't start when we started, So it's like us picking on you and not giving you the same opportunities. Right now, let's say you having played this game, because that's the only game you can play, now have to choose between two paths forward. One path represents equality and the other path represents equity. Okay, now, equality says to you, Okay, you know what. Now you can roll both dice. Now
you can collect on community chest. Now you can buy houses, and now you can collect two hundred dollars. Now you can collect two hundred dollars when you pass go. So now all of us can collect two hundred dollars, all of us can buy houses. All of us are playing by the same rules. That is equality by definition. Okay, do you want equality or do you want equity? Equity says you know what, We're going to give you four hundred dollars for passing go. We're going to put together
some programs where you can get some houses. It's easier for you to get there. They're especially for you. You and I can't take advantage of those, okay, but you can. We don't need any more houses right now. Again, we're dealing not with individuals. We're dealing with as the system of monopoly. Okay, But these systems are in place so that you can have a bit of equity, so that you have a sporting chance of improving your status in the game. Now, my question to you is which path
is better for you. I don't need your answer because I know that your answer is equity. So there have recently been attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in this country. In fact, you and I have to talk about this all the time, and so I was very excited when I got a letter from a longtime listener of our show named Philip C. I don't want anybody to pick on Philip, because, believe it or not, Philip's that's my guy.
I rock with Philip.
Philip points out a lot of blind spots in our conversations. He has some very different views of the world world from me, and I think that's okay. We talk the emails and I talk on the show often enough, but
I believe that we strengthen each other's viewpoints. He points out blind spots over here, and I hope that I do the same over there, right, And so he wrote a letter to us, and I'm gonna share with you now kind of pointing out some blind spots that I'm so happy he did because now I get to speak to them, because I'm sure there's other people who feel that way. So allow me to read and thank you. And I sincerely mean this to Philip and anyone else.
If you're going to write a letter, not a comment on social media, write a letter and really make your point, I'd be happy to read that. Ramses, I heard your monopoly comparison. Unfortunately, what you are going for will never work. Forget about all the illegals here. If tomorrow we took all the wealth and land and spit it, split it evenly with the three hundred and thirty million US citizens. I think it's more than that now, But I get your point. What do we do with the new births
from January fourth and on? What do we do with the legal migrants? Anyway, it was already tried back when Bradford was governor of Massachusetts. In the beginning, they tried splitting everything equally, and what they found out was there were people who were more productive and people who were less productive. Resentment built. They switched to a more capitalist way by keeping what they produced and then trading and bartering,
and then they prospered. I think this is supposed to be any time or any new people that came to Plymouth and beyond joined in and, like you pointed out, started out behind but were able to make a life. Some of them never caught up, some did catch up, and some surpassed. But this way of life worked and everyone prospered. Maybe not to the same level, but they were free from a king and better off than if they stayed in their birth country.
Philip, So.
Again some blind spots like you know what I see you, Philip. I appreciate that. So let me go through this, and I realized that this is it's it's not the same, but you know, we've done this with Phillips letters before on the show.
And this is not me picking on Philip again. That's my brother.
And if he writes another letter and it works, we will read it again. Right, it's not me picking on Philip at all. But I've said his piece and I get to say mine now. So So the one thing that I never suggested was that we take everything away from everybody and split it up evenly with everyone else. Okay, black people have never asked that of white people in this country. I didn't ask that in the monopoly experiment example.
I'm not saying, hey, you know what, Q and I, we're going to give up all of our wealth and blah blah blah.
And you know I never said that.
So that's I think that that it kind of lies beyond the analogy that I was painting. So I really can't speak to that because nobody has really floated that as an idea. But right here, when he says that in Massachusetts they tried splitting everything found out that it was more productive. People were more PRODUCTI people were less productive. That is very true. Capitalism, unfettered capitalism has its positives. It's not the system that I would prefer to see us as human beings lean into.
But it does have its positives.
It does reward people who are innovative, and does reward innovation and so forth. These are things that are true that you also find in other economic models. But out credit, whereas do capitalism does allow for that. In this country, we often don't have unfettered capitalism. We have chrony capitalism. Right, And so that breaks down here too because as technical as.
I want to get, but you also have renamed socialism, right, sure, Tony, capitalism is socialism, sure those that whole rich people for those that have, and unfettered capitalism for those that don't.
So those that don't, you know, the bootstraps thing that they say, and for those that do, we will forgive and we will amend, and we will change, and we will divest, and we will do all these things to make sure that you remain where you are and that those who don't don't even have a chance to catch up.
Sure.
Sure, And again I'm not talking about your outliers. I'm not talking about your Jordan's and your Oprah's and your you know, Obama's. In these immensely talented, brilliant minded people who have born with this charisma, And so I'm talking.
About data, what do the data support? And even the Massachusetts example that them starting at the same point does not prevent those who are more productive and work harder from excelling. It doesn't that the idea that it didn't work because and then the reason being because some were more productive than others, as if there was some barrier to success for those who were more productive. That's not the case. So I don't know, there's a lot of context missing from the letter at for.
Me, but I think I can feel in a good amount of that right here. So if you know someone in your life as a listener of this show who feels like, hey, there's.
Some holes in this liberal agenda, it'll never work, blah blah blah.
The people that are just kind of dead set on let's keep doing the current thing that doesn't work instead of trying the thing that I don't feel has the potential to work out as well for me, if you have people like this in your life, hear what I'm
about to tell you. Okay, So often enough on this show we talk about white privilege, and this is something that a lot of white people, especially white men push back against particularly so when they're dealing with some sort of financial hardship that they don't feel should be.
Happening to them.
Okay, why isn't my life gone the way that I wanted it to go? Why am I not a movie star or a professional baseball player or a rock star an astronaut like the American dream told me I was going to be. I've been lied to. Oh it must be these Mexican people, these black people, blah blah blah. Right,
there's a group of people that feel this way. Okay, when you suggest that these people have white privilege, they'll push back and say, man, I really wish I had some white privilege because it sucks out here for me, and from their perspective, that's how it feels.
Right.
Not knocking anybody, but allow me to paint this picture because I think that it helps further illuminate the point we're trying to make with this monopoly analogy. So, when I was in high school, I went to a place it called Untown, and it was basically a camp where they invited all the kids from all different races and backgrounds and socioeconomic places and whatever. We all went to this campground, and there was an exercise that we did
on the campground. He said, I don't want all the students to stand in a line, okay, and I'm going to rehash that same experiment for the benefit of our listeners, because the only change being that they outlined people's privilege by having them take a step forward. What I'm going to do is turn that on its head. People that don't have this privilege have to take a step backwards.
Okay.
So we're all starting at the start line, okay, Me, U, Q, everybody.
We're all at the same line.
Okay, and then there's a finish line in front of us, and that finish line. If you cross that finish line, you get you know, the American Dream, three wishes, a million dollar, whatever goal you want to put there. Now, I'm going to show you what white privilege looks like, because a lot of people think it's an advantage. White privilege is the benefit of getting the started zero. Just
like the monopoly experiment. If you're on this starting line with me and Q and everybody else, I want you to take a You're going to move back one yard.
That's three feet. If you or people.
In your family have had to deal with the effects, the after effects of slavery. So that's me and Q taking some steps back. Really, everybody black taking some steps back. You know what I mean to cover the three yards? Okay, take another three steps back, yard back if you're dealing with the residual effects of the Black Codes, meaning that the economic advancement that could have turned into some success, early success.
For your lineage, never made its way to you.
If you know people have been imprisoned unfairly based on rules, people didn't get to vote and shape the political climate of their day to have a ripple effect, to have more representation for you at every different point in society, if the ripple effects of the Black Codes have reached you, step back another yard. Okay, that includes me in Q, and then everybody that looks like us, our children, our grandma's and everybody in our families.
Another three steps back.
If Jim Crow, you know you have ancestors from the Jim Crow South that didn't get a chance to represent positive representations of you and your people in society, that allowed a race sist society to perpetuate, and then those people's children and children and children. And then you also live in a climate where a lot of that still exists.
Take three steps back.
If your people have ever been subjected to large scale land theft.
Take three steps back.
Okay, that includes our Native American brothers and sisters, you know, on and on right. If your people were exempt from the New Deal, take three steps back. You if your people were treated unfairly with the distribution of GI benefits World War one, World War.
Two, take three steps back.
If your people were subjected to bank theft, white people stealing money from black people. We talked about that on this show. We can talk about it again if you want. If you think I'm making any of this up, trust me. We know now. We've been done more history studies now than we've ever done before. For okay, but if that ever happened to your people in mass, large scale that prevented advancement, take three steps back. I'm not even close
to done. You mentioned redlining. If redlining has affected the schools that your children can go to, the schools that you were able to go to, If the ripple effects of redlining have affected your community, take three more steps back. If the attitudes that have shaped all of these outcomes have infiltrated their way into the criminal justice system. Let's say policing, for instance, take three steps back. If the police treat you unfairly, I personally Ramsa's job, Rudy King, Tayleb.
The second knows based on my personal lived experience, because these eyes have seen it time and again, that that is true. I got to take three more steps back to you. I know the same is true for you. We don't even have to stop there. We can talk about judicial sentencing. Indeed, the entirety of the car soool system, the criminal realization of drugs. Drugs is not a health issue. If you're black, it's a health issue if you're white. Oh, let's get him in the rehab, let's get him somewhere.
But the war on drugs, the crack epidemic, Nope, that's a criminal issue. These are criminals. We're going to put them in prison, not going to help them. They're black. Three steps back. I'm from Compton in the eighties. I've seen it. Three more steps back. No war on poverty or war on drugs. Housing discrimination, I'm not just talking
about the valuation of your house. I'm talking about can you rent a house to have an address, to have a job, Does this affect your community or you personally, take three steps back, and granted not all of these things are going to.
Affect all black people. I think everything you said so far would okay.
Well, then allow you to allow me to continue, because this next one does, or this next one has a better chance of that environmental racism. Environment racism means that businesses can pollute on this side of town, but they can't pollute on that side of town.
That's the long and the short of it. And that's a real thing. Google it.
I don't have time to explain it because I only have a few more seconds. But if that affects your people in your community, healthcare outcomes, et cetera, take three more steps back. Now we all get to run forward that finish line, but there's a lot of us that are way back there trying to run for that finish line. And let's say only a handful of people will make it, right, A lot of people got to run a lot harder,
and they'll never make it. And this, I hope better illuminates the concept of Dee and I and why it's necessary, the concept of white privilege and helps further cement, at least in Philip's mind what I was trying to make as a point for the monopoly experiment. But that's it for us. Thank you Phil every time for you know, keeping us on our toes man. We appreciate it. But that's going to do it for us.
Here on Civic Cyphers. So once again, I'm your host, ramses Job. He is ramses Jah, I am q Ward. I appreciate you guys. It's twenty twenty four, man, Welcome to the new year, New year, same us, new year's same us, same stories, same trauma, same nonsense.
But you know, one of the things that I know to be true is that we've lessered of two evils, our way to a less evil society in twenty twenty four than it would have been in nineteen sixty four.
And I'll take that. So let's keep moving. Help us out.
Hit us on social media at Civic Cipher, leave as a comment, follow us, donate on our website civiccipher dot com.
Shoot us some.
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