Keep going riding with us as we continue to broadcast the balance and defend the discourse from these hip hop weekly studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I am still your host, Ramsey's.
JA, he said, still as if that'll ever change. Yeah, if it ever does, there will be two new voices on these microphonees. So as long as he is still Ramsey's JA, I will remain q Ward young brother.
Right there.
I'm glad that you that you guys are tuned in to Civic Cipher once.
Again and we got a lot more free to stick around for it. Please do.
We are going to be discussing some questions that come up around Black history, Monk, for most of which, of course, is why is there not a white history one. We recognize that on your quest to become a better ally, you might encounter questions like this, or you might.
Have asked questions like this yourself. It's okay.
We take all comers over here, and we don't start the conversations with anger or anything like that. So we're going to get into that in just a few minutes. But before we get there, let us discuss ba Ba becoming a better ally. Boba that is baba A sponsored by Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for the free voter wallet from Fltmglobal dot com to support black businesses and allied businesses as well as make an
impact with your spending. Again, that's Fotmglobal dot Com. I want you to demand Snoop Cereal and boycott post All right, that's it. That's the whole thing. I'll read rapper Snoop Dogg and Master Pierre Sewing Walmart and food manufacturer manufacturer Post Consumer Brands, arguing that both companies intentionally left their cereal product off shehelves and hidden in stock rooms in
an attempt to sabotage the brand. In the thirty four page a lawsuit filed, attorneys representing the rappers outline at Snoop Dogg born Calvin Brought Us and Master p Born Percy Miller created Brought Us Foods in twenty twenty two with the goal of adding diversity to the food industry while quote inspiring and creating opportunities for minority own products
and brands. The suit argues that when the two rappers approached Post Consumer brands to get support for one of the cereals, Snoop cereal, the food manufacturer attempted to outrite by the brand the Rapper. The Rappers declined the offer, saying they believed it would quote destroy the whole purpose
of leading the company to their families. Posts then suggested and entered a partnership with promotion agreement with brought US Foods to manufacture, market, and distribute and sell Snoop Cereal in December of twenty twenty two, in which they would split the.
Profits with Broughtest Foods. The lawsuit says.
However, the Rappers argued the Post did not honor their original agreement, citing the manufacturer quote pretended to be on board with the duo's goals and did not treat the cereal like one of their own brands. Quote, Post entered into a false arrangement where they could choke Brought US Foods out of the market, thereby preventing Snoop Cereal from being sold or produced by any competitor, Quote.
The lawsuit says.
Months after Snoop Cereal launched last July, the lawsuit argues that customers were no longer able to find the cereal, and many Walmart shelves across the US, unlike other posts foods.
So shout out to Snoop Dog and Master.
P said that things remain the same.
All right, So let's talk.
Why is there a Black History Month but not a White History Month. Well, you know, we came across a video that we're going to share with you. This person speaking, her name is Brittany Cooper, and I believe her channel. She states her channel on this, so I'll let her say her own piece, but we're going to start the conversation here, so let's play this video.
Will feel like they own time and control history. And there's a way that even if you go back to the early Western philosophers that everybody love. My least favorite is George Hagel, who said, you know, Africa is no historic part of the world. So in the seventeen hundred and eighteen hundreds, various groups of white European men got together and just decided that Africa didn't matter in the span of world history. I mean, talk about having some kahonas time has a history, and so do black people.
In part of the reason that we have, for instance, Black History Month in this country is because we literally have to make the argument that black people have actually done things that are significant to the creation of the nation state. And it turns out that if we didn't have things like Black History Month, apparently people would not believe that black people were actually significant historical actors. We keep on relitigating, basically the eighteen sixties. In this country.
We have racial animists the likes of which we have not seen in my lifetime, of resurgence of law enforcement engaging black folks in ways that are often deadly and often with impunity. White people dictate the pace of social inclusion, and they do so by saying we'll get there while we're trying to push.
Us so fast.
That kind of pushing back the clock, which is a phrase that we use all the time, is a way in which those in power like to say to those of us who don't have power, we're going to determine not only what you get, but when you get it. And that is the critical difference between young activists who are in the streets saying change it now, change it today. We don't want your gradualism. They remind me of the debates over slavery in this country and ending slavery in
the eighteen hundreds. There were gradualists who said we're going to end slavery, but we want to do it in steps, so we'll free you, but you know, can you work ten years? Can we sort of gradually phase you out of slavery? And there were others who said, we're going to pass this amendment and at that moment you will be free. And for those of us who continue to struggle with a white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal power structure, immediate
freedom is what we want. Gradualism does not serve us. There is a truth telling that happens at that nexus of blackness and feminism, at that space of having to work twice as hard to get half as far, which is a black faverb and at that space of knowing that so often you can be the dopest chicken room and they'll give it to the mediocre white man in
the room. Putting those things together gives you a clarity and a vision about where we can go if we stop oppressing black folks and women and gender knock performing folk. And so black feminism taught me that, and I.
Think it can teach you that too.
I am Brittany Cooper and this is my brief but spectacular take on my eloquent rage.
All right, So first off, listen to black women and we're going to give you another baba, another action item. She can be founded Brittany sorry, YouTube dot com slash brief but spectacular. Her name is Brittany Cooper once again. And you know, there's a lot of times when you know, the short answer to that question, why is there a
Black History Month and not a White History Month? The short answer is, well, because there have been people who have erased us from history, right intentionally, Yeah, but they're to a person that to where that is inconceivable that didn't really happen. You guys are always the victims. You guys are just saying that who would erase you from history? Nobody does that.
I think that she makes a case.
That flies in the face of those people who would dismiss a statement like that that we've been a raised from history, those people that would dismiss that as being just kind of imagining us, imagining that this might have happened at some point in the past. She mentioned a name, George Hagel, And as we do on this show, because we have to, we researched George Hagel.
Right, So.
With George Hagel, I'm gonna share a bit from his He's the person that said Africa has no history. I'm gonna share a bit from from what I've researched about him. Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel He was born in seventeen seventy and died in eighteen thirty one. He was a German philosopher and one of the most influential figures of German idealism
in nineteenth century philosophy. As influence extends across the entire range of contemporary philosophical topics, from metaphysical issues and e epistemology ontology to political philosophy, the philosophy of history, philosophy of art, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. And he is quoted as saying Africa has no history and did not contribute to anything that mankind enjoyed. There's a separate quote here that says is effectually a continuation,
but it's a separate quote. Is no historical part of the world. It has no movement or development to exhibit. Okay, so I want to tie two things together here. One of the most influential figures of German idealism in the seventeen hundreds right now. The population in this country in the early years of this country was heavily German.
Right.
In fact, the reason we don't have a national language is because at the time they were deciding that more people spoke German in the United States than spoke English. And that's the reason we don't have English as a national language here in this country. So German people have been here since the founding. And this influential German figure suggesting that you know, he was like the man in his day.
He was the.
Intellectual for him to suggest that Africa has no history. Let me let me read his quote again. Africa has no history and did not contribute to anything mankind enjoyed.
My son was born from a C section. Do you know the first people to invent see sections?
Please educate us.
Those are African people. I could go on, but it's a Black History month. You need to teach yourselves. Learn everything. Okay, But when we say that our history was suppressed, it's this person and figures like him. You know already throughout slavery, at least in this country, that our contributions to what has made this country what it is have been suppressed.
And there are many that we will never know. You know, for those that listen to the first half of the show, you know that we discussed for our Way Black History Fact the true origin story of Jack daniels whiskey and how it has its roots in slavery, because indeed, a slave was the person who taught Jack Daniels. I know, Jack Daniel how to make the whiskey that he's made that becomes so popular.
I notice while listening to you deliver that Way Black History Fact, that there was no mention of Jasper Daniels freeing his distiller or his family that he also brought to work for him.
It wasn't wasn't until after the Emancipation Proclamation, So he was a slave until he wasn't. Right, But you can imagine that all of these sorts of things matter to people who have been stripped of their identity, you know, for those of for those of you, I'm going to talk specifically to our white listeners today. Everything I will always say to you will be conveyed in the spirit of love, and I'm asking for you to follow me on this. If you trace back your history, your lineage,
I don't want to feel bad. This is just factual, right If you trace back your history, you conceivably could trace it back to I don't know, some ship, some immigrant story, or maybe you can trace it back to the Mayflower or some village or kingdom or something in Scotland or whatever. Right, and if you go back far enough, you can find somebody to be proud of, to know what you're capable of, to know what you can aspire to, to know that you come from greatness, great thinkers, brilliant minds,
people who have contributed meaningful things to society. And that is empowering. And you may not know it. If you think that everybody gets that, you may not know how empowering that is. Now, I want you to imagine for a second that if you trace your history back, you would only go as far as a slave and the man who raped her.
And think about how hurtful that is. You know what I mean?
Like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. You can see me, so I'm not like sad or upset or anything. Obviously this is something that I know. But how how do you?
How do you?
The only thing we can be proud of is the fact that we are doing better. We can't be proud of that.
I mean the idea that we've survived it. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. Somehow that should be the source of our pride.
So let me let me take it a step further, and I'll turn it over to you.
If you can only go back to a slave and the man that raped her, and that is that is what caused you to exist, that plus the people after that generation, the people after that generation, and then you if it if indeed, it's that far back that you can go. There's not a lot of dignity. There's not a lot of empowering facts. Oh, I come from these great thinkers, these great you know, you don't even this lady couldn't read. She never had the chance to become
what she was capable of becoming. So I don't know if I'm capable. Of course, I look around my neighborhood. I'm from Compton, famously, look around my neighborhood. Everybody here is black, and everybody here is poor. And when I watch TV, everybody's white and everybody's rich. And so this is just the way that it is. Why do we need a black history money so that we know that
we are more than what we've become. So that we know that we have things that we can be proud of, so that we know that we are more than the product of a and raping a slave, and we know what we can aspire to, We know what we can be proud of, we know what we can stand on, we know what we can accomplish. And if you don't need that, then you should not ask me why there is no blacky, why there is no white history months. I learned about white history eleven other months out of
the year. And we focus on black history for this reason and for other reasons, because black people have contributed valuable elements to society, and it is too easy for black people to be dismissed to the margins, relegated to the margins. And so any celebration of blackness, be a Black History Month, be it m okay, they be a
June team, be at whatever banza you name. It is a celebration of our humanity and affirmation of our humanity, and a celebration of our contributions and our value in this place.
And that's the thing we can be proud of. All right, go ahead, enjoy.
Extremely Will said, there has been a blatant and successful attempt to erase large segments of our history and our contributions to society. One of the reasons why ideology like this was so damning and so damaging is that when you relegate us to our origins being slavery and a lot of cases the rape of a slave that gave us, you know, lack Americans whose skin looks more like mine, a bit more fair. If you will, you create the types of people who feel like we benefit from having
been brought here. You create the ideas that somehow being brought from Africa, where we throughout the history of Earth never contributed anything to society.
At least, according to George Wilhelm Frederick Hegel, were brought here and taught language, and given God and giving, and been given skills to be able to participate in agriculture and architecture and all these things that we were taught and learned because we were brought here and made slaves.
So when you can get rid of our pre and post slavery contributions to society at large, you can make children and their parents think, wow, look how well off they are from having been brought here. And hey, yes we agree that slavery was rough, but look how far you've come. You're not in a tree in Africa. Okay, listen, lit's lean into this. I want to play a video from chairman o'mali yes she tella, and I want you to hear his his take on Africa.
Eighty four eighty five Europeans sat out a table in Berlin, Germany, and not a single African there and carved up Africa into the territories that we now sometimes called countries and illogically referred to as nations. Africans didn't do that. It
was Europe that did that. It was Europe and in perilansm that required Africa to be Africa to be divided, so that the resources of Africa, both human and material, could come and pave the streets in London and go the buildings in Amsterdam and bring clean water to New York, while the streets and Sierra Leon are not paid, and the people in Sierra Leone do not have clean water,
and there's there's no national electric grid there. It is necessary to keep Africa divided by European imperialism and by all the imperialism in order to continue to subt the resources from Africa. You have to be able to break out of this. But it's going to take revolution in order to do this African revolution. In order to do this African revolution that destroy imperialism and the world economy that's responsible for the growing in the serration of the masses of people around the world.
Hudu Europeans about that when you notice that.
The history of Africa has been The reason for that is now because Africans are not capable of governing themselves because of whatever. The reason for that is because imperialism made its way to Africa alongside gunpowder and disease, and that coupled with immoral inhuman leaders who are power hungry and so forth, you end up with the legacy of colonialism in Africa. Okay, but black people had brilliant civilizations in Ethiopia and of course in Egypt and all over Africa for eons.
Before white people even existed.
But I needed you to know that because that question does come up quite a bit, certainly during Black History Month, and I want you to keep this same energy. We don't have time, of course, but keep the same energy when people ask why is b et not racist or Ebony or Essence magazine or why is there not a white equivalent to these things. And I do want you to know that if you wanted a white entertainment television
that would be problematic. If you wanted an Irish entertainment television that would not be That's fine because now we're talking about a culture Whiteness only exists, and indeed was only conceived to delineate a slave class from a non slave class. So to call yourself white does not have any real identity associated with it outside of that we are not them. To be Irish means that we have pride and culture and history that comes from a place,
and we can celebrate that collectively. So if you want White History Month, call it Irish History Month, and you'll soon realize that there's a lot of white people who are not Irish. And this also helps for people that feel like, why is black power racist? Or why is white power racist? And black power are not racist? It's all the same there. White power is rooted in the oppression of others. Black powers is of course famously an affirmation of our strength.
And so with that in mind, we will leave that right there.
The show always runs out way too soon, real quick, before we go, I want to give a shout out to NPR.
That's where we got the Snoop Dogg Master p.
Baba from, so I want to make sure we credit them for their journalism and thank you as always for tuning into the show. Once again, I've been your host Rams this job.
He is rams' jah. I am q Ward. You can find us everywhere. Just type Civic Cipher.
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