Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host, Ramses.
Joh he is Rams Joh, I am q Ward and you are tombed in the Civic Spher.
Yes you are, and we've whittled down a show for you today.
We found is an excellent way to put that just because as usual, there is so much that we could talk about and that we want to talk about.
And to be fair, you know, we know that Bill Maher's tripping to be fair, we know are been tripping. Yeah, we know about you know, we've we've covered quite a bit of the goings on in Gaza with you know, respect to the Israeli protesters naturally, the pro Palestinian protests on college campuses around the country. I don't want you for a second to think that those things aren't on our hearts and things that we want to discuss. It's
just a matter of time. Today actually was kind of a frustrating episode, But where we ended up is we're going to be talking about well first and foremost, we're gonna we're gonna share a letter from one of our listeners because it's important for us to kind of reset our who we are in the minds of our listeners, and every so often we'll hear from folks that prompts us to remind folks of who we are, why we do what we do, and what we mean, what our
intentions are. And then for the second part of the show, what we're going to do is discuss police, police violence, police misconduct, and indeed a story where sixty six probation officers were put on leave in La County so as to further explain how with police there are systemic issues, not just individual issues. But before we get there, let's discuss some Ebony excellence, shall we?
I think we shall This week's Abney Excellence sponsored by Actively Black There is greatness in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com. This story from The Guardian. Two college freshmen who during their final year of high school found a new way to prove Pythagoras's theorem by using trigonometry, which mathematicians for generations thought was impossible, have since uncovered multiple more such proofs. They revealed in a national interview
on Sunday. Quote we found five, and then we found a general format that could potentially produce at least five additional proofs end quote, Kelsea Johnson said on CBS's Sixty Minutes. A little more than a year after, she and Nikia Jackson collaborated on an accomplishment that earned them international recognition.
The two thousand year old theorem established that the sum of a square sorry some of the squares of a right triangle two shorter sides equal to square of the hypot news the third longest side opposite the shape's right angle. Countless school children taking geometry have memorized the notation, summarizing the theorem a square plus b squared equal c squared.
Boom.
But the bonus question on a math contest that Johnson and Jackson took home to complete during Christmas break of their final year at Saint Mary's served as the impetus for them to plot out a new way to demonstrate that one could indeed use trigonometry to prove Pythagoras's theorem. Their work was so compelling that the pair went to a regional meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Atlanta in March twenty twenty three to outline their findings at
the organization's recommendation. Jackson and Johnson have submitted their discoveries for final peer review and publication, as well as working on additional proofs while that process is pending. Boom, I want to be like them when I grow up man exclamation point.
They day up there with patagorasts. So that's next level black women, okay, Q Yes, Ramses, you are a well decorated, award winning, nationally syndicated.
When starts talking like that.
Well stop me when I'm lying. You sit at the helm of a couple of shows. Uh and uh this is one of them. And this is not your first rodeo. You've been on the radio for years now, and it is possible for you to say things in a very
short amount of time that lack complete context. And sometimes you need to take a moment and explain what you mean, because without indeed all of the context necessary for everyone to understand the entirety of what you mean, people can leave the conversation confused, when indeed they actually came to learn from you. So I want to be fair. I want to set this up the right way.
Please.
Obviously I know how this works because I work in broadcasting too, and I also do a lot of our social media stuff, and you know, it's a lot to pack into a thirty second little break or an hour long show. As we find out frequently, all of the nuanced, all of the context, everything that's necessary in order to stick the landing, to fully make a point that is impenetrable. That is that it's not susceptible to criticisms that are more basic, right. High level criticism. Sure, when the point
is well made. High level criticisms, we invite them. But low level criticisms are tough because it's simply a matter of I didn't have enough time to explain that I hit the major talking points, but of course there's context that's missing from me. The reason why I'm talking in a roundabout way and talking about this in such a cryptic fashion is because we received a letter recently and was addressed to Cue. The letter that we received is from a longtime listener, and I like to think of
him as a friend of the show. We've only ever used his first name, Philip, but Philip is in our estimation, a conservative leaning listener. He listens to both of the shows that we do. One on the Black Information Network and this show you're listening to right now, Civic Cipher, which funnily enough is also on the Black Information Network. And Philip has again kept us on our toes. Know,
we're not sure that he views the world. We might be subscribing to two different realities, but we're grateful for his input, his contribution, and we need criticisms because we want to be the best journalists we can. We want to be as responsible with this. We have microphones and audiences that are listening to us, and so we want to be very responsible with this. But what I've done is painted a picture that has a lot of different
elements converging at that microphone. And so what I'll do is I'll share another letter, the latest letter from our friend Philip, and we're going to have a brief discussion on context and fill in some gaps, fill in some blanks, and give you an idea of who we are. And today we're going to focus more on c So I'll finish setting the stage. This letter says thank you for allowing me to use this email as I don't use social media much. We know that about Philip for a
long time. Oh he always emails us all right. He says, congratulations on your continued station growth with Civic Cipher, and then he talks about the Black Information Network May sixth, so not too long ago, and he says something that stood out to me and I forwarded over to Q. He says, Q sounded just like President Trump. Okay, you didn't see him.
He was drinking It just almost caused the spits tit take. Yeah, he was drinking water.
But yeah, he says, Q sounded just like President Trump. Uh. He says, you know, into the show, Q said regarding you know, the ceasefire. I guess this show we were talking about the proposed the ceasefires for the ceasefire and Gaza. He says. In the show, Q said, there are good people on both sides, the same wording that President Trump used regarding Charlotte. And you're going to have to paint that picture of Charlottesville for our listeners. Que, I'll finish
reading the letter. He says, President Trump got ridiculed to the hilt, So now will Q publicly acknowledge that President Trump's point was fine? And the same as cues that goes on to say, the quote, which was from President Trump, you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. Okay, that's Trump's quote. Q's quote is I hate the way this sounds. There are good people on
both sides. And then he finishes his email by saying, my main point for bringing this up is that like it or not, or like him or not? Back then those words were taken out of context. What other words of Trump's were and continue to be taken out of context. So again, this is an individual that you know is a let's call him a defender of President Trump, right wing ideology, conservative beliefs, anything like this right, and it
doesn't make these people necessarily wrong. It's just a different We're going to start at the conversation at just a different way of viewing our shared reality. Okay, now, qute, how did that hit you? Initially?
Many of you that are listening to the show may not realize that I do not subscribe to our show's social media because of the alternate reality that some of our listeners have the benefit of living in, and people don't simply disagree with us. People get pretty aggressive and vehemently angry and nasty toward us. Philip has not ever
been that way. But a lot of people that disagree with our position, our thoughts, or our opinions, they aim as low as possible, and I'm guessing to get the type of reaction that they get from me when I see it. Part of what Philip said, however, in this email made my stomach hurt. And I'm not being hyperbolic, I'm not exaggerating. I was driving my car. I had to pull over at a gas station and stop driving
because it made me physically sick. Those words that made me feel that way, where Q sounded just like President Trump, and part of me knew something like that could or would happen when I said the words, which is why
I said, I hate the way this sounds. Because I saw our clock and I knew that there was not enough time for me to further give contact, to further elaborate, to further explain my position on that, and someone who would use a lack of context and semantics to try to draw a conclusion that I'd ever shared a similar thought to President Trump on anything, would have an opportunity to do so. So that was my initial feeling when you forwarded that message to me.
Okay, so how about this. Now, if we have a moment where we can provide some context, what was it about President Trump's saying there were good people on both sides that felt problematic?
My first issue, I think was similar to everyone's right. This response from President Trump was mostly in the face of people trying to get him to denounce or speak against white nationalism, white supremacy, and neo Nazism, and President Trump very intentionally conflated those who were Confederate proud to that discussion to give himself the leniency to say that there were decent people on both sides. I could get into the definitions of neo Nazism, the Nazi Party under
then Adolph Hitler. I could get into white supremacy and it's very simple and direct definition. I can get into the ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the ku Klux Klan who were also present in Charlottesville. I could get into all the specifics of why those things were problematic. But if your way out was some of those people were just there to commemorate General Lee, whose statue had
been removed, I'd like to give you that. Except the President very very intentionally conflated those things, because that was a totally separate protest. But let's talk about the Confederacy, since we want to celebrate American heroes, as you would call them. I'd like to believe that the Confederacy lost a war where they were the enemy of what is now the United.
States, what was then the United States.
And the Confederacy formed for the sole reason of maintaining slavery of black and African Americans. That's all. So are those very fine people who still today want to celebrate and commemorate the Confederacy. And in the other case, we'd call those that oppose this country treasonous, we'd call them traders. But because what is being upheld stands shoulder to shoulder with white supremacy, there are those that feel that way and want to just call it pride for the history
of this country. So the problems were very, very easy to point out. Is you don't I was going to literally read those definitions, but I don't want to insult our listeners. I don't want to insult Philip he knows better. So to use this as a moment to try to say that I sound like President Trump would be you intentionally ignoring what I meant when I said so if I may. There are people that are victims of this conflict that are not directly involved in the conflict. There
are women and children in Tel Aviv. There are women and children in Gaza, Palestine and Israeli who are not the pro Israeli government and who are not pro Hamas. They just simply want to live and eat, be healthy and prosper and want the same for their children, who just by nature of proximity of where they live and were born, are victims of this conflict. The numbers show that the casualties are far greater on the Palestinian side,
far greater in multiples of thousands. But there are people who are victims of this conflict and its violence who do not have anything to do with the conflict, and who do not stand in support of those who are participating in this conflict aggressively. Who I mentioned are good people who love and are kind. Oh, this is not the time for me to show you how great or good of a person I am. I never profess to be. I've said on this show and other shows multiple times.
I am no one's intellectual or moral superior. I have broken hearts, I have hurt feelings, I have failed in my duties as whatever position that I play in the lives of people that care about me many times. So this is not a flex of how much better a person I am than you, but the idea that my ideas, my thoughts could ever be in line with that of our former president is a ridiculous thing to say out loud, especially if you've ever heard any episode besides the one
that you picked this quote from. The good people on both sides in this case and any other time you hear me say it, are the women and children and men, because I'm not going to keep acting like men's lives don't matter in these conversations, and all men are a part of the conflict. They're not. There are fathers, sons, uncles and brothers who are just trying to survive and
protect those that they care about. Because I have seen Israeli people protests against this conflict and their current political leadership, as you've seen Palestinians, of course, and those who are neither Israeli or Planets or Palestinian protesting all over the world because this conflict has been for some time now out of hand. Too many lives are being treated as if they have no Worth Ramses has said on these
microphones that one child's life was too much. The numbers now in the thousands of women and children, and they use those numbers intentionally as to say, Hey, these people who in some of these cases are completely defenseless, are dying because of what? Because you want to get at your licked back. At what point are you just cruel?
At what point are you just a bully? At what point are you continuing to show what some of us already know, that your capitalist pursuits are more important or worth more than the lives of anyone, including American children, as to not have a conversation about our gun lobby
and our gun laws. At what point do we acknowledge that our pursuit for power and control is gratuitous, that we are gluttons for both, and that we've decided that we will sacrifice anything to have as much money, as much influenced control and power as we could possibly grasp, and even more than we could grasp.
Why do we know what to do with so Our.
President's comments were to convince I won't even say convinced, he did not want to speak against those who vote for him. Flatly, I do not want to call all of these people bad. I want to give myself an out so that when I go to my rallies, I can say, ha ha, No, I didn't say that. I didn't say that you were all bad. Some of you
are fine people. Because those people vote for him. So our former president is either a supporter of neo nazi, white nationalists, white supremacists, or enjoys that they like him. He either subscribes to their ideals or pretends to so that he can have their support. I don't know which is worst. So to Philip, no, it's not time that I come out and admit that he said anything of any worth, of any value, or that I share any
thoughts of his and its entirety. I am objectively opposed to everything he's ever said, and I will never pretend that anything that he's done politically successful will make him the type of person fit to lead our country.
May I ask, in short, do you feel that? Actually, let me start over, how about this? When I think President Trump was talking about both sides, there's one thing that provides a lot of context. There was a side of people that were organized marching to make a statement, and they had tiki torches and they were, you know, doing the Nazi salutes and so forth, and anybody that chooses to stand with them stands on the wrong side. If this side that is doing the Nazi salutes, that's
always the wrong side, right. I think that generally speaking around the world, most people would agree with that that is the wrong side. So for someone to say there are good people on both sides, implying that that side has good people in it, that is the former president being ambiguous enough again to not offend those folks.
Who would not alienate his base.
Right. And when you say that there are good people on both sides, or something similar to that, discussing how there are Jewish people, Israeli people, pro is written Israeli people, I should say, and then the protesters people that are in supportive ending the conflict, people in support of the ceasefire, and these people could end up on opposite sides of the conversation that there are good people, well intentioned, well
meaning people on both sides of that. My guess is that you're thinking that that is a little bit more true to what you're trying to say.
I wish I had more time, well,