Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host, ramses Job.
He is Rams's Jaw. I am q Ward, and you are listening to Civic Cipher. Indeed you are.
This week, we're going to be playing catchup. I promise we haven't been slacking on our duties. There has just been a mountain of news that is coming our way and trying to pick something some things rather to discuss just felt like we'd be leaving too much on the table. So let's call it gumbo. We're going to be running some stories by you that exist at the local level, state level. We're going to be running some stories by
you that exist at the national level. We're going to be talking about stuff with respect to education and initiatives to subjugate and marginalize black and ground people.
We're going to be talking about.
Really a whole lot of everything, because that's what's been going on since.
We last spoke.
We're also going to spend a not insignificant amount of time discussing the GOP slash Republican loyalty to the former president we around here. I think it's orderline sick. And I don't mean that to say that if you're a conservative voter and that's just your you know, your path and your test in life, that you know there's a problem there.
But to this man in particular, you're such a graceful I have to be. I have to be.
So we're going to talk about that, what the obsession is and what where the loyalty stems from, because we need to know about it, and we feel like if you know about it, you'll be a bit more empowered. We have those Yeah, yeah, indeed, we're going to talk
about those and so much more on today's show. But the first things first, like we always do it, this time, we're going to discuss ebony Excellence and today's any Excellence is sponsored by Major Threads, and our reading comes from ABC News and normally I'd be the one reading it to you, but I have to pass the mic to the legend himself keyboard for reasons you'll soon discover you.
We got some news this week that was heartbreaking in general, sure, but heartbreaking being the term I'm using very intentionally and specifically for yourself, because the first time that I had heart palpitations. If you will the first time that my heart strings were plucked. There was a lady with this really really big hair and this really really powerful voice and the longest, most amazing legs that I'd ever seen
in my five year life. And you know, I smile and I laugh because Rams just you know, passed this to me because he knows my story and my face action for the giant that we lost, and that's Tina Turner from ABC News. Tina Turner dies at eighty three, a life well lived. Rolling Stone once named her one of the greatest singers of all time. Born Anime Bullock November twenty six, nineteen thirty nine, Tennessee, Turner began performing at a young age. As a teenager, she immersed herself
in the local rhythm and blue scene. In nineteen fifty six, she met Ike Turner from the band Kings of Rhythm and became part of their act under the stage name Tina Turner. Together, they recorded hits in the nineteen sixties, including A Fool in Love's Going to Work Out Fine, I Idolize You, River Deep, Mountain High, as a part
of the Ike and Tina Turner Review. In nineteen seventy one, their cover version of Creden's Clearwater's Revival Crowd Mary became a hit and Nutbush City Limit climb the charts as well. Tina went on to record What's Love Got to Do with It? And just really had an immense impact on the life of so many. If you need so much more time than we had to get listen, but uh.
Two time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, movie star, on and on, so ebony excellence, indeed a life well lived.
Now we got a few stories to go through.
The story that incensed me the most this week, I suspect.
It's one of the stories that, in those words, should be so heavy. The story that incensed me the most considering some of you know the type of subject matter that we cover every week, and then you'll hear all the stories that we're covering this week. The idea that something stood out amongst those things is saying a lot. So and Culture.
And Culture, for those that don't know, is a conservative media pundant, author and syndicated columnist. She's a lawyer, and she has two zero point one million followers on Twitter. She is not a nobody in conservative circles. She's been on the news countless times. A very uh, very far right wing sort of person, and the people on the left and make fun of her effectually refer to her as like.
Racism in human form. Right, that's a way to put it. But there's always been this.
Vine of plausible deniability there. I know there hasn't, but they believe that and they stand behind it, which kind of leaves them.
They never did right, Well, they did stand on it, That's what they did, believe. That's what I'm trying to say. Thank you, because they felt the same way she does.
You needed to clear that up. Thank you for that, because you're absolutely right. They know better, and I believe she knows exactly who she is and what she means. But she's used coded language. And again she's a lawyer, so she's not a stupid person. Well you know what I mean. But she's always been able to be just crafty enough, like many others that are like really far right, just crafty enough to be able to evade significant pushback
from her followers and supporters. In other words, she's not using the in word, which is you know, anything short of that. People can say, well, I'm not racist, I have a black friend, I'm not racist. I've never used the word, and indeed live much of their life supporting racist initiatives and turning a blind eye to others that
do the same. So this is a culture. And as I mentioned, the thing above all else this week that incensed me, this is some rare air for me to be in, right, I tend to I know the world that I live in. It is not comfortable. Nobody, nobody deserves.
This.
I think that we deserved better, right. I don't think that's saying a lot either, right. But she put a tweet up referring to the NAACPS warning there's like a travel ban or travel restriction or something in DOUBLEA.
It's more like a travel advisor advisory. That's it's not a restriction, it's not a band. It's just saying, hey, stare clear. If you're going to be traveling at all, maybe Florida shouldn't be at the top of your list as places to visit, as places to frequent and as a place to go spend money. Because if you've been watching the news at all, Florida is the government gun in there gunning for black folks, is gunning for everybody not white, It seems well they have one group.
We'll get to it. Yeah, one group that they're using again to use that veneer to say, hey, we're not racist. Look at this one group we're treating these handful of people, okay, and they're not why everybody else look do like them and we'll be fine anyway. And Culture, in response to the NAACP's advisory, put a.
Tweet out and she's so classy, it says.
NAACP issues warning to African Americans to avoid visiting Florida. Employees and restaurant and tourism industry brace for a zero point zero zero percent drop in tips.
Okay, now now let me I want, I need you to talk about this one.
But let me let me set it up for our listeners that don't know about this stereotype. So, among many stereotypes and prejudices and preconceived notion notions, especially from people who don't regularly interact with many black people from many different socioeconomic backgrounds and faith traditions and parts of the country, et cetera, right, there is a myth that exists that
black people are not good tippers. Among many that are very damaging, very hartful, and very negative, but typically the racism. The prejudice is not out loud, whereas right here we have it in a tweet. It's unfounded when you apply it to an entire ethnic group. And she did it for laughs. Maybe I don't understand. So there's the setup. That's why she used these zero point zero percent dropping tips, just trying to be cheeky there.
Okay, go ahead, you tips. I forget because tips mean something. I think it used to be an acronym and now it's just a word that we use. Was never intended to be how you got paid. You were supposed to go make a living wage, and then if your service was extraordinary, people will pay you extra on top of that. I say that because for my entire working life, I won't even say an adult, because I got my first job before I was an adult. I have not been
able to hold people in service of me accountable. Because of that, I have tipped, no matter how awful your service was, because as soon as I walk in the door, you know that as soon as I'm being as soon as you're being of service to me, I know that there is a chance that you've been schooled in this way to think I won't tip you that your mind. As soon as you saw me thought that guy or those guys, or that family or that group, thank you? Is it gonna tip?
The reason I'm finishing your sentences is because that's the same with me.
And it's not because I wasn't great at my job. It wasn't because I was rude and unattentive and apathetic in the way that I carried on. It's because they're black and they just don't tip. So I have never been able to in the way of withholding my tip because the service wasn't great, as a way of encouraging better service, I've never been able to do that because I never wanted to be associated with that stereotype. I never wanted to add credence. I never wanted to justify
the feeling that person has. I never wanted to prove anyone right to ever served me Somewhere, You've gotten a really good tip, not always because you were great, but because I refused to give credence to that. Yeah, that ignorance exactly. Now. I want to say something.
The the truth is that black people aren't the only one that this is associated with. This has been associated with a lot of different people throughout the years. Notably Jewish people, and it is unfair the time, but again to see it out in print like this or in a tweet feels a bit low even for her. Moving on,
you thought that was funny. North Carolina State Representative Jeff McNeely was asked, or sorry, asked North Carolina State Representative Abel Jones, who's not an athlete or a minority, would he have been able to attend Harvard? So here we have another one where.
The and this one.
I actually kind of feel bad about this guy, Jeff McNeely, because a lot of times conservative white men who get their news from one two sources that are also deeply conservative. Right, if you get your news from a very left leaning source, then sure. But the fact of the matter is that the truth has a liberal bias to it. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the people in this country have a liberal philosophy about them. The majority of human beings in their entirety or old enough
to vote. And the reason elections are competitive is because of things like Jerry Manderin, because of things like voter suppression, and because of things.
Like the.
Electoral College exactly. But that doesn't mean that we are a divided country. We are a liberal country. We are a liberal planet in fact.
Right.
But again, if you're this person and you get your news from this source, then it might appear as though.
You only know.
About the myths associated with.
Affirmative action.
And the myths associated with great replacement and deep state and all these weird things that you might believe are very true.
And if you believe them to be true.
That ignorance might manifest itself on the North Carolina House of Representatives floor when you ask out loud of your own mouth and then subsequently have to apologize a black representative, Able Jones, if he was not an athlete or a minority, would he have been able to attend Harvard. I want you to know that. When the representative of Able Jones responded, he said, when I graduated Harvard, I was in rank
number two, and so he earned his place there. So that feels like another sort of cheap shot that we've had to deal with this past week. But moving on, because there's a few more here. There was a recent story about a group of homeless veterans that were removed from a New York hotel to make room for migrants, and the story made waves through right wing media. Now this story has been proven to be false. According to
the mid Hudson News. Homeless men in the area said they were paid to pose as veterans and corroborate the false story to a local Chamber of commerce. The men identified the person who bribed them as Sharon Tony Finch. They said she has not paid them the two hundred
dollars they were promised for their role in the hoax. Okay, so let me back up a bit for those that maybe you don't find yourself on the bright bart sites and the again, these far right borderline Sorry, I can't even say borderline because qu's here.
Bona fide, hateful sites.
That perpetuate division in this country and attack anything that is even remotely humane.
This false story.
Was circulated to suggest that migrants were taking precedents over veterans. Now, mind you, this is the party on the right, Republicans that have voted to limit funding to the VA for veterans to and a lot of local elections and sorry, I'm the local political arenas around the country have pushed back against efforts to treat houseless people humanely, and a lot of them are veterans.
As well, right, they don't actually care. That's my point. It's good marketing to pretend you care. This is my point, you know, just like you know, we notice with the Blue Lives Matter movement, a lot of those people have moved to defund now as the slogan that they cry out because you know, do everything exactly the way I want you to do it, or you have no worth. It's kind of the subscription that they have subscribed to. And they pretend to honor, love, respect, and care about
our veterans. But there's no proof, like, there's zero proof, there's no statistics to back that as an idea. And you know who is actually or politically.
You know who is actually trying to push initiatives that actually do help benefit and fund the VA and benefit our veterans. Democrats? But who has the narrative at least they've been to fund law enforcements. Yeah, that too, But who has the narrative at least with their base, their voter base, the Republican I wish I wish their base got news from other sources.
I wish the base actually cared or it doesn't matter anymore. Once upon a time they would have needed to get some unbiased, unslanted news beyond the point now where that matters, even when the real news reported by them is awful. It's cool.
Yeah, we'll get to that in the second part of the show. All right, moving on Florida, here we go again. Florida now requires schools to teach AAPI history. How about that aa PI Asian American Florida, Florida, the state that just made it illegal to teach American.
History, how about that? Right? Why would they do such a thing? Round?
Well, real quick, AAPI, for those who don't know, stands for Asian, American and Pacific Islander.
Right.
So that is a very specific and indeed very small in terms of the numbers minority group in this country. Right now, Florida wants their history to be taught, which in and of itself we both would say, and I believe everyone should say, is amazing.
Right.
But the reason Florida is doing this, I'll explain. What they're trying to do is push the model minority myth. For those that are unfamiliar, Asian Americans are purported to be the model minority in the United States of America. Right, everyone should be like the Asians. Now, everyone does not have the history that Asian folks do. Everyone does not
have the constant opposition that Asian people have. Not to say the Asian people have not had their fair share of opposition, but indeed there's a longer history here with African American people, and the legacy of that history has profound implications even to this day. Plus there are a lot more black people in this country, and this country interacts with black people differently. We love our Aapi brothers
and sisters, and we always will. So this is never going to be a conversation of us versus them, because we're as far as I'm concerned, we're always on the same team. This is also an attempt to keep the racialized structure stable. Asians are used to triangulate and wedge a group between black people and white people, right, and really the state and the government and these far right Republicans gives.
Them someone to point to so that they can you go, there, you go.
What I have written says the same thing. It says to a to avoid accountability, that they can say that they aren't racist. We're not racist. Look at this group. We want their history taught right. So that's another thing that's happening. And then these last couple of things I really need to share with you. Florida State Bill seventeen eighteen was a pushback on immigration. I employ you to
look it up. But now Kansas is following Florida. Okay, So Kansas House Bill HB twenty three fifty attacks immigration. So Kansas governor vetoed this bill, but their House legislature passed it anyway by overriding the vetol goes intofect July first, and it makes it a level five felony to transport someone who's in the US illegally.
This is just racist nationalism for the sake of it all the way out as in a border state. On top of that, Kansas, what are they doing? Kansas?
They farm agriculture, so I don't know what they're going to do to keep that economy going or whatever the export from that place. But you need to know about this because we also stand with I'm from California, so I grew up with Mexican people from Mexico and from California. My children are half Mexicans, qu'es children are half Mexicans. So this will always be applied. This's near and dear to both.
Of our hearts. Get this last thing in about Texas.
University of Texas system is trying to ban educators from using the word racism up to and including jail time. There's even a hotline people can use to snitch on educators. They're planning on using six million dollars to implement and enforce this policy. Now, what does that remind you of? Fascism? And it's not just the University of Texas, it's not just Kansas, it's not just Florida. You need to be aware and hopefully we've made you a little bit more aware.