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, Ramsey's job.
He is Ramsey's job. I am q Ward. You are listening to Civic Scitem and.
We appreciate that we have a very special show in store for you. We're going to be discussing some things that have been coming up a lot lately. You know, we're watching Fox News discuss the uh shift away from Joe Biden in terms of black voters in favor of Donald Trump. And it's greatly exaggerated by the way, but you know it's it's not nothing. It's something we're talking about. And you know, Q and I got to talking, and you know, there's this question that exists in the world.
Are black people a monolith? And often it's used to like be very critical of black people and our votes and so forth. But today we're going to kind of answer that question and give our thoughts into kind of the value of being on the same page and how that works as a strategy, because there's certainly some other folks that adopt that strategy. For long term games rather than short term games, and so there's definitely something to
talk about there. In addition, we are going to take the second half of the show to distinguish between Republicans and conservatives. I feel like I'm guilty of this, but a lot of people are guilty of kind of conflating the terms. And there are some people who are conservatives that would not fit into the Republican party. And perhaps there are even some Republicans that really don't qualify as conservatives.
And so we're going to take some time to discuss both of those and a lot more on today's show. But before we get there, as always, let's start off the show with some ebony excellence, shall we? I think we shall.
Today's Ebony Excellence sponsored by Actively Black. There is greatness
in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com. This is from the BI in Georgia, Institute of Technology's first black graduate handed his granddaughter her diploma during her graduation from the school, decades after his historic achievement, and the video posted on Instagram, Georgia Tech graduate Deanna Yancey hugged her grandfather, Ronald Yansey, the school's first black graduate, for he gave her her degree during a commitment ceremony earlier this month.
The recent graduate earned a master's degree in Electoral, electrical and Computer engineering. Dana's achievement comes after her grandfather graduated from Georgia Tech in June nineteen sixty five. According to the university officials, Georgia Tech was the first college in the Deep South to integrate amicably and without a court order. Welcoming black students began in nineteen sixty one. However, Ronald Yancey previously said his role to getting accepted into the
university was not easy. Yancey said he was told not quote he did not fit the Tech model for success end quote, after he wasn't admitted into.
The school twice in the nineteen sixties.
A sculpture was built in twenty nineteen in honor of Yancey's historic achievement as the first black graduate in school history. Earlier this month, Yancey and his granddaughter smiled for pictures after he handed her her diploma. Hashtag we can do that quote, the university captioned a video for this full circle moment. We spoke recently about looking forward to the time where first black will stop being a thing. But here we are celebrating once again the first black to achieve something.
Well.
I love the fact that there's some legacy in this sty Oh no, I mean yeah, it's very special. Now our black people a monolith.
Go. I've noticed something.
More in the last let's say decade than at any point in my life prior, and that is the need for black people specifically, I'll say minorities in general, but black people specifically, to distinguish ourselves, to point out the diversity and our experience, the diversity and our talents, the diversity and our thoughts, the diversity and our intellect, and
the diversity in our position. With regard to politics, I've seen those who have a desire to stand up part rather than be seen as followers or sheep or taking part in group think. Not just exclaim that we are not aman the lith but try to urge or divest us from things that in some cases would be in our benefit, just for the sake of not subscribing to group think, just for the sake of not following what
seems to be a trend. Mean most notably those of us calling for black people to stop being so loyal to.
The Democratic party.
I don't like to speak about that and then just move on, because there's definitely some merit to the position that they take. But I think it's irresponsible to not have a suitable replacement in a zero sum game. To say, let's divest from the Democratic Party and go over here to this other party as if they've done tremendous amount of things that are to our benefit. I think is irresponsible,
And in a lot of cases, that's the solution. They're not coming to us saying no political party should just have our support forever, while not doing anything to move our agenda forward. They are saying, don't give it to that party, give it to this one. And in this country where the other choice has now become the Maga party, what is it that you're suggesting? Right, so, we have now created a subgeneration of contrarians with no actual cause.
There's not something that they actually support. It's just let's not do the thing that everybody else is doing. Okay, I feel you, Okay, So what should we do instead? And that's that question is typically followed up with a bunch of straw men, not just straw man, but almost ridiculous counter objectives. There's no direction to point us to that's better. Let's just not do that because we've always
done it right. And as much as I think that because we've always done it is not a reason to continue to if you're suggesting we do something different, point us towards something that's better. You know, the strength of black people in this country always came from us having the same agenda, and I think that that's why post civil rights movement you've seen a lot of progress, because there is this need to prove how diverse we are,
and I think it's necessary. It's the reason why this conversation is so complicated is because we don't want to be lumped together always. We don't want for there to be people who feel like they speak for all of us.
But in certain instances, especially with regards to politics in this country, there needs to be an agenda that we all kind of take up arms and support because those that oppose us are very, very singular in their thought and if you're paying attention at all, which is which makes this so frustrating to watch what the other side of the aisle is doing legislatively, because they're not sneaking around anymore.
They're doing these things right.
In our faces, with regards to women's rights, with regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion, with regards to their rebranding and stealing of the idea of critical race theory. UH seeing what they're doing with actual American history to whitewash and get rid of things that make them uncomfortable or that hurt people's feelings. We are watching a party try to erase us from history and the future and the future, to perpetually subjugate, to perpetually step on everything that's progressive
for us. And those that we look to, those that we celebrate, those who we support, are now taking up a stance of endorsing even one of the worst people in the history of our political system, excluding no one. I'm saying the worst, knowing how things were one hundred years ago. I still consider him one of the worst, even in comparison to those who came long before him.
And and and thought leaders, cultural leaders take up.
A position of I'm just not going to endorse anyone again, something that I consider irresponsible because we are not at a place we're abstaining has any benefit, you know. I wish that we could wave a magic wand and fix our political system I do. We unfortunately do not have such a magic wand and by abstaining, by just throwing up our hands, a person like Donald Trump can become
the president of the United States. A person like Donald Trump can appoint multiple lifelong Supreme Court justices to support
his agenda. A person like Donald Trump, while being on trial, while being indicted, while being charged in both criminal and civil court, can be on the cusp of becoming the president again while saying out loud that he wants to be a dictator, and while so called patriots are showing up to his rallies saying they're okay with that too, while saying that he feels like as president he should have full immunity to do whatever he wants, and saying
open eyed adult Americans are on camera and otherwise saying yeah, I'm okay with that. It is a very very scary time to be in a position where I'm a part of a group that our political system does not serve. That's the part that's important to say, and that makes the conversation so difficult to have everybody who wants to throw up their hands and just say I'm done with this.
Like you get it.
You can't trying to make the argument against why they feel that way as a A p flub is what we used to call it when there's no solution to a problem. They are voting for a party that makes promises that it doesn't deliver on. They are participating in a system that that doesn't serve them. They are being lied to every cycle by candidates who don't deliver on their promises. People are not It's not their imagination. They're not making up these slights. They are participating in a
system that's rigged against them. That's true with both sides, except one side makes it not worse for all of us, and the supporters on that side a delusion, Okay, they don't understand that the system is working against them.
They can conceive of it somehow working for them.
Ultimately, the group that I'm speaking of has been participating in favor of a group that is not doing what it said it would do to help and support them, and they're they are now saying, either I won't participate, or I'll participate for the side who's going to make things.
Way worse for me.
I want to I want to jump in here if I can. I don't want to be disingenuous, because I know that there are people that will listen and say, you know, like I was saying that, well, no, that's true of both sides. You know, both parties do that, and you know, fair point point taken. The thing is is that we're going to be able to make this point a lot more clearer in the second part of the show, where we will uh run through a thought
experiment and we'd love for you to participate. But I imagine, you know, the country was divided into two parts, and which part would do better and which part would not uh, And then you'll be able to see the point that Q is making here, which is that there's a there's a particular group of this people on the right, I'll say it, that is a lot more convinced that things could work for them maybe one day and it just won't versus folks on this side who really feel, like, sincerely,
like it's the lesser of two evils in doing this. Things don't get worse. Maybe we can take a baby step here and there. And that's kind of.
What's even more sad, is that things could get worse in both cases.
It's just extreme.
Yeah, any other a lot more extreme. That's the that's the sad part. We can't even we can't even get on here because we want to rams and I would love to get on here and tell you that you have one option that's excellent or that's even or that's even good, and we can't. Now, there is data that supports very clearly. It's not even subjective. There's objective data that shows one side is better than the other. Yeah, that means great for us, that mean great in general.
But it's great for democracy. Yeah, I don't even know that. I mean, it's democracy still, it's still democracy. Yeah, I don't even know about great for democracy. But it's democracy.
That's what that's what we're not.
We're not saying get rid of the Constitution because it doesn't serve me, and then having millions of Americans say, yeah, let's do that to support our guide like it's really turned into something.
And that's and that's that's the funny part, because these are the people that you know, love to bring up you know, the intention of the Founding Fathers and you know the Second Amendment. They don't know, you know, the Bill of Rights, they don't know the Preamble to the Constitution, they don't know all that sort of stuff, but they know Second Amendment, they know you know, founding Father the God. Yeah, now I know all this stuff by heart because I
went to fourth grade. But but but a lot of these people that goes right out the window as soon as they start talking about you know, their their candidate that they're running right now. So I know what you're saying. First thing, though, I want to kind of respond.
We had a.
Message and a donation from a listener because of your thoughts last week. They were brilliant and masterful.
I think that's a stretch.
Yeah, well, according to the listener, they were, and then he was very moved by that. He listens to us on will f M Black Black Sheep Radio, and I think that you had another run today. It's just you
kind of nail it to the wall. One of the things that I want to feed you, just to kind of see what else comes from this moment, is that I think that if we were to think about black people in the whole country at some point in the future, thirty fifty years in the future, right, the population has shifted in an optimal scenario where all of the time that we need for all the progress that we want, or a good amount of the progress that we want has come to pass, and now we're in this more
utopian society where everyone is just doing better and everyone has a better go at things. At that point, it might make more sense for people to have black people in particular, to have to lean into their they're different experiences, right, Well, I grew up this way, Well, I believe these things. Well, I like this candidate, right, And there's a little bit more diversity in terms of your political persuasion because a lot of the foundational boxes that we need checked have
been checked in this ideal scenario right now. However, we're still traveling towards that reality, and so having a singular vision and a singular focus makes more sense until we get to that point in the future where we can be more nuanced in terms of our experience in these United States of America. Right now, one of the things that we need to come to terms within this country, it comes to terms with the fact that we're black. And statistically, a lot of stuff, bad stuff affects black
people more. And it's not because black people are bad because of circumstances, systems, stories, etc.
That have privileged white.
People and have harmed black and brown people, all of which we've delineated and explained on this show. So with that in mind, what do you think.
It's very difficult not to be discouraged about the possible utopia, right like it seems no, no, yeah, And I understand it seems to be something that's unrealistic, and that's kind of where this splintering happens. And again, I think we think there is power and not participating. I'm not going to keep giving my support to these people who are not going to do for me. And what we don't understand is that we have to survive. Even times like this where there seems to be no solution that's great
for us, we have to survive it. Participating makes that very difficult.
That the the.
A lot of the narrative and a lot of the kind of out loud logic that I'm hearing now is similar to the first time Trump ran for president.
I hear people.
Saying out loud, almost dismissively, like he doesn't have a chance to win this thing again, and it's like, Yeah, what world have you guys been living in? Sure, he's always had a more inflated ego and a grander, you know, delusion of himself than what's actual. But what is actual is that that man ran for president and became president for four years, and.
He was an awful president. People like to throw.
Political victories at us, all the great things he did for black people in for the country.
There aren't many.
Things that yeah, yeah, things that happened while he was the president that benefited anyone that wasn't rich, wasn't on purpose.
Right.
It's like someone's in your house and it catches on fire and you put it out. You put it out to save your house. You didn't put out to save that person. That person might feel like you're their hero, and it's like it didn't have nothing to do with you. Yeah, you benefited from that by mistake.
Yeah yeah.
There was nothing I could have done to just let the whole thing burn down. So yeah, you live here, so yeah, I guess that thing helped you. But there was nothing that that man did intentionally to help you. And by you, I mean anyone who's listening, no matter how you vote, no matter where you're from, no matter your status, there's nothing he did to benefit you. He did things to benefit himself, his friends. He didn't even do things to directly benefit his base on purpose. So
it's you know, we need some munity and thought. We need some unity and intention. We need some unity and action. And right now is not the time to flex how diverse we are. Right now, it's not the time to show how much of a follower you aren't and how much of an individual.
Thinker you are.
That's just a flex that you get to look like the cool person in your social group, and you don't look cool. Collectively, we need to do something together, even if that's just survive another four years while we keep trying to figure this thing out. But not participating and or going to the other side is not the answer. I don't know how to say it more plainly than that, even I don't even know how to like sound motivating. The alternative is bad, like historically bad, like no more democracy bad.
I'm not being hyperbolic.