Broadcasting from the hip Hoplicly Studios. I'd like to welcome you back to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I am your host, Ramsey's job.
He is Ramsey's job. I am q Ward. You are hopefully happily listening.
To Civic Cipher. Yeah, I hope you are too. We have a great show in store for you. There's a lot of things that we want to talk about, and we will ultimately talk about, but this episode, we feel like that we've heard and seen so much nonsense online that.
We're lots lots of misinformation.
Yeah, yeah, So we're going to take this episode and we're going to discuss the rights attack on Kamala Harris and decide whether or not that's well founded.
I love hearing you say Kamala, not Kamala, as our former presidence says. I know that I mispronounced names wrong all the time. Not on purpose, though, yeah, but I feel like, yeah, he does it on purpose, He doesn't intentionally. All of us just pronounced people's names all the time. But I was going to get this one right. So Kamala Harris.
But yeah, the right has these really strange attacks on her, some of them really gross, some of them are just not They're unfounded.
And unfortunately not all by the right.
Yeah, and we're going to share what those attacks are. And then for the second part of the show, we are going to discuss the black attack on Kamala Harris. And these are some things that you know, it's important for you to know about because there are some people who would listen to voices be critical of Kamala Harris if those voices were black voices, because then it removes
the racial bias. So these are potential allies listening to their black black people they look up to, and if those black people are then critical of Kamala Harris, then those allies might think I should be critical of Kamala Harris too, And a lot of their arguments are unfounded as well. And so we're going to go through a lot of the things you might have seen online in today's episode. But before we get there, going to start off, as always with some Ebony excellence, shall we?
I think you shall.
Today's Ebony Excellence sponsored by Actively Black. There is greatness in our DNA visit actively black dot com shout to actively Black. They are in Paris for the Olympics right now as they worthy apparel builder for Team Nigeria. This story comes from ESPN. The smile of Simone Boos's face at the end of her floor routine said it all as she blew kisses to a crowd erupting in USA Chance, it was clear that her score on the event was
merely a formality. Performances by Bios and the United States teammates and United States teammates Sunissa Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey throughout Tuesday's women's gymnastics team final had left little doubt about the outcome. But moments after the twenty seven year old Boughs walked off the floor at Bursary Arena as the final gymnast on the final venom the night, her score of fourteen points six sixty six flashed on
the screen and made it official. The US team had won the gold medal and were back on top of the gymnastics world yet again. With the final total of one seventy one point two ninety six, the Americans defeated Italy, the silver medalists, by nearly six points, and there was an almost seven point gap to bronze medalists Brazil. It was the fourth time that American women have claimed gold
in the event, but the first since twenty sixteen. The gold medal follows a surprising silver finish in Tokyo three years ago, when Biles ultimately withdrew from the competition. Competition following Vault, the team's first event due to the Twisties. With Biles, Chiles, and Lee returning to the team and with Carrie having been in Tokyo as an individual competitor, they had all talked about redemption and wanting to prove themselves and the world what they were capable of doing together.
They contemplated calling themselves the Redeemed Team, but ultimately just decided to let their gymnastics do the talking. And this time everything was different and it is great to see the goat back on top, covering from the twisties.
Talk to him, Okay, the rights attack attacks plural on Kamala Harris. So one of the things that we hear a lot is.
What is her record as a politician?
Now, I want to share with you something and putting together this episode, we took some content from social media, right because you've undoubtedly come across a lot of people sharing content talking about how Kamala Harris locks up black people for weed charges and how Kamala Harris is not black and all kinds of weird stuff, right, And I'll be honest, even some of that stuff I fell for.
Now.
That's not to say that Kamala Harris is a perfect person. I cannot say that. And the most perfect person for any job is Ramsay's in Ramses's opinion.
Important to say when you say you fail for it, because I think this is very very important context, just to help our listeners understand how similar they are to even us. And we do this all the time when we felt susceptible to some of these same lies. We were looking for the perfect candidate, just like you are right, And what that does to us is we cannibalize each other, We poke holes in one another, We hold each other under such high levels of scrutiny that no one lives
up to it. And those that oppose us do not do such a thing. So it kind of handicaps us. As in these cases, while we're looking for perfect they've already accepted all the flaws of their candidate. Not only that, but they fortified them they've made that person impenetrable and pregnable and undefeatable, that you can't say anything wrong because not only do they know it, but they accept it and they praise it, and it's kind of there. They
turned it into a rallying cry. So when you say you fail for it, that you were duped, it was like, Okay, yeah, this is another reason why she's not the perfect candidate. This is who I would vote for. And in a lot of cases, some people are not out to hate her, they're just looking for ideal and unfortunately we cannot afford to be idealist. We have to be on the realist
and on the side of what's best for us. So when you say you fail for it too, it wasn't because you were susceptible to conspiracy or easy to dupe. It was you're just like some of our listeners. You wanted us to have the best candidate possible. So anyone poking a hole in the case of the candidate that you didn't have at the top of your list without even researching, you just grab a hold to that point and say, Okay, that's what I need, that's what I needed.
Yes, so let me give you that and let me give everyone this just so that you understand how susceptible all of us are to these sorts of things. Yes, now little different. I'm gonna give you some context. When Kamala Harris first ran for president, I was all the way in the deep end for Bernie Sanders, right politically, like so for people that say, oh, you're just voting for her because she's black, Bernie's not black. Bernie was talking the way that I wanted a candidate to talk.
And Kamala Harris, this is what I thought at the time because this was what was shared online, right, so I fall for it too. As much of a journalist as I try to be, Kamala Harris was locking up all the black people.
This also I thought, very early in our journalist journey.
That's fair, and that's fair.
But that's what I thought, yes, and then now that but Bernie was my guy, so there was no way I was picking anyone else. I wasn't picking Joe Biden until Joe Biden was the only choice.
And it was also easy to believe that a prosecuting attorney would that comes with the joke, lock someone up, even if it wasn't specifically black. Okay, that's what she does for a living. So yeah, that makes makes sense. I don't really rock with the police law like that. So Bernie said, wasn't saying that? And she was.
So that was a very simple choice for me. Right.
But now that I have to have a critical examination and there's no Bernie Sanders around, it's just her or Donald Trump. Now that I'm forced to really look at what happened there, I end up with a show like Today's show, and again where online you might find some folks that are saying, Kamala Harris did this, and Kamala Harris did that. I promise you on today's show, Ramses.
Did the research. Q did the research.
So we got something for you, and we will cite as many of our sources as we can. But we do know that, you know, we're radio broadcasters with a lot of this stuff lives in an online space, so we're responding in kindness. We are going to share some videos with you of some folks who started us on our research journey and they gave us the places to look.
And you can do your due diligence. Absolutely have to just take our word for it, but here we go. We're going to start with, what is her record as a politician. This is a primary attack on the right.
So let's go.
I don't need politicians to state things. I need politicians to do things. This message for Amanda Sales and Amanda Sials only central a lot of questions about things that Common and our team have done. I figured I take de liberty to outline some of the bills to see
introduced when she was a senator. The COVID Bias An Anti Racism Act of twenty twenty, Water for Tomorrow Act of twenty twenty, Improving Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Bill to Save Our Street Act, Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act, Closing the Mill Gap Act of twenty twenty, The Black Maternal Health Act of twenty twenty. That's a good one. The Accountability for Utilities Executive Act. Now that one stopped people
from getting golden parachutes. If the utility company was going through a merger, acquisition, or bank receive of any conc they.
Couldn't get paid out. And everybody's got let go.
The Ending Homelessness Act of twenty nineteen. Then we got the hold on. Wait minute, it's a hold on. I can't read that well, you get the point though. Honestly, it's signed for a new class of influencers, those that find more answers than ask questions, those that care about the communities and providing the information and factual data. I'm tired of the contraller and rhetoric I've seen on this app from our own people when it comes to politics, and it's time for something.
New, Okay, So we want to give credit to this.
Uh So, Isaac Hayes posted that the guy's name was easy shot oh four, and I think that might have been from a TikTok. I'm not sure that's but Isaac Hayes the third that was on his instagram.
So you can start there.
And then find a sure way backwards. So so they just leaving the footprints for you to go back. But obviously he said as much can fit in a TikTok, and then toward the end he's like, I can't read that fast. You couldn't see it. But visually there were just more and more things, a.
Bunch of bills that she either sponsored or authored that were beneficial to marginalized community all over this country.
This is her record as a politician. Again, these are attacks from the right. Another attack from the right is what has she done as vice president? We have another video that we're going to share here, and this is
just this. This comes from Doo Hughley, and there's rather more in this video than just what she's done for his level of self accountability and honesty with regards to our vice president exactly because what you're about to hear is this makes it okay to say, you know what, I might have been wrong if indeed you are one of those people that has been like in my comments
saying Ramses, what are you talking about? I'm talking about. Look, we can't give this country over to Project twenty twenty five and another and foremost and another Trump presidency, right because then we're fixed in that lock and step into that direction in perpetuity and the rest of my life will look like that.
You know what I mean?
I'm about how way through probably more than that. You know, I'm black, so I die young.
There's two things with the point that you just made that have become more and more uncomfortable for me daily. One of them is the there have been a benefit of the doubt extended to every vice president ever, and then now with her it's she's done nothing as vice president, which you don't have to do any research.
You know, that's not true.
There's nobody who done nothing as vice president, even Mike Pence, who neither of us would support. But the idea that someone got to the second highest office in the country and did nothing, it's not a vacation, you know, and just hang out and you're not just a chilling. And secondly, those both sides of the argument. People who are suggesting that, well, you know, both parties feel like this could be the last election. Well one party saying that, and they have
a plan and have a plan to make that the truth. So, like, we got to stop with this rhetoric, all.
Right, So let's let's get to this, and I want you to listen for what has she done as VP? Because he it's really brief and really shortened on much longer conversation, but it's there.
So let's fire this one off.
Tamala Harris did not, in fact lock up the thousands of people that I said she did. I told that like, and I have apologized to it. Not only have I apologized, I've said to her, not only am I going to keep apologizing because I think it did that much damage. I am going to do what I can do to make sure you become the forty seven. At this time, I said, I said to her, when I apologize, I'm going to make sure you get elected. I didn't say
re elected, I said elected and now here. It is that opportunity to me, that is divine, That is supposed to something that's supposed.
To have happened.
If you are the people right now who are misquoting her record, we are not the same. If you believe that her locking people up from weed is worse than a man who says he wants to give a dope talers the definitely we are not the same. If you want me to remember her past but not Trump's past, were not the same. If you want to re mind me of her record but don't want to talk about
Project twenty twenty five. Have you ever know the same black people that want to tell you she sold all these weed and locked all these people up, I'll tell you that they don't believe the twenty twenty five is Trunk's planned for a second for a second term.
There is a reason for that.
If you're telling me you're not gonna vote for her, because she has a white husband, then we're not the same. But if you're going to say she has a white husband, you better have a black wife when you say it. Don't tell me that somebody's Ladin or Asian. I think that's that shouldn't be a predicate the predicant anyway. But if you are accusing her malet the choices, you better make sure yours are in line with the actors accusations you made. We are not the same. If these are, Well,
she ain't black enough. I'll tell you what. She's a black woman. She went to Oakland. She's from Oakland. She went to an HPCU. She's an Aka. She had a boyfriend named Willie, and she got a name. First name is hard for everybody pronounce. It sounds different than it's failed. That's black enough for me. But what I do know for sure is that she can win if we decide it is so. And if that is not your goal, we are not the same. Your we and my wei are not the same.
Well, she is she? She everything else? I don't care about none of that. I ain't got time to terry.
What I'm trying to do is to make sure that I make good on something I wrong this woman. I lied on her and hurt her reputation. And if you tell me, where was she at for four years, you idiot? She is the vice president of the United States of America, and the vice presidency is a ceremonial position.
It's a ceremonial.
Positions and your job as vice president is to do what the president says. You think that ain't true, getting most of that, your job to start talking bad about your boss. See see how that works out. You a vice anything, and you think you would tell the president what to do. It was a ceremonial position she did when she was supposed to. Being mad at a vice president would be like being mad as a backup quarterback because the quarterback through an interception.
And you know that to be true.
You are saying all these things because whatever you have on your mind, whatever your mindset is, it is not the same as mine. I don't begrudge you for how you feel, but I ain't got time to play with you. My goal is to make right something I did wrong. It is to make sure I keep my word, and I am going to do all I can to make sure that she becomes a black women age woman and AI and P. I know that she's going to be I'll tell you what. She's black enough to be called
a DEI hired by inferior white man. She's black enough for her for them to challenge her intellect. She's black enough for them to call her promiscuous and say she slept her way to the top. So if you think that those things matter to you.
We are not the same. I'm not going to be what it is you are, and I'm.
Not gonna have time to argue with you back and forth on the internet, because unlike you, I believe I am my sister's keeper.
Okay, so listen Vice Presidency ceremonial position.
Appointed pointed by the President. The voice you heard, however, Bill Hughley posted by Joane Reid.
Also want to let you know that we will talk about the quote unquote thousands of black men that she supposedly locked up, and we will talk about what she's done for black people. So stay tuned for that. But right now, while we're here, I wanted to make sure that we answered those two questions about her record as a politician, what she's done as VP, because right now
these are specific to just the rights attacks on her. Now, these are all things that we had to confirm, and if it's not confirmed yet, well we'll have it for you in the second half of the show.
Those that are able to listen.
Now we shift over to Time Magazine and you can just google Time dot com and it'll.
All be there. Disgusting, by the way.
Okay, So Time Magazine has an article where they go through a lot of claims that are made against Kamala Harris that are shared widely on the right. And if you're one of those people that comes across this, you might want to re examine your algorithm because you might be being served bad information. But these are fact checked by Time Magazine, which is a bigger and longer standing institution than they've been around before. Me and you both born put together, right you? So they they they're not
playing with this. So I trust journalistically credible sources in doing this show here and Q is we're the same here indeed. All right, So the claim in this, according to Time Magazine, the claim is that Kamala Harris got her start by having an affair with a married man, California politician Willie Brown, and this is what kind of led that guy on Fox News to say she was the original hawk to a girl, which is that's just.
A mess thing to say.
Now, when we look at she's she's older than we are, so we look at her and we no matter what, we'll have a degree of reverence for her. That's just kind of how it works around here. That was foul for him to say that, But it doesn't matter how I feel. The facts are that again, it's from Time magazine. This is missing some important context. Brown was separated from his wife during the relationship, which was not a secret.
Brown ninety is a former mayor of San Francisco who was serving as Speaker of the California State Assembly in the nineteen nineties when he and Harris were in a relationship. Not sleeping or way to this up. They were in a relationship. Brown had separated from his wife in nineteen eighty two.
Their relationship was in the nineteen nineties. He got separated eight years prior to nineteen ninety.
All right, He.
Wrote that he supported Harris's first race to be San Francisco District Attorney, just as he had supported a long list of other California politicians, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Senator Diane Feinstein and Governor Gavin Newsom. Harris fifty nine, was state attorney general from twenty eleven to twenty seventeen and served in the Senate from twenty seventeen until twenty one, when she became Vice president. She has been married to
Doug m Hoff since twenty fourteen. Harris's critics have used the past relationship to question her qualifications as Fox News personality to Tommy Lauren, Tommy Lauren, Tommy Lawn, that's what I thought, Okay, when did when she wrote on social media in twenty nineteen, quote, Kamala, did you fight for ideals or did you sleep your way to the top with Willy Brown unquote? Lauren later apologized for the comment.
Trump and some of his supporters have also highlighted the nearly three decade old relationship in recent attacks on Harris. I want to add one more thing here, which is that we saw the appointments that Willie Brown quote unquote gave her to advance her career, and everything that was reported on this is simply her being appointed to committees because that was the job that she did and she had the qualifications to do that job. Now I want to add one last thing here, because this is particular
insulting for all women. People date who's close to them. The number one predictor of success in a relationship is proximity. And you tend to be close to people that share your passion, share your work, share your work schedule, and are generally speaking more or less around the same age and have the same sort of viability, right, And so dating people in the workplace is not uncommon. She didn't advance her career. She got committee positions. I think two
of those, and that's it. So this narrative is hurtful and gross and foul. I got to get through these last couple real quick. Another claim is that Harris is not an American citizen and therefore cannot serve as commander in chief, and the facts is completely false. Harris is a natural born US citizen. She was born in October twenty, nineteen sixty four, in Oaktown, according to a copy of
her birth certificate obtained by the Associate Press. Another claim, an inside addition clip of television hosts Montell Williams holding hands with Harris and another woman is proof that Harris was his quote side piece. The facts the clip shows Montel with Harris and his daughter, Ashley Williams. Harris and Williams and Montell, Williams's daughter were in the photo together, and people, it just looks because he's holding both of their hands.
It looks because his.
Daughter is like kind of tall and so people.
I mean, she's an adult.
He's with two adult women that he loves, his daughter, the other one was the person he was in a relationship with at the time.
And then there's also other things, you know, please check out the article, but there's like all kinds of stuff floating around online where it makes her look like she's unintelligent. She's like rambling on about things like she doesn't know what she's talking about. Those are edited. There's a ton of gripes associated with this. I'm short on time here, but a lot of these Republican attacks on Kamala Harris are entirely fabricated, and they're not based in a morally
just reality or indeed reality period. And that's just the people in the middle.
Acting in good faith and just a point of clarification. When I said oak Town, I'm in Oakland, California, California, I say there it is, So we're going to be back, obviously with more because the black attack is real and we definitely have to talk about that too,