Just tuned in a civic cipher. I'm your host, Ramsy's job. He is Rams' job.
I mq ward. You are listening to Civic sciph.
From ged you are, and we still got a lot more show in store for you, So be sure to stick around because we are going to take a moment to engage with the comments section on our Instagram which, by the way, if you are on Instagram, do us a favor, follow us at civic cipher, leave us a kind comment, something supportive, Just support us. You know, we could use the support there also on TikTok and other places where a civic cipher everywhere, but Instagram is a place where we get the most pushback.
Everywhere else's people's.
Teen diagram is particularly negative. Yeah, it seems that we only get engagement in the way of comments from people who sit opposed to us.
There's tons of likes, but all the comments areve so, but we're going to respond to some of them. Give you some talking points in case you have people like that in your life. But before we get there, let's discuss be becoming a better ally. Today's BOBA was sponsored by Friends of the Movement to support black businesses and allied businesses sign up for the free voter wallet from Fotmglobal dot com and make an impact with your spending. Again,
that's Fotmglobal dot com. All right, So today we're talking about something you can do with the NAACP.
I will read a bit.
The student debt crisis has a disproportionate impact on black borrows and their families. It is up to us to continue to fight to cancel student debt. President Biden made a promise to cancel student debt for forty million people. Luckily he has several tools to deliver on debt relief inaction is not an option. The repayment pause ended on October first, twenty twenty three, and let it be known, the Department of Education data shows returning to repayment without
cancelation will be even worse. Make no mistake, The NAACP continues to pursue the cancelation of at least fifty thousand dollars of debt per borrower as repayment approaches. We are excited to be a part of this Save on Student Debt, a national campaign to spread the word about saving on a valuable education plan. And if you want to participate, you can go to the NAACP dot com. You can send a petition. You can also donate to help fund these efforts to make sure that we can move past this.
And for those of you that know, you know this will sound kind of redundant. But for those that don't know, a lot of the issues that come up with some frequency in terms of black stories, a lot of those issues have to do with poverty and debt and lack of access to fiscal opportunities. Money makes pretty much everything better, and so that's why there's a big push for reparations.
And that's why canceling student debt is particularly of particular interest to black people because, as I mentioned, disproportionately impacts black and brown families on the comments. So cute talk to me, because once upon a time I had you signed up for our social media stuff, and you had to turn that off, right.
So, once upon a time an administrator for our social media directly our Civic Cipher Instagram page, and after a few hours of seeing the type of engagement we got, I had to log out of it and get rid of it. I am not bulletproof. Some may know this part of my story, some may not, But I was I took a four year hiatus from social media, not four hours, not four weeks, not four months, four years
because I don't like the word victim. But I was subject to thousands of really really negative online attacks from complete strangers because of some things happening in my personal life. And I mean tens of thousands, And I am not that person. Like there's a lot of people who don't care, they could care less and they could laugh at that stuff.
I am not one of those people. So I had to and I regret this now because I had a really, really great level of engagement going with some really incredible people that I haven't seen since, so I have not been able to reconnect with those people. But being subjected to those levels of negativity drove me off of social media completely. I won't let that happen to me this time. I'll just remove myself from being in rooms and spaces
where I'm not comfortable. And that's not just on social media, that's in real life.
Here.
If you attack me in any way, I'm not going to attack you back, especially if you're somebody I care about. There's no fight back. I don't have a point to prove. I'm not trying to be right. I just throw my hands up and remove myself and the type of engagement that we get to things that seem so straightforward and decently. If you listen to this show, you'll see that even when I'm upset, I'm not radical. I don't go to any extremes about anything. I don't praise our current president
or former. I voted for Barack Obama, but I didn't get a tattoo. I don't have a Barack Obama flag on my house. I don't have a ten foot Barack Obama cardboard cutout. He did not become a deity to me. He was just the president and one of the most decent in my lifetime. I'm talking about as a person.
I am not a political correspondent. I cannot rate the level of politician really that any of our legislators are right, because all of them tend to have a position that's more about corporate interest and fiscal benefits to themselves and their constituency than to the people that vote for them
and put them in office. So I really don't. I'm not a big fan of politicians in general, because they all say a lot of really amazing things to get elected, and sin seem to get to what do they call it when you forget amnesia once they get in office. That seems to be the truth on both sides of the aisles. So I have to just get to the idea of decency, and I mean the idea because I
don't know any of these people personally. Like to those of you that get in our dms and message us like fiery and angry and support of the former president, that's weird. He doesn't know you or care about you, and he's shown you that he doesn't care about you, but he also doesn't know you. And for those of you that know me that reach out to me on behalf of this weird stranger, that's I won't say that's weird because I think weirdo is a compliment, so I can't even call you weird.
That's just bizarre.
Yeah, right, So you know it's interesting, man. I had to not only remove myself and as an administrator, but I had to mute the page because I'm tagged in most of our post so I get all the comments and I'm just not here for it. So we can talk about some of the comments that we get. You can start us on whatever track you want. Yeah, let's do it, because I definitely have some that pop right to the top of my mind. So yeah, yeah, let'st So again we're sharing these with you.
We're going to respond to them, because we don't really respond in the comments section we have. We're on seventy eighty radio somewhere in their radio stations. Every week, we have thousands of followers. You know what I'm saying, Like, there's no sense in need tongue wrestling with or thumb wrestling with someone in the comment section. But again, we recognize and respect the fact that as a listener, you might have people in your world that feel this way.
So one of the comments came up on a video that Q posted recently where he was talking about there was a conservative gentleman who was attacking a black woman who was trying to fund other women of colors businesses and startups. Attacked her because because of that she's trying to fund women of color. So it's crazy. Yeah, So one of the comments says, what about Oprah, Michael Jordan,
jay Z, Lil Wayne, et cetera. Maybe if you work as hard as they did instead of complaining and playing the victim, you'd have power as well.
So I do that.
How many people did he named, he said, Oprah, Michael Jordan, Jay z Lil Wayne, et cetera.
Okay, for those four people, you people should just shut up and be happy because this is a meritocracy and all that takes is hard work. Right.
Yeah, So so let me let me give you something, some food for thought, just in case something like this comes up in your world. So what are these people have in common, Oprah, Michael Jordan, jay z Lil Wayne. Well, they're all celebrities working entertainment. Okay, Entertainment is a very very very very very very very very small field. We
work in entertainment. It's very small, very competitive. I was watching a video you might have shared it with me, where there was a gentleman explaining how every year there might be a million children that want to go to the NBA, but ultimately seven people are drafted into the NBA something like that every every year or something. I'm not sure exactly what the numbers, but it's a very small amount of number of people that get drafted into
the to the year, more than seven. But wait whatever, whatever, it's so there's like a million people that want to play and it ends up being like or on a team. I think it's four people on a team something like that in an area. So all of these million kids are all competing for the these well, the number was seven. I just I can't quote the video directly, but it was. That's the number he used. So I'm not sure how he was explaining it. But you have all these kids
competing for what was effectively seven full time jobs. And oh no, sorry there was I forgot the number of what you said, but it was the job lasts for seven years on average.
That was the number seven. Okay, so forgive me.
But the long and short of it is, there's a million kids that want to play in the NBA, and the number of jobs that are available is very small.
They draft in the two rounds about sixty four players a year.
There you go, So you have sixty four jobs, and then I think some of them only last seven years or something like that.
So in terms of like a full career for your life, there's only a handful of those million people that will actually end up.
With that job.
Well, the same holds true with the rest of the entertainment business. That's sports entertainment, but the rest of the entertainment business. So you're going to look at people who, yes, have worked hard. But as you know, hard work isn't the only thing that goes into this and sports in particular, you need like some sort of genetic advantage, you need the right sort of guidance, you need to be free
of all the encumbrances that comes along with that. And then the truth is you have to be in the top zero point zero, zero zero whatever percent of the athletes. So it doesn't really matter how hard you work. There's people that work day in and day out and day in and day out that will never go to the If I wanted to work all day, I'm five foot eight of never going to the NBA. It doesn't matter
how hard I work. Right in terms of Oprah, In terms of Little Wayne, you know, there's these are people that are born with like natural gifts and they couple that with hard work. Right now, let's talk about something that makes a little bit more sense. You know, if we're talking about stem jobs, there might be one hundred thousand of those jobs available, right but what you need is people to show these kids who are born in environments.
So there's a great deal of hopelessness and not a lot in the way of access to those particular opportunities where you can and there's the opportunity to create that connective tissue and to shape those outcomes for those students, right, and then you start to have impact on the amount of income that comes into black households and black communities and so forth, and start changing the way that the world wire. And it's not just a matter of working hard.
It's a matter of what opportunities exist. And for those people that look at black people and say, well, you know, you got to stop selling drugs your own community, and you got to, you know, stop committing crimes and whatever, you're not accounting for the fact that desperate people and desperate circumstances do desperate things. This is a fundamental fact of humanity or really of any creature of life.
Definitely not limited to black people. I want to use an extreme example on purpose. There was a movie that came out years ago. I don't remember the name of it, but essentially a plane crashed in the mountains and it was freezing cold, oh and they started eating it. Eventually they ran out of food and cannibalized to survive. Not because they were awful, not because they were criminals, because
they were dying. It's we want to make it more complicated than that, because we want to have a clear moral compass when we make decisions that continually and perpetually disenfranchise other people. We don't want to be seen as bad people. And I don't know why I'm saying we because I don't fit into that group. But that group they defend those principles and those ideals so hard so
they can sleep at night. Yeah right, There's no way that I'm responsible or partly responsible, or even participating in a system that's responsible for causing these people to be oppressed and poor and homeless. It has to just be because they're black and criminal and lazy. Oh yeah, that's it. It's not and at some point we have to accept that that's not the case. This gentleman used, or this young lady whoever used? Jay Z and Lila Wayne ass
right where the greatest of all time at what they do? Right, I have two examples to point to, because Chris Rock made a joke about this at one point, jay Z and Mary J. Blige being his neighbors. Their neighbor was a white dentist He didn't invent teeth. He did not invent teeth or dentistry. He was just a dentist. They Mary J. Blige, Chris Rock, and jay Z, three of the greatest who ever exist in their fields. Their neighbor, a white dentist, not the greatest dentist of all time.
Write another example. Just Spotify alone, daily, sixty thousand songs are uploaded a day from artists all over the world. You ever listen to the radio, of course, of course, how many songs you think you're here? Day thirty of the same songs over and over again for months at a time, without there being a new song that breaks into that cycle. So fifty nine point nine of fifty nine, nine hundred and ninety nine of those songs will never hear.
That's insane. So the idea that you just work hard and keep uploading and keep recording and keep writing you'll be jay.
Z one day don't work that way. That's not how this works. And let me add to that, because again he's talking about entertainment. If he was talking about any other industry where black people were successful and they had the money and all that stuff to go with it, I'd be like, yeah, let's keep talking. Let's keep having
that conversation. But he's only talking about entertainment. So do me your favorite Go to an audition or a speaking role, in a paid speaking role in pretty much any on the level production, film, television, whatever, and see how many people are auditioning, and then see how many people get cast, and then you'll start to see how.
See how successful that project is, because there are TV shows, commercials and movies that get made that are not successful that too, So then you're back at square one, trying to audition again.
So again you're starting to see how limited your scope is and the field is there, and how unrealistic it is to just say, well, just work like these people and you'll be successful.
And there's three of those people are billionaires. Yeah, okay, right, So when you're talking about private equity, ask us to search money capital vcs, you know, being an approved investor, I don't think could ever get to the point where you'll make a billion dollars. That that world doesn't exist, sir or ma'am. I don't think this individual is asse equated. Ridiculous comment.
So let's move on.
Here's another comment, says BLM pulled it over y'all's eyes and took your money many of my favorite many of you's freedom and turned that into mansions and millions for themselves. And IT and Antifa are homegrown terrorist organizations attacking, burning, looting, and killing indiscriminately.
Yeah, that happened, all right? Hold on, hold on, hold on.
No one buys the BLM virtue signaling stuff anymore unless they willfully choose to be ignorant or want to start the burning slash murder, slash degenerate stuff cycle all over again. And then a skull emoji. Don't get hung up. We got a lot.
When I say black lives matter, I'm talking about myself, my mother, my friends, my siblings, my children, my family, my classmates, my coworkers. I'm not talking about the name of an organization, however you feel about that organization. That's
not what I'm talking about. And I'm saying what I'm talking about because this comment was in response to a video where I said those words, and I even explained in the video, sir or ma'am, if you just press rewind or watch again or listen the first time, that when we say black power, black girl magic, and black lives matter, that we are simply affirming our worth to a country that has gone out of its way for its entire history to show us that those words aren't true. Hard stop period.
Everything you said, okay, okay, so let me let me add something to that.
Does not apply. Let me. I had to stop myself from getting very very angry just there. The things that you said have nothing to do with what I said, sir, all right, so let me add something to that real quick. For those of you who've never worked in activism, you don't know how activism works.
And one of the things that the powers that be.
Have done to discredit the Nation of Islam, or to discredit doctor King or Malcolm X or Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the Black Panthers, on and on, is they try their best to discredit how they are spending money, in addition to villainizing them, saying that they're black supremacists and all kinds of other wid stuff. But we're talking about money here, because that's the issue with this guy and a lot
of people when they talk about BLM the organization. So if you have not been an activist, you don't know how scary that is. If you have kids, if you know whatever, you're affirming your life and your right to exist. Okay, So when I start my activism, I live in an apartment. Live in an apartment. You know, people can just walk right up to your front door and it's made out of cardboard.
Okay. If I.
Get a higher profile, then that comes with a lot of people who hate me, would rather see me dead.
A lot of these people are crazy people.
Crazy people exist on the Internet and people get docked, and that means that they put your information up on the internet. So all of a sudden, your apartment with the cardboard door is not safe anymore. It doesn't matter how many guns you try to purchase or bulletproof vest or whatever. Your life is at risk walking down the street and at home when you're asleep. Somebody can just kick that door, ride open, unload in your house and that's the end.
Of your story.
Nobody wants that, right, So you can't stay there. You need to move somewhere more secure, probably somewhere with a gate.
Okay.
So when people start pointing to the money of BLM and they start looking at these people, first things first, Okay, when you're at the helm of an enormous organization, you draw a salary.
Any organization. It could be McDonald's, it could be whatever charities, you know, whatever.
The Ronald McDonald's Cross, Ronald McDonald's children's charities, the CEO of that organization makes a lot of money, enough to afford whatever mansion that individual lives. And then pick again, Red Cross, pick anyone, because there's still corporations and you still need to pay for that executive level talent. Otherwise they would just go and work for a for profit company.
Right.
These people aren't just bums and broke people at the helm of these huge organizations. These women are no different. But because they're black, the optics look worse because we've been taught to view dobs.
Don't actually look worse. They're just framed works framed worse. Thank you.
I got to make sure I knocked this out in just a second because there's a lot more comms we're not going to get to, but as far as this one, because this is a tired argument, to me, this was the most important one. So so what I want to say is that for those people, whatever it is that they're paying themselves, which I don't suspect is more than someone at the Ronald McDonald house to do the work that they're doing. Not everybody volunteers their time for free.
We are radio professor professionals, me and Q.
We should be getting paid for the work that we do. We always have.
Now that we've moved into this space, we don't get paid for it, but we will and that will be okay, because we're professionals at what we do. Okay, they're getting paid. And then they purchase a more secure residence because their life is at risk. And then what is the media frame it as? Oh, they bought mansions with your BLM money. Right, So again the optics of these black organizations that are affirming our right to exist and our right to live
is twisted. And then it you know, you get a candae Owens to co sign it, and then we all look like bad folks. Right, So I would tell you to take this comment, twist it up, and I'll leave it right there. All right, With that in mind, thank you for tuning into another episode of Civic Cipher. Once again, I'm your host, Ramsay's.
Jah he is' jah. I am frustrated, of course, And again I wasn't talking about BLM the organization. I was simply saying something that you should think is true as well. Black lives matter as do yours. But there's no need to affirm that in this country because you built the place and it's always been structured for your benefit. And by you, I mean anybody offended by me saying black lives matter.
Sure, do us a favor, though we got a lot more comments that we couldn't even get to follow us on social media. We're at Civic Cipher. Follow us on YouTube as well at Civic Cipher. Help us with these comments, you know what we're talking about. We're not going to engage with everything just because it's so taxing and overwhelming, but we could use the support.
We're trying to change the world here and you know this is what we do.
All right, till next week out peace,