Civic Cipher 011522 I'm Not Racist...I Have a Black Friend!

football matches in England. We'll call it soccer from football matches in England and Wales for up to ten years. Pret Patel has said, so real quick. This is the Home Secretary right, that's a title of a position order. But for those that don't know, for our non black listeners, because I'm sure our black listeners probably will aware of this.

A lot of times if there are black players playing soccer in big matches over there, people will throw like banana peels on the field to suggest that the black players are monkeys. They will do racist taunts, they will do all kinds of really offensive things, and then of

course post racist stuff online. I'll continue pretty Patao. The Home Secretary is reportedly bringing forward legislation so football banning orders, which can be imposed on those convicted of violence, disorder and racist or homophobic chanting, can be expanded to include online hate defenses. And there's a quote racism is unacceptable and for too long football has been marred by this shameful prejudice. Fatela said. Those responsible for racist abused online

must be punished. The changes to the law I'm announcing will make sure they are banned from attending football matches. It's not everything, but it's not nothing. And we like that. We like anybody that that aspires to become a better ally and we think that Prete Patel and all those who are supporting this legislation are doing just that, and we're hoping that we inspire people to do that here as well. So that is how accountability.

doesn't land. It's something racially based or something like that, right, and then everyone looks at them like, oh, did you just say that or did you just do that? Or is this real? And they will say, oh my god, I didn't mean that I'm not racist. I have a black friend. Right, we all know who this person is. It might have even have been you, right, And it's cool I have a black friend, at least one.

least in my lifetime. She's an older white woman. She's famous for doing the brown eyed versus blue eyed study

as a metaphor for racism. You know, you can't born you can't you're born with your color eyes, and people with this color eyes get to do this, and people with that color eyes, you know, thirty percent of you have to stay here and you know that sort of thing, and then has dedicated her life to other experiments and speaking in that way, she says something that I believe is Mary potent in relevant to what we're talking about

right here. She says, if you're white in America and you are not racist, then you haven't been paying attention. I believe that's almost an exact quote from her, and I know what she's saying. She she, I mean, you could look at look this up. I forgive me. I didn't you know, I didn't know that I would think of her in this moment, but so I didn't prepare any of her words. But she, I know that. She explains that this country, this is built in your likeness,

in your image. When you look around and you see what when I say police officer, a white man just popped in your head. When I say judge, same thing when I say doctor, you know, blah blah, you know, on and on and on. Right, when I see when I say a model in a shampoo commercial, guess what kind of hair she has? In your mind, it's not my hair. It's not that my son's hair, it's not my sister's hair. It's the hair that you thought of.

And you know, you know exactly what I mean, right, And she and these are the points that she's illustrating in her talk. I have to find it and share it with you, or we'll share it on social media, or you can you know, look it up yourself. Again. Her name is Jane Elliot, I believe. But it's things like that that position or maybe position is not the right word, but frame the world around it's it's white,

male centric, at least in this country. You know, I could make an argument that it's that way across the world, but you know, we're talking about the US, and so then we'll keep it here, and has established that as the platonic ideal. Right, this is just kind of like I said, when you think of the police officer, who

does that person look like? And you're not wrong. I think it's sixty percent of police officers are white men, not white men and women white men, and then forty percent of them are white women, black men, black women, Asian, Hispanic, on and on and on, you know what I mean. Other but the huge majority is white men. Challenging racist thoughts begins with examining the things that you take for granted, you know, because you might not think or this person that you thought of that says, oh we go to

black friend, they might not think they're racist. But the truth is, once you start to examine things that you take for granted, especially things that other people may not be able to take for granted. Then you start to realize where your biases lie. Dare I say your privilege lives right, We've said it on the show before, Q and I. Privilege is not a bonus check. It's not a head start, per se. It's just not being born

with a strike against you. It's not the same amount of hurdles on your journey, you know, it's not the same amount of pitfalls. It could be the same distance, you know, So for you just looks like I had to work hard, I had to do all this stuff. I worked and there was no privilege, no fairy godmother.

I didn't inherit any money. There's no white privilege. But what that doesn't account for is the potential pitfalls that are present when you don't look like that, when you're not born a healthy, white, straight Christian male in the United States. That there are some people who are born with one or more of those things not being the case for them, and those things might make it a little bit more difficult for them to get to what their idea of utopia is right, or even just success,

even if it's just enough. You know, there's there's pitfalls all over the place, and it's hard to see that if you're looking at your struggle and saying, well, I have to struggle too. Right, everybody's I mean, nobody gets out of this thing alive. Right, So everybody's got their own stuff to deal with. But when you account for the fact that other people got more to deal with, it starts to help give you some perspective.

How does it alter the reality of these other people?

once Mexico. All the street names, the foods, the people that live here, the beans, the rice, the cheese. It grows from the ground. Food is not racist, you know what I'm saying. People are weird anyway. All these people that I know and love that have helped shape my life,

hopefully I've helped shape their lives too. I realized that if in a parallel universe, like a weird alternative reality, I would have voted for that man who was saying build the wall and all this, all this flagrant stuff that was really scary to them, that his being elected could alter their reality. You know, you know, I made enough money where conceivably I could have voted for that

man and it would have benefited me. You know, you know, I don't really you know, I would not be at the worst end of his policies, the receiving end of a lot of his more negative whatever. You know. I know that, but I also reckon recognize that this is not just my world right, and so again being able to examine the world from beyond just your front porch

really helps. And when you say things like I'm not racist, I have a black friend, it chops you, like you chopping yourself off at the knees in terms of limiting your potential to grow and to learn. How can I be better? I want to be better for you if you are that white Christian, healthy, straight male. I want to be a better brother to you, because that is my journey. I want to be better to everybody because I believe that I can be as good as I think I am. I think I can do better and

still do better. And when you say things like well, I'm not racist, because it is I'm not racist because of that I went I went to college with a black guy, you know what I mean? It gives you a false sense of It gives you like a false barrier to hide behind in your own mind. You develop a complex and then everything that you do that keeps it in check, and you don't really check yourself like that might have been a little out of pocket. What do you think you.

this before. Sometimes those biases are implicit, they're not even some most people are not even.

because you're intelligent and can articulate. And a lot of those biases are born out of what our capitalist country did very intentionally, and that's making minorities the enemy of the white man, even if the white man is poor and has far more in common with those oppressed and held back minorities. Right, give them someone to hate, give them somebody to point to as to why their version

of the American dream isn't happening. So there are poor people, poor white people all around the country that have to be looking like, what are you talking about white privilege? I'm poor, My dad was poor. His dad was poor. So we sound crazy when we're talking about white privilege

to a certain sector of our population. But they're being held back and pressed down by the same laws and same ideology that there non Caucasian brothers and sisters are being held down by, except they don't think it should be happening to them, So someone else has to be the reason why.

maybe a year or two older than me. He was really into sports, which I totally was not but he knew that I knew a little bit about basketball, like early nineties basketball, and Shaquille O'Neil was a name that I knew and whatever. So he tells me the story. He's like, man, Shack did something the other day. I forget what the story was, but he's like, yeah, Shack and it was something he was disappointed and Shaquille O'Neil for doing. Right, So he's like, yeah, Shaq did this

and blah blah blah. And he's like, and you know, I think that that's that's that's one guy where I think it's okay to use the N word. And I was like, uh huh huh. You know that like laugh where you're like, uh oh, did he really just say that? Because you know, the way he's setting it up is like it's going to be funny, So your body, I think, is prepared to laugh, and then once your mind catches up and processes the words, it like chokes the laugh

from coming out. And so that's the noise that you heard. And I did this little half laugh and then he kind of did a little chuckle. And you know, James, our other friend, was in there like kind of on the way to the kitchen or something like that. So he kind of overheard, but he was he wasn't engaged, right, so he had a bit of an audience me in fifty percent James. So it just it felt like a

joke that didn't land. But he knew better because I'm really good at making people uncomfortable, right, So I kind of said with it, and you know, he said something else and tried to change the subject and you know that sort of stuff. But you know, I really had to like come to terms with like how in the world, Like I can't do that, And I'm like, do I educate him? Or is he a lost cause? Or like, you know, you had to figure out who you are

in that moment. So I get it. You know, sometimes you got it because that's a hard line for me and for a lot of you. If you're listening to us, that perhaps is a hard line for you too, But it doesn't it's not easy to cut that limb off, you know what I'm saying. You have to figure out how you're gonna do it, or if it's necessary, can we save it? You know, can this person?

And of course I would never talk about you like that. I was trying to say, you know, Shack because of what he did, I think it's okay to call him that. And I was like, man, strike two, you know what I mean. And I took a moment and I says to him, listen, when you use that word, you're using that word because he's black. If Shaq was not black, you would not that sentence would not have come out of your mouth. So that word is associated with blackness in your mind. And that we don't even have to

go any further than that. We don't have to go any further than that, but we can, because even at that young age, I might have been seventeen and eighteen somewhere in there, twenty one years ago. But even at that young age, I was able to say, listen, man, there's a lot of stuff that you need to like really deal with and don't get it twisted. You know, racism is not just the inWORD. In fact, that's a

very very small part of racism. That's perhaps the kind that you can make an argument that you know, a lot of people prefer that kind of racism. It's that quiet racism that's powerful, that shapes societies and lifetimes and outcome. That's the racism that really, that's the monster. Somebody calling you the inWORD is like okay, well I know, not to walk down this street no more or whatever. You know.

So don't think that just because you don't say the in word, or someone else doesn't say the in word, that they can't be, you know, harbor these sorts of thoughts, sentiments, or contribute to shaping the society that is a white supremacist society, a racist society. I do want to read this though, real quickly. And one of his most famous studies, Gordon Allport conducted surveys of white soldiers who fought alongside

black soldiers during World War Two. He discovered that in companies where both black and white platoons, white soldiers disliked black people far less than did white soldiers who served in segregated units, meaning that in mixed platoons white soldiers were there wasn't as much in the way of hard feelings. Everybody just kind of was having a human experience together. Where it was segregated, they kind of looked down on the white soldiers or on the black soldiers. White soldiers

looked down on black soldiers and segregated companies. But Allport found it was not enough for whites and non whites to simply know one another. Other conditions also had to be met, such as personal interaction, equal status, and both groups sharing common goals. Allport's findings, which were replicated with civilians in varying settings, proved that hatred and racism stemmed from a lack of contact, and the historian Rutger Bergmann

or Brigman wrote an essay describing all ports work. There's a quote, we generally wild We generalized wildly about strangers because we don't know them, Win wrote. So the remedy seemed obvious, more contract when you say I have a black friend. It shows your willingness to reach across racial lines to learn about a person, but not about a culture. So don't limit yourself. Okay, and we got about a minute left. I do want to share this.

I'm trying to say, our lifelong best friends white. They would never say I'm not racist, I have a black friend. It would never be in the situation in the first place. But also they would know how to approach that with a bit more sensitivity and never hide behind that.

you know, all that sort of stuff. And I took a picture of him and I posted it on my Facebook or something, and the caption said, my dog stayed downward, you know, because that's my dog. I thought that was so fun. Anyway, Yeah, I I am a big fan of yoga, even though I don't practice it. I just appreciate yogi's and the culture and all that sort of stuff. I got more into like meditating and that sort of thing. Yoga was more physical, and I probably will get into

it eventually. But I want to read this. This comes from Yoga International dot com. Okay, so you can read it yourself. Yoga researchers have found evidence to suggest that yoga not only originated in India, but also has roots in parts of Africa, particularly Egypt. The practice of yoga was created by brown and black people as a tool for spiritual growth, as a way to integrate the spiritual element with physical experience. Over time, the practice has evolved

into many different forms, some more accessible than others. Today, many people have a distinct expectation of what yoga should look like, an expectation that often has little to no connection to yoga's roots. If we choose to look at modern yoga as a collection of mindful movements, we can see that other cultures have had an influence on yoga's history and evolution. We can, for example, see the Western influence through many accessible yoga modalities, as well as the

development of fitness centered yoga. Cometic yoga, which originated in Egypt, focuses on the movement of energy through the body in order to connect with one's higher intelligence and the divine. One practices cometic yoga at a much slower pace than in a standard asana class, and there is more of a focus on meditation and the chakras, which are energy centers. The physical poses of comedic yoga are taken from ancient

illustrations of Egyptian gods and goddesses. There's a practice with African roots that has been largely ignored by mainstream yoga culture. This comes from Yoga International dot com. I didn't write this. This is not surprised in giving the history of oppression against people of African descent in North America. The contributions of people of color to modern society. Society rarely make it into history books and even though they played a

huge part in the development of modern world culture. Several pre eminent researchers of comedic yoga and comedic culture, particularly see Who Kippara, Unc, Saint Clair Drake, and Your Sir Rajotep, aimed to make the practice of comedic yoga more widely known, especially the African influence on contemporary spiritual practices. Kimmit or Kmt was an ancient name for Egypt during the era

of the Pharaohs. Shout out to all the pharaohs one time that that's kind of an inside joke between me and too, because my name is Ramses and that's I'm named after a pharaoh Ramses the second so haha. Research suggests that the first Egyptians were black skinned and came from the Sudan, Ethiopia, and southern Arabia as well as Babylon. The Kmetic people designed and built pyramids and made important contributions in many fields, including mathematics, architecture, chemistry, medicine, and more.

They expressed their ideas and sacred symbols, such as those found in the pyramids and in the tombs like that belonging to Tutan Common and Ramses. The second, the person my father named me after your Sir, Rajo Tep is the most senior instructor of Chemetic yoga in the United States. He states, quote through modern eyes, what those ancient people, by their symbolic drawings and carvings appear obscure and mysterious, through the eyes of one enlightened to their worldview, their

obvious and magnificent messages are easily understood. As teachers and practitioners of higher consciousness, we need to be open to the idea that yoga is much larger than we perceive it to be or have been taught to believe, and that its origins are likely far richer and more complex than what we think and understand about modern yoga culture today. It is important for black people and other people of

color to know that our history is valid. The world belongs to us too, and our experiences and contributions matter. Black and brown lives matter and are an important part of the creation of the world we have today. People need to recognize this. Allowing a culture to know its roots and take pride in its contribution to society and to acknowledge its heritage and tradition takes nothing away from

the dominant culture. It is not oppressed the dominant culture, but rather it enriches the experience of all of us. If people of color are celebrated for our accomplishments and are seen as equals in this culture, we can begin to dismantle white supremacy and finally focus on healing this society and this world again. Yoga International dot Com. That's not you know, you know, blackie black Black Black dot com.

This is like the bona fide yoga people that I was just as surprised to read this, but that I mean, I read a few articles, but this was the one that really kind of captured everything that I wanted to say.

In researching this, I kind of knew this for some time, but of course in doing this show, I've been made to study all kinds of neat little things like this and to kind of know that not only is it more beautiful when it's stout like this, but the people that are acknowledging it are doing so with some flair. You know, you know that it's almost celebrated. That that feels kind of special your thoughts, you know what, you think? Our history and its richness.

all forms of everything. So the more I learn about things like this, the more excited, the more inspired, and the more proud I am.

opportunities and you can help us out with those. As always, you can hit the website Civiccipher dot com and make a donation. That's really how the shows are growing, and can also submit any questions or topics you want us to discuss and follow us on all of our social media at Civic Cipher. Of course, you can download this in any previous episodes of the show all Civiccipher dot com and Internal netweek You correct, shock and Yo, we hand the lave.