Civic Cipher 022622 Did Ahmaud Arbery's Murderers Get What They Deserved?

right way. And so we'll spend some time talking about that. Also, you know, I come across a lot of data, a lot of statistics and things like that. So I do want to tell a story. I believe that it is the celebration of the black mind. So we're going to do that for our way black fact and discuss I named Thomas Fuller aka the Virginia Calculator in a few

more minutes. But first up, we are going to discuss how to become a better ally, all right, so we work in mediad indeed, yes, yes, sir, And so this is going to get a little technical for those of you who don't really follow media, but there's a company. It's called Nielsen. Nielsen is the company that gives us all of our ratings. Let's just know how we're doing. Right. Nielsen has chosen to become a better ally, and we're gonna shout them out. I'm going to read this for you.

This is from inside radio dot Com. We're radio nerds, so we read this sort of stuff, but we had to share it all right. In a move that will potentially make radio ratings more accessible to more station owners, Nielsen has launched a new program geared at helping diverse owned media companies raise their profile with advertisers and agencies.

This diverse media equity program will also include helping minority own radio stations to be measured even if they are unable to afford a subscription, as well as the launch of the first ever report on diverse owned media reach and audience profiles quote. Nielsen is investing in diverse owned media by getting rid of historical barriers and traditional measurement.

CEO David Kenny said in a statement, advertisers and the media industry recognize the need to be more inclusive and want to ensure they reach an audience that is increasingly diverse. We are leading the charge to develop a consistent framework and metrics to help demonstrate the value of diverse own, diverse owned media. What that means basically is information is expensive. To get ratings to know how your programs are doing,

that's expensive. Right, They're making those ratings more accessible to black owned radio stations.

Information Network. Yes, indeed, got to say that. So that data making its way to black owned radio stations and minority owned radio stations, whether or not they can afford it, is a huge win because it helps those stations have get more up to speed, have a little bit more we're talking gospel sting, We're talking stations that you know, it doesn't really they could do better, They can make better decisions. These aren't you going to change the landscape

and it's not being unfair. This is this is a brilliant move and it's a it's a kind move, and it deserves to be shouted out. So shout out to Nielsen. And you know, if you want to learn how to become a better ally, you know, take a page out of that book right there. All right, moving on, let

us talk about this story from CNN dot com. All right, A jury has found the three white men who killed a Maud Aubrey in twenty twenty guilty of all charges in their federal hate crimes trial, backing the prosecutor's case that the men chased the twenty five year old through the streets of a Georgia neighborhood because he was black. I'm not going to say these people's names, because I got beef. The men were found guilty of interference of rights,

a federal hate crime, and attempted kidnapping. The verity comes nearly two years to the day after Aubrey was killed in the neighborhood outside Brunswick on February twenty third, twenty twenty, and it's months after the three were convicted in a state court in November of all right, so let's bring ourselves up to speed, so we knew that they were

convicted in the state court. Right then they had to go to trial, like a federal trial or something like that, and they were gonna accept some sort of plea that would have allowed them basically a lenient sentence. You know, I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a court or.

life and otherwise interfere with his liberty. Right. This is one story where we can look at it and say we don't want to say it's good, because it's not good, but we can say, now you're doing your job. I'd like to say it's good well and should be normal normal. That's that's what That's what I'm trying to say. It's not it's not that I want to make it good like hahaha, but it's just it's fair.

radio network, iHeartMedia, you know, you name it. We've got a lot of partners and we have a lot of listeners, and we appreciate that because we never expected for things to get to where they are, and now we're starting to feel a little bit more indispensable in the media space, at least for the things that we talk about, and that's because of the support of our listeners. So we hope we continue to do right by you and we

continue to be fair in this space. That's why I love the fact that you're realistic and I'm optimistic, because I can't have my head in the clouds and we can't just be dooming gloom all the time either. So anyway, back to the story, here's a quote, thank God for this good morning that Wanda and Marcus have prayed for. I'm imagining Wanda and Marcus are the parents of them all. It is because of their conviction to get full justice, not partial justice, that we get to celebrate this moment.

Attorney Ben Crump told reporters the gentleman who took Ahmud's life had agreed to plead guilty before a trial, but the judge overseeing the case rejected the deal after Aubrey's family raised concerns that the resulting sentence could lead to favorable imprisonment conditions. That's what I was trying to say earlier.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland, responding in Washington Tuesday to a reporter's question about Cooper Jones's statement appeared to choke up as he answered, quote, I cannot imagine the pain that a mother feels to have her son run down and then gunned down while taking a jog on a public street, Garland said at a Justice Department news conference. My heart goes out to her into the family. That's

really all I can say about this. Now. I know we're not talking to these people because I don't imagine these people listen to the type of stations that carry this show, and if they do, they certainly probably aren't listening to our show. But I do want to say

something so that it is said. I've heard this before, and I may have even shared it on the show before, but many people in this instance had taken issue with Ahmud Aubrey his jog quote unquote, and his attire whilst jogging right that he did not look like a jogger.

don't need to prove anything. But if you're us and you hear that story, you're like, wow, that's amazing that that's woman who's that age and that type of vehicle and that type of neighborhood was happy when she saw you and she waved. This lady was not black, by the way. Oh yeah, no, she was not black. It was such a surprise, right, It goes a long way. So if you're in a surprise because thirty forty cars drove by us, Yeah, she was the singular smile and

wave that we got. Yeah. Now, another thing that a lot of folks said who took issue with a mod Aubrey or his jogging in the neighborhood mentioned that he stopped at a house that was under construction. And I did say this on the show before if you had any concerns about that, Well, what was he doing in that house? You shouldn't have been in that house looking at the house under construction. He could have been stealing. Okay,

we're going to check your prejudices right now. Right, if that's what you believe, you shouldn't have been in that house, right, which in your mind is very sensible. Why would anybody go into the house that's under construction unless they were up to no good? Right in your brain, that seems like a very reasonable and very sensible question to ask. Right, We're going to challenge your prejudices right here, Q and I are going to do that. Do me a favor.

Swap a mod Aubrey for Kelly. What is Kelly's last name? Anderson? Kelly is the same age as a mode Aubrey, twenty five year old. Let's make her white. Let's give her blond hair and blue eyes. Let's make her young, Let's make her attractive. Okay, So now we've just changed the person, right, same story, though she's out in a neighborhood where people may not know her. She goes into a construction site,

checks it out, leaves the construction site. Now, are you still saying, well, you know, she shouldn't have been in the house. You know, she had to have been up to no good? Are are you still saying that? Because now she's a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. Right, So does personal accountability matter or is it skin color? Did you learn something about yourself after I said that? This is what we've been trying to say. Now. I know on the show, I've shared that once upon a

time I had a house under construction. Once upon a time before then, even I dreamt of building a house, right, I wanted to build this really cool house that I could have. You know, I've always been into music and that sort of thing. I wanted a studio. I thought that'd be so cool. Now I have one. You know, Uh, this is you know, this is kind of how. This is how I imagine my future. You know a lot of folks might recognize you have to imagine things before they

manifest themselves in reality. Right. And one of the ways that I went about doing this was by engaging wherever I could. I needed the visual, I needed the tactile response so that I could know how to piece things together in my mind, how to formulate a plan and

bring it into manifestation. So I was interested in construction techniques and how how do you you know, incorporate class in brick into the same architecture, you know, like those sorts of things, because those are things you know growing up in the southwest of the United States, those are things that you know, we work with the building materials that are here, that are that are going to last. Right,

So I took an interest in those things. Then later when I actually bought a house, right, I paid the money to the proper, to the need, the home builder. I designed my house. I picked out the colors, looked like a castle, was right on the lake. I was, man, I was doing my thing, man anyway, So I did this whole thing, and of course it takes a while for them to actually build the house. I bought the plot of land. They had my money. You know, everything was on the up and out, and this house was

so far away. But because I'm me and I needed to see it and I needed to feel it, right, what I do. Whenever I got some free time, I took that long drive out there to go see my house and see how far along they had gotten. And I'd be there on that plot of land where I was going to bring my son. I was going to bring my girl and my family, and we were going

to live. Right. I would see that plot of land, and then I would see when they put the sticks in the strings, and then I would see when they poured the cement, you know, And I saw where the driveway was going to go, you know, and then I saw the wood frames go up. I would go back and back and back, and I would see all the supplies laying in the backyard for the pool and every you know, I saw it all, and i'd go and I would go and I would go, and what happened?

People would see me there? What is this guy doing over there? Does he live around here? Who is he? You know? Well? Is that guy up to no good? You know? Those are the looks that I got. And I feel like that's the story that we are seeing here, because as we now know, this man didn't steal anything. This man was in fact running, you know, and this man's life is now over because of these three men. So I just want to make sure that I said that. Now let's get back to the these guys that took

his life. Did you hear about the the court proceedings where they like went through their social media history and pulled up all of their like racist jokes and things like that to help kind of establish the character of these men.

no wrong, or they might have some concessions. They will see that hey man, you know there's a few bad apples. Ever, you know, we'll force that big. You're bound to get

some folks or kooky and whatever. But overall they do a great job, right, instead of looking at it like, well, you know what, we have a system in place that affords opportunities for advancement and fails to punish or thoroughly vet You know, folks who have harmful beliefs and ideologies who cannot execute the job fairly equally across the board. You know, there are people who say, you know, you know, obviously there's a call, very loud call to defund the police.

There's a group of people who say, no, defend the police, right, And I believe that the police does not really need defense. I'm being funny here, because they are the I believe it's the second largest military force on the planet, or the third. If you take the police departments in the United States and put them together, that is the you know, in terms of tanks, you know, helicopters and all that sort of stuff. But you know, there are people that you know defend the police, right, I get it, I

get it. You know you might know someone who's a police officer. But remember, you know, the person. We're not talking about the person. We're talking about the institution, the machine they are a part of. Right. It is killing us literally, and then if it hasn't killed us, it very much shapes the world in which we live. Right.

I was reading a report on the cash bail system, just to continue down this path, on the cash bell system in the United States, and basically the cash bell system works like this, you could be arrested for allegedly doing something. Right. I read a story the other day about a woman who her puppy. Her dog gave birth to puppies at the neighbor's house.

know this, you have to pay them ten percent. So you give them six thousand dollars that you never get back, regardless of if you're guilty or innocent, and they will put up the rest of the bond for you to get out of jail so that you can fight that case from a position of power, a better position than being Incarcerat better positions, your position of power, ain't it so?

So what happens is this woman can't afford that six thousand dollars, not everybody has that money there, So she's in jail, hasn't been able to even plead whether or not she's guilty or innocent, hasn't even been able to tell her story right, doesn't get to see a judge for weeks because she can't make that bail right, and loses her job because she's in there, almost loses her house, right, And that cash bail system incentivizes police to make arrests.

There's a brilliantly made case. If you want to learn more, check out our daily story on the Black Information Network. It's called Our Daily Story with Ramsey's Job. And you can hear, you know, stories like this and others where you do deeper dives, but you know, it gives you a sense that there's a broken system there, and not everybody can fight back against it. I can't say it any better, right, And a system designed to profit off of arrest off of poor people and keep poor people incarcerated.

It's quite unfortunate and it's really hard to beat it. And remember that scenario that I said didn't have anything to do with guilt or innocence. It just is something that sucks you into it and if you plead so that you can get out. Now you have a criminal charge, and that's with you forever, you know, and so forth and so anyway, and you're incentivized to plead because yeah, if the sentence might be two months, but it might

you know, it might be sixteen. You can beat the case. Plead, I get no time, sure, I'll do that, yeah, exactly, or time served, and then the next time you get picked up on now you have a record. Anyway, we could go on, and then of course we're talking about overly policed, disproportionately poor neighborhoods in the country. Man. We can talk about the criminal justice system. We can talk about police the institution, and we can say, hey, man, they got a lot of money. Let's take this money

and put it into preventative measures. So that precludes the necessity of so many police.

twenty four at age fourteen. Although considered literate or illiterate I'm sorry, because he could not read or write in English, he consistently demonstrated an unusual talent for solving complex math problems in his head. Northern Virginia planters Presley and Elizabeth Cox, both of whom were also illiterate, quickly recognized his surprising abilities and put them to use in every phase of management of their two hundred and thirty two acre plantation

farm about four miles from Alexandria, Virginia. Can I say wow wow?

or counting grains and bushels of wheat and flax seed. Allegedly, he also figured out new way of multiplying how far apart objects were, wading into complex astronomy related computations now carried out by computers, The Virginia Calculator was.

every four years. They grudgingly accepted Fuller's answer. Their observation of Fuller's computations or computational abilities rather, were later submitted to the Abolitionist Society of Pennsylvania. I've never met this man, but this part is really sad to me. Fuller died on the Cox Farm near Alexandria, Virginia, in seventeen ninety.

He was eighty years old. The Columbian Sentinel of Boston, Massachusetts newspaper noted it in its obituary of Fuller, Thus died Negro tom this self taught arithmetician, this untutored scholar. Had his opportunities of improvement been equal to those of thousands of his fellow men, neither the Royal Society of London, the Academy of Science at Paris, nor even Newton himself need have been ashamed to acknowledge him a brother in science.

That brilliant, magnificent man lived his life as a slave, as those that owned him acknowledged his brilliance and used it to further their own purposes.

They really like me, And I think it's important to celebrate the black mind. You know, we we we discuss contributions to society. We certainly we discuss a lot of like like civil rights activists, like those sorts of things, you know, But and we discuss science and medicine or ebony excellence. We talk about all these sorts of significant contributes, but just to focus on the black mind for a second and say that it is just as valuable and

just as capable. You know, Granted, we're all different people. We're a full race of people. So there we have a full spectrum of intelligence, of abilities, of charisma, of looks of anything that you could have at you know. But I think that a lot of times our black minds and our black thought gets overlooked, and unfortunately, our words too, unless we're rapping. And so that's a big part of the reason why civic cipher exists is because

you're not hearing rap music right now. You're hearing black people actually talk about something that we feel matters, and hopefully you feel like it matters too. Amen. With that said, I think that that's going to conclude for today, So once again, thank you for tuning in the Civic Cipher. I'm your host Rams' job.

We're trying to do something special here.