Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host Rams' job.
They called me q Ward and I think they called me that because my mom actually named me Quentin, and Q was easier to say.
That's how I think that worked out.
I think it works too, man. And yeah, man, I needed that laugh. Man, it was a heavy week.
I'm tired of heavy weeks.
Man.
Like I promise y'all, we have so much intention on doing a celebratory, joyous, happy show, you know what I mean. We want to come on here, laugh, smile, joke, uplift our people. But they keep giving us more.
Stuff.
That's just like, man, come on, and they gave him to us bike to bike.
Yeah yeah.
In case over this past week, and in case you've been under a rock this past week, you know, obviously there was uh well if you've been on the rock, I guess it's not that obvious, but there was a mass shooting in Georgia that was disproportionately uh affected.
The Asian American community.
After all of the stuff that they've already been through, you know, the terror and the you know, racism and all that sort of stuff. Now to have a mass shooting take place it's just a lot by itself. But you know, a few days ago, you know, someone opened fire in a grocery store in Colorado, and.
You know, we're here to make sense of that.
We're here to try to make sense of it. I don't I don't know that that that will be successful. We're gonna give it a shot, though, you know.
You you never think that you're going to end up in this position have these conversations about this sort of stuff. But life has a funny way of bringing stuff to your doorstep and leaving it there, and you have to deal with it. And so it wouldn't be right if
we didn't address it on a show like this. Now, granted, we have to bear in mind that we're looking at it through a black lens, and we have to figure out what it means to us, you know, because I think we're all to wonder gre another, trying to find our place in the world relative to each other as brothers and sisters on this planet and above that, and before we even get to that point, I think that there's a human component there that, you know, begs us
to consider it. You know, these are human beings that once upon a time were alive that are not alive anymore, and it's just sad, and they were just living their lives and never at any point expected that that would be the life day that they were alive, and then their families and their communities have to continue on about that.
But the reason why this is important for this type of space is because every time something like this happens, and certainly if it happens twice in a week on this level, the conversation turns to, you know, what are we going to do about these guns? And what does the Second Amendment really mean in terms of, you know, our right to bear arms.
In this country? And I think this is.
Kind of timely for us because you know, behind the scenes, you and I have had some conversations about this very thing, and.
Today is the day that you know, we'll just kind of share.
Our dialogue with our listeners so that you know, they know that there's a few different ways to think about this, and you know, you got to find what's right for you and move through the universe with that intention.
But hopefully, you know, will help you flesh out some.
Thoughts that maybe you hadn't considered before, or you know, maybe reaffirm something that you know to be true for yourself. You know, there's a lot of folks that talk about background checks. There's a lot of folks that talk about, you know, whatever, how these things are going to work, and how these things are going to get fixed and so forth, And the truth is, none of them really
sound like they're going to work. Unless everybody takes all the guns away, then nobody can shoot anybody and you don't have to worry about this sort of thing.
I get it.
That's a pie in the sky and it's not realistic, and there's always going to be a bad guy with a gun and blah blah blah. But you know, that's
that tends to be the way those conversations go. But you know, if we've made an effort towards that, then you know, maybe the reality of no more mass shooting might you know, I know that they did this in Australia, and so I know it's possible because once upon a time they have mass shootings and then after a bunch of kids got shot up, they're like, you know what, no more guns, give us all the guns back, And they haven't really had anything like that since, so I know it's possible.
I believe it's possible.
But one thing that was said by someone who I'm a fan of a he's a great orator and a comedian, Dave Chappelle. He said that the only way that they're going to change the law, he says, you know, it's an election year. The only way they're going to change the law. I heard this is if every single black person in the country, you know, fulfills their civic duty
and registers for a legal firearm. And the joke there was that he was kind of leading you to say that you want to register to vote, but he was imploring folks to register to get guns black people specifically because his I'm deducing that his the idea behind that was that conservative white folks would be so alarmed at the amount of guns going into black communities that they
would change the laws. Because if there's one thing historically speaking that we've learned as black people that is scarier to conservative white folks than black people, it's black people with guns.
Well, the last time there was an assault rifle band, it was because of the Black Panther Party. Yeah, you see what I mean. So he was historical basis rooted in some very authentic truth.
Sure, and then there are people who are not like Dave Chappelle, who are perhaps a bit more like me, who you know, I'm not a gun person. I don't believe that, you know, a gun is for me. But I'll talk about me in just a bit. First, I want to hear from you because you know, the thing that I fear is that it's just a matter of time before this mass shooting. Excuse me, mass shooting sort of a thing is on our doorstep, and it's such a scary thing, but you know, it's something we have
to talk about. You know, there was an attempted mass shooting maybe a year ago where we live, and you.
Know, I'm not sure if it was that long ago out in Glende.
Recently, yeah, And so you know it's it's one of those things where it's like, Okay, well, it feels like
it's like waiting for an earthquake. You know, I grew up in California, and you know, you're in a constant state of awareness that an earthquake could hit at any time, and you know where the exits are, and you know what the earthquake drills are, and but this is for mass shooting, and you know they have those mass shooting drills in schools for kids, you know, because school shootings and matches are.
I can't even imagine sure Grayson coming home from school to explain the mass shooting drill that they practice that school today.
Well there's that, But for the rest of us in the general population, you know, there is no grocery store drill for shooting, you know what I mean. So having that constant state of awareness, like if you're living in California where an earthquake could pop out at any time, you come to terms with the fact that you know it's just a matter of time before it happens.
It will happen. I just got to know what to do when it happens. Right.
It feels like that with a mass shooting. And I'm sure that everyone listening to us right now, to some degree or another, feels like, you know, they're not You're not gonna you know, there's nothing you can do in terms of living your life, like a normal life that will keep you beyond the line of fire. You know, you can go to a country concert in Vegas, you can go to the growth to Walmart and church Texas. You can go to church and pray to God. It
doesn't matter. You can be sleeping in your bed, be a kindergartener and go to school and you're like, if someone will execute you with a gun, you know it's possible for that to happen because we've seen it in recent years. I remember I picked up my older son, Christian from school that day the Sandy Hook happened. I was like, you know what, let me just go over here and get my son right now, because I don't know what's going on in his planet and his world, and you know, here we are.
So the gun debate is one that is a little bit messy.
It's not my favorite thing because I'm not a big gun fan, you know, as I stated, but you know there I'm not. This show is not for me to just get off my ideas. This is his show for black people to share their black ideas and to share the space with our brothers and sisters who are allies or themselves might have some sort of struggles or you know, something to overcome, but someone with a different perspective is you que So your thoughts on these things.
First.
It's always very, very difficult to talk about these things because I always try to and you help me a lot with this not place people in a space of obvious ignorance.
Right.
The answers to this test are not difficult. Someone gets shot with an assault rifle every time. Yeah, what would you think would be the simple answer to all of these mass shootings with the salt rifle?
Well, I want you to be.
Specific, because the Constitution exists in a way that it does as long as there's something that has not been amended, because that's an amendment. But you're never allowed to make any more amendments. Those amendments are the best ever, they're perfect, never amend more. Right, as long as those amendments exist in the way that they do, you're always going to
have some pushback. Right, So in preparation for that pushback, what would be the most simple and obvious compromise to not take away people's second amendment, right, but to do a little bit of something towards this assault rifle problem. The assault rifles perhaps, but everything don't have tanks. But every time someone suggests that, they're met with a lot of pushback. And the thing about the gun issue, more specifically is it is a bipartisan thing.
The support for it is bipartisan.
And I didn't realize that I thought that one side felt way in one way, on the other side felt the other way.
But that's not true. I've seen a lot.
Of pushback from both sides with regard to they're gonna come in your house and take your guns, the scare tactic that they use to rile people up and scare people into holding fast to their guns of any type. But I can't understand how we can watch children be murdered, how we can watch church goers be murdered, how we can watch people doing what you and I did today, just simply out living their life. Honey, I'll be back. I'm gonna go to the grocery store. Do you need anything.
That's the last conversation some of those people ever had. They didn't wrong someone, They didn't get into a fighter and cut someone off in traffic and anger that person, and that person irrationally responded far too extreme. They just went to get milk, eggs, juice.
Baby.
I'll be right back, honey, I'll be right back to their kids, to their spouse, just like we did today. They go to this meeting, then we're gonna go to lunch, and going to lunch is dangerous.
Now.
I went to the post office a couple of days ago. We're all wearing masks now, so you're talking about a heightened sense of I hope this isn't it. Every time anyone walks in with the mask on. I hope this person is like me, just here to send or receive parcel, not here to angrily live out a match of call of duty. And that because they had a bad Day's funny. So that's something that I want to talk about.
So, you know, there can you can make an argument that the vast majority of these mass shootings have their roots in white supremacist ideologies, right, not all of them, but the vast majority, you know, maybe seventy percent.
Of them, right, I think maybe higher, but being conservative, sure.
And then there's probably another good number on top of that seventy percent quote unquote that is born out of a response to this American brand of white supremacy, you know. And there's another way to tackle it by dealing with that what is it that's making It's gonna sound crazy, but what is it that's making these often white males feel so disconnected from society, so divorced from reality, and so isolated and so forth. Now, now that I'm not
going to go down that rabbit hole. But you know, these are conversations, These are the sorts of questions that need to be asked. In addition to what do we do about these guns? I don't want to even talk about that because that's a whole other thing that has to do with psychology. What I'm talking about today is and let me say my piece.
Okay, I'm a.
Black man, I have two black sons, I live a black life. I do a black radio show. Right, I've got death threats for doing this show.
You know that. I mean, there's nothing to worry about.
These well, right, that's what That's how we want to feel.
I mean, you know that's how I feel. But you know they're not.
If you're hiding behind the screen and you don't have like an icon on your social media and you just want to get something off because you're having a bad day, quote unquote, you know that's all good.
There's nothing randomized therein lies my point. Though there once upon a time, once upon a time, you could responsibly respond that way, it would be irresponsible to respond that way now because of Yeah, okay, that's when you're the face of a show like this, where you're speaking up against the very men who you just described.
Okay, I might have to reel that back. But the point I'm making here is even for me being black and doing all of these things and having maybe more of a I don't want to call it a target, but be more visible than most people. You know, I cannot, for myself justify.
Owning a gun. It's just not for me.
And I tried to think about it, and I'm saying this on air because there might be some people who think about this like me. Whenever I look at a gun, I only see a tool that exists to end a life. It does nothing other than end a life. It terminates something that has been animated by our common creator. And for me, that tool has no place in my life. And if I do make the decision to own a gun, that by definition, at least for me, is a decision
that I made out of fear. And as a rule, I don't make decisions out of fear.
What could go wrong, what.
Could happen bad? I don't live in that space. I don't live my life in that space. You know, we are often very critical of policing systems, but you know, we also recognize that there's a place.
For that in society.
Right there should be someone that you call that might have a gun, maybe in the trunk of their car, that they might need to access in a worst case scenario sort of a situation. But as far as Ramses is concerned, I do not want to live my life with a tool constantly at the ready to execute someone's life. It just feels like if I'm living that life, I'm already halfway dead. Why am I that afraid? Why am I carrying that fear with me? Everywhere I go? I
carry my keys in my phone with me. My phone it doubles as my wallet, so there are only two things I have to carry. Cause you're mad at me carrying a murder. That's all it does. My phone will tell me the time it is. I could talk to people, I can play a game, you know, whatever, FaceTime, you know, listen to some music, all these things, and then a gun is way bigger. It's only purpose is to end to life. So for me, on a fundamental level, it
just doesn't. It's not something that really makes sense for me. That's not to say that I don't understand why other people, you know, I've had this conversation before once, once upon a time, my sister, the world is a very different place for a woman, right, and women it doesn't matter. Sometimes they just have that fear because they're so vulnerable
so much of the time. She told me a story about walking to her car at night from when she was in college at Arizona State, and she's like, you know, the reason I call you every day is so you're on the phone with me while I'm walking to my car.
And I just didn't get like, why do you keep calling?
You know what I mean?
And then finally she pulled up. She's like, Ramas, do I want to talk to you? Like, the world is very different from me. I need to talk to my big brother when I'm walking to the car. If nothing ever happens to me, at least I feel better about that. So I get that some folks their life is based in a more they've had more traumatic experiences, or they're a lot more vulnerable, you know, So far be it for me to tell anybody else how to live their life.
But I do recognize that, you know, I'm not one of those people that's going to fight against you know, everybody's guns getting taken away because I'm like, well, shoot everybody's guns?
Who who made you?
God?
Who made you the decider of who gets to live and die? You know, if you believe in that sort of a thing, and you know, if somebody's coming for you and they have a gun, how likely is it that you're going to recognize the threat and be able to respond to that threat accurately enough to neutralize that threat using a gun?
If you really are that, if you if you really buy.
A gun for protection, I think that you're telling yourself a story. You buy a gun for fear. If you need protection, you buy a vest. That's what I think. And I think that most people buy a gun because they want that power, and then when they have that power and they don't get their way, they are able to wield that power to suit their immediate needs and to kind of create some immediate gratification. And I think that human beings are exceptionally irresponsible when it comes to that.
We are supposed to love each other. That's why love feels better than anger and hurt, and we don't cry, you know what I'm saying, that's our natural state. Let's chill this so you know, I could rant all day about that sort of a thing.
But except I'm sitting here as a gun owner and would not allow you to do so.
Right, Well, that's why I'm talking to you about it. So the other side, love absolutely feels better.
Except and for those of you you listen to us on a regular you know that my partner is a forever optimist. We used to joke with Ramses when we when we first met in the infancy of our friendship, that the world is rainbows and butterflies to him. However, Ramses is from Compton, Q is from Detroit, and we are from places where you it's almost and I'll use the word irresponsible again to think one hundred percent of the way that Ramses does nine you be all right,
because love should rule and conquer all. We should be more protective of one another. We should not have to own a gun to defend ourselves. But in the same way that you know, Ramses does not move in a world where the worst case scenario is how he makes his decisions. But you don't think you're house is gonna get flooded, but you buy home insurance. You don't think your house is gonna catch on fire, but you have
a fire extinguisher. You have car insurance. You buy cell phone insurance, not because you're gonna throw your phone on the ground, but any event that you drop it one day, you sure not, You sure rather not spend another thousand dollars on a new iPhone. I came home one day with my son, my pregnant woman to a gentleman sitting on my porch claiming that my house was his. I'll pause for a second to let everybody. Let everybody imagine that you just bought the house too.
I had just bought my house.
And when you have your baby and your pregnant woman with you, there's a lot of decision making that has to happen really really fast in that moment. I'm gonna give you guys some time to kind of digest and reflect in your own head what you think you'd do in that situation, and in a few seconds, I'm gonna come back to it.
If that's fair, absolutely so.
Yeah, if you're just tuning in to uh civic scipher, i'my host Ramsy's job.
They call me q Ward for reasons I sometimes can't explain, but I think the most obvious one is because my mother named me Quentin.
And Q is just easier to say.
And what we're talking about is where do guns fit in our lives? And you know, we're having.
A spirited gun debate on whether or not owning guns really makes sense, especially in the aftermath of all these mass shootings that we've seen in recent years.
Less of a debate, less of a debate than ramses thinks though, because I agree with a eleven out of twelve, nine out of ten, whatever, high percentage of reasons why and why not on this particular topic.
But my reasons are very.
Very specific because soon after this incident, and for those of you that are just tuning in, you know, we're speaking about the practical reasons why owning a gun makes sense. And Ramsay spoke earlier about guns have a singular purpose, and he's absolutely right. There's the only reason the machine exists is to end life. Even if you're a person that I only have a gun for hunting, even then that's the only point. But again, I get home, this gentleman is sitting on my porch. This house is his.
According to him, I opened the garage, I let my family go into the garage, call the police, and then I close the garage. But I'm still left outside to deal with this man sitting on my porch. Now, luckily, I'm pretty good with these hands, and he did not have a weapon. But in the event that he did, my only resolve cannot be to just die because it's my time. Because this guy said so Echo is on
the way, she'll be here in a few days. I can't just die right now because I guess it's my time, and I don't believe in having guns.
This iscu's daughter.
This guy believes in having them, but I don't. So baby's baby. I guess this is it for us because this guy had a bad day, right so I Then, after the police arrived, I had a conversation with the officer who simply asked me if I was a gun owner. Now I look like me, the police officer does not. So my answer to this question was unequivocally no. It was the truth. But if I had a full bazooka and tank in the backyard, the answer still would have been no, sir, Absolutely not, sir, never sir. Yeah, But
his response to me saying no struck a nerve. He says, where you're from, man, I very very proudly said Detroit Michigan. If anybody knows me, you know I spent a lot of time reminding the world where I'm from. But he says, well, just a reminder. You're in an open carry state. You don't have to have a permit to carry a gun here, and you might be the only person in your neighborhood
that doesn't have one. That didn't make me afraid. I didn't tremble, but I definitely processed, especially during a pandemic where you go to the grocery store and there's no meat or toilet paper. We'll never understand the shortage of toilet paper, but these sources are scarce. And I'm the only person in my neighborhood, in my brand new house with a portion of driveway, and I'm also the one who don't have a gun. So I'm the have surrounded by have nots with guns and I don't have one.
That's not fear, that's protection.
Right.
If the only way to stop you from ending my life is to end yours, that's the decision you forced me to make.
I have to be here for Igo. She's one her story with Meet on End today. Because I didn't think having a gun was a nice thing to do.
So. I don't want it to be rooted in the belief that everyone that has a gun is afraid, even if that's your truth, just some understanding from somebody that you love, knowing trust that is a gun owner. All those decisions aren't just I'm scared, but very very like maybe you are. I don't know this, but I was very, very uncomfortable around guns from childhood. I was always around them, unfortunately,
always around them, but very uncomfortable around them. So I had to go get some training because now I do have this thing in my possession that could kill someone and myself and my loved ones if I'm not trained properly, if I'm not being responsible, if I don't know how to handle this in a distressed situation when there's no preparation, when I didn't expect it. But I do not disagree with you. However, if the idea was everybody don't have a gun makes it better, I'm down. You can have
all mine, like I'm down for us. I hope I never have to use mine. I'm down for nobody using their. That would be even better, that would be way better. But the decision to own one was not Oh my god, I'm scared.
It was yo. That situation was brought to my.
Doorstep in a very literal sense, and I cannot be that unprepared moving forward. I have a family that I have to be here for. I owe them that.
That's why I'm glad you said that, because.
Those stories need to be shared so that folks that feel the way that you feel understand that. You know, that's a very important and huge decision being black to purchase a gun.
Of what we saw what happened with Lande, sir. He had he was a.
Card carrying gun owner, had the gun on him, and the police shot him in the car. You know what I'm saying, So we recognize it. Having a gun makes us a target even.
More, and being black makes it hard to be a responsible gun owner. Right, And if the idea is protection, I should always have it, except I'm scared to death to get pulled over with it, right right, You see what I'm saying. So there's a there's some give and take there in some gray area there that makes it very very difficult. Because you heard me talk about and Rams just talk about American skin. All those rights and
liberties are not afforded to us. So we can't. We you know, we can't be so naive as to think that, you know, all those liberties are ours.
So so here's here's one thing that before we move on, I want to say again, I'm glad that you said that, because I don't think that my truth in this matter is the truth. Sometimes I'll say, yo, my truth is the truth. That's what it is. In some matters that is the case, right, But this one I can't say that. And and before before we even get to your story again, my little sister, let me know that other people have different realities.
Mine fortunately.
Affords me the the the walk through life with peace as my companion and with you know, a sense of self worth and awareness and all these sorts of things. And other people they walk through life and fear is their companion, and they're worried, and they come from environments like I know those environments. I know those people, and I get it that the world is a different place, and they all death is around the corner.
You know.
We hear it in the music, you know, in the music on these stations.
And so for them, even if it makes them feel better, they sleep a little bit better at night to know that I have a fighting chance. You know, those stories need to be shared because again, my truth is not the truth. But I do want to say this for rameses Jah, Rudy King Taylor, the second for me, the one individual carbon unit sitting in the studio with you right now, I've been blessed to live thirty eight It'll be thirty nine years in a couple more months of life.
We need at least thirty nine more, just a year, just so you know that I need thirty nine more out of.
Course, and you're gonna get it. I believe you're gonna have all that right and then some. But in all that time, I've never I've been through some traumatic stuff too. Q.
I've been I've been.
Held at gunpoint, I've been robbed. I've been hid in the head with a gun. You know, I had my diamond stolen from me. You know, all that sort of stuff, you know, And what are you gonna do? You can't
fight a bullet, you know, now. I probably would because I'm way too irrigating for my own good Like, all right, bring it, you know, but but uh, anyway, but you know, in my whole life, I've never had a gun, and I've made it through to this age, and I can't think back on any of the instances that I've been through where I know that my having a gun would have either changed the outcome or made you feel better
about what was happening, or both. And you know, when something happens, like I mentioned one time, I got robbed someone I like you.
I bought a new car. I bought.
It was a fancy car, so I'm gonna say it was a Mercedes. I was very proud of that. I never had a fancy car before, right, And I was driving it and I just started working at you know, Power ninety two, and you know, I was doing all this cool stuff. And I'm driving home and a car starts following me, and you don't think anything of it until.
It's too late.
And I pulled up to I used to have a condo. I pulled up to my condo and you had to park on the outside, and the car was still following me, and I'm just thinking, you know, it's four in the morning.
You know, I was.
Hanging out with a young lady. She knows this story, so she's listening. I'll hear about it. This was many, many many years.
Ago before children a long time, long time ago. But yeah, so this car follows me.
I just dropped her off, you know, came back home and uh car pulls in behind me, and guy jumps out of the car and he runs up to me and he puts a gun in my head. And I remember he kept just saying what you got, what you got, and he was sweating and his nose was running. And the police said he might have been on drugs or something like that, but or.
He might have been scared to death himself. Right, Like, like I said before, handling the gun is not comfortable.
But here's the thing. My having a gun wouldn't have he had the drop on me before. Yeah, before I recognized that there was a threat. And so imagine me carrying a gun every single day just in case, only for that to happen and then me not even be able to do anything with it. This guy's it's I'm looking at the gun. It was a huge gun. It was bigger than him because he was kind of skinny. You know, I'm you know, I'm not acting like a
tough guy. But if I hit him hard enough, that would have been, Yeah, it would have been.
There's there's also a mindset adjustment as well, though, because you you were in the euphoria of no fear. But you've spoken not a need to go about you maybe would try to fight a gun now, what your arrogance. There's a level of arrogance to buying a brand new bands and being a young man and driving to your condo by yourself and not paying attention to the car
that's following you because you just are not wired that way. However, if a car follows you now, that story will it's it's touching for It's like touching the stove and getting burned. If you've never done it before, you don't know that.
That's hot the fire? What hot is? The fire?
Teaches a lesson that's way different. You know, a car following you now does not resonate the same as it did before.
Goin.
Well, I I'm of course, our thoughts and our prayers go out to Yeah.
I wish, I so wish that we could do more than thoughts and prayers.
We are over again, but we are because we're talking about it here. You know, regardless of where you are on this issue, I think that you said something that was very potent. I'm glad you did. Is that certain kinds of guns really don't have a place. You know, if you have a weapon that you know, you can't hunt with an assault rifle.
I mean you can, but there's no purpose for it. Yeah, there's no sport in that. You're just mowing down, you know.
And then what we're seeing more and more is that people are using it to mow down people.
And if you have a.
Regular sized gun that goes in your hand and you can put it in a safe or put in your bedroom or whatever, and if the war comes and you united to buy some toilet paper and you need to take your pistols you to the grocery store or something like that, the best you're going to do is, I think those things have Okay, I'm sorry, I might date myself, but sixteen in the clip and one in the whole.
Sure, all right. However, However, semi automatic weapons it's a different situation. You have to fire a bunch of times an automatic assault rifle. You don't pull the trigger in like you said, mow So.
You know, maybe there's something you know, and we can always put pressure on our lawmakers and our legislators and you know, to you know, say that we've seen enough we've had enough. But I think that it's important just to touch on this last week of shootings and killings and to know that the conversation, as it always does, turns to what do we do about guns?
And regardless of where you are.
On that spectrum, I hope that you found at least an echo of a voice between you and I today on the show.
My last thing on that topic before we move on. You hear around us, and I bring up our capitalist society and its ideals oft.
There we go, let's get it.
And again, only in a capitalist society can the financial incentive to profit be greater than the moral incentive to stop letting our citizens be murdered.
Yeah, Like, it's that simple, if it.
Wasn't so profitable for the people who make these decisions for us, these people that we elect, some of these people that we elect over and over, even after their rap sheet is very very clear, the incentive for profit is much greater and much more important in this capitalist society than the safety, health and well being of its citizens.
And that's really, really, really sad because this story doesn't even hit us as hard as it should because it just happened a few days before and it just happened a couple of weeks before, and it just happened a few months before that.
It is as a matter of time before it happens where we'rein It's absolutely going to happen again.
I want to say something real quick. I watched a documentary on like the how the gun culture in the United States and the roots of the gun culture here in this country because it's unlike anywhere else in the world, and essentially what it is, and I'm just telling the truth. Essentially, what it is, if you boil it down to its essential components, is.
Fear.
Folks that have a fiscal incentive to sell you a weapon, pedal fear to the masses. And then when there's some sort of resolution, they figure out a way to terrorize these people and make them fearful even more so, and that results in even more weapons getting sold.
And so it's it's the most masterful money making operation in the world that I'm not in the world, I'm sure, but you know.
Something of what I've seen one of though you have to understand how long this has been going on.
It is okay, yeah, but you know, as I stated, and as a rule, I'm not giving to fear in the same way that a lot of other folks are. And that's because of some advantages and privileges that I might have. You know, I'm not I'm not female, So the world doesn't feel as I don't feel as vulnerable. Then then some of my sisters who I share this planet with might feel Yeah. So this is not me passing judgment. I'm not trying to say I'm the man.
I don't think I'm cool. I just recognize it. It's different for a lot of folks, but for me, I'm very blessed and very fortunate, and that I'm not easily given to fear.
In fact, I tell people about themselves.
And I look them in the eye when I do it, So I'm not one of those people that like I kind of like that because I make other people feel fear, you know what I mean.
That's kind of been the way this has gone for me.
So if you make the decision, you know, as you stated, you know, look, I had a real situation.
I had an actual professional tell me this is blah blah blah, do this.
And the third and even if you put a if you buy a gun, because it comes with a sticker and you can put the sticker on the window of your house. That feels more preventive than anything, because a gun is Okay. I can respond to something that's already happening, but to prevent something from happening in the first place and being.
Strategic about it.
Look, I've seen people that say, we don't call nine one one, we call whatever gun number.
I don't know what gun numbers are. Nine millimeters, maybe there's plenty nine. That's A.
That's A.
Because Drey was always talking about his Nina, I learned that. So yeah, anyway, shot the hip hop one time if you don't mind, all right, So moving on that took a while.
Moving on another thing I wanted to talk about.
There's a few things I wanted to talk about, but I already know we're not going to be able to get to all of them. You know. I had a conversation, Uh this was late last week, and I wanted to bring it up on today's show. And the conversation had to do with how black people are supposed to act or what is it that what is is going to hang on? Let me let me paint the picture, because this is gonna be good. This conversation was about one black person and it was from another black person or
a group of black people. Right, And I'm sure you've heard this before. Oh he doesn't act black, or he acts white.
Even if he's black, you know, he acts white.
Yes, this is the thing.
I mean.
You're a brilliant mind. You excelled in your education in an environment where there was a great deal of hopelessness. Education didn't perhaps feel like the golden ticket to get out of that place, and so it probably wasn't valued in the same way as it was in your house.
It wasn't valued in that community in the same way as it was in your house, right, or whatever version of that story that there is, I'm familiar with sh Right, So all of a sudden, instead of saying, Okay, this person is kind of a little nerdy, or this person is eccentric, or this person is you know whatever, it becomes Oh, this person is not black, or this person is.
Not real, or you know whatever.
And I wanted to talk about that because for people who might say that or people who might think that, and I know there's a good number.
You know, I'm a part of a lot.
Of Facebook groups, you know, I kind of keep a finger on the pulse of the culture here and there. If I'm black, then no matter what I do, that's what black people do, or at least a black person is doing. And I'm entitled to be black while I do it. You know, that could be good, that could be bad, that could be amazing, it could be new, it could be old.
Whatever. For my race to come into question, or my authenticity or any of those sorts of things to come into question.
Really shows your insecurities. And the thing that comes to mind is on The Fresh Prince of bel Air. For those old enough to remember this show, Will Smith was on the show and Carlton was his cousin, who was kind of a darky cousin. And you know, this guy wore turtlenecks. I don't know what whatever.
Cardigan's that's the word.
I'm looking for Cardigan's shirts. And he was not the coolest guy. He was privileged, Thank you, man.
See you know how to say this stuff. Man, I'm glad I do a show with you. So yeah, Carlton was like super preppy. And there was an episode where his race got called in the question by someone else who was black, and you know, and thinking back to that episode, Carlton handled himself very well because he's like, listen, man, just because I listened to Barry Manilow, it doesn't mean that I'm not black?
Is this when they were trying to get into that fraternity? Maybe I don't.
I don't remember all the details, but I remember that part of the conversation, right, And I want to share something that.
Let me make sure I get this gross woman's name right. I'm learning, y'all. Jane Elliott.
So she went on the Oprah Winfrey Show in nineteen ninety two and she said something that I think loosely speaks this. You know, a connection can be made. She says that, you know, when someone says, you know, what I think we need is a color blind society.
If you hear.
Someone say that, you're listening to a racist, right, crazy? Right, Because if someone's like, yo, I think we need a color blind society, they sound like they're being inclusive, right.
But she's not genuine. But you know it sounds nice, you know what I mean?
You got the spirit, you know, to quote Will Smith again, but she says, what you're listening to is a racist And again, this is Jane Elliott.
If you don't know about her look her of.
An incredible cultural ally and an older white woman who is an educator and a profound speaker, and someone who has taken the racial injustices that exist not just in education but in the world in society excuse me, and made it her mission to try to address those things. Even though she's white, even though this is not her fight, she still wants to make the.
World a better place.
I love teachers for that reason, because teachers, they for the most part, they love children.
And it doesn't matter what kind of children. Children are first in teachers' minds, and.
So they they most of ourn't teachers, most of them, and they wanted to make the world a better place for the kids.
And I think that that's indeed it's going to be, you know.
So moving on, she says, you know, yeah, So she says that if someone says they want a color blind society, you're listening to someone who's racist, because what that person is saying is that there's something wrong with this person's color. So we'll pretend he isn't his color right, that everyone is the same, or that it's you know, whatever.
And then she goes on.
To say that, Okay, this is in the same interview. In the same exchange, Oprah says back to her that she had a farmer, who says her farmer, her farmer neighbor was white. Her farmer says to Oprah, Oh, you're not black, You're just a neighbor. And Oprah responds, Oh, no, I'm I certain certainly am black. But that was his way of saying, you're not like what I think other black people are. Again, so what does it mean to
be black? It means to be yourself. It means to be you, to be centered in who you are, your identity. You got to think that human beings. Again, this truth is universal and it's potent, and it's going to show up in so many of these episodes because it just is so relevant. But human beings. The natural state of a human is black, a black female, if we're being honest, because life began female. You know, life is female. We're
here to ensure genetic diversity. We're meaning males. But that's why we have nipples because once we're female.
And all life was. And so.
I think that this is one of those things that needs to be mentioned and it needs to be said so that for folks who you know, let's say, like me, and they don't want to have a gun. I don't need to be a gangster. I don't need to be this. I don't need to be that.
I'm me.
I wear my hair, how wear I wear these clothes, how I wear I go where I want, do what I want, and.
Nobody who could say something to me? You know what I mean?
It's I would love to know who could. But one thing no one could ever call into question is whether or not I'm black, And that cultural identity is so important to me because it shapes who I am, how the world feels to me, how I raised my son, where I know I am, what I can do, what I can't do, you know, and knowing that I think those things are what helps ensure that I have as
long and prosperous of a life as possible. Because if I didn't know and wasn't self aware, if I really thought that I was white.
You know, you think you're white, don't you.
If I really thought that, you know, the way that I moved would have been very different, and the way that I would have moved had I actually thought that.
Resulted, it would have resulted in me perhaps losing.
My life, it's very easy to lose your life when you think that you're not subject to the rules that you're very much subject to. So I wanted to make sure that I said that. And once again, if you're just tuning inna civic cipher, i'man houst ramses Jah.
He calls me Q ward.
Well, I guess my mother calls me Q two now once upon a time, Quintin is what she named me. It's my favorite name in the world because my mom picked it. But people like to call me Quentin, which is not my name. So we just go with Q because it's much easier. I like you, Q works for me. It's simple. And before we get out of here, one more thing I want to talk about. So this came up last week as well. So I have a son that's in high school, and.
You know, we're talking about, you know, what the future holds, you know, and I'm considering what the future holds for my child, you know, And one of those things is, you know, Okay, you're gonna have to take the SATs and we're gonna have to figure out what that means, you know, in terms of what your future looks like, you know what I mean. And how we're gonna you know, what are we gonna do? How much money am I gonna have to spend? You know, that sort of stuff.
And you know, every so often life just presents these little rabbit holes to me. And I love going down.
These rabbit holes, and at the end of almost all of them you find either out white racism or the framework, a framework that can be only described as white supremacy. So I'm saying this to you, and I want you to listen. I don't find it there because I'm looking for it, because I promise you I'm not looking for it. It's there because it's I find it because it's just there.
I think you said something to.
Me recently.
About you know, the reason that we always end up talking about these institutions and these ideas and these framework in which we live as being racist is because it just is. There's no two it. We're not finding it. We're not trying to make excuses or anything like that.
I mean, we live in a country. This is not our history that we're creating live for you on the air. Google is free, and even the most conservative American history books acknowledge the Transatlantic slave trade, the foundation of the
country on the back of white supremacy and racism. Now it's a dressed very quickly and moved on from and we treat the Pilgrims like they were great, and you know, we celebrate Thanksgiving in that way, the traditions that the Pilgrims and our Aboriginal Native American share with each other. But even that exchange was far more grim than we learn about in grade school. But these institutions, the entire framework of the country was built on these beliefs. So
that's why you find them in everything. It's because they're there.
Trust me.
We have meetings about the show where it's like, man, do we even want to keep talking about things that are racist? And it's like, well, absolutely not. That's our job, but it's our responsibility. We can't ignore it. And if so many people wouldn't ignore it, or wouldn't have spent
decades ignoring it, we'd be further along. Absolutely, But in the effort to make everyone comfortable and to not roughle any feathers, sometimes we just mosey along like these things don't exist, and we don't address them because we're not by nature confrontational.
So dig this, this is what we're talking about the SATs. The SATs was literally created because too many students of color were getting into college. The creator of it, Carl Brigham, published that the increase in racial diversity in schools would cause the decline of American intelligence, and by nineteen thirty he admitted it was a eugenics test. And again, you know, before we sat down.
To can you speak to eugenics?
Well, real quick, let me say this, Before we sat down to do the show, we did a little bit of show prep, you know, just to kind of read about it.
Whether or not this was true.
And you know, as you mentioned, this is completely googleable. If you trust in Wikipedia, you can go and look up.
And if you don't trust in Wikipedia, there are many.
Sources, sources that you can even look at scholastic Scholastic sources. But yeah, even you know, sources like Team Vogue that are very much not run by us. We'll give you this same information at they're ready.
And I don't think that what we're doing here today is meant to create any excuses, even though what we just read that said, I think the data was from nineteen ninety eight, so in the last twenty years, you know what I mean. So most of the folks listening to us right now, this has happened in their lifetime. They would decide whether or not questions were admissible as test questions into the new version of the test based on whether or not a majority of white students got
the test scores right. If the test scores if more black students got the test right, they would throw the question out if the black students did better than the white students.
You can actually read it. This is right there.
And so not only this guy invent this in the thirties or whatever. This was as a way of throttling to wonder or minimizing the amount of black students that were able to get into higher.
Education and to a lesser degree.
You know, there's a lot of immigration taking place at that time, so you know, other students from other parts of the world. But this guy, he some of his some of the stuff that he says is like very extremely like it's like mean racist, like cuts clan racists, like he's not he doesn't You can tell this person does not like black people. And at that time, you know, I don't think black people were really a priority for this country. I don't think black people have ever really
been a priority for this country. I mean as property, not as citizens. Yeah, thank you for that, but yeah, I just employ you look that up. I thought it was worth mentioning because you never know where you're going to find racism, and yet you know you're going to
find it everywhere. And for those of you who are not thinking about SAT scores or whatever, it's just one more thing for you to know that whenever you hear someone say like, man, there's you know, and we have these conversations that I know, and I appreciate you kind of riding this train with us. We're doing this so that things can get better, not so that we can continue to reflect on the past. But I need to say these things because who would expect that the SATs
and standards and from this was born standardized testing. So all these standardized tests have their roots and perhaps some of the modern practices even in racism. And you know, there's different ways to call it, you know, whatever you want, but if it favors one group of people and then it causes them to gain advantages and doesn't help the most vulnerable citizens, as black and LATINX students in this country tend to be.
Than we have and not just in a way that's passive that it doesn't help the other groups designed yeah to repress and not help those other group. It's not just like we just built this to help us and it just so happened it didn't help you.
So keep that in mind, please, And anybody who thinks the black people are lazy, I don't think anybody listening to this show with things black people are lazy because you listen to hip hop and every single song about hip hop is about hustling get money, you know what I'm saying, So I don't want to hear that ever again. Anyway, that's our time for today. Once again, thank you for
tuning in to Civic Cipher onmy house, Rams's job. They call me q Ward and please hit the website civiccipher dot com submit your questions topics, feel free to donate that really does help support the show. Follow our social media at Civic Cipher and be sure to download this or any other past episodes you may have missed. We got special announcement coming up next week, so be sure to tune in for that.
Until then, y'all, peace, peace,