Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host, Ramsy's Jack.
So this name thing, Quentin Ward is on my birth certificate, but no one ever feels like saying Quinn. That oh really gives people, you know, an issue. So I ended up being Quentin, which is not my name, or worse Quincy. Not that that's a bad name, it's just not mine. And then I had a boss who used to call me Quincy and then he would do this noise afterwards, like which really sucked. So I just go by Q
because it's easier. And then my last name is Ward, and then I DJ So that's kind of how my whole name situation came to be.
And of course we are back up in you one more game. We got a lot to talk about this week, a lot that we're not going to be able to get to, but we're saving it because we're gonna we have some some exciting things in the world that's in the works. That's all I'm gonna say right now, So stay tuned. A lot more exciting things come in our way.
But the things we're going to talk about, I believe are extremely important that we deal with them per usual, that we discuss them, and that we inform you a listener of the goings on, at least from the perspective of some black folks. If you're tuned into this radio station or listening wherever you're listening, I guess a confident assumption that you're an ally of black people or may in fact be black yourself. And so so yeah, we're deeply saddened by these events, but we're excited to share
it and have our therapy at the same time. And today's episode is especially special because we're joined by a few folks that I think are amazing people. I love these people so much, one person in particular, who is the reason that we started doing the show in the first place. So welcome Keisha, Zara and Mimi.
Welcome to the show.
Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you for havank you.
Yes, of course.
So how about this, Why don't you give a little bit of background on yourselves and where you're from, and then I'll tell a little bit of a story and then we'll get into the meet and the petitors of the show. So cool.
So we're here.
We're with Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro, your local Black Lives Matter chapter and we've been out here, We've been organizing since twenty seventeen. A lot of y'all know us for our you know, our street game, the protests, you know, the politicking, but you know we also Black Lives Phoenix Metro.
We're an autonomous chapter. We have five ministries. We have an art, ministry, of policy, education, activism, and so like with all of that we do have, we try to follow the Black Panthers model, where we have a model of trying to do twenty five percent tear down and dismantle and seventy five percent bill and so what that looks like is, you know, as abolitionists, the highest part is dreaming the new world, and that's where we really try to focus on. But at the same time, we
still out here. A lot of our protests and activism is directly led by those who have been harmed or the family of those who've lost because of police violence. So that very much guides us.
Yeah, and I'll pass it on to Mimi. I think that was a good intro, just kind of like briefly about our organization. Again just trying to as abolition is just trying to live, live and live and embody our values and just you know, create a better future here for black people in the city of Phoenix. Is who are accountable to so discontinuing the work? Uh yeah, what's up? Yea.
My name is Keisha and uh I have been with Black Lives Matter now for about a year, and I feel like my work here is to uh uh really kind of uh dismantle what it means to be a biracial person in uh this work, I think oftentimes we skate by on our light skin privilege, and so I'm trying to decolonize myself and show my brothers and sisters the way.
Wow, we're in the Presence Esteemed Company today.
Yes, indeed, So I want to tell a brief story before we get into the show. As I mentioned, so in twenty twenty, you know when we saw the life of George Floyd get extinguished on video and we were just talking about that. Some of us didn't even watch the full video. I'm not one. I still haven't seen the full video. I saw it and I knew what
was going to happen. So, but you know, when that happened, you know, there was a moment where the energy in Black America shifted, and of course allies of black people, people that subscribed to hip hop culture, and you know, all those sorts of things. A lot of folks were really moved by that, and that coupled with the pandemic and so forth, everybody just kind of took to the streets. And it was spokes like y'all that were organizing these movements,
these protests and so forth. Right, So, I am a long time broadcaster here in Phoenix, and recognizing that the show is broadcast in other cities, you know, I can only speak from my perspective, but I'm sure this happened in you know, if you're listening outside of feelings, I'm
sure this happened in your city as well. But as a broadcaster, I thought it was obviously as a black man, it was important for me to get out there, to take my children out there, to make sure that we were represented and counted in the movement and contribute to the ripple effect, if you will. But as a broadcaster, I felt that there was rather more that I could do.
There are not that many people who are able to broadcast, and way less people of color who could speak uniquely to how this feels, what's happening, and so forth, and less people still who were of a high enough caliber or so I thought to empower other people to speak. And we were in Timp. I'm not sure if you remember this at all, but so I was in Timp. Tempe's a city in Phoenix, in Arizona. It's adjacent to
Phoenix or next whatever. Anyway, So we're out there and we're marching, and we stopped at a courthouse and there were some issues with the sound, and Zara, the woman that you first heard speaking, just had to figure out how to address the crowd despite the some shortcomings in
the audio equipment. And she's addressing a crowd of might have been two three thousand people out there, and you know, we have bullhorns and so forth, but you know, if you know, a bullhorn might hit two three hundred people, not two or three thousand, and you know there's systems
in place, you know, chant it through the crowd. But I felt that you were such a profound speaker, such an educated person, so informed person, especially in terms of what's going on, how to empower people to make a difference. And then you felt like the sort of person would be very difficult for someone to say no to, right, And I like that energy because I feel like I'm that sort of person too. It's not always true, but I do feel like that, and so I felt like
there was more that I could do. So I took this idea back to the radio station Q. You know all this because Q was broadcast with me for a long time. I took it back to the radio station that I worked, an old station in Arizona that has now gone off the air and changed their everything. And I'm not trying to you know, clown or anything like that. God bless them. I believe everyone learned their lesson, and you know, I do leave space in the narrative for forgiveness.
I do believe that people can make mistakes and learn how to be better, and they're better. It's better for our agenda in the long term if we don't just you know, dismiss them and forever position them as an enemy, because then we increase the other side and we decrease our potential numbers. So not trying to say anything bad about them, but those are the facts. They had to change the name of the station, they had to fire a bunch of people, and or people had to quit,
whatever happened, and so forth. So anyway, at the time, I took it back to those people and I says, hey, let's set aside thirty minutes in the middle of the night and let me do a radio show to where I can put a microphone in front of Zara so that she can come up here and say her piece. I think that black people need this, and this is a radio station that plays seventy percent black artist and one hundred percent black music, and I think that now
is not the time to be a fairweather friend. So this ask should have been met with, you know, open arms. I believed, and you know, I got to run around a lot of folks know the story, some don't. I got to run around for a long time, and ultimately I was told by the program director. His exact words were,
I don't want to do a black show. And you know, I took exception to that obviously, and so I wrote an open letter resignation, and immediately after was picked up by In Phoenix, there's a station called Power ninety eight point three, and then whatever station you're listening to us on has come on board as a partner subsequently, because they feel it's important to echo these messages and have these sorts of long form conversations despite it being a
music station. It's important to have long form conversations for our mental health, to deal with these issues, to empower our allies and ourselves, and to be self determined. And if people are able to profit from our culture, they should contribute to it in a meaningful way. This was my ask. Ultimately it has become my charge. And that's a long roundabout way of me saying thank you Sara for showing up today again. This is you were on
the first episode and now you're back. So so yeah, some some esteemed guests in the building, indeed, and we have an event that we need to touch on a little bit later. But first I've been waiting to talk about this one. So you guys, I'm not I'm not sure who always heard, but there was an incident in Minneapolis where this was on TMZ. As I saw and I saw the video, you know, there's a memorial to George Floyd on the ground, and uh, I think it's
like right on the spot where he was killed. Like the street is closed and it's now a big memorial site and there's no you can't drive a car through there or anything. And of course there's all the flowers and signs, but then there's like a like a makeshift building like a door and glass and everything like that. It's in the middle of the street. And you know, we see these these signs and everything and photos and whatnot.
But TMZ showed a man that got out of his car and he had an axe and he took the axe to all the signs. He like tore him down and ripped him. This is like surveillance footage. White man looked looked police ish, you know, so whatever comes into mind the platonic ideal of a police officer, that's what this guy looked like, at least to me. Boom there you go talk talk to him. See she didn't have a mic that time, grabbing a mic. Let let her say that again and probably fat ball headed.
Boom there it is.
Yeah, if you want to watch the video, it's there. But you know, trigger warning if you know you were as moved by by George Floyd's death as as many of us were, but you know you're able to see for yourself that that's a exactly what what this type of person was. And you know he took an ax to it and he didn't get very far because eventually, after like a couple of minutes, someone like yelled out to him. You could hear the audio. I was like, hey,
what are you doing? And you know, he like dropped the axe and then ran and jumped back in his car and drove off. So last I checked up on it, the police were still looking for this guy. But I think that I mean, you know, that's he's probably one of them, you know, probably know, but you know, that's
the last I heard of it. And you know, I think that there's a few things that we need to address, and I'm going to start with perhaps the least popular thing that we have to deal with, and that's that white men feel like they are under attack a lot of times. It's such a weird thing because you know, I know that me personally, the whole sum total of all the days of my life, I felt, to one degree or another under attack or at least you know, in the danger zone, you know, where might not be
directed at me. But if I go outside, I have to be hyper aware of who I am relative to everyone else. And I do believe that this is kind of a new thing for white men, and this is why we're seeing a lot of mass shootings, and this is why we're seeing a lot of things, you know, from a certain type of person over and over again. There's no reason for a person to go and destroy And I think this is the second person that went the first time it was a police officer. It was
in uniform and went like kicked over some stuff. But this is a this is something that eventually we're going to have to talk about on the show at least. And you know, I know that there are a lot of white men who listen to the show that are
they position themselves as allies. I believe them be great people, and they have given me insight into this way of thinking that plagues some or perhaps many white males in this country, where they feel like I think what it is is, and I want to get everyone's response to this, but I think what it is is if you're born a white male in this country, you're told that the
American dream is yours. If you go to school and you work hard, and you're going to grow up and you're gonna be a rock star and you have a Ferrari and you're gonna live in a mansion and you're gonna have a bunch of women that love you and
not whatever. And then when they get older and they see that that's not true, they're especially vulnerable to propaganda things that position black and brown folks as these sort of bloodsuckers that are taking their American dream away from them when the truth is perhaps more capitalism than anything else. But we've been positioned as an enemy to these people, and so they respond in kind like what we saw
in this George Floyd mural attack. And you know, I've always well, I've learned from studying other folks that violence begets violence, and anger begets anger. And that's not to say that we need to forgive people or you know, anything like that. But I'm just interested in everyone's thoughts about how do we deal with these sorts of things, how do we feel about it, and what, if anything, can we do.
To fix it?
Keisha, how you feel, We'll just give me your thoughts.
Ah, Yeah, that's a big topic.
But I definitely think that you're onto something with that. And I feel that.
You know, when we're uh, when you see that there's a shift of power happening, I believe at the moment, and because they're that shift of power is happening on such a mass scale. There's this this kind of to your point of what you said, there's this uprooting of of this the norm. There's a new norm happening, and that these you know, white men and white people in general are feeling that upset and they don't necessarily know
how to deal with it. And because they don't know how to deal with this upset, you know, there there's this rage that's coming out, uh, you know against uh, you know, people of color and whatnot.
So yeah, I definitely I think you're onto something with that.
Yeah, I feel like, you know, they have that saying this is, you know, if you're privileged, equality feels like oppression, and I feel like we feel that we see that
a lot. You know, white people see Okay, we're not even we're only now just starting to to talk about maybe having some amount of representation, and white people feel like they're losing things, and especially white men, and you know, we hear all the time, you know, we have affirmative action, and even that, you know, hasn't really changed much because it's still mostly white people, white men, and yet somehow they think, you know that the one black person you
know in at the job or you know, at in the college, cause it's still like that, you know, I'm I'm in a graduate program right now, and I'm the only black, you know, person in my whole my whole department right now, my only black PhD students.
And so when they talk.
About like, oh, you know, and then I still have white people feel like somehow I took the place, and I'm like, I'm still the only one, So what are you afraid of? And I just feel like they see somehow, if we were to equal things out, they're going to
lose something. But it's not so much as you know, instead of seeing it as a loss of something, they should also see the way that you know, the way that privilege and affluence and this bubble, this white, you know, privileged bubble that they live in, actually takes away a part of their humanity because they don't even you know, know how to deal or with different cultures or different types of people, because you know, of their homogeneity that
they've lived because of their privilege. And somehow they think if that changes.
They lose something.
But I would argue, you're gaining something. You're gaining culture, you're gaining you know, spiced food, you're gaining.
There's so much you know.
Rhythms, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, I agree with that.
And it's almost just like anytime black people show up in a way where we're autonomous, where we're laying claim to our humanity, where we're saying we are power, powerful, and what you're doing to us is wrong, that's when we get disciplined, either by physical force, verbal remarks, eye rolls, whatever it is, whatever microaggression it is, or physical thing it is, that's what happens. So what we see here with this man shooting this picture is a direct result
of that. So they would prefer to us to have our heads bowed down as we're walking down the street and looking them in the eye, same kind of thing. The second we step out of turn is the second we are we get disciplined by the white supremacy system. And he's a product of it, you know, And a lot of the times we talk about who's to blame for it, but I mean, if you're benefiting from a system of white supremacy and you're not doing anything about it,
you're to blame for the system. So it's it's definitely time for them to organize themselves against these things because it's murderous and it's killing us, and it's it's killing them too, and it's killing the planet, it's killing everything around us because we haven't stepped in topic time to be like, okay, look, let's be better people for everything around us, so we can make this, make this earth actually survive. But that's not what we see. We see.
We see humans holding this unhealthy hierarchy, and we see white men specifically holding white CIS men specifically holding this hierarchy over humanity like they're the height of it and dehumanizing everything else and everything, every person, thing object. Uh, I don't care. H two? Oh you name the element white men think they can own and control it, colonize over it, and make money off of exploited you know. So how do we you know, not do that? And
how do we center something different? You know? How do we build something different with uh? This world's uh you know, it's continuously been obsessed with anti black violence, So how do we undo that? And this is w him doing shooting the picture again the product of that anti black violence absolutely.
Oh man Q and his dark, sad point of view.
You know, when the show starts, you guys hear me do a lighthearted explanation of just my name Quentin, Reverend Estella Seacrest. My mother named me Quentin after a friend of hers whose name was Queen and the prefix quin meaning five. I was also my father's fifth child. I don't know that she did that on purpose, but it worked out that way. But the reason I do that when Ramses and I talk about this all the time, our show can feel and get very heavy for us
and for our listeners. Emotionally, it is a lot to take on. And as you guys have heard us say multiple times, as a part of our responsibility, we have to take in all of this very difficult content, these images, these videos, these stories, some that don't even make national news, of our people being subjugated to levels of oppression that you thought went away fifty years ago, or that you've been taught or that people would like you to believe have we've left in our rearview mirror.
But the thing that happens.
And this is why you kind of hear us speak about capitalism in the way that we do, is because it is created a mental vacuum of a zero sum game. If this group is getting ahead, then we must be being pushed back. So the group that's always had the head start, that's always had the resources and the lead being brought back to the pack. You know, Keisha, as you said, can make you feel like you're the one being oppressed. Now, how come everyone else gets to play
on a fair playing field with us? Now, I must be losing something if he's gaining something. Except human civil rights don't work that way. We can actually all have them and us being brought to a place where we're not oppressed or criminalized. Because the way that we look
does not mean that now you're somehow worse off. But when you have a system that thrives on their being an oppressed group, you have to make the majority oppressed group feel like part of the minority, or feel like the reason that things are not working out in their benefit is because this group of people over here, these black and brown people are taking your jobs.
Are the reason that there's crime. You know that that's the reason why you're not living the American dream. Look at them.
Don't look at us rich people who are monopolizing your resources and taking everything for ourselves. Look at the people who are actually in the same boat as you. Because they look different from you, it must be their fault. Well said, and a lot to think about. But uh, you know, if you're just tuning in a civic sipher, I mean host Ramsay is yeah, and they call me q ward as. Indeed, you know, started the show off talking about, you.
Know, some heavy stuff. You know, really we're talking about violence and aggression toward black people and examining the source
of that. And you know, there's there's something that I wanted to add to that part of the show before we move on, and that's that, you know, I have this belief that you know, when when when people say, you know, white privilege doesn't exist, and in their mind, like I understand why they might say that, because if you're born poor and white and everyone else around you is poor and white, and you had to work for whatever it is you have, it could be a lot,
it could be nothing, and you don't feel like there were any advantages. No one came and said, oh you're white, here's you know, a million dollar loan. You know that never happened in your story. Then white privilege feels like an attack or a slap in your face because you feel like you've had to work for everything, And so I try to reframe that oftentimes, as you know, if you're born black, at least in this society, based on society's rules, not nature's rules, but society's rules, that's like
being born with a strike against you. If you're being born black and female, that's almost like being born with two strikes against you. Black female, and you know, queer, or you know, or maybe you're not in a healthy body, maybe there's a handicap or you know, some other some other thing going on that is not heterosexual Christian, white male, straight person who in a healthy body, then you're born
with a strike against you. But if you are born you know, Christian male, you know, that's like being born with zero strikes against you. And that in and of itself is your privilege. And so that way both things can be true. You weren't born with anything, but you weren't born with any strikes against you, and that is your privilege. We've had to crawl up from underneath from a negative space, and you were able to start it at the starting line. We were able to we had
to start further back. And I think that reframes it in a lot of folks minds and it's the people that understand and acknowledge that. Obviously a lot of people would agree with that, and especially people that would listen to this sort of show and people that would show up and support the things that, you know, we're trying to do to make the world a little bit more
fair place. But I find that that explanation even convinces people who challenge the idea that they were born with any sort of privilege, because it's like, well, did you start with nothing? Okay, so we can agree that you started with nothing. Okay, then let's go from there because I started with less than nothing. And then usually they're able to kind of come around. So, you know, take
that and do what you want with it. It might, you know, you know, help you in a conversation and might help you convince someone to kind of rethink the world that you live in and that they live in. But moving on another thing that we have to talk about. Unfortunately, it's also very troubling, and I'm sure everyone will have a lot to say about it. I am going to kind of chill on this one because I want to hear everyone else's thoughts. But Andrew Brown were aware of
what happened with Andrew Brown. On April twenty first, the police were executing a search warrant at Andrew Brown's house. They pulled up in mass and he tried to flee the scene, as is his customary right, being a creature endowed with consciousness. If you're afraid, you run, that is hardwired into us by nature. So that is not a death sentence, right, And they shot him and he died.
And the interesting thing about this, if you don't know the story, is they shot him as he was fleeing, so all of the bullets hit him in the back. He's shot in the back of the head and the back of his body in his car was all shot up in the crashed into a tree. I want to say is that if I'm missing some of the details, you know, I try not to give too much of myself to preparing for the show, just because it's so taxing. So if I miss a couple of things, don't hold
it against me. But that's the gist of the story. Well, we found out this past week that the judge said that the officers had reason to believe that they were in danger and so the shooting was justified. Now we just got.
A verdict from the George Floyd case and a guilty verdict which we were happy with, not happy with, but we felt like that was good. Derek Chauvin's that's face say, I'm so sorry, the Derek Chauvin case.
The murder of George Floyd exactly exactly. So that felt like, okay, maybe, I mean, it doesn't feel like a win. I don't think it feels like a win to anyone, but it does feel like, Okay, you're starting to hear us maybe a little bit. Let's get a lot more of that and then let's normalize it. That's kind of I think, for the most part what we were feeling at that moment. But like Q, a lot of people felt like, oh, okay, they just had to do this because they don't want
anybody done. Wants to burn it down, you know what I'm saying. And I think that this judge saying that the officers had reason to believe that they were in danger as a man was fleeing to shoot him in the back and end his life, that feels like more of what we're accustomed to. I love all your thoughts on that.
If you have any sure, I'll start Yeah, yeah, let's hear it. I know what I think.
I want to know what you think.
My tag team partner on this show has a much more optimistic and hopeful outlook on race relations and justice, the way our country views and treats us in where we aspire to be at some point, I, because of things like this, am a far less hopeful person with regards to us ever reaching this utopia of progress and social change and equality. It really feels like it'll never happen to me. And that's not a place that I'm excited about living mentally and emotionally, but it is an
honest place. And our country, our countrymen, our police, continue to reassure me that I'm right if someone leaving out of my house after robbing it got shot in their back by me, after they've terrorized my family, scared my children, but made it out of my house running away from me, and I shot them dead in the back, in the back, they for darn and I really wanted to say something else right there, They for darn sure would find justified reason to hold me accountable, because it'd be very hard
to explain to them how I felt threatened by this person who's already flee the scene, this person that's running away from me, and that would be true for everyone sitting in this space with me right now. Unless you had an h Seese badge pin to your shirt, then you'd have an almost literal license to murder and a built in excuse of fear at all times afraid of
the person running away from you, justified in murdering this individual. Now, in my case, in the story, I told you'd think this person broke into my home, terroribrized my family, scared of my children, woke me out of my sleep. But all that person has to do for me to be the bad guy is make it out of my front door. And even if my feelings are justified and true, I'm going to be held accountable.
If the person.
Doesn't die, I'm probably going to be brought up on criminal and civil charges, attempted murder and whatever this person wants to suit me for. Even though they actually broken my house, stole things, scared my family, terrorized them, they
made it outside. So the lass set up for that person to somehow make me the bad guy, especially when I'm wearing this skin, so it's impossible for me to be hopeful when the guilty verdicts are very very few and far between, and even when the guilty verdicts happen, there's a sentencing that happens after where you get convicted murderers getting less time than people found guilty of selling marijuana prior to it becoming the booming federal and local
industry that it's become over the last few years. So it's hard as a father and as a black man living in a country that even when we fight for it and we wrap that flag around us, when we touch back on our soil, we're still viewed as less standing beneath. It is very hard to remain hopeful when
those things remain true. So this time I couldn't watch the video because watching bullets tear through another one of my people for a reason that you can't explain to me would have been too much this time.
Don Yeah, I think that'll as Kisha.
Yeah.
So that really resonates home with me.
Just I feel like in my body often I am struggling with the optimistic side of me and also the less optimistic side of me, because on one hand, I do want to believe that there is a world that the world that we're building, and and and doing all of this work and you know, pounding the pavement for and you know, the change that we're hoping to see.
On one hand, you know, it's it's a beautiful thing, right if you allow yourself to drop into that space and allow yourself to really imagine a world without police, and imagine a world where the police are defunded, and imagine a world where everyone has you know, access to food and water and you know, uh, social services and a place to sleep, a safe place to sleep. And
you know, that's a beautiful thing to imagine. And on the other hand, when you see things like this in the news almost every single day, and you know, it's it's a struggle in the reality that that we sit with because as you see in the George Floyd UH situation case murder. You know, although Derek Chauvin was found guilty for or for what he did, George Floyd was on trial for his own murder, you know, and you
see that in a lot of cases. You see that in almost every single case, right the person that got shot or or you know, brutalized by the police in some way become the victim of their own uh murders or or offenses.
That try to well, he deserved it.
And even in the you know Andrew Brown situation, I haven't watched the video and and don't know a ton about the story because these cases they're they're really difficult to to hear often, and I try to save my emotional capacity for for the situations that happen here locally, since we are a local organization and we fight, you know, those police brutality here in our local area.
Try to save my.
Compassion and and and just energy for these cases happen closer to home. But I definitely saw that they're you know, they're trying to vilify him from the moment that it happened, trying to vilify him for his own murder and justify well, if he wouldn't have ran, he would have still be alive.
All you have to do is.
You know, follow the law and you know you wouldn't get shot, right.
So it's like you have those.
Situations, it is it is a struggle to hold on to hope while while seeing this happen every single day. But for me, if I didn't have hope, there would be nothing to fight for, you know, So I have to allow myself to even if I don't always believe. I have to allow myself to.
Fake it till I make.
It, you know, because if I didn't, I wouldn't have the strength to get up every day and do this work.
Sure sory what you got?
I feel like you know of something that we always say in the movement is you know, the system isn't broken.
It's working exactly the way that it's supposed to. And so you know when.
The way he works, I mean, you know, you say that the badge is a license to kill, right literally, it's that where they're qualified immunity, and so you know, the way that the laws and everything is set up, they're gonna get free. You know, Derek Shavin was a sacrificial lamb that the police gave to us because they knew that we would have completely lost faith in the system. But honestly, you know, if you haven't yet, it's like,
come on, like, we know how this goes. We know how they criminalize, we know how they you know, and at this point it's just about especially you know, for for us as an organization that works directly with families, you know, we try to you know, smile and you know, tell them we're going to get justice, but more more
often than not, that's not the case. And and honestly, now we've been talking about it ourselves as an organization, when we meet with these families, we kind of have to be honest that, like, you know, we will advocate for you, but the likelihood that will win is you know, it's not it's not really high.
But you know, we're going to try what we can.
We're going to make sure and and more so, what we see what happens after these cases is depending on the level of uprising that comes afterwards, you might get some policy changes or something, you know, but but most of the time, it's mostly window dressing, you know. And the system is the same, and it's going to continue to kill us, and we're going to continue. Uh, the murderers are going to continue to go free because it was built that way. You know, police are the modern
day slave catchers. So you know, if we shouldn't really expect almost anything else, and you know, to that point, Uh, that is why you know, doing this work. And uh, for as long as I've been doing it, you know, I don't watch the videos. You know, I didn't watch the whole George Floyd video, you know, because I watched the Eric Gardner video, you know, and that's what you know. It brought me out to the streets, and I, you know, I can't keep watching them because I feel like we
get desensitized to black death. And if black lives are supposed to matter, we can't become desensitized to black death. And if you see the difference with the school shootings, with the grocery store shootings, with all the other times when white people decide to shoot up places, you know, uh, they never show the bodies, but when black people get killed, it's these public executions.
And that's because our lives don't matter as much.
And so I feel like, you know, especially as US as an organization, we don't repost that. And you know, and uh, because you know it is uh.
It.
Does become desensitizing to black death. And you know, how are we supposed to matter?
Me? Me? Yeah, I feel it. You know.
The level.
Of black death surrounding I said, any moment is absolutely overwhelming, and I don't know how we as a people do it. And I think, if anything, that's what keeps me going is the fact that we are actually still alive and here and doing it. Eleven million Africans died at sea before we got to this terrible, terrible place that we called the Americas. Okay, so before we even got here, black death was a huge thing. Eleven million. The boat is too heavy, you have to go. So here we are.
Imagine what they did to us. For as long as we were here, we were nothing but extra scraps on the ship to them. So of course we look around us now on that that same level in different forms of black death is around us and everywhere. So if anything, you know, looking to our ancestors and movements before us, what what made you fight in this fight that seems unfeatable at all times, you know, and what they still continue to do? And then that's the that's the we
call it afrofuturist in all of us, you know. So we have the pessimists and we have the Afro futurests, and there they go head to head, right, But it's just like there's there's something, there's some kind of freedom dream in what we've been trying to achieve. But there's also this is very deep rooted anti black violence in our communities and in ourselves, and sometimes we you know, take things out on ourselves and in ways and the
people around us in ways that we shouldn't write. But I think that there's no excuse and there's no other reason behind why somebody would shoot and kill somebody in the back and talk about their threat and actually get the way with it. Then the fact that anti black violence is just as real now as it was then as the eleven million, you know, So when we bring our ancestors in the room, this makes sense differently, Okay, So we forget about time. Time is a colonial construct.
We have to go into it, y'all. They hear me talk like this all the time too. That's why they're laughing. This didn't happen as long ago as we think it did, because guess who created time? A bunch of colonizers say that happens so long ago. Just forget about it. Forget about it because it benefits who. So let's disrupt it all, disrupt their time too. This we're on. We don't need to be on white time anymore. You did this? Do
we feel it in our bodies still? So, that black trauma, that ancestral trauma, that post traumatic slave syndrome, it's very much here, and it's with our brothers and sisters on the continent too, because again we didn't even make it here before. They dumped us like garbage. Now they dumped my brother in the street like the same mother. Okay, let's stop, same MF and thing. You see. So it's disgusting. When when do when is there an intro? When does
there stop to it? We don't know, but we know there is a fight for it, and there's a there's a fight and people are fighting against it, you know, So invoking invoking their hopes it is what keeps us going. But I think it's it's always you know, it's balanced because you'll we have to go back and see you know what happened then and now is then and now? And why people need to stef weaponizing time to make it like it was so long ago. Fair point, Well, give
us back our reparations. We can't talk about black lives if we're not talking about reparations.
Give me my money, run me my money, talk to money. So listen, I got to say a couple things. The first thing I want to say is I read some a couple of years ago, I want to say, and it was a report study and it said men interrupt women at a rate of seventy seventy percent more often than women interrupt men in the same conversations. Right, So when I read that me trying to be the person that I aspire to be, I was like, oh, you know what, let me check myself. And over the past
few years, I've been trying my best to check myself. Right, want a woman to speak and letters say air pece, state of brief, try to learn. And I think that listening to U three say that right now should serve as proof to every other man listening that you should let these women talk. If they talking, you sit there and listen and you get educated. Now, of course I've heard you all speak before, so you know we kind of have the dynamics you're established.
But just.
To be able to listen to that passion, it's very moving and very empowering. So thank you for sharing that.
I'm cutting rams Ands off very intentionally right now. You know, I know that's some kind of social pun based on what he just said, but I just picked up my phone and text our group let these women speak. And you didn't see that before you said what you just said, because you don't even have your phone.
So that's how a line we were just now. I know you saw it.
I said, let them speak because it's so nests, it's so powerful, it's so moving. Our superheroes, our real superheroes, are represented by here listen now Captain America, not the Incredible Hulk them. So let these women speak because those words, those thoughts, those real raw emotions are powerful and necessary. So it's almost spooky that I text that and you without seeing it set.
It absolutely absolutely. You know, I listened all day. I made a radio show, so so everybody listen, you know. So yeah, and then there's a there's a nurturing quality that just is absent when the man speaks, you know, originally, you know, when we try to work out these dynamics and the optics and everything like that, we try to
account for that. But one thing I do want to say, though, in terms of a contribution to the to the narrative here in the conversation, is that, in terms of you know, keeping myself enthused and optimistic about the future prospects, you know, I just have to think, you know, what are we doing this for if not to have a better tomorrow, And so I try to keep that at the center of my imagination. If you will and just remain hopeful.
And then you know, there are some shiny examples in my life of people who are really going to go out of their way, to their own detriment to make the world a little bit more fairer, for place fair place for people that don't look like them, and granted, relative to everyone else, it's a small number, but it's enough to keep me hopeful about the future. So with that said, you know, I want to make sure that you know what you're listening to. This is a civic sipher from your host Rams's Jah.
They call me q Ward, and that's almost my name. Quentin Ward makes you say she was just way easier to say. I don't mind you saying Quentin, though, by the way, I just really can't rock with Quentin, not because it's not a cool name, it's just not mine. It'd be like calling me Michael. They're not the same. So Quentin or q Ward, whichever you prefer.
I want to educate people, man, because sometimes people that don't know me, if I'm out of town, they hear Ramsey, no disrespect anybody named Ramsey. But my name is Ramses. That's what my father named me. Anyway, Big news big news if you live in Arizona, you live in Phoenix, especially, uh, the folks who live in in this state and in this city and in Tucson too. You know, there's an
event coming up. It'll be this Tuesday, and what we're going to do is it's it's it's it's an anniversary of the passing of two people that were very central to the marches and the protests last year and are still very central to you know, our hearts and the stories that we're continuing to write these days. Of course, George Floyd would be the anniversary of his passing and Dion Johnson. It's another high profile case here in Arizona.
And we're going to have an event to celebrate the lives of these people and to also empower economically, specifically the family of Dion Johnson, which is something that we can do here locally. And so I want to take a moment and you know, any one of you can answer this, but you know, what are your thoughts on you know, why this is important or why this is necessary to commemorate you know, this event and uh, you know, to do something.
Yeah, we so much just happened George Floyd and Dion Johnson.
Uh.
You know, Dion was our own local Floyd incident happened on the same exact day and didn't get nearly as much attention or justice. And so you know, we've we've done a lot, We've done direct actions, We've you know, had thousands of people in the streets for for Dion. We you know, surrounded DPS. We we we did a lot. You know, we got arrested for Dion Johnson, and still
we haven't gotten justice. And now it comes up on a year and in that time, uh irma who's uh Dion's mom has gotten her other son taken from by the same the same state, the same police. They're they're trying to uh frame him on a bunch of charges and basically take him away forever. And so, you know, when we thought about what could we do to commemorate this, what can we do, We're like, we have to bring her son home. You know, we can't let you know, two of her sons be be taken by the state.
Uh that's just you know, too tragic of a story in one year, you know, in the middle of an uprising. We we have to do something. So that's why we decided to do a benefit concert. It's our first time putting on a concert. I know, y'all know us b LM for protests, but we we get getting into something new here so that we can raise the money for uh Dion's family, so that we can bring Erma's son home, and so that we can remember, you know, everything that's happened in the last year.
Yeah, and I think that that's the fact that we're going into this with that level of enthusiasm and confidence. A lot of folks that may not have been out on the streets or whatever, they might not be aware of just the huge crowds that come out even though the numbers have kind of shrink in twenty twenty one from twenty twenty, still huge numbers of people. And the fact that you're able to do this and connecting not just with Dion's family but with the city in this
way is very significant. And you know, I unfortunately I can't talk about my affiliation with the event because of the nature of broadcasting on the FM of frequency. The FCC has some rules about that. But you can let folks know how they can participate. If they can't participate, how can they support, you know, And so forth. That's what this time is for.
Yeah, absolutely, uh this Keisha here. So the concert is going to be on May so, exactly one year from the date of of this tragic loss. We're opening the doors at six pm, so it'll be from six pm to ten pm at the Monarch Theater and uh, yeah, we're excited. We have a pretty dope lineup setup for y'all. We've gone out of our uh stretched our comfort zone here to bring you guys a pretty dope concert with some uh you know, some local like uh artists in who are in the movement.
Who's on that lineup?
Yeah, so who's on the lineup? So we got our and excuse me if I mess up anyone's names here, but uh we have Arian Nicole with PLC dope artists, check her out. We got Rocky Tirade who's also in the movement as well, so dope dope artists. We got our We got some dancers from our very own uh uh choreograph a dance choreograph by Nissa Vibe, who's our very own member of BLM Phoenix Metro. Yeah, we got pokea face on here. We got dj Rams this job turning up the tables in the house. You know what
I'm saying. We got Q in the house. We got MC fresh Maker. Yeah, I mean, we got we got just you know, we got a dope line up for y'all. And this is gonna be hosted by all of your uh prominent local orgs here in Arizona. And again the purpose of this benefit concert is to bring uh Donovan Johnson home back to his mom. Irma Johnson and the family will be present at this event and family friendly, all age welcomes. It is hosted at the Monarch Theater,
but we are keeping it family friendly. Uh So there will be non alcoholic beverages, have, vendors will have It's going to be a good time, So come out. Check it out by the tickets online. We are on event right, so check out the tickets online. You can go to our Facebook page. It's in our Instagram pages and the link is in the bio as well.
Absolutely, and once again, that will be this Tuesday at Monarch Theater in downtown Phoenix, one twenty two East Washington. I know the address and you can find out more information on social media. So you guys please share your social media so folks can follow you and keep up with you.
Yeah, so on Instagram we have it's at BLM Phoenix Metro. Twitter is also at BLM Phoenix Metro. And then we also have our Facebook page at Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro.
And that's spelled BLM PHX Metro for ig Twitter.
Okay, any personal instagrams y'all want to share. If not, don't worry about it. It's all good. It's about the move, all good. Okay, I'm not mad at that. We'll shoot. You can follow our personal instagram at Civic Cipher and also you can hit the website Civiccipher dot com. You can make a donation to the show that really helps the show grow. We have new cities that we'll announce soon,
so we're really appreciative of everyone's support. You can also submit topics if there's things that we need to talk about, things we need to know about that happened in the community. This is your show just as much as it is our show, so please feel involved and feel free to support. And of course you can download this show. If you tuned in in the middle or any previous show, you can listen to the unedited version of it. And you know what Another thing that we don't do is we
don't push the YouTube. So if you ever want to engage visually, you can check out our YouTube channel as well. That's YouTube dot com slash Civiccipher again. That's all on the website, civiccipher dot com. Once again, I'm Rams's Jah, call me Qward and that's going to do it for us. So until next week, y'all.