Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host, rams is Jah.
They call me q Ward, but they haven't always. They used to call me Quentin and that's not my name, and people don't really like to say Quentin Tun, which is what revend Estella named me, So I just go with Q because it's easier for everybody else.
Yes, indeed, q Ward in the building and we are back up in you one more again. Great show for you today. A lot of important things to talk about, so stick around radio is because we will be discussing
the latest from Naomi Osaka. You haven't heard. She's been in the news lately for protecting her mental health, which is something that we applaud around here, especially when it comes to black women, because a lot of times they're crushed under the weight of their own lives, and you know, it always makes sense to take a time out, take time out for yourself. So we're gonna talk about that. Also, we're going to talk about some good things from her
and from Simone Biles. We definitely want to touch on what's going on with Kyrie Irving and some of the statements that he's made and some of the things that have come true in his world. And another thing that's been in the news a lot lately is, you know, with the history in Tulsa, the Black Wall Street, and you know that not ever really having its day in the sun. In other words, a lot of folks not knowing exactly what took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
You know.
For today's way Black History Fact, we're gonna spend a little time talking about that. We're gonna check in with our producer, DJ Swirl. He's got a little bit of something for us there. So yeah, that's really what it looks like. A lot in store for you today, so be sure to stay by your radios. But first order of business, we're going to talk about Simone Biles. So all right, do you know what she did?
I do know what she did, Okay, And I'm gonna try to say this properly. Okay, your chenko double pike, and I saw her do it, okay, And I'm kind of confused because it looked like she flipped over three times. And I'm not a gymnast, so I don't know what pike means. So maybe that's the part that happened twice. Even though there seemed to be a Third Revolution.
See the doubles what threw me off, But in any case, she is the first woman to complete this maneuver. And of course, here on Civic Cipher, we love to celebrate Ebony excellence, which is why we're taking a moment to do this right now with her. If you can check out the video, we do have it up on our social media, so don't forget to follow us at Civic Cypher, post yelp stuff like that all the time.
Some may argue that when it comes to this gymnastic thing that she's the goat do it. Yeah.
I mean, you know, I've heard a lot of names over the years, but I have never known anyone to be as celebrated as she is, and so that wouldn't surprise me one bit, certainly, with her making accomplishments like this, you know, putting that black girl magic out in front of the whole world on full display, we love to see that around here, as she should. And another person that we have to mention is Naomi Osaka because she's just breaking records of her own this time. Financial records.
Looks like she has made over fifty five million dollars in the last twelve months, making her the highest paid female athlete in a year, something like that.
Just let me borrow two dollars. They got a new special McDonald's. If you bought a chicken sandwich, I think you get the nuggets something like that. I'll look into it. Absolutely well.
In any case, we wanted to take a moment to make sure that we shouted out that Ebony excellence before we get in to the uh, the and potatoes of the show here. So now we have to talk about some of the other things that are taking place in her life. And you know, as we started, as we mentioned in the in the start of the show, she's making news. This is Naomi Osaka. She's making news for what we would call protecting her mental health, right, and
she's gotten some backlash, a lot of support. So we don't want to frame this around the backlash that she's received, but she has we have we have to be fair. She's gotten some backlash about, you know, protecting her mental health. And for those that don't know the story, and I'm going to leave out some stuff. I'm not the biggest person when it comes to sports, so you can jump in at any point. So what I understand is that you know, I she really wasn't in the proper headspace to deal
with the press after her match. Now, I don't know if she won or lost a match, you know, I don't know any of those things. But I do know that there was an interview that I came about when I was researching this segment for today's show that this might have been from twenty eighteen, and she said something. She was talking to the reporters and they were asking her questions about why she lost and what she could
have done better in those sorts of things. And the one thing I remember her saying in that interview was how sad she was. She's like, guys, I'm so sad, and she said it with a smile, but you could really see like she's really not in the proper headspace. She's she's having to relive that loss. And you know, people deal with, you know, losses differently.
You know.
My understanding is that you know, to some folks, you know, it weighs a little bit heavier than other people, and then athletes tend to be very competitive people. And so far be it from me to assume that a loss
would roll off of her back. But you know the way that she framed it, at least in twenty eighteen, was that you know, she's she lost, and then she has to come and relive that loss on full display and get picked apart for why she lost, so that everyone can take these little bits and pieces of her lived experience and pedal it out to the masses and frame her loss in a way that gets them clicks or gets them you know, views or readers or whatever
the case is. And you know, I might be reaching here a bit, but you know, the way she made it seem and the way that I understand it is that it doesn't really feel like something that you're able
to really account for. And you know, we all know that the world is changing, and you know, in as far as things like this, as far as you know that we live through the me too movement that's still happening, where the generation that grew up, you know, with Robin Williams always being there, he was the genie in Aladdin. He was you know, he was always a comedian throughout
my life. You know, I'm born in eighty two, and you know he battled depression that whole time and I had no idea and then ultimately he took his own life. You know, these are these are things that we've lived through. And so when we look at someone like Naomi Osaka who says, you know what, I'm not going to be able to do this. I need to really protect myself. I need to be able to protect my mental health,
you know, I feel like, you know, kudos to her. Now, one thing I do know is that there's a person named Piers Morgan. Now, Piers Morgan is not an American person. He's a British broadcaster, but he's still a very sort of conservative type of man. He's been very critical of Megan Markle and her decision to protect her family and her mental health as well.
How dare she? Yeah?
And you know, now with Naomi Osaka and you know, the two women, you know, I'm a conspiracy theorist to a point. You know, I make connections and see patterns maybe where they don't exist. But when I see this elderly white man being very critical of these two young black women who are very pretty and in the prime of their lives and being very successful, you know, it's
very easy to see some commonalities there. And you know, well, of course, at the center of it is I understand that this man's experience is nothing like these women's experience. And so him and people like him because he said it, because he knows that there are people like him who
want to read his take on it. They think, of course that this woman is being a baby, and this comes with the job, and you know, on and on and on, and everybody's you know, very critical, until something tragic happens and everyone's like.
Oh, no one looked at the signs. No one could have prevented this, you know what I mean. And so that's the lay of the situation.
But the reason that I thought, and our show producer thought it was really important to share this with you the listeners, because you know, mental health is something that only recently and only just is being discussed in the black community. And we're the people who have lived through generational trauma. You know, we were born with trauma in
our DNA. You know, there are those of us whose ancestors saw our countrymen ripped apart by horses, set a blaze, hung from trees, tarred and feathered, castrated in full view of everyone.
You know, we were having a conversation.
Q and I were having a conversation about picnics and the origin of the word picnic and how is free? Yeah, check out say it again. Google is free one time. So, you know, all of these things really do point to the fact that there's a lot of trauma in our story, in our history and in our bones.
Even and.
Try as we might, you know, we're men, black men. We are not black women. That is a whole other story, a whole other animal. There's a whole other facet to even the type of trauma that that type of human can experience a black woman.
And so.
Yes is absolutely meaningful that we take a moment to discuss what it looks like to protect your mental health, what it looks like to draw lines, set a boundary for yourself and understand that you have to be a priority in your own life and your own story. I'm not trying to take anything away from people who have kids or people that are taking care of their loved ones or anything like that, but you know, I think Kat Williams said it best. You got to be in
tune with your star player. For those who are stand up comedian fans, you kind of got to know what your limits are and draw a hard line. And she Naomi sets a great example here now I do recognize that this is the same woman we just said made fifty five million dollars in the past twelve months. She got fined, right.
Fifteen thousand dollars she was fined.
Yeah, so that might sound like a lot of money to us, but to her, you know.
Probably is relative. Not much.
Yeah, affordable. But you know, there are those of us who live and you know, we're talking about black women in this particular incidence, but all of us really need to protect our mental health and.
Draw a line.
You know, money is important, but it's not more important than the being that we are and the vessel that we inhabit, because we only get one of those. You can always make more money, but understanding that not everyone can always afford to take these liberties, you know, I implore you to explore.
The things that.
Help keep you centered, standing in the middle of yourself, and that keep you going, you know, because you know, I read something a while ago and it said it was about working. You know, and all of us work, we all have a job. But it was something to the effect that I'm gonna get it wrong, but something to the effect of make sure that you put yourself before these jobs, because these jobs will replace you in forty eight hours if you drop dead on the assembly line.
But they and now I'm gonna have to paraphrase, because that's really the gist of what the statement was. But basically, you have to take care of yourself and you're going to be the person that writes your own story. The job is not going to write your story. These obviously, these reporters and so forth from this French open are not writing this woman's story.
She's writing her own.
She's making headlines for all the right reasons, and none of these reporters get to tell their story. And the French Open that chose to find her this fifteen thousand dollars is getting backlash for punishing her for protecting herself
and standing up for self and drawing a line. Now, do have to play devil's advocate here, because who would we be if we didn't, if we weren't being realistic about the way the world works, that capitalism is the invisible hand that controls all of us one degree or another. You know, there are those that say, well, she did sign up for this, she did have a commitment, she did have you know, whatever the whatever was that comes along with that, and The best I can offer is
that that's that's tough. You know, I'd imagine that it's you play that on a case by case basis. You know, I don't know, what do you think?
It's an interesting marriage, right? The industries depend on each other for prosperity. In order for these athletes to make the type of money that they make, to draw the audiences that they draw for their leagues to get the amount of money that they get, it's largely reliant on media and TV partnerships. So that part is true. The question you have to ask is mandating media availability after every game and after every match. Is that much access necessary? Right?
Because once upon a time before they held large press conferences after every game, there was like kind of unlimited access to the locker room. So you have reporters walking into the locker room after you're showering and trying to get dressed and either just lost or just won a game, and you might have six reporters waiting to talk to you,
and they might all ask you the same question. So the press conference kind of eliminated two problems the redundancy of good or bad questions just not having to answer the same thing over and over again, and some sense of privacy in the locker room. Let's have this press conference where everyone who has a question can ask it, and if you're in the room with other reporters, if someone else asked the question you were going to ask, you no longer have to. There's a lot of conflated
issues here, though. You have the treatment of black women in this country, in this world, and sports world specifically not being the center issue here, but it's it's always going to be one with a media that covers, you know, the Slams and tennis being almost one hundred percent white and not having any sense of relatability to what these black athletes are going through in normal life or in their professional sports life. Add to that that she was preemptive.
This wasn't after a win or a loss. This was going into the tournament, you know pretty much. Hey, you guys, I'm dealing with a lot right now and I'd rather not Glad you said that, I'd rather not do the media availability for this tournament. Now, this tournament might be relying on you one of their stars being readily available for the media, but on the back of Mental Health Awareness Month, you should be able to say hey, you guys, can I have this one. I'm tired, I'm fighting depression.
And she afterwards, because she got backlash for making herself unavailable, she then came out was apologetic, but she was also very specific. You know the example that you used earlier. I'm not even sure if you knew you were hitting the nail on the head, But having to talk to
someone after you've lost, you have to understand. To reach her level of success as an athlete, you have to have either an irrational sense of confidence, right, I can beat an elephant in the fight kind of confidence, or you have to be very not okay with losing, also to a level of being irrational. You're angry when you lose, you're sad, you cry. Those are the only type of people that can reach that level of success. The Michael Jordan's,
the Lebron James's, the Serena Williams, the Naomi Osakas. You have to have one or both of those things. And in her case, she's saying, after I lose a match, coming to be torn apart by you guys affects my confidence or even knowing that I have to have these conversations when loser draw affects my mindset going into a match, so I would rather not And that's something that she said out loud. She wants to work with the leagues on to try to improve and figure out some solutions
to the issue. But she's saying out loud, this is what I'm dealing with, and this is how I'm trying
to deal with it. So for her to receive pushback, like I said, on the back of Mental Health Awareness Month, was a bit intentionally poetic for that league, like all other leagues, to be, you know, trying to support Mental Health Awareness Month and their marketing and then to have one of their star athletes come out and say this is what I'm dealing with, and to receive pushback not just from the media and fans, but from the tournament and her, like I said, with Grayson wanting to she
didn't want to become the center of the story in that way, she said, so she just backed away. I just won't even compete in this tournament.
I'm sorry, Boom, And so that's what I was saying, Like, if you're and I get it that every man every woman is not in the same financial position as she is, But if you are, and you find yourself in the position to do that. Please, protect your mental health. Put yourself first. Sometimes civic cipher exists because Q and I put ourselves first. We decided what was necessary, and we heard no. We made it ourselves. And the reason you're listening to us is because of that energy.
And at some point we have to have a broader conversation about mental health. At some point that just has to be a part of your health, because even calling it mental health is separate. Yeah, it makes it this other thing that there's still a large population that doesn't take it seriously. And especially it's like it's a you know, so weak people. You know, being able to say out loud that I'm dealing with something mental health related gives
you a stigma by itself. You should just be able to say, I don't feel good, I don't feel healthy in general, I'm not up to it. It shouldn't have to be my leg hurts, you know. I should be able to express mental exhaustion with out there being a stigma attached to it or it somehow being a separate branch of health, like our mind is pretty darn and important, almost says something else. Our mind and our.
Mental returning over a new around.
Rotation marks. Mental health should be seen as even more important than if we broke our arm or twisted our ankles. Your mind is.
It has the final say, no matter what. All right, So how about this qu I want to get your thoughts. Got a direct quote from Venus Williams here, and she's responding to Naomi Osaka and her withdrawal from the French.
Open responding, you know, to the backlash.
Okay, to the backlash day, so she says, and this is Venus Williams again. For me personally, how I cope, how I deal with it was that I knew that every single person asking me a question can't play as well as I can and never will. And then later on she goes on to say that they will never light a candle to me. So gat your thoughts on that.
First of all, facts, big facts and one hundred emoji. However else I can say, amen, the black strong arm. And however you mentioned playing Devil's Advocate. As a former athlete played Division one football in college. I've heard the arguments of athletes that saying that people that didn't play the sport or didn't reach their level of success should not be allowed to criticize, and that's kind of unrealistic and unfair, Like if I go to a Michelin five
star restaurant, I hope I'm saying that right. I'm not a chef, but if my food's awful, I should be able to say so for the chef to respond, well, you can't cook on my level, so you're not allowed to not like your steak. I think it's a bit ridiculous. So there has to be some middle ground. I get
the point that Venus was making. Sometimes being critical just for the sake of it, you deserve that response, because she's absolutely right, there's nobody on the other side of these cameras or these microphones that can hold a candle to me at what I do in the same way that she probably couldn't present a story the way that some of her media counterparts could. So I understand the point that she was making, and she was one thousand
percent right. But sometimes that's a bit of a straw man argument when it's presented as a person can't have an opinion or can't be an expert if they didn't play the sport or participated in it at the level that the athlete did Now.
I know you're playing devil's advocate there, but I just want to offer something here, please. So whenever you know, when you're watching the Olympics or something like that, and let's say a guy gets a silver medal, right, this guy just got a silver medal at the Olympics. That's dope. And then the people that talk to him after words are like, yeah, so you really messed up that last thing, man. So it's so heartbreaking at the last moment, and you know,
they force you to not be happy, you know. And so I don't know she's got a point, because if someone came to me, I'd be hype off of silver medal. Man.
They treat you like if you're not first year, last Yeah, exactly.
And you know the truth is, anybody picking you apart should There's something to be said about a person picking you apart, not themselves being able to do it. If the person that got gold wanted to pick me apart, and maybe you got some ground to stand on, but I guarantee that person wouldn't be picking me apart.
They would be.
Congratulating me or otherwise letting me know how difficult I made that competition for them, and so would the people who got Bronzer didn't meddle. There you go, and so you know something to think about protect your mental health though, from both of us here at all three of us at Civic Cipher. And if you're just tuning in to Civic Cipher, I am your host rams' Jah.
They call me q Ward and that just so happens to be a variation of my actual name.
Yes, indeed, and if you are just checking in with us, we want you to stick around because we got some more good stuff coming your way, not the least of which is we're going to still talk about the Kyrie Irving incident and his premonition, prediction assessment and whatever that.
Was almost prophetic of him. Prophetic.
Okay, we're going to talk about him, and that's really important. We do want to talk about some important stuff from history, you know.
So when we get to the way black history fact, we're going to talk about Tulsa.
Let's called it Tulsa for now, but stay tuned. We're going to go into detail about, you know, a time in history when black folks prospered and a certain group of white folks who lived there didn't really appreciate the prosperous uh nature of a certain community and decided to take action again.
How dare you thrive in your own space? Will get bother me? We'll get to it.
We just we want you to stick around and we're going to talk about some stuff going on in Boston. Our show producer DJ Squirrel, it's got some stuff to share with us about that. And we're also going to talk about uh some TikTok stuff.
TikTok stuff, I mean, like spaun please.
I don't know, man, I've I've made a couple of TikTok dances with my.
Kids, and I feel embarrassed because I'm I don't get jiggy with the TikTok.
Well, maybe after we get there, we'll get you to.
Convert and they're gonna have to introduce me or show me how that place work.
Absolutely well, I'll tell you why don't we get into it right now? So you know the name Natasha Bedingfield, I do, okay. You know the name Vanessa Carlton, I absolutely do.
Okay. I'm humming songs in my hair right now that I refuse to sing.
Out loud, Okay. So what we're gonna do is introduce a new segment for the show. Okay, for those who have seen Black Panther, you might know that T'Challa referred to his father as.
Baba, right.
I thought that was a very special sounding word, meant father. But those initials happen to also line up with something that we wanted to introduce on the show, and you know, we'll get there right now. It's how to become a better ally b A B A. So from here on out, look out for the baby feature on the show and this in this way, we're going to empower you to do lots of things or really reflect on yourself and reflect on those around you and hopefully make the world
a better place for all all of us. But yeah, Natasha Bettingfield and Vanessa Carlton, their music has been used in a lot of tiktoks, and a lot of those tiktoks are by young black kids. But you know Vanessa Carlton specifically, she has that song one thousand miles that No No No and I Miss You we started bro and I need you.
Yeah. Man, ever, people are not around and sometimes I think I can sing and it gets bad. Listen man.
Well, anyway, her song was sampled by yeah, I know y'all wish I could play this song, but I can't because they got cuss words.
It ain't no clean version yet, but it was.
It was sampled by Spinner Bins Okay, Woppa with the chopper, Woppa with the Choppa, Young an Ace, Fast Money Goon and the song they made is called who I Smoke Wow.
And normally you.
Would expect Vanessa Carlton to say, oh, no, absolutely not. I'm gonna keep my song and I don't want these guys, you know, uh, you know, changing what my song, what the what the intent of my song, or deluding it or if you're misrepresenting what the song is supposed to be, ruining it.
Very good?
Thanks not so, she said, yeah, man, I like the song. Let him run with it, right, And you know that, of course led to a lot of folks saying to her like, well, you know, you have such a pleasant song and they're like cussing and talking about all this violent stuff and it's not the third and uh, you know, of course a lot of these people that were complaining were You're Karen's of the world, you know, entire old white.
And outraged on her behalf.
Somebody you had no reason to be mad themselves that they don't want to listen to who I Smoke?
They can just turn the.
Song off, yeah, you know, or not listen to os button stop, but any of them. But no, they need to make it their business. And so and that's you know, consistent with the behavior of a Karen or the male equivalent. I don't know what we call them, Kevin whatever. If your name is Kevin, I'm so sorry you've got Kevin that. We love.
Lots of Kevin's around here.
So anyway, but you know this type of person. So what she does is she says, you know what, there's a movie called Reservoir Dogs, and uh, they're playing certain music and they're chopping off ears and it's a cinematic expression of you know, some things that some people do. But you know, it's for everyone's enjoyment. I mean, it's
it's really no different from a movie or whatever. These guys are taking song, they remixing it, and they're talking about stuff that I don't believe they do in real life, you know, and even if they do, you know what I mean, it's still artistic license. The space is theatric right, and you know it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think that you're all making a big deal out of it because they're making it into a rap song and they're young black people, and I disagree, and.
You know, I'm paraphrasing.
I don't want to speak for her, but this is kind of what she was saying, and she really empowered these guys to continue with their song, and then they of course responded favorably. They're like, yo, I got you forever, you know, And now there's videos up to twenty two million views, And that's how you become a better ally.
You do some self reflection, You recognize that there's nothing new under the sun that all of this like, you can point to anything else, and if it's white as right, you know, and then it makes it really easy for you to check your biases, because she was absolute right. As soon as you look at Reservoir Dogs or any any movie where there's violence, if you look at horror movies, you can look at anything like that, and that's totally fine.
But as soon as it's black youth, you know the most, and it's music, the most influential group of people on earth, and it's a young black American.
There you go. Then it then people have a problem with it.
And that's something that she pointed out to a lot of folks, and so I want to give her some kudos. So, yeah, become a better ally. Shout out to Vanessa Carlton and to Natasha Bendingfield. We didn't get to go into her whole story, but do me your favorite google both of them, find out what I'm talking about. Listen to both songs.
If you're going to tiktoks, yeah, go on, TikTok going to take Dan you have some fun.
So yeah, moving on, we do want to spend a little bit of time talking about Kyrie Irving. So Q, yes, sir, you are and Swirl are folks who are into sports. I'm a music guy, that's and I'm a broadcaster.
That's it.
I don't know anything about sports, So do tell the story of Kyrie Irving.
Kyrie Irving, it is a very complex, but otherworldly talented American basketball player. If you follow the sport at all, you know who he is. The kid is incredibly gifted. He's a kid.
Well he's a kid to me, which is strange to say, but weird, I guess he is.
Yeah to me too, the young man. The man is insanely talented and very very open minded. He speaks his mind a lot, makes it clear that even though people think it should be that basketball is not the center of his universe, it's just what he does. It's just
one of the things he's really good at. And leading up to his return to Boston, where he used to play, he pointed out that there have been instances with not just himself, but athletes and black people in general in Boston that have not been favorable for them because there is, to put it lightly racial tension, to put it plainly, racism in that city and that market, and amongst the
fans of the professional sport teams there Boston. Recently, the Brooklyn Nets, the team that Kyrie Irving plays for, played against and beat the Boston Celtics in a playoff series. And after one of those games, as he was leaving the floor, a fan threw a bottle of water at him.
And this was coming on the back of a fan spitting on Trey Young of the Atlanta Hawks at a New York Knicks game, pouring popcorn on Russell Westbrook as he left a Washington Wizard's Philadelphia seventy six ers game and swirl if you get a chance to look up for me. There's an instance in Utah where a player's family was verbally attacked by fans in Utahs told his father that they will put a nickel in his back and watch him dance, and said some very even more offensive things to his mother.
The young player's name is John Morant.
John Moran of the Memphis Grizzlies. Okay, so that's what his parents had to deal with in Utah recently. So Kyrie pointed out something that's well known in the professional sports world. But people don't like being called racist even when all of their actions fall in line with it, when they check every box, they're still more offended than you that you would call them racist then their actions
showing you that that's exactly what they are. And it's very difficult to ignore race being a part of this when all of the athletes that we're talking about are black and all of the people that violated them and disrespected them were white in one percent of these cases.
So that's something that it's difficult to talk about because a lot of people, even while acknowledging that these things are disrespectful do not like acknowledging the racial and racist undertones that come with treating very wealthy, very successful professional athletes like zoo animals or you know, people in a circus that are less human than you, that deserve less dignity and less respect than you, and who you can spit on or throw things at because they beat the
team you root for in a sporting event, not because they didn't even think to harm you or your family or people that you actually know, love and care about. But you went to see your team win. Your team didn't win, So how dare they? And you know you kind of there's a moment of these people I feel, suspending their reality or injecting their reality into their fanatic fan experience at these professional ball games.
Okay, thank you, because I didn't know that, Danata, So let me make sure I got this right. Kyrie Irving used to play for the Boston Celtics, Yes, sir. He left that team to play the Brooklyn Nets.
Yes, sir.
The Brooklyn Nets had to play the Boston Celtics in Boston in Boston, yes, sir. Prior to him coming to back to Boston, he said Boston is kind of a racist city. Yes, and then when he was leaving after beating Boston as a Brooklyn Nets player, someone threw a water bottle at him and that person was white.
Yes, okay, now.
I'm gonna play Devil's advocate, but first I'm gonna say some stuff. You're familiar with Mendingo fighting, yes.
Swirl, you're familiar with I am not okay, educating please, Yes, absolutely.
Mandingo fighting is something that very wealthy slave owners used to do when they had enough money to buy extra disposable slaves or they thought they could make some money by fighting. It's like kind of early origins of modern boxing,
you know, kind of yeah, but very American. You know, you're gonna take your biggest, strongest slave, biggest strongest negro, Yeah, and then have them box against the plantation down the down their way a little bit, and it's often a fight to the death, and you know, all that sort of stuff. If if for those who want to get a glimpse into what that looks like, you would watch a movie called Jangle Unchained d J A N G. Oh that's how you silent absolutely got to talk to
him Q. Anyway, it's an exhibition shows strength athleticism. It's a spectacle, and it uses black bodies. Of course, when boxing first started out, there were no such thing as black boxers fighting against white boxers because white boxers thought that the black fighters were beneath them. When the truth is they didn't want to lose to these guys because
that would be humiliating. At the time, it was assumed that white people, by white people, White people had the stronger genetics and were more capable when it came to anything.
They were superior human beings, right right.
And so a loss would have been tragic and it would have you know, devastated and you know, humiliated the whole race. And then ultimately the rules became relaxed and Jack Johnson and then later Muhammad Ali and then later Mike Tyson and so forth, Joe Louis, Joe Lewis, all these names. So and of course we know that to not be true. I need to say that because there might be some people listening like, oh, is that true.
No, that's not true. It's not true that.
White people were genetically superior to black people, and that's you know that, I just need that to be established because some.
Other people are still holding strong to that narrative, are very it's scientifically, I'm not I'm not trying to say one is better than the other.
I'm just saying scientifically that that's not there's no basis for that. You know, we we all are made by the same creator, endowed with consciousness from the same source. And that's all I'm going to say about that. But no, that that part is not true.
Okay.
Another thing I want to mention before I played Devil's Advocate is that, you know, the extent of my knowledge of people being racist that sporting events has.
To do with.
Really me seeing people throw banana peels on soccer fields whenever black players come out to play soccer or.
Football, if that's how you describe it.
But you know, but that's more of a global sport. You know, I usually would assume that in this country people I would assume this. I mean, if you're going to an NFL game or an NBA game or whatever, most of the players are black. You know, that's again a testament to that athleticism or the fallacy behind you know, there's lots of white players out there too, but there's lots of black players. So I would say that everybody has a shot. Okay, come at me anyway, So it's
the first I'm hearing of it. So now I'm gonna play Devil's advocate. What if I say to you or to Kyrie Irving that if it had been Larry Bird walking out of there, because I know him to be a Boston Celtics player, Yes, and someone threw a water bottle at Larry Bird, there obviously is no racial component there because Larry Bird is white. You know, how how is it that we make this case a black and
white case? You know, with the person you said, someone else got spit on, someone else's family got ridiculed to put a coin in the back and dance for me boy the boy.
That part, I mean, the nickel in your back and dance from your part is explicit as well. Yeah, that entire statement had to be set together. But but for those that don't know, when you refer to a black man as boy, there's some historical and and not insignificant racial overtones to that word boy. It's it's kind of like some other terms that we use where if we say it to each other like yo, that's my boy,
it's fine. But if someone else calls me a boy and I'm a grown man, there's a real problem with that another And the thing is a lot of folks don't know that, and so you know it's our job to educate everyone. Do not refer to an adult.
Black man as boy is exceptionally insulting. Exceptionally insulting. But that one I can I can get with. But the spitting one and the water bottle one. I want you to make a case for me. I know how I would do it, but I want you to do it as to why that is racial.
Specifically, last summer, you and I drove a car across the southern United States. In the middle of the night, we were stopped and pitched black in Mississippi, asked to get out of our car. A drug dog was summoned. The drug dog apparently smelled drugs in the brand new car that we just bought. And neither of us have never even tried, purchased, sold, or been around drugs, and the officers that pulled us over were so One might ask, why on earth would you guys think that that had
anything to do with race? With race? And I guess the answer I would give is show me the example of that happening to somebody that's not black our producer is here. He has the power of the internet. Show me the story where the white man or the black man, through a bottle at spit on, disrespected the parents of or port a box of popcorn on the white player and or his family. And I know that proving a
negative is impossible. So I can't say to you, beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was absolutely race related. But I can't ask you that question and wait for you to never find the answer. I can't ask you that question and wait for you to never find the example where it happened the other way around.
Okay, So here's what I'm going to add to that.
Now.
You you mentioned earlier that he said that Boston was a racist city before, So why did he say that? Was he he had already left and is that the reason.
He left or something like? I don't know if he was prompted. I just know that it came up and him. He's not singular in that people sent Most people, even members of the Boston media, have been honest about this.
And I know Boston is like I've been there, you know what I mean. So I just you know, we have to we have to frame the show this way. Well, I think that by him saying it beforehand, and then you seeing the way that there is no real regard for these professional athletes, and the fact that you cited four examples at least today of all black athletes being engaged in some way by white fans, I think that's what.
We call them still short for fanatic.
Sure, I think that fanatic is perhaps more appropriate now, But yeah, I think that that does illuminate a trend, if nothing else. And so in playing Devil's Advocate, you know, that's where we would meet, you know, saying hey, look, we're noticing a trend here, and again, neither of us can say that it is outright racism. Everyone who did everything is a racist person and they need to be you know, we need to deal with them and educate whatever it is that comes along with people like that.
If they can be educated, some folks really like where they are. But I think that pointing out a trend, and of course in a space like this on our show, discussing it and empowering our listeners to you know, be mindful of things that might happen in you know, little league games or you know, pee wee football games or whatever the case is. You know, it's funny how that mentality shifted, where once upon a time black sportsmen were beneath and not worthy.
And not allowed to play in the same leagues.
All these sorts of things, to where now it's like, get out there and do a song and dance for me, or get out there and run this ball back and forth for me, or if you don't like the way, if I don't like the way you do it, I'm going to.
Treat you like the proper you or the animal that you are.
Sure, And again, I think it illuminates this sense of entitlement that often accompanies some white people or otherwise people who I would assume are very comfortable with the white supremacist infrastructure that's in place right now because they can benefit fit from it.
Absolutely.
So these people perhaps are not always white that behave like this. You know, there's Karens who are Hispanic, There's Karens who are black. Unfortunately, there are absolutely you know, there's there's people that behave this way.
But again, I think that talking about it really helps us to.
Ensure that we know what we're looking for and we know not to let these trends continue. And I think that to one degree or another. This might even circle back to what we talked about earlier in the show, which was, you know, protecting our mental health. It's just it's just a coincidence that today's episode has to do with a ton of athletes, and it's weird that I don't know anything about athletes, because truth is, I can't
be bothered. Man, I'm a music guy, like I said, but you know, mental health is something that affects all of us. And I'm a lover of people. Obviously, I'm black, and this is the lens through which I view the world, and I feel that oftentimes the greatest need is in Black communities, that they're the most overlooked communities. And you know, we have the just a we're very forgiving people, very
kind people, overall gracious people. Absolutely, and you know, in modern years that's kind of afforded us the short end of the stick. But you know, like I said, you know, we have to talk about it. We have to keep these things at the center of the narrative, and we have to make sure that we're holding the line and we're pushing for something for tomorrow that's better than today.
So with that.
Said, let's shift gears a bit, Let's talk about our way black history facts. DJ Swirl.
Yes, sir so on this date, June second, nineteen sixty seven, speaking about Boston's history and tying it into the racial dynamic that a lot of us see, but many of us don't really talk about. There was what they refer to as they really quietly referred to as the Roxbury Riots. And when I think Roxbury, I think of you guys, not in the night at the Roxbury. So you know, if you do word association that you saw that you might just bypassively like oh yeah, neither Rockberg, no reveal
this was. It draws a parallel to the issues that we see lately or that we continue to see, and that is people who have less than who complain about receiving equity, if not equality, but that request done peacefully is met with the exact opposite, and it's done by people who have badges and who are civil servants that do not de escalate situations, in fact are inflammatory to the situation at hand.
And this is.
A gross example of that that I don't think either of us knew about before we brought it up. So and this had to do with women, and these are mothers for adequate welfare. They were protesting the fact that the system which they followed the rules on was lazy, disrespectful, and not conducive to the process, which is welfare. And this is from a predominantly black community.
But again, these are women, these are mothers.
So they eventually get joined by other men and other white folks to stage a protest that hopefully brings about change, which we see people that varies, right, we see the storming of the Capitol, and we see people who block interstates. Right, based off of your platform and your access, you protest in different ways to draw attention to your cause. Absolutely,
and so these women did this. And the other parallel that is drawn from the story is how the police report that you look back on, which was written in real time, pales in comparison to the truth that actually came out. And so you can actually go to the Boston Globe and you can read this full length of
the story. But the long story, but a short version of the story, is that the police labeled it as something that is unprovable and used it as the catalyst to be aggressive, and that aggression wound up leading into five days worth of riots that ultimately did what happened in Tulsa, which was tear down a predominantly black and prosperous community that was simply viewed as a threat by the majority and was literally extinguished for the protection of the benefactors of supremacy.
What a world we live in, man, Our country has such an earned distrust, right like, it's known fact by the benefactors of the system, the things that they did to tear down, destroy and discourage black prosperity, all the way up in every level of government up to the president.
So you know, I get a little irk by conspiracy theorists that are extreme, sure, but sometimes even though they're not being rational in thought and they have no evidence present to really support the way that they feel, you look back on some of the things that we've experienced and you get it. Yeah, it's well earned distrust because that's not a singular incident, just the one that we're talking about today kind of. I mean, I've spent my whole life learning about all these different things.
I'm sure I'll never hear all of them, but tons and tons and tons of.
Stories just like that.
And you know, people often they love to say well, that was a long time ago where things are getting better. No, totally not. You know, people get shot every day, killed every day because of a hundred reasons. But the truth is the formula is very simple. You know, there's a white oppressor and there's a black victim, and oftentimes the black victims crime was being black and near enough, close enough.
You know, Aswirl mentioned, we were talking about the h and we were talking about earlier the events in Tulsa. You know, there was a community that was built up prosperous black owned because there's bankers, doctors, you know, you name it, and you know there's conflicting reports on what started it, but really the end result was the police and them the surrounding communities access to more substantial firepower literally firepower, I mean.
Their access to each other.
That too, members of the community being able to join with the police in destroying a neighborhood or a community self sufficient, self sustaining Black Americans who have never and will never be afforded that privilege. And have you heard about the graves. They're like trying to like redo the graves so that everyone gets a proper burial because you know, at the time the amount of death from that incident kind of overwhelmed.
Their any word on reparations. None, Okay, I didn't think so, I was just wondering out loud.
Well, listen, you know, we do want to take a moment, not just for the show, but every show to help frame the present and the future.
With the past.
You know, it's there's there's so much that we can't talk about unless we establish the facts. We establish history, We establish where we're starting, so that we know how we're oriented, the direction that we're pointed in, you know, for the future. And so, you know, thank you very much for the way Black History fact. I want to do that every week. I think it's appropriate and unfortunately it might end up being a little bit sad, but you know, I like to end on a positive. I
like to end on a high. And the truth is that the most recent prote tests in my memory, we're not as violent. They were not as you know, there wasn't as substantial loss of life. Of course, I'm talking about the Protest of twenty twenty. There was a lot of unity, a lot of colors, a lot of culture out on the streets, and I love to see that. But that's about as high as the high as we're going to end on. So with that said, I want to thank you once again for tuning in to Civic Cipher once again.
I'm your host, Rams's job. They call me q Ward.
Be sure to check out the website civiccipher dot com. That is where you're going to be able to download this in all previous versions of the show. Check out the podcast, our YouTube channel, it's all there. Hit our social media at Civic Cipher, and don't forget to donate. The show grows with your support. Once again, civiccipher dot com. We're out of here until next week, y'all.
Peace, peace,