Civic Cipher 061822 A Case for Reparations (Part 2)

passed on June twelfth. That's the day when interracial marriage finally became legal in the United States. And that's a good thing. We like that. Without interracial marriage, Maggie b no one wouldn't be here, you know, So we we like that. But you know, we do have to talk about this, and we've chosen today to make it our way Black history fact. But first and foremost, let's discuss how to become a better ally Baba. Now we're gonna start this off with a quote from Malcolm X. By

the way, this is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine. Okay, so this quote from Malcolm X. Education is the passport to the future. For tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. All right, So this week's BABA is something people of all races and nationalities can consider. We're going to turn pain into celebrating life of loved ones with scholarships. Okay, so we want to take a moment

thank all of our Instagram, our social media supporters. If you follow us, we're at Civic Cipher Again, every follow, like, message, download, et cetera is greatly appreciated. So what happened is this past week received a message from one of our supporters on Instagram. The name is at Lightfoot Legacy Scholars. It reads, Hello, we are a family who's giving away a scholarship to

an undergraduate STEM student. STEM stands for a science, Technology, Engineering, and math, so STEM student in memory of our late father, we would love it if you would kindly share this opportunity with anyone who might benefit from it. This comes from Lightfoot Legacy Scholars dot Org. Okay, I'll read a little bit leading scholars to success through the Lightfoot Legacy.

The Michael J. Lightfoot Legacy Scholarship was established in twenty twenty two after the passing of our beloved father and grandfather. Michael J. Lightfoot believed that anyone can and should make a positive difference in the lives of others. Has action matched his beliefs through his generous giving to various charities committed to fighting in homelessness and promote social justice and

education for all. Let me grab this okay, So if you are someone directly working with students, parents, collegus, businesses and communities would like to help out, uh, these young folks fulfill their college dreams and can certainly be a resource. You want to visit again the website which is Lightfoot Legacy scholars dot org or Scholarship America dot org. And just in general if you want to donate to a scholarship fund or otherwise fund the education of minority minds.

That is always a standing baba around here. So if you want more information, please head to our social media. You can find out more about that now. Reparations Okay, your first thoughts, Q, talk to me reparations full hearted hopelessness or full hearted hopefulness, whichever whichever you want to say, the idea that this great country will ever come around to the full hearted apology that would be required for the conversation on reparations to be authentic and something that

might be real. I don't see happening in my lifetime. Now, that is a fair posture to adopt. A lot of people think reparations is money, and around here we get it. We understand that narrative that might exist in your communities listening to the show Black people always want some for free. We know that we know that that's something that has been placed on us unfairly. I believe for free is

an interesting, interesting right, it's super interesting. But you know, this is a thing that exists in the in the in the world, in the you know, in the narrative will say it that way. So let's say, for the sake of argument, at least for now we see that. Okay, there's something else here. And this is really where I wanted to start with this one. Have you ever heard about a lawsuit where a person sues another person. Ramses

sues Q because Ramses feels like he was wronged. I was wrong, So I'm suing you, right, and I'm suing you for ten thousand dollars, okay, And the court says, at the end of it all, you know what, ramses Q is guilty, he was culpable, he's responsible. We're not going to give you ten thousand dollars, but we will rule in your favor the amount of one dollar. Have you heard of those sorts of things happening before I have? I have? Okay. Now, what it does is it documents.

It establishes that there was wrong committed, there was harm committed, and that there is a set of facts that will be chronicled insofar as this part of the story is concerned. Right, and we can go from here, right, you can figure out another way to seek you know, your recompense from the offender or from the universe or whatever, but gain your punitive damages elsewhere. However, however, we think that ten thousand dollars is too much. As a court, as a

governing body, we think that's too much. But we will say that you were right. Okay. Now, the reason I cite that example is because reparations, besides economically empowering black people, a people who, as a result of systemic racism, enjoy it wouldn't even if I said a fraction. Your mind would think a third, but really a tenth of the wealth doing the same jobs. You know what I mean?

These are systemic issues, you know, like if you look at communities and environments or whatever, this is really what we have. A tenth of the wealth. You know, if you're college educated, you can expect to make less money than a white high school dropout. If you're a college educated black person, you can expect to make less money than a white high school dropout. I want to make sure I say that right for those that do listen to my other show that I do on the Black

Information Network. I do a show called the Black Information Network Daily Podcast. I go through all of these things. I talk about all of the stuff housing discrimination, of course, critical race theory, redlining, the War on drugs, environmental racism, the GI Bill, unfair policing, unfair judicial sentencing, you know, all of the things that disproportionately affect black people, the systemic issues that we have to deal with in this country.

We haven't talked about medical despairity, we haven't talked about anything. All of these things right now, besides remedying the economic disparities. You know, maybe not all of them. You know, we don't know what the number looks like, or how things are divvied out or whatever. But besides addressing them, at least, what it does is like those court rulings that only rule in favor of one dollar to the plaintiff or whatever. It chronicles. It documents, Yes, there was an atrocity, there

was a wrong being committed, and it's the chronicling. It's the coming to terms with the fact that we have wronged this group of people. We go on record saying it. This isn't no, we're going to give you the right to vote, or we're going to stop killing you. No, this is saying, yeah, we did that, we took advantage. We committed human rights violations. There's no way around that one. I don't care who you bought your slaves from. I don't care how you describe the treatment of certain slaves

in certain households. It is a human rights violation. It was then, it's still now, it was before then. Right, So this country going on record saying yeah, we were wrong, and we owe something to try to remedy that. That part of reparations cannot be understated enough. We're not talking about dollars yet, right, and this is where a lot of people tune out of this conversation, So kudos to you if you're still listening. But could you imagine how

impactful that would be? I imagine for myself, Q how impactful that would have been to know growing up as a child. Again, you got to teach this stuff to kids, but you know, I was a kid once. I had to learn these things. And the way I learned it was, well, they took us from Africa. We got on boats and we threw up oatmeal, and then we got here, and then we had to work in fields. We didn't have good clothes, we didn't get to bathe. They tore us apart.

And then after doing that for a few hundred years, they were like, all right, well, you know cool, thanks, get out there and try not to get killed while we stack every law against you and change every you know, deny you every opportunity to really make something of yourself. And every time you managed to break through, we're going to come through and burn your town down. You know, this is kind of the story I was taught. Now, imagine growing up in a world where maybe you can't

imagine this, but I can't. Where Ramses here's that information, and also here's and the government said, yeah, that was that was kind of foul. That was wrong that we did that. So we're going to do something to try to remedy it. How the optics of the narrative shift entirely. Here's what I mean. For those of you who are listening who are not black, you don't know, and you could not know what it's like to feel like you

come from slaves. There is no honor in that. We have found honor in that, but we know there is no honor that we've had to build it for ourselves. I think it is a human condition that we will affirm our livelihood, our right to exist, our beauty, our brilliance, ourselves. Yes, I think that that's what we have done. I think it's a human condition. Let the tables turn in this happen in some white folks. I do believe that they

would revert to type two and find their humanity. I have to press pause mid sentence for it, because we don't have to use our imagination. Things like this did happen to white people? Oh yeah, yeah, you're right, and they got reparations, they got they go ahead, open out loud, apology. Listen, so we don't have to try to imagine a world where that happened. It did, and we don't want to

compare traumas and make one. Yeah, that's not why we would never do that yet, right, but it's such examples exist for every other people, every other group of people wronged by this country, except the black slave, who was not only robbed of his dignity, self respect, honor, pride,

but his heritage, their heritage language. I told you about a story when I lived in Barcelona, Spain, right, and the gentleman asked me where I was from, and you know me, I'm very, very proudly told him that Michigan Motown. And he says, no, no, no, no, where are you from? Which started to get a little confusing because I just told him, like, where's your people from? He met, oh, okay, my mother she's from making Georgia, small town south of Atlanta, Georgia, USA,

not Georgia Eastern Europe. So now he's confused because he's like, no, man, brother, like, where where are you from? He's pointing to his hand, the back of his head being the brown on the back of his hand. He knows exactly where he's from right. I sit there now confused, being the only person at this table of maybe ten people who can't have a conversation about where he's from. It was embarrassing. It was

gut wrenching, It was belittling. It was heartbreaking because I realized that the black American is the only person on the globe treated like cattle that cannot answer that question. So hang on, let me get back in right here. So imagine, like you listening, you know, maybe there's a rich history. Maybe not, but maybe there is. Maybe you know your lineage, you can trace your ancestry back to some European country, and you know your great uncle forth

removed on the whatever side of what. I don't even know how family trees work, so forgive me if that sounds stupid, but you know, this person was a shoemaker for King Leopold the fiftieth or whatever. I don't know. That history isn't hard to keep though. You have to remember they were not stolen from their families. Yeah, torn apart,

but displaced on purpose. But think connecting to that, Connecting to that, it gives you a sense of identity, It gives you something to aspire to something well, you know my you know, we did this and you know, my folks they came across the Atlantic and they did you know, whatever it is. You know, there's incredible stories, the incredible journeys.

These people that you look up to, right, these are your stories, right and the stories that we have, like I know my father's father and I think we you know, barely started kind of keeping records around my great grandfather. You know, beyond that, it's just kind of was whatever, you know, and those stories aren't necessarily like I'm very proud of my father and his father, but I'm talking,

I'm speaking in general now, our stories. It's not like we aspired, we were able to even aspire to do much with the short amount of times and the social conditions that were imposed on us by the government and this society. Right back to reparations to acknowledge, Okay, there was some wrong here and we're trying to remedy that.

Reparations kind of checks that box. So in other words, when I come of age, when seven eight year old Ramses starts learning about his history, and you know, why does it feel like it might be cooler to be white? Why do I'm not really loving this black thing just yet. I don't know why I got to be this. This is not that type. You know. I'm watching TV. You know a little excuse me, subtle things that you learned

from society. I remember this. I remember that feeling when I was five, like, dang, I wish I was white man. That looks way better, you know what I mean? What a sad thing, right, But I actually me, me, the person you're listening to talk. I felt that five years old. I remember it plain as day. So having that additional element of knowing, hey, the government did this but also acknowledged that it was wrong and has tried to kind

of remedy, at least you understand the why. Okay, we're not born bad, we're not born to be poor, we're not born to be There was something that happened, and our current circumstance is the result of that. There was an acknowledgment. It is documented now, it's chronicled into the narrative. So before we even talk about money, let's talk about that. Now that that's talked about, I want to read something

to you, all right. There was a preliminary reparations report released at the beginning of June, and this is what I talked about on my show on the I Heart Radio app. If you want to check it out again the Black Information Network Daily podcast. I spoke with a woman who's an expert on this. I remember her name is Camilla. She uh had five hundred pages of factual information and a qualified assessment of what it is based on.

Hers was for the state of California specifically, but they also made a parallel one for the federal government as well. And the truth is it should be a required moral obligation for everyone to kind of familiarize, familiarize themselves and engage with that information. You know, the facts are the facts. Until we call it a problem, Well, we're never going to come to a solution, right, It's just gonna we're gonna keep, you know, doing the same thing over and

over again. The report's executive summary basically details that more than fifty percent of the US presidents from seventeen eighty nine to eighteen eighty five enslaved African Americans. Today, one hundred and sixty years after the abolition of slavery, its badges and incidents remain embedded in the political, legal, health, financial, educational, cultural, environmental, social,

and economic systems in the United States of America. Racist, false, and harmful stereotypes created to support slavery continue to physically and mentally harm African Americans today without remedies specifically targeted to dismantle our country's racist foundations and heal the injuries inflicted by colonial and American governments. The quote badges and incidents of slavery and quote will continue to harm African Americans in almost all aspects of life. The report goes

on for another four hundred ninety eight pages. Now there's a lot of people, there's a parallel narrative that exists in this country. You know, a lot of we'll call it Middle of America. Well, I was born poor. You know, my family came here with nothing. We don't have. You know, no one gave me a fair shot. I had to work for everything I got. Right. I don't know why this guy sounds like it's from Texas, but I suck

with accents. They'll bear with me, right, But you know this person right, and from their perspective, they have a solid argument. This is why Donald Trump can come in and entice these folks, because they have a very one sided view of what has happened here. It's very self centered, and I get it. Most human beings are. That's kind of the nature of being human. We have you know, we don't have a hive mind. You know, we are individuals, right, So I'm not mad at these people. I'm trying to

educate these people. I feel like that's the way, you know, again, forgiveness when they do come around, I know it. Don't laugh at me. I think that it's possible. Man. But you know, there's these people exist and they feel like, you know, everybody has to go through something. You know, the world isn't fair, The world is not a fair place. Get over it, you know, these sorts of things, and

they don't recognize that. Every time we get over it where the literally they come and burn the town or there are systemic issues, like I say systemic issues, and I feel like that's a blanket term. There are specific governmental policies enacted to precisely target black people in this country, some of which I've detailed already still today too, right now talking about back in the day. Right today, I've talked to if you if you want to hit the

website civicside for dot com download this episode. If you're on your favorite podcast and re listen. Because when I started this segment, I named a bunch of I rattle them off. I don't want to do it again because I forgot what I said. But there's more than just that they exist right now, Okay, Environmental racism is one that I'm working on as a piece for this show. That's something that happening right now still every day. Doesn't

affect but white people. Does affect black people and poor people. You know, but poor people and black people tend to be the same, which is why money is such an important part of this specific conversation. Now, I want to

jump ahead here, so recent report release. Okay. As part of California's Historic Assembly Bill thirty one twenty one, enacted in September twenty twenty, the California Task Force Study to Develop Reparations for Posals for African Americans was formed in charge of studying the institution of slavery and it's lingering negative effects on living African Americans as well as on society.

The bill also requires a task Force to recommend appropriate remedies compensation, rehabilitation, and restitution for African Americans and with a special consideration for sens and persons enslaved in the United States, with the final report expected in twenty twenty three, building on months of public hearings, hours of expert, public

and witness testimony, and numerous records submitted. On June first, the Reparation's Task Force released an interim report as well as a preliminary set of corrective recommendations, providing an in depth interview, the first of its kind, of the harms inflicted on African Americans in California, as well as the separate one which details the federal harms across the nation due to the ongoing legacy of slavery and systemic discrimination.

Now again, should be excuse me, should be required reading for anybody with empathy it really wants to understand the why. But let's say you don't have that kind of time. I want to employ you one more time that you can check out the Black Information Network Daily podcasts. The Black Information Network has a daily podcast. It's hosted by Rams's job, so I want you to remember it. You can go there and download the this is probably a few days old, download the one on reparations and get

all of this game because it's detailed. There explicitly for you, and you can understand even more than you do now. Moving on, what a show man gay from foreign white people fifty four billion dollars. We ain't got it for our own black people though, or our own poor. But it's neither here nor there. Interesting all right, way, Black history fact. This one comes from hip Hop Weekly. We're sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine. By the way, shout out to the unlucky birdos. One time, Okay, one time.

June twelfth is a loving day. This is the day when interracial marriage finally became legal in the US. So as a fun fact, Maggie b Noan's parents. This is Againner's our show producer. They're a product of the success of this case. There are almost forty years happily married.

And today's story comes from Britannica dot com. So. In Loving versus Virginia, which was decided on June twelfth, nineteen sixty seven, the US Supreme Court unanimously struck down Virginia's lawbery prohibiting interracial marriages as a violation of the Fourteenth Commendment. The appellans, Richard and Mildred Loving of Caroline County, have married in Washington DC in June nineteen fifty eight, and then returned to Virginia, where they were arrested. After pleading guilty,

They were forced to leave the state. The American Civil Liberties Union, or the ACLU shout out to the ACLU one time filed motions and appeals on their behalf, beginning in nineteen sixty three, and after the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled against Lovings the Lovings in nineteen sixty six, the US Supreme Court heard their arguments, and the case came after nearly three hundred years of legislation in Virginia

regulating interracial marriage and carefully defining which citizens could legally claim to be white. Two US Supreme Court cases, Paced versus Alabama in eighteen eighty three and meritarm Sorry and Maynard versus Hill in eighteen eighty eight upheld the constitutionality of such laws. In nineteen twenty four, the Act to Preserve Racial Integrity banned interracial marriage in Virginia. What a

weird name, Jesus, The Act to Preserve Racial Integrity. Maybe little subtle things like that were why I thought it might be cool to be white when I was a kid. Anyway, I'll continue while defining a white person as someone who has no discernible non white ancestry. It was this law that, in the US Supreme Court ruling said denied Virginia's fundamental

freedom to marry. Loving versus Virginia is a landmark case both in the history of race relations in the United States and in the ongoing political and cultural dispute over the proper definition of marriage. These are the facts of the case. The appearance in Loving versus Virginia where Richard Petty Loving and his wife Mildred Delores Jeter Loving born on October twenty nine, nineteen thirty three, in Central Point, Caroline County. Richard Loving was a white man who worked

as a construction worker. Mildred Loving born on July twenty second, nineteen thirty nine, also in Central Point, was part African American and part Indian. Later in her life she identified only as an Indian. I bet I know why. After traveling to Washington, d c. To obtain legal marriage on June second, nineteen fifty eighth, they returned to Virginia, where mixed race unions were against the law. They lived downstairs

in the Central Point home of Mildred Loving's parents. On July eleventh, the Commonwealth's attorney for Caroline County, Bernard Mayhorn, obtained warrants for the couple's arrest. After attempting to afrehim them several times during the day, Sheriff Garnet Brooks found the Lovings at home in the early morning hours. A few days later, Richard Loving was released after one night on a one thousand dollars bomb, which is a lot of money back. Then several days later, his wife was

delivered into the care of her father. In October nineteen fifth, the Circuit Court of Caroline County issued an indictment indicating that their marriage was in violation of the state law. On January sixth, nineteen fifty nine, the Lovings pleaded not guilty and waived a jury trial. However, at the end

of the arguments, they changed their pleas to guilty. Judge Leon M. Bazil gave them each a one year suspended sentence, provided that quote both accused leave Caroline County and the State of Virginia at once and do not return together at the same time to said County and State for a period of twenty five years. After paying court fees of thirty six dollars and twenty nine cents each. The Lovings moved to Washington, d C. Where they lived with

Mildred Lovings's cousin Alex Byrd and his wife Laura. The turns of their sentence allowed them to travel to Virginia separately, and Mildred Loving returned to Central Point for the births of their children. In nineteen sixty three, at the suggestion of her cousin, Mildred Loving wrote a letter to the US Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, asking him to intervene on her and her husband's behalf. Quote I wasn't in anything concerning civil rights, and quote Loving later told an interviewer,

I was well. We were trying to get back to Virginia. That was our goal, to get back home. Kennedy referred Loving to the National Capital Area branch of the ACOU, which in June nineteen sixty three assigned Bernard as Cohen of Alexandria to the case. Philip J. Hirkshop, a lawyer then doing civil rights work in Mississippi, joined the case a few months later. Now I'm going to condense a bit of this year because they went through a bunch of appeals process to make this happen. We sort of

now know the way the story went. The legacy of Loving Virginia goes as follows. Loving v Virginia established the legal basis for a cultural redefinition of marriage. On August thirteen, nineteen sixty seven, the Associated Press reported on the marriage of Leona E. Boyd, a white woman, and Romans Howard Johnson, a black man, in Kingdom Hall Church in Norfolk. Quote the first known interracial marriage in Virginia since the US

Supreme Court struck down the States miscongeniation congenation. I think that's how you say that law in June. Over time, the marriages between whites and African Americans became both more numerous and more accepted. Same sex marriages, meanwhile, became more disputed, with gay rights activists attempting to use Loving VI Virginia

as a president in their favor. The courts have preferred reading the case strictly in terms of race, although in two thousand and seven, the group Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders or GLAD, released a statement that attributed Mildred Loving's attributed to Mildred Loving support for same sex marriage. After her death, Loving family denied that she held these views. Richard and Mildred Loving had been publicly averse through the attires and the entire appeals process, living secretly on a

farm in King and Queen County. At a news conference held in the Alexandria office of Cohen and Cohen on the day of the Supreme Court ruling, Mildred Loving said, I feel free now. Around the same time, she told an interviewer that someone had burned across in her mother's front yard in Central Point. Richard Loving built himself and his wife a house in Central Point and lived there until his death in June twenty ninth, nineteen seventy five, when a drunk driver struck the car he was driving

in Caroline County. Mildred Loving survived the crash and died of pneumonia at her home on May second, two thousand and eight. So now you can marry somebody. It doesn't matter what they look like. Still a little bit of funny stuff around our brothers and sisters who subscribed to the LGBTQIA plus lifestyles. But we'll get there, we'll stay there.

Love is love and this is your way. Black history fact that that happened in this country in order for that to be true, because people had to live through that. So yes, we'll leave it right there, So thank you for listening. Once again. I'm your host, ramses Joh I'll go by the name q Ward. Yes, indeed, show producer is MS Maggie a ka Maggie be Knowing, So that's who you got to get mad at. Don't get mad at me, or you can get mad at me, it doesn't matter. We do want to say Happy Father's Day

to all the dads out there. You and I are both dads, of course and loving every minute of it. There's another episode I put up about how great it is to be a black dad now because we've and we're still overcoming a lot of those myths associated with we're all gang bangers and drug bus myths. But the longest short of it is that we appreciate you supporting us every week. We sure get the website cifexcacer dot com has made any topics and ideas. Of course, making

donation helps the show grow. Download this in any previous episodes, and of course you can follow us on all social media at Civic cyphering until next week, y'all goose may yo, We handle it.