Welcome to another episode of Civic Zacher. I'm your host ramses Jah all right today, and we'll forever go by
the name Q Wore. This indeed got an interesting show for you to stick around for a lot of stuff going on in the media about the January sixth insurrection and the trial and the January sixth Committee and their plan to prove Trump's culpability is responsibility for the attack on our nation's capital, and as a result, it's appropriate and timely for us to weigh in with our take because you know, you may not get a sense of black people really having a dog in that fight, but
I can assure you with great certainty that black and brown and indigenous, native and everyone does have a place in that conversation. And so we will take some time to talk about that. A little bit later in the show, we're going to talk about reparations. This has been something that has been a long time coming on this show.
We kind of allude to it here and there, but we're going to kind of peel back some layers and really break that down because usually when folks get to talking about reparations, the conversation kind of begins and ends in the same session, and there's hardly ever any real progress, So we wanted to take a moment to just kind of start that conversation, at least in this forum. In our way black history fact. We just passed June twelfth, which is loving day, the day when interracial marriage finally
became legal in the US. So we're going to talk about that because that is a way black history fact indeed. But first and foremost, we are going to talk about some ebony excellence. How does that sound cute? I think that sounds incredible? Shall we we shall? So? Do you know what an egot is?
I have heard that term before in relation to another one of our favorite people, mister Jamie FOXX.
Yeah, E goot For those that don't know, it's spelled sort of weird. I think it should be g O t E, which you could say phonetically goat right, and goat is a term that we use, you know, in popular renacturi. But they've they've organized it in this way. Egot stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony right, and very few people who work in that space actually get all of those accolades. Well, besides Woopy Goldberg, another black woman has earned her Egot status. This is among the greatest
of the greats. She goes by the name of Jennifer Hudson. This comes from Rolling Stone. The respect Star joined the elite Egot Club on Sunday Night after she was awarded for her work as a producer on Michael R. Jackson's Best Musical, winning a Strange Loop in the twenty twenty two Oscar Awards and Egott is an artist again who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and a Tony Award in their career, winning her Oscar for her role in
two thousand and six is dream Girls. Hudson's Grammy Award came in two thousand and nine, winning Best R and B Album for her album title titled Jennifer Hudson, and following with an additional Grammy win in twenty seventeen for her work on the musical theater album The Color Purple. In twenty twenty one, Hudson gained a Daytime Emmy Award for Babba Yaga, which won Outstanding Interactive Media for a Daytime Program, and with this Latey's Tony Award, completing her
Egot punch card. Jennifer Hudson is the seventeenth person in history to achieve that designation and officially the third black e Goot winner, the fifth woman to achieve the acclaimed award status and briefly she rose to fame. This from Maggie b. Knowing. She rose to fame in two thousand and four as the finalist season three of the American Idol TV show and made her film debut as Fie White and the musical dream Girls in two thousand and six.
She's an excellent reminder that no matter who you are, where you're from, if you have a dream determination and you put your hard work in, you can achieve it. So some have any excellence to start things off? Now, have you been que paying attention to these committee hearings? They feel like a trial? But got any of that? I have? I've when it was live, I followed it by the minute.
I've never refreshed my feed more feverishly, yeah.
Than that night.
And I was not even aware that it was going to be live. So another shout to Maggie be Knowing for sending me that link and letting me know that that was live so that I could pay attention, so that I could tune in. And I mean as you could imagine, you know, me, I spent a lot of that evening upset.
You know, it was information that I already knew.
Seeing it with such color and such context really painted the picture that we all knew was true. But a certain sector of our population needed to see that way, and some of them, of course, still deny it. So this is kind of what I wanted to make sure that we talk about. This is why I mentioned earlier in the show that you know, minorities are definitely a part of this conversation. Now, for those that know, and I'm sure everyone knows.
There was a mob that breeched the Capitol, all Trump supporters at his instruction for the most part, and the group was largely white folks. They're broken and committed all all kinds of crazy acts. We'll get into the story in just a second, but just a brief overview, and I want to frame this for you. At that time in the country, we were still sort of reeling from what we had to come to terms with in terms
of race relations from twenty twenty. You know, all the protests about George Floyd, about Breonna Taylor, about you know, there was a slew of shootings just in that year police shootings killing unarmed black man. I remember Rishard Brooks, I think his name is in Atlanta, Georgia. That one troubled me deeply because he was shot in the back and that happened before we were able to start this show.
But that was one of the things that kind of kept me up at night because it was like the fifth one and I don't know how many weeks and I'm like, yo, you know this, like we knew it happened, but you know, now the country's seeing it happen and
nobody's doing anything anyway. All these protests were happening in twenty twenty and and for those that know, or for those that don't know, rather, I should say this show that you're listening to right now was born out of a lack of representation for our political interests, our being black people, specifically political interests in the spaces in which
you are hearing our voice now. So this could be a hip hop station, you know, And you got to think about that for a second, because there's lots of hip hop stations around this country that are they may
not be black owned spaces. The ownership of these hip hop stations may not have thought about what it would be like to have a moment in time where there's not rappers and singers and dancers on the radio that Okay, these are people with a culture and they need to protect themselves from distant information and misinformation and empower themselves amongst themselves using their own voices and so forth. And because of that lack of representation, this show was born.
And can I add, not just our political voice, but there was a lack of empathy for our's general livelihood. Yeah, it wasn't just about politics just I mean the phrase is black lives matter? Of course that is a controversial statement in this country. Sure, there is a lack of empathy for us existing and just having basic decency in human rights and just being able to exist.
So very much. You'll notice, if you're alive in this country right now, that the all Lives Matter cry has died down significantly. The Black Lives Matter cry has died down, of course, because you know, that moment of racial reckoning has dissipated a bit, but it's still very prominent. BLM is still in a news black lives matter is still a phrase that you hear. But the all lives matter response to it.
Has decreased dramatically, right, And we said on this show we knew before and will know forever more that it was just in response to us affirming that our lives are valuable and that we should not be shot in the back.
For doing what comes natural, you know, running away from something you're afraid of or whatever, you know, these sorts of things. Anyway, it was a long road for us to get on as many radio stations. There was a lot of people, you know, whoever, whatever radio station you're listening to us on right now, there was a person they're more than likely a white man that we had to talk to. And this white man more often than not, said, I recognize that this program needs to be on these
airwaves because this is something missing from my radio station. Right, but belong And the short of it is that there was a time in this country where the media was grossly misrepresenting those protests that we took part in in twenty twenty. Right, They were saying that we were rioting when we were not rioting. They were saying that we were setting up, you know, like bricks on corners and all kinds of outlandish things. Right when we found later that it was in fact the police and far right
movements and things like that trying to sabotage peaceful protests. Right, So this show was born out of the fact that there was so much misrepresentation for we'll call it our moment of racial reckoning in this country. And then when you see this insurrection and you recognize that that how they were trying to paint us, it feels like we need to say something about that here on this show that has been since been created to talk about that. So I want you all to imagine for a second
that those that group of protesters were largely black. Imagine how it would have looked. Imagine the police response, the National Guard response, the military response.
Well, we don't really have to imagine it. We saw the military and police response to peaceful Black Lives Matter protests. The presence of police in riot gear and gross numbers, ready and willing to cause as much harm as possible to people who came with no aggressive intentions at all. These people set out loud what they were going to do the win and the war. There was no such response.
Wat these peoples. Reason I don't want to discount that. So in this hypothetical experiment. I want you to imagine that mostly black and brown people went to Washington, d C. For what it was we were protesting, which was to affirm our lives, lives beating heart consciousness, pretty much a full stop right. Not because our guide didn't win, you know, we're lied and told to that our guid didn't win whatever.
Not because of that, but because we see systematically that we're being murdered and that there is no accountability, even the potential for accountability for those murders. And then the deaths of our children and our brothers, our and our community members feel so hollow, how frustrating, and how hurtful that would be. So imagine in this hypothetical experiment that mostly black and brown people go to Washington, d C. Right for reasons that I believe to be far more
valid and based in logic and human motivation. You know what I mean. It's not because our team didn't win, but it's because we are literally dying. We're literally having to witness it, We're having to feel the pain. It's to share trauma that echoes through our community. There's less
of us than there are of the majority. By definition, we're a minority, yes, so we're there, and then you know, we decide that you know what they're they're in there, not voting on or finalizing the ballot account on an election. But let's say we're there because they don't want to pass the uh, the John Lewis Policing Reform Actor or whatever whatever whatever piece of legislation that would address our
issues again, life and death issues. Not you know, we're going to be sad for four years, but no, we're literally dying and there's no account ability for it, not even the potential. And let's say we started the capitol, right, how many of us would be dead? You know most? Yeah? Yeah, dead did like dead bodies, body bags, right, there was and in their minds, justifiably right, they shouldn't have reached you know.
What I mean.
So I want to read now because I want to turn the tables just a bit. Now, let's talk about what actually happened. Okay. The headline reads the January sixth Committee's planned to prove Trump's culpability. This comes by Axios. The January sixth Community Committee hearing on Thursday promised to prove former President Trump was responsible for the capital attack. On January sixth, President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob,
and lit the flame. Vice chair Liz Cheney, the Republican from Wyoming, set before laying out a seven point plan for how the panel will publicly show Trump tried to overturn the twenty twenty election and prevent the t transition of power to President elect Biden. The last hearing, likely to be the most explosive, is going to center on Trump's specific actions as the violence was underway. Okay, now there's another note here. It's in intentional that Cheney delivered
the most damning evidence against former President Trump. The committee wants Americans to see not only a Republican, but the daughter of a former Republican vice president, detailing Trump's involvement and directly connecting him to the capital attack. All right, now, They showed lots of video, okay, of what was happening.
They had a timeline of the events, right, of course, they had direct testimony from Trump's main people who was around at the time, the people we saw in the news, including his daughter, including his daughter, right, and his daughter didn't say much, but she did say something that was noteworthy. She said that she trusted the president's I believe Attorney General Bill Barr or something like that, or attorney some
sort of attorney. I paid just enough attention to these people anyway, So she said that she had accepted what he had said. And it later came out that Rudy Giuliani, which was the president's lawyer and again one of his close advisers at the time, suggested that Trump, out of the blue, despite everyone else recognizing and Fox News recognizing, Okay, this election has chosen Joe Biden, Rudy Giuliani said to Donald Trump, just say that the election was rigged and
stolen from you. And Trump kind of leaned into that plan and went ahead. And then, you know, as some months had passed, and they kept kind of saying that the election was rigged and stolen and if you have evidence,
you know, blah blah blah. When January January sixth came about, he had kind of a massed this group in DC to speak to them and then of course directed them to the capitol where they were about to do the final count of the state's votes, and the Vice president at the time, Mike Pence, was supposed to certify that election. This is a process that happens for every presidential election. Mike Pence, of course, famously decided that he was sane and competent and uh going to do the right then.
You know, So I don't necessarily want to pat him on the back, but I kind of do because that's a lot of pressure. I kind of want to pat him on the back, and we don't typically. Yeah, that's my extra credit for doing what you're supposed to do.
However, circumstance when you're the only person, yeah, Dennis, when it's very very.
Unpopular to do so, then I got to give you credit for that. And there's a mob outside with a what is that thing where to hang people like a noose? Yeah, So so anyway, this frames all that. Now, again, these are problems that exist in a different reality from a lot of black and brown people in this country. This is a separate problem. We got that guy out of the office. Maybe we got the guy we wanted. Maybe we didn't get the guy we wanted, but we got that guy out right.
I don't know that there was a person that we wanted to steal, sure at that point, sure, but it was very clear what we did not want there.
That's that's what I'm trying to say, so those were our problems. This January sixth thing was a bit beyond most people's like day to day, It wasn't really that big of it as big of a deal as some of the other things that we had endured COVID. You know, the election, of course, and the distresses that come with that, of course, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, etc. And all the protesting and so forth, and the affirming of our lives in twenty twenty. So again, let's flip
this on its head. One of our talking points. This is what Maggie wanted us to ponder on this show, and so we're asking you to do the same thing. Would the proper teaching of American history have made a difference in that moment? In other words, if people really knew more about American history, racial history, right, Because we understand on this program, Q and I both that Donald Trump's election this is our reality. It might not be yours,
but this is our reality. Donald Trump's election was the result of racism, a racist backlash to Barack Obama. He got out there, he started singing white people's greatest hits. The reason that your life is bad is because of people in Mexico. The reason that your life is bad is because of immigrants, and you know, people from these s whole countries and blah blah blah. I don't think there's lots of people he started singing racist white people's
greatest hit, racist white people's great not white people. Sure, that's because thank you for heart, we know is not thank you for correcting me there. And we also recognized there was a huge response to Donald Trump. It wasn't enough to make it happen, but you know, he did lose the popular vote. Donald Trump did, so we do recognize that there were a lot of folks that you know, felt that way.
But we also can I speak to the question that you asked, sure, please, would the proper teaching of American history had made a difference the proper teaching of American history maybe twenty years ago. Absolutely, Okay, at that point, probably not. And here's why, once upon a time, left
and right still had to agree on what facts were. Yeah, that world no longer exists, right, So, even if the proper history had been taught, when you have a voice that loud, that can just stand up and literally say as a child, would fake news and have fifty million people agree with them, then you question, are we beyond saving at this picture? Is there a world that exists where proper history could be taught and accepted as fact and not just partisan.
Propaganda if you will. So that's exactly where I was going, because I think that that makes for a good defense of critical race theory, or more properly American history, right, because critical race theory, again is more of an academic discipline. It's not meant for grade school children, and not everyone gets to the point where they're able to be in
an environment where critical race theory is taught. Right, But American history and the attack on American history in schools has led to sort of where we are now, and I think continues to erode at our capacity to understand and relate to each other and understand our predicament, and we're susceptible as a society to Charlatan's like the former president.
I'll continue. Another interesting point for you to ponder is whether or not President Obama would have nearly as much leniency if he was the person in office and the BLM mob in our hypothetical scenario had breached the Capitol and done all these atrocious things. Even if there the purpose of them breaching the capital was well founded, like we're here to affirm our lives and get some legislation passed. Would Obama have as nearly as much leniency.
Even if he had not been as directly responsible for the outcome as former President Idiot was. He definitely would have been held accountable for. They would have absolutely made it his fault and he'd likely be in prison now.
So that brings me to the next point. The right wing pundits are minimizing the trial. So these are people that you know in your communities. These are people that never switched the channel from Fox News. Right. Fox News didn't even show the first day of the trial, which laid out everything right, and you know, this was a prime time trial, so most Americans could listen. The ratings were, you know, somebody who makes big dollar ratings, The ratings
were through the roof. And then, of course, I want you to ponder that all of Trump's loyalists sought pardons preemptively for their roles in this right now, I want to read this because this was kind of included as well from our producer. So the NAAC highlights the big lie that fueled the insurrection was never about stopping voter fraud. It was a coordinated effort to disenfranchise millions of black voters by overturning the results of an election in which
black communities had a record turnout. The NAACP's warning, well, the insurrection may not have been successful, the blow to black voters political power was huge. Since the January sixth attack, dozens of states have legitimized the far rights big Lie by enacting over forty laws restricting black voters access to the ballot box. Now, this is why we need to be concerned about this specific political issue in the country
and for everyone that is listening to our voices right now. Again, is very important that you pay attention and that you ponder these things, and it may help illustrate how, in fact we do live in two different Americas.