Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host, Rams's Jah. They call me q Ward and that just so happens to be a variation of my actual name.
Yes, indeed, back up in you one more in to do what we do best, that is to inform, to discuss, to provide a lens into Black America, the experience of being black in America, and to hopefully create more empowered allies and uh empowered black folks, inform, etc.
Have you said that like that before? Maybe we're here to inform because I like that. Yeah, We're not here to give you an opinion, We're not here to make you share ours. Just here to give you information and you can do with that what you please, hopefully is the right thing. Right on and a great show for you today we have lined up great take that grain of salt. But but we do have some things to talk about. Informative, Yes, informative show.
We definitely want to spend some time talking about critical race theory that's been in the news a lot lately and it took me a while to become informed on what it is and the implications of it. And hopefully we'll be able to share some of what we know today.
We all learn something today, yes indeed.
And then we also want to talk about a little bit more about the way policing is gone to black and brown bodies, which is a staple on this show. Here this time, we're going to spend some time discussing some events that took place in Maryland. We also are going to talk about our ebony excellence. We're going to throw to Motown twenty five and then our way Black History fact has to do with June teenth, because this is that weekend.
So strap in, we got a great show for you, and I think that we should probably start off Q with some ebony excellent. That's how you build about that. We're going to start there, we word place to start. All I do is win, win, wind, no matter what. Okay. So my origins as a DJ are rooted in two separate, I guess moments in my life, and those those moments are a long ways away from each other. One of
those I was two years old. My grandmother's first gift to me was a vinyl pressed copy of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall Nice. That was the start of my love for music, long before being a DJ was even something I'd ever even considered. And then you know, fast forward twenty something years. I met this really handsome dude with an afro in Phoenix, and this guy was brilliant in and eventually became my brother now co host of the One and Only Civic Cipher. Yes, indeed, I gener
mean by the name of Ramses jobs. Me thought that djang might be something I should try, so he introduced me to it. But I go back to that off the Wall album my grandmother gave me because the first memory of my life was a celebratory evening in music, and being from Detroit, it just made me so proud. Motown twenty five produced by Susan DePass about Barry Gordy's hit Factory based out of Detroit, Michigan, and it had a legendary, unforgettable performance by a gentleman you may have
heard of. His name is Michael Jackson. Indeed, he returned for the first time since becoming a solo artist to perform with his brothers. But then after he did what he called the old songs, he got into what he simply referred to as one of his new songs, and he performed Billy Jean live and moonwalked and blew the entire world's mind. So Michael Jackson probably did not invent the moonwalk, but he made it what. It was, an excessively popular and hypnotizing dance move that my uncle almost
ruined for me. Rams. He told me that Michael had on motorized shoes listen, man, and tried to ruin my whole mind blown experience watching Motown twenty five as a young lad. So shouts to Motown, Barry Gordy, Detroit, Michigan, and the incomparable Michael Jackson. Yes, indeed, I like that some good ebony excellence for you, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, shout to Rams's jah Tu yeah man.
Even though I don't have my AFRO today, it'll be back soon.
Stay tuned. But let's let's jump over because there's some stuff that I really want to get into that I think is really important.
I was really excited to actually peel back the layers of this critical race theory, likewise discussion and so for the uninitiated, there are two schools of thought, right.
One is that.
Our history is necessary for us to know and to teach so that we learn from it, so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past, so that we understand where we are and who we are relative to each other, and it informs our path forward. And you know, as we all know, a more educated population is a more successful population by any measurable you know, facet of you know, livelihood, happiness, whatever. So you know, there are people who really believe that educating fully the good and
the bad. And I use those terms loosely because you know, it's a matter of perspective. But there's many people, myself included, who thinks, yes, we should tell folks what happened. And there is in this country at present an opposing faction, and we're going to talk about this opposing faction in Florida that says that that may not be the best approach.
I'm putting it kindly right, these so much. Yeah, this opposing faction, they believe that if you teach the children about the sins, like the good and the bad, that what you do is you teach them that this country is inherently racist and has always been, that they have a racist heritage, you know, and that they should be ashamed of their history. And this is how they framed their argument, which of course we know has no substance.
The truth is what there is.
I'm getting ahead of myself here, but we recognize from way over on this side that what it is is essentially these the Republic's say, a Republican or a right wing response to the fact that educated people tend to vote more aligned with liberal ideas and philosophies the more educated you are, you know, and so forth, and so it's just a response they're trying to weed out any
hint of racist racism teaching education. You know, they think it's all kumbaya and that everyone is who they are and where they are because of their own decisions and not the invisible forces of racism and this invisible constructs built into the framework of this country.
By and all of the advantages that come with exactly, and that you know, there's there's no way to make a connection to white privilege if you know, you don't teach that black people came over as slaves. And in fact, before we even talk about what happened in Florida, I remember reading months ago that in Texas. I'm not sure if you knew this, but in Texas.
They changed some of the textbooks, some of the history textbooks and social studies textbooks to take out the word slaves, so now it reads, you know, workers came from Africa to help, you know, pick cotton and do these things, right, because it's a kinder word and that you know, we look at it as whitewashing history. You know, that's that word is used deliberately and intentionally there. But that's that's what it is.
You know, it's it's and and you know what before we get I know, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I really wanted to talk about this because this is such a hurtful thing to have to live through. You know, you live a whole life, right, and you recognize because you're educated, because you're informed, but also because you can see it. I've seen it. You've seen it. Our show producer has seen it. You know, everyone in the studio here has seen it. You know that that has melanin
in their bodies, even those that don't have seen it. Yeah, exactly, allies and so on and and and and reckon. Even if you haven't seen it, you can understand that it does exist. Right. There's people who stand on this well. You know, I was born poor and I work for
everything I have. There's no such thing as white privilege. Right, And you know I've said this before, but you know, a great way of examining white privilege is getting to start from zero, as opposed to starting at negative four with a with a ball and chain around your ankle and a bunch of obstacles in front of you literally though you know what I mean, I don't want that to sound metaphor, so starting literally with ball and chain.
Yeah, So so you know that white privilege starting at zero is something that really.
Needs to be examined and in that way. And so with that said, I feel like there's.
A a disconnect between what we're trying to do in terms of empowering ourselves, in forming ourselves, understanding that, you know, because it's really easy to think, Okay, we're just inherently bad. You know, all bad things happen to black people, and so it's just it's our own fault. But that's because we're trapped in a world with a limited view vantage point, you know what I mean. We don't have access to
our full history. We don't understand, like you got to think the first human beings to build anything, to play any instrument, to do anything. We're black people because the first human beings were black people, and obviously the first civilizations or black civilizations, the first you know, complex societies and on and on and on. And I'm not talking
about like ancient just only ancient stuff. I'm talking about if you go to Africa now you can see thriving cities, you know, and so forth, and Africa is not necessarily known for it's you know, uh, thriving economies and things like that. But you have to also bear in mind that economies and things of that nature are really more Western constructs. You know, an economy is a very solid metric,
you know, to gauge the health of a society. But you know, there are cultures around the world who gauge it based on happiness, and I would argue that that's a much better indicator of how healthy a society is.
You know. And so some things are not wrong, they're just different. But in this country, because there's such a westernized view of it, when you boil it down to okay, well, black folks have a lot of issues to deal with, and you don't give a framework for where did these
things come from? How did these things come about? Then it's you know it I think it's the black people that suffer and the people that love and care about black people that suffer because you're taking the education, take the context away, and then when you take away the context, you take away the empathy, take away the understanding, take away the connection, you take away the idea that, hey, if the tables were turned, I might be in that same situation. So let me do what I can to
bring a little bit of balance to the universe. You know, I have to have a I don't know if I want to call it a reckoning or I guess I'll just say it and you guys can help me understand what the moment means. Undertaking this show was something that we had to be very very sure about before we did it because just like we never wanted the show to become an echo chamber, we also recognize that there
are people who violently disagree with us. Yeah, so we're on airwaves every week pointing out some truths that there are sectors of our population that will deny that it even exists at a point of wanting to harm us. I got death threats and knowing that you know, police
cars have radios too. You know, there are moments and I've told you this on the show before, where I'm preparing to come to this show and i have to really purposefully pray that I make it back home to my kids, and I'm not leaving home to do some incredible undertaking or take some long trip or going to war or any of that. I'm driving to the studio to record the show, and you know, having to reconcile with the idea that for no reason at all, I might get pulled over. And then I say my name
on this show every show. You take a good amount of time to do so. I iver's license to someone who reads that name and recognizes it and is very troubled by the point of view that I carry. And when we first started the show, Rams, I don't know if I've ever confessed this to you or to our listeners, I'm like, man, we're gonna make some people that we
like uncomfortable. Every week. There's gonna be some people that hear this, and there's gonna be guilt, and there's gonna be a lack of empathy because no one wants to be told, hey, you're a bad person, or you're the bad guy, or you're the perpetrator of this system that stands on our necks and I almost bite my tongue every show to keep from making someone uncomfortable. And that came up right now because you pointed out empathy, and
the empathy is what makes me let it go. That's what makes me say, go ahead, express yourself and tell people your actual point of you, what life is really
like through your lens. And the people with empathy, not just those that are informed and educated, because there's some informed, educated people that are still evil, but those who are kind and genuinely good people, and some that are even ignorant to some of these truths, their empathy kicks in and it allows them to at least stop and think like, wow, is it really like that? And is it always been that way? Is it always still that way? Crazy? Right?
So every week, bro, I'm really like, man, I don't want to our show has to make someone uncomfortable every time we turn the MIC's on, and I've pressed pause on myself before to try not to make people uncomfortable. And that's what this is about. Yeah, this is they don't want to make people feel bad or guilty or uncomfortable about the truth of this country's foundation. I'm glad you said that. So here's the thing. So I can't speak for all black people, because who would do that?
You know, some people try. Unfortunately, well we're not those people. I'm not that person.
But I do live a black life, you know, I'm around black people largely. My family is full of black people. Many of my friends are black, of course. And maybe it's just me personally, or maybe this is just an acceptable sampling of the population. Granted I live in Arizona, so you know, I think this is a pretty good sample. I don't get a lot of anger. I mean, there are people who are very angry, make no mistake. There are people who are bitter, people who.
Really you know, they draw hard lines, you know Black people that do that, you know. But for the most part, everybody kind of gets it, you know, we kind of understand and everybody recognizes that at our our in our heart of hearts, our impulse and our and our desire is to love each other. We don't want anyone to be punished for anything, and that we all want to look forward. We want to have a more fair, you know, balanced world equitable experience with our lives in this country.
But no one's looking for revenge. You know, I don't get I don't gather that. I certainly am not this. This show exists because love exists in my heart and your heart, and I believe that love exists in the world, and I want there to be more of that. But in order for that love to really be impactful and be meaningful, we need to have some understanding, and so topics like this need to be discussed at length, and unfortunately that does make some people uncomfortable. Now, I do want to.
Talk about the Florida State Board of Education because what happened there and what brought this to our attention is that they voted against teaching critical race theory, so that
is effectively banned in classrooms in Florida. Now, people were in the meetings at the school board, passionate people, educated people that have a lot more to say about it than both you and I, and this board held the line, no, we don't and the thinnest of arguments, which is the one that I presented when first introducing this topic, here is the one that they hold to. You know, we don't want kids to grow up and feel as though
they should be ashamed of their heritage. We want our children to be proud to be American, you know, and critical race theory doesn't teach you not to be proud. If anything, you know, you can be proud of where you come from. You know, that's a story of true in individual lives.
And and it's such an insult to our children that we have to lie to them for them to be proud or omit the truth in this case. Yeah, So the governor of Florida, who's a Republican governor, his name is Ron Descentis, I want to say, so, he says that basically, critical race theory is trying to indoctrinate children with ideology.
It's so basically what it is. I have a quote from doctor Jonathan Cox. Critical race theory is a theoretical perspective and practice for examining the role of race and racism in society.
So that's what critical race theory is.
And the Republican governor Ron Santas says that what it is is it trying to indoctrinate them with an ideology.
And so he's reachings to pretend that race has no impact on our society.
Yeah, and that is simply not true anywhere you look at at it. You know, or at least anywhere of the hot button topics that are you know, if you're talking about do you get service at McDonald's or can you pump gas? Yeah, pretty much everyone has a more or less fair share of go at that. Unless you're in some place like Bucksaw, Mississippi, or you know, Backwood, Alabama or something like that, you can stop and get gas from your car and gone about your business.
But in terms of you know, and then it's in theory. In theory, yes, I've had some uncomfortable situations in Chandler, Arizona. Yeah, of course. And you know, the thing is, the odds are against you once something happens. What I'm talking about is just living your day to day life. If he wants to say that everyone is the same for the most part, we've made it to that place, you know.
But there are these systems that exist, these invisible systems, these structures that are built into the framework of society that provide opportunities or to provide opportunities to non milanated individuals, or they are hard disadvantages to melanated individuals. That's the way I'll say it.
With respect to housing, with respect to political representation, with respect to economic opportunities, with respect to criminal justice, with respect to I mean, the list goes on healthcare.
You know, well, what do you mean, Rams is we can drink out of the same water fountain us. You know what I'm saying, Like, that's such a limited view of what the life is sit in the back of the bus anymore. Again, such a limited view. And at the Black Lives Matter protests last year, I didn't see dogs or water hoses turned on any of the protesters. And this is what this is a position a lot
of people hold. But again I maintain that it's a deliberately limited view because it allows their argument to exist in a space with other people who really need that to be true, because they're scared of coming to terms with the fact that this country does have racist roots and they want to feel as they don't want to feel guilty about their position life. Or maybe they're just bad people. Maybe I can't pretend like those people don't exhist for bad people, and they don't want to they're
bad people. They know they're bad, but they don't want everyone else to know that they're bad, and they harbor these horrible views and so they need a narrative like this that ignores ninety percent of the reality and just focuses on the fact that we can drink out of the same water fountain in order for the progress they're construct of the world, their worldview to be true, for
them to feel comfortable in their own skin. And I, you know, I don't know what it's like to live that life, but I gotta imagine that's a tough tough thing to wake up to and go to sleep to every night. You know, Ignoring something is that's that's a play a lot of people make.
But pretending that the whole world is different, that's got to take a lot more upkeep.
I hope it's tough, right because you know, we think about, you know, things like karma and that people that are bad people have their just do coming to them, and we know that that's not always true. You know, there are some bad people that are bad their whole lives and in their own space live a fantastic, bountiful life, even if it meant stepping on other people to do so. Yeah, so who knows. But the truth is that.
You know, as far as critical race theories and certain matter of fact, let me read this too, the same people say that, so it says school children should not be taught that America is fundamentally racist, right, which again, I wouldn't go into a room of third graders and say, hey, guys, America is fundamentally racist anymore than I would go into a room full of high school students and say that. If I were to high school students would be where I would do that. But the truth is, you don't
have to say America is fundamentally racist. You can just teach the facts. You know, we looked at these human beings like, oh, they can do the late for us. We purchased them or otherwise created a system in Africa that, you know, manipulated their economy, their local economies. We introduced a new form of slavery that did not exist in Africa, where.
You lose your name, you lose your language, that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world in the world, and and uh, we thrive.
This country was built on that, and we thrived as a result of that. And we never came to terms with the fact that these black people that share this this land, in this space and this time with us started off way behind the start line.
And so that's a little bit about critical race theory, just thought we would share and.
Now strikes from headquarters behind in the the Border.
If you're just tuning into Civic Cipher, I am your host Rams's job. They call me q Ward And we still got a lot more in store for the show. We definitely want to spend a little bit of time talking about some events that took place in Maryland and in Ocean City and some other places too with respect to.
The no vaping laws. We're going to spend a little bit of time talking about June teenth, because that's where we are right now, and so that's going to be our way Black History fact and right now we're going to spend some time discussing how to become a better
ally our bah Bah segment. So yeah, for those of you that don't know about June tenth, of course we're going to talk about it a little bit later on in the show, but this weekend is June Team and one thing that you can do to become a better ally is get involved google you know Juneteenth festivals in you know, your vicinity, in the city that you live in, and go out and participate. Typically, June teenth festivals are a celebration of blackness.
Think along the lines of and.
Uh Saint Patrick's Day or or you know a single de Mayo or.
Something, or even a fourth of July. Sure, you know, just a celebration of culture. But you know there's going to be a lot of institutions on site, a lot of do gooders, a lot of activists, a lot of you know, on and on and on where you can get out there and network, find out how you can be more useful, how you can become a better ally, and of course become a little bit more educated. So that is going to serve as our bah bah tip for today, and that is how you're going to become
a better ally. But stay tuned because we do want to get into the history of June teenth and why it's important. And we're actually doing a little bit of a celebration because it just became a federal holiday, which is quite a milestone after how many years ago with slavery. I'm not being critical, but I want us to think it was ninety two hundred years ago. That's how they want us to feel way more recent again. Woogoole is free. I don't want to say a date that's wrong, but yeah,
it was far more recent than you might believe. Your grandmother. If you're my age, I'm forty years old, your grandmother lived through it. If you're younger than me, your grandmother's parents lived through it. So it's not as far removed as you might think. And if you're out and about in Arizona, you know during the June teenth festivities, look for me and Ramses, we're going to be out there. We're moving around in Arizona for Junet, Yes, sir, and
uh yeah, so that'll do that, all right? No vaping law talk to me. Q you ever jalke Ramses all the time? You ever been ticketed for it? No, in the event that you were, do you think that you be jumped, beaten, handcuffed, taken to jail or you think you'd just be sighted for it?
The answer I want to give so that we can have this conversation is, of course not.
And I realized while asking this question that everything I just said might happen to someone that looks like Ramses for jaywalking or vaping. Right, so, smoking has been prohibited or banned or made you know, illegal, and a lot of places around the country. But this is in recent years though when I was a kid, you could smoke everywhere, restaurants, airplanes,
like literally everywhere. Because it's a great danger to public health, and because well, let me start over, because people made a very very big deal about the fact that it was a great danger to public health. It's been banned in a lot of places. Okay, not just because it was bad for our health, because it's an extremely profitable industry. I'm sure less so now because they've been kind of shamed into, you know, until not being so liberal about
nicotine and smoking. But once upon a time you could smoke everywhere. In recent years, some alternatives to smoking cigarettes and even smoking other things has been introduced in the form of vaping and e cigarettes. Okay, and that was never made that was never something that you could do on airplanes or things like that. But there are a lot of places where you can't smoke, where you could vape. Because it was so new, there weren't any laws or
rules against it yet. Okay, several places around the country, several industries and businesses have now started to ban vaping. Not everyone gets a text update on their phone when new policies, laws and rules happen, especially young people who for lack of better want to be kids and not be so involved in government and politics and policy. Yet they'll want to be your kids. So Ramses and I have told you guys about our system of watching these
traumatic videos, and this week it was Q's turn. And people would like for us and friends of theirs to believe that we are greatly exaggerating these occurrences. They'll even try to make you think it's your imagination. Google Ocean City, Maryland vape. I'm sure multiple videos will pop up because there were multiple instances in Maryland, but the results are the exact same, nonviolent, compliant young black men being tased and beaten by police officers just because they felt like
it and just because they could. The presence of cameras onlookers and even people trying to intervene did not discourage or bring to a cease the activities of these officers. I read that one of the young men has broken ribs. Several of the men were beaten and tased, not because the police said, hey, you can't vape here, and these guys said, I'm gonna do what I want. You can't
vape here, yes, sir. One of the gentlemen hands up while being taste and was only approached in the first place because he was vaping in a place where you're now not supposed to where I'm guessing once upon a time you could. And the answer to black people doing anything that white police officers deem not appropriate, Oh god, I know what you're gonna say is to put them in their place physically and violently. It's not about compliance,
it's not about being the law abiding citizen. It's about being the type of person that the only reason you're a police officer is so that you can treat people that way, so you can hurt people. He's routed out cops that can't wait for a fight to pop off, and I don't even want to make it. I don't even want to single them out, because that would be great if we could just point to the rooted out, angry cop as the bad apple. As they would say, it's just bad system. But we have too many examples
for that to be the case. And with enhanced scrutiny and enhanced attention, these cases are not becoming less. They are increasing, as if to say, yes, we know you're looking, and we don't care. This is who we are, and there's nothing you can do about it. Let me ask you a question, Q. Please, was there any point on any of the videos that you saw of the police jumping these children where the police said stop resisting? Of course?
Okay, So let me ask you another question before you go into detail. Were you able to see from the video, because the way you described some of the videos before we started recording was that it was like a group of police, at least in one of the videos. They were jumping group.
Of police in every video that I've seen. Okay, And so there's I'm guessing three. That sounds like geja. I mean, you can get a jumped by two people, but three, we'll call it three police officers. Just definitely more than three. Okay, we'll start with three. There's three police officers on a child or a young very young man, let's say teenager. Let's let's call give them the benefit of the doubt. I call them children. I have a fifteen year old
that is my child. Yes, but I don't want to see and this is why I'm trying to make sure we don't do what they do. Right. I don't want to pay the picture of Grayson right, because that's insane and that's ridiculous. We're not going to make the context so skewed. I'll say teenagers. So you can picture somebody even my height, Okay, right, that's fair, a teenager.
With three I'm assuming non teenager police officers, correct, and they're yelling to this person's stop resisting.
Or some colloquialism of that. Yeah, right, tave that those exact words. But and do you see that this teenager is actively resisting. So in both cases the teenagers being tased, right, you see this person standing, you see them shot with the taser, and then you see their body kind of go limp, fall to the ground and convulse because they're
being electrocuted. So, yeah, that's happening, except one person's tasing them, multiple people are holding them down, and in one video, three people holding one person tasing and another officer violently driving his knee into this young man's ribs over and over and over. And this gentleman, gentleman, and as a
heck of a word to use, is huge. He then proceeds to get up and start fights with people who are around and recording what's going on because they are justifiably and understandably very upset at what they're seeing, this unjustified beating of a man because he violated that don't vape here rule. So in my mind's eye, it looks exactly like how I imagined it would look. You know. I know we talk about it a lot, but not
everybody catches every show. You mentioned. Our system that we have for watching the videos so that we can process these things and discuss them on the radio, is that one week I'll take a video or two and I'll watch them, and then the following week Q will take them. Or if you know, if it makes sense for one over so or the other one to dig a little deeper. If we have to watch the videos of violence and death and you know that sort of stuff, it's very
extremely taxing. It does not agree with my spirit. God. If you believe in God or whatever you believe in that created both me and you, whatever that sources, did not create me to spend my time wallowing through death and pain and harm. I'm not that person, but I have to do it so that I can talk about it because it's important because we have to live together, we have to love each other. And so I signed up for it, you know, And this time it was
Q's turn, as he mentioned. And so I didn't watch these videos because, to me, as I stated, a person with a fifteen year old Q does not have a fifteen years I have a fifteen year old and a seven year old right behind him. That hits very close to home, you know, and it'd be very difficult for me to watch that and still be the optimistic, positive person that I have to be.
You know, I'm not saying I would lose that. I think that's fundamentally who I am. But it's difficult when the world looks like everybody's okay with this guy just kicking this kid. And again, I'm not trying to establish a false narrative, but the way that the article came into our group, Chad was teenagers or whatever. And again, I changed my son's diapers. You know, that's that's a I'm almost forty years old. You know, to me, that's
a kid. And to have a bunch of adult men with adult man's strength kneeing a teenager in the ribs.
You know the scary thing. Rams this is because you just brought this up and made me think about it. A year ago, I adopted a teenager. Yeah, I guess a sixteen year old, and he unfortunately has that I will not be marginalized spirit, even if it, even if it means saving my own life, I will not have my dignity taken from me. And I'd rather die than to Hey it is, and the conversations that I try to have with him have no effect on that spirit
in him, so that makes it more scary. Rights. He's most likely to stand his ground when he's being wronged, which sounds like what he should do, right except no, Yeah, they actually will execute you on the side. It will kill you in public, in front of everyone, just for giving them a bad attitude. You know, I saw.
I didn't see the video, but I saw it come come our way, and unfortunately, because of the nature of the show, we didn't get to talk about it. But you know, I saw that there was a an incident in uh Minnesota, I want to say, where a man drove his car through a bunch of protesters in Minnesota, Minnesota. Yeah, and he and he killed a woman, white woman. Ally was out there protesting with her black brothers and sisters, and her white brothers and everybody humanity was out there protesting.
All this while our lawmakers are trying to make it where that's not even a crime.
Yeah, And then you see the front of his car, it's all smashed up and din it in and dinged up. And you know, then they held him there. They didn't they didn't jump him, they didn't beat him.
You know, maybe they did. It looked like he just got in the car. Cars. But they held him until the pol least came, the proper authorities came, and then they took him away to have his day in court, you know. And you know, I don't know what I don't know about that incident, right, but I do know that that is certainly more telling of the two Americas than anything else. You know, that's or at least it's just as telling that we live in two we live
two different lives in this on the same land. You know, for a person to literally commit murder in front of millions of onlookers with his vehicle, gets pulled out by a crowd, you know, of people that are not trained to do anything, you know, and they hold him, you know, and he's very much alive and well when he's taken into custody. Have you seen his mugshot?
No?
I haven't. I did see him on the street, though he was a big smile on his face. Really, that's sad, Engross, I wish I didn't hear that mission accomplished, big smile on his face. Absolutely, yeah, well again, while our elected officials are trying to make it so that what he did isn't even a crime, and that's for very specific reasons.
It's not just happenstance that after the biggest civil rights movement in forty to fifty years, where protesters hit the streets in record numbers, that lawmakers immediately, you know, in the wake of trying to suppress our vote, make it so that protesters could be run down with cars and the perpetrator not be charged with a crime. This is America. You're not wrong. Sad moment. I really wish that I
didn't hear about this man's mugshot. I was trying to make a point about, you know, police being trained, especially when they're in numbers like that, if they need to apprehend someone, they can do it without kneeing someone in the ribs, especially someone who doesn't have a full compliment of testosterone in their body because they haven't reached that age and are not trying to flex on you anyway, even if they did, and then there's three folks with
full compliments of testosterone holding you down while one knees you in the ribs and Ramses is using three just as a baseline number, more than three officers in each video that I saw. Okay, well, I haven't seen the video, so that's where that comes from. But you know what, Q, let's make sure that we I want to make sure at least that I approached this the right way. That was really heavy to hear that he was happy about that.
It makes me think that he got into cut police custody and maybe people like patted him on the back or they did the Dylan Roof thing where they bought him burger king before they took him into you know, it's sure. That just makes me think that I don't know, it's not beyond scope. Yeah, that's that. I don't know that that happens. So I don't want to put that on it and then imagine it wasn't a photo taken at the scene. This is after he's had some time to sit with it, think about it. He's been with
the police, I'm sure. So that's why that feels a little bit like ugh. But in any event, I do know or I do feel like these are part of the growing pains. We're the latest generation to pick up this fight. We might not make it to the finish line, but this is our job, not me and u Q, but everyone listening to our voice and everyone whose voice, who your voice reaches. If you're listening to our voices, you know, it's our job to take it from where it is now and take it forward, you know.
Because the truth is, if we do look back. You know, there's a there's a joke that comes up quite a bit and with different comedians, you know, and it comes up in different contexts, in different scenarios or whatever. But basically the joke is that if you're white, you can go back to any point in time and it's all good. But if you're black, you never want to go even
to yesterday, because today is better than yesterday. And I think that that illuminates something that we really need to come to terms with.
And that's the fact that hold on. Let me say it, the fact that today is a little bit better than yesterday, even with all the death and the beatings and the you know this and that and the third you know, we have we there's a little bit more and so we're a little bit further along. And I think that that needs to stay in the middle of where we are. We need to know that we're working towards something because we are. We need to know we're accomplishing something because
we are. And that doesn't mean that we're not going to have to live through these That woman that lost her life because that man ran into that crowd, she was there to be an ally, she was there to be a human and it's very sad to know that she lost her life. But you know, that's not the first person that we've seen lose their life, you know, and unfortunately I don't think it will be the last. And that hurts to say that, but we have to.
I refuse to feel like she lost her life for no reason, you know, and everyone else that lost her I remember the tiki torch thing and the guy that drove his dodge into the crowd and killed that woman. She was another white woman at Virginia Charlottesville. Charlottesville, Virginia.
I actually went to that college and I stood in that square where they had that protest where she lost her life, and I thought that that was important to honor the fact that this woman who lives on the other side of the country, her life ended there, so that maybe my sons can grow in a world that's a little bit better. So this is how I'm choosing to frame these things, and I hope that there are
some folks that share that sentiment with me. So you guys heard Rams just say, let me say it, and you can't see me, so you might not know why he said that. And so our show producer DJ Swirl and my co host Rams do the monumental job of trying to keep me encouraged on the progress that we're making as a people. Except the people do as sound a job to the opposite, going the other direction. The fact that we have so much content like this for our show every week is very discouraging in that way.
But I will say this because I'm not an unfair person. There are more people that feel the way that we feel today than at any point in history. The problem is that there are people in power, policymakers and law enforcement that feel the same way they felt sixty seventy one hundred years ago. So vote please and don't let them take away your vote. And they're trying actively. You can still get onto the NAACP's website and contribute. There's another become a better ally tip for you.
But yeah, so, right now we're gonna move on to.
Our way Black History Facts DJ swirl where you at?
So the way the way Black History fact we have two now because you brought up the moonwalk from our first segment and according to the in nineteen forty three, Bill Bailey performed the first backslide on screen in the movie The Cabin in the Sky and talked to him.
It is the dance that most closely resembles what was renamed the moonwalk, and Jeffrey Daniel is credited as the teacher of the backslide to Michael Jackson where it settled where we commonly referred to it, affectionately referred to it as the moonwalkwah.
And google Jeffrey Daniel excessively talented brother. Yeah so juneteenth So.
On June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, about two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered, General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and he informed the enslaved African Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended. His announcement officially put it into effect, which was the Emancipation Proclamation, although it had been issued more than two and a half
years earlier President Abraham Lincoln. How about that the site Galveston has remained a busy site for Juneteenth events over the years, said Douglas Matthews, who has helped coordinate them for more than two decades. This year, the city will dedicate a five thousand square foot mural entitled Absolute Equality, on the spot where General Granger informed the enslaved African Americans of their freedom. The city will also mark the holiday with a parade and a picnic. As you stated before,
events and activities are going on around the country. In Atlanta, they've been scaled back because of the pandemic and because people getting used to getting back from the pandemic, But organizers have made plans for a parade and music festivals at Centennial Olympic Park, and similar events will go down in Annapolis, Maryland, Chicago, Detroit, and Lawn.
And I happen to know that in San Diego there's plenty of Juneteenth events. Phoenix, of course, which is where we're going to be, there's plenty. There's a ton in Tucson, and Vegas, as well as Albuquerque and Opaso. So if you're listening to the show, there is definitely something near you that you can get involved with. But I think it's important for us to take a moment to really discuss June teenth, because it's always been sort of treated
like the redheaded stepchild of holidays. So the fact that it's now a national holiday in the US is a big deal. How are they going to get around teaching that now that it's a national holiday.
Imagine not teaching critical race theory, but then not going to school because they're off for Juneteenth.
That's going to be very interesting, how about that? And it's federal so but anyway, so again, you know, I mentioned earlier that there's St. Patrick's Day, you know, which is you know, for the most part, it's a national holiday. We all celebrate with our Irish brothers and sisters on that day. You wear a little green, you don't get pinched. Everyone kind of participates to wonder, grear or another. We have a good time, and that is what it is.
Our Hispanic brothers and sisters. You know, we live in the Southwest, and uh, you know, so this where we live used to be Mexico, So our whole lives, we're surrounded by Mexican culture and it's enriched by Mexican people. Everyone's to wonder gear or another, even if it's just reading the street names. You know, California is a Spanish word Arizona, you know.
So single Demayo is a massive undertaking, especially where we live. And so.
Similar to single de Mayo, I know that single Demyeo is not the actual Mexican independence, liberation whatever. There's a different holiday in Mexico, but in this country, that's how we celebrated. That's our time for reflection or it's just a time to celebrate Mexican heritage. That's really what it's evolved into.
Right. So similarly, June, I think Mexican independence is in September something like that, right, Okay, you would know better than me. But similarly, June teenth is a time to celebrate you know, black it's just an excuse to have a party. You know, it's not Black History Month, it's not Mlkday, it's not any of those things. It's just time for us. And the reason is because of what Swirl mentioned, where this is the independence of black people from the binds of slavery. Do you remember the first
time you heard the word June teenth? I've heard it for a long time. I can't remember the first time, but go ahead. I don't remember the first time either, But I was an adult, that's what. That's why I brought that up. Okay, it was I don't remember it being like when I was little.
Yeah, but that I believe that's because, as I mentioned, and it's always been sort of the redheaded stepchild of holidays as which is further illustrated by the fact that it only recently has become a national federal holiday.
And by recently, you mean like now, like it was two days ago, earlier, yesterday, to day, last night, something like that. So but it's good, and you know what, to be fair, credit where it's due. The vote to ratify that was unanimous. No one voted against it. I don't think they would. You know, he wants to go on records, and you know, at minimum by bipartisan, right, Actually, oh, you know something I don't. It was unanimous.
Okay, However, this isn't the first time it's gotten to the stage. Oh and one gentleman, unsurprisably on the Republican side eventually changed his vote to allow it to be unanimous because it's a federal holiday and he didn't do it under the basis that it is going to become a paid holiday. He looked at it from the business perspective, saying that businesses are going to suffer because people won't be working. Yes, asterisk to every good positive I think that happens.
Just be shamed for being the singular.
On the other side, and that's a bad thing to get, you know, go down in history for.
But anyway, you know, we we land where we land, and so thank you very much well for our way Black history fact and uh you know I I want to say thank you to you for listening every week, you know Q and I n sworld too. We we have, you know, a lot.
To get through every week, and you know, the show has been growing. We have been taking on new partners, the folks that really log on and support and make a donation that really really really helps. To be in this many cities, to be doing this many you know things with this idea that we had is really incredible and so your spirit and your energy is well received.
You can keep up with us during the week on all of our social media, you can find us at Civic Cipher. A lot of times we'll post things that really make sense for the show. Sometimes we'll post things that we'll actually discuss on the show. And if you are on social media any platform, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, we employ you to plug in with us, send stuff to us, send show topics to us. It helps us to tailor
the show to the needs of you the listener. And if you're just tuning in, you know, once again, you can start here and we can go from here and we can grow together and I'd really much better, very much like that. So yeah, and before we get out of here, I just want to say thank you for listening. I'm your host Ramses. Yeah they called me q Ward. Be sure to hit the website Civic Cipher dot com to download this in all previous episodes and then, uh, you know you can't make a donation. We'd love to
get your support until next week on Peak. Yeah.
Like yo, we had the lab, these brothers, the Fabulous our Lady showing you where bomb traveled. This speak to you from sunlight to who busting.
On stage like the fight, move my mic back like that Jo.
Strike back borders with orders from head borders behind and the Beline side stepping the borders with press passes.
Bring it to you asn't habits look