And now watching my mic back, you're like that.
Strikes with waters from headquarters behind him.
And now if you're just tuning in the civic side for I'm your host Rams's job, you're sometimes excited in colorful co host qwar. Yes, indeed, plea stick around. Uh, we got more Juneteenth to discuss. We're talking about how to how people profit from Juneteenth and really what that feels like, maybe how to be kinder just account for the way it might feel the people as you go
about commercializing that brand new holiday for black people. You know, we've asked for a lot from this country and we got Juneteenth, and it seems like people are kind of going after Juneteenth, which is fine, which is good. It's goods, it's good, it's good. We want that. But know we have to have conversations about how it feels so that we help you and that you help us and we all learn and grow together. That's the point. We're also going to give you a little bit of history on
June teen, so stick around for that. But first and foremost, let's discuss Ba Ba Ba Ba become a better Ally. This one is brought to you by Hip Hop Weekly Magazine and what we want you to do is diversify your news feeds on your social media, particularly with your journalistic articles, things that you see of that nature. This was really important to our producer, Maggie aka Maggie B. Knowing, and so she sent this to us from this comes
from what is this? Meaming reports? Naming reports? Yes, four ways to increase the diversity of your sources is brilliant, by the way. Okay, understanding the barriers to increasing source diversity is the key to overcoming them. In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the increased prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement, editors across the country have made a concerted effort to hire more black reporters, include more black authoritative voices, and recount the real life
experiences of people of color impacted by systemic racism. Increasing the diversity of the sources we use and the people we feature is the first and most significant step in creating journalism that paints a more complete picture and is more relevant to audiences. So let's redefine who is an expert. If we broaden our definition of who qualifies as an expert to include lived experience and people who are impacted by the issues. This greatly expands the number and kinds
of voices we can include. Let's lay the groundwork first, if possible, try to recruit new sources before you actually need them in a story. To avoid making a cold approach when you're on a deadline. Let's explain the process. Whether they are real people sharing their experiences or subject matter experts. Few non media people know what to expect
when they agree to be interviewed. Part of our job as journalists is to playing the processes for a print media outlet versus an online versus broadcast, and, last, but not least, practice cultural competence. The notion of cultural competence is not just for white journalists, says inclusive media consultant Linda Miller, who helped create the Public Insight Network of
Divorce source diverse sources for the American public media. Understanding that different communities have different histories and experiences with the press should be the starting point for every journalist, says Miller. Fortunately, many newsrooms have created training and outreach activities to help staff develop awareness, knowledge and skills necessary to actually listen, engage,
and build empathy for someone else's experience. The central tenet of cultural competence, and that is how you can become a better ally. Get them news feeds cleaned up to an inner civic cipher. Boom, pay attention to what you pay attention to. All right, back to Juneteenth. So let's start this off with another article. This one comes from ad Week, And before we read this, I want to say, we have our feelings here on this show. Other people
have their feelings. We feel like we're right. Otherwise we wouldn't say that. If we don't feel like we're right, we just have an opinion. We'll say it's just an opinion,
but we feel like we're right. That doesn't make us right, Okay, But we do feel like with a platform like this that we have to be very careful about how we share information and how we empower you with we'll call it instruction how to approach black culture, the traumas experienced by black people in the black community, and you know politics. Of course, we talk about politics on the show quite a bit, and just how to be better allies to each other. I know that's a segment on the show,
but the whole show is an attempt to create better allies. Right, So we're going to say what we believe is true. But first we're going to read an article to kind of frame how some people feel. Shall we we shall all right? This again comes from Adweek. Dear marketers, don't profit from Juneteenth, avoid cultural blunders like Walmart's June teenth ice cream, and learn how to celebrate appropriately. All right,
let me read this. It was only a year ago that President Joe Biden signed legislation to establish Juneteenth June nineteenth as a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery, and in the span of one year, didn't take long for some brands to see Juneteenth as a way to make money. Dollar Tree began selling head wraps and a host of June teen party supplies. Social media backlash was swift, letting the retailer know that they used to that they
also use the wrong colors. The official colors of the June teen flag are red, white, and blue. Dollar Tree quietly removed all its social media posts, never issuing apology. Walmart's Celebration edition Juneteenth ice cream, along with Jueteenth themed party supplies, also sparked huge social media backlash. The label on the red velvet flavored ice cream red share and celebrate African American culture, emancipation and enduring hope. I want to make an edit here. The official colors of the
June teen flag are red, white, and blue. I don't know if that's right ad Week, because I have never seen no blue, nor have I seen right white. I've seen red, orange, and green, black, I've seen all those colors. But yeah, now, as we mentioned, profiting from Juneteenth, it comes with the territory. Other people celebrating June teenth with us, it comes with the territory. This is what we want.
You may find on some corner of the internet some people saying all kinds of nonsense that Juneteenth is only for black folks, or that you know, people shouldn't make money off of Juneteenth, or whatever the case is. Again, our truth is not that we do believe that it should be approachable, but there's also something to remember while you're approaching the holiday. And we didn't get to touch on this the first half of the show, and I
want to make a correction too. I did see another Juneteenth flag just now by our producer Maggie B Knowing, and I remember that one that actually is red, white and blue. So sure, so there's two flags, I guess. Anyway, if you do exploit Juneteenth fiscally, especially, I would ask that you keep in mind that there is a particular sensitivity of the people that you're approaching. Right. We are people who have been hurt a lot by this country,
by our local representatives, local politicians. We've been hurt a lot by our countrymen, just neighbors in our neighborhoods or across town. We've been hurt by these people. Of course, we've been hurt by corporations. Right. We've, as I mentioned, oftentimes been last to be considered in terms of how things might feel, how things might impact us. And that's if we've been considered at all. Usually we and a lot of times in this history, we haven't even entered
into the conversation. It's just like, well, whatever happens to them happens, but you know, it's not even worth a conversation. And so when you're approaching a holiday like Juneteenth, it can feel a bit more. That doesn't feel good, you know, to black folks, it can feel like, ah, that's not really I don't know if that's performative or if you really mean that. Because of the history, you know, because We've been through so many we'll call them traumas in
our time in this country. So it oftentimes takes a long time for us to verify something as being authentic. It oftentimes takes a long time for us to warm up to people taking things and changing them to suit their interest or their narrative. Takes a long time for us to warm up to the idea that someone is making money off of something that they didn't really have
to go through. You know, these things feel a little different for us, Like we all get taken advantage of being a human being in live long enough, someone will take advantage of you. But if you're a black person in this country and a white person, you feel like a white person takes advantage of you. That feels a little different. There are people like, oh, you shouldn't play
the race card. You shouldn't play the race card. It's almost like, how else do you explain it after centuries knowing that that's been the truth, that's the foundation of really everything you know on this and around here. We believe that white supremacist institutions still very much govern our day to day lives, not just ours, me and Q and Maggie, but all of us. Even if you're a white person living a very white life, supremacy governs your
life as well. We believe that. Actually we have documentation to support it. We talk about it all the time on the show, and anytime you want to have that sidebar conversation with me, at least I certainly have it with you. But we also recognize that if we understand the predicament that we're in, the circumstances that we're in, and we can agree on a path forward, that we can start to fix things. At least on this one show,
we can. I'm always going to be hope cute see QBS rolling his eyes at me again, but we can. You know, we're doing our part the best we know how to try to move forward. And so there is a certain duality that is kind of built into our experience, you know what I mean. And you might be noticing that on the other end of Juneteenth. You might notice
that in this show. On the way one hand, we're saying, look at these people taking advantage of June tenth, and on the other hand, we're saying, please celebrate Juneteenth with us. And this is the duality I'm speaking to, because it very much is a function of, Hey, we do want the brotherhood, but we've been a little hurt in the past and we don't want to feel taken advantage of.
And I think the word feel is very important, you know what I mean, And in order for you to kind of help frame it in the right way, if you ask yourself, is what you're doing performative? You're just putting on a show because it's that time of year and you guys need to get some money on your corporate bottom line, if you work for a big company and you're high up, or if you're you know, do
really fight this fight with us through the year. Do you cry with us when we see these black men and women losing their lives at the hands of police. Is that really something that moves you? Or do you blame the victim and side with the police and then on Juneteenth say, well, I got the day off, so you know, let me put a post up, you know, on my social you know what I mean. So those are the things that you know, authenticity really helps us as as black people as we are healing from four
hundred years of trauma. This is I think what I'm trying to say here now. I don't want to keep talking because your eyes are saying I got a lot to offer this, So go ahead, you you got something to get off.
It's just it's very complicated, Right, there's a lot of context. There's a lot of nuance that must be discussed because it is impossible to separate exploitation from capitalism.
Right.
We'd feel much better if someone that looked like us trademark Juneteenth. Right, But the way that this society works, someone was going to I'm sad that we hadn't already. It shouldn't have required for it to become a national holiday for someone that looks like us, like us to have thought that we should own that. But then that presents its own set of interesting circumstances. If Ramsy's job owned the Juneteenth trademark, I'm sure someone would find issue
with that. Yeah, who are you to own juneteenth?
Right?
So there's this space that we're in, Like you said as a Kesh twenty two, there's no right answer, there's no outcome that makes everybody happy. The conflation of Juneteenth and pan Africanism. Right, we thought ten minutes ago the June teen flag was red, black and green.
Yeah, that's the more popular one that I've seen.
Yeah, but it's not that's just pan Africanism thrown on an American flag. The Juneteenth flag, as Maggie showed us.
Is red, white and blue, a very very American holiday because American slaves were emancipated, became in theory, freed American people, and we've had to live here as Americans.
Right, we have to put African American on the front of it. But Irish Americans do not have to identify as Irish Americans or any other of the list of European countries that are also immigrants.
In this on this land. They just get to be American.
We have to self identify as different because they've done four hundred years of reminding us that you guys are not us. And as you said, that comes with a trauma that makes everything hurt. When a person that's not black is waving a Juneteenth flag, we have to ask, maybe not even out loud, is that person celebrating us or making fun of us, or exploiting us or performing Like you said before, this is a space that we live in, you know, being black in this country, man,
it is mentally and emotionally exhausted. We somehow find a way to turn up anyway, Yeah, to barbecue anyway, to party anyway, to celebrate anyway, or anyhow. As our ancestors any Yeah, you know what I mean. Our life's experience is traumatic always. I still get uncomfortable every time a police car is behind me one hundred percent of the time.
That's the experience when you look like us in this kind of listen. I get uncomfortable when I'm at a store. I'm forty years old. I could buy whatever I want in the store. I uncomfortable with a store when somebody's looking at me, or when I walk out the store and I didn't buy nothing. Oh god, I know for a fact they're like, oh man, what are you coming here? And what you got in bot? And I'm not a thief, I nerd, But I know what you mean.
Our shared experience on this land, and even in moments and spaces where we're celebrating, we still have to ask these very uncomfortable questions. But I challenged us, I challenged the group that we spoke to. We can't have it both ways, man. We cannot say, hey, everyone, come celebrate this with us, and then have this insane level of scrutiny on every decision they make. A lot of people are going to make some wrong decisions good spirit. And some people, as you know, are going to make some
awful decisions because they're awful. We know that historically, we know that as fact. But some people are really just trying to meet us where we are. We're really just trying to get on board and be down with us. And there's no way that this holiday is going to become a national, federal, widespread celebration and people who don't look like us don't celebrate it, don't celebrate it, and don't profit from it. Every one of these companies that sells the Saint Patrick's Dey t shirt, I assure you
do not have Irish owners, not all of them. The same with single Demil, the same with the Fourth of July, the same. You know, I'm guarantee you that some Taiwan selling Fourth of.
July merch getting all the money from me, right, So you know that's that's going to happen.
It's just watching the expectation happen right in front of you. It can't be painful and traumatic, right, But there's going to be some people I think that are trying to do that, are trying to do the right thing, They're going to miss.
That, and that's what I want to I want to mention that. So two, there's a group of people in this country. I believe them to be mostly white folks who have kind energy and they really want to be the best brothers and sisters that they can to their African American brothers and sisters. They want to do the best that they can. And to you, if you are from this group, I say thank you, I love you. You are going to be the bridge that kind of helps us to find out how we can be comfortable
find where the line is. You know what I mean. I can't define that line for everyone. I can't define that line for the culture. But I feel like with this microphone in front of my face, I can say that in my travels and the people that I know, you know that there's we want that we want that Yeah, absolutely wouldn't want to just be treated fairly and fair is as you mentioned, the same way they do for
it to July and all the other holidays. So to you people who are like the first movers, who are the early adopters, who are the ones who are just as excited that Juneteenth was a holiday, or maybe maybe the first year it didn't make its way to you, but this this year was you know, you're here and you wanted to get out there and do something, or maybe you're even the sort of person that was like apprehensive to make a big deal out of it because
you didn't know how to That consideration matters. The fact that you would take a moment and say I'm not sure I should do that, and you're waiting to hear me say this to you right now on your radio station or you know, if you're listening on the podcast or whatever, to say it's okay to celebrate with us. You know, you having that being deliberate in your movements, being kind, being measured, that matters. I do want to
say something else too. I want to shout out to Maggie, our producer, because she's the one that gave me that word performative that you mentioned earlier, because she don't play that these companies doing performative stuff, so make sure Credit Wars do. And she's also the one that pointed out that there's two June teen flags, which I knew. I don't know why I didn't think of it anyway, Well, there's one June teen flags and the more recent one that made the point out of you.
And then, like I said, there's Pan Africanism, the the one that I may put on an American flag, right.
And that's the one that people are taking issue with and the other news articles saying that they didn't like it, and I'm like, yoh, it's the same as the Blue Lives Matter flags with another set of colors. Anyway, moving on, I wanted to read this as well, So here's some things to keep in mind. Companies, brands, and individuals need to understand why something is that it may be considered
performative or disrespectful. All right. For people on a journey to be an ally to the black community, it's important to understand the why when brands go viral for the harm they've caused. It's too easy to scroll by and move on to the next headline. We must take a moment to educate ourselves on perspective and lived experiences that are not our own, right, that's all of us, right, So you understand, you know, performative versus performative and disrespectful.
Neither one of those are good. Again, performative is just you kind of putting on a show. Disrespectful is just like intentional, you know, intentionally trying to hurt someone. Not always intentional, right, but well yeah, that's fair. You can be disrespect will not be intentional. But hopefully you understand the word disrespectful. And we don't need to I don't need to explain it to you any further. All right,
This one says, understand how this happened. By understanding how this might have happened, marketers can review how they are leading their own teams. It doesn't matter how many people are involved. None of the people has a personal connection to the cultural significance of the event. So you know, chat with your friends, talk to some folks in your community. If you don't have any friends or folks in your community, plug into social media. Follow civic cipher. Maggie runs our
social media. She posts lots of cool stuff, you know, and then you can find a community there people that follow and subscribe to that feed. But build a community of your own. Find out how people are dealing with these sorts of things. Understand how to celebrate and honor appropriately. To celebrate an honor juneityap appropriately, budget matters to ensure this isn't a performative act or a way a company to wait for a company to generate profit off the holiday.
You can donate to a nonprofit like the ACLU, the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Innocence Project. I'll also mention that you can donate to Civic Cipher because we are growing with your support and your donations, and I'm always going to mention it whenever i can. The Equal Justice Initiative by Brian Stevenson. I'm a big fan of that guy, So you can always donate there as well. Yeah, there's a benefit of the doubt.
Okay, that's not always extended because we feel like these missteps in.
Areas where there's disrespect, we feel like it's obvious.
I think the one thing that you've made it your personal mission to make true about this space in particular, is that space and that bridge for reconciliation, for forgiveness and for moving forward together better. Yeah, because you extend this benefit of the doubt, like all the time that I'm kind of that just kind of doesn't.
Work with me.
However, without that benefit of the doubt, then there's no communication for correction you did me wrong, okay, and you just dismiss Now, this person can never do it right. They can never they can never get into the space that we want them to get to because we've made up our mind that we're offended. We have not extended the benefit of the doubt. We don't communicate any correction.
That space for reconciliation and healing and improvement doesn't exist because we take these things as obvious, just like with Walmart, right, instead of telling them how they could have done that better, it's like, no, y'all know, y'all was tripping. Maybe they didn't maybe right in the spirit of capitalism and that automatic explotation that comes with it, they were really trying to be in this with us and they just did it wrong.
But we just say you did it wrong, and then we move on. You're canceled, dismissed. Go that way. Well, the bottom line here is ensure that your representation efforts are seen as authentic by your community, the customers, you want to serve, your people, your family, et cetera. Now it's time for the Way Black History Fact. This is sponsored by Hip Hop Icy Magazine, and we are going to talk a little bit more about juneteenth. So sit back, relax,
and I will read to you. Juneteenth commemorates an effective end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth, which is short for June nineteenth, marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in eighteen sixty five to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops' arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end of slavery in the United States.
Is considered the longest running African American holiday. In jun Team, twenty twenty one officially became a federal holiday. Confederate General Roberty Lee had surrendered at Apotomics Courthouse two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas until US General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders number three. Quote. The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the
Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. End quote. The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Lincoln on January first, eighteen sixty three, had established that all enslaved people in Confederate States and rebellion against the Union quote, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free quote. But in reality,
the Emancipation Proclamation didn't instantly free any enslaved people. The proclamation only applied to places under federal sorry Confederate control, and not to slave holding border states or rebel areas already under Union control. However, as Northern troops advanced into the Confederate South, many enslaved people fled behind Union lines Juneteenth and slavery in Texas. In Texas, slavery had continued as the state experienced no large scale fighting or significant
presence of Union troops. Many enslavers from outside the Lone Star State had moved there as they viewed it as a safe haven for slavery. After the war came to a close in the spring of eighteen sixty five, General Granger's arrival in Galveston that June signaled freedom for Texas's two hundred and fifty thousand enslaved people, although emancipation didn't happen overnight for everyone. In some cases, in slaver's withheld information until after the harvest season, celebrations broke out among
newly freed black people, and June teenth was born. That December, Slavery in America was formally abolished with the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. The year following eighteen sixty five, Friedman in Texas organized the first of what became the annual celebration of Jubilee Day on June nineteenth. In the ensuing decades, Juneteenth commemorations featured music, barbecues, prayer services, and other activities. As black people migrated from Texas to other parts of
the country, the Juneteenth tradition spread. In nineteen seventy nine, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth and official holiday. Several others followed suit over the years. In June twenty twenty one, Congress passed a resolution establishing Juneteenth that's national holiday. President Biden signed it into law June seventeenth, twenty twenty one. This comes from history dot Com shout out to Maggie
be known for no One once again. So it feels like we kind of should have led with that, if I'm honest. But yeah, that's Juneteenth, and hopefully you understand why that's important. Hopefully you understand why there's such a fight for critical race theory. You know, my son is fortunate. You know, if you listen to the beginning of the show, you remember I had a conversation with my son of her Father's Day slash June teenth, where I explained to him what slaves were and what slavery was and how
awful it was. And then we proceeded to watch Djangle, a Quentin Tarantino movie with blood and guts everywhere, and have it articulate those horrors in a way that lived a little bit differently, and I was able to kind of tell them that those things really happen, and you start to understand and appreciate what that journey looks like. You know, we have a holiday for Doctor King, and that largely commemorates the civil rights movement in that time in the country, and obviously he was kind of a
spearhead for that. I always want to shout out Malcolm X in that same breath. It's just kind of a thing that I do because I feel like we needed both of them at that time. Obviously, Doctor King is the one that history remembers in a more in a
grander fashion. But you know that time is often recalled and commemorated and celebrated around Doctor King's birthday, but again for June teenth, that is kind of as as I just mentioned, the first big step forward in our story in this country is becoming really fully treated like how we believe that we should be treated.
And you mentioned before the need for critical race theory. I think it's more of a need for actual American history. That's that's because they conflated critical race theory into that and use that as a catch all scholastic reason to get rid of just the very basics of American history.
So I don't want us to do the same thing. I guarantee, if you learn American history, you will want to learn critical race theory. Or if your children learn critical race or sorry, if your children learn American history, they will have a desire to learn critical race theory when they get older. So American history is really what everyone should know. Critical race theory is what people who
want to do something about it should know. But again, for many of our listeners who might listen to multiple media outlets, absolutely the terms have been conflated. I said that with the intention of making sure that you know, I got everyone's ears to perk up. But thank you for clarifying that c because it is important that we make that distinction. But yeah, the truth is, we are
grateful for this show. We're grateful for this audience. We are grateful for everybody celebrating Juneteenth with us this past Juneteenth and of course all the June teens in the future. We are here to help you with your mistakes. Hopefully you're here to help us with ours. We're not perfect, as you can see. We do our best every week, but we do want to take a moment to just
say thank you for listening to us every week. Obviously, we're accomplishing a lot of great things and it's because of your ears and your support overall and your donations. I can't stress that enough because without you supporting this show, we wouldn't have grown the way that we have. So once again, I am your host, ramses Jah. I am your other host, Qward. The show is produced by our
producer Ms Maggie aka Maggie b Known. Be sure to hit the website Civic Cipher dot com submit any questions that you might want us to answer, any topics you might want us to cover. As we mentioned, please donate. The show grows because of your donations, and that growth is a parent. Check us out on social media if you want to find out. We are at Pacific Cipher. While you're there, you can also download this in any previous episode that you like and last but not least until next week.
Y'all, peace y'all, ma yo, we had to live these brothers a fabulous our lady showing you where rob travel is what speak tons from sunlight to move, busting on stage like gonna fight the move, rove my mic back. You're like that jonalist with journalists too. We can strike back all cover borders with waters from head, borders behind in, the beline sides up and the borders the press passing.
We bring it to you as it happens the streets love popping from music and rapping the street Compared to slash, We expando. You're gonna fight the slander with the proper propaganda. What's happening, It's happen. You've got any questions and ask in Deduce's just a TV show, Get past it and this from a white wartime journalist.
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