Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'my host, rams is Jah.
They called me q Ward and I think you guys know that that's my name.
Yes, indeed, back to do it till you want more. Gain a lot to talk about this week, per usual. Unfortunately, we have some.
Some things that we really need to discuss as.
A community, and certainly to discuss with other communities, minority communities, and I thought it was timely that we took it a show to discuss what it means to be afraid of each other.
You're full of.
Each other as minority groups, and you know ways that we can strengthen our relationships with each other.
So we're definitely going to talk about that.
We're going to talk about an instance in Hawaii where a man by the name of Dannie Miyami I believe it's how I say his name. His life was taken by the police on Honolulu as a result of a phone call from Asian family that he was afraid he was a brokeler.
We'll get into that story in just a bit. Later in the show.
We're going to talk about a Latino man in Las Vegas who was randomly.
Attacking black folks walking around, and.
We're we're really going to examine what mental illness is and what it means to to really love each other through these these seem they seem like tragedies. I mean in the first intance it certainly was. And how we can heal and how we can do better and do right by each other. And you know, we also want to talk about, uh, how to not be so defensive and and you know Q mentioned that, you know, we should probably relegate that to our become a better ally.
Segment of the show.
We're gonna uh talk about Abraham Lincoln, some of the myths myths about uh our our black savior in this company, in this country, and uh just kind of really deal with the real not not trying to vilify him or anything, but really.
Really educate ourselves.
And educate, you know, our posterity so that we know really where we come from, why we're here, and where we're going.
So Djswell is going to handle our way black history facts.
But first all I do is when win win, no matter what, I want to talk about our.
Avenue excellence. So, uh Mahala Norris heard that name, tell me a little bit about mist it.
I will so we have a video of on our Facebook page. I want to say of a little tiny woman. She's four feet eleven inches tall and she recently won the national championship in the three hundred three sorry, the three thousand meters steeple chair. Now, I didn't know anything about a steeplechase. I didn't know anything about meters or running or anything like that. I'm not into sports in the way that you are. But once upon a time, you were a world class runner.
Right.
It's weird to say out loud now because I'm super duper slow now, but yes, I was a world class sprinter and All American sprinter once upon a time. Yeah, I'm twenty something years ago.
Yeah, but at that time, you were one of the five fastest humans on Earth.
One of the six sixth fastest something.
And I'll say this plainly. I was a part of the sixth fastest relay team of people under the age of eighteen, right in the United States.
So this is right up your alley. Well, anyway, our Ebony excellence. This week, we wanted to shout out Mahalan Norris, so a little bit about her story. She was adopted from Partel Prince in Haiti.
I think she's a service member, correct, yep.
So she graduated from the Air Force Academy. Believe it or not, she's now in the Space Force. Wow, that's a real thing and she's a part of it. So you know, hey, kudos. But you know, as I mentioned, she's four foot eleven and when you watch the video, it is extremely inspirational. You see this tiny, little black woman. And I guess the steeplechase lends itself more to taller folks doing better.
Yeah, And if you don't follow track and field.
First of all, she's the twenty twenty one national champion at the steeple chase. The steeplechase competition came from in Europe in yester years. The actual idea of running from steeple to steeple, you know, through lakes and ponds. They made it into a track and field event and they created these man made obstacles to make it a bit more difficult. You have to jump over like a horse
barrier and two feet of water. Yeah, and then continue to run three thousand meters a lot tougher when you're four legs, and it's impossible to seem even when you're watching it, there's a moment if you don't know any better what it doesn't seem like she would have a chance, and she ended up, you know, triumphant at the end of it.
So definitely check out that video. Again.
Shout out to Mahala Norris for our Ebony excellent section of the week.
And now.
It's time to get in the meat and the potatoes of this show. So a little bit about Lindani Miami. So I got this article originally maybe two or three months ago in our you know, in our group chat.
We have a group chat for the show where we send articles things that we feel need to be discussed, and at the time, I remember, we weren't able to discuss it on the radio because we had so many other things to discuss and this wasn't the one that was getting the most national attention, and so we really needed to speak to what was going on in the world, and as much as we'd like to highlight things that
are really important like this, we weren't able to. Well, fortunately this has lingered a bit and some additional footage has come out. So what I'll do is I'll kind of tell a little bit about the backstory. So basically, what happened is a husband and wife moved to Hawaii. Right, the man is African, but he lived with his wife in Colorado and moved to Hawaii and on the island, what they would do is they would go to a temple to like meditate or pray or whatever the case is.
So the way the story goes, and the way that we got the story originally in the group chat was that the man went to this to the temple where he was attempting to go to the temple, and he went at night and he went into the building next door, which ended up being a private residence, and through a series of unfortunate events, the police ended up killing him.
And you know, that's all we knew, right and at the time, that's enough for us to you know, demand an investigation, find out what's going on, you know, shout black lives matter, and kind of bring some attention to this because these deaths, as we know and often feel or feel and often know in the black community, are senseless, unwarranted, and they kind of desensitize us over the long run to black violence, you know, violence against black bodies. And I I know that that's true because as I read
the story. My heart didn't break as much as it would have had this been years ago, you know what I mean. It's like, Okay, I kind of know the way the story goes. So I'll read a little bit about the story to you, and forgive me. I'm gonna I do want to read this. So this comes from the Atlanta Black Star, and I'll read just a little bit from the article. So what happened is a ring camera came out and then they released the unredacted police camp so you're able to see everything. So allow me
to describe what happens. So Lendanni Miyani can be seen walking up to the residents and stopping to take off his shoes, as you do when.
You're going into a temple. Okay, back to the article.
Less than a minute after he enters, Mayanni is seen exiting, and viewers can hear the woman calling nine to one one saying he break into my house. As Lendanni appears to try to assuage their fears at the front door, the woman can be heard telling the nine to one to one operator that Miyani didn't appear to have any weapons and was not behaving aggressively toward the couple. He
can be seen apologizing to the couple multiple times. Len Donnie walks to the patio column where he left his shoes and puts them on at he leaves the residents, apologizing one final time. And I'm skipping over parts of this to get through real quick. But there's a part I skipped over, and he says he actually asked to see the phone. The woman's on the phone with nine one one as he's leaving. He asked to see the
phone to let them know. I'm assuming you know, he can't tell his story anymore because he's probably buried somewhere.
Okay.
A quote from the lawyers who released the video said, Honolulu police quote tried to convince the public that this was a burglary and that Lendonni Miami was acting erradically, But the doorbell video we have now obtained from the owner shows that HPD knew all along these stories were untrue. The ring footage end quote. The ring footage next depicts the woman walking back and forth through the door of the residence, telling the nine to one one dispatcher how
fearful she is of Lundani. Well after he walked away from the residence to his car, a frantic call that culminated with her screaming that's him, as she pointed out Lendanni to arriving police. And now's the unredacted bodycam. The footage shows the officers Confrontinglendanni, who had remained in his car nearby. The three cops run toward him, yelling get on the ground now, to which Lendanni, now out of
his car, responds, who are you. The shaky bodycam video shows a scuffle start within seconds, a taser deployed, then someone yells shoot him before a shot rings out. Another voice is heard yelling fu, followed by three more gun shots and only then an officer yelling police. So they executed him without even identifying who they were. And I'm
almost done. The police account of the incident on April fourteenth, outside of the house, it says outside the house, he ignored commands to get on the ground and physically attacked officers.
Leaving one with a concussion. So that's what the police said happened.
And of course the video shows that the police rushed them, shot him, and then identified themselves.
And then.
This is a letter from his widow, who's a white woman. I'm not sure if that matters, but I want to say that because it's people like her that I feel like they are entitled to experience this trauma with us, with black folks. You know, she's she's obviously fell in love with this man, her futures tied to this man's future, and so forth, And I just.
Think it's important to mention that.
Lindsay Mayani alleges that police reaction was motivated by racial discriminations towards people of mister Miyani's African descent, and has filed a lawsuit against the City of Honolulu. The widow claims she spoke with her husband earlier that evening and believes he mistook the residence for a hare Krishna temple located next to the residence. He entered because Lindani was wearing his a tradition old Zulu men's headband and took
his shoes off at the door. Lindsey feels he entered the home with respectful intentions and serves as proof he made a mistake. Harry Krishna, Is that how you say that?
Harry Christian? Okay, sorry about that.
One more thing I want to say is that in the first article I read a couple of months ago. She mentioned that the two of them, her and her husband, went to that temple prior to that and worshiped there together. And so he was returning there to worship again by himself, hit the wrong door and then ultimately that and probably was confused outside on in his car trying to figure out where he was supposed to be.
Who knows, please show up, you know, and then the story goes away. It goes.
Now, of course, we need to talk about, you know, the police interaction, and we need to talk about, you know, why people shouldn't be victim blamed and how police stories like this tend to paint the police always says the good guys, or paint the police as the victims and paint oftentimes black and brown individuals as the aggressors and so forth. And there's one hundred things wrong with this. But for today's episode, I wanted to talk specifically about
the couple that called the police. This is not an old white couple. This seems to be an old Asian couple. And I feel like, especially after the year that we've had, especially after locking arms with our Asian brothers and sisters, that this gives a certain faction of the population cause
to say, oh, they're not with us, right. You know, I grew up in California, and there's a lot of Asian folks in California, and a lot of those Asian folks coming to California, and they build their infrastructure and how they their their revenue streams right.
In poor black neighborhoods.
And there is a history of black folks and Asian folks not really treating each other all that well.
Being in the same environment.
Some folks feel like it's disrespectful and exploit exploitative, and some folks feel it's just enterprise. And we're doing our best. We're in the same boat, you know, we're trying to get out of it. But the fact of the matter is that I've seen this before, and it's our job to speak to what we could be, where we could be. And I think that this story that we just read is based in fear and stereotypes and ultimately resulted in someone another person losing his life.
Always, and I've spoken, you know, to our audience, and we've spoken to each other about this before. I always have a something that gives me pause when we get to give people to get out of jail free card of fear. I think sometimes it's hate, sure, maybe, And when people who don't like people based on their ethnicity or the color of their skin weaponize what they call fear simply as a way to justifiably hate and hold down and in a lot of cases kill people they
just don't like. And because everything that you said, the video of the phone call, he's not acting aggressive, he doesn't have a websit, he has regressed, he has left, he's but we're still acting frantically afraid, knowing the type of response that elicits from law enforcement who seemingly, by training and by their very nature, don't like people that look like us anyway. Yeah, this guy never no matter what ethnicity the officers are. That's fair too, because.
That's something that we don't always point out. It's not you know, white cops. Officers don't like it.
It's cops.
So she knows what she's doing when she's making it her business to keep saying that's him and I'm afraid, and when there's nothing, there's no actual reason.
For her to feel that way. So I don't I don't know that that's actual fear.
I think that's a way of weaponizing your hate in a way that doesn't paint you out to be the bad guy.
That's fair, that's that's that's I think that's more than fair. But what I think I'm trying to establish here is that even if it is hate, it's taught. And we're speaking about an Asian cup well, so Asian folks, some of them really do fit that stereotype, harmful stereotype of the quote model minority. And if you do fit that harmful stereotype, there's a chance that you culturally and certainly
economically identify more with wealthier white folks in this country. Right, And so this is why you get this sort of Karen esque behavior out of an Asian woman. But what I don't want to have happen is articles like this get too far away from us, even if the woman is white. You know, on this show, we talk about it all the time. And if you listen to us every week, you know that we talk about it even if you're white.
You are our sister, you're our brother. That's just how we feel about it.
And we're going to even if you don't agree with that statement, I know that we're going to get there. It might not be in your lifetime, but we'll get there. That's what propels that's what fuels me to come to come and do the show.
Everything. I love and appreciate my brother's hopefulness.
But it's it's particularly it's it's a particularly unusual situation when the when the person is also a minority, the person causing harm, because you would think you would assume that you identify with discrimination. You understand what that's like. You understand how a mistake can get you beat up or hurt or whatever. You know, a common human mistake. It's an error. I'm not from you. I just moved to Hawaii. I'm trying to go to church or temple,
and I walked in the wrong door. The evil oppressor is also brilliant.
And the ideology and the psychology that goes behind another minority feeling that model minority, or that sense of superiority that's ingrained, like you said, it's taught, and the fact that it's so and rooted and cultures everywhere and has sustained for this long shows the brilliance of the ideology really convinced groups, subgroups everywhere that there is a superior subgroup. We're the superior main group, but you're a part of the superior subgroup.
And they're not.
So they're beneath you, and you should keep them there because if they somehow grow or have any type of prosperity, it's going to harm yours. It's going to take away from yours. As a matter of fact, the hardships that you've had have been.
Because of these people. How about that?
And if they could just if they could just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, then they could be just success as successful as you, and then by nature you can be just as successful as us.
That isn't masterful, uh, manipulation of a group of people. And I know that on this show we often paint with broad strokes, and we have to and I do recognize that there's it's not that cut and dry. There's a lot of little things that go into that. But you know, we've chronicled, actual, documented, written into law discrimination where Asian people have been named in this country federally.
And so from where we sit, for those of us who actually know the history in this country and really recognize that we do all rise together in solidarity, we recognize that these systems exist and they thrive off of us bickering and arguing with each.
Other on this level.
And I in no way want to make an excuse for this behavior.
We do need to talk about it, I do.
We did really need to mention this on the show, because you know, there's another human being who who had a life ahead of him with his new bride. You know, we've heard stories that there's countless stories of people getting killed on the way to or from church, so this is nothing new, unfortunately, but killed while attending church.
That too, you know. But this.
Certainly helps us too. And you know, I remember seeing a video too, I want to be fair. I remember seeing a video and it broke my heart. There was a man who was walking in front of a hotel and there was a woman in front of the Asian woman. She was older, defenseless and kicked her. Yeah, so beat her up, kicked her and then they just shut the door of the hotel and didn't even help her.
It was the saddest thing in the world.
And that grown men watched that happen to her and didn't do closed the door to make sure that they weren't a part of it. Yeah, the solution or what they perceived to be the problem exactly.
That has nothing to do with us.
So I reckonize that this is not a one way thing. There's two We're all in this together, and we all need to figure it out together. But you know, I guess what I would say is that if you are in a household and your parents or your grandparents or whatever have some prejudices against some other folks, you know, or even if you it doesn't have to be your parents or grandparents. Don't have to be older people. This is what we're talking about in these instances, but it
could be younger people too. You can change those people's minds before they get to the point where they're going full Karen, before they're calling the police, before they're letting their fear whether or not it actually is that turn into what we would both understands hatred. We would all understand his hatred, because I think that those are really two sides of the same coin. You know, there's an
excellent quote from Nas. I'm glad we're on the hip hop station, but Nas, I'm a little older than a lot of our listeners. But you know, Na's one of the great MC's of all time. He says, people fear what they don't understand and hate what they can't conquer. And I believe that certainly that first part is very true,
fear that you don't understand. And so by you taking black stories into a white household, by you taking Asian stories into Hispanic household, by you taking you know, Native stories into a black household, or LGBTQ stories into a conservative household, even you know, however you identify. You know, the point of this show is obviously to empower black voices and to galvanize us to create social change for
the better for all people. But also it's to really help us build an infrastructure so that we learn how to love each other better. You have to teach people how to love you, and this is what we're doing in this space. And I think that's a way that we can all do that with each other, you know, and you know, you talk about it all the time. Q picks on me, of course that I'm kind of an optimist, but I maintain that this show wouldn't exist
without optimism from lots of people. You know, whatever station you're listening to this on, there's a programmer that works there that felt like the world could be a little bit better, and that they should air this program. And you know, whatever city you're in, whatever place you're in, in the fact that you're listening to us right now tells me that you feel that way too to some degree,
And that's not lost on me. And so I'll do my best to continue to try to tell these stories and provide some sort of context and maybe a framework of how we.
Can do better.
Yeah, and I have to be fair, you know, my.
My pessimism to rams is optimist. It's not. It's not hope law right.
I have an understanding and a realization that there are probably more people that think and feel the way we do then that don't. The problem is so many people that don't are in positions of power and influence, and they get to not only feel the way they feel, but they're putting forth legislation and making laws and passing laws that make our lives harder right in front of us.
And it kind of puts us in a position where you get to feel a bit helpless sometimes because we watch these things happen over and over again, even when the outcry is loud, well said, and now.
Watching my mic back like strike head borders behind him. And then if you're just tuning in a civic cipher, I'm me host rams this job.
They call me DJ Q War indeed, and coming up in the show, we're going to talk about, uh, another story. This time it's a Latino man attacking random black people in Las Vegas. He says he's quote at war with blacks. You know, we're also going to discuss some myths about
Abraham Lincoln with DJ Swirl. But first we're going to discuss how to become a better ally and we have been talking about that, but Q has some thoughts on how to perhaps not be so maybe defensive is the right word when it comes to interacting with each other as brothers and sisters.
And I realize that that's you know, you mentioned us painting with broad strokes. Often you hear us talking about racism in this country, and by nature, the ruling class, the people that colonized and settled this land that we live on, we're white people hundreds of years ago. So it's really impossible to talk about it without it coming across as racist, white supremacist versus black people. That by nature is uncomfortable because we know a bunch of wonderful white people.
We know, we know white people that.
Don't have an ounce of that ideology, that love us, that support us. You mentioned if you're listening to this show, there's probably someone that doesn't look like us that felt there was important, valuable enough to put across their airwaves. So, you know, i'd have to imagine that sometimes you listen to a show like this and you want to speak up as to not be lumped into that group. And I just want to say, please, don't think we're speaking
to or about you, because we do know better. Yeah, you know, this is not a you know, everyone on that side of the street, even across political lines, are not just by nature ingrained bad evil people. It's just that they exist, and we do have to talk about it. Be irresponsible not to that's fair.
Well, yeah, I like that.
There's no real reason to be too defensive because we do recognize that a lot of the people in the civil rights movement, a lot of people that were out last year for the Black Lives Matter rallies, a.
Lot of people that spent time celebrating.
Juneteenth did not look black at all. We're not black, did not identify as black, but we're certainly allies, and if you're an ally, we want to say, please keep doing what you're doing. Please keep helping us change the world so that there's a better tomorrow for us and for you.
Well said Q. I like that.
So switching gears again, I have to tell these really tough stories. But you know, as minority groups, we are often overlapping, crossing each other's paths and inner cities, and you know, there's this sort of you know, I'm from California,
as I mentioned, there's gangs in California. There's Mexican gangs, there's Asian gangs, of course, there's black gangs, blood's cribs, there's you know, all kinds of stuff, and that culture is really real, and it's it has strong roots or a strong foundation in the prisons because as we know, prisons, people tend to run along the color line. Those are just they overwhelmingly tend to be the people that you identify with. You share a lot of values, culture, sometimes language, and so forth.
But that doesn't work in.
The real world with normal people and children growing up and you know, folks playing and having a cooperative society in prison where you know, I guess people kill each other. I've never been to prison before, but whatever happens in prison, maybe that works.
I don't like it, but maybe it works.
But you know, out here, for those of us that are pushing toward, you know, stronger relationships, you know, in the community, we recognize that we have to deal with incidents where we kind of have folks from this race attacking folks from that race, and vice versa. You know, black folks doing wild stuff or whatever. We have to condemn those actions if it's black folks because we're both black, and so all swirl, Well he's swirl, so he's black.
Get it, Swirrel. Very well placed, sir, But you know, the sentiment is still the same, you know, and we have to deal with each other. And so this story is a particularly alarming story, and I think that it has a lot to do with poor mental health on the individual's part. But I do want to read a little bit about the story, discuss it. And again, this is not to pit us against each other.
This is not.
To you know, discuss who was wronged or why it's unfair or anything like that. It's more to say, these things happen, we have to deal with them. We have to figure out how to be brothers and sisters. You know, one thing is true for both of us, me and Q is that our children are all half Hispanic and half black.
That's what it.
That's the reality, and a lot of people are like that. My grandmother is from Cuba. You know, Spanish was my first language. You would never know looking at me, but that's that was with my grandma all the time. She spoke Spanish. So I spoke Spanish. You know, you catch me in Mexico, I might speak little more. So again this is you gotta be real careful with stuff like this because you know, we're talking to folks that are our allies and people that love us. And again, just
to bring attention to it. So, a man was arrested June sixteenth after chasing and punching a black.
Man who was walking home from work in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The assailant, twenty four year old John Ariano, told police he should have killed the man and that he is at war with black people, and has since been charged with hate crime and attempted murder.
Let me skip down here, Okay, here's the story.
Authority has received a call around five pm about a man being chased down the street. When police arrived, they ordered the man, identified as Ariano to get down on the ground, but he began marching toward them, yelling.
I hate in words.
Officers then fired a non lethal bean background and a stun gun at Ariano, who said he was being placed under arrest. I punched him. He's also facing a charge of assault on a protected person because he advanced towards an officer at the scene. I think black people should be protected people's too, But we got junetie.
Why can't all people be protected people?
Of course, but can't the last inclination, the last absolute resort be killing someone.
Well, in this case, they didn't kill him, and you know, maybe that's really better. According to the victim, Ariana chased him as he walked home from work and then called him a racial slur and punched him in the eye near a bus stop at Fairwood Circle in Jones Boulevard, then chased him for thirteen minute period over seven blocks and did not arrive, did not stop until officers arrived.
And this guy goes on to say, I should have killed that black guy that I hit, and the officer asked him if he was referring to the victim, and he replied, yes, it can affect to my pride because.
He is at war with black people.
He is also suspected of attempting to stab a black woman the night before in the same location, and he's being held on thirty thousand dollars bail and has a status check scheduled for Tuesday morning.
And there's a little note here.
Again, this whole thing is from the Atlanta Black Star, but there's another note here that says that a lot of the hate crimes against black residents, although they rose sharply in twenty twenty, which is a trend scene across all states, the majority of hate crime victims don't report it, and the majority of them are still black, you know.
So that's what we got there. Now.
I do want to say that I feel very strongly that this person's mental health is should come into question. Again, I'm not trying to excuse this behavior. And if you listen to the first half of the I wasn't trying to excuse the behavior of the Asian couple in Hawaii. I don't think that that's fair and I think that that's cruel to the victim. You know, people that are
victims in this case. But I do think that it helps us to frame the story the right way and it helps us to not react because you know, in prison and in gangs, the tendency is to, you know, there's a mob mentality. Mob mentality is horrible, you know, but it's it's a human condition. The tendency is to say, oh, well, they that group in their in their entirety, did something to us, even though it might have been one person, they did something.
To us, so we all of us should.
Do something to them. And that's how you get gangs and you know, prison culture and all that this warring stuff to start and perpetuate it. It's like a snake eating its own tail. And if we take this example, or take these types of examples on an individual basis, and we examine them for what they are, Okay, this is, you know, a person with mental health challenges. It's my assumption. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a professional, but this
type of language and behavior is just not commonplace. It might be hate might actually feel that way, but you know, usually people that are going to get out there and behave like this, they have a plan to get away or they are not going to do it. In the same location day after day, you know what I mean. And I think it's up to us to think critically about how these stories hit us and how we want to react to them. There's if we say, Okay, I'm not going to support that group because they do this
all the time. This is kind of what I was talking about earlier in the show when the Asian folks and black folks in California, where the Asian folks oftentimes own stores in the neighborhoods, instead of cooperating, instead of sitting down and discussing our issues and airing out our grievances and so forth, if we're pitted against each other, if we're going back and forth and what we end up with is a no win situation where we're tearing each other down and we've got a lot bigger problems
than each other. There's much bigger problems, much more powerful problems that we have to deal with. And I think that sometimes when these stories get brought up and the perpetuit, the perpetrator, sorry is not white, which is a common enemy if you will, throughout history, maybe enemy is not the right word, but that has been the enemy in the story or the bad guy. You know, in the black stories, you know, it's always white folks coming to burn down our churches and hang us from trees and
stuff like that. So I don't mean that in a modern context, but just throughout.
The history, the history of black.
People in this country antagonists, I'll say that oftentimes it's white. If you view the history through through a black lens.
When you come across the story where the person is not white, who is the antagonist in the story, I think that maybe you feel a little bit more like, Okay, we can do something about this, and we can do something physical, or we can respond in kind, and so that times that oftentimes it spills out into the real world, you know, and again it just we need to take a moment to address that and acknowledge that that is definitely an outcome, and try our best to figure out what the next move is, what's.
The right move. I wish we had some remedies because it seems like it should be.
Yeah, Ramses, you guys will hear him say often if you listen to us enough to lead with love, you know, and it can't be more difficult to love each other than it is to hate. It can't be more difficult, even if it's just as challenging. You know, I just wish that that was the course less chosen or less taken, the route less taken, like the ability to lift each other up and love each other, smile support instead of tearing down, hating and oppressing. It can't be the path
we choose because it's the more simple one. So you know, I don't like to feel or sound discouraged as often as I do.
It's just really exhausting, you know that.
We seem to be on a merry go round or running in a loop or like you said, a snake eating his tail. Of the problems are perpetual. It's the same issues, and I don't know, we've seen examples of better, yes, absolutely, and it's just really discouraging that we're still here.
Well, there's a you know, far bit for me to.
Just only talk about the individuals and not bring attention to the fact that they are the product of the same system as all the rest of them.
Granted they might be.
Outliers, but certainly a product of a racist country founded in white supremacy, specifically a form of white supremacy that overwhelmingly benefits.
Straight Christian males. Almost explicitly.
Sure, Sure, And you know, we talk a lot on the show about wanting to avoid becoming desensitized to violence against black bodies. But I think on some level, you and i Q and you too, Swirl know that maybe to a degree, we are perhaps a bit desensitized to it. We've learned how to, you know, cut a path through all of the muck that we have to go through
to produce the show every week. But we recognize that, or at least I recognize in myself that the violence against you know, like if I if I read a story about a child, you know, I still have the full emotional response in me to do that. If I read a story about I don't know, a puppy or something, you know, whatever, you know, I still have the full emotional reserves for it.
When it's a.
Black body getting beat on camera or whatever, it's certainly overwhelming.
I'm still a human, I still feel it.
But there's a part of me that's like, okay, let's go, you know, And I recognize that it's almost normal. So maybe maybe I'm not saying it the right way. It's it's normalized, you know, and I don't like that. It's maybe because I live in this world, and you know, we do this type of show. But I think that it's by and large normalized across the history of this country.
And I think that that's part of the reason why people like this man John Ariano in Las Vegas can say things like I hate in words and I should have killed him, and why the couple in Why that we talked about in the first half of the show felt like, oh, you know what, I should call the police and let the police deal with this because.
The person is black.
Because if this had been a white what is the example we use all the time, a sixty year old, privileged corporate executive looking white male wouldn't have been a misunderstanding, you know, or it would have only been a miss or yeah, only a misunderstanding, and that's it. But because it is a black person, it's almost like the world that we live in or the country that we live in, certainly allows people to think that it's okay to treat black bodies like this.
I don't think and I'm just speaking for us. I'm sure that there's some people that this applies to. I don't think we become desensitized.
Help me say what I was trying to say.
I think it's an involuntary coping mechanism. James Baldwin said, to be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. That's the only way that would be the only outcome. If every time we saw it we let ourselves fully digest and fully feel, we.
Will be running through the streets burning things down.
Because it's every day, these stories that we talk about and that we share with each other. Like when I see Swirl's name pop up, I'm hoping it's a funny meme. When I see your name pop up, I hope you want some real chicken. And that's an inside joke between us, but you know what I mean, Like, I'm hoping it's going to be something light, because there's so much that
isn't ye. If we really read every story, watched every video, and let it hit us the way that it should, it be impossible to just hug our kids and live our lives and try to be in any type of normal emotional state. So it's not desensitized. We don't see it and be like, Okay, that's nothing. We have to make the decision to not lose our mind every time because we're looking at people that look a lot like us all the time in situations that we're always in. It's not like we're not looking.
At like.
New Jack City or the untouchables. When you see gangsters doing gangster stuff and they end up in situations that are to their peril, that's diff We see people going to like Walmart or to get some gas or to church, like we see people doing the things that we do every day, not criminal things, not things that are dangerous in nature, just being black and being alive. And that's the crime that every day cost them their lives at the hands.
Of people who sign up to protect them.
Quote unquote you know, I think that you're right about that too, because there's so and this is a little bit of personal story, but I want you to follow me here.
So cute.
I came across the story and it was kind of gruesome. It's about a black person who's lost his head. His head was taken off of his body, and there wasn't enough in that story worry for me to really turn it into anything for the radio. And if we were to talk about it, we would have to because this is not that kind of a show. Well it is now because we're talking about it. But you're absolutely right.
There's something that you're forced to reckon with it, and you have to decide, Okay, am I going to be crushed under the weight of this? Or am I going to be resilient and am I going to be optimistic? Am I going to recognize that this is, relatively speaking, rare isolated types of behavior.
It's not either or though right, because I'm neither of those two. I don't think it's rare. I see it too often, and I also don't let myself get.
Crushed underneath it.
What I mean, it's almost an acceptance of this is our reality going to keep happening.
What I was saying is is more like.
Rare relative to all of the billions or trillions potentially of interactions between people of all different types of colors and backgrounds and so forth on a day to day basis, it's very rare that someone would end up without a head.
You know. That's that's that's that's a that's an extreme case.
So that's kind of what I was speaking to. But I think that you know you're right, You're right there.
There is.
There's a lot to digest this. This is a kind
of a strange show because there's no answers. I mean, there's clearly issues here, and I think that what I'll say again is if you're in a position to you know, if in your home you come across any sort of racist language behaviors, you know, if you have friends or relatives or whatever, and they're just beyond you know, your what you're comfortable with, with their jokes and stuff like that, I think that if you were to speak up, if you were to say that's unacceptable, if you were to
kind of help root out the ideas that fester and grow like a cancer and manifest themselves into these types of behaviors, I think that in calling attention to that and calling people out for those behaviors, you can help inch us a little bit closer to where we need to be.
So, even recognizing how difficult that is to do, sometimes that too, you're talking about typically family and close friends making those off color jokes or those racist remarks that you have to have a very you know, confrontational, uncomfortable conversation with exactly.
So with that said, uh, let's uh, let's let's discuss some.
Some history with the way black history facts sor are you over.
There with some more.
Positive news.
It's a heavy show today, right Hey man'll y'all handicapped me with the with the the Debbie Downer of every episode.
But that's why I'm here, so I'm all for it. So, uh, the way black history fact has less to do with just black a black fact, and it has to do with facts surrounding someone who is exalted in this country in terms of the black experience and how it allegedly which I'll use now because they'd like to do that even when there's video being shown, but like allegedly, uh, he took care of he put us in a he
pointed us in a better direction. So so yeah, this is five facts, five things you didn't know or you may not know about Abraham Lincoln, slavery and emancipation.
First, all five of them.
Today we're going to go We're gonna knock out two right.
Now, Okay, So we're gonna do it in two parts, yes, sir, all right, let's do that.
So first off, the Lincoln, contrary to popular belief, was not an abolitionist.
So he did.
Believe that slavery was morally wrong. But his issue lied with the Constitution. He struggled like our founding fathers did in addressing slavery. And while they didn't explicitly put slavery into the Constitution, the different clauses that include a fugitive slave clause and the three fifths clause which allowed Southern states to count enslaved people for the purposes of representation in federal government. So he always had an issue with it, but not in the way someone who wants to get
it eradicated asap, because that's how abolitionist role. And so he in history, the way that I remember learning this was that Abraham Lincoln is and was an abolitionist, and reading this article leads you to believe that he kind of warmed up to the idea.
So wait, so which article is that? This is from history dot com. Okay, so it's the History Channel.
So it's the History Channel, And so they go in they go at link talking about how he was not an abolitionist, but he understood that through emancipation and that eventually through the thirteenth Amendment, that he would align himself with abolitionists.
Okay.
The second fact, I'm oh, no doubt. So it was it was a political theater. Have you will you see what goes on nowadays, and everything is a show. Second fact, Lincoln did not believe that black people should have the same rights as white people. Okay, another issue abolitionists I'm
sure had so. Of course, the Constitution has the phrase all men at are created all men are created equal, and he understood that this should apply to both black and white folks in terms of work and in terms of social and political equity, but he did not think that it meant the same social and political rights. And the debate he had in nineteen I'm sorry eighteen fifty
eight was Stephen Douglas. Stephen Douglas called him out and accused him of supporting Negro equality, which he went out of his way to separate himself from the abolitionists of the time, so that way he didn't get that label.
So yeah, good old abe man.
My issue with incrementalist like him is that they often end up doing something for you, I don't want to say by a mistake.
But as a consequence of their other right.
Like I own this apartment building you live in it. The fire out because it's my property, not because I was trying to save you.
Yeah, exactly. You understand their own ambition. It's for their own benefit.
There's a pattern of whitewashing history and making history seem less flagrant and insidious and harmful as it is. And you know, I think that coming to terms with and recognizing that Abraham Lincoln wasn't the hero, the guy.
That just came in and freed the slaves.
While that's true, I think that for folks who want to make an argument, oh, this is not a racist country. There's Abraham Lincoln, there's him. Okay, we elected a black president. This is not a racist country, you know what I mean? Or this country is its roots were not founded in racism. You know, whatever folks argument folks want to say, they
can use examples like these whitewashed examples. And then for folks who are listening, tuned in, not doing their own research and certainly gullible, I think I don't mean to be unkind with that word, but you know, gullible. We're all gullible to some of your another. Depending on the circumstances, you know, they can get caught up in that like, yeah, you're right, this isn't a racist country, you know, not since Lincoln left office, once.
The slaves are free, that's over.
And I think that when you add, you know, some context to what really was happening. Okay, this guy really had a And these are only two of the five minutes.
We have to hit the other two five on this one. There's more on others.
Okay, well, you know our next show we're gonna you know, follow up with that. But you know, I think that you know, coming to terms with the fact that a lot of our current circumstances were born out of necessity and not necessarily out of the kindness in someone's heart or you know, someone's wreckinggnizing that Okay, these are my brothers and these are my sisters, and this shouldn't be
the way our society is built or run. I think that it helps when it comes time to really deal with who we are, where do we come from, and what are we doing to move forward as brothers and sisters. And so I'm glad that we discussed this again, not to vilify aid Lincoln or anything like that, but really just to kind of deal with the real which is kind of what we do over here.
So I have a question.
Yeah, So the mental health that you talked about in the previous segment, and how seeing it over and over and over and over and over again, how it lessens the blow, right, not maybe not in terms of you being less sensitive to it, but to the fact that you actually have no choice because of love diminishing returns.
Do you think that the whitewashing of American history is to protect white fragility so they don't have to think about that, So that way the trauma that we have to avoid by splitting up clips, so we don't carry the weight of all of this trauma. Do you think that that's the reason why they soften the blow and every and Abe Lincoln is uplifted instead of the true There is no other reason.
That's of course that's the reason. Yeah, ye, just around the same page.
Yeah, well, you know, and and and it makes sense, you know, I get. I get why people don't want to deal with an ugly past of people that look like them and deal with the narrative that says, well, we got a leg up, or at least we didn't have to start before the start line, you know, like some of those guys we started at zero. They started at negative four, and I'd rather start at zero, you know, Folks, don't really like the idea of dealing with that reality or feeling like they they owe.
Something, feeling guilty or anything like that.
So you know, I understand it, but you know we're going to have to come to terms with it, and so that's what we're going to do, and we're going to continue to do.
So I guess that's as good a place to stop as any.
So I want to thank each and every one to be for tuning in this week to Civic Cipher.
Once again, I'm your host, rams this job.
They shout out to DJ Swirl show producer, making it happy for us each and every week. If you haven't done so yet, please hit the website civiccipher dot com. You can go on there and submit any questions or topics to the show.
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