Welcome to another episode of Civic Czicher. I'm your host, Ramsy's Jah he is Jah, I am q Ward. This is Civic Excpheress. It is another great show in store for you this week. Be sure to stick around. We have a lot to talk about, as per usual, but this week we're going to do a bit of a hodgepodge. We had a lot of issues and topics come our way this week, and so we got a lot to cover. You know, we always complain about there not being enough show to cover everything that comes our way, so we're
going to try to address that a bit. We're still not going to get to everything, but obviously there's a lot of stuff that's sort of piled up that we
haven't been able to get to. So we're going to spend the first part of the show talking about in the way that we continue to endorse and support systems that fail us, particularly systems rooted in white supremacy and racism that historically have harmed black and brown people, and we're going to you know, go through some examples that have been in the news lately, and it's kind of you know, we've been wrestling with that question a bit around here, But I guess we're going to have a
more general conversation with you, our listeners and obviously amongst ourselves here in the studio. We're also going to talk about some real accountability with respect to policing in the way that the government looks at policing and the government continues to support the institution despite how the numbers paint the picture the reality for black and brown people in this country. So another thing that we have to deal with.
And then obviously our producer, Maggie B. Knowing and her infinite wisdom and her be known thought that we should take a look at the origins of modern day policing by taking our way black history fact to these slave patrols. So again, a lot to stick around for today's show. But first and foremost, we are going to discuss q's favorite segment, Ebony Excellence. Shall We We Shall? Today's Ebony Excellence is brought to you by Hip Hop Weekly Media. This article comes via afro Tech and we are going
to shout out a Shanty. She is our abny excellence example for today. The article reads, A Shanty aims to promote ownership as the first black female artist to be co founder of a Web three company. Now, if you're like me and you didn't know or don't know much about Web three, get to know about it. It is
the future. But I'll read twenty years since the world has was introduced to the songstress dubbed the Princess of Hip hop and R and B, Ashanti is shaking things up in the metaverse and proving that there is an ever evolving relationship between music and tech. Thanks to a partnership with the EQ Exchange, Ashanti is now the first black female artist to be a co founder of a Web three company. Quote technology has been a blessing and quote, she told Afro Tech during the twenty twenty two Essence
Festival of Culture. Quote everything has pros and cons, but I think using it as a tool to empower an uplift to learn and research are all beautiful things. I want to continue to do things like this and having these conversations to continue to spread the narrative, continue to use the platform and become the vessel and say, hey, guys,
it's so important to own your intellectual property. You know, like we come up and we set the trends with these dances for TikTok and for Instagram and for these tutorials. I feel like creating awareness and understanding that ownership is so powerful is essential. And you know, for those who don't know, I recently did a talk with a man named Rashad Tobacco Walla who is a great thinker in
this space Web three, Black Folks in Tech. It's on the Black Information Network Daily podcast on the iHeartMedia app. I employed to check that out if you want to learn a bit more about Web three. But again, that is the future and we want to shout out Ashanti for being a pioneer in that arena. Now moving on, we had a lot of a lot of articles pop up in our group chat this week. As you may know, or if you're new to the show, you may not know,
we have a group chat. Things that come up on social media or our news feed or whatever that we feel will be pertinent to this show and to our listeners. You know, we discuss them and debate them in our group chat before we sit down and we how shout a show and then of course our producer kind of whittles our conversations down to the essence and then we
speak to those things. But this week there were so many different things that fell under the same umbrella that we felt like we might be able to kind of give you the listener a glimpse into what our life is like in debating what it is we need to talk about and what really deserves some attention this week. So these are some of the headlines that hit us
hardest this week. We'll go through them one by one, but you know, just to give you a peek behind the curtain, and then also ask the question, as we mentioned at the top of the show, why do we continue to endorse and support systems that are failing us, systems that are rooted in white supremacy and racism, and that actively are harming black and brown people. So we'll
start with the least of the transgressions. I suppose Q, you saw the news or sorry, the weather report there where there was a forecast and they used the racial slur in there, right, you saw that one. I think you might have posted it, right, the racial slur? Yeah, yeah, I saw that one. So I'll read a bit about it. So this one comes by the New York Post. It says a racial slur scene in TV weather forecast. Quote, apologize to our viewers. End quote. It was a cloudy
day with the chance of outrage. A graphic during the Weather Channel cable Networks Local on the Eights presentation in Des Moines last evening included a racial slur. The post read, we removed this graphic as soon as we learned a bit This did not originate with us, and we're in the process of investigating it further. We apologize to our viewers.
End quote. So the racial slur is the one that you're thinking, Yeah, that one, and it said something like, you know, get ready for rain, you know, in words, something like that, here your weather, inclement weather, Yeah, something like that. Word. That was a very good So, you know, there are a lot of people out there who are like, yo, it's just a word. What's it matter. Oh, I'm sorry, this is your weather my in words? Okay, okay, thank
you now we got it. Okay. So there are a lot of people out there who might look at this and be like, Okay, what does it matter. It's just a word. It's the Weather Channel in Desmoin you know, on and on, right. But I think there's it's hard to know what the ripple effect of these things are. If the initial impact doesn't move you in a significant way. And for black people obviously, that word moves us in
a significant way. In my estimation, this is the sort of thing that is among the height of disrespect where someone can jokingly use the ugliest word in the English language that only refers to one group of people and those people have melanin in their skin, to relegate these people to second class citizenship, to relegate these people to
the margins of society, to insult right. But the thing is, what I think a lot of people don't realize is that if you insult a person, okay, the person has to deal with it, right, But if you insult a race of people, it feels a lot heavier. It's hard to shed that because at no point can you convince this person that you are not that word. Right. It just goes with you because you're black and everyone else black,
and that's it. And for people not to get a sense of the gravity of it, to play with it, like in the case of des Moines or this weather channel in des Moines, and for it to just be broadcast, it's very hurtful. But I think more more than that, it just suggests that that disrespect still resides at key
places in society. The uh, the fact that there are people who feel like this is either a joke or are being deliberate in the way they choose to insult one group of people and in my estimation, position themselves above that group of people. You know, that is the text. That's textbook white supremacy right there. Because again, this word had the er you have the hard r on it,
you know. Ah, it's just one of those things where when you look at it, you're like, shoot, man, we it just reminds you of the uphill battle that we're dealing with, and it reminds you that that type of thinking, that type of disrespect is prevalent in spaces where you wouldn't even conceive of it. You know, we talk about
the police a lot on the show. We never talk about the Weather Channel, and yet and still guess what we're talking about the Weather Channel and the fact that this type of disrespect exists in places like that any thoughts.
I mean, I wouldn't even call it an uphill battle. It's like we're climbing the face of a mountain, a sheer cliff, right. Walking uphill is different, right, I mean, it's you know, there's a incline that you have to deal with. You had to fight gravity a little bit, but you know, anybody able body can make it to the top of heel.
This is different.
Yeah, And we got no net, no equipment, and if we get too close to the top of that thing, somebody will be sure to try to push us back down.
Right.
You know, even the idea that somebody might take it as a joke, that's even more. That's worse than the person who said it to be mean, the person that thinks that it's funny. I mean, I have to think about how difficult it is to get a graphic on the weather channel something seemingly benign. But we work in broadcast media. Yeah, it's not like we couldn't put something on Iheart's website ourselves today just because we felt like
there's so many checks and balances. So it didn't But they say it didn't come from us, or it didn't originate with us, So what it still made it to television, right, So either the person who pushed the button to post it thought it was funny, or like you said, really wanted to to get that message out there, or they're always so incompetent. I can't believe it's the ladder. I can't, yeah,
because the weather competent people don't make it that. Yeah, the weather channel is not this new upstart, right, you know what I mean? So all right, Well, moving on.
Another headline that made it its way to us this week was this one comes by a black enterprise whold North Carolina police department quits due to quote progressively responsible and quote town manager. I'll read in protest of newly appointed progressively responsible town manager in North Carolina, an entire police force has turned in their two weeks notice because of their alleged hostile work environment. Jones has nothing but
a praised career during her years of public service. Jones has dedicated her career to public service over the past sixteen years, during which she worked in progressively responsible positions with local governments in Minnesota, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. This came by a press release from the town of Kenley. Now, the Jones that we're speaking of is a black woman. I think it's important to note that. Grab her first name for me. I want to make sure that I
mentioned that. Now. I know that you know we're reading texts. I just want to make sure that we're giving credit where it's due, But in essence, what happened is a black woman was hired to manage a town in the entire police department with That's what happened. So you know, we're we're this is rather more insight into the reality of our current climate. Okay, Justine Jones is the woman's name, So we're rather we're taking a more a deeper look
rather into what we're dealing with here. This is this is this week, but this is all the time. These are just kind of smaller articles that we just don't really need, we don't really get to and we can't when we're dealing with death and you know, those sorts of things. But imagine the town, the culture of the town, imagine the the way the way it feels to be a black woman. You know, we we spent a lot of time on this show celebrating Justice Brown Jackson's appointment
to the Supreme Court. Do you remember when Joe Biden won the presidency? Q. We were we did a whole we dedicated a whole segment to Kamala Harris being the first black woman vice president, and uh, you know, we are big fans of Black Girl magic around here, and if we weren't, Maggie b Known would certainly make sure that we were because she is is a super fan of Black Girl Magic.
I mean, if we weren't, we wouldn't have the relationship that we have with Maggie exactly. So let's start there. She I don't think that she would even allow herself and the company with people who weren't at the bare minimum super fans. Well said what we coin as Black Girl Magic. I wanted to say something before we moved on, because there's a term there used over and over that's kind of ambiguous, progressively responsible, and it's in quotations every
time that it's used. I wanted to give a more plain definition of this. It actually has one. Progressively responsible refers to task, job duties, or roles that demonstrate growth and or advancement and have a difficult level of responsibility five plus years experience, bachelor's degree, et cetera. A very very qualified progressive woman. But the progressively responsible I think that term is used a vigorously on purpose, Yeah, to
kind of leave to question what that might mean. Very very qualified and intelligent black women, right right.
So imagine if Justice Brown Jackson was appointed to the Supreme Court, and all the rest of the justices quipped right. So here we have a black woman being appointed to again town manager. The entire police department turns in their resignation. So again we're getting a sense of the disrespect the reality. You know, these are little stories that are kind of in little pockets of the country that deserve to be mentioned.
But I think that when we take them all in a hole, you get a sense of exactly where we are as the country. You know, you may listen to us in a big city, you know, just depending on you, we all are in some smaller cities around the country as well, but you know, the majority of our listenership is in big cities around the country, and so you might not be aware that racism is not just you know, the N word and police violence. Racism is really marginalizing
people and denying people opportunities. How can you provide security for a town if your entire police department quits, and then what is the town left to do except change the police uh, change the town manager if they want their police supports. No, the town could very easily hire better offices. That's what I was thinking right the way where they're going to come from.
The escapegoders the progressively responsible candidate town manager. But they can come from the same town where the progressively responsible town manager came from. Right, These people have been in place, underqualified, under educated, very very minor in their levels of complexity and emotional intelligence. Hire better people. Hire an entire actually is a police Hey, so listen, we're hiring.
This job pays fifty five thousand dollars a year to start, and they limited over time. And you can rethink policing in the in the in the interim, which we're going to talk about because you know, but you know, just for her to have to go through that and and for us to hear about it and be able to share it with you just kind of again gives a glimpse into just how far people will go to show their hatred and disdain for black people. Certainly, obviously the
police don't want to work for a black woman. And I think that's that's something that we learned. Excuse me, in Arizona, we had a cheap of police was a black woman, and the people that worked for her gave her a very hard time, and the community gave her a very hard time. Too, And I'm not going to say whether or not it was deserved because I was
following national stories. I just heard about it. But I recognized because her husband did come up on the show, and Judge Williams came up on the show, and I recognize that being a black woman in that position had to be tough, no matter which way you cut it. So story number two, Story number three. This one comes by a CBS or Sorry, NBC News. Cincinnati police officer
and former reality TV figure caught on camera using racist slur. Rosemalentino, a fourteen year veteran appeared on TC's Police Women of Cincinnati, has been taking off the streets after she was recorded on her own body camera using a racist slur, caught saying fing inward ifing hate them as she punched the
steering wheel of her squad car on April fifth. According to an internal fares report, Malentino said she was agitated by a crowd of cars lining up to pick up students at Western Hills University High School, which didn't move when she activated the lights in siren. Now a little bit more about the story. She says a student flipped her off and then she started punching the steering will and saying fing in words I f and hate them. It's on camera and I saw that one. So goohead.
If I was ding driving down the street in my squad car and a pickup truck intentionally t boned my squad car right, airbags pop out and I survive, nothing in my entire consciousness would say fing any group of people, I hate them.
That all of them, you know, that would term for all of them. There is no this word individual disrespected me. But there is no version that being the natural reaction to any group of people, let alone the very pejorative, very negative, very insulting, very ignorant term used to in the most racist manner ever describe said group of people. Hang on, So now let's go to Mississippi, our favorite place us today. Mississippi police chief fired after leaked audio
captured racist rant him bragging about killing thirteen people. Okay. Former Lexington Police Department chief Sam Dobbins was fired after audio recordings demonstrated him bragging about shooting and killing people in the line of duty, including a black man who he claimed to have shot more than one hundred times, in a racist and homophobic rent about eighty percent of the city nearly thirteen hundred people are black, since his data shows so this is not just an isolated police incident,
and this is just this week. Normally we wouldn't even have the bandwidth to cover this. I still have more articles to get to. How about this one. This one comes from Yahoo News. A black man beaten, left bloodied after alleged stop sign violation in Tennessee. We saw this video that was hard to watch. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened a probe into the brutal arrest of a black man who was chased into a home where a loved one recorded as he was beaten and shocked with
a taser after an alleged traffic violation. You know, some of this stuff we share on our social media at CIVI excipher. If you want to check it out, some of the stuff, you're going to have to do a little bit of homework because we don't we don't want to devolve into sort of like the media enterprise that glorifies or benefits from the sensationalism of harm against black and brown bodies. So some things will share, some things will point you in the direction where if you want
to actually see it. You can, but we're a radio show. We talked through things. But that was an awful, awful, awful video to watch. And that you see these people chase this man down like an animal and hurt him and hurt him and hurt him, and he's screaming and they heard him and heard him for a traffic violation, and he ran because he was scared. That's it.
Their only intent was to hurt him, that's it. So of course he ran, and once they caught him, their intentions were not to subdue, not to arrest, not to handcuffed, not to anything. Let's harm this man as much as we can, as fast as we can, as aggressively as we can, as forceful as we can. The reason why does not matter. Your job is to not physically punish people that break the law. Yeah, the guns that you have are supposed to be to protect people, not to
aggressively forcefully murder, injure and harm people. That's not what you signed up for. I never really understand even in traffic stops. I got a speeding ticket recently. The officer was so angry at me, and I was so confused by it. Right because the speed limit the post it number is very arbitrary. I don't know if you people drive in real life, and I hate the way you people sounds.
I don't know if anyone drives in real life at the posted speed limit right right, So I'm just going faster than you thought I should be going, and that's fine. Pulled me over and incite me, that's fine too, But why are you angry at me? I did not do something to you, sir. Nobody's hard. Everybody's still living.
And it was funny because the police officer that pulled me over was also not just speeding but driving. He wasn't posted with a radar, so it even says on the ticket the way that he detected that I was speeding was by pace.
This is just his opinion, folks, what a system man. Well, listen, despite going through all these headlines, we still have more that we can't get to. And that's just the reality of it. So we'll leave it right there.