Civic Cipher 082722 Handling Black Trauma (Part 2)

as overwhelming. But a lot of this stuff feels very personal. It's very triggering. It reminds us of stories we lived through, as we've mentioned, and so we're gonna discuss that a little bit as well. Also, we're gonna spend some time talking about the history of rhythm and blues. You know, we talked about the history of house music. It's black roots that go to Chicago to a very specific drum

machine and some gospel samples and some disco music. But now we're going to talk about R and B and first though, we're going to talk about becoming a better ally. Bah bah. So we've asked many times for you to consider donating to the NAACP. Of course, you can always donate to Civic Cipher, But the NAACP is a very, very old institution, and they fight battles on fronts that we are just not as effective with. You know, on those fronts, they go behind doors, they do this sort

of stuff. Well, we're going to let you know some of the things that your dollars go to and ask again that you continue to support the NAACP. So we got a letter from them recently and it says as follows. When we say the NAACP is fighting to end racial inequality,

these aren't just words. Our work tackles every corner of American life, from clean drinking water to fair legislative districts, and thanks to our grassroots community, the NAACP has the power and resources to advance equality on not just one front, but on all of them. Here are just four of the many issues we're fighting in our work for true racial equality and freedom inclusive economy. After generations of discrimination, investments in communities and color are vital to closing the

racial wealth gap. We're working with elective officials and private partners to provide resources to black businesses, implement a federal minimum wage council, student debt, reverse racist housing policies, and more police reform and criminal justice. Our criminal justice system is shaped by biased policing and unfair judicial precedence. After securing the Executive Order on Police Reform this June, the NAACP is pushing to go further now voting rights and democracy.

More than a century after the right to vote was declared a fundamental right that's under attack. Since twenty twenty, the NAACP has challenged anti voter laws and over ten states and is mobilizing two million activists to ensure black voters are informed and black voices are heard. And then finally, environmental and climate justice, which disproportionately threatens the health and livelihoods of communities of color. So again, the NAACP could always use your support, and that is how you can

become a better ally. Now back to these mini stories. There is a story that we had to talk about about a home that and we talked about this before. I remember this a home that was appraised with a quote black owner, the price came back at four hundred and seventy two thousand dollars, swapped out owners with a white owner, and then that home appraised for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Nathan Connolly and his wife Shannie Mott say an appraisal company undervalued their home based on

their race. Again, that comes from the New York Times. So again, this is something that we talked about on the show before. We had a few examples back then. I remember we had maybe three or four examples, and those examples. You have to bear in mind that our content for the show comes from reputable news sources. So this made headlines as much as a year and a half ago. And then of course this story we're talking about today is a recent headline. So you can see

these things are still going on. You can see how these things contribute to economic inequality, which has innumerable factors and it influences black life in immeasurable ways. And we're just talking again about one facet. Can we get the fair value of our house? You know, the same building, same content, same location. We're just black and we own it,

you know, in fact, not for nothing. If I have to ever have to get my house appraised, I'm probably gonna use the same trink because it seems like it works. I can get some extra money off this property. But it goes to show you what black life it can be. Like you know what I mean? And how how do I say this? So there's something that we say, we have to be twice as good to be good enough, right, something like effectually, this is what is said in black circles.

We have to try twice as hard to get half a chance these sorts of things. Is this is part and parcel to our experience. This is sort of something that illustrates exactly what we're on about. Let's say we have a goal that we want to have a million dollars to leave to our children at the end of our lives. You can very easily see that, yes, we have to be twice as good, you know, to matter in a world that is not really set up for

people like us to thrive. We're still human beings. We're still endowed with the same consciousness, the same intelligence, the same physical attributes and qualities and you know so forth.

But there are systems in place and prejudices that exist in corners either conscious or unconscious, that work against us and our efforts to be all that we can be right, And the fact that this show exists to illuminate those things is a testament to the fact that people need to know about it, because if I was not telling you this, there's a good chance you would never know

what happened. Especially if you're not a black person or a brown person, these stories perhaps don't make their way into your life, and that is I believe the biggest tragedy of all of this. It's because I do believe that if you've listened to me, if you listen to Q, if you listen to Maggie, I believe that you want to be a good person. Perhaps you want the world to be a bit better place. Otherwise, why listen to

this content? And this might be the first time you're hearing something like this, And this is every day for us, right. So one of the questions that we wanted to ask, or that you know, our producer wanted us to ask, is that is it okay that we feel like this? So I'm gonna throw that one to you.

And I think that's why I'm the least optimistic half of Civic Cipher or third of Civic Cipher, right, because like even some of the things that the NAACP is fighting for, like I'm reading that stuff, Like you guys can't really think this stuff is ever going to happen, Like you can't like this country's going to be more financially equitable for us, Like are you is anyone paying attention to the entire history of not just this country but the world?

percent of Earth. Racism exists because the colonizers were white, white Europeans almost always Europe is what six seven percent of the Earth eight I'll say eight percent of the land mass on Earth, they've colonized eighty percent, right, So we try to think back throughout history about the ideas that well, any people with power would have no just one group, for the history of Earth has sought to go as far away from where they're from to take everything from everyone else.

your grandmas and grandpas with their trump hats. You know, I need to know what's going on in those circles and do my best to try to give you information to where you are armed when you are confronted with these detached realities that your people might might subscribe to. And one of the things that I've find and it's

important that I share this with you. One of the things I find is that you know, a lot of times in these rooms on the internet, these places on the Internet that white oftentimes men celebrate the fact that they are these conquerors. There are these great conquerors, right, And I think it's really important to bear in mind that to conquer is sure, it's something that a person could do. You could wake up and say, you know, I'm going to conquer someone else. Right, It's a philosophy

you could have. It's a way of life. Right, it exists as a state of mind. And there are so many others. You know. One of the things that a movie we saw recently, it was Maggie b Knowan and I she knew We saw a movie about the old movie was called Avatar, the one with the blue people, the real tall blue people on a planet long time.

It was an old movie. We were watching it just because it was on And you know, I think that a lot of the characters in that movie they were based off of, like like native tribes that you might have found.

each other. And I think that our tendency over the majority of our time as humans, not Neanderthals and whatever we were before we reached this part. The majority of our time in this current form has been cooperative.

an apple and eat it. I don't need to take the whole tree. I can't eat all the apples. That's and then the tree.

out and destroy things you're afraid of. You run from them, when you run towards them to kill them. That is not fear. So yeah, it is okay for me to feel this way, because how could I not. It is not okay that I feel this way.

as it can. We try our best not to watch everything so that we're not overwhelmed and we don't become desensitized to the loss of human life, in particularly the loss of black life. One of the stories that we didn't get to this week is and I know that we both saw this one, but this gives you an idea of how heavy this stuff can be. I'm not a soft person. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I am not that, But I am a human being who feels things. I think that's the hardest

thing I could say. I'm forty where somebody would say something to me. You know what I'm saying, I've been doing this right. We saw a video some police officers, three police officers, and it was on a man and it was punching his dude in the face. And then an officer grabbed his dude by his hair and he picked his head up. He slammed his head into the concrete.

Do me, fevor Maggie can find out what video that was because I don't have it right here, but we like it's hard for me to even talk about it, like, it's like, what is wrong with y'all? Why? Why is that not? How can you feel good about that? Even if somebody hurt you.

the person that initiated the the altercation. And that's really as much as I got, you know. And then the video picks up and it's someone just kind of filming the officers. And then if you've seen the video, hopefully we've given you enough if you want to look it up. But I take our word for it. This is not worth watching unless you really enjoy watching people get harmed, which I don't. It discussed. It just discussed like it turns my stomach. I couldn't imagine.

that's what it sounds like we're doing. Nobody stopped. You might have noticed, however. What you might have noticed, however, is that when one of the quote unquote good guys intervenes, they get strapped up by their neck, sure or by her neck. Yeah, you've seen that. And they do it to police officers too. They'll do it to each other.

what it means for us. And we know that even black people that don't work in a media space like we do might not have to deal with the amount of stuff that we have to deal with, but that amount is still not zero, and their personal connection to seeing black bodies, just like there is being harmed day in and day out, story after story over and over again,

can be overwhelming. And it's just something that we all need to keep in mind because it's the sort of thing that makes you want to pull into a well lit gas station before you get out of your car and interact with the police. There is a real, primal fear, not imaginary like we often say, happens with the police, a real fear because again, the police have the real guns. So let's just keep that in mind. Moving on, it's time for the away Black history fact. This one comes

to you from Hip Hop Weekly Magazine. We pulled a story from the Library of Congress, and today we are discussing the history of rhythm and blues. So depending on what station you're listening to, you might get an R and B song after this, or it might have heard one before we started talking. But it's important that you know the history of all the music. Any music with the beat goes back to Africa, because that's where the drum comes from and that's where the heartbeat comes from.

So we like to claim all that, but certainly R and B is a little bit more of our modern history. The term rhythm and blues, often called R and B, originated in the nineteen forties when it replaced race me music as a general marketing term for all African American music, though it usually referred to only secular, not religious music. The term first appeared in commercial recording in nineteen forty eight, when RCA Victor Records began using blues and rhythm music

as a descriptor for African American secular songs. The migration of African Americans to urban centers in the Northeast and Midwest during the early twentieth century helped to bring various regional styles of African American music together to influence one another. The migration also created new markets for these styles of music. Early on, the term rhythm and blues was used for

boogie woogie, African American swing, jazz, and blues. All these styles of music influenced the development of what is called rhythm and blues today. The meaning of the term continued to change over time, and today it is still used as an umbrella term for many different African American music forms. Historically speaking, though, a rhythm and blues as we understand it today most often describes a style of music that developed after World War One that combines elements of gospel, blues,

and jazz with a strong backbeat. The African American styles that emerged in those years were often played by small groups that emphasized rhythmic drive over the instrumental and harmonic complexity of the swing orchestras. Their vocalist often sang in an uninhibited, uninhibited, and emotionally direct style. In major cities, teenage vocal groups with little or no instrumental accompaniment were a growing presence. They took their inspiration from both gospel

singers and successful African American pop stylists. The term doo wop is well known now, but it was not applied to these groups until much later, and it refers to the vocal vocabs and nonsense syllables these groups saying to compensate for their lack of instruments. All these styles were significant to the development of rock and roll a few years later, though it began as a general term for

African American music. The synthesis of styles that became what is now called rhythm and blues caught on among a wide youth audience during the post war period and contributed to changing the racial divide in American society and music

of the mid twentieth century. Initially, white artists such as Elvis Presley performed and recorded or covered rhythm and blues works by African American composers in order for those songs to be marketed to white audiences, but the effect was to bring both audience audiences and artists with an interest in this style of music together. The development of rhythm and blues occurred just as segregation became a growing social

issue in American society. Both young black and white people wanted to see the popular performers of the day, and mixed groups of youths sang doo wop together on the street corners of many urban centers. This provoked a strong reaction of proponents of segregation and was one reason why rhythm and blues and early rock and roll were often

seen as dangerous to America's youth. But with young people of all backgrounds identifying with these new musical styles, a generation was becoming ready for a more equal society today. According to Billboard, since twenty seventeen, the R and B hip hop category has been the dominant music genre on the US Billboard chart, becoming bigger than pop and rock.

R and B and hip hop have really come to define modern popular music with the rain that hasn't led up since, growing in market percentages year over year and accounting for almost thirty percent of all on demand streams in the US the first first half of twenty twenty two. The R and B hip hop variety is still far and away the industry leader, producing new hits and superstars every day. Now, I do want to that comes from the library comngress again. Now, I do want to mention

that this is not just an American thing. The same way that American music and culture was spread throughout the world later movies, the infrastructure that was built was on the back of jazz music. Jazz is another black art form, American black art form, as is rock and roll. It did not start with rock and roll, did not start with Elvis Presley. Many folks attributed to Chuck Berry on rightfullys. And but the point I'm making is that World War One,

we sent our troops around the world. Those troops took jazz music, black American jazz music around the world, and then that turned the world onto American music, American culture, and American entertainment. And you know how you nowadays see black people's music being exported around the world. That started way back then, and it was through the military, sending our military around the world, and at different parts of

the world. It got away from us, you know, but we are here to make sure that the story is told the right way that you know, one thing about black people I believe is very true is that we have no problem sharing our culture. What you and I always say is we don't mind if you eat from our table, just save us a seat. And I think that that is would be said about you know, black music, black culture, elements of black culture all around the world.

We love sharing our culture. You know, I've as someone who's been around the world, que has been around the world two to see Black American culture celebrated in places where you wouldn't expect it to be celebrated. It's one of those few things that does give me some satisfaction and a little bit of hope that, you know, again, like Breonna Taylor, we weren't just born to die. We can be beautiful and strange for a few years and enjoy ourselves and smile and raise our children.

shuit us some topics. Let us know what you want to talk about. Of course you can donate. Our cash app is at Civic Cipher, so is our venmo and all the rest of that stuff. The show is growing with your support. This is this is not free to do and your support really does count. So please continue to support us, especially if you love the content and share the show. If you listen to us on our

podcast platform, share it with your friends. And make sure that other folks knowing about it download the listeners they add, subscribe, subslee there it is, and do all those good things until next week y'all pace direct y'all like yo.