Civic Cipher 082821 Ramses Ja & Q Ward

We're also going to talk about a personal story that I have about, of all people, Dog the bounty hunter, and I really want us to re examine something that we talked about on the show before, which is how necessary is cancel culture or how effective is council culture? So I definitely want to get into that as well.

We're going to have to check in with DJ Swirl for our way Black History fact, where we're going to be talking about Mexico, our neighbors to the South, and the role that they played during slave times in this country and how we might actually like to know with their stance during slavery, and of course our Bah Bah segment Q has something that's kind of special that we're going to talk about there. But first, as ever, we're

going to get into some ebony excellence. So I got an interesting one here today we talk about all right,

all I do is win, win, no matter what. So you know, normally ebony excellence is when someone excels at something, someone Black excels at something, or there's something going on that we can be proud of or that we can look to and say, you know, there's some positive stories in the black community, and you know that we can share with each other and just kind of you know, have a little bit more positive you know, energy to

an otherwise heavy program. But today's we're going to have to take a moment to just acknowledge someone making it through. You know, sometimes excellence is just enduring. And I think that's exactly what happened with Keith Walker, who is now fifty three years old. The reason he's in the news is because he served nearly thirty years in prison for murder before being exonerated, and of course he filed a lawsuit.

This happened in Chicago, so it was against the Chicago police department, alleging that he was beaten, tortured and officers coerced him in deciding a false confession, which, as we know from you know, the video when they see us, and from our own personal stories and of course many documented instances throughout history, is something that does happen, especially to black and brown people when they're incarcerated. And he says, you know, quote, I think everyone in the world should

know that these people are still out here. He wants justice, and he's starting the lawsuit today because he's seeking justice for the people who are treated unjust, not like human beings. The person responsible for putting him in prison is the Chicago police commander John Birch, who died, but the lawsuit names his estate, and I guess he had a quote midnight crew of officers and detective that are believed to have you arrested falsely over one hundred people, mostly black men,

and they really sought to obtain false confession. So there's this big whole thing that's come to light, and he's Keith Walker, of course, is shedding more light on that injustice and really what we want to do is applaud his endurance and then his desire to not just disappear off into the shadows, but really make this a public undertaking and shed light on and in Chicago, of course, that is something that's very necessary because Chicago has a

lot of problems to deal with. So Keith Walker, we salute you, we applaud you here with our ebony excellent segment on Civic Cipher. With that said, I think that it's time to talk about cancel culture again now. Q. The last time we talked about cancel culture, we had mixed feelings on.

something that we all should be able to do. But at worst, you know, people have a strong need to have community, a sense of community, and if we write someone off for having made a mistake, forever. Then ultimately, when they do find their community, it might be on the opposite side of some ideas that we hold very near and dear and ideals, and so we end up fortifying the opposition and decreasing our numbers in terms of, you know, our efforts and what we're trying to do.

And that's something worth considering, especially when we're dealing with people and positions of power, people with voices, those sorts of things. And so I feel like there's a story that I want to tell, and it has to do

with Dog the Bounty Hunter. Now I know that sounds crazy, but Dog actually called me maybe two or three days ago and he shared with me that there are some people suggesting that he has said some racist things recently and some homophobic things recently, and they're trying to sensationalize it and get it, you know, out in the public

on TMZ, those sorts of things. And he reached out to me because obviously we have a relationship, but obviously I operate in this space, and you know, he just kind of wanted to, you know, get get my thoughts and so forth, and that I know how crazy that sounds, but I'll tell you why. It happened, so.

a good man. Wade had a birthday party at one of the casinos, the Paris I believe, and Carrett Topp was at his birthday party. Coolio was at his birthday party, random right, and Dog the Bounty Hunter was at his birthday party. And Wade asked if I wanted to meet Dog the Bounty Hunter, and I said no. And the reason I said no, I didn't want to meet Dog the Bounty Hunter is because I knew that once upon

a time. What made its way to me was that Dog the Bounty Hunter had said some racist things on a phone call with one of his kids that was recorded, right, and I heard the phone call and he was if I remember correctly, he was saying that, you know, he just says the N word. He doesn't mean it in a negative way, but that's how he grew up, and so forth and so on, and I obviously took exception

to that. I was on the radio at the time in Phoenix, and I actually went on the air and I talked about that, because, you know, Dog was someone that I knew of as being just like a guy on TV celebrated an individual, and that felt very unfair, right, So I kind of held that with me. And then when I had the opportunity to meet him in Vegas, I didn't want to meet him, But as life happens to be sometimes, you know, we ended up kind of in the same circles again, maybe a year or so

after the initial opportunity I had to meet him. This time it was in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills at the Four Seasons Hotel. A business partner of mine says, Hey, you know, I have to go and have a meeting

with Dog the Bounty Hunter. And he knew that I really did not want to meet Dog the Bounty Hunter, but because he and I did business together, that meant that by extension, I'd be doing business with Dog, and I'm not the sort of person to shake someone's hand and smile in their face if there's some funk that needs to be aired out for some reason. I just don't have that. I wish I did have that ability, but I don't. And so I told my business partner.

I says, hey, so when I meet Dog, the first thing that's going to come out of my mouth is, hey, so you said this, And to be fair, you know, we need to deal with that. I need to know who I'm dealing with. And I think I deserve an explanation going to sit down at this table together and have any conversation that needs to begin there. That's fair. That's more than fair. And so my business partner says, Okay, you know I can't take that from you. So by all means, you know, So we go to this hotel.

We go all the way up to the top where him and his wife were. It's Dog, and his wife's name was Beth. She's passed away now, but she was there as well. And you know, he shook out his he put out his hand to shake my hand. I shook his hand. You know, everything was pleasant and I says, hey, dog, can I talk to you for a second? And he says, sure, brother, you know how he talks. And for those that know, He's like, sure, brother, you know, let's let's talk and

know what you gotta talk about. And I'm like, hey, do you mind if we step outside for a second. He's like, yeah, man, of course. So we walk outside and immediately I says, hey, So some years back, I heard a recording of you and you were talking to one of your children, and you were saying a lot of things that sounded very hurtful to me. You know,

this is the same world. We share the same world, but you know I have a particular set of challenges and your line of thinking, or you know, your language or whatever makes it harder, fortifies the opposition. You know, to quote myself from a few minutes ago, And you know, I have to raise my children in this world, and if you and I are going to sit here and do business, then we need to figure out what's really

going on here. And that took a lot from me because I think that at the time I was less likely to be forgiving and more likely to be angry about things. So it took a lot of growth, and so that's why I'm not mad at a lot of people who have that sort of mob mentality, but I do recognize it. At this point, at this age, there's a better way to deal with things like this. So, you know, Dog says, Oh my god, I know exactly what you're talking about, and this deserves my full attention,

and he jumped right on top of it. He slid the sliding door shut, and we're out on the patio overlooking you know, the city, and he starts talking to me, and he explains to me, Hey, there's no excuse. I can give you an explanation, and I can apologize, but there is no excuse. So if anything sounds like an excuse, I apologize right now, but there is no excuse. I had to learn that lesson, and I've learned that lesson.

And if I have to tell this story to you and to your children and to everyone else who needs to hear it from my own mouth in person, I'll do it. The reason for that is that's not who I am. I didn't recognize what I was saying all those years behind closed doors when people weren't recording me, when I was just having conversations. He was like, you know, I spent years in prison. You know that's the language

in prison. You know, I was accepted by he calls it the Black Tribecause I was accepted by the Black tribe. I stood with them. You know, we've you know, been in the trenches. We did what we did together. And then, you know, I come from an environment where the language just is a little different. You know, it's not I didn't intend for it to be hurtful, and so I had to learn that it was hurtful in order to

learn that. I didn't want to do that, and I had to live through something on full display of the whole country and learned that lesson in real time. But regardless of what happens tomorrow with me or with whatever, that's not who I am. That's never that will never be who I am. And you know, Dog wasn't you know, he didn't articulate it as well as I did, but the emotion was certainly conveyed there. I looked and I

rams just looked into this man's eyes. It was me and him on a patio and we had a maybe twenty minute conversation. People are knocking on the window trying to get us back inside or whatever. He's like, just a minute, you know, you know, we really had to hash that out, right, But he said his piece, and I says, okay. Now I was in a position where I had to clear the air before we move forward, because that train was leaving and I was on it right.

But what that also forced me to do was now I had to sit down with Dog at dinner plural. I had to go places plural with Dog in the same car with me. I had to spend time with Dog's wife, with their entertainment lawyer, Amy Weiss. You know, I had to or sorry, their agent Amy Wiss. You know, we basically a one day or two day trip turned

into a two week trip. You know, that's sometimes that's just the way things go when you're trying to hash out details and you're you know, whining and dining or whatever. And so I'm along for the ride with this ento. But after that, Dog took a particular interest in me, and he really wanted to check in with me. And I think that I earned his respect early in our relationship, and then perhaps a little bit further into it, I began to earn his or he began to earn my respect.

As the days went on, because an apology, regardless about heartfelt it is. It's a start, but it doesn't, you know, make everything right. And so after being able to observe him and to be in his presence and to know the way he interacts with people, to see how he shares the same love when he puts his arm around one of his fans who's white, you know, is the same sort of approach that he puts around someone who's

black or hispanic or whatever. You know, there's certain hesitation, certain little little nuanced things, little subtle things that you'll pick up on when people are like not really comfortable with their outside of their element. And I didn't get any of that. And I promise I was looking for it, because at the time, I think I wanted to be angry. I I had already gone on record, I talked about it on the radio. I wanted to be angry or I wanted to have a reason to continue to tell

the story. And I found nothing. If if I'm honest, he was the nicest person in the world, and his wife loved me. His wife never knew her whole life. She never knew what Dog and I talked about, you know, Dog and I never shared it with anyone in the room. It was just our We had to have our moment before we move forward. Now after that, you know, we we kind of knew each other. We you know, kept

in touch. You know, I mostly kept in touch with his wife just because she she took a liking to me as well, and you know, we were connected on Facebook and so we'd keep up with you know, her and her kids out in Hawaii. The thing is, and the reason why Dog reached out to me the other day is because, as I mentioned, someone else is now trying to to assert allegations that Dog somehow is saying

racist things and now homophobic things as well. And because of my personal experience with Dog, that set like that would be incredibly difficult to believe because now I know him, you know, the same as I know Bootleg. keV is another person that I know. You know, granted I've known keV longer, but and for those who don't know, he's another big radio personality. But you know, Kevin is white. Dog is white. You know, these are people that I know, and I know what their boundaries are. I know how

sensitive they are. Dog. You know, Dog told me in one of our early conversations that he wanted to be buried in a black cemetery with his brothers and sisters at the end of his life because he felt like that might bring a little bit more balance to his story. He didn't want to be remembered as this person who said a word in a conversation. He's like, my life and who I am is so much bigger than that. The people that I love include all of these people,

and I would never hurt them. And I didn't know the gravity like you. Hear bits and pieces here and there, but it's not my lived experience. He wasn't making excuses, remember that, he was explaining. So when you reached out to me the other day, he's like, you know, I really don't know what to do with this. I don't know what to make of this. I don't know how to All I know is it's not true. I didn't do this, and these people are trying to cancel me. And not only have I learned this lesson not to

say this, but I'm not that. I would never want to put that negative energy in the world in the first place. He's like, I'll be the first to admit I'm an old man. I come from a different time, you know, this, that and the third. But excuse me as far as what is being asserted and what's being kind of shopped around. And I believe DJ Swirrel found some stuff online about it as well. He's like, that's not true, and I really need to know how to

prepare for what's coming my way. Now, I'll admit Dog and I we don't talk on the phone with you know, really any regularity. We just kind of keep in touch through social media at at you know, at a distance. And then you know, my business partner, of course, is a lot closer with him, so you know, I hear about the goings on, you know, through him, or sometimes we'll be in the car together and we'll get a call from Dog and I'll get to say hi, that

sort of thing. But you know, I still believe that I have Dog's respect, and you know, I got to thinking about what he could do. You know, what could you do in that situation if someone's alleging something that is either false or misrepresents who you are, right, And I recognize there's really not a lot that Once that train leaves, you know, social media can take on a life of its own We've been the victims of that. We've put stories out there that only have told half

the truth and had to come back. And you know, that's a part of being a journalist. Sometimes you get it everything and sometimes you get what you think is everything, and then some more information comes later, you know, that sort of thing. And social media is no different, and they're not held to the same standards as we are

as journalists on this show. And so I got to thinking again, like, well, what's the purpose of someone trying to drag down Dog, the bounty hunter who I personally ramses knows him, you know, what is the reason for that? What's the motivation behind it? And of course there's some obvious answers. Okay, some of them include, you know, if you can sensationalize something or reignite some old issue that has happened a long time ago, go perhaps is easier to fan those flames and get it out there a

little bit more. And then, you know, the more clicks a website gets or the more you know people are talking about it, you know, people stand to make money off of that. And then of course, if it's actually based in reality, there's something to be said about you know, bringing attention to someone who is generally j sorry, genuinely

in the wrong and needs to be educated. And you know, in pondering Dog's predicament, I started to kind of revisit that topic of well, what's the purpose of cancel culture? You know, are is what we're trying to do make the world a better place? Are we trying to to knock down people who are still alive, who can still learn, who can become allies on our behalf and help fight our cause they need to be educated? You know, not

everyone's lived experience is the same as ours. And I'll admit I'm not the most forgiving person, but you know, throughout my life I've learned certainly that forgiveness absolutely has its place. You know, people that you forgive who have committed a some sort of offense or have sinned against you, If you forgive them, those people, in my experience, tend to be even more loyal than people who have not committed some offense to you, because now they're indebted to

you to some degree. That's not to say to be a fool and lets someone continually, you know, commit offenses or whatever. But you know, there's an old philosophy I believe it's biblical that suggests that you're supposed to turn the other cheek, you know, and that's not ramses. I'm sure that wisdom's been around a lot longer than you know, any of us who are on the planet today, and I think that there's something to be said about that. That's not to say that I don't believe that councel

culture has its place, because I can't say that. You know, there's some people we just don't need to do business with them. They're on their journey, they're committed to that, and we need to make sure that we don't allow them the stage for their continual the continual spewing of their hatred or you know, whatever it is that they're doing.

And so it certainly has its place. But if folks can be educated, I implore us, collectively, marginalized people to allow a little bit of room for forgiveness because they think that that can be effective. I know I talked a lot. I knew I was going to, but I would love to hear your thoughts.

will say sorry with no intention of changing behavior. So we have to use a heightened level of discernment in whichever direction we choose to go, if we're going to cancel someone or if we're going to forgive, and you know, try this thing again. With regard to Dog the bounty hunter, I don't know him personally, so I can't speak to his character, his intentions, or anything like that. As a pause though, I heard you say you know Dog like you know Bootleg keV. I have to press the pause.

But on that one for all of us that are listening, Rams has known Bootleg keV his whole life, and Kevin I might be the closest people on earth to Ramses. So I'm gonna press the pause button and smash on the brakes, pull the e break, unplugged the power everything on the idea that he knows Dog like he knows bootleg keV. So yeah, I'll let Ramses get back to you guys on that one. But I'm I can't sit here and let that go across the airwaves with me sitting here.

There is a black child with a white family. That statement, by itself has nothing wrong with it, but if everyone could see this video, the behavior, the body language, the facial expressions, and the treatment of this young girl by the family that she's with is very very disturbing. A woman's claims to have exposed that this family is treating this child like a slave and that the child is

being sexually abused. The child has all of the body language of someone being trafficked or abused or being held captive. And then there's nothing anywhere. So I've been asking Swirl and Ramses, what can we do besides talking about this, because I can't find an actual news story on this. There's this clip on social media that I've seen a couple times, and then there's nothing. The little bit that I've read is that the police were called and nothing

was done, no investigation, no nothing. And again, if you can see this footage is quite troubling. I guess the reason why this is worth talking about is that someone saw something that they thought was wrong and they said something about it. It did not get the type of attention, the necessary attention that this young woman thinks that it deserved. I clearly think it deserves more. Again, if you can see the footage, you have an idea of what I'm

talking about. Just the way that the man is walking with the young lady and the way the family is treating her. It's definitely troubling. Having recently done some training with regards to being able to notice children and people, not just kids, but people in general that are the victims of trafficking or kidnapping or being aptive, this video

looks exactly like the training videos that I saw. So become a better ally by not just keeping your lips pressed together when you see something that you know doesn't look or feel right, saying something to somebody as a start, But hopefully we can find a way to do more than just say something.

but hopefully we'll see what happens with it. But please continue to speak up. If you see black people being abused, miss mistreated, you know, anything like that, it goes a long way for us because your voice is and even if you're white male, your voices carry further sometimes and sometimes they carry into circles where ours just really has no effect on the way that world moves. And so yeah, please become a better ally by speaking. Moving on, this

one is kind of interesting. So all right, Q, if I were to tell you that the FEDS deliberately targeted BLM protesters to disrupt the movement, would you believe me? What I need to convince?

It was not a conspiracy. It wasn't you know, people being paranoid. It actually is documented. There's like records and people on records saying things and files and so forth. People were you know, executed and made it look like all that sort of stuff. Right, But you know the authorities were strategic in trying to silence black voices and to quell the movement movements, you know, historical movements of black people trying to, you know, chase equality in this country.

And so that's why I don't have a tough time believing this. But if you listening to my voice have a tough time believing it, maybe you'll take it from the Associated Press and NPR. So here we go. Now, I have a like sort of a hot take from someone named Tani Aboushi, and she's a civil rights attorney in New York, I believe, and I want to read some of what she has provided in her summary of you know this this headline, but you know, for yourself

for your own purpose. Again, it's available in PR, Associated Press and so forth. She says, NYC is home to pretty much every protest you can think of, from free Palestine to climate change, the Women's March. I've never seen a police and prosecution response to any of the protests like I have for BLM protesters. The targeting of BLM protesters like this only serves to shut down the movement

and stop accountability for police brutality. I kind of want to say that again, the targeting of BLM protesters like this only serves to shut down the movement and stop accountability for police brutality. It's a message they want to send to anyone else who will challenge systemic racism and some of the things that were found in these studies.

Among those cases where comparable state level charges could have been brought, eighty eight percent of the federal crime charges carried more severe potential sentence than the equivalent state criminal charges for the same or similar conduct. So that's one

thing to think about. Out of three hundred and twenty six cases, the report identified eighty four cases, which is twenty five point eight percent where prosecutors stacked charges against defendants with multiple redundant charges being brought arising from the same facts, leading to far more severe potential sentences against defendants. That is what we refer to around here and Q

affectionately refers to as quote trumped up charges. Another one is seventy two percent or sorry, seventy two cases, which is twenty two point one percent involved charges with mandatory minimum sentences. Sixty seven cases, or twenty percent, involve charges of offenses where the defendant is alleged to have attempted, conspired, or aided and embedded and underlying crime without having actually

committed the underlying criminal conduct. In all what we see is that even you know, as citizens in this country, even our rights to assemble and protest, our freedoms of speech, our freedom really in essence to help shape the world that we want to live in, shape the country that we want to live in, very much the minority still, you know, you know, we kind of remain constant at twelve percent according to the census that we talked about. I believe it was last week or the week before.

But you know, our voices matter and helping shape the world that we live in. In theory, and we see deliberate, strategic attempts to target, to give harsher sentences and basically create political prisoners out of folks who want to be a little bit more vocal and a little bit more active. And you and I both know people who have been victims of this have been on this show. People have been arrested, have been on the show as soon as they get out of jail, and of course we knew

that they've come up and told their stories. Oh yeah, they had a file on me already. They knew where I lived, they had pictures of me at my house, about they knew all this stuff before they even arrested me. And when they arrested me, it was for jaywalking, you know, and then they stacked all these other charges from things that happened months prior in the protest and had nothing

to do with anything. And now I'm in the system, and now I can be a repeat offender, and now you know, I'm a part of their story that they're telling, you know, and you know, to be fair, everyone that's told that to us on this show knew that that's what they were signing up for. You know, one person that comes to mind is Rocky Tirade. Another one is Zara.

their stories yourself. But I think it shows another level of how unfair things are and how much of an uphill battle there is and why you know, let's say you're just kind of a casual listener to your black brothers and sisters, and you don't you're not really involved with, you know, trying to make the world a better place, but you kind of hear them and you're you know, you try to do a good person when you go to the store and you donate a couple of dollars

here and there whatever, But you know, you have your moments where you're like, well, they're always talking about the same stuff. It's because of things like this, things that that might never make it their way to you, things that you might not hear about, you know, things that there's like active forces suppressing, you know, these challenges to a white supremacist system and country that we live in. You know, it's not we're not saying we hate the country.

We're not. We're just saying we know we could do we could we can be better, we can be better brothers and sisters.

put in new furniture, whatever. But you know, people always feel like you're being anti American by bringing attention to these things, and by bringing attention with some frequency. Sometimes the narrative is that you're always complaining. Well, if our voices aren't heard, then yeah, we're gonna have to say the same things over and over again. And if the leadership is getting snatched off the streets, then they never

get to, you know, finish what they started. And if they're you know, you know a lot of people don't do the research, especially in this country, about what a political prisoner is. These are people who haven't caused any

harm to society. They wanted to change society for the better mint of everyone, and because a very small amount of folks, typically on the other side of you know, the thin blue line or whatever, don't really like that, then they'll make them into political prisoners and some people end up losing their lives to it. We've seen that happen time and again with a lot of our leaders. Once they get too big or have too much momentum.

And I think that this is part of the reason why, at least in my city where I live in Phoenix Area thone. For those that don't know, I had to be very careful about the degree of my involvement in the protests of last year and some of the protests of this year, with the Stop Asian Hate protests and some of the other things that have gone on in twenty twenty one, I've had to really be mindful of the degree of my involvement because of these factors that

I knew were already in place. You know. The truth is is that there's not a lot of radio shows that exist that bring attention to this sort of stuff, certainly not in a long form conversational way like what we're doing. C and I know that in the cities where we air, we're the only show like this. So imagine if I get arrested, you know, then all the leadership, they lose their platform to come up and say, these are our demands, these are what these things mean, these

are and explain to people. You know, now, the opposition, the media, opposition, gets to tell the story that really requires black voices. It really requires people to say what the what is and to explain it. And I think that this is it's kind of weird, it's kind of meta, But this is kind of a great example of why, you know, because no one else is going to ever go on the radio and say, hey, you know, they're

arresting us just because we're protesting. They're targeting us, they're putting us in jail, they're trumping up the charges so that we can be limited in our protesting capacities and we can be less effective because they have a vested interest in maintaining a white supremacist status quo is documented. Again, you don't have to take Rams's word for it or cues for that matter. You could just look at the Associated Press and that's pretty reputable.

This is the Associated presents Global. So if you didn't believe that the Panthers were strategically targeted, and you know that you think the Panthers were a terrorist organization or whatever, if you if you didn't really if you'd have no idea who Fred Hampton is, or you thought mlk's assassination was a tragedy, but you didn't think that there was any like, you know, intelligence behind that, or you know

the same with you know, Malcolm X or whatever. This is something that you can point to what happened in your lifetime and it's documented, and it's out not a year later, and I employ you to do so. Now, Q, I asked you a second ago or a moment ago, if any of this surprised you, and you said, for the sake of argument, you'll say that you like, we're

willing to play along with me. But now I kind of want to get a little bit more of a long form response to everything, because this sort of thing is right up your alley.

beyond a reasonable doubt things that are so blatantly obvious. Right, the way that our police departments responded to our peaceful protest in full riot gear with full intent of being aggressive with us was so blatant and flagrant, and so different than the way they responded to armed protesters on the other side of the street, armed protesters that showed up not just to our nation's capital but to capitals all over our country with assault right, we're met with

far less resistance than us holding a piece of cardboard. We need a voice that isn't black to say that this is obviously different and that we're obviously being targeted. We need the Associated Press to say this. We need someone that doesn't look like us to deliver a believable, what you perceive to be non biased opinion on this topic,

is that what we need. You can't use your own eyes and see what's incredibly obvious, or do your eyes say that when the people holding the signs look like us, they're criminals, and when the people holding the assault rifles are white, that they're patriots. Because if that's the case, then it doesn't matter if the Associated Press says it, or if the President of the United States says it. Your mind is already made up. You've already decided which side of the street that you're on. Right, So we

spoke earlier about cancel culture. We spoke earlier about their being room for forgiveness and and redemption. But when so many people have shown that they have no desire to be redeemed, they don't have any redeemable qualities, it's very hard to not strike out in the way of okay, cancel, that's that's that's a that's just a reaction to centuries of this type of targeting, this type of abuse, this type of injustice. It's it's the it's the response of

a dog. If you, if you, if you, if you ever heard people talk about rescuing dogs that have been abused when they get into that new home with that loving family, that dog is not ready to be loved yet, because that dog has been abused so much that it's ready to react to the abuse. So you speak about how you know sometimes people are quick to cancel. It's

because they can't help it. How else am I supposed to to reac to the person that every time I see them slaps me in the face, I'm gonna jump, I'm gonna try to protect myself when someone looks like they're gonna raise their hand to me. So when all of our existence has shown that the way that we look is criminal and that we're gonna be treated as such.

I'm absolutely not surprised when I hear a story like this, And if you guys have listened to more than one of these episodes, you know I'm the least optimistic of this group. I'm the least hopeful because stories like this are not rare. I've said this on the show before. We do not have to sift through tons of pages

to find things to talk about on this show. We don't have enough show to talk about all the things that we find, all the videos that we see, all the articles that we read, we don't have enough show to talk about all of them. So if my tone seems a bit angrier today, it's because I'm exhausted. I don't feel like things are getting better. Maybe once upon a time they were right, and we've somehow, And I've

heard hundreds of people downplay the Obama election. Barack Obama, and if you google Barack Obama and read his middle name, you will realize how nearly impossible it would be for somebody that looks like him with that name to be elected president in this country. I cried, I danced, I played my music real loud, and I celebrated because when my mother was a voting age. She couldn't vote period.

My black mother in the state of Georgia, when she became legal voting age, could not I got to vote twice for the first black man to become president of this country. And we tried to downplay it. And there's a reason why we had to downplay it, because people on the other side of the argument tried to give it too much credence. See, we're equal, We've come so far. Look what just happened that we couldn't even really fully celebrate it like we wanted to. That was a massive

step towards progress. But when people who have been oppressive forever want to pack themselves on the back for that progress, then we have to not celebrate as hard. We have to say, okay, wait, yeah, y'all, yeah, we got this one. But wait, there's all this stuff over here that we don't have. But the steps that we've taken backwards since then, like you should be disgusted by it. The steps that

we continue to take backwards. What seems like daily now we've done away with science, we've done away with fact, we've done away with there being anything that's true right, our healthy sense of skepticism has turned into something that's almost lunacy, and I'm watching people slide way backward on the rights, privileges and freedoms that we all deserve. People making a mockery of the government that they want to

uphold and what they call patriotism. So rams's it is very, very easy for me to see a story like that and not even need more information because they require too much information of us for things that are just blatantly, flagrantly obvious.

into a better world. And then people like you and I we come across the information and we say, let's share it so that we can educate folks, because that education will ultimately create stronger relationships between our to pull a word from Dog the bounty hunter tribes. You know, we have to share this planet together. Let's let's let's love each other. I mean, I know it sounds crazy. I can hear my own voice, but why would we we have to share the planet, why would we want

to hate each other. Let's let's try to get along, you know, And I believe that's possible, and that's part of the reason why this stuff is happening. So well, that said, we got to move on a bit. Let's talk about something that I believe is good and I kind of knew it, but I want to have our show producers share it with you. DJ Swirl, what's up about that? Way? Black History fat.

and Canada. There's some evidence that Tejanos or Mexicans in Texas acted as conductors on the Southern route by helping people get to Mexico. In Mexico, slavery was abolished back in eighteen twenty nine by Mexico's second President, Vicente Guerrero, who himself was of African descent. At that time, Texas was still part of the country, in part prompting white slave holding immigrants to fight for independence in the Texas Revolution.

Once they formed the Republic of Texas, they made slate frey legal again, and it continued to be legal when Texas joined the US as a state in eighteen forty five. Slaveholders knew enslaved people were escaping to Mexico, and the US tried to get Mexico decided a fugitive Slave treaty, just as the Fugitive Slave Act of eighteen fifty had

compelled free states to return escapees to the South. The US won in Mexico to return escaped enslave people to the US, but they refused, insisting that all enslaved people were free when they set foot on Mexican soil talk to them. Despite this, some US owners of enslaved people still hired slave catchers to illegally kidnap escapees in Mexico. That comes courtesy of History dot Com.

Mexican people, Mexican culture. I mean, it's California, it's in the name. Arizona's in the name. You know, all the streets, all the people, the foods, everything like that. So it's like kind of like a cousin culture or a brother culture. You know, the people feel like but th to me have always kind of felt that way, and you know, I recognize that, you know, not everybody shares that viewpoint.

You know, there's there's a lot of prison culture that makes its way onto the streets, you know, prison and a lot of stuff is segregated by race. And then that that culture makes its way onto the streets through illegal activities or whatever, and you know, neighborhood clicks and gangs and that sort of stuff. But that the overwhelming majority of people know how to get along pretty well. And you know, for folks that maybe have some prejudices against you know, one side or the other. I'm talking

just between black folks and brown folks. I love this story because this shows that, you know, before your grandparents grandparents were born, you know, Mexican has been holding us down, and we've sought, we we've looked at Mexico as a place where we can you know, be appreciated as men and women live full lives, you know, and there's a brotherhood that's a lot older and a lot more established than you know a lot of folks know. For all, my brothers and sisters who are listening to the show.

You know, try to learn Suspanish man takes some time. Go down to Mexico, you might and travel, you know, not just Mexico, but you know that's a good, good place to start if you're in the US, because it's so close. You know, it's a good place to go. And you know, I remember hearing a lot of folks say, you know that a lot of times Mexican people are prejudiced against black people or Americans or whatever. And you know,

it hasn't really been my experience at all. If anything, this story is kind of the way that I feel Mexico is even today, you know about Mexico just kind of being open and receptive. If anything is prejudiced or whatever,

it's the US. You know, we're the ones you're trying to build a wall and keep people out, and you know, making fun of people for trying to, you know, pursue better lives for you know, their families, completely ignoring the fact that there's tons of people who live in Mexico and are happy as happy as a clam, have no desire to move anywhere, just like you and and and me, and so shout out to Mexico one time, shout out

djswear off of that Way Black History Fact. That's that's definitely perhaps one of my favorite because a lot of times with the Way Black History Fact, we're talking about something foul that some company did the black people, and we got to deal with that and be like, hey, this is why we are where we are. But I remember when I first found that out about Mexico and

slaves escaping to Mexico. It helped me to start thinking because you know, in my lifetime, I've seen Mexican people with black you know, features, brown skin, curly hair, and there is Mexican is the flag, the Mexican flag, you know, And so you know, I'm really glad that we took the time to you know, get that in. We don't always get to do stuff that I think is happy, and I'm glad we got too. So well that said, I think that is going to do it for us

today here on Civic Cipher. So once again, I'm your host, rams is Jah.