And now.
Moving my mic back, you're like that.
We can strikes with waters from headquarters behind him and the line the border.
If you're just tuning into Civic Cipher, I'm your houst. Ramsay's job he is.
They call me q Ward.
You are listening to so excited for.
Listening to you.
And we're two two years old, doing the show for two years, and we are celebrating that with some more positive stories, some more positive outcomes, and there's a lot more to stick around for. Of course, we were going to take it all the way back to the beginning our way black history factor. We're going to be talking about Freedom's Journal, which was the first black owned and operated newspaper in the United States. We here at Civic Cipher stand on the shoulder of giants, and those.
Were the first to.
Uh try to create a lane for a black voice, and so we're very grateful and excited to be able to share their story as well. We're also going to be talking about again some more positive things that have happened in the media and with respect to black people and I guess a general plight of black folks.
So a lot to stick around for.
But before we get to all that let's discuss becoming a better ally Baba. So today's Baba comes to you sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine and this comes by a JP Morgan Chase directly from their website. So what they're doing is building existing investments and helping drive inclusive growth growth by committing thirty billion that's billion with a B dollars by the end of twenty twenty five to advance economic growth and opportunity for Black, Hispanic and Latino communities.
There's been much said about reparations, There's been much set about, you know, supporting black business. There's been much said about, you know, economic equality and equitable economic landscape for all people to engage in the in this capitalistic society. And some people have a little bit more in the way of various entry than other folks. So when people literally put their money where their mouth is, obviously we need
to applaud that. So the purpose of this is to originate additional home purchase loans for Black, Hispanic and Latino households, finance and creation and preservation of affordable housing units and underserved communities, help Black Hispanic and Latino households achieve lower mortgage payments through refinance loans, provide additional loans to small business that's key in major majority Black, Hispanic and Latino communities.
Help people open low cost checking and savings accounts, invest capital and deposits in Black, Hispanic and Latino o MBIs and CDFI's. And here's a quote from David Murray, Global head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at JP morgan Chase and co. Quote, aiming to be the bank of choice for all. We are breaking down barriers to lead with diversity, equity and inclusion and drive inclusive economic.
Growth all over the world.
So shout out to JP Morgan Chase for putting their money where their mouth is. Speaking of which, if you want to support some black causes, you can support Civic Cipher, the very one you're listening to right now. All of our apps where you can donate are at Civic Cipher. If you want to become a patron, if you want to send a cash app, if you want to do a venmo any of that stuff. It helps the show grow, and obviously we've experienced a tremendous amount of growth. A
lot of that comes from donations and support. I want to take a moment to talk about our positioner. So this is going to take us back a bit. Our positioner is broadcasting the balance, defending the discourse. This is something that you might see in our press materials if you engage to that degree, you know, here and there, and a positioner is a term that basically in radio, at least in broadcasting, it's a term that kind of
positioned you in the marketplace. Basically, a short brief passage usually sounds pretty catchy, and it helps people that have never heard of your show before kind of identify what you're about. So my first radio station was Power ninety two point three. Their positioner was where hip Hop Lives. Okay, you following, all right? So our positioner is broadcasting the balance,
defending the discourse. And this has kind of been central to our focus since starting this show and for a long time, and I think for a long time into the future. What that means is we are broadcasting the balance of our stories, of our lives. You know, we do our best to partner with hip hop stations, but we don't refuse partnerships in radio or in any other media space because we recognize the importance we get in
the word out. But we with hip hop stations in particular, we recognize that it very much paints a one sided or otherwise a limited view of what it means to be a black person in this country, and that can be very misleading to people who wish to be allies to black people. That can be also misleading to black people where they might tune in to, you know, celebrate their own culture, their own music, their own dances, their
own fashion, their own language, you know, et cetera. And we are not just I say this all the time, we are not just rap or not just singers.
You know.
That's like looking at, you know, like an Asian person and thinking that they do karate, you know what I mean, Like it's that's one part of an exceptionally rich and beautiful culture, but that's the part that you see in the movies and so forth. Right.
So, when we approached.
This show and we came up with our positioner, the idea was that we were going to bring some balance to those airwaves. We were going to talk about what it really means to be black, and we were going to give instruction to our allies who tune into hip hop stations who may not themselves be black, but obviously are there are brothers and our sisters, and they celebrate
our culture. We celebrate there as we're out, you know, celebrating on different holidays, you know, single Demio Columbus Day, you know, not Columbus Day, but you know what I mean, what's.
The other one?
I was thinking of Saint Patrick's Day, you know, things like this, and uh, you know, we just kind of felt like, you know, there's an opportunity to bring some again balance to what it is that people are exposed to in these spaces, you know, And I think that for today's show, while we're here, balance will mean something a little different. Balance will mean positive stories because I don't want to mislead anyone and I don't want to misrepresent my people.
We are not.
Just born to die, and we are not just born to suffer, and we are not just born to be sad. We deserve to be happy. You deserve to be happy, and I think it's important that we affirm that. And today we obviously have a tremendous opportunity. We can't divorce ourselves from the reality. Obviously, this show exists to deal with the real you know, there's lots of celebration of Black culture and American culture and you know, whatever it is that your culture is, even perhaps on the station
that you're listening to us on. You know, but we do have to deal with the real because we feel like oftentimes we're the only ones doing that. But the people that set their clock to wake up sometimes early or stay up late or listen to this show. And you know, whichever city you're in, if you're in you know, Bellingham, if you're in Portland, if you're in New Orleans, if you're in Detroit, you know, wherever you are. Shout out to the motor for those of you who you know,
tune into this show specifically. It's important that we share positive stories. It's important that you know that you listening, you fighting, you marching, you voting, you registering people to vote, you participating in the democratic process, that it does create a ripple effect, and that ripple effect ultimately creates change. Again, we're playing the long game, and black people historically have
played the long game. We have we're just currently at the front lines of a battle that's been going on for hundreds of years. The names that we discuss on our way Black History fact each week. You know, a lot of those people have passed away. A lot of those stories happened before our great grandparents were born. Even so, you know, we do recognize that, you know, this is a long game, but we also recognize that we've come a long way.
And so.
I wanted to take a moment to make sure you kind of understood that broadcasting the balance and defending the discourse our positioner for the show, not only means bringing you know, balance to you know, whatever radio station you're listening to, but also that we try to have some balance here as well, so that you recognize that, you know,
our efforts are not in vain. And of course, defending the discourse means defending our right to have these conversations, because obviously the show was very much born out of us getting choked out from having very necessary conversations. And the people that were choking us out were people that were they didn't look like us, They were using our culture to make money, and they didn't care enough to let us try to save our own lives.
And that still hurts me.
I don't know why it's, you know, it's obviously been a very long time, but it very much is because I knew those people.
You knew those people.
I mean, that's the thing, though, you spent so many years there, and I even talked to, you know, the people that work with me in the corporate space. Now about kind of fooling yourself into believing that this company cares more about you than its bottom line. Right, Ultimately, a lot of times corporate America will remind you, I mean, yeah, we like you and you're cool, right, but.
We all we got you just work here. So that's that's what I was thinking. But so watch this. So to your point, Q, at the time when I quit my old radio station, I had worked there for twelve years. I was the most tenured employee. There was nobody that worked there longer than me. The only person who had been there longer was the person who owned the business. Everybody had, every position had turnover prior to, you know, resigning.
I was told by the general manager something that confused me later on, but at the time felt like, kind of felt like it made sense because of course I had been there for a long time, and as you mentioned earlier in the show, I do my best to try to deliver good content in this space. You know, I am a broadcaster. I'd leaned one hundred percent into it.
This is what I know. The general manager pulled me into his office one day and he told me, he says, you know, we've never really took an inventory, if you will, of what we had here at the radio station. And you know, just so you know, in radio, the morning show is the big show and the afternoon show is the second big show, even though oftentimes in afternoon you get more listeners. All right, I wasn't on either show.
I was.
I forgot what timeslot I was doing. It might have even just been a weekend time slot. But you know, I had a presence on the website and this was the way that the station could kind of gauge engagement, engagement. And the general manager of that radio station told me, he said that, you uh, the engagement for your page on our website is twice as high as the next link,
and that's for the morning show. And he says, what I want to do is kind of pick your brain and get a sense of how it is that you're so popular among our listener base, and try to teach the other folks how to engage with our listeners. Oh way, you guys, hear this? Not hey, you're by far the most popular challeent we have here. We need to build
a better show around you and give you more resources. No, we want to pick your brain on how you're so great at what you do and give that to our other people.
God bless America.
Well so because of because of that conversation, I felt like they and and the way that it was given to me was like, Yo, you know what's going on with the people, and you know to your point earlier. You know, when it came time to get out there and get busy, I wasn't, you know, sitting up on my high horse. I'm not getting out in the streets and protesting.
No.
I got took this body that I was born into, and I took my babies and we went outside and we stood in our place among the ranks, and we held those signs with those names on it.
Breonna Taylor. There's people that should be here right now. We weren't. We were all equal. I'll always be equal.
I'm not one of those people that thinks anything crazy, you know what I mean? I think I'm just a person and this is what I do for a living. You can see me at the grocery store. I'm gonna look real bummy, because I ain't got to impress nobody
anymore anyway. I thought that because they knew based on that conversation just two or three months prior, two or three months prior to COVID hitting, that they knew that I was kind of tapped into what the people wanted, and so asking for thirty minutes a week to be able to you know, share our you know, broadcast the balance and defend the discourse. Thirty minutes a week didn't feel like such a tall ask because I thought that they would be all over it.
Also, speak to that specific thirty minutes, So I don't want people to just think thirty minutes on o'clock and all this stuff that radio has going on. Speak to them about the thirty minutes that we requested. So what we were trying to do was we wanted thirty minutes. I want them to hear how easy it would have been.
For them to say yes. So we wanted to get thirty minutes. I'm glad you asked a question here. We wanted thirty minutes on the radio so that we could bring up folks to interview the people that were leading the march and so forth, and just have the conversations about what we wanted. We would have taken any time slot that meant that you could have put us on Sunday morning at four am. It would have been fine.
The thing is the radio station provided a degree of credibility to the interview and to the movement, and it kind of fortified the media position. And I thought that could be used in a strategic way for those people on the streets. I didn't think my whole life was going to go in that direction. I was thinking it was the right thing to do. Now, thirty minutes in a weekend overnight time slot means that your commercial inventory is worth pennies.
You know what I mean.
Those commercials aren't worth a whole lot. Also, there is the potential to do so. The FCC, the government mandates that stations have some form of community service, not just radio, but anything that broadcasts the signal, so TV stations if it's in this country, The Federal Communications Commission says, you have to broadcast something to your community that helps the community. This is why you hear don't drink and drive commercials.
This stuff right, there's no money involved with that. They have to do it, Okay, So we would have taken that time slide. It would have been totally fine. Wouldn't have been opposed to it. You know, we felt that this was in line with that sort of mission. So you're saying we didn't. We would have taken an unpaid.
Oh yeah, but there was no money involved. We wouldn't even we wouldn't.
Even free mandated space. Sure that should have been dedicated to community service. Anyway, we would have been creating this content for them for free and a space where nobody's advertising, and according to them, maybe nobody's listening.
I'll take it a step further.
That's interesting, because you're absolutely right, maybe nobody's even listening at that time shot.
But I'll take it a step further.
We weren't even necessarily the ones who were going to.
To host this show because they could not necessarily because even after a yes, they had a person in mind, it wasn't Quentin or Ramses, right, we don't have to say who. Yeah, but this was not us trying to put ourselves on.
Yeah, we were already on good.
But we would have produced and created and curated the content and everything. All they would have had to do is turn a mic on record. It for thirty minutes and then broadcast. So this is the point I'm making. I was like, you guys can put you know, so bear in mind that you and I, we at the time, are doing rather more and we had more visible time slots, so we would have had to had we would have
had to do extra work. We would have had to set up meetings, you know, create you know, the content as you as you mentioned, produce it, edit it, send it to air every week, right, And they could have taken one of the interns or someone in development and put them on that show. Because remember, it's it's just necessary. It's not like I don't need that to be the man. You know, I already I was on TV. I was billboards and magazine covers, everything like that for many years.
That wasn't I wasn't going to be on Sunday morning at four am and like all of a sudden, you know, hit my stride, you know what I mean.
So I'm glad that.
You asked that question, because yeah, it was a very easy thing to say yes to. I know radio well enough to know how how to put together that proposal to where it wouldn't have impacted the bottom line at all. So anyone who's ever stood in the way of this progress, hold on, I got to cut you off. You say it would not have impacted the bottom line. There was no way for it to negatively impact the bottom line.
We've learned in several meetings that we've had since launching this show that there are a bunch of ways it could have impacted the bottom line in a positive way. Sure, yeah, yeah, because there are a bunch of advertisers who want to be on the right side of the topics that we reach. So there was a zero percent chance there would have
been a negative impact to the station. Sure to air thirty minutes a night, overnight Sunday, three o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning on this unrated, low advertisement necessary time slot. Sure, well, you know, the good news is that now we're on and rather you know, better time slots or all over the country, and we have a full hour a week, which again is not everything,
but we'll take it. You know, everybody's got to start somewhere. Again, we're playing a long game, and having been on for two years, there's a few more things that I think that it's important to share. Things that we look back on and we say, well, look, I'm happy to see that. One of the things is that, you know, there's been black Barbies for very long time. There's been historical figures that have you know, they've paid homage to with you know,
Barbie dolls. But uh, recently Mattel introduced a new historical Barbie in honor of Madam C. J. Walker and we think that that is something that is.
Amazing. Obviously, again, black girl magic.
We in twenty twenty, we saw in our city, we saw black women out there marching, Shout out to Tsara, shout out to Mimi. You know, we saw them out making it happen with bullhorns and they We saw these people crying. We saw these people, you know, we saw the passion, and we learned the strategy and we learned what was necessary and we were able to recognize that, Okay, here's we need to find a meaningful contribution, and you know, we're always going to be hopeful that this contribution is
the right one. So black girl magic is something again that we always celebrate here. So the fact that Barbie has made Madam C. J. Walker doll recently, that's something that we feel is positive for those that followed the story about the children that were ignored at the Sesame Street parade. You know, we want to make sure that we call attention to the fact that I think it was at Disneyland that Jesse, the Woody's counterpart in the
movie Toy Story. There was a video that came out afterwards where Jesse ran over to the little black children and gave them a big hug. And to me, that looks like, Okay, these things that we're bringing attention to are resonating with people. I'll take it a step further Snoop Dogg released the children's cartoon series Doggy Land with kids songs and nursery rhymes and things like that. So we're seeing black faces and black characters in these spaces increased.
And I want to also talk about the there's the College Board that launched the first ever AP program in
African American studies. So this there's a whole article from Education Week that I can't get into the whole thing, but you know, because we've had to deal with CRT and the war on really American history, the fact that you know, the College Board launched the AP program in African American Studies, that's something that we feel is very special as well, and something that again we've accomplished in the past couple of years by having these really important
conversations and then moving forward, we're going to be talking more about reparations. We're gonna obviously continue growing in the more cities. Hopefully before the end of the year, will be able to make a major announcement. We're going to continue giving you resources to become a better ally, and we're just going to keep doing our best for you. So you know, again I can't say it enough. Thank
you for your support these past two years. We'll see you on our third anniversary with a lot more to talk about, but you know, we'll leave that right there. And now it's time for the Way Black History Fact, and this one is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine. The article comes from PBS, and again we're going to talk about really the origins of black media. Now we've shared a bit about our story and what it took to get this show off and to grow it to
where it is now. But we've done this in a modern world, and we recognize every time I read a Way Black History in Fact, I recognize that the social conditions around the goings on in the story cannot be overlooked. The social climate of these people trying to accomplish something, do something, make some sort of change cannot be overlooked. And I try my best not to overlook that, but
in this instance, because they do. You know, this is a media outlet, and we're talking about The Freedom's Journal, which again is a media outlet our story times ten. You know, in terms of the struggles, in terms of all the things that need to be overcome, you know, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been and the fight that it must have taken inside of all the people responsible. And so when I say we
stand on the shoulders of giants, I recognize that. You know, you might have never heard of the Freedom's Journal, but you will hear about it today. They deserve every bit of this way Black history fact, and we are grateful to them. Hopefully in the future in thirty years and one hundred years, someone looks back on what we're doing right now, and it's grateful for what we're doing. And really we're here right now. We're not trying to think too far back, too far in the future.
We have to.
Obviously keep an eye on both of those things. But hopefully we're we're doing right by you, our listener right now. People that are engaging with us right now, we think that's more important than anything.
But I'll read.
Founded on March sixteenth, eighteen twenty seven, as a four page, four columns standard sized weekly, Freedom's Journal was the first black owned and operated newspaper in the United States and was established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York State be Gone by a group of free black men in New York City. The paper served to counter racist commentary published by the mainstream news.
Samuel E. Cornish and John B.
Russworm served respectively as its senior and junior editors. Freedom's Journal was similar to other Antebellum reform papers in that its pages consisted of news of current events, anecdotes, and editorials, and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery and colonization, a concept which was conceived by members of the American Colonization Society, a mostly white pro immigration organization founded in eighteen sixteen to repatriate the free Black people
to Africa. Initially opposed to colonization efforts, Freedom's Journal denounced slavery and advocated for black people's political rights, the right to vote, and spoke out against lynchings. Freedom's Journal provided its readers with regional, national, and international news, and with news that could serve to both entertain and educate. It sought to improve conditions for the over three hundred thousand newly freed black men and women living in the North.
Newspaper broadened reader's knowledge of the world by featuring articles on such country as Haiti and Sierra Leone.
As a paper of.
Record, Freedom's Journal published birth, death and wedding announcements to encourage black achievement. It featured biographies of renowned black figures such as Paul Cuffey, a black Bostonian who owned a trading ship staffed by free black people, to Saunt Lowe Retour, and poet Phyllis Wheatley. The paper also printed school, job and housing listings various times. The newspaper employed between fourteen to forty four agents to collect and renew subscriptions, which
cost three dollars per year. One of its agents, David Walker from Boston, eventually became the writer of David Walker's Appeal, which called for slaves to rebel against their masters. Freedom's Journal was soon circulated in eleven states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada. A typical advertisement costs between twenty five to seventy five cents. Russworm became sole editor Freedom's Journal following the resignation of Cornish in September eighteen twenty seven, and
began to promote the colonization movement. The majority of the newspaper's readers did not support the paper's radical shift in support of colonization, and in March eighteen twenty nine, Freedom's Journal ceased publication. Soon after, Russworm immigrated to the American Colonization Society of Liberia and became governor of the Maryland Colony. Cornish returned and attempted to revive the newspaper in May eighteen twenty nine under the new name The Rights of All,
but the paper folded after less than a year. Freedom's Journal's two year existence, however, helped spawn other papers. By the start of the Civil War, over forty black owned and operated newspapers had been established throughout the United States. And you know this tradition continues today. In fact, I want to shout out Sheen magazine. I want to shout out the Kansas City Defender. These are black owned media publications.
You know, earlier today h Q and myself and Maggie B knowing you do, we had to interview with you know, these black owned media outlets about what it is we're doing here, and you know, I cannot stress how important that is. And then hopefully you start to see that in this space. In a broadcast space, you know, there's lots of newspapers, there's lots of television shows, there's lots
of podcasts. But on the radio, you know, on hip hop radio, you know, there's I'm not going to pretend like there's not a lot of radio shows that deal with black issues, but on hip hop radio, there's really not a lot of content like this. And again that's where we're going to find a good amount of our allies.
And so this blueprint, this format obviously continues to this day and it's still very much in use for people who are very engaged, people who value stories that don't make their way to CNN, but are just as monumental or pivotal or necessary as some of those other stories. And you know, this is certainly an example of you know if we don't tell our stories, who will and how will they tell them? Will they be accurate? And if we don't celebrate our wins, then perhaps no one will.
And so while we have the opportunity to do so on our second birthday, here again we want to salute Freedom's Journal for paving the way for all black media, true news media certainly, and we're grateful that we get to again stand on the shoulders of those giants.
And I'm grateful I get to do it with you, man, like I asked, man, excessively proud of your vision and ingenuity and taking what felt like a failed space and turning it into something that might have some impact on bringing forth this change that you and our producer seem to be a little bit more hopeful about actually happening than me sometimes. But again, we talk about balance in
our placement and that I think that's required. So grateful for you, Thankful for you, and appreciate the opportunity to sit in the second chair.
I appreciate the opportunity as well, and that's going to do it for us for our second anniversary show. So once again I'm host Ramsay's job.
Years Josh I am que board once again, you guys are you guys make us where we are?
So thank you and until next with y'all peace.
Yeah, like yo, we handle it. These brothers a fabulous our lady showing you where bomb travels who speak to from sunlight to move, busting on stage like gonna fights the b ro.
My mic back.
You're like that journalist with journalist too. We can strike back all borders with waters from head, borders behind in, the beline sides up, and the borders the press pass.
We bring it to you as it happens the streets.
Love popped him from music, Your rapping the street compared the slash we expando. You're to fight the slander with the proper propaganda. What's happening, it's hop You've got a questions to ask in deduce, it's just a TV show. You're past it. And this from a white wartime journalist headlines We're gonna
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