Welcome to another episode of Civic CZICHERI Army host Ramsey's Jah.
He is ramses Jah, I am q Ward and you are tuned in too, say excited for us?
Indeed, be sure to stick around. Had a crazy week this week, A lot of crazy stuff going on, So we are going to talk about all of it, not the least of which is p and b Rock. That's tough, and we're gonna sit with that. We need to sit with that. It's very important that we do. So we're going to take some time and go over that. We're also going to talk about a lot of the backlash that we've been seeing in you know, some popular television
serieses serieses. I think that's how I say that. In particular, we're going to talk about the backlash to our new black Little Mermaid, as well as some other shows including A House of the Dragon, which is a Game of On spin off, and The Rings of Power, which is a Lord of the Ring spin off, and the backlash
against black characters who exist in imaginary worlds. We're going to spend some time talking about someone who deserves his just due, the filmmaker Oscar Michell, a very profound black filmmaker, and we're going to dedicate our way Black History factor him and everything else. Unfortunately, this week we had to leave a lot of stuff on the cutting room floor, but there are going to be some other things that naturally make their way into this show because again, it's
been a very very busy week out there. The Devil's been busy, as they say. But first and foremost, we are going to start off on a positive note. If you've seen the Emmys, we're going to dedicate our Ebony excellence to the IBNY, to the to the Emmys. That's all right with c shall we shall? So this week's Ebony Excellence, we're going to shout out Sharlee Ralph. The article comes from The Atlantic and this of course is
sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly Media. In the minutes after the actor won Outstanding Supporting Actress in the Comedy Series, she sang and beamed and inspired the audience to leap to its feed again and again and again. Her acceptance speech was the kind of moment that television, live television in particular is made for, and he needs more of. If anyone who has ever ever had a dream and thought this dream wasn't or wouldn't come true. I'm here to tell you, this is what believing looks like, this
is what striving looks like. And don't you ever ever give up on you. This is what she said. She of course thanked her family, her children, her friends, everyone that voted for her. And it wasn't just the speech itself, but you know, she's a respected performer who's been waiting decades since her starting in the late seventies to be
recognized on this kind of mainstream level. Man in the room as soon as her name was called, seemed to understand how overdue her recognition had been, giving her a standing ovation even as she seemed too overwhelmed to leave
her seat. You know when couldn't have been more fitting than for her role on Abbot Elementary, which is a comedy about an underfunded public school, where she stars as Barbara Howard, a teacher who in the protagonist played by the show's creator Keen t To Brunson, admires and considers her mentor. Barbara is a trailblazer. Ralph is the same. And that speech was magnificent.
I want to add, she's such a great actress that I've been upset with her for like twenty years for not letting her fake daughter in a movie sing in the school a choir. So I just wanted to point that out. That's how good she is. I'm real life upset that Rita couldn't sing in the choir. Sister Act two. That's funny, that's funny.
Well, you know, entertainment is a big part of our world and our culture in this country, and so this week you're going to notice that we're dealing with a lot of entertainment stuff. You know, Normally we deal with politics, we deal with you know, police sing, we deal with institutions that we consider to be white supremacist or otherwise have roots and white supremacy. But this has been a big week in entertainment, and so we're going to address that. Now.
Have you seen the trailer for The Little Mermaid A little bit that's going on. I have.
I watched it with my beautiful daughter. Oh yeah, we're both very excited about what's to come from the good old folks at Disney.
So if you're like me, you saw The Little Mermaid in the early nineties, might have been late eighties, somewhere in there. Somewhere in there. Yeah, VHS you know where. I was born in eighty two. So Little Mermaid was one of the Disney masterpieces that came out. Disney would come out with a movie every year and everyone would go see it. It was an always an animated movie, and the character was a white, red headed mermaid figure. And there's another movie that I saw. I believe it was
called Splash. Don't ask how I know that, because I don't remember anything. I remember that movie. Yeah, and it was about a mermaid too, it was, and the mermaid was a white, blonde haired woman this time. And I think that if you close your eyes and I say the word mermaid, the vision that comes into your head listening to my voice, now in your head, it's a white woman. Now, we the Black Delegation, we feel like we, you know, we could be mermaids. Do we could be?
You know what I'm saying. It's so strange that we don't exist in the imaginations of people and their fantasies and these sorts of things. And when we do, it's such a big deal. But you know what, I'll be honest, because that's just the way the world has been. Oftentimes, we don't notice or recognize that we're underrepresented in certain areas, right, and so when I believe to be a group of allies, people who are like, hey, you know what, we need to change this. Why can't are be? But mermaids are
fantasy creatures, you know what I'm saying. So we can use our men genation here and we can make a black mermaid and she can be a little girl and goes through you know what I'm saying. These experiences happened to black mermaids the same as you know, every other kind of mermaid. She were being mermaid. Yeah. So you know the group of people that allowed this decision to make its way to that trailer and then ultimately the movie, you know, they thought that this might be something that
the world could use. You know, we've seen white mermaids for the entirety of our life, which is why if I say mermaid, this is an example of the platonic ideal. The image that pops into your head is a white woman with seashells for her braw and a green sort of fish tail. And you don't think of a man, You don't think you certainly don't think of someone black, you know what I mean? And you know the people that decided to make this change. Are people that are
being inclusive, which we applaud. We recognize the need for that. We want to exist in these fantasy lands too. We want to be represented in these places the same as anyone else, you know what I mean. The problem is the backlash, right, Okay, so the very expected backlash too.
I'm sure Disney knew that they would get these types of responses, and.
You know, if it was the only one it'd be, it wouldn't be fine. But but this has happened obviously a lot, just this month. So this is why we're talking about it. Anyway, I'll read So this comes by a news one. My aerial is black and she's swimming in white tears. So over the weekend, the trailer was released for the live action rendition of Disney's The Little Mermaid,
starring black actress and singer Hallie Bailey as Ariel. And of course, the trailer's release has reopened the floodgates and put us under the sea of white peers we were already put under when it was first announced Bailey would
be playing the lead role a few years ago. A lot of people are talking about what's called forced diversity in Hollywood and uh, the the author of this article makes a point of discussing forced whiteness, right, which you know, for folks who are listening to this, this is kind of what we were alluding to, you know what I mean. I'm not saying it was a concerted effort of people got in the rooms like aeral needs to be white. You know, in the early nineties or early late eighties,
it was just the default setting. You know, why would why would anybody even think of a mermaid being black? You know what I mean, because obviously whiteness was the default, which is kind of strange because human beings are black, meaning that if you like, go on Google maps and search Earth and guess where the pen is and to drop right in Africa where human beings first evolved with first you know, consciousness and the first creatures to be
able to call themselves human beings. So this should in theory be the default, right. But you know, whiteness is the default in this country. And because this country really sets the uh the culture, global culture, you know, with our entertainment exports, you know, our film and language and you know all the other things fashion that sort of stuff.
I really do applaud this effort of people trying to make Disney, trying to make right some of the wrongs that they have inactive on black people and some of the stereotypes that they perpetuated over the years. You know, there's new, more inclusive Disney is a very welcome Disney. In my book, my person, I want to speak for you, Q, but in my book, I think that this is something that is very necessary. I don't think that this is performative.
I think that little girls will be able to see this and see that Aeriel is black, and you know, white tears is probably a strong term for me. I don't want to see anybody's tears, but I recognize the point that the author is making there in that. You know, for some reason, it's it's almost always a certain group of white folks. They tend to be very conservative, you know, very traditional, and they just don't like anything black. In fact,
if it's black, they kind of actively push against it. Meanwhile, over on this side, you know, a lot of times we find with our Hispanic brothers and sisters, our Asian you know, like a lot of communities of color, people who want into marginalized communities, inclusivity is kind of the name of the game. We kind of, yeah, let's bring more folks to our table. There are some notable exceptions or some people who have ideas that will never make their way to sit excipher and they're just as black
as me and YouTube. But for the most part, our black culture tends to be very inclusive, and a lot of times when we find that, you know, when it's our Caucasian brothers and sisters in particular, those who are in positions of power who actively work against inclusivity and kind of allowing us to exist, you know, and be celebrated, it's very hurtful. And again, if this was the only thing we were talking about, that be one thing. But as you know, the list continues. So I guess you
want to take the next one. You want me to get it.
I mean, it's sure, you know, the idea that we're not allowed to exist in even fantasy spaces.
It's almost like they don't want us, like in their perfect world or imaginary world.
I mean, but that's it. It's not almost like that. It's like that this is our imaginary, perfect fantasy space. We'd rather you not exist here.
And I want to be clear, this is not the authors or the producers of the shows this attitude. It's the public that has taken someone else's fantasy made it their own. And the public, not the whole public, but a certain facts subsect of the public that you know, just wars against the fact that black people now exist in their fantasy world or the fantasy world that they've been shown or read about, or whatever the case is.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that just the idea that I have to get excited right watching the trailer for instance, for The Little Mermaid was Ico that she she'll get a Disney princess that looks like her, that I have to be conscious of it. And I wasn't aware of the casting, so when I saw it, I had a real life yeah, Like I hadn't read the articles or the press releases to know that, you know, she'd be in it. So I goes, only version of The Little Mermaid will be
this one. This will be her first you know what I mean, interaction with Disney, you know, besides Encanto, which also gave her some pride because as you know, Icho's mother is from us, She's from Mexico. So the Spanish culture, the Latin culture very very important and I pactful for her. So I'm excited that ICO will have a much more inclusive representation from all things sure with regards to the arts and you know, fantasy than we did as children.
So let's move this on a little bit to something that's a little bit more grown up. We're gonna talk about the Game of Thrones spin off. Do you watch Game of Thrones?
Of course I watch Game of Throne, me too, all of them, all ofm Okay, all right, this comes from Variety.
House of the Dragon star Steve Toussaint slams racist viewers. They're happy with a dragon flying, but not a rich black guy. Oh what I say in a mouthful Steve Tussant is for those that watch the show, he's a character, you know. I'm just gonna tell the story, all right. If you didn't watch Game of Thrones, the original series, there's a family that controls dragons. Right. This family, as as George R. R. Martin wrote in his books, is a family known by their silver hair and purple eyes. Right.
The reason that this didn't show up on the screen is because the actress couldn't wear the contacts. The actress from the original series Calisi. I don't know her name, Amelia Clark. Is that her name?
Sure?
All right, let's go with it, all right, shout out to me Clark. She needed to know my name. That's the important mart anyway. So this was the Fantasy world, and in the original series, none of the family members were alive around, you know. It was her and her brother, and I think her brother died very early, so she was kind of the last of her clan. Right. So this new series takes place centuries before. It's a prequel
to the Game of Thrones, right. In this new series, her family is all together and fleshed out and deep, right, And some of her family members or relatives or people from that group of people with her clan or whatever, her crowders. Sure, some of them are black skinned people, right, And guess what they have silver hair. I'm not sure what color their eyes are, you know, kind of dimly lit program and I'm not really all up in dudes'
faces like that. But the silver hair is meant to signify that they're a part of this clan of people, Valerian people, right. So this is what people have pushed back on, like, why in the world is this black actor of Valerian in a show called House of the Dragon where there are real dragons that fly flying dragon right, So none of these people ever existed. This is not
a historical account of the family. And you know, in so far as they can be their true to the character silver Hair never said that they did not have a melanated skin. And if you look at the guy that's in question, the the I'm not sure the character's name, but the actor's name is Steve Toussant. If you look at his character, he plays Lord Corliss, Lord Carliss. Okay, Hilarian nice. So he is a Larry there you go. This guy is he looks like a g It looks
like God. You know, he's got like these dreads and they're like silver. It's like, you know what I'm saying, and you gotta understand. Okay, So you know, Q and I, as we mentioned, we watch Game of Thrones. We got into it. I don't know why you got into it. I'm just into everything that's like royal king, you know, queen that sort of stuff. You know, my name is Rams's, my last name is King, you know, and I just kind of grew up that way. You know what I mean anything having to do with a castle or a
pyramid or something cool and regal. I'm just into it, right, And you gotta know how that hits somebody like me when I'm into a show and I see an important character and he's black in a space where that's not typical. Right, So when I saw him, I was surprised. I was like, whoa, right, but surprised in a good way. And I'm sure if you're listening to me in Q show and you've listened to us for some time, then I'm sure that you probably had a similar reaction. WHOA, How cool is that?
That's a good thing, But you need to know, just like we do, that there is people, a very vocal group of people who push back against this, and it's very sad because it's like, Okay, you're cool with dragons, but not cool with melanin, Like how far does this? How far does this go? You know what I mean?
I mean, what's more believable? They're cool with a woman with a fish tail and half of her body being covered in scale. I'm like, you talk as long as she's not black, keep on talking cute because you're saying that, you know what I mean and they treated as historical fact. Well, Aero was white. Arion is a cartoon mermaid. She didn't actually exist at any point on Earth.
People.
She could be purple or Awkua and people would be fine with that. It's the brown that they are not enjoying, very very straightforwardly, the brown that they are not enjoying.
It's very hurtful, and I think that, you know, I don't want to say to be fair, but if I was to try to pinpoint a source of it, I you know, we've talked about on this show, and you know on the Black Information Network Daily podcast, how there's a lot of our Caucasian mostly brothers, but some of our Caucasian sisters too that really feel like the quote great replacement end quote unquote sorry is a real thing. They think that there's a concerted effort for people to
replace them. You know, my real problem with the great replacement You only have one people. It's not singular, but this.
Is the one though, good go ahead. They'd be fine with it as long as there's the ones doing the replacing. That's the part that makes my stomach turn.
Right.
It's because, of course, you don't want your race to be wiped out, and if you're dumb enough for someone to convince you that's true, it could incite fear and panic and distress and anxiety. Sure, but those saying people would be fine if the people being replaced or wiped out or.
Becoming the victims.
Of genocide, if they didn't look like it didn't look like them. Even in this space where you're talking about reality versus historical context, when Cleopatra was cast as a beautiful white woman, they were not so up in arms about the historical precedent. Well clear, Patra was Egyptian and from Africa, she couldn't be Elizabeth Taylor. No such article was ever written by the segment of our entertainment world, or the journalist, or just the fans and people who
are upset. They never were so up in arms about actual historical figures being replaced. You know, a movie called Gods of Egypt was made. It was called Gods of Egypt. Every star I.
Remember in that movie was white. I remember that.
Every lead speaking line character in that movie.
Was I remember that one. You know, I remember that one.
And that wasn't fifty years ago, this is like seven years ago, I'm knowing.
But watch this. Okay, So we talked about Little Mermaid, we talked about House of the Draft. Watch this this comes from I didn't This comes from CNN. Elijah Wood and the original Lord of the Rings cast shut down racist critics of Rings of Power one time. For Elijah would wat's this. Amazon Prime had to shut down the comments or like some sort of message board or chat room or something like that having to do with the Rings of Power. I could read this, but you know, I'm when a paraphraser.
Because people were upset that they were black hobbits. This, this is this, All this stuff happened like in the past month.
I'm not laughing because it's funny, y'all.
So you know the Star Wars franchise, You remember that, Remember when when the Stormtrooper took off his helmet and he was black and everybody's like, oh, and that was in the trailer. You know what I'm saying, there's a real thing. And on their side, they think, Okay, why do black people have to be everywhere? Now? Why is it? You know what I mean? This is what they think. Well,
because we exist, you know that's the answer. But you know they haven't seen it, they haven't grown up with it and to them, coupled with that what they've been taught, which is they're being replaced. Jews have a concerted effort to organize the melanated individuals of the world to replace
white people. This is a real thing that some of these white conservative people think when they see a black person in a space where they don't expect it in media, then they feel like it's the woke Hollywood liberal agenda to force blackness down their throats. And of course, from where we sit, it's just like, no, we want to exist in these fantasy places. We want to have black skin, We want to go to other planets. We want to
fly on dragons, you know what I'm saying. We want to swim in under the sea with Sebastian and how dare you want flounder? You know? And this is kind of what we run up against. But it's important for us to share this with you, our listener, because our belief is that by you knowing this, you can have conversations in spaces where our voices don't get to and we physically don't get to, and so hopefully we create better allies.