Civic Cipher 091821 Q Ward & Ramses Ja

Today we have a lot in store for you, So stick around because we're going to be talking about Larry Elder, Candice Own and how all skin folks ain't ken folks, you know, and you know there's been this black face of white supremacy idea that exists, and sometimes these people kind of fall into those categories. We're not here to say whether it's right or wrong, but we do need to talk about it. Later in the show, we're gonna also talk about the killing of Kawasaki Treywick in New York.

It's very sad and tragic story, but certainly necessary for us to talk about. We're also going to be dedicating some time to the hashtag land Back for our Native brothers and sisters, and of course checking in with DJ Swaff with that Way Black History Fact. But first we are going to discuss some Ebony excellence.

a video music Award. Beyonce's Brown Skinned Girl took home the Video Music Award for Best Cinematography, and Blue Ivy was credited.

them for their careers. There's been lots of people who've been fans of nepotism long before we ever made it to this planet, and they've built the world and their image. And I really love the fact that, you know, these people are really positioning their child to take advantage of all that they've accomplished. I try to do that in my own personal life. I know c does the same

with his children. And the fact that she has a VMA award at such a young age, the youngest ever, I think is of any excellence if I've ever heard of it, And so that is certainly a worthy.

generally speaking, most black people subscribe to. So that's now you're able to make the connection. All skin folk ain't kin folks. And we've seen this over the years. You know, there's a token black guy that as long as he's in the room, you know, white folks can say and do whatever they want and not themselves not consider themselves racist because hey, look see there's that guy over there. He's black, So I can't be racist because he's close enough in proximity to me, so the things that I

say are justified. Otherwise he would take issue with it, wouldn't be my friend, whatever the case is. So we have to talk about this person because this is a black person we're talking about. This person is, as I stated, in the beginning of the show, oftentimes the black face of white supremacy. Now, I'm not talking about black people with conservative values, because those people exist. I've met lots

of them. Some of them go to church, some of them, you know, they have military backgrounds or however they grew up. I'm not talking about those people.

he had a sign. It was just a cheaply made sign, and it said Trump and Republicans aren't racist. He had brown skin just like me, and he had a sign, he had some wild looking hair. Now, black folks, we could look at this guy and be like, yo's some not all the way right about my man. But you know, white folks are certainly the white folks at the Trump Valley are like, ah see, look, hey, we can feel better about being here because there's that one black guy

and he's got that sign. He says we're not racist, so or not racist, everybody to give it that, okay.

conversation ends. And I no longer have to be critical or have to have a critical examination of my policies, of my thoughts and my ideas and so forth, because as long as I'm not racist, it's just my quote unquote opinion. And normally I'm content to leave people to their opinions. You know, let leave you to your own devices. If you have a different opinion for me, that's fine. But when your opinion is rooted in my disenfranchisement, then

I have to take issue with it. And if you can hide behind that black face of white supremacy, then that's one extra step that I have.

Can't you can't for a second think that this one lone wolf represents the height of black intelligence when ninety nine percent of the rest of us are able to communicate, understand what our needs are, what our shortcomings are as a community, where the country has failed us and where we need to you know, fix you know, some gaps

in society and make things more equitable. You can't ignore that and listen to this one person because what they say echoes what you want to hear and makes you feel better about what ultimately are often racist ideas and policies, you know, things that a lot of times white folks don't want to confront. Now, of course, not all white people, you know, there's lots of white folks who have more liberal beliefs than they never heard of the names we're

about to mention. But typically it's the older white male, you know, well compensated and kind of lives a sheltered life with respect to you know, crossing color lines and interacting with people who don't look like him, that's able to hide behind these extremely conservative, extremely far white ring black voices and black faces, so that they don't have to confront the ugly head of racism that often stares them in the mirror whenever they, you know, look in

a mirror and really have to come to terms with who they are as a person. Now, with that said, for those that don't know, there's a recall election in California. The current governor is Gavin Newsom. The recall is a power grab to try to install one of these black conservatives in office. And really he only needs twenty percent the vote to make that happen. It doesn't look likely that it's going to that's going to be the outcome.

But this Larry Elder, this black Republican you know, candidate is has taken everything out of the Donald Trump playbook. He's behind in the polls, so he's already talking about fraud claims. You know, by the time you know, everything comes out, you know everything will be we'll know what we're looking at. But what I see here is that even before the votes were counted, even before everything was finalized, he was saying that, you know, there's it.

It says many black voters here have heard him deny the existence of systemic anti black racism, have read his comments on former President Trump and the origin of the birther lie that former President Obama was born in Kenya. They remember that Elder published a book in two thousand and eight titled Stupid Black Men. More recently, black voters have heard that his thoughts on reparations should go to the descendants of slave owners who lost their quote property

when enslaved black people were emancipated. And one thing that I came upon more recently is an interview from some years ago where he was on the air defending George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin by saying, this is the sort of behavior that we want. You know, this guy, Larry Elder was saying, you know, there had been crime in this neighborhood and this guy was being vigilant and he was attacked by Trayvon and just kind

of rewrote the story. You know, and you know that neighborhood, just because I have to say that neighborhood was a bit more affluent. If there was crime in the neighborhood, you got to look at where the crime potentially came from. Might have been white folks who live in that neighborhood. Who knows. But the truth is Traymon Martin was walking home and he was approached by Zimmerman, and he defended himself such as such is the customary right to any

living creature who feels under attack. Doesn't matter who you run upon. It could be a bear, it could be a buzz, it could be anything. They adopt a posture to defend themselves. It's kind of ingrained into the life cycle of any living creature. But this guy, Larry Elder, in that interview that I saw, chose to kind of turn the optics around and try to make tray Vaughn look like the thug that needed to be approached and handled for walking through the neighborhood. Now, this voter fraud

thing echoing Trump's sentiments is a very scary thing. Obviously, this guy is a big fan of Donald Trump, and he's a favorite with conservatives. This guy has never been a politician before. He's a conservative radio show host who decided to elevate his status. And I mean, it be

hard to imagine me running for governor of Arizona. But if I said the right things to the right people and allowed them to feel a little bit better about themselves, as we've seeing time and again, that's the fast track to getting some And my thinking is, they can't actually believe this stuff. They have to like I don't anymore. But I used to listen to Tucker Carlson, who is perhaps the white face of white supremacy. But I got to think, and I'm like, he can't actually think that

this stuff is true. He's too intelligent. He's doing this on purpose. He's saying this on purpose because he knows that this is what works. He's a showman in the same way that Donald Trump is, except Tucker Carlson is a bit more intelligent. And in that same fashion, it feels like Larry Elder is doing the same thing, except he's black, and that is extremely harmful for black people when trying to appeal to other folks who lack perspect active into what the real day to day life is

like in black skin in this country. Now, you and IQ have had lots of talks about him and another person, Candice Owens, and she actually has a quote on the goings on in California. I'll get to that in a second, but first I want to know your thoughts on these types of people. I know you know some.

convince yourself they couldn't be possible. It's the same way a person reacts when someone that they know and care about does something heinous, right, like in their mind, there's no way that this person is capable of that. Or you'll hear someone in their own defense. You know, I couldn't have sexually assaulted anyone. I'm a father, I have daughters. As if that disqualifies you in some way. You know, we all have mothers. Every rapist in history has a mother.

Did not stop them from doing very vile, disrespectful, distasteful, horrible things to women. But in some people's minds, they want to believe in the goodness of someone or something so much that they convince themselves that that person or those people are not capable of anything bad. I think that's the very, very very small minority of people that

take this position. Then you have Stockholm syndrome. You know, people that just as a defense mechanism after each and train themselves feel a way about a person who's stumbed there under in order to survive. It's a survival technique that alters your mental state. And then you have the flat sellout who knows I just almost cursed, who knows darn well that the things that they're saying are blatantly false on their face, but they understand the platform it

will provide for them. If Civic Cipher we're a right leaning conservative show, and week after week we shot down the notion that white supremacy exists, we'd be millionaires in very short order. It would have already happened, right, So, that's a very easy path to take, especially for us, right,

not not everyone that takes that stance becomes famous. We would be super duper famous, really really fast if we took that position, with our same imaging, with our same logo, with our same everything, with DJ Swirl sitting next to us, with everything the same, but we just took that stance, we'd be on two hundred stations by Christmas and would be able to fund a very very lavish lifestyle based

on that stance. And some people, without hesitation take that route for that reason, to uplift themselves and at the expense of everyone else. Right, Because when you're prominent and you take that position, it not only allows the people who are the perpetrators to feel guilt free, but it perpetuates the ideas that they spew that these things that we face on a daily basis don't really exist, and that we are playing the victim and that we're creating

these shackles that are holding ourselves down. Harmful is an understatement. You know, the amount of damage that this causes and the amount of ears that it reaches is more than dangerous. You know, it's actually scary, man, because there are young people who aspire to have some position in life and see this sum as a route to having some measure of success and cloud and notoriety, and others who are just now as young people formulating their own positions and

views on these things. And elder might be the first person that they hear speak that they think knows what he's talking about, and they'll listen to what he's saying. And even if it's just one person, that's way too many people to have turned to the dark side, if you will. So it's it's hard to all the way have a stance on these people because I don't think they all come from the Candace Owen Jason Whitlock school of I'm just going to turn my back on my

people because it serves me school of thought. Unfortunately, all the ones that we're talking about are from that place. That's the only reason that we know who they are.

best not to lean too far into that. Try to get a consensus of how black people feel, not how a black person feels. And I think that you'll do okay, But in the case of these folks, you should really don't. Don't let the lights and the and the glitz and the glamour full you into thinking that there's some than there that isn't.

For those that don't know, check out the hashtag land Back.

being considered for acquisition. Other properties along the Chickahamani River in Charles City County, where tribal villages were located, are also of interest to the tribe. If you want to become a better ally, please look into this hashtag land Back. There are things that you can do as an individual

to support this initiative. Obviously this is a black show, but we do share this space and solidarity with our Native brothers and sisters, our Asian brothers and sisters, our White brothers and sisters, our Hispanic brothers and sisters, and so forth and so on, and today we are honored to be able to share this story on behalf of our native brothers and sisters. So once again, take a look into the hashtag land back now. Kawasaki Treewick. It's

a name that you may or may not know. We know the name because we were made aware of.

we take turns with the video. We don't want to become accustomed to trauma against black bodies. We don't want to become accustomed to black death. We don't want that to be the norm. And yet we have a journalistic responsibility here to discuss instances like this where there is a loss of black life at the hands of some governmental agency. Most frequently it is the police. So this

time it was my turn. I watched a man lose his life this week, and I'm grateful that my producer DJ Swirl and my co host Qward didn't have to watch that happen. I want to talk you through this and then we need to examine it, because I think in this story we are able to uncover a couple more layers of the callousness that police often have when dealing with black and brown bodies. Before I get there, though, I'm gonna read a little bit of this story to you.

Kawasaki Treywick was shot and killed in his Bronx apartment by a New York Police Department officer on April fourteen, twenty nineteen. Footage released last month. Finally, oh sorry.

I realize how difficult it is to create life. And after seeing so many videos of people losing their lives on the other side of a gun, often it is a soul crushing thing to witness. But here we are.

seemed to have more effeminate mannerisms. Now, I recognize, from knowing many of my homosexual brothers and sisters, or non binary brothers and sisters, or non gender conforming brothers and sisters, that sometimes life is a little bit harder. That is

definitely a strike against you if you're born in this country. Still, you know, there's been a lot of progress, but certainly a long way to go before homosexuality is as accepted and bullying reaches its minimal point and so forth and so on, and so I have to believe that if in fact that was the case with this man Kawasaki, that.

is a mental component that they're trying to address. There's some way they're trying to reconcile the world they live in. You know, I'm born, I deserve love, I seek love, and then every day of my life I feel pain or I feel rejection or whatever the case is, and it's very difficult to navigate. I would imagine, you know, I would never say that I know firsthand, but in an attempt to empathize several times over the years, I can imagine that that's a very difficult thing. To reconcile.

Now back to this video, what we see is that Kawasaki locks himself out of his apartment. The why couldn't tell you, but for some reason, he's in the hallway walking back and forth, and then he's knocking on the neighbors doors saying that the building is on fire. And then he calls the fire department and says the building is on fire, and there's a recording of that call, and then the fire department comes. They open the door to his apartment, let him back in, and under normal

circumstances that would be it. But you can kind of tell from the video that he's kind of doesn't really appear to be moving like how a normal person would move, you know. There seemed to be some confusion in his steps. You know, who knows. So he gets back in his house and a few minutes later the police arrive. Now

my understanding is that this is standard practice. Police show up along with the fireman or fire department, I should say, and do a surface level investigation or provide support to the to the fire department, or whatever the case is. So the police come to the house and they knock on the door, and then he doesn't open the door. I guess there's some communication through the door, but he has like a chain lock on the door, so it might be open just a bit. And the police ultimately

gain access to the house. Now Kawasaki is in the kitchen, and the front door opens into the kitchen. It's a small New York apartment, so the front door opens right into the kitchen. He's in the kitchen, and it looked like he might have been in a robe or something like that. And he's holding a bread knife in one hand and something else and the other I couldn't remember what I was, but a towel or a plate or something,

you know, whatever, something like that, just nothing harmful. But the bread knife, of course, is how the story gets twisted. So the younger officer, who's white is he starts saying, you know, put the knife down, put the knife down, put the knife down. The elder officer, the officer had been on the force much longer, I think it was seventeen years. The older officer was black. The younger officer

was white and on the force for three years. So the older officer was black, right, And of course Kawasaki Treewick is black. The older officer at several points tries to calm down the white officer, you know, because.

let's that we don't we don't need to do this. Hey, let's you know, I'm trying to, you know, exert some control over the situation. But immediately this younger officer went into paranoid mode. He immediately became afraid. There was no bravery shown in this video by New York's Bravest or whatever they're supposed to be. It immediately went to fear, which I I don't want you to watch it, but you would have to watch it to really understand what I'm trying to articulate here. But I'll move on. So

Kawasaki gets up, and now he's very much upset. He's like trying to back away from the door. He's he's, you know, he's very upset. He's why would you do that? Why are you doing this to me?

not serving anyone. They're murdering someone who needs help. Regardless of who they are, regardless of what they've been through, there should be dignity assigned to life, right and in my estimation, I never saw anything that looked like an attack. And if there was an attack, if you could make a case for an attack, all you have to do is move away from the door, because he can only get at you through the doorway. If you move away from the door, then you have a few more feet

to continue your negotiation. And at the last second, then you can discharge a weapon a way. You know, show me some bravery, show me some leniency, show me some respect for human life that's not present in this video.

you're standing and there's two people standing around. You're moving in your kitchen, like, yo, why are you doing this?

They've been getting better training and better training and better training for many years and they go out and they kill people. So that's not working. Let's try something else. Let's re examine this idea of defunding the police and have an open mind about it. Another note, the more experienced officer, as I mentioned, Herbert Davis, who was black, repeatedly told his partner Brendan Thompson, who was white, to

use force against Treywick. Thompson nonetheless open fire on Treywick, first with a taser, then with a gun, killing Treywick. Other officers converged on the building in the bronx after the officer who fired at Treywick reported quote shots fired in quote. Many of the arriving officers activated body worn cameras which captured what they said. And this is the part that really stood out. This is actually what sucked

us back in the disdirection. So in the video, one of the officers, sorry one A sergeant asks who's injured as she arrives in front of the door, and two officers respond in near unison quote nobody, just a purp end quote. Now I want to quote Treywick's mother. Her name is Ellen Trewick, and she told this to the pro public publication that I got a lot of these notes from.

where he died laid on the floor. And then as more police converged onto the scene, who's injured, nobody, We're all fine, Nobody just a purp. Who's injured? Like, is anyone injured? Nobody? Just a purp? And I guarantee, I guarantee. If the officer had shot a dog, there's just a different reaction. Like you're listening to my voice, you're listening to the show. Imagine hearing this story, but except for a black man, the officer burst into a house and

shot a dog. How upsetting that would be to all the people that you know. But because it's just a black man, you have to hear about this story from civic cipher. That's why this show exists because it's not on CNN, it's not on Fox News. Of course, it's not big enough to make it there. And yet this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where our interactions with the people who are supposed to protect and service causes us more fear than just dealing with

the problem ourselves. I've never called the police in my life, and I never would. Why would I do that they're gonna show. Oh, I take that back. I did call the police one time. I remember this, and I told them. I went to a convenience store and I told them, Hey, this is what happened. I'm the good guy, this is what I'm wearing, this is the car I'm driving, and this is the interaction that you have to have with

the police. And I didn't need them for anything, just to document something that had happened, but I needed them to.

examining the institution of policing in this country. We have to be very honest about it. It is since its inception, been exceptionally unfair to black people, to brown people, to Asian people, pretty much to anyone who's not a white male landowner in this country. And I think that this story certainly echoes that. Now I got, I had to get that out. I'm so sorry. I just talked and talked and talked, but I got like a minute. And I do want to hear your thoughts on it, because

I know you didn't get to see it. But how does that hit you? Q?

with the exact same circumstances and the exact same outcome. Right, And there's no outrage because the purp was black, not because he was a criminal, because I've seen white purps wielding assault rifles while murdering people be apprehended safely and taken for food. Yeah, so purp was not the word they wanted to use. But the body cams are on and these things are recording, and someone might hear me say this, So no, no one's hurt, just this black dude that we shot because we felt like it. We

weren't scared. And then you said that too for us, and I don't subscribe to it wasn't fear right, you're afraid when someone's pointing in AK forty seven at you when you see the black man and that being his crime crime number one, his skin, right, And if you're conservative, right leaning, heterosexual, Christian white police officer, him being a bit of feminine might also be a crime to you.

So I've decided today that that bread knife is all I needed to see to justify to myself murdering this guy. And I know that my fraternity of officers, because you said, they said this in Unison, will feel like it's okay. I just killed a purp, Like, what's the problem. Why is everybody so upset? No, we're fine. We just knocked on his door and murdered him. We're fine, We're cool. I don't know what the big deal is. Y'all want to go get some donuts?

no female astronauts. Jemison was inspired by African American actress Michelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhara on the Star Trek television show. From that point on, she was determined to one day travel in space. Fluent in Russian, Japanese, and Swahili, Jemison joined the Peace Corps in nineteen eighty three and served as a medical officer for two years in Africa. Once Sally Ryde became the first American woman in space in eighty three, she decided to apply to the astronaut

program at NASA. She applied in nineteen eighty five, but the Shuttle Challenger exploded in nineteen eighty six and NASA took a break from accepting new people. She applied again in nineteen eighty seven and was one of fifteen people chosen out of two thousand applications. She received her first mission on September twenty eighth of eighty nine as a mission specialist, and on September twelfth of ninety two, she and six other astronauts went into space on the space

show Endeavor. After hearing that she was a fan of the show, Star Trek, actor LeVar Burton asked Jemison to appear in an episode. She agreed and became the first real astronaut to be on an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation. She played Lieutenant Palmer in the episode Oh Second Chances. In addition to her many awards, Jamison has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame. This all comes courtesy of Women's History dot Org.

and their life is snuffed out. And yeah, it's just crazy. But you know, both with plenty of melanin. I do want to say this though, you know, I don't really get to share a lot of personal stuff on the show because we have to talk about, you know, the goings on in the world. But I am I'm becoming a proud Treky.

or you know, you know whatever. And I think there's a disconnect when people ignore the fact that a lot of times crime and criminal behavior runs along the money line, you know, and if there's less money, then there's a lot more in the way of criminal I guess by definition behavior. You know, people just trying to put two and two together. You know, there's lots of people. I'm

sure that everybody listening to this. If you've ever had any money problems in your life, the first thing that your imagination goes to, if your imagination is somewhat based in reality, is the first criminal thing that you can do to make ends meet. Now, imagine being twice as desperate and living in an environment a great deal of hopelessness, while still having access to that imaginary scenario, you know, and potentially having it come true and you'll be able

to bridge gap. And so you end up with a lot of those criminal behaviors, not just for black people, but everywhere there's less money. And so this is why there's always been a push to create more equitable employment opportunities to minimize on things like that. But anyway, the point is is that I think this shows that skin color is an imaginary thing that exists in society that separates us. Now we know that it does, but the fact that it's so pronounced in the world is not

based in anything scientific. It's just something that we hold against each other. But in terms of our capacity to reach you know, astronaut levels of you know whatever, then yeah, it's not holding us back at all. You know, everybody is just as capable, female, black, et cetera. With that said, it's about time for us to wrap it up, So any last thoughts.