Welcome to another episode of Sidik Zacher. I am your host, Ramsey's Jah.
He'd be telling y'all his name is Ramsey's Jah. It's a stage name. They do call me q Ward though those are my that's my actual first initial, my actual last name, ramses Jah stage name. Thank you for that. The people need to know. Man, I'm in the presence of a celebrity over here.
Man, I love it, and we have another show for you. This one is a little interesting, got a little fire under it. Anxious to get into this one. You know, I love it.
When you described the show, you really set a stage that has a little inkling that it might be all right by the end.
So listen, man, stick around, because this episode we're going to talk about a few things.
Unless you've been under a rock, you have heard about our.
Countrymen on the right who had sent migrants to various parts of the country DC Martha's Vineyard, et cetera, performing a political stunt. So obviously we need to weigh in on that. So we're going to be talking about that. We're I was going to talk about somebody who we never thought we'd end up talking about on this show, but for some reason, this.
Guy just came out of left field with some strange stuff. Not quite out of left field. I he's been kind of moving in that direct. He's been trending that way for years for a while.
Yeah, but we're talking about Bill Maher. He had a lot to say about.
Slavery, and.
He's trying to, we'll say, remove some of the responsibility of the legacy of slavery from this country's narrative. And so we're definitely going to peel back those layers. You knew you were going to get right here on civic ciphers, So stay tuned for that and more. But first and foremost, we are going to discuss some ebony excellence. How do that feel?
Shall we? Shall? So?
This week's Ebony Excellence is sponsored by Major Threads, where high fashion meets timeless men's where check out Major threads dot com. Story comes via Black Enterprise nineteen count nineteen. HBCU schools are Fullbright institutional leaders.
All right, here we go.
The US Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has recognized nineteen historically black colleges and universities. That's what HBCU stands for as fulbright historically black college and university institutional leaders. The recognition is based on the strong partnerships between the Fulbright Program and the HBCUs between the twenty twenty and twenty twenty two academic years and the
nineteen HBCUs schools span across thirteen states. The Fullbright Program is the premier student exchange program for the US government, as an has teamed with a many distinguished diversity related groups, colleges and universities. Quote this is an exceptional note of distinction unquote. This comes by a Tuskegee president, Charlotte P. Morris, who goes on to say, we have always known the caliber of students and faculty whose vigorous academic work influences
our society in a variety of areas. This acknowledgement will help our students and the broader communities see the enormous value our university brains. So big shout out to all nineteen of the HBCUs. That obviously is abny excellence. And Maggie B. Noan was not going to let us get this week off she do. She wasn't gonna let us get this week off without mentioning that. And so we dedicated the whole Abny excellence to it, because you know
that's what we're here to do. So again, shout out to all those schools for blazing the trail for future Avenue excellence. Now I have to assume that you've been under a rock, you know, So I'm gonna paint a picture for you and read a little bit of a story.
This comes via Yahoo newsh Tucker Carlson goes on racist rant to celebrate migrants and their relocation to Martha's Vineyard, So the story goes, Tucker Carlson went on a race rant while celebrating what he called the quote happy story of Florida Governor Ronda Santis sending two immigrant field plains
to Martha's Vineyard this week. As the sun was rising in Washington, d C. On Thursday morning, two buses carying about one hundred migrants from Del Rio, Texas, arrived outside Vice President Kamala Harris's residence at the Naval Observatory in the city's northwest quadrant. It was the latest political stunt by Republicans to protest President Joe Biden's immigration policies by
sending way of migrants to far flung US locations. Chosen to maximize political impact and conservatively only twenty four hours earlier, Florida Governor Rondez Santis sent two private planes with about fifty migrants from Venezuela and Colombia to Martha's Vineyards Airport on Wednesday afternoon, with no warning to local officials.
So that's the story you want to go first. I want to talk about these things being criminal, but I'd rather just talk about them being inhumane and cruel and just mean, like once upon a time, and I don't have to go. You know, back prior to us being.
Born, when I was in college, September eleventh, two thousand and one, I was in the bookstore at Bowling Green State University with some of my teammates picking up our books, and all of a sudden, all of the TVs tuned to what was going on at the Towers in New York, and all of us, no matter who we voted for, no matter what our political stance, no matter what our socioeconomic background, no matter our race, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender, no matter any of that stuff, we all not only
stood in awe, but in very very short orders, stood in solidarity. No matter who we thought failed leading.
Up to that, No matter the number of conspiracy theories that were produced after that, no matter what our actual stance on how it happened, what happened and all of that stuff, whether you supported Bill Clinton or George Bush or Al Gore or whatever, in that moment, a lot of people died and our country was under attack externally, and maybe the only moment in my lifetime there were not just some things that we could agree on, but there was a monumental singularity in how our country responded
to what transpired on September eleventh. What we've witnessed in the last five six years has in my lifetime been the most damning, hartisan, divisive hate field. Politicians used to attempt to get bipartisan support on things, because even though our political ideals differ, there have always been certain things that the country was united on, and we have very very clearly reached a point where that is no longer true. The realities are different. Even yeah, what we all consider
to be facts aren't even the same. And I've spoken to you, you know, when the mics were not recording about you know, do I raise my children here? If you've not heard the show before, Ramses and I both have mixed children, and being a minority in this country has always been challenging, but currently being black and Hispanic, Wow accommodation, you know what I mean? And that there are not just people who are celebrating this but making so light of it that they think it's funny to
do this to people. Based on whether or not you feel like proper immigration policy is in place or not, or proper steps were taken or not, you still shouldn't wish harm and fear and these levels of discomfort and can fusion on people.
I going to make sure that I add something here from what I've read, All of the people that were shipped away from Texas to end up in DC and March's vineyard, they were all legally going through the legal channel. Yes they were applying for asylum, Yes they were. So these weren't even people that broke the rules, but go ahead.
Well, I mean case in point, these were people that were manipulated and taking advantage of sure and displaced in a way that the most basic human morals right, the golden rule, the dow onto others, like come on, man, could you imagine these same people getting off of a plane that they thought was headed towards I guess in their case of vacation, right, like maybe maybe going on vacation while the people in the people in your constituency
freeze to death because they don't have any power. So you and your family go on vacation and leave the people that voted for you defend for themselves. But when you got off of that plane, it was not to the destination you thought you were going to, but to a country where you did not know the law, the rules, or speak the language and had no help. There was
no one there to greet you or support you. You were just now stranded in some foreign place with no connections, with no relationships, with no help.
So let me jump in here too. So to your point, these people were put on buses, planes and then buses. Right, they were given these like comical silly maps of where they were to where they were going, right, they were told that they were going to go to Boston or wherever their jobs would be waiting for them.
You know these things.
And the crazy part about it is, you know some of these people had to check in at different offices
around the country. This is how, in very short order to write so in like two days or Monday morning, you're gonna have to check in and you know, Washington State or and you know, uh, you know, one of the Carolinas or some destination that you couldn't get to in that amount of time, right, especially coming to a country where you don't have anything, you don't have a place to stay yet, you know, so it was it was cruelty the highest order to the people.
But we knew that.
Let's talk about for a moment, this Republican stunt, for what purposes they intended to accomplish.
Right, And.
You know, I Charlemagne said something Charlemagne had got He said he called it a brilliant move, which that language doesn't feel like the type of language I would use, but I know what he means. He's saying it's brilliant in the way that Hitler was brilliant, you know what I mean. He was a smart dude, He accomplished a lot. He was just evil, right, And this is something that is very difficult to divorce from the especially this new GOP.
These are not people who are uninformed, These are not people who are not smart, and these are not people who do not know how to play the game. You know, the master of it all was the former president. You know, that's not He's not as smart as he plays himself out to be, but he's not as stupid as we think he is.
Right, and.
To get all of this attention on this issue is exactly what they were going for. But I would posit that immigration is not nearly as big of an issue as they make it out to be. That's not to say that it's not a big issue. It's not to say that we need to figure out answers, but they make it into this huge boogeyman. Now, bear in mind there's a midterm election coming up. Bear in mind that they lost a lot of momentum when Roebi Wade was overturned.
Bear in mind Biden is making a lot of covering a lot of you know grounds with his student loan forgiveness and this sort of stuff. And so for them to pull this political stunt at the cost of these actual human beings, because they're trying to be strategic and get back some points headed into the midterms, they're playing you know, the greatest hits, the rural, southern, poor white conservative person's greatest hits. You know, they're talking jobs, immigration, this sort of stuff.
They don't take our guns, don't take our jobs, whole life, right, immigration, protect our borders stuff they don't actually care about. Sure, but that they know, well, these folks had a president who campaigned on building a wall. These folks have the ability to donate to this man building a wall. These folks, you know, they had four years to build a wall. You know, the right company could have knocked it up in six months. It's a wall, you know what I mean?
And I think that they use that. They probably don't even want a wall, They just use it because it allows them another boogieman. I mean that they can use it, right, And the most hurtful thing about it is that there is a base that needs this to be true because their whole, the framework of the world is built around this stuff. You know what I mean? Now, you and I we live in a border state. We live in Arizona. Right. Is there crime in Arizona? Sure? You know? Is there?
Does there need to be you know, uh, immigration reform? Who's to say? I would I would say perhaps, right? But does immigration does the lack of whatever immigration laws that these folks want, does that mean that our reality is like hell on Earth?
Every day. Absolutely not. You know, our kids go to school. You know, we're for the most part safe. It's not like we're living in a war zone. And the way that they play this up, it feels like they're scaring people with something that's not really true. You know, again, these are asylum seekers. You know, they come here looking for work, They promise work, They get on the plane and they go looking for the work. Right And one thing, well,
what I got you. One thing I do want to say is imagine how this looks for the folks in Martha's Vineyard, the people who, Okay, so there's now fifty families here that we are there now in our community. They came here under false pretenses and they were looking for work. They were looking for something. So now all these folks get to be the heroes. They get to say, well listen, all right, well shoot, come on, let's help you out. And that's what they did.
They sent them to Martha's Vineyard because the Obamas have a house that they sent them to DC because, as mentioned Kamala Harris's houses in d C.
They're being strategic with this.
And.
I as much as I would like to think that it backfired because you know, the folks that live in Martha's vineyard, the folks that that were on the ground really responded to these families for the right, for their news outlets, for their you know, pundits, for their talking points, on and on and on. They're being celebrated like, yeah, that's how you show it that own.
The Libs they get the point and say ha.
Ha, right, And so again they're not doing it to get more the votes away from the Democratic liberal voter. You know, they're they're not trying to get votes away. They're trying to fire up their base. And so to Charlotte's point, again, I wouldn't have described it as brilliant, you know, but I kind of see the point that he's making, and it's it's very sad because again there's
a there's a human cost here. From what I understand, Republicans have been absolutely unwilling to work with anything that the Democrats put forward. You know, this is this is something that was said by Mitch McConnell says, my priority in the Senate is to oppose every piece of legislation from this administration. A that's effectually what he said. I read it recently. Again, his sole purpose when he walks into the Senate. My job is to stop them from
doing anything that they want to do. Right, he will find fault with it. He won't be you know, it could be like, Okay, this gets us ninety percent of what we want, but if it gets them ten percent of what the they want?
Any answers, No, it's just you know what I'm trying to say.
So for them to then say, well, you know, immigration is a completely leftist it's Biden's policy.
But and then most of the people don't even make the connections. It's so it's it's theater. The thing is.
Unfortunately a good amount of people, it's their reality, you know, and.
Or at least they've convinced themselves of it. Sure, Sure, it's not. Actually our immigration policies have zero effect on their daily lives. Wow, that's what I'm trying to say, Like zero, zero, not.
Kind of, not a little bit none, And that they get so riled up about something that absolutely has zero effect on their lives.
It's kind of the story of that party. Oh, that all of the things that they oppose the most have no effect on them personally. Sure sure, and their constituents. Unfortunately, that that vote for them. And that's the sad part. They've shown that there are millions of people that support their ideology and that support them. They turn out and they vote, and they're against their own best.
Sure, sure, but there's something here. Okay, So this is something that we've said a lot. They vote against their own interests, and you know what, to be honest, they think that we vote against our own interest you know, black folks in particular. Right, So let's say they're just voting with their values and we're voting with our values, which is fair. Hey, Look, I believe in hard work.
I believe if a guy makes a billion dollars, he should be able to keep it, you know, blah blah blah, you know, and I believe in guns.
The forefathers set it up this way.
So this is how I want it, you know what I mean that that could be a belief system whatever, right.
Conveniently, but it could be.
And if we're not, if we're going to allow each individual to live their reality, if we were to allow them that, then that would be fair. The problem that I have with that way of thinking and with things that end up manifesting like what we're seeing in this story. Is that.
People stoop two levels that by any definition would constitute cruel coolness, cruelty.
Ah, It's like the human component of human element is not there.
You know, there's there's this because you're not though wh if you're a lib or, you're a Democrat, you're not a human. And they dismissed the idea that we ask human beings have anything in common. That's why that was my whole point. We no longer have anything in common to them. Well, we have to, this is my thinking.
You know, me, I'm always going to be this person, but I feel like we have to care about each other.
Okay, except they don't. This is the problem collectively. They don't know this is the problem.
And so like if again, if it's a matter of a difference of Hey, my beliefs are my values you know, reflect this, and your values reflect that. I believe that human values should move us to care for each other. Right, And you know, we've made a lot about conservativism on this show that a lot of it really looks like the perpetuating of white supremacist institutions and ideas and disenfranchisement of black people in the black vote by a gerrymandering and by a racist policies and so forth and so
on that disproportionately harm black communities. They might harm all communities, but they disproportionately affect us and oftentimes disproportionately benefit folks that are white. And there's this kind of veil over it that makes it seem American, you know, when the truth is it's it's really white, and this is right and masterful the way they do it. The thing is some of us can see right through it.
The problem is.
That now we're talking about them using other human beings for this dog and pony show that's not based in a reality as you mentioned, that really affects people in that way. You know, they make a big deal out of welfare, they make it, make a big deal all these sort of social policies. But the fact is, as soon as there's a pandemic, guess where we got.
We got money for days. Soon as there's a war, we got money for days. You know what I'm saying. When it comes to helping people, you have money for everyone else.
And when it comes to billions that we send to Ukraine, exactly my point, but we send nothing to Flint or Mississippi,