And now watching my mic back, you're like that you can strike.
Waters from headquarters behind him and the line.
If you're just tuning into Civic Cipher, I'm your host, ramses Jack.
I typically say they call me q Ward, but then that makes it seem like there's just this segregated me over here somewhere that calls me that everybody calls me q So it's not even like I can't even say they anymore. You know, I'm q Ward. I am q ward.
That's my Instagram handle too. By the way, listen, then give this man to follow.
Yeah, I am q Ward. I can't even you know, it's not they that called me that. Everyone calls me that, including my mom.
Yes, indeed.
Uh But stick around. We got a lot more show coming your way. We will be talking about Philadelphia banning some traffic stops in hopes of making a more equitable police for all folks, and what that might result in in our way Black History of Fact, We're going to talk about forty acres and a mule.
But first it's time to become a better ally.
And today what I want to talk about is another movie. You know, in the first half of the show, we talked about the harder they fall. Being number one on Netflix, will shout out to them.
Right.
If we haven't seen it, go see it.
Please do not a.
True story, but true characters exactly.
But in order to become a better ally today, we collectively recommend you check out another movie.
This one is called King Richard.
We talked about this a bit before, but we're getting real close to the actual release date and there's a lot of hype around the film.
And I really think it's important for folks to check it out.
For those that don't know, King Richard is about the Williams family, Venus and Serena, the famous tennis players, and it's really their father's story. Their father is King Richard is played by Will Smith in the movie. And you know, for for lots of things that folks might not know about. You know, there might be folks who've been freshly clicked on to what the black experience might be like since
twenty twenty. You know, you might have heard things like, you know, black folks have to be twice as good to be good enough, you know, things like that. I really feel like this movie is going to touch on things like that because for years we've known we didn't have to know the Venus and Serena William's story in order to.
Know what they had to go through, dark.
Skinned black women from Compton and Watts, you know what I mean to get to the top of the world in their field. So you know, it's there's a ready assumption for us. But you know, it's always helpful to provide context, you know, and you know, I believe this movie will illuminate some of that and you.
Know, further create.
Or deepened the empathetic connection that we've kind of started cultivating with each other black folks and non black folks. And so, you know, in order to become a better ally, at least for this week, we recommend you checking out King Richard, so you know, put.
It on your calendars and shout out to Will Smith.
By the way, in this.
New world that we live in, movie theaters are not thriving in the way that they once did. So Will Smith has either negotiated for his co stars or taken money from his own salary to make sure that the people working on the movie got bonuses that they typically would have gotten from movie tickets sales that at least don't exist anymore. Because the movie is not just coming out in theaters but being streamed simultaneously, and because of that, a lot of people just stay home and watch movies now.
So Will Smith to make a more equitable world for his team, co stars and the crew for the movie made sure that people got those bonuses. So talk about becoming a better ally, He's doing it in a very very kinetic way.
Yeah, pay people, we'll get there. We got to talk about forty acres and a mual two. But yeah, shout out to Will Smith. He's good for that, him and jay Z. But for all the stuff that they get online, they they put their money where their mouth is. I'll say that much, you know, because I don't know what I don't know, but I've seen lots of stories and lots of examples have been doing just that.
So now, traffic stops, Q. Have you ever been pulled over before?
Unfortunately in the pitch black in the middle of the night in Mississippi and a new Porsche.
Oh man, that sounds like a fun night.
In the Southern United States, at the height of one of the most polarizing summers in this country's history. Racially, I was pulled over.
You know, that's that's a funny story because I was pulled over in that same porch with you.
Well, as it turns out, Uh, it's something that we knew for a long time. Uh. We used to call this driving while black. Basically, what it means is you got pulled over because you were black. There was some minor, very minor infraction. You know, maybe I switched lanes and I didn't signal, or maybe I whatever just the smallest.
Of things, right, Maybe I rode too close to the dividing line and then it made a cost a vibrating noise which then caused a state trooper h and county sheriff to pull me.
Over in a minute of the night and men get a dog and then called drug dogs, who has.
It turned out, smelled drugs in the brand new porch that we just picked up in Florida.
When there was no man Because maybe in the parking lot somebody who had drugs on them brushed up against the car six hundred miles ago.
Yeah, and the odors stayed on the car outside of the car while we were driving. Yes, maybe that happened. For those that don't know, obviously, this is a story that Q and I share. This actually happened, and the officers actually said that to us after they got the dogs. The dogs quote indicated the presence of drugs. They searched the brand new car and there was nothing in it.
And then they told us that that someone might have leaned up against the car the last time we got gassed, and they might have had a joint in their pocket, and that's what the dog's smelling. And we're in the middle of no, we're having driven maybe it was about four hundred miles by then because we were close to the Louisiana Anyway, that's a real story that happened. But I digress. Driving while black.
It's the thing.
We've known about this for a long time, and it's a how do I say this? It's one of the primary ways that police can probe into our individual lives. They can do a deep search with whatever it is that you have on your person. They can find out who you are, whether or not you've have been wanted for anything, whether or not you've done anything in your past.
They can find out what's on your person. They can, you know, whatever, and if they want to escalate things once they have you pulled over for the initial infraction, whatever, it may be maybe they can detain you there usually until they find something that they want to you know him you up on.
Now, we and this is not just black people. There's a lot of people.
We don't believe that this happens in the same way to we'll say white folks. I can't say non black folks because I do from California, so I and I live in Arizona, so I'm familiar with the way police interact with my Hispanic brothers and sisters, or my LATINX brothers and sisters, as well as Native folks and you know, other melanated types of individuals.
But we do recognize that.
The same protocol and practice isn't put in play when the driver is a white person as often or with as a extreme of an implementation. With that said, traffic stops usually end up resulting in something crazy when they do, you know, like like the instance we just mentioned, you know, getting pulled over. Obviously, you know, we don't have any acute Have you ever done a drug in your life?
Had an ad vial like three days ago because I had a splitting headache?
Well I should I should say this right then? Have you ever done an illegal drugs. I guess I'm sorry. I'd feel as as a name brand profen. Okay, okay, it's what it's called in the in the medical world.
Got it, got it. But in any illegal drug ever in your life.
Illegal and or recreational. Never in my life. Perfect, same is true with me. And you've never drank alcohol. I've never drank alcohol, even so that we could have this kind.
I have unfortunately tasted alcohol, but I have never had a drink.
Oh well, I've never you know, same pretty much.
And it's gross.
It smells like it tastes that. Don't know, it is gross.
Anyway, that's just me. You know, I have a fun life without all that. I got a good story here.
Anyway. It's so crazy that we would get pulled over.
And almost every time I've gotten pulled over, the line of questioning goes to have you been drinking, which, from what I understand, is standard practice, especially if you're out at two in the morning. You know, Q and I are both DJs for those that don't know, and we work late. We work weekends, you know, when folks typically go out and a lot of folks drink, so that's standard practice, no issue there. But you know, getting pulled over in the daytime, unless you're doing like some gross
speeding thing or something like that. The line of questioning often goes to do you have weapons or drugs in the car that I should know about? Which might be standard practice for everybody, for every police department across the country. Again, I'm not trying to say what the protocol should or shouldn't be. You know, however they get down, that's how they get down. But I don't imagine that dogs.
Get called on everybody.
You know, only in cases where we think these people might be criminals. And the funniest part of the story is that, you know, you and I are the furthest thing from that.
You know.
I told a story before when I got pulled over near the airport one time. This was in Arizona. I got pulled over near the airport and pulled out of the car, and I told the officers same thing. I just said, I've never done a drug, I've never drank alcohol. And they said, oh yeah, well.
How about this.
Why don't we pull you out, handcuff you, sit you on the side of the freeway, and we're going to search the car. You know, after I'd already given them permission to do it. I'm like, you're not going to find anything in here, And later the officer told me that's exactly what someone who does meth would say, and I was like, wow, you know what a stretch.
You know.
Now again, I need to make my point here, traffic stops overwhelmingly target black drivers, especially in densely populated places like Philadelphia and rather escalated traffic stops.
We'll say it that way.
Or you know you have dogs, you have you know, extra more aggressive tactics deployed. I'm gonn handcuff, You'm gonna sity on the side of the street. I'm gonna get the dogs. I'm gonna call back up. I'm gonna do this sort of thing, right, So those things overwhelmingly on the other end of it is a black driver. Again, we call that driving while black. Well, we've seen how policing oftentimes leads to you know, scared police who pull their weapon and murder people on the side of the road.
We've seen how policing disproportionately affects black and over Policing disproportionately affects black and brown communities because you know where you put the police. That's where the arrests are going to be made, you know. And that's not to say that crime doesn't happen elsewhere, it's just not policed in.
The same way.
Right Philadelphia their city council on in this. A lot of these notes come from Channel twenty nine. In Philadelphia, they had a city council vote for a driver driving Equity Bill, which basically bars police from stopping drivers from minor traffic violations.
I'll read a little bit about it.
In primary violations, police officers are permitted to conduct traffic stops in the name of public safety. In secondary violations, the traffic stop would no longer be used for enforcement. And these are what are considered secondary violation according to their Driving Equity Bill. One is the vehicle is not registered within sixty days of the observed infraction. The registration plate is not clearly displayed, fastened or visible, single brake light, headlight, running light, etc.
Not illuminated.
That's another big thing that I've been pulled over before, and I've heard lots of times your license plate, light bulb is out, you know, and instead of saying, hey, your light bulb is out, you might want to get that fixed, it's hey, your light bulb is out, where you step out of the car. Have you had anything to drink? Where you're going, where you're coming from? Do you have anything in the cars? You know about any weapons?
Have you done drugs? You know, like all this sort of interrogation sort of the thing, and at best it's harassment. At worst it's obviously a death sentence. Minor obstructions. I believe that to be like moving instructions, Like I said, maybe switching lanes without you know, using a blinker bumper issues, operation of vehicle without official certificate of inspection. This might be a Philadelphia thing, or unlawful operation without evidence of
emissions inspection. So these are the things that folks cannot be pulled over for. And what I imagine they're doing is instead of pulling a person over and pulling them out of their car, they're taking the license plate number, sending it in and then this person gets a letter
in the mail saying, hey, we've observed this. You can either fix it or pay this fine, right, which minimizes the amount of police interaction, which if according to police, you know, if these traffic stops are very scary, intense situations, should be good for police too, because now they don't have to pull out their guns and they don't have to be terrified walking up to a car that they just pulled over for.
Quote unquote breaking the law. And you know, everyone should be happier in theory. What do you think.
For those of you who have listened to this program before, you realize that every time my brother does this, I interject, And it's because he is the far more graceful, gracious, and optimistic one of the two gives cops the out of being afraid and that it's complete bull crap. They use hate and in a lot of times racism, and then they cry scared after they murder people while they
have guns and the people that they murder don't. So every time my brother says that these cops are afraid, I raise my hand and interject, because maybe one in ten, maybe one in fifty of those officers was actually scared for his life. But when the people that you shoot in the back are running away from you, it is very very difficult for me to accept that you did that because you were afraid. Officer such and such. Yeah, you're right, I think it shows that that person was
afraid if they're running away. I mean, I've unfortunately had to run away from a gun before, and I realized that bullets go a lot faster than my legs do. But it's a scary situation nonetheless. But yeah, you're absolutely right.
The thing is, I think that with our show, I try to account for a person who might be we'll call them a moderate folks that really believe that police are doing the best that they can ten times out of ten, you know, and don't account for the fact that there might actually be a lot more bad apples than they they then they're comfortable within their version of the story, right, They like that few bad apples.
Motif if you will.
And you know, we we recognize there's a long form of systemic, you know, institutional oppression on one specific community or really a couple of different communities, you know, And so in order to speak to that person and to allow them their truth, you know, I think that a lot of times my approach just doesn't you know, cognitive bias exists, and I don't want a person listening to us to say, oh, this is another one of those people and turn us off, rather to listen a little
bit further. So I appreciate you interjecting, because you are absolutely right. I know that you're right, and I'm sure most people that are listening know that you're right. But there might be some folks who are you know, they might be related to a police art they might you know, they from their perspective and their vantage point, they have to see the best in what this institution is.
Please and ladies and gentlemen, what you just listen to is another thing that Rams just kind of makes fun of me for, and it's that he just made very clear that there is a lot of context and nuance to both sides of all of the discussions that we have, and listening to him explain that made it make complete sense why he presents it the way that he does. And this is the last show on Civic Cipher. Well, I will interject, no, all.
The fear is nonsense narrative, because what he just says is important. It is important for us to get further than that part of the message into what could be education and solution and reprieve and forgiveness and progress that has to come after that. And we still need people who don't agree with all of the takes that we have and all of the points of view that we share to listen and maybe hear something that they wouldn't
have otherwise. So thank you Ramses for being that even kill and that open minded and having the foresight to know that we need the people to not turn the station as soon as they turn it.
On, right, right, that's fair.
But please I digress interject as often as you can. You know, I'm sure there's a lot of folks where this is their first episode.
You know.
Fortunately this past week our show has been picked up in a few new cities. So to all of our new listeners, welcome. Please check out civicsipher dot com and download this and any previous episodes, and you know, get caught up to speed, and we hope that you'll ride with us as we try to make, you know, it a little bit easier for us to all be brothers and sisters better brothers and sisters to each other on
this in this country and on this planet. You know, it's a much bigger vision, but for now, we live in the US, So this is what we're talking about now. I do want to read this quote going back to the Philadelphia banning the minor traffic stops, and again this comes from Channel Channel twenty nine article out of Philadelphia. Quote, data and lived experiences showed us the problem, and data will likely be key to making sure this is done right, said council member Isaiah Thomas.
Quote.
Data will tell us if we should end more traffic stops or amend how this is enforced. Data will also tell other cities that Philadelphia is leading on this civil rights issue and it can be replicated.
Quote, so this is based on numbers.
Philadelphia is obviously a huge city, huge population center in this country. And for them to take a step like this to try to make things right, you know, it's it's one thing, if it's and I want to say this to it, and I do want to hear a little bit more of your thoughts to you. It's one thing to say, you know that all of these crimes are the fault of black people breaking the law.
Right.
I get that, I understand that. But if we're doing this across the board, then what we need is the same amount of policing done in all parts of every city.
Right.
That means the same amount of people getting pulled over who are non black and you know, non non Latin X, non melanated, and then the impact on those people's lives and and that the the traffic stops are as intrusive, you know, And then if we compare it apples to Apple, then we would really see is this a violation of you know, your civil liberties, which a lot of folks on the right and a lot of folks who are.
Moderates as well, really want to protect. You know. This is why police don't just come into your house.
Right But if there's a traffic stop, if they can have reasonable suspicion or probable cause, and they can get a dog that will you know, whatever, then there's ways to wiggle in there. And this is why police don't cuminate your house and they do go to your car.
Right.
But again, if we spread this out evenly across the board for all races, then we would see more numbers because excuse me again, as the data shows, and we're gonna pick on marijuana this time. Obviously marijuana is becoming more and more legal as time goes on. But over the course of you know, the war on drugs, there's I forget the exact numbers, so we I'm gonna have
to look them up and get back to you. But I do know that more black men have been in prison for marijuana possession or violations or whatever then white folks. But the users are approximately the same, with I think the edge being there's slightly more white users, and this is proportional to the population, so it would be like one in three or something like that, so roughly the same numbers, but there are more black people in prison for it, despite black people only making up thirteen percent
approximately of the population of this country. So that goes to show you that these traffic stops have had an adverse effect and a domino effect on the black community. You know, when you have folks that are introduced into the system and then now it becomes tougher to get jobs, and you're taking black men away from families, things like this. Despite how good of Father's black people are according to the CDC study in twenty fourteen, black men are excellent Father's Q.
You would agree, right, I'm laughing, because we're the greatest of all time.
Yes, absolutely, that is true according to the CDC look at us. But also, you know some of the things about some of the stereotypes about black men not being in the homes, things like this. You know, a lot of these problems you can trace back to this war on this misguided war on drugs, and the front facing end of this war on drugs is a lot of
times police traffic stops. So we're gonna have to stop it right there and probably have to do a follow up with this, But it will be interesting to find out how this unfolds in the coming months.
And years of exactly what the result of this will be.
But for now, we do have to move on to our way black history fact. Today, we're going to talk about forty acres and a mule that might have been something you might have heard of or maybe come up in school or whatever. We're gonna piel back a couple of layers. And I was inspired to kind of go in this direction today because you and I wanted to talk about the.
The watermelon trope.
You know that the black folks love watermelons that you know, goes all the way back to like, you know, slavery, or rather, are watermelons racist?
And so.
Forty acres in a mule like watermelons, was in theory supposed to be a way that black folks, once emancipated, could have some sort of economic independence and economic future, a way to care for themselves and their posterity. So this article comes from PBS dot org. I've kind of
edited down for time. The author was Henry Lewis Gates Junior, and I will begin The promise was the first systemic, sorry systematic, attempt to provide a form of reparation to newly freed slaves, and it was astonishingly radical for its time pro socialists and its implications. In fact, such a
policy would be radical in any country today. The federal government's massive confiscation of private property some four hundred thousand acres formerly owned by Confederate landowners, and its methodical redistribution to former black slaves.
What most of.
Us haven't heard is that the idea really was generated by black leaders themselves. Try to imagine how profoundly different the history of race relations in the United States would have been had this policy been implemented and enforced, had the former slaves actually had the access to the ownership of land of property, if they had a chance to be self sufficient economically, to build a crew and pass
on wealth. After all, one of the principal promises of America was the possibility of average working people being able to own land and all that such ownership entailed. As we know all too well, this promise was not to be realized for the overwhelming majority of the nation's former slaves, who numbered about three point nine million. Today's conversations, I'm gonna take a break. Today's conversations about reparations. This is the inception of those conversations. So this is how long
we've been talking about that. And reparations have been paid to native folks, to our Asian brothers and sisters. Reparations have been paid many times in this country's history to bring some sort of balance, economic balance, you know, and moral you know. It's a way of saying, we acknowledged this, this was wrong, and here's what we're going to do about it. And so I do believe that there is more conversation we had about reparations, but I'll continue this
article today. We commonly use the phrase forty acres and a mule, but few of us have ever had the order itself. Three of its parts are relevant here. Section one bears repeating in four the islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the Saint John's River, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the Negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the
United States. Section two specifies that these new communities, moreover, would be governed entirely by black people themselves on the islands and in the settlements hereafter to be established. No white person whatsoever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside, and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to free peoples themselves. By the laws of war and orders of the President of the United States, the Negro is free and must
be dealt with as such. This is basically the same arrangement that the government has with our indigenous slash Native brothers and sisters who live on sovereign land in this country still Americans, still voting presidential elections, but have their own tribal leaders, tribal governments, and so forth. So another way to refer to them as reservations, Indian reservations, those sorts of things, same sort of relationship here, all right,
I'll finish finally. Section three specialize the allocation of land each family shall have a plot of not more than forty acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, will not more than eight hundred feet water front in the possession of which land the military authorities will afford them protection until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title. And what happened to this astonishingly visionary program? I edited
out the mule park just for time? What happened to this astonishingly visionary program which would have fundamentally altered the course of American race relations. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor and a sympathizer with the South, turn the order in the fall of eighteen sixty five, and, as Barton Meyers sadly concludes, returned the land along the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coast to the planters who had originally owned it, to the very people who had declared war on the United
States of America. So this is our way black history.
Fact. What do you think about that? Q?
As is the case today, a very large portion of our country would shoot themselves in the foot if it meant that they could also hold black people back.
That is a very.
Clear, very sad, but very very honest truth. There are poor people in this country that are not black, that vote in every election against their own self interest because of the myth of the type of progress and the type of equity it would provide for poor black people. That is not nothing. That's not something that's new, but it is something that is very true and always has been since the very foundation of these United States.
No, I will return.
We will return in land to people we were just at war with before we give land to the black American.
You know, it's funny how much power the president has because one thing.
I didn't know is that.
The Lincoln successor, Andrew Johnson.
I believe I just said it.
Where to go Andrew Johnson, yep, that he was the person responsible for that. And then therein creating what would ultimately become the reparations debate, the great reparations debate that has existed in this country one hundreds of years, and in doing so has allowed those very same people that you mentioned to you exactly what they need to blame their problems on black folks, because if black folks had reparations and had you know, economic mobility and so forth
and so on. You know, A, we wouldn't have as many distressing facets of our experience in this country, but B there might be some advancement, you know, by black folks and some more examples of black folks really doing well for themselves. And I found, at least in my estimation, that it's really important for some folks on the right to be able to point out, hey, Mexicans are taking your jobs.
Hey, you know black people are on welfare.
Hey, you know the reason the country is not what has not fulfilled it's American dream quote unquote promise to you is because of these groups of people. So I have to leave it right there. Once again, I'm your host, Rams's joh.
I am your your host Quentin Ward affectionately referred to by many as Q.
Yes, indeed, and we want to thank you for tuning in the City Cipher once again this week.
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