And now my mic back you're like that.
Strike headquarters behind him to be.
But if you're just tuning into Civic Cypher, I'm your host Ramseys, Jacky is Ramses.
Joh I am q Ward and you are listening to once again Civic Cypher's stick around.
Still got a lot more show in store for you. We're going to talk about the political client in this country.
Very very interesting topic. Yes, but we've had.
An interesting mid term election.
That's that's one way to put it.
Some interesting characters that came to the forefront. And you know, some of these characters one a lot didn't, thank God, but a lot stood the chance, stood a really good chance, and a lot of places it was very close.
You know that there was.
People that we're voting to remove slavery from their laws steel and then there were people voting to keep it. So we're going to talk about that and stick around because we're also going to talk about how gangster Tupac was. But first we're going to discuss how to become a better ally Baba. This is sponsored by Major Threads. Checkout quality men's wear and sportswear at Major Threads dot com.
BABA.
So today's Baba better allies, We're going to shout out everyone who didn't give into fear mongering, who voted for integrity and class. Arbeit for me to say whether or not you voted long party lines, because the more I do this show, the more I realize that there are people who have conservative values and conservative beliefs that I absolutely don't agree with or not in alignment with my spirit whatsoever. But they're decent folks, and they can identify decent qualities and other human beings.
For everybody that.
Adheres to a shared reality, for everybody that cast a vote saying like, hey, you know what, that's something different. You know, I like this, but y'all are taking away too far. It's important to shout out those people, recognizing their role and their responsibility.
To say, hey, look I'm cool, but I'm y'all doing too much right.
The results of the midterms show that Trump is, while not a dead ideology, doesn't have the strength that once did to us around here. That lets a little air out of the balls. That was a monster is a monster. I don't want to act like it's gone. It's definitely not. Yeah, but you know, to just feel like okay, listen. We you know, especially.
Where we live.
We live in a very red state that has recently been blue. So what they say, thank the Lord for Jesus or however they say that man all day and tomorrow to everyone who stood in line and followed up to make sure they vote counted and contributed to quelling that red wave. Everyone was expected. You are an example of bahblah, and we want.
To say thank you.
And I think that that is the a great segue into talking about our current political climate. So let's start. Let's start where we need to start. Q. Yes, sir, give us your thoughts. Get us started on this.
Well first and foremost, I voted. I think that's important to say out loud. We had a conversation, bless you. We had a conversation recently with Charlemagne. Charlemagne and God shout out and he says something that was so profound. Yeah that I think a lot of us think, but haven't. I'd never heard it articulated so precise and perfect. You know, we've been dealing with one political party that just fails to show up for us. Right. They make us, they make a lot of promises to us. We go out
and vote based on those promises. There is no obligation for them to keep them because this game is rigged in a way where you either have to support this person or this one or you don't participate. And because our and i'm speaking for Ramses, because I'll take that latitude here, our ancestors put too much on the line for us to have this right, for us to not
exercise it. But Charlotte May made me, for the first time have a lot more empathy for those people who have just checked out, because it's like, listen, man, you are doing nothing for us. However, you are trying to take us back pre the Civil War. And man, those are hard choices, except they shouldn't be right. It's the status quo which sucks versus going back to pre Civil war. Right, right, So even when said that way, the choice still seems obvious.
Neither of them are great. But when you talk about the lesser of two evils, one of them is way lesser, way lesser. I wish you're right, but you know what we're trying to say. So, yeah, that has been the reality presented to us. However, I remember when I was a kid, Ramses, my mother did not vote for Ronald Reagan, but several people that she worked with did, and the day after the election was over, those same people came
to work and asked her, how's Quentin. Now, my name is Quinton, but most people just say Quentin because pronouncing that, oh requires a little bit more effort than people want to put in. But you know, how's Quentin. How's the family? Hey,
you want to go have lunch? Like there were common things that all Americans seemed to have in common, and the differences in who you voted for was very very nuanced and based on specific differences like how this person is going to approach taxes, how this person is going to approach education, you know. And it was very very little differences in political ideology that made people vote for one person versus the other. In addition to, like you
said before, people just voting along party lines. Hey, I'm a Democrat, so that's what I'm going to vote all Democrats. I remember, I'm a Republican. I'm going to vote all Republican. But our differences were very, very minuscule. There was so much stuff in the middle that we agreed on on what would be good outcomes for all of us that
even if we voted for a different person. We weren't at odds afterward, because voting for your candidate did not mean an awful life for me and people that looked like me, or me and people that I care about. We've gotten to that point now where you supporting that candidate means you're either complicit in supporting awful outcomes for me at worst, or at best you're okay with awful outcomes what you want. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
So it's like either way, like man, you voted for them, and then the other side thinks, oh, well, you guys are just brainwashed and stupid for supporting your candidate. At least my candidate doesn't want to see you enslaved, you know what I mean. So it's gone down to the point where our differences have caused such a wide divide that there is no common ground anymore. By supporting this party and that candidate, you are opposed to me personally,
real consequences, And that's how it feels. So you talked about the fear mongering. There are candidates in our state and RAMS and I are broadcasting from Arizona that didn't even run a campaign. Their materials just simply said, hey, Trump likes me, and you guys can't see me with this really cheesy smile, smile and two thumbs up. But like that was the whole thing, right they they've bought and they brought so much into that because they saw it work. I mean, that's the simple truth, is that
they saw at work. Trump supports me. That's all you need to know. Vote for me, and thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, millions some of those people won went out and voted for people just based on that. So this this extreme Trump maga Republican Party, which seemed like an entirely different party than you know, the people who I used to do charity events with at the Republican National Convention. When I learned again we used the word nuanced.
There was a lot of color, a lot of context that I learned doing, you know, raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation with members of the Republican National Convention when I was twenty five years old living in Maryland. I met some amazing people, genuine people who voted different than me, but didn't have very different ideas than me. They didn't have their they didn't have extremely different ideology than me and really really wanted the same outcomes for me,
for my children and for them and their families. It was really just about the color green, which for a long time really was the difference. Rich people who wanted to protect more of their money voted along Republican lines because Republicans have for a long time put things in place to favor those with a little bit more coin and poor.
People who thought they were going to get rich or felt like it somehow benefited them or fell in line with their Christian values or ideas.
Or no, there's more that, right, because I don't even know that they ever convinced them that financially was in their best interest, but they found some way angle to tie them into it. Or again the US US versus them tactic that has been used for centuries. Right, that there's a group that as opposed to all of us. So to just keep that group at bay, you should support us, you know, trickle down economics and all these different reasons. Why if you keep us who have it
all in place, we'll make sure you have some too. Cool. Right, So, our current political climate is scary, and you know, I am typically not a very hopeful person in regard to the direction of our country with regards to race relations and politics, specifically because of our former administration. However, I even felt some hope with these midterm outcomes because that red wave didn't feel like propaganda, It didn't even feel like fear minder. They felt like, this is it's about
to happen. Yeah, and the fact that it didn't go down the way that it was predicted, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief a little bit.
I want to I want to take a moment and shout out doctor Camilla Westenberg, who she was on the show for a couple of weeks before our last airing. She she came on behalf of the NAACP to encourage
folks to vote. But I know that, you know, once we found out about for those who were watching, you know, the political shows around the country, Once she found out that Katie Hobbs defeated Carrie Lake in Arizona, she sent me that same sort of reaction that you just had, that kind of exhale, that sigh of relief.
Yeah, it wasn't really like a celebration. It's just like, at least it didn't get worse.
Yes, Yeah, at least it wasn't that well, I want to talk about that for a second, please.
So you make an interesting.
Point Republicans and Democrats. You know, when we were talking to Charlemagne, you're right, he brought up an excellent point, Sam, it's hard to convince people to go vote. We on civic cipher, and I'm sure Charlemagne is as well, glad that you all went out and voted. Please do it again, because we've let our voices be heard. We fought back against that red wave and it was kind of a maybe a drop or two, that's probably all it was.
But there was something that he said as Q mentioned that how can I convince people to go and vote when the political process doesn't impact their lives in any meaningful way.
They people need money right now, and if it does impact them in a meaningful way, it's in a negative.
Way, right right, And so to convince them that they should be involved with you know, go out and vote blue, and you know, especially black and brown for we're looking around like, well, these guys never do anything for us. They always say they're going to do something. They don't have any strength. The Republicans as gangsters and the Democrats is just sought and keep electing these people and they don't do anything. And when he said it.
It's like, yo, man, you're right.
Man, I know that you're right, and we're frustrated with that too, because we're like, Yo, why don't you just abortion what?
Just put more judges in there? Man? Why you can't do that? Like be a boss? Were you scared? You know what I mean? These frustrations are frustrations that we share.
But you know, I like your point that you made Q when you were saying that either we stay here.
By voting Democrats, I'm talking.
I'm speaking in broad terms, you know, for marginalized and minority communities historically the way these communities tend to vote. So forgive me if this doesn't reflect your reality. But for the most part, we're just kind of dealing with big numbers here. So your options are to vote for more of the same because the Blue team isn't actively trying to change things, they're just kind of who knows, or you can vote for the Red team, which is
taking those backwards, or you can just not engage. Right, And a quote came to mind. I'm not sure if it was Eldred's Kleaverer or if it was Bobby Seal. But I remember watching a movie. It was like a documentary called The Black Power Mixtape. I have it on my laptop, so I watch it when I rou'm on road trips or whatever and I can't get a signal.
But he describes the United States as a morally bankrupt country and develops this idea that Democrats and Republicans are really just it's it's bad and worse and there is no good that you know, black people can expect voting for this candidate or that candidate often enough, and that's a sad reality. But you know, unlike you, I remain hopeful because I see, especially after these past midterms, more women entering into the political arena. I see more Black people.
I see more young people entering into the political arena. I see over the past fifteen years twenty years of my life, since I've been able to vote, and since I've been able to engage in the political process and hope for certain outcomes, I've seen a black president get elected. I've seen, you know. And one of the things that I maintain on this show is that progress is slow for black people, super slow, super slow. But it doesn't mean.
A stumption, slow motion and like the Ocean Man. It's like you're on the HS pressed play and rewind at the same time. Talk to me. So there's VCR that had four heads once upon a time. It's the type of VCR that you could record and you could record off a TV or record from another cassette in the same VCR. Okay, okay, if you if you just pressed rewind while it was playing, it was still try to go forward, just really slow. You should stop and then
then rewind. Okay, But if you just pressed rewind while it was playing, the computer in the VCR wouldn't know to stop playing. So it was trying to be trying to go forward and trying to do both as possible. That's a great analogy. I like that. Well yeah, but.
You know, think about this. We are a people that you know, our journey toward freedom started. You think of the underground railroad, how long ago this was, you know, think of you know, Frederick Douglas and the life that he lived and the work that he did. I think that we are his wildest dream.
You got to think about that. You know, this is this little one hour long show that is aired and we're super grateful aired on these stations around the country.
Isn't you know this isn't a huge, you know, footprint we're taking up in people's lives and in this space, but it's not zero. And you know, for a person like Frederick Douglass to look all the way into the future and see me in UQ, sitting in this space with these microphones talking to these people, I'm sure he would count that as progress. Doctor King. You know, Malcolm, you know they would look and say like, okay, there's we have a black president.
That's crazy. I mean, you and I have had this conversation. I'm not sure if we had it on the mic, but we had it multiple times in person. I spent the night at the polls to vote for Barack Obama. I was first. I was the first person because when my mother turned eighteen, when my mother was old enough
to vote, it wasn't legal. So we don't have to like because when we think about our civil rights activists, I think people's minds go back hundreds of years, like if not for an assassination, then a reasonably healthy life lived, doctor King would still be with us. You know, we lost Rosa Parks as adults, so I don't want it to feel so removed. My mother, Reverend is Stella Secrets, you know, born Estella Eserie Scott Macon, Georgia, nineteen forty five.
When she turned eighteen. In nineteen sixty three, black women in the United States could not vote. So process that the lady who thinks that Rams and I are the most magnificent men on the planet. This is according to her Facebook. We love you, We love you, mama. But imagine that, bro, my mom turned of age to vote. It was illegal, So there's no version of me not
voting like I do. I can't reconcile that. However, like I said, that conversation with Charlottmagne made me for the first time pump my brakes on people who have kind of given up on a system that incentivized politicians to really do what's right for them, not even their constituents, not even their city or the people that voted for them, for themselves. And the system in DC is kind of set up in a cyclical manner for them to benefit or profit no matter which way the laws and outcomes
go for us common people. You know what's funny about that is.
Dave Chappelle went on Saturday Night Live recently, and he was talking about that very thing. He was talking about people in Middle America's response to the previous administration's leader, and he said something effectually. What he said was, this guy came out, Oh yes, stood in front of air Found and said, Hey, all of y'all that think we're doing X, Y and Z in there, that's what we're doing in there, and then turned around and went right back in there and kept doing it, and then he won.
And I can't I haven't been able to rather connect how that worked, but I can see it working.
I just don't know. How can I give you a really strange analogy? Help me out? People ask why the person who's being cheated with doesn't feel awful, and it's typically because they're not the one being lied to. What's happening is morally wrong. There's moral bankruptcy there. Okay, that man or that woman is married and you're their other. But you feel like at least they're telling me the truth. Okay, I'll go with that. So, like he said, the man came out and said, look, man, I know y'all think
we up to some crazy stuff in there. We are see you on the next episode, they don't rent back in there, and people were like, you know what, he's honest. At least he's telling us the truth. Yeah, even if he's awful, he's honest.
And that's why no one he never had to show his income tax returns. He's like, yo, me not paying taxes makes me smart? Yes, and everybody else, and that you guys set up. I'm using those rules to my advantage. Sorry, you guys are the suckers.
Vote for me. If you don't want to be a sucker, you should vote for me. Sucker, but brilliant. They didn't leave ignorant. I don't, is that?
Listen, man, far be it from me to say that these You know, I've said this before in a different arena and about different people. But evil people are often times brilliant. Good people can be brilliant too, But evil, Make no mistake. You know, people don't often associated intelligence with a figure like a Hitler, you know, because you associate evil and evil is such a big adjective that it kind of blocks you from seeing all the other things.
But someone with charisma, maybe someone who's good looking. At IM saying that dude was good looking, I'm just saying like in general, these are the sorts of people.
That figured out a way to have millions of people buy into a very corrupt, very evil ideology. Sure, sure, sure and fully bought into it. Yeah, man, the whole country man. And that's a stain on Germany in perpetuity. You know, no one's going to forget that in Germany is going to spend the rest of their existence having to own that. Fortunately they I believe they do a good job. A lot of people there are sorry, yeah, are owning it, are trying to repair. Yeah, unlike some
other places. Man, you need to say that again. Anyway. You know, these midterms, man, as I mentioned, you know.
We're as divided as ever, but we know the wise, it's good that we talk about them, and it's good that we try to hold space to kind of move a little bit closer together. And I'm glad that we had, you know, people like John Fetterman defeating Doctor Oz and Carrie Lake losing to Katie Hobbs, because in my opinion, you know, a Carry Lake type of figures, like like, I know Carry Lake. You know, I work in media, so it's not too far removed from my circle at all.
Carrie Lake type more dangerous than others. Right, very charismatic, very attractive, very well spoken, brought into an awful ideology, but for reasons that were very very obvious. But then you got to follow through on that awful ideology, and someone like her championing that would have been really, really scary for Arizona well, and not only that she would have been, it would have been a lot fightning rod for everybody else and this place would have been back on the map for the wrong reason.
So we're grateful again to everyone who voted. We're grateful for the outcomes. Let's try to heal now. Don't forget what it feels like to lose, and if you can reach out, try to build a bridge or two. But for now, it's time The Way Black History Fact. Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by the Maggie B. Knowing Podcast. More details on that headed your way, but for now, just know that something specials in the works, So shout out to our producer is Maggie aka Maggie B.
Knowing. Today is Way Black History of Fact. We're talking about Tupac Shakur.
The story you may not know that I knew thought was really cool and it came up on my dash on my timeline. I was like, man, this might make for a cool wb HF.
So here we go, let's share it.
The son of a Black Panther, Tupac Shakur promoted self defense in the face of societal racism, particularly against police brutality, and in the early nineteen nineties he was a common sight at the Compton Gun Range, where he and friends would pass the time at target practice. Then, in the early morning of October thirty first, nineteen ninety three, he shot three times at two white men who pulled a
gun on him outside his hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Not knowing they were off duty cops, Tupac shot the police. Police arrested him the next morning and charged him with two counts of aggravated assaults. Now I was old enough and conscious when this happened. Those men were also doing something to another citizen. Well, we're going to get to that gun work. While two versions of the story persist,
investigators found Shakur's most credible. A twenty two year old had just performed at Clark Atlanta University when a street altercation turned violent. Spotting two drunk men harassed a black motorists. Shakur intervened to help and shot in self defense when one of the off duty officers brandished his gun. The incident came a mere month before Shakur was ambushed and shot five times tis at Quad.
Studios in New York. All right, let's back it up A bit.
Born Lassane Parrish Crooks on June sixteen, nineteen seventy one, in New York City. He was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur after an an Incan revolutionary killed by conquistadors, and Shakur after his stepfather. His mother, a Feenie Shakur, was a black panther and raised him in the party's revolutionary spirit. But he also attended art school, where he studied poetry
and ballet. But you didn't know that about Tupac. And while his mother had been a forceful activist who stood trial against bombing charges, Shakur used music as his call to action. By the time of Tupac Shakur's violent police confrontation in nineteen ninety three, he had already found rap success with his nineteen ninety one debut album Tupocalypse Now.
By that and nineteen ninety three follow up strictly.
Yeah, strictly strictly yeah by that one too, Okay. On October thirtieth, nineteen ninety three, Tupac for performed at Clark Atlanta University, and in the early hours of Halloween, he and his caravan of cars were headed back to the Sheridan Hotel to celebrate the show, with Tupac in the front car. But when they arrived, they saw two white men beating a black driver in the middle of the road,
locking the hotel entrance. Meanwhile, Clayton County Officer Mark Whitwell thirty three and his brother, Henry County Officer Scott Whitwell thirty two, and their two wives had just finished celebrating, Scott's wives passing the bar exam at the hotel. When they left and began across the street. They said they were nearly struck by an unrelated driver when an argument began. This altercation is what Tupac and his crew drove into. Quote.
It looked like a fight, and as we got closer we seen it was two white guys jumping a black dude, unquote, said Rapper Daman, who was in one of the rear cars. He continues and immediately Pac just jumped out.
Of the car.
When Tupac jumped out, everyone in the caravan followed, and then, according to Atlanta Police Department Captain HERB Carson, quote, one of the officers pointed a gun toward the group unquote. Later during the hearing, Mark admitted that it was him, dressed in plain clothes. The Whitwell brothers were not immediately recognizable as police officers. Whether they identified themselves as such before brandishing the firearm has remained unclear. Well, what happened
next isn't. The Whitwells were visibly intoxicated, and Shakur responded to the drawn gun by pulling out his own. Then Mark Whitwell smashed Tupac's car window with the butt of his pistol, and Tupac fired three shots from his nine millimeter clock. Two of the bullets hit the Whitwells. Mark was shot in the abdomen and his brother in the buttocks. Awesome, all right, So why the charges were dropped?
Okay?
Police arrested few hours later at his hotel and charged him with two counts of aggravated assault.
Treated for their.
Wounds, and the Whitwalls were released from Grady Hospital. The following morning, when she corpleated not guilty and was released on a fifty five thousand dollars bond. The fact that the two officers were intoxicated at the time of the shooting was uncovered at a hearing on December first, nineteen ninety three, which aim to determine whether or not the
case would see a grand jury. Investigators had also discovered that both officers had been carrying guns stolen from a Henry County police evidence locker, which Scott Whitwell admitted to. Most notably, the brothers had lied about who was the aggressor when the prosecution. Prosecution discovered after a preponderance of evidence showed that Tupac had stopped as a good samaritan and fired his gun in self defense, dropping the charges
against him. Mark Whitwell was charged with providing false statements to investigators and firing at Tupac's car, likely coming from conflicting accounts of the window breaking. The district attorney later dropped the charges against him as well. Mark Whitwell resigned six months later. And so so far, the story is kind of awesome. If you didn't think Tupac was really about that action. The revolutionary fist up panther that he wrapped about being. This is on full display for this story.
But this doesn't have the best ending. I don't really love it, but I do have to sh because we're journalists and you know, we got to tell the whole story. So I will conclude ultimately the incident had a longer lifespan than that. The Whitwell sued Shakur in civil court, with Mark whitwell suit being settled out of court and Scott Whitwell's two million dollar suit yielding a default judgment against Secure's estate in nineteen ninety eight, two years after
Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas. So despite these guys being drunk beating up a black motorist like jumping him, smashing the window of the car, destroying property, losing in criminal court, and stealing the guns that they were using, they still managed to win in civil court against Tupac after he had died, winning a civil case against his estate posthumously. Like that is little that shows you the depths that some people will go to maintain the evil.
Like it's really it's kind of crazy. Yeah, it's a weird world.
But for those of us you know, I'm I'm I'm from California, So you know, I know Tupaca is the East coast do but you know Tupaca was the West coast do too. You know, he always he loves Oakland, he loved La So you know, we love Tupac over here. And you know, I I like when people put their money where their mouth is, especially if they're talking about you know, real stuff. And Tupac was never want to shy away from that.
And you know, imagine had he not had good legal representation, Yeah, because that matters. Yeah, you talked about earlier with with criminal cases, not having a good lawyer could have you and definitely all the way health, all the way bad. Yeah, your situation would be awful.
But but yeah, that's our way black history fact. So yeah, man, do us a favor, put on some Tupac when we go off or you know later when you're cleaning your house, you know, whatever you do to remember you know the ancestors, you know, do do one of those things in the name of Tupac because he was a real one and you know he set a good example, no fear. You know, I'm saying the stand up for the black man. Especially
when you see him, even if it's a stranger. There you go, so you see him getting mistreated by whoever. But that's going to do it for us here on Civic Cipher.
I'm your host. Rams's job. He is Rams's job. I am q Ward. Thank you guys for tuning in for another episode of Civic Cipher. Rams just talk to the people. Yes, indeed. Todays show is produced by Ms Maggie a ka Maggie be Knowing.
Be sure to check us out on Civic Cipher dot com.
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