Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm host Rams's job.
He is Ramsy's job, I am q Ward. You are tuned into Civic Scipher.
Think that the Truth, and we need you to stick around because we are going to have a conversation that people who have been having at dinner tables and online and in family groups and friend groups across the country. Should you unfollow somebody with a different political opinion as you specifically in our case, should you unfollow Trump's supporters.
This is something that's come up quite a bit, and you know, there's a couple of ways that you know you can go about dealing with it, and we intend to explore those fully with you to help you determine, of course, what is right for you. But that's not the only thing. We are also going to spend some time talking about the police shooting death of Brandon Durham.
You may have seen this online. There's a video that's circulating of police breaking into a house of a man that called them for help, and the man said that there was an intruder in the house. The police show up, They shoot the man who called him six times, even though he was shirtless, and you know, clearly in his as comfortable as state as he could be in while he was standing next to the intruder himself. He lost his life that night, and the intruder was taken into custody.
And so we're going to break that down and a lot of other things. Today is going to be an emotional episode, I can imagine. So buckle up with us, but know that we're going to do our best to get through these things and to process this collectively as we do week to week on the show. So I believe you're in good hands. But before we move on, let's knock out some Ebony excellence.
Shall we.
I think you should take this.
One all right.
Today's Ebny Excellence is sponsored by Actively Black. There is greatness in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com. Story is from Afrotech middle schooler Inolia. Chocumbe is making a significant impact in classrooms. Chocombe, then a fifth grade student at Commodore McDonald stem Academy in Middleton, Connecticut, was tasked
with developing a solution to address future pandemic challenges. In collaboration with her classmates, shot Black reports this inspired the creation of an air filter system designed to combat COVID nineteen and code viruses within classrooms. As reported by NBC Connecticut, Her device, which costs sixty dollars to make, is composed of a box, fan fower or furnace filters, I'm sorry, duct tape, and cardboard. The Environmental Protection Agency in North
Carolina further validated the invention. It showed that the air filter remove ninety nine percent of viruses in the air. Chakomb Woo told NBC Connecticut and that it was effective. October twenty fourth, eleven and a half million in funding was unanimously approved to expand the implementation of these air filter system to more schools across the state. The funds will be allocated to Yukon under its Supplemental Air Filtration and Education Program.
I think that this is fantastic. A little girl, she's eleven years old, came up with something that will knock viruses out via air filters, and you know, to know that she was a little black girl. I think that I don't think Ebony excellence gets any more excellent than this. Story so truly inspiring. Shout out to Aolia Shakumbi. All right, you have had an interesting go as of late q very with respect to the content that you take in online.
And I know that you have some stories where there are people who have really gone off the deep end politically. It's more than an opinion, it becomes their identity. Right, this is what you've told me before. And there is a place that is too far for you to go with folks. And then, you know, I believe you to be a fair man. There are people that you know and love and have known and loved for decades, decades,
and they also disagree with you politically. Maybe they have not made their political decision their entire identity, but they share their political opinion online and you have to wrestle with whether or not you want to continue to consume their online content. And I want you to give us an example of maybe one or both and talk us through how you make those decisions. And I'll do my best to do this.
You know, I think it would be easier if some of these people just share their political opinions online. It's the direct messaging me to share their political opinions that bugs me my whole life. I've known people who disagree with me or as a child, my mother politically right before I was you know, civically engage and participating in
you know, the electoral system. My mother had close friends that she worked with that were Republicans, and on election day they would vote for the other candidate, and then the day after they would go to lunch like every other day, and they would you know, laugh and joke and share stories and continue to be friends. Because back then, you didn't take on your candidate as your personal identity.
You didn't worship follow after and have a zealot like quote personal investment in the daily life or success of your political candidate. You may have shared some ideas on taxes, you know what I mean. You might have shared some ideas on you know, certain parts of that person's political platform, but you didn't take on that person personally. And you know, so I see people all the time making the quote
that they kind of all share. Only people on the other side of this say it, you know that we can disagree on politics and still be friends.
Only Trump supporters say that.
I've never heard anyone say that before Donald Trump was a candidate, right because I never got into a negative personal space with somebody because they voted for George Bush the first or the second time, you know, or Ross Perot or Ronald Reagan. So in my lifetime, those were the candidates that stand out from the Republican Party. Also, people like John McCain, who you know, I've learned was a decent human being. He just was a Republican and he wasn't a person who wished harm on me, on
people that look like me. He just had different political
leanings than I do. So the instances that I've had and Trump's first presidency and now in this one's people that I know, people that I consider to be friends, people that I care about, reaching out to me personally to defend him, and I always start my rebuttal asking them how they're doing, because in most cases these are friends I haven't talked to in a little bit, So like, you haven't talked to me, you know, in one case, you haven't talked to me since I became a father.
My kids are doing great. Thanks for asking, Like reaching out to me in defense of this man you don't know, who doesn't know you, and you're defending him against me who you know, and care about.
That doesn't make it.
It never made any sense, you know, So I would always bring the conversation back to the personal relationship. You know, I'm doing good. I hope you're doing good. I hope your lady's doing good. I hope you guys as kids are doing well. They're beautiful, you know, I see the pictures of them. How are you?
You know?
And then after some normal conversation, Hey, don't message me about dude anymore. I don't rock with him, and it has nothing to do with his politics. I could care less about his policy. I don't rock with him as a human being. And I don't understand you, who I know and care about, reaching out to me to defend this man you don't know and don't care about, who doesn't know you and doesn't care about you. So don't make that the center of a conversation.
You have with me.
Ever.
Again, I'm not telling you how to vote. I can't guide you in a different direction. You're a grown man or you're a grown woman, But don't ever reach out to me to have a conversation to defend that man who you don't know, unless you've decided you no longer care about me.
Which I don't think is the case.
But that's fine if he's the person that's going to take you down that path, God bless you both.
You know.
There's I remember the first time Donald Trump ran for president, and we actually did an episode similar to this one. Back then, I had her friend named Joel I went to high school with, and Joel was We used to skateboard together, you know, we used to do whatever, you know fifteen sixteen year olds, do you know what I mean? And he thought I was the coolest Jobel was a he was Jewish, you know, he looked like your average American white guy, right, but that was my guy, you
know what I'm saying. And he thought I was the coolest guy in the world. Right. He liked the music I listened to. He did everything about me. He tried to. I mean, he would never admit this, but he tried to like be like me, right, And we had this solid foundation as friends. I know his parents, I know kind of the environment he comes from.
You know.
Fast forward to you know, twenty sixteen, and he mentioned something to me and we were having a private conversation about he mentioned something to me about Donald Trump, and I was like, wait a minute. By then, he had moved out of state, but we had connected online, and I'm like, wait a minute, did you vote for that guy? And he's like, yeah, you know, I just I think he's like kind of better choice or you know whatever.
And I was like, oh, blocked him. I was on it heavy back then, right, And I think that back then I blocked him and a lot of other people simply because I felt like they were being obtuse at my expense, right, or they were being willfully ignorant, or they were ignoring the fact that just because this benefits you, you're ignoring the fact that it's going to harm me or reshape my reality into a much scarier place. Whereas you know, the alternative, the inverse of this, if Hillary
Clinton wins, your life is no scarier than it is now. Right, So for you, the bottom doesn't fall out of this election cycle, no matter what. For me, things change, The feeling in the air changes drastically, and it did. For four years we lived under that man's administration, and you know, people that rocked with him, that felt like he was protecting you know, white interests, they you know, they were they they turned their dials up a little bit more,
they turned their dials up a lot more. That's not that's not parse words. Yeah, yeah, So you know I blocked him in the middle of that because I felt really hurt by that. I felt like, yo, man, how how how was it? Like you said, how is it that you can know me and then admit that to me? You know, what a hurtful thing for you to do? Like, clearly you're not my friend, Okay, you you you clearly are a much more selfish person than I had anticipated. You're a more I don't know, I could give you
a bunch of adjectives, but that was my choice. Fast forward a couple of years after that, he and I perhaps reconnected through his sister or something like that, and he like, he was really hurt that I blocked him, right, and he let me know, He's like, yo, man, I thought we were friends. You know, you're one of the best friends I ever knew. You know, how could this, you know, me voting for this guy? How could that
affect our actual friendship? You know what I mean? Like, you're somebody I love seeing you become who you are, become this big radio personality, you know, be on TV and billboards and whatever. He was hurt because I blocked him, and you know I told him why. I gave him everything. But that stayed with me. And then you're right. You know, this go around. There are people who have said out loud, Okay, well you know the election's over, we need to come
together as a country. And you know I've said on this show what we need to do us we here, we need to batten down the hatches. There is a fundamental change in our future prospects and the opportunities that we have to create a more equitable society that come with a second Trump presidency. By fundamental change, I mean effectively impossible for us to see any meaningful change in terms of pursuit pursuing an equitable go at the American dream for us in our lifetimes, not with the Supreme
Court in the figure four leg lock like that. So all of the police reform that we want, all of the reparations or reparations adjacent policies that we want, all of the protections that we want, all the funding that we want to go into, you know, offsetting unfavorable health care outcomes for black and brown people, to shore up you know, housing disparities, to you know, any number of things, pick your poison, all gone. And as hurt and as disgusted as I was the first go round, I'm not
numb now. It hurts so much more because there was so much more at stake. And what I've seen now is people gloating, people who are as you mentioned, they're almost like zelots. They're still wearing their Maga Trump stuff after the fact, they're showing it off. You know, they have their flags. This is a very different phenomenon than when Obama was elected because we were excited, you know, obviously black people for a very specific reason, but we
were excited. But I've never in my life had an Obama T shirt, you know what I mean.
Or Obama flag or bumper sticker or hat or I don't have a twenty foot Obama and superimposed on the body of the Incredible Hulk or just in this really really strange behavior that Trump's supporters, you know, do, And it's important to point out you said the second go around.
This is the third go round.
Yeah, this is the third time that some people have supported that man.
And again I watch people downplay the stakes.
I watched people that I know, I heard people that I've known and I'm talking about known twenty thirty years. I've held their children, they've held mine. I've been in their homes and their parents' homes, and I've heard them kind of say leading up to the election, you know, well, you know, the the Democrats have some good social stuff,
but Trump has the good financial stuff. And I'm like, Okay, so you've convinced yourself of that, because you'll convince yourself of anything to not feel awful for supporting that guy.
But it's not the truth.
He doesn't have some awesome financial plan, especially not for you or anyone that you know. I saw people say, Man, Washington doesn't affect our daily lives.
It actually does. I think I made it pretty good president.
He doesn't just vote local and don't worry about it, right in Kanye, And I'm like, right, ink, what are you people talking about? Why isn't everyone paying attention? Why do I feel like I'm crazy? Why do I feel like I'm losing it? Because I'm taking this so serious and I'm so uncomfortable, And dare I say afraid that I know every part of my life will change and for the people closest to me, how are we even having a conversation about what we're gonna do here. You
know my kids, you know their mom. So how is the guy chanting build that wall? How is the guy promoting mass deportation? How is the guy demonizing immigrants? The guy your support when you know my kids and you know their mom. Even if it's just me, you're a single issue voter, right, You know me personally. You know what him becoming the president does to my reality. And that's still a decision that you're willing to make, and I'm supposed to still be your friend.
YEA.
For those that don't know, my children are half Mexican, I won't disclose more than that, but that should be enough to understand why that guy is disgusting to me and why I'm personally offended by people who support him. It's not about politics. Look up the man's history as a person, the decisions that he plans to make and will make. Because there are no guard rails anymore, there
are no checks and balances anymore. Collectively, the world has watched white supremacists, oligarchs, and billionaires.
Collude across national beef.
Countries that have never gotten along before their governments using the Internet and cyber weaponry to help this man become the president, because, in case anybody's not paying attention, global white supremacy is uniting forces.
And people who.
Are not white and that will not benefit from it, helped it happen, convincing themselves it was somehow in their best interests and it wasn't no big deal that he was going to win.
Everything about our lives will change.
And we have to figure out some way to survive it, figure out some way to prepare our kids to live through it, and somehow pray that maybe their kids will have a different version of this. People thought this younger generation that our adults now would bring along all this progress, racism would die off with the old bigots. It didn't. They passed those traditions down to their children. Like religion, now it exists online and we have to see it, and now it exists in mass and they're emboldened to
be forward and aggressive with it. So women and black people and immigrants are getting ran up on in public by people with swastikas and maga hats on. Tell me how that doesn't affect me every day? Tell me how my life is supposed to continue, Like everything's okay and how I'm not supposed to be terrorized or terrified rather at home wondering if my kids are okay at school. My son was getting kicked and called the N word before Trump won again. So you tell me how I'm
supposed to feel now everything's not okay. It is a very big deal and things will be very different moving forward.
Yeah, this is a tough.
One, you know. I think that, just like everything, this is probably something that you want to tackle on a case by case basis. You know, if you come across someone online and they are leaning into this, they've kind of adopted this political identity and made it their own, made it a part of their character, how they present themselves to the world, and that's too much for you, Like mentally, it's too taxing for you. I think it's okay to unfollow, block, remove yourself. Lord knows I do it.
I won't pretend that I don't. I do it constantly. Me being me, I always try to remember that there are some people who are maybe they're not Trump zelots, but they are Republicans who have supported us and this show along the way, And I have to remember that there are decent folks who have tremendous blind spots, and this is me giving a lot of grace.
Forgive me for not extending that grace. You know who he is.
You still support them, so forgive me if I don't give you any grace or feel like you're still decent.
Well again, I recognize that that's giving a lot of grace to those folks. But that's the only way that
I can say that. You know, for folks where you maybe have a tougher time on following them, you know, maybe there might be something to you know, trying to come together as a country and move forward and sharing your stories with them and sharing your plight and who knows, man, you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, as the saying goes, And as long as you protect yourself, block the people you need to block, and try to reach out to the people that you don't need to block,
you know, maybe there's a path forward in there somewhere.
So good luck,