Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Rams's Jah.
Speaker 2: They call me q Ward mostly because my name is
Speaker 2: is Quentin, but never mind, just we can just go
Speaker 2: with Q hey.
Speaker 1: Q works for me. I am at at that one bid.
Speaker 1: And of course we're back up in you one more
Speaker 1: again to broadcast the balance and to defend the discourse,
Speaker 1: to bring all things that you may or may not
Speaker 1: know about happening in Black America in hopes of creating
Speaker 1: better allies and more informed purveyors and partakers of black culture.
Speaker 1: Be sure to stick around your radio, because today we
Speaker 1: have a lot to talk about, including school district in
Speaker 1: Oregon that once upon a time we talked about this
Speaker 1: on the show they banned BLM protests and posters and
Speaker 1: paraphernalia and that sort of stuff on their campus. Well
Speaker 1: now apparently they have some students that are participating in
Speaker 1: some online slave auctions, so we definitely need to talk
Speaker 1: about that. We're also going to talk about whether or
Speaker 1: not the NFL should play the Black National Anthem in
Speaker 1: addition to the regular national anthem. There's some big names
Speaker 1: that has some thoughts about that, and of course we're
Speaker 1: going to discuss what that means we're also going to
Speaker 1: talk about, uh, the history of the Star Spangled banner.
Speaker 1: So we're going to do that with our way black
Speaker 1: history fact and of course we are going to spend
Speaker 1: some time talking about ebony excellence. This time we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about Little naz X. He's been in the
Speaker 1: news a lot, but we want to give him some
Speaker 1: credit whereas due, because not all of the news makes
Speaker 1: its way to your ears. So all that and more
Speaker 1: coming up in today's episode of Civic Cipher certainly some
Speaker 1: stuff you don't want to miss out on. So with
Speaker 1: that said, let's get into some ebony excellence. How do
Speaker 1: you feel about that, que Let's get it? Yes indeed? Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: Little nas X, for those that know, Lil nas X
Speaker 1: is the person who sang Old Town Road that was
Speaker 1: the number one number one song of all times, the
Speaker 1: longest running number one hit record in the history of
Speaker 1: hit records. And of course he's got some other songs
Speaker 1: and more recently he's made news just being controversial. He's
Speaker 1: done a lot of stuff with like some demonic symbols.
Speaker 1: He was you had a pregnant belly and it was
Speaker 1: a metaphor for him bringing his album into the World,
Speaker 1: and you know, everyone takes issue with this guy, but
Speaker 1: I want to talk about him for a second because
Speaker 1: I do believe that he's an example of ebony excellence.
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, Lil nas X was named
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one suicide Prevention Advocate by LGBTQ organization The
Speaker 1: Trevor Project. He started a fundraiser with the Bail Project
Speaker 1: and raised sixty thousand dollars for incarcerated individuals nationwide for
Speaker 1: his registry. For his Montero album, where he had the
Speaker 1: pregnant belly, he created a baby registry and that registry
Speaker 1: spotlight sixteen charities focused on healthcare, justice and LGBTQ and
Speaker 1: BIPOD causes. So definitely someone who's not just antagonizing people
Speaker 1: think to Kashi six ' nine, but actually is really
Speaker 1: trying to take this controversy that surrounds him and pointed
Speaker 1: in the right direction. In addition to those I've seen
Speaker 1: that he's cash apped actual pregnant people to help them
Speaker 1: prepare for the babies that they're coming, he's also made
Speaker 1: children's hospital visits in Atlanta, where he's from, and he's
Speaker 1: partnered with ug and made Pride themed boots and a
Speaker 1: Pride theme collection to benefit GLAD And of course he's
Speaker 1: donated to the Freedom Fund of Minneapolis after the protest
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty. So once again, want to take the
Speaker 1: time out to highlight some ebony excellence. This week it's
Speaker 1: little Nasa X and we're not mad at that at all.
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, with that said, it's time to get
Speaker 1: to the meat and potatoes of today's show. So you
Speaker 1: heard me talk about the Oregon school district that banned
Speaker 1: the BLM posters and the T shirts and you know,
Speaker 1: all the signage and everything like that. Well, as I
Speaker 1: mentioned in this a lot of these notes come from
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Black Star, So if you want to check
Speaker 1: out the various articles for yourself, that's the source for
Speaker 1: this material. But now they have students that were involved
Speaker 1: in a slave auction and they were joking about what
Speaker 1: they pay for their black classmates, right, So that by
Speaker 1: itself is alarming, and I think that for me, it
Speaker 1: shows exactly why these conversations about black lives matter and
Speaker 1: the history of black people in this country, why these
Speaker 1: things need to be taught in schools. You know, these
Speaker 1: these these teachings have been challenged across the country. We've
Speaker 1: done many episodes talking about that, and then, of course
Speaker 1: there are people who can't get past this silly notion
Speaker 1: that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization or domestic
Speaker 1: terrorist group, and their you know whatever whatever news story
Speaker 1: that they come up with that they invent out of
Speaker 1: the thin blue sky and then repeat, you know, but
Speaker 1: there's no real source to you know, the majority of
Speaker 1: you know what they talk about. But I think that
Speaker 1: this really illuminates why the conversations are necessary, necessary, why
Speaker 1: it's necessary to say things like black lives matter, and
Speaker 1: why black lives matter does have a presence in society,
Speaker 1: and dare I say it even on school campuses, you know,
Speaker 1: for those things to be politicized by the school board,
Speaker 1: I think it ignores the humanity of it, because black
Speaker 1: lives matter, regardless of how you feel about it, can't
Speaker 1: exist as a statement on its own in its own right,
Speaker 1: just as a thought, and anybody that agrees with that
Speaker 1: should be able to share that thought or wear that
Speaker 1: thought on their clothes, on a button, you know, on
Speaker 1: a sign, if they so chose. This is my thoughts
Speaker 1: on it, and I believe that when you don't do
Speaker 1: that you end up with situations like this. Now you
Speaker 1: might recall we did talk about a snapchat slave auction
Speaker 1: where there were some students in it might have been Michigan,
Speaker 1: you know, just talking about their classmates and you know,
Speaker 1: getting off all kinds of you know, racist language that
Speaker 1: of course, these children picked up from their homes or
Speaker 1: you know, other whatever wherever they get it from. Because
Speaker 1: no one's born being racist. We know that. But what
Speaker 1: I have here says in the snapchat group chat, students
Speaker 1: use photos of students and racist slurs and joked about
Speaker 1: how much they pay for black classmates. The chat first
Speaker 1: popped up in Michigan, so that's when you and I
Speaker 1: first talked about a que late last year, and is
Speaker 1: also surfaced in Texas, of course. But on Friday, others
Speaker 1: reported one student's use of the chat, and I want
Speaker 1: to read this quote and get your thoughts. Q Newburg
Speaker 1: High School became aware of a very serious and inappropriate
Speaker 1: incident on social media in which one of our students
Speaker 1: took part in a snapchat group themed slave trade and
Speaker 1: use photos of other Newburg High School students in the group.
Speaker 1: The district's statement said, heng on, let me read this too,
Speaker 1: and then get your thoughts. Screenshots posted on Instagram by
Speaker 1: a user named Royce Dewey show a discussion of students'
Speaker 1: private lives and the prices other students would pay for them.
Speaker 1: Screenshots show student comments such as all blacks should die
Speaker 1: and let's have another Holocaust. Okay, your initial reaction to that.
Speaker 2: I've read before that racism is so inherently American that
Speaker 2: when you protest racism, our proud patriots think that you're
Speaker 2: protesting America and frame it as such. When we have
Speaker 2: a political party whose last leader campaigned on the idea
Speaker 2: of racism, bigotry, and deviceism, that makes a statement like
Speaker 2: black lives matter political because it's anti the entire messaging
Speaker 2: for that political party. So then a school parents parents
Speaker 2: that political belief and bans students from simply saying other
Speaker 2: people's lives that don't look like me matter. But they're
Speaker 2: comfortable doing so in a school district where a large
Speaker 2: enough segment of the population feels that way anyway, so
Speaker 2: they don't get pushed back, they don't have anybody digging
Speaker 2: deeper or trying to teach any lessons. It's far more
Speaker 2: comfortable that way, And even though people are not born.
Speaker 2: Racist people are born into racist families. Sure, people are
Speaker 2: born to racist parents, and they're teaching and teachings and
Speaker 2: ideologies from their very first thought. Their very first words
Speaker 2: are racist, even in in some cases by parents who
Speaker 2: would never consider themselves that because they hear the term
Speaker 2: and understand it to be a bad thing, even though
Speaker 2: they share all the beliefs, thoughts, and ideologies of a person.
Speaker 2: That is, no one just wants. No one wants to
Speaker 2: be called that bad word, even if they had a
Speaker 2: shirt on that says I am by definition this. And
Speaker 2: there's something about our young people expressing things like that
Speaker 2: that hurts and hits me in my stomach in a
Speaker 2: way that's different than adults. I don't know why. I
Speaker 2: don't have an explanation for. But when you were just
Speaker 2: reading what they were saying in that group chat, knowing
Speaker 2: that it was impressionable teenagers, that hit me different. I
Speaker 2: typically hear stuff like that and get mad. This time
Speaker 2: it was like, oh man, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like I felt sad for them instead of mad at them. Sure,
Speaker 2: Sure that was my initial response as I heard it,
Speaker 2: was like, oh man, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 2: that's that's a as. You know, that's a different response
Speaker 2: for me. Typically I hear stuff like that and I'm
Speaker 2: ready to the tables over and throw stuff. But when
Speaker 2: you just read that, I felt bad.
Speaker 3: I felt sad for them, you know the thing that
Speaker 3: that really sucks man.
Speaker 1: So so the thing that getting back to the school
Speaker 1: district and their initial ban on Black Lives matter and
Speaker 1: pride symbols being worn on the campus or being displayed,
Speaker 1: that really feels like that passivity that is oftentimes associated
Speaker 1: with white moderates, as MLK put it, folks who this
Speaker 1: isn't really my problem, and I really don't want to
Speaker 1: rock the boat, so let me just try my best
Speaker 1: to step away and hopefully it'll all blow over. It's
Speaker 1: those people, and I'll say it, those cowards. And I
Speaker 1: choose that word carefully because sometimes people need to hear it.
Speaker 1: You know. There's been times in my life when I've
Speaker 1: maybe behaved in a similar manner. And when you use
Speaker 1: strong words like that with me, you know, I tend
Speaker 1: to react to it because no one wants to be
Speaker 1: called that. But if that's you know, if that's a
Speaker 1: fair statement, I think that it should stand on its own.
Speaker 1: And this story reminds me specifically of the way our
Speaker 1: show started Civic Cipher, where we went to our old
Speaker 1: program director. This is the short version of the story,
Speaker 1: but we went to our old program director in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty and we says, hey, can we put on a
Speaker 1: show that will allow some of the leadership on the
Speaker 1: streets to come up to the station and explain what
Speaker 1: they mean when they say defund the police, because it
Speaker 1: sounds scary if they don't get to explain it. But
Speaker 1: if they explain it, it sounds like it's actually been
Speaker 1: given some thought. And I think that people who listen
Speaker 1: to this radio station that plays seventy percent black artists
Speaker 1: and sagan.
Speaker 2: Probably a higher percentage than that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely so. But you know the
Speaker 1: point is it's one hundred percent black music. This is
Speaker 1: this is the sounds. I can trace these sounds to
Speaker 1: a slave field, you know, and that's there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different radio stations in this country whose sounds get
Speaker 1: traced back to a slave field, right. And so my
Speaker 1: challenge was, you know, you should set aside some time
Speaker 1: so that these people whose culture you're profiting from, these
Speaker 1: are my people too, you know, whose culture you're profiting
Speaker 1: from can say their peace, you know, be a real
Speaker 1: ally in this moment. Do you love black people? Because
Speaker 1: you clearly love black culture. It's feeding your families, and
Speaker 1: you know, do you love black people? Yes? If so,
Speaker 1: then allow them a moment of time on your airwaves.
Speaker 1: You got twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Speaker 1: Give these people an hour per week to come up
Speaker 1: and say their peace, to maintain a relationship with the
Speaker 1: with the community that you're profiting from. Right and as
Speaker 1: the story goes, you know, Q and I were told
Speaker 1: no that they wanted to do the FCC mandated show.
Speaker 1: It's it's a what's it called an community service type
Speaker 1: of thing at the FCC mandates every broadcast station do,
Speaker 1: and the one at that station was about going to
Speaker 1: the dentist and getting your teeth fixed or getting your
Speaker 1: teeth cleaned or something like that, good dental health. So
Speaker 1: that was the PSA they were running, and they opted
Speaker 1: to run that instead of run the show you're listening
Speaker 1: to right now, Civic Cipher and so we had to
Speaker 1: resign because obviously that's we could not be complicit in
Speaker 1: that behavior. We felt that black lives were worth more
Speaker 1: than that, and Ultimately they came around when the community
Speaker 1: found out what happened when we resigned. You know, the
Speaker 1: community stood by us, and this is why, you know,
Speaker 1: we were able to create Civic Cipher and then because
Speaker 1: of the support of many programmers around the country. Now
Speaker 1: you're hearing our voices. But this story about this school
Speaker 1: in Oregon kind of feels the same way. You know,
Speaker 1: at our old station, they were like, you know, we
Speaker 1: really just don't want to get involved, you know, in
Speaker 1: any of this stuff. We don't want to pick a side.
Speaker 1: And of course the station was in Arizona, which at
Speaker 1: the time was still a very red state, and a
Speaker 1: lot of the advertisers of that radio station, you know,
Speaker 1: might have had some right leaning corporate you know, big
Speaker 1: wigs who might have taken issue with the station picking
Speaker 1: a side or something. Who knows what they're they're thinking was.
Speaker 1: But our charge was that, hey, this is life and death.
Speaker 1: Hey we really need to change these ideologies. We need
Speaker 1: we need to really do something. And because this station
Speaker 1: has I think it had a forty thousand watts signal
Speaker 1: and a broadcast to you know, Phoenix, six million people,
Speaker 1: you know, here's your opportunity to be on the right
Speaker 1: side of history, you know, And I think that I
Speaker 1: see the same thing here when I'm looking at this school,
Speaker 1: in the Newburgh High School, because they had an opportunity,
Speaker 1: it was brought to their doorstep. The problem was set
Speaker 1: squarely in their lap, and they had to take it
Speaker 1: to vote to say, are the students allowed to say
Speaker 1: with their clothing, with their signage, with anything, are they
Speaker 1: allowed to say that black lives matter? Are they allowed
Speaker 1: to show support of LGBTQ students? You know, these students oftentimes,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about when we talked about Lil
Speaker 1: nas X, you know, suicide prevention. You know, that's a
Speaker 1: tough road. I don't know myself firsthand, but sometimes when
Speaker 1: I listen to stories of my LGBTQ brothers and sisters,
Speaker 1: you know, my heart breaks because I recognize that's that's
Speaker 1: a that's a tough road, and so we have to
Speaker 1: by definition, stand in solidarity with them, you know, as
Speaker 1: as as you know folks who hold a space for
Speaker 1: black voices, you know, we also try our best to
Speaker 1: be an ally to our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, and
Speaker 1: you know, really all of our brothers and sisters who
Speaker 1: are marginalized to somegro or another. But I digress. You know,
Speaker 1: in looking at this school, I see the cowardice in
Speaker 1: their refusal to allow those statements to exist in their world.
Speaker 1: They want to pretend like everything is okay. They want
Speaker 1: to pretend like everything is going to blow over. And
Speaker 1: then now what we're seeing, of course, is one of
Speaker 1: their very own students coming up in at least in
Speaker 1: this report talking about all how all blacks should die.
Speaker 1: Obviously he didn't get the memo that black lives matter.
Speaker 1: You know, who knows. Maybe that those signs could have
Speaker 1: made some sort of impression. Maybe he could have found friendship,
Speaker 1: you know, by you know, seeing someone with a shirt
Speaker 1: you know that he was already friends with, and perhaps
Speaker 1: the concepts being explained to him. You know, he's still
Speaker 1: a student, which means that he can still learn. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming it's a he you know, the name Royce Dewey.
Speaker 1: But you know the other part of this is let's
Speaker 1: have another Holocaust. You know, uh that's rooted in Nazism,
Speaker 1: you know, so someone has to teach the student that,
Speaker 1: you know, no one's born knowing about the Holocaust either.
Speaker 1: So again, what I see is cowardice. In that decision.
Speaker 1: Now I want to read it a little bit more so,
Speaker 1: this is what happened earlier. Quote. As a school board,
Speaker 1: it's our job to make decisions that are going to
Speaker 1: be there for every single kid at Newburgh High School,
Speaker 1: not just the kids that are represented in one group.
Speaker 1: It has to be all kids, board chair Dave Brown
Speaker 1: said at the time. Right, So his refusal to highlight
Speaker 1: one group of students that really needed it has now
Speaker 1: affected all kids because what we see is racist behavior
Speaker 1: continuing to happen from what I'm assuming is a non
Speaker 1: black student. And I got a couple of quotes here
Speaker 1: that I want to get off just to kind of
Speaker 1: show what the community is think. And obviously the school board,
Speaker 1: you know, decries this action and cause it reprehensible and
Speaker 1: so forth. But one of the fathers said about black
Speaker 1: lives the Black Lives Matter flag during the meeting, quote,
Speaker 1: it's certainly not a symbol of love to those of
Speaker 1: us that have members of our family and law enforcement.
Speaker 1: End quote. So I want to challenge that because there
Speaker 1: are some people who really feel that way. Maybe they're
Speaker 1: not listening here, but you, as a listener, might come
Speaker 1: across people who feel this way. And may not have
Speaker 1: the language to challenge that sentiment. And the truth is,
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter has some aggressive tactics, you know, and
Speaker 1: some aggressive language, and rightfully so, it's challenging a system
Speaker 1: that has been bullying black and brown bodies for centuries.
Speaker 2: You're speaking about the organization, however.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, But so the organization, what I know is
Speaker 1: on the streets, there's a lot lot of people that
Speaker 1: take the incendiary language and run with it. The organization
Speaker 1: I have not seen that, but I have seen it
Speaker 1: to some degree being sort of aggressive, you know, And
Speaker 1: I think that it's meant to agitate. The Panthers did
Speaker 1: the same thing. They call the police pigs and so
Speaker 1: forth and so on, and I do think that there's
Speaker 1: a place for that in such society. We have free
Speaker 1: speech in this country, and if you want to get
Speaker 1: the needle moving or get some attention, a lot of
Speaker 1: times that certainly does help that cout. Whether or not
Speaker 1: it's right, I don't, you know, but I do recognize
Speaker 1: how as a tactic it can be effective in getting attention.
Speaker 2: The reason I interjected, though, good A person that reads
Speaker 2: Black Lives Matter and thinks that it is somehow antonym
Speaker 2: antithesis opposite of enemy too, law enforcement is without even
Speaker 2: trying making the point for those who marched in the
Speaker 2: streets saying that very statement, whether or not they were
Speaker 2: representatives of the organization or not, the fact that this
Speaker 2: person heard, read, or saw Black Lives Matter and felt
Speaker 2: that that was somehow something hurtful. The statement in and
Speaker 2: of itself, the flag in and of itself was some follow,
Speaker 2: somehow a hateful or hurtful symbol to law enforcement.
Speaker 1: So that's what I want to talk about. So what
Speaker 1: the major challenge of Black Lives Matter to law enforcement
Speaker 1: has been the system. There has never been a system
Speaker 1: in place to execute police officers, you know, but you
Speaker 1: can make an argument that there is definitely a system
Speaker 1: in place and has been in place for many years,
Speaker 1: many hundreds of years, that executes and terminates the lives
Speaker 1: of black people and brown people in this country. Right,
Speaker 1: So the purpose of Black Lives Matter, or rather the
Speaker 1: statements that are often directed at policing, is really directed
Speaker 1: at the system. Dismantling the system, rethinking what policing means,
Speaker 1: revisiting different ideas of community policing, defunding the police so
Speaker 1: that they don't look like a military. They look like
Speaker 1: police officers that yes, they can fight crime, but they
Speaker 1: don't have to show up to get a cat out
Speaker 1: of a tree or to you know, do a welfare check.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't need a murder weapon to see
Speaker 1: if somebody's doing okay. You don't need a murder weapon
Speaker 1: to pull someone over most of the time. But this
Speaker 1: culture of fear that really inhabitates, you know, the policing
Speaker 1: systems in this country has kind of caused Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter to come up with to rethink what policing is
Speaker 1: should be and they've gotten a lot of support, which
Speaker 1: is why we're still talking about it now. Now, I
Speaker 1: do want to read another quote because a mother disagreed
Speaker 1: with this person saying that Black Lives Matter was a
Speaker 1: challenge to law enforcement, and she cited that the student
Speaker 1: participation in the slave auction was a clear illustration of
Speaker 1: the racism and discrimination that plagues the community. And the
Speaker 1: board members are now taking a second look at the
Speaker 1: band after passing it with a four to three vote
Speaker 1: last month, So that's definitely something to keep in mind.
Speaker 1: And one last quote. I want to leave you with
Speaker 1: this quote. My heart is so broken for these kids
Speaker 1: who have gotten the message that they are not even
Speaker 1: seen as human by some of their fellow students. End
Speaker 1: quote Heidipender, the mother of a black student at the school,
Speaker 1: tod KGW news quote. To imagine your own child being
Speaker 1: talked about as if they were sub human slaves to
Speaker 1: be sold by other students. It made me feel like
Speaker 1: I was going to throw up in quote. So we're
Speaker 1: going to leave that right there. And yeah, now, well.
Speaker 2: My mic back like that.
Speaker 4: Strike head borders behind him.
Speaker 1: And if you are just tuning in the civic cipher,
Speaker 1: I'm the host Ramsy's job, they call ward, and I
Speaker 1: would love for you to stick around, because coming up,
Speaker 1: we are going to be talking about whether or not
Speaker 1: the NFL should play the Black national anthem. In addition
Speaker 1: to the national anthem, we're also going to talk about
Speaker 1: the Star Spangled banner and the reason that it didn't
Speaker 1: become our national anthem for a century. A lot of
Speaker 1: folks don't know about that, so we're going to spend
Speaker 1: our way Black history fact discussing that. But first we
Speaker 1: are going to discuss becoming a better ally. So let's
Speaker 1: get into that right now.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't ever think it's too late to right the
Speaker 1: wrongs of the past. Sometimes it's necessary to do that,
Speaker 1: to challenge, you know, the status quo and to go
Speaker 1: back and you know, make reparations. And today's example illuminates
Speaker 1: that very well. So what happened is the Senate passed
Speaker 1: a resolution to honor the first black National Spelling be
Speaker 1: finalist who was cheated out of her possible victory. So
Speaker 1: what happened is the Senate passed a resolution that would
Speaker 1: honor Magnolia Cox, who in nineteen thirty six was just
Speaker 1: thirteen years old and was considered a spelling prodigy with
Speaker 1: an IQ that was off the charts. She was from Akron, Ohio,
Speaker 1: and became the first black to qualify as a finalist
Speaker 1: for the National Spelling Being Washington, DC. However, getting there
Speaker 1: was far from easy, and competing was met with racism
Speaker 1: because segregation and Jim crowlaws were still very much in place.
Speaker 1: Cox and another black child, fifteen year old Elizabeth Kenney
Speaker 1: from New Jersey, were forced to travel to the National
Speaker 1: Spelling Bee in the colored car of the train. Despite
Speaker 1: it all, Cox went on to become the first African
Speaker 1: American finalists in the top five. She was well on
Speaker 1: her way to win the competition, having thoroughly studied the
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand word list given to each speller. But
Speaker 1: the judges, who were all white Southerners, plotted against Cox
Speaker 1: and pulled a word that was not on that list.
Speaker 1: And what happened is, of course, she misspelled the word
Speaker 1: that wasn't on the list that she was given to study.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until recently that the Senate passed this
Speaker 1: revolution to honor her. And I do think that righting
Speaker 1: the wrongs of the past really has its place because
Speaker 1: there's this narrative that exists that hey, that wasn't me
Speaker 1: that did that. That was a long time ago, that
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with me. But there's two senators Ohio,
Speaker 1: Senator Rob Portman and Sharad Brown. They both teamed up
Speaker 1: to pass this resolution in the Senate and right the
Speaker 1: wrongs of the past. And it is, in my estimation,
Speaker 1: perhaps the best way to deal with the past. If
Speaker 1: you feel like folks were treated unfairly. It's not to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: that day is over to new day. Let's try to
Speaker 1: all look forward. No, let's try to make things right.
Speaker 1: So that is how you can become a better ally.
Speaker 1: Moving on, we're going to talk about sports. So I
Speaker 1: know that you're happy about that. Q.
Speaker 2: I wish I could say I was, but I know
Speaker 2: what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: So it's a running joke between Q and I that
Speaker 1: you know, Q, he played sports, he played in high school, college,
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I think I played in high school.
Speaker 1: But I've always been in music. I've never really been
Speaker 1: into sports. I don't know the first thing about anything.
Speaker 1: And I always sound really whenever, you know, we're in
Speaker 1: those environments talking about that stuff. But today I got
Speaker 1: time because we're talking about whether or not the black
Speaker 1: national anthem should be played at NFL games. So let
Speaker 1: me start this off. There's a couple of big names saying, no,
Speaker 1: this should not be played at these NFL games. We
Speaker 1: should just play the national anthem. And they're not names
Speaker 1: that you might think of. One is Bill Maher, who
Speaker 1: thinks that the black national anthem should not be played,
Speaker 1: and Isaiah Thomas also thinks that the black national anthem
Speaker 1: should not be played. Now me ramses Ja, Rudy King Taylor.
Speaker 1: The second I'll give you my full name, I don't care.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, why not, And I'll explain why. But
Speaker 1: first I want to let you know what Bill Maher said. So,
Speaker 1: here's a quote I saw last night on the football game,
Speaker 1: Alicia Keys saying, lift every voice and say, which now
Speaker 1: I hear is called the Black national anthem. Now, maybe
Speaker 1: we should get rid of our national anthem. But I
Speaker 1: think we should have one national anthem. I think when
Speaker 1: you go down a road where you're having two different
Speaker 1: national anthems, colleges sometimes now have many of them have
Speaker 1: different graduation ceremonies for black and white separate dorms. This
Speaker 1: is what I mean segregation. You've inverted the idea. We're
Speaker 1: going back to that under a different name. And you know,
Speaker 1: while I'm at it, I'll give you a quote from
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas. When you sing the national anthem and then
Speaker 1: you sing the Black national anthem, the only thing that
Speaker 1: it does is it's emphasizing our separateness. And he said
Speaker 1: that on the Fearless broadcast, And of course I have
Speaker 1: some thoughts on that, but I want to check with
Speaker 1: you first, Q. What do you think?
Speaker 2: Man? Somehow sometimes rather the messenger makes the message really
Speaker 2: really difficult to receive because I don't aggressively disagree with
Speaker 2: what they're trying to say. Yeah, I know what you mean, right,
Speaker 2: You've You've heard me at times read something and even
Speaker 2: out loud. Wonder what this person was even attempting to mean? Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: I do this case, I kind of know what they're
Speaker 2: both trying to say. Sure you know, just like in
Speaker 2: times in our history, we're w E. B. Du Boy
Speaker 2: and Booker T. Washington. We're saying very opposite things, but
Speaker 2: for the very same reason. Sure, so I get what
Speaker 2: they're trying to get across. But you have Isaiah Thomas
Speaker 2: on Jason Whitlock's show, Jason Whitlock being a very very
Speaker 2: aggressively counter black, counterculture black guy, which bless his heart.
Speaker 2: And Bill Maher, who I spent a lot of years
Speaker 2: considering an ally, but who has now grown tired of
Speaker 2: people that are aggressively anti racist and has taken up
Speaker 2: a more centric, moderate position himself, which I believe you
Speaker 2: called earlier in the show Cowardice. It's just like saying, well,
Speaker 2: when you say black lives matter instead of all lives matter,
Speaker 2: then you're listen, people, no we're not. And taking that
Speaker 2: very very simplistic straw man position to oppose progress is
Speaker 2: just as bad as being on the side of the oppressor.
Speaker 2: The one thing Bill Maher said that I think I
Speaker 2: kind of agree with you, and I only see a
Speaker 2: kind of because I haven't spent a lot of time
Speaker 2: thinking about the first time I ever heard it expressed
Speaker 2: was today. Maybe we rewrite our national anthem and make
Speaker 2: it more inclusive and make it so we don't have
Speaker 2: to sing two separate ones. But right now, that more
Speaker 2: inclusive anthem doesn't exist, So to sing the anthem of
Speaker 2: only one representative party of America seems a bit unfair
Speaker 2: as well. But then you know that could turn into
Speaker 2: a slippery slope. We could be sitting here saying we
Speaker 2: need five different, six different, twelve. We need a national
Speaker 2: anthem for every person where American is the second part
Speaker 2: of how they identify the suffix. If you will, every suffix,
Speaker 2: every group with American as the suffix needs their own
Speaker 2: national anthem. Is the slippery slope we could find ourselves
Speaker 2: going down. But all of this stuff, people, was in
Speaker 2: response to a situation that put a massive magnifying glass
Speaker 2: on our country's original sin and our lack of repairedness
Speaker 2: and reparation. George Floyd was murdered in daylight in front
Speaker 2: of his fellow citizens by a fellow citizen for what
Speaker 2: we I want to say absolutely no, was for being
Speaker 2: a black man in America. And I've heard several black people.
Speaker 2: We spoke about one of them, I refuse to say
Speaker 2: her name. Try to vilify George Floyd and highlight all
Speaker 2: of his imperfections, all of his shortcomings, all of his
Speaker 2: perceived failures, all the reasons he shouldn't be a martyr
Speaker 2: or a hero, as if you have to be perfect
Speaker 2: to not be murdered. We're in such a hurry to
Speaker 2: be right that we're not even empathetic or human beings.
Speaker 2: We want to seem profound and woke, and we're taking
Speaker 2: up positions and stances that are anti human because the
Speaker 2: human beings being discussed are black. Wow wow, well said,
Speaker 2: So black lives matter in the end zone and on
Speaker 2: the court for the NBA, lift every voice and sing
Speaker 2: at the start of these games their in response to
Speaker 2: what people are seeing happen to black people. And just
Speaker 2: like in a neighborhood where all the houses have value,
Speaker 2: the fire department would put the water on the house
Speaker 2: that's on fire. They wouldn't spray everybody's house and say
Speaker 2: all these houses have value. No there's a house on
Speaker 2: fire here. Let's put that fire out. Black people in
Speaker 2: this country are the house on fire. So even if
Speaker 2: you don't think lift every voice and sing is the
Speaker 2: right solution to the problem, it's just someone saying, hey, man,
Speaker 2: I know there's more that we should do, but can
Speaker 2: we start here? Can we do something? Can we show
Speaker 2: some symbol that we're in this with you, that we care,
Speaker 2: that we see you, that yes, you do matter, because
Speaker 2: somehow asking to matter, demanding to matter is that you've
Speaker 2: gone too far.
Speaker 1: Now, you know what, there's a lot of points that
Speaker 1: you were making that I wanted to kind of go
Speaker 1: a little bit more in the detail. Now. My thinking is,
Speaker 1: you know the Black National Anthem, and if you don't
Speaker 1: know lift every voice and Sing, please google it. Listen
Speaker 1: to it. I think it has they're called stanzas, three stanzas.
Speaker 1: So it's a long song. It'll last a few minutes,
Speaker 1: like maybe three minutes or so. So listen to the
Speaker 1: whole thing. And if you have a beating heart in
Speaker 1: your chest, you will feel something. If you try to
Speaker 1: imagine what life is like as a black person with
Speaker 1: the legacy that black people have. It just it's a
Speaker 1: moving human experience. You don't have to be black to
Speaker 1: enjoy it. It's not the most like you're not going
Speaker 1: to turn up at the club to the Black National Anthem,
Speaker 1: you do, you know what I'm saying. It's not that
Speaker 1: kind of a party. But if you have a beating heart,
Speaker 1: as I stated, you'll be able to feel it, right.
Speaker 1: And the words of the song are so meaningful and
Speaker 1: so powerful, right, And I believe that's sort of how
Speaker 1: it became the quote unquote Black National Anthem. You know,
Speaker 1: it just kind of is one of those old songs
Speaker 1: that has been passed on and passed on, and it
Speaker 1: reflects a different journey, a different experience, a different legacy.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously there's the mainstream legacy, but the regular
Speaker 1: NAW anthem cannot account for all of the the weight
Speaker 1: of being black in the same country. I promise there's
Speaker 1: black people that love this country just the same. They'll
Speaker 1: bleed for this country, they'll die for this country. They
Speaker 1: wear the stars and the stripes on their military uniforms,
Speaker 1: so forth and so on. But there's a different connection
Speaker 1: to this country, you know, a different relationship with the
Speaker 1: United States of America. And the reason that we're having
Speaker 1: this conversation today, and the reason why I'm not opposed
Speaker 1: to them playing both national anthems is because the NFL,
Speaker 1: as you stated Q, I believe, is taking their rightful
Speaker 1: place and acknowledging that to a degree. The beginning of
Speaker 1: really everything we've seen in the past few years two
Speaker 1: three years started with the NFL and Colin Kaepernick, him
Speaker 1: protesting police brutality and police injustice and police not being
Speaker 1: held accountable for taking lives of black and brown people
Speaker 1: with no repercussions. And you know, the NFL in their
Speaker 1: initial act of cowardice, I'm gonna call it what it is.
Speaker 1: You know, now it seems like they're making those or
Speaker 1: trying to make those wrongs right, and I applaud that.
Speaker 1: That's why I said I support this. But now if
Speaker 1: they're able to and this isn't this isn't everything, but
Speaker 1: it's something because they're still playing the national anthem, I
Speaker 1: still want everyone to stand so that they don't have people,
Speaker 1: you know, boycotting or burning nikes or whatever is that
Speaker 1: folks were doing back then. They'll play the national anthem,
Speaker 1: everyone's stand, but they'll also play the black national anthem.
Speaker 1: So from the NFL's perspective. It's like, listen, we recognize
Speaker 1: that there's something that we have to do, So I
Speaker 1: get it. Playing the Chinese national anthem or the you know,
Speaker 1: the whatever other national anthem. That is what's at the
Speaker 1: end of that slippery slope. But as you mentioned, Q,
Speaker 1: the Chinese quote unquote, the Chinese house isn't on fire,
Speaker 1: you know, in the same way, in the same arena.
Speaker 1: You know, there's we've certainly had our conversations about, you know,
Speaker 1: stop Asian hate, and we'll always stand in solidarity with
Speaker 1: our Asian brothers and sisters. Not to pick on them,
Speaker 1: I just needed an example. But if their house is
Speaker 1: not on fire on this block, this block being the NFL,
Speaker 1: then perhaps the NFL should focus on, Hey, let's make
Speaker 1: sure that we take a step to kind of bridge
Speaker 1: these two and to Bill Maher and Isaiah Thomas, who
Speaker 1: are saying, hey, look, this is this is further inviting us,
Speaker 1: which is effectively what I think they're trying to say.
Speaker 1: This is, why are we doing the same thing twice?
Speaker 1: Or we're taking these people and making them separate from
Speaker 1: you know, the normal. You know, I think that neither
Speaker 1: of them are really in touch with what it's like
Speaker 1: to be on the streets. Neither of them. That both
Speaker 1: of those people are rich people. They live in a
Speaker 1: different America too, right, so their perspective on things. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously there should be lots of voices at the table.
Speaker 1: All these discussions should involve many different vantage points. I
Speaker 1: don't love it, but I accept that, you know, that's
Speaker 1: the way you get to a happy medium, or maybe
Speaker 1: an unhappy medium, but progress nonetheless. But I don't know
Speaker 1: that these people really get it. I think they're looking
Speaker 1: at what's wrong with it as opposed to what's right
Speaker 1: with it, and what's right with it is it's a
Speaker 1: move to try to heal. Now, there's always going to
Speaker 1: be people that take exception with it, but these people
Speaker 1: are supposed to be allies and advocates of black people
Speaker 1: and a black agenda. Certainly in modern times in this country,
Speaker 1: we need to, you know, make some progress as black people.
Speaker 1: We need to you know, get these prison population numbers down.
Speaker 1: We need to close excuse me, the economic gap. We
Speaker 1: need to you know, remedy a lot of the the
Speaker 1: ailments of Black America that disproportionately affect black people and
Speaker 1: brown people in this country. And then of course, as
Speaker 1: we mentioned, we need to discuss the way the criminal
Speaker 1: justice system deals with black and brown bodies and black
Speaker 1: and brown people with respect to sentencing and pretty much
Speaker 1: every single step along the way in the political system
Speaker 1: and in the criminal justice system. And so if you
Speaker 1: just look at oh, we're further divided by playing two
Speaker 1: national anthems as opposed to looking at it like, okay,
Speaker 1: what positive does this bring? You know, which I didn't
Speaker 1: see in any of these quotes. And granted, I recognize
Speaker 1: sometimes quotes, you know, get taken out of context and
Speaker 1: so forth, but you know, my understanding was that these
Speaker 1: people kind of stood firmly on these hills. I think
Speaker 1: that what they're doing is they're missing the point. And
Speaker 1: it's very easy to miss the point when you're not
Speaker 1: on the ground, when you're not seeing how the NFL
Speaker 1: has I mean, I don't know what the percentage is,
Speaker 1: but you know, in my mind's eye, when I think
Speaker 1: of an NFL player, you know, it's someone black. You know,
Speaker 1: there's tons of black people that play in the NFL
Speaker 1: and the NBA, and you know a bunch of sports.
Speaker 1: You know, so they have to reconcile. Okay, well, listen,
Speaker 1: just like that radio station we discussed that we used
Speaker 1: to work at. Okay, we're making money off of black people,
Speaker 1: a good number of them, and we have done some
Speaker 1: mastardly acts in the past, and we need to find
Speaker 1: a way forward. What can we do that perhaps accounts
Speaker 1: for black people's experience as well? What can we do
Speaker 1: that brings some sort of healing to the injustice that
Speaker 1: we've committed in the past. And I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: that's what they were thinking, but the act certainly feels
Speaker 1: that way.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I want to read another quote from Isaiah Thomas. He says,
Speaker 1: quote our founding fathers, when they wrote the Constitution and
Speaker 1: everything else, they were talking about bringing us together under
Speaker 1: one umbrella, under one constitution, where all men and women
Speaker 1: were created equal. I'll come back to that. When you
Speaker 1: see these two different anthems, you're just emphasizing there are
Speaker 1: two different statuses in this country, black and white. Now,
Speaker 1: as we've well documented on this show, two different statuses
Speaker 1: in this country black and white. So this is why
Speaker 1: I say Isaiah Thomas is perhaps out of touch, not.
Speaker 2: On the ground level. Yes, do you know I hate
Speaker 2: to cut you off?
Speaker 1: Oh please?
Speaker 2: Does he know these same founding fathers wrote that while
Speaker 2: owning us as property.
Speaker 1: Yeah, while they were owning us. But I hear, well,
Speaker 1: I'll help you out. Watch this, he says, under one
Speaker 1: constitution where this is a direct quote, by the way,
Speaker 1: under one constitution where all men and women are created equal.
Speaker 1: Now you know the term, I know the term. It
Speaker 1: did not have women in there. It said all men
Speaker 1: were created equal. Right, So this is you know what
Speaker 1: people are able to do, rewrite history, make it, put
Speaker 1: some flowers on it. No, you know this whole thing.
Speaker 1: You know, if I was a judge, I would throw
Speaker 1: this whole thing out of court because it's like, no,
Speaker 1: you got it wrong, and you're trying that you're you're embellishing,
Speaker 1: and you're taking some liberties here that really don't work.
Speaker 1: You're trying to establish a new narrative and it doesn't fit. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now I do want to add to that that. Let's
Speaker 1: see the USA Today poll shows that Americans agree that
Speaker 1: young children should not be taught about racism before they're
Speaker 1: even old enough to read a basic sentence, with just
Speaker 1: twenty two percent saying children should begin learning about racism
Speaker 1: in kindergarten. So that shows where we are in this country.
Speaker 1: That we still need to convince the population that racism
Speaker 1: should be taught. We should teach children that this exists.
Speaker 1: When you identify it, you know, to separate yourself or
Speaker 1: try to educate or whatever challenge it. You know. Another statistic,
Speaker 1: more than eight and ten Americans the exact numbers, eighty
Speaker 1: two percent believe the country is divided and twenty three
Speaker 1: percent filled the tree is more united under President Biden.
Speaker 1: So I mean seventy five or seventy seven percent still
Speaker 1: think that the country is as divided as it's ever
Speaker 1: been and Biden hasn't really made any.
Speaker 3: Or more so Sagan, Yeah, you said it, or that
Speaker 3: it's either as divided or worse than it was, and
Speaker 3: comexactly now, I'm going to leave you with this before
Speaker 3: we get to our way black history fact.
Speaker 1: You know the ice cream Truck song? Can hear it
Speaker 1: in your head?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 1: Okay, So that song actually started out since we're talking
Speaker 1: about songs. If you look it up, it's called It's
Speaker 1: the N word with with er n I gg er
Speaker 1: love a watermelon. Ha ha ha. That's the name of
Speaker 1: that song, and it merits the distinction of the most
Speaker 1: racist song title in America released in March nineteen sixteen
Speaker 1: by Columbia Records. It was written by actor Harry C.
Speaker 1: Brown and played on the familiar depiction of black people
Speaker 1: as mindless beasts, a burden, greedily devolent, devouring slices of watermelon, which,
Speaker 1: if you don't know, that stereotype of black people loving
Speaker 1: watermelon comes from black people eating watermelon at a time
Speaker 1: when black people weren't served ice cream because it was
Speaker 1: considered more of a treat. So yeah, let's lean into
Speaker 1: this a little bit more because I want to get
Speaker 1: into our way black history fact. Today's way. Black history
Speaker 1: fact is the reason the Star Spangled banner didn't become
Speaker 1: our national anthem for a century. So I'm gonna read
Speaker 1: this to you. This comes from the Washington Post. By
Speaker 1: the way, it was September of eighteen fourteen. The British
Speaker 1: had sacked Washington and towards the White House. The conflict
Speaker 1: became known as the War of eighteen twelve, even though
Speaker 1: it was in its third year. The British had also
Speaker 1: taken prisoners, including a popular doctor from Prince George's County
Speaker 1: and Maryland. A friend of the doctor selled on a
Speaker 1: ship flying a truce flag to negotiate a prisoner exchange
Speaker 1: with the Royal Navy. The mission was successful, the British
Speaker 1: commanders agreed to free the doctor, but while on the
Speaker 1: ship the man, a thirty five year old lawyer named
Speaker 1: Francis Scott Key, overheard plans for a surprise attack on Baltimore.
Speaker 1: He and the doctor would not be allowed to leave
Speaker 1: until the attack was over. That's how Key ended up
Speaker 1: witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry while aboard a British ship.
Speaker 1: He couldn't tell from his vantage point who had won
Speaker 1: or lost, but at dawn he saw the American flag
Speaker 1: fifteen stars and fifteen stripes at the time, still waving
Speaker 1: over the fort and was inspired to write the poem.
Speaker 1: Soon it was set to the tune of an existing song,
Speaker 1: and that's the short version of how the Star Spangled
Speaker 1: Banner came to be. Now, the longer version of this story,
Speaker 1: both the song and the story and of the man
Speaker 1: who wrote it, reveals not only why it has become
Speaker 1: controversial now in this season of racial reckoning, football and
Speaker 1: presidential campaigning, but why it was too controversial to become
Speaker 1: the national anthem for more than a century after it
Speaker 1: was written first, A Few Things to Know about the
Speaker 1: War of eighteen twelve. One of the main issues was
Speaker 1: the British patients are sorry, the British practice of imprisoned Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the British practice of impressment, the force conscription
Speaker 1: of American sailors to fight for the Royal Navy, plus
Speaker 1: the British promised refuge to any enslaved black people who
Speaker 1: escaped their enslavers, raising fears among white Americans of large
Speaker 1: scale revolt. The final provocation was that men who escaped
Speaker 1: their bonds of slavery were welcome to join the British
Speaker 1: Corps of Colonial Marines in exchange for land after their service.
Speaker 1: As many as four thousand people, mostly from Virginia and Maryland, accepted.
Speaker 1: It's important to know these things because the Star Spangled Banner,
Speaker 1: originally called The Defense of Henry, has more than one verse.
Speaker 1: The second half of the third verse ends like this,
Speaker 1: no refuge could save the hirling enslave from the terror
Speaker 1: of flight, nor the gloom of the grave. And the
Speaker 1: star spangled banner in triumph doth wave or the Land
Speaker 1: of the Free and the home of the brave. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pause right here, because no refuge could save
Speaker 1: the hiring enslave. That means that even if you escaped
Speaker 1: and you were a slave, you're not gonna find any
Speaker 1: refuge here. We're killing everybody. America's killing everybody, right and
Speaker 1: that part comes here from terror of flight or the
Speaker 1: gloom of the grave. So that means that we're still
Speaker 1: trying to kill these slaves who are trying to escape
Speaker 1: to join the British, to be free. All right now,
Speaker 1: back to my reading here, these lyrics are a clear
Speaker 1: reference to the Colonial Marines. According to Jefferson Morley, author
Speaker 1: of Snowstorm in August, Washington City, Francis scott Key and
Speaker 1: the Forgotten Race Ride of eighteen thirty five, quote, they
Speaker 1: are clearly meant to scorn and threaten the African Americans
Speaker 1: who took the British up on their offer. He wrote
Speaker 1: in a recent essay for The Washington Post. He surely
Speaker 1: knew about the colonial Marines, and it's even possible he
Speaker 1: saw them among the contingent of British ships that sailed
Speaker 1: into the Baltimore Harbor. And even if these lyrics aren't
Speaker 1: meant to be explicitly racist, he clearly was. He descended
Speaker 1: from a wealthy plantation family and enslaved people. He spoke
Speaker 1: of black people as a quote distinct and inferior race
Speaker 1: end quote, and supported emancipating the enslaved only if they
Speaker 1: were immediately shipped to Africa. According to Morley, during the
Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson administration, Key served as the District attorney for Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. Where he spent much of his time shoring
Speaker 1: up in slaver's powers. He strictly enforced slave laws and
Speaker 1: prosecuted abolitionists who passed out pamphlets mocking his jurisdiction and
Speaker 1: quote land of the Free, home of the oppressed end quote.
Speaker 1: Although the star Spangled banner and all its verses were
Speaker 1: immediately famous, keys overt racism prevented it from becoming the
Speaker 1: national anthem while he was alive. Morley wrote, there was
Speaker 1: no official anthem, and many people chose to sing other
Speaker 1: songs like my Country Tizzmzy tizaby and to wrap it up.
Speaker 1: Key's anthem gained popularity over time, particularly amongst post reconstruction
Speaker 1: white Southerners and the military. In the early twentieth century,
Speaker 1: all but a few all sorry, all but the first
Speaker 1: verse were cut not for their racism, but for their
Speaker 1: anti British bent. The United Kingdom was by then an
Speaker 1: ally of the United States. After the misery of World
Speaker 1: War One, the lyrics were again controversial for their violence,
Speaker 1: but groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy that's
Speaker 1: the klu Klux Klan I believe, fought back, pushing for
Speaker 1: the song to be made the official anthem. In nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty one, President Herbert Hoover made it so. Now black
Speaker 1: people singing that song, standing up and singing that song
Speaker 1: at a football game has a different meaning to it,
Speaker 1: doesn't it, you know, And a black national anthem perhaps
Speaker 1: more accurately reflects the black experience in this country, the
Speaker 1: legacy that we have as black people, right makes a
Speaker 1: little bit more sense after hearing that.
Speaker 2: How dare you not stand with your hand over your
Speaker 2: heart when we sing this song about capturing and murdering
Speaker 2: your ancestors? How dare you?
Speaker 1: It's crazy? But this is what I mean. You know,
Speaker 1: when we talked about that inward love a watermelon song,
Speaker 1: you know, it just gets ingrained into society, the national anthem,
Speaker 1: It gets ingrained into society, and then people are so patriotic,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, artificially patriotic because most of them
Speaker 1: would actually go out and die for the country. You know,
Speaker 1: it's my belief. But you know there's this it's basically racism,
Speaker 1: and it's there's a thin veil of patriotism over it,
Speaker 1: you know. But they're so vocal and they're so committed
Speaker 1: to the way things were and the heritage and all
Speaker 1: these these these buzzwords that really work for the right
Speaker 1: wing that it would be nearly impossible to change the
Speaker 1: National Anthem. And even people on the left, you know,
Speaker 1: people who are a little bit more liberal in their beliefs,
Speaker 1: that's a tall order, right. So what the NFL is
Speaker 1: doing by saying, hey, look there's another song that accurately
Speaker 1: reflects the black history in this country. It's known as
Speaker 1: the Black National Anthem, and we can play this as well.
Speaker 1: I think that it's a step in the right direction.
Speaker 1: I think Bill Maher is a guy who's speaking out
Speaker 1: of turn, and I think Isaiah Thomas hasn't had boots
Speaker 1: on the ground in too long to really render an
Speaker 1: opinion like that and not have it challenged, you know,
Speaker 1: because the first place I'm going is to pick apart,
Speaker 1: like what have you done for me lately, you understand,
Speaker 1: So those are my thoughts. Q. Any last words, we
Speaker 1: got a few seconds.
Speaker 2: United Daughters of the Confederacy helped give the Klan their
Speaker 2: almost legendary neo Nazi racist lore. So they're not one
Speaker 2: and the same, but they're essentially there. They were essentially
Speaker 2: their marketing front.
Speaker 1: Got it. Okay, Well, that's good to know. That's good
Speaker 1: to know.
Speaker 5: We needed Isaiah Thomas, Chicago's own, the Detroit pistons own
Speaker 5: Isaiah Thomas just just come back home.
Speaker 1: Hey man, Hopefully here's it. But yeah, that's it for
Speaker 1: us today here on Civic Scipher. Once again, I'm your
Speaker 1: host rams this joh they called me q Ward. Be
Speaker 1: sure to hit the website Civic Cipher dot com to
Speaker 1: download this in any previous episodes. Please consider making a donation.
Speaker 1: The show is growing and it will continue to grow
Speaker 1: with your support. And until next week, y'all.
Speaker 2: Peace than.
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