Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsy's Jack.
Speaker 2: So this name thing, Quentin Ward is on my birth certificate,
Speaker 2: but no one ever feels like saying Quinn. That oh
Speaker 2: really gives people, you know, an issue. So I ended
Speaker 2: up being Quentin, which is not my name, or worse Quincy.
Speaker 2: Not that that's a bad name, it's just not mine.
Speaker 2: And then I had a boss who used to call
Speaker 2: me Quincy and then he would do this noise afterwards,
Speaker 2: like which really sucked. So I just go by Q
Speaker 2: because it's easier. And then my last name is Ward,
Speaker 2: and then I DJ So that's kind of how my
Speaker 2: whole name situation came to be.
Speaker 1: And of course we are back up in you one
Speaker 1: more game. We got a lot to talk about this week,
Speaker 1: a lot that we're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: get to, but we're saving it because we're gonna we
Speaker 1: have some some exciting things in the world that's in
Speaker 1: the works. That's all I'm gonna say right now, So
Speaker 1: stay tuned. A lot more exciting things come in our way.
Speaker 1: But the things we're going to talk about, I believe
Speaker 1: are extremely important that we deal with them per usual,
Speaker 1: that we discuss them, and that we inform you a
Speaker 1: listener of the goings on, at least from the perspective
Speaker 1: of some black folks. If you're tuned into this radio
Speaker 1: station or listening wherever you're listening, I guess a confident
Speaker 1: assumption that you're an ally of black people or may
Speaker 1: in fact be black yourself. And so so yeah, we're
Speaker 1: deeply saddened by these events, but we're excited to share
Speaker 1: it and have our therapy at the same time. And
Speaker 1: today's episode is especially special because we're joined by a
Speaker 1: few folks that I think are amazing people. I love
Speaker 1: these people so much, one person in particular, who is
Speaker 1: the reason that we started doing the show in the
Speaker 1: first place. So welcome Keisha, Zara and Mimi.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you for havank you.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course.
Speaker 1: So how about this, Why don't you give a little
Speaker 1: bit of background on yourselves and where you're from, and
Speaker 1: then I'll tell a little bit of a story and
Speaker 1: then we'll get into the meet and the petitors of
Speaker 1: the show. So cool.
Speaker 4: So we're here.
Speaker 5: We're with Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro, your local Black
Speaker 5: Lives Matter chapter and we've been out here, We've been
Speaker 5: organizing since twenty seventeen. A lot of y'all know us
Speaker 5: for our you know, our street game, the protests, you know,
Speaker 5: the politicking, but you know we also Black Lives Phoenix Metro.
Speaker 5: We're an autonomous chapter. We have five ministries. We have
Speaker 5: an art, ministry, of policy, education, activism, and so like
Speaker 5: with all of that we do have, we try to
Speaker 5: follow the Black Panthers model, where we have a model
Speaker 5: of trying to do twenty five percent tear down and
Speaker 5: dismantle and seventy five percent bill and so what that
Speaker 5: looks like is, you know, as abolitionists, the highest part
Speaker 5: is dreaming the new world, and that's where we really
Speaker 5: try to focus on. But at the same time, we
Speaker 5: still out here. A lot of our protests and activism
Speaker 5: is directly led by those who have been harmed or
Speaker 5: the family of those who've lost because of police violence.
Speaker 5: So that very much guides us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'll pass it on to Mimi. I think
Speaker 4: that was a good intro, just kind of like briefly
Speaker 4: about our organization. Again just trying to as abolition is
Speaker 4: just trying to live, live and live and embody our
Speaker 4: values and just you know, create a better future here
Speaker 4: for black people in the city of Phoenix. Is who
Speaker 4: are accountable to so discontinuing the work? Uh yeah, what's up? Yea.
Speaker 6: My name is Keisha and uh I have been with
Speaker 6: Black Lives Matter now for about a year, and I
Speaker 6: feel like my work here is to uh uh really
Speaker 6: kind of uh dismantle what it means to be a
Speaker 6: biracial person in uh this work, I think oftentimes we
Speaker 6: skate by on our light skin privilege, and so I'm
Speaker 6: trying to decolonize myself and show my brothers and sisters
Speaker 6: the way.
Speaker 2: Wow, we're in the Presence Esteemed Company today.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, So I want to tell a brief story
Speaker 1: before we get into the show. As I mentioned, so
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, you know when we saw the life
Speaker 1: of George Floyd get extinguished on video and we were
Speaker 1: just talking about that. Some of us didn't even watch
Speaker 1: the full video. I'm not one. I still haven't seen
Speaker 1: the full video. I saw it and I knew what
Speaker 1: was going to happen. So, but you know, when that happened,
Speaker 1: you know, there was a moment where the energy in
Speaker 1: Black America shifted, and of course allies of black people,
Speaker 1: people that subscribed to hip hop culture, and you know,
Speaker 1: all those sorts of things. A lot of folks were
Speaker 1: really moved by that, and that coupled with the pandemic
Speaker 1: and so forth, everybody just kind of took to the streets.
Speaker 1: And it was spokes like y'all that were organizing these movements,
Speaker 1: these protests and so forth. Right, So, I am a
Speaker 1: long time broadcaster here in Phoenix, and recognizing that the
Speaker 1: show is broadcast in other cities, you know, I can
Speaker 1: only speak from my perspective, but I'm sure this happened
Speaker 1: in you know, if you're listening outside of feelings, I'm
Speaker 1: sure this happened in your city as well. But as
Speaker 1: a broadcaster, I thought it was obviously as a black man,
Speaker 1: it was important for me to get out there, to
Speaker 1: take my children out there, to make sure that we
Speaker 1: were represented and counted in the movement and contribute to
Speaker 1: the ripple effect, if you will. But as a broadcaster,
Speaker 1: I felt that there was rather more that I could do.
Speaker 1: There are not that many people who are able to broadcast,
Speaker 1: and way less people of color who could speak uniquely
Speaker 1: to how this feels, what's happening, and so forth, and
Speaker 1: less people still who were of a high enough caliber
Speaker 1: or so I thought to empower other people to speak.
Speaker 1: And we were in Timp. I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: remember this at all, but so I was in Timp.
Speaker 1: Tempe's a city in Phoenix, in Arizona. It's adjacent to
Speaker 1: Phoenix or next whatever. Anyway, So we're out there and
Speaker 1: we're marching, and we stopped at a courthouse and there
Speaker 1: were some issues with the sound, and Zara, the woman
Speaker 1: that you first heard speaking, just had to figure out
Speaker 1: how to address the crowd despite the some shortcomings in
Speaker 1: the audio equipment. And she's addressing a crowd of might
Speaker 1: have been two three thousand people out there, and you know,
Speaker 1: we have bullhorns and so forth, but you know, if
Speaker 1: you know, a bullhorn might hit two three hundred people,
Speaker 1: not two or three thousand, and you know there's systems
Speaker 1: in place, you know, chant it through the crowd. But
Speaker 1: I felt that you were such a profound speaker, such
Speaker 1: an educated person, so informed person, especially in terms of
Speaker 1: what's going on, how to empower people to make a difference.
Speaker 1: And then you felt like the sort of person would
Speaker 1: be very difficult for someone to say no to, right,
Speaker 1: And I like that energy because I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: that sort of person too. It's not always true, but
Speaker 1: I do feel like that, and so I felt like
Speaker 1: there was more that I could do. So I took
Speaker 1: this idea back to the radio station Q. You know
Speaker 1: all this because Q was broadcast with me for a
Speaker 1: long time. I took it back to the radio station
Speaker 1: that I worked, an old station in Arizona that has
Speaker 1: now gone off the air and changed their everything. And
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to you know, clown or anything like that.
Speaker 1: God bless them. I believe everyone learned their lesson, and
Speaker 1: you know, I do leave space in the narrative for forgiveness.
Speaker 1: I do believe that people can make mistakes and learn
Speaker 1: how to be better, and they're better. It's better for
Speaker 1: our agenda in the long term if we don't just
Speaker 1: you know, dismiss them and forever position them as an enemy,
Speaker 1: because then we increase the other side and we decrease
Speaker 1: our potential numbers. So not trying to say anything bad
Speaker 1: about them, but those are the facts. They had to
Speaker 1: change the name of the station, they had to fire
Speaker 1: a bunch of people, and or people had to quit,
Speaker 1: whatever happened, and so forth. So anyway, at the time,
Speaker 1: I took it back to those people and I says, hey,
Speaker 1: let's set aside thirty minutes in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night and let me do a radio show to where
Speaker 1: I can put a microphone in front of Zara so
Speaker 1: that she can come up here and say her piece.
Speaker 1: I think that black people need this, and this is
Speaker 1: a radio station that plays seventy percent black artist and
Speaker 1: one hundred percent black music, and I think that now
Speaker 1: is not the time to be a fairweather friend. So
Speaker 1: this ask should have been met with, you know, open arms.
Speaker 1: I believed, and you know, I got to run around
Speaker 1: a lot of folks know the story, some don't. I
Speaker 1: got to run around for a long time, and ultimately
Speaker 1: I was told by the program director. His exact words were,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do a black show. And you know,
Speaker 1: I took exception to that obviously, and so I wrote
Speaker 1: an open letter resignation, and immediately after was picked up
Speaker 1: by In Phoenix, there's a station called Power ninety eight
Speaker 1: point three, and then whatever station you're listening to us
Speaker 1: on has come on board as a partner subsequently, because
Speaker 1: they feel it's important to echo these messages and have
Speaker 1: these sorts of long form conversations despite it being a
Speaker 1: music station. It's important to have long form conversations for
Speaker 1: our mental health, to deal with these issues, to empower
Speaker 1: our allies and ourselves, and to be self determined. And
Speaker 1: if people are able to profit from our culture, they
Speaker 1: should contribute to it in a meaningful way. This was
Speaker 1: my ask. Ultimately it has become my charge. And that's
Speaker 1: a long roundabout way of me saying thank you Sara
Speaker 1: for showing up today again. This is you were on
Speaker 1: the first episode and now you're back. So so yeah,
Speaker 1: some some esteemed guests in the building, indeed, and we
Speaker 1: have an event that we need to touch on a
Speaker 1: little bit later. But first I've been waiting to talk
Speaker 1: about this one. So you guys, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: sure who always heard, but there was an incident in
Speaker 1: Minneapolis where this was on TMZ. As I saw and
Speaker 1: I saw the video, you know, there's a memorial to
Speaker 1: George Floyd on the ground, and uh, I think it's
Speaker 1: like right on the spot where he was killed. Like
Speaker 1: the street is closed and it's now a big memorial
Speaker 1: site and there's no you can't drive a car through
Speaker 1: there or anything. And of course there's all the flowers
Speaker 1: and signs, but then there's like a like a makeshift
Speaker 1: building like a door and glass and everything like that.
Speaker 1: It's in the middle of the street. And you know,
Speaker 1: we see these these signs and everything and photos and whatnot.
Speaker 1: But TMZ showed a man that got out of his
Speaker 1: car and he had an axe and he took the
Speaker 1: axe to all the signs. He like tore him down
Speaker 1: and ripped him. This is like surveillance footage. White man
Speaker 1: looked looked police ish, you know, so whatever comes into
Speaker 1: mind the platonic ideal of a police officer, that's what
Speaker 1: this guy looked like, at least to me. Boom there
Speaker 1: you go talk talk to him. See she didn't have
Speaker 1: a mic that time, grabbing a mic. Let let her
Speaker 1: say that again and probably fat ball headed.
Speaker 3: Boom there it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you want to watch the video, it's there.
Speaker 1: But you know, trigger warning if you know you were
Speaker 1: as moved by by George Floyd's death as as many
Speaker 1: of us were, but you know you're able to see
Speaker 1: for yourself that that's a exactly what what this type
Speaker 1: of person was. And you know he took an ax
Speaker 1: to it and he didn't get very far because eventually,
Speaker 1: after like a couple of minutes, someone like yelled out
Speaker 1: to him. You could hear the audio. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? And you know, he like dropped
Speaker 1: the axe and then ran and jumped back in his
Speaker 1: car and drove off. So last I checked up on it,
Speaker 1: the police were still looking for this guy. But I
Speaker 1: think that I mean, you know, that's he's probably one
Speaker 1: of them, you know, probably know, but you know, that's
Speaker 1: the last I heard of it. And you know, I
Speaker 1: think that there's a few things that we need to address,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to start with perhaps the least popular
Speaker 1: thing that we have to deal with, and that's that
Speaker 1: white men feel like they are under attack a lot
Speaker 1: of times. It's such a weird thing because you know,
Speaker 1: I know that me personally, the whole sum total of
Speaker 1: all the days of my life, I felt, to one
Speaker 1: degree or another under attack or at least you know,
Speaker 1: in the danger zone, you know, where might not be
Speaker 1: directed at me. But if I go outside, I have
Speaker 1: to be hyper aware of who I am relative to
Speaker 1: everyone else. And I do believe that this is kind
Speaker 1: of a new thing for white men, and this is
Speaker 1: why we're seeing a lot of mass shootings, and this
Speaker 1: is why we're seeing a lot of things, you know,
Speaker 1: from a certain type of person over and over again.
Speaker 1: There's no reason for a person to go and destroy
Speaker 1: And I think this is the second person that went
Speaker 1: the first time it was a police officer. It was
Speaker 1: in uniform and went like kicked over some stuff. But
Speaker 1: this is a this is something that eventually we're going
Speaker 1: to have to talk about on the show at least.
Speaker 1: And you know, I know that there are a lot
Speaker 1: of white men who listen to the show that are
Speaker 1: they position themselves as allies. I believe them be great people,
Speaker 1: and they have given me insight into this way of
Speaker 1: thinking that plagues some or perhaps many white males in
Speaker 1: this country, where they feel like I think what it
Speaker 1: is is, and I want to get everyone's response to this,
Speaker 1: but I think what it is is if you're born
Speaker 1: a white male in this country, you're told that the
Speaker 1: American dream is yours. If you go to school and
Speaker 1: you work hard, and you're going to grow up and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a rock star and you have a
Speaker 1: Ferrari and you're gonna live in a mansion and you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a bunch of women that love you and
Speaker 1: not whatever. And then when they get older and they
Speaker 1: see that that's not true, they're especially vulnerable to propaganda
Speaker 1: things that position black and brown folks as these sort
Speaker 1: of bloodsuckers that are taking their American dream away from
Speaker 1: them when the truth is perhaps more capitalism than anything else.
Speaker 1: But we've been positioned as an enemy to these people,
Speaker 1: and so they respond in kind like what we saw
Speaker 1: in this George Floyd mural attack. And you know, I've
Speaker 1: always well, I've learned from studying other folks that violence
Speaker 1: begets violence, and anger begets anger. And that's not to
Speaker 1: say that we need to forgive people or you know,
Speaker 1: anything like that. But I'm just interested in everyone's thoughts
Speaker 1: about how do we deal with these sorts of things,
Speaker 1: how do we feel about it, and what, if anything,
Speaker 1: can we do.
Speaker 3: To fix it?
Speaker 1: Keisha, how you feel, We'll just give me your thoughts.
Speaker 6: Ah, Yeah, that's a big topic.
Speaker 4: But I definitely think that you're onto something with that.
Speaker 4: And I feel that.
Speaker 6: You know, when we're uh, when you see that there's
Speaker 6: a shift of power happening, I believe at the moment,
Speaker 6: and because they're that shift of power is happening on
Speaker 6: such a mass scale. There's this this kind of to
Speaker 6: your point of what you said, there's this uprooting of
Speaker 6: of this the norm. There's a new norm happening, and
Speaker 6: that these you know, white men and white people in
Speaker 6: general are feeling that upset and they don't necessarily know
Speaker 6: how to deal with it. And because they don't know
Speaker 6: how to deal with this upset, you know, there there's
Speaker 6: this rage that's coming out, uh, you know against uh,
Speaker 6: you know, people of color and whatnot.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I definitely I think you're onto something with that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I feel like, you know, they have that saying
Speaker 5: this is, you know, if you're privileged, equality feels like oppression,
Speaker 5: and I feel like we feel that we see that
Speaker 5: a lot. You know, white people see Okay, we're not
Speaker 5: even we're only now just starting to to talk about
Speaker 5: maybe having some amount of representation, and white people feel
Speaker 5: like they're losing things, and especially white men, and you know,
Speaker 5: we hear all the time, you know, we have affirmative action,
Speaker 5: and even that, you know, hasn't really changed much because
Speaker 5: it's still mostly white people, white men, and yet somehow
Speaker 5: they think, you know that the one black person you
Speaker 5: know in at the job or you know, at in
Speaker 5: the college, cause it's still like that, you know, I'm
Speaker 5: I'm in a graduate program right now, and I'm the
Speaker 5: only black, you know, person in my whole my whole
Speaker 5: department right now, my only black PhD students.
Speaker 1: And so when they talk.
Speaker 5: About like, oh, you know, and then I still have
Speaker 5: white people feel like somehow I took the place, and
Speaker 5: I'm like, I'm still the only one, So what are
Speaker 5: you afraid of? And I just feel like they see somehow,
Speaker 5: if we were to equal things out, they're going to
Speaker 5: lose something. But it's not so much as you know,
Speaker 5: instead of seeing it as a loss of something, they
Speaker 5: should also see the way that you know, the way
Speaker 5: that privilege and affluence and this bubble, this white, you know,
Speaker 5: privileged bubble that they live in, actually takes away a
Speaker 5: part of their humanity because they don't even you know,
Speaker 5: know how to deal or with different cultures or different
Speaker 5: types of people, because you know, of their homogeneity that
Speaker 5: they've lived because of their privilege. And somehow they think
Speaker 5: if that changes.
Speaker 4: They lose something.
Speaker 5: But I would argue, you're gaining something. You're gaining culture,
Speaker 5: you're gaining you know, spiced food, you're gaining.
Speaker 4: There's so much you know.
Speaker 1: Rhythms, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 4: And it's almost just like anytime black people show up
Speaker 4: in a way where we're autonomous, where we're laying claim
Speaker 4: to our humanity, where we're saying we are power, powerful,
Speaker 4: and what you're doing to us is wrong, that's when
Speaker 4: we get disciplined, either by physical force, verbal remarks, eye rolls,
Speaker 4: whatever it is, whatever microaggression it is, or physical thing
Speaker 4: it is, that's what happens. So what we see here
Speaker 4: with this man shooting this picture is a direct result
Speaker 4: of that. So they would prefer to us to have
Speaker 4: our heads bowed down as we're walking down the street
Speaker 4: and looking them in the eye, same kind of thing.
Speaker 4: The second we step out of turn is the second
Speaker 4: we are we get disciplined by the white supremacy system.
Speaker 4: And he's a product of it, you know, And a
Speaker 4: lot of the times we talk about who's to blame
Speaker 4: for it, but I mean, if you're benefiting from a
Speaker 4: system of white supremacy and you're not doing anything about it,
Speaker 4: you're to blame for the system. So it's it's definitely
Speaker 4: time for them to organize themselves against these things because
Speaker 4: it's murderous and it's killing us, and it's it's killing
Speaker 4: them too, and it's killing the planet, it's killing everything
Speaker 4: around us because we haven't stepped in topic time to
Speaker 4: be like, okay, look, let's be better people for everything
Speaker 4: around us, so we can make this, make this earth
Speaker 4: actually survive. But that's not what we see. We see.
Speaker 4: We see humans holding this unhealthy hierarchy, and we see
Speaker 4: white men specifically holding white CIS men specifically holding this
Speaker 4: hierarchy over humanity like they're the height of it and
Speaker 4: dehumanizing everything else and everything, every person, thing object. Uh,
Speaker 4: I don't care. H two? Oh you name the element
Speaker 4: white men think they can own and control it, colonize
Speaker 4: over it, and make money off of exploited you know.
Speaker 4: So how do we you know, not do that? And
Speaker 4: how do we center something different? You know? How do
Speaker 4: we build something different with uh? This world's uh you know,
Speaker 4: it's continuously been obsessed with anti black violence, So how
Speaker 4: do we undo that? And this is w him doing
Speaker 4: shooting the picture again the product of that anti black
Speaker 4: violence absolutely.
Speaker 3: Oh man Q and his dark, sad point of view.
Speaker 2: You know, when the show starts, you guys hear me
Speaker 2: do a lighthearted explanation of just my name Quentin, Reverend
Speaker 2: Estella Seacrest. My mother named me Quentin after a friend
Speaker 2: of hers whose name was Queen and the prefix quin
Speaker 2: meaning five. I was also my father's fifth child. I
Speaker 2: don't know that she did that on purpose, but it
Speaker 2: worked out that way. But the reason I do that
Speaker 2: when Ramses and I talk about this all the time,
Speaker 2: our show can feel and get very heavy for us
Speaker 2: and for our listeners. Emotionally, it is a lot to
Speaker 2: take on. And as you guys have heard us say
Speaker 2: multiple times, as a part of our responsibility, we have
Speaker 2: to take in all of this very difficult content, these images,
Speaker 2: these videos, these stories, some that don't even make national news,
Speaker 2: of our people being subjugated to levels of oppression that
Speaker 2: you thought went away fifty years ago, or that you've
Speaker 2: been taught or that people would like you to believe
Speaker 2: have we've left in our rearview mirror.
Speaker 3: But the thing that happens.
Speaker 2: And this is why you kind of hear us speak
Speaker 2: about capitalism in the way that we do, is because
Speaker 2: it is created a mental vacuum of a zero sum game.
Speaker 2: If this group is getting ahead, then we must be
Speaker 2: being pushed back. So the group that's always had the
Speaker 2: head start, that's always had the resources and the lead
Speaker 2: being brought back to the pack. You know, Keisha, as
Speaker 2: you said, can make you feel like you're the one
Speaker 2: being oppressed. Now, how come everyone else gets to play
Speaker 2: on a fair playing field with us? Now, I must
Speaker 2: be losing something if he's gaining something. Except human civil
Speaker 2: rights don't work that way. We can actually all have
Speaker 2: them and us being brought to a place where we're
Speaker 2: not oppressed or criminalized. Because the way that we look
Speaker 2: does not mean that now you're somehow worse off. But
Speaker 2: when you have a system that thrives on their being
Speaker 2: an oppressed group, you have to make the majority oppressed
Speaker 2: group feel like part of the minority, or feel like
Speaker 2: the reason that things are not working out in their
Speaker 2: benefit is because this group of people over here, these
Speaker 2: black and brown people are taking your jobs.
Speaker 3: Are the reason that there's crime. You know that that's
Speaker 3: the reason why you're not living the American dream. Look
Speaker 3: at them.
Speaker 2: Don't look at us rich people who are monopolizing your
Speaker 2: resources and taking everything for ourselves. Look at the people
Speaker 2: who are actually in the same boat as you. Because
Speaker 2: they look different from you, it must be their fault.
Speaker 2: Well said, and a lot to think about. But uh,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're just tuning in a civic sipher,
Speaker 2: I mean host Ramsay is yeah, and they call me
Speaker 2: q ward as. Indeed, you know, started the show off
Speaker 2: talking about, you.
Speaker 1: Know, some heavy stuff. You know, really we're talking about
Speaker 1: violence and aggression toward black people and examining the source
Speaker 1: of that. And you know, there's there's something that I
Speaker 1: wanted to add to that part of the show before
Speaker 1: we move on, and that's that, you know, I have
Speaker 1: this belief that you know, when when when people say,
Speaker 1: you know, white privilege doesn't exist, and in their mind,
Speaker 1: like I understand why they might say that, because if
Speaker 1: you're born poor and white and everyone else around you
Speaker 1: is poor and white, and you had to work for
Speaker 1: whatever it is you have, it could be a lot,
Speaker 1: it could be nothing, and you don't feel like there
Speaker 1: were any advantages. No one came and said, oh you're white,
Speaker 1: here's you know, a million dollar loan. You know that
Speaker 1: never happened in your story. Then white privilege feels like
Speaker 1: an attack or a slap in your face because you
Speaker 1: feel like you've had to work for everything, And so
Speaker 1: I try to reframe that oftentimes, as you know, if
Speaker 1: you're born black, at least in this society, based on
Speaker 1: society's rules, not nature's rules, but society's rules, that's like
Speaker 1: being born with a strike against you. If you're being
Speaker 1: born black and female, that's almost like being born with
Speaker 1: two strikes against you. Black female, and you know, queer,
Speaker 1: or you know, or maybe you're not in a healthy body,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a handicap or you know, some other some
Speaker 1: other thing going on that is not heterosexual Christian, white male,
Speaker 1: straight person who in a healthy body, then you're born
Speaker 1: with a strike against you. But if you are born
Speaker 1: you know, Christian male, you know, that's like being born
Speaker 1: with zero strikes against you. And that in and of
Speaker 1: itself is your privilege. And so that way both things
Speaker 1: can be true. You weren't born with anything, but you
Speaker 1: weren't born with any strikes against you, and that is
Speaker 1: your privilege. We've had to crawl up from underneath from
Speaker 1: a negative space, and you were able to start it
Speaker 1: at the starting line. We were able to we had
Speaker 1: to start further back. And I think that reframes it
Speaker 1: in a lot of folks minds and it's the people
Speaker 1: that understand and acknowledge that. Obviously a lot of people
Speaker 1: would agree with that, and especially people that would listen
Speaker 1: to this sort of show and people that would show
Speaker 1: up and support the things that, you know, we're trying
Speaker 1: to do to make the world a little bit more
Speaker 1: fair place. But I find that that explanation even convinces
Speaker 1: people who challenge the idea that they were born with
Speaker 1: any sort of privilege, because it's like, well, did you
Speaker 1: start with nothing? Okay, so we can agree that you
Speaker 1: started with nothing. Okay, then let's go from there because
Speaker 1: I started with less than nothing. And then usually they're
Speaker 1: able to kind of come around. So, you know, take
Speaker 1: that and do what you want with it. It might,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, help you in a conversation and
Speaker 1: might help you convince someone to kind of rethink the
Speaker 1: world that you live in and that they live in.
Speaker 1: But moving on another thing that we have to talk about. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it's also very troubling, and I'm sure everyone will have
Speaker 1: a lot to say about it. I am going to
Speaker 1: kind of chill on this one because I want to
Speaker 1: hear everyone else's thoughts. But Andrew Brown were aware of
Speaker 1: what happened with Andrew Brown. On April twenty first, the
Speaker 1: police were executing a search warrant at Andrew Brown's house.
Speaker 1: They pulled up in mass and he tried to flee
Speaker 1: the scene, as is his customary right, being a creature
Speaker 1: endowed with consciousness. If you're afraid, you run, that is
Speaker 1: hardwired into us by nature. So that is not a
Speaker 1: death sentence, right, And they shot him and he died.
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing about this, if you don't know
Speaker 1: the story, is they shot him as he was fleeing,
Speaker 1: so all of the bullets hit him in the back.
Speaker 1: He's shot in the back of the head and the
Speaker 1: back of his body in his car was all shot
Speaker 1: up in the crashed into a tree. I want to
Speaker 1: say is that if I'm missing some of the details,
Speaker 1: you know, I try not to give too much of
Speaker 1: myself to preparing for the show, just because it's so taxing.
Speaker 1: So if I miss a couple of things, don't hold
Speaker 1: it against me. But that's the gist of the story. Well,
Speaker 1: we found out this past week that the judge said
Speaker 1: that the officers had reason to believe that they were
Speaker 1: in danger and so the shooting was justified. Now we
Speaker 1: just got.
Speaker 7: A verdict from the George Floyd case and a guilty
Speaker 7: verdict which we were happy with, not happy with, but
Speaker 7: we felt like that was good. Derek Chauvin's that's face say,
Speaker 7: I'm so sorry, the Derek Chauvin case.
Speaker 1: The murder of George Floyd exactly exactly. So that felt like, okay, maybe,
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't feel like a win. I don't
Speaker 1: think it feels like a win to anyone, but it
Speaker 1: does feel like, Okay, you're starting to hear us maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit. Let's get a lot more of that
Speaker 1: and then let's normalize it. That's kind of I think,
Speaker 1: for the most part what we were feeling at that moment.
Speaker 1: But like Q, a lot of people felt like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: they just had to do this because they don't want
Speaker 1: anybody done. Wants to burn it down, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And I think that this judge saying that
Speaker 1: the officers had reason to believe that they were in
Speaker 1: danger as a man was fleeing to shoot him in
Speaker 1: the back and end his life, that feels like more
Speaker 1: of what we're accustomed to. I love all your thoughts
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 3: If you have any sure, I'll start Yeah, yeah, let's
Speaker 3: hear it. I know what I think.
Speaker 1: I want to know what you think.
Speaker 2: My tag team partner on this show has a much
Speaker 2: more optimistic and hopeful outlook on race relations and justice,
Speaker 2: the way our country views and treats us in where
Speaker 2: we aspire to be at some point, I, because of
Speaker 2: things like this, am a far less hopeful person with
Speaker 2: regards to us ever reaching this utopia of progress and
Speaker 2: social change and equality. It really feels like it'll never
Speaker 2: happen to me. And that's not a place that I'm
Speaker 2: excited about living mentally and emotionally, but it is an
Speaker 2: honest place. And our country, our countrymen, our police, continue
Speaker 2: to reassure me that I'm right if someone leaving out
Speaker 2: of my house after robbing it got shot in their
Speaker 2: back by me, after they've terrorized my family, scared my children,
Speaker 2: but made it out of my house running away from me,
Speaker 2: and I shot them dead in the back, in the back,
Speaker 2: they for darn and I really wanted to say something
Speaker 2: else right there, They for darn sure would find justified
Speaker 2: reason to hold me accountable, because it'd be very hard
Speaker 2: to explain to them how I felt threatened by this
Speaker 2: person who's already flee the scene, this person that's running
Speaker 2: away from me, and that would be true for everyone
Speaker 2: sitting in this space with me right now. Unless you
Speaker 2: had an h Seese badge pin to your shirt, then
Speaker 2: you'd have an almost literal license to murder and a
Speaker 2: built in excuse of fear at all times afraid of
Speaker 2: the person running away from you, justified in murdering this individual. Now,
Speaker 2: in my case, in the story, I told you'd think
Speaker 2: this person broke into my home, terroribrized my family, scared
Speaker 2: of my children, woke me out of my sleep. But
Speaker 2: all that person has to do for me to be
Speaker 2: the bad guy is make it out of my front door.
Speaker 2: And even if my feelings are justified and true, I'm
Speaker 2: going to be held accountable.
Speaker 3: If the person.
Speaker 2: Doesn't die, I'm probably going to be brought up on
Speaker 2: criminal and civil charges, attempted murder and whatever this person
Speaker 2: wants to suit me for. Even though they actually broken
Speaker 2: my house, stole things, scared my family, terrorized them, they
Speaker 2: made it outside. So the lass set up for that
Speaker 2: person to somehow make me the bad guy, especially when
Speaker 2: I'm wearing this skin, so it's impossible for me to
Speaker 2: be hopeful when the guilty verdicts are very very few
Speaker 2: and far between, and even when the guilty verdicts happen,
Speaker 2: there's a sentencing that happens after where you get convicted
Speaker 2: murderers getting less time than people found guilty of selling
Speaker 2: marijuana prior to it becoming the booming federal and local
Speaker 2: industry that it's become over the last few years. So
Speaker 2: it's hard as a father and as a black man
Speaker 2: living in a country that even when we fight for
Speaker 2: it and we wrap that flag around us, when we
Speaker 2: touch back on our soil, we're still viewed as less
Speaker 2: standing beneath. It is very hard to remain hopeful when
Speaker 2: those things remain true. So this time I couldn't watch
Speaker 2: the video because watching bullets tear through another one of
Speaker 2: my people for a reason that you can't explain to
Speaker 2: me would have been too much this time.
Speaker 6: Don Yeah, I think that'll as Kisha.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So that really resonates home with me.
Speaker 6: Just I feel like in my body often I am
Speaker 6: struggling with the optimistic side of me and also the
Speaker 6: less optimistic side of me, because on one hand, I
Speaker 6: do want to believe that there is a world that
Speaker 6: the world that we're building, and and and doing all
Speaker 6: of this work and you know, pounding the pavement for
Speaker 6: and you know, the change that we're hoping to see.
Speaker 6: On one hand, you know, it's it's a beautiful thing,
Speaker 6: right if you allow yourself to drop into that space
Speaker 6: and allow yourself to really imagine a world without police,
Speaker 6: and imagine a world where the police are defunded, and
Speaker 6: imagine a world where everyone has you know, access to
Speaker 6: food and water and you know, uh, social services and
Speaker 6: a place to sleep, a safe place to sleep. And
Speaker 6: you know, that's a beautiful thing to imagine. And on
Speaker 6: the other hand, when you see things like this in
Speaker 6: the news almost every single day, and you know, it's
Speaker 6: it's a struggle in the reality that that we sit
Speaker 6: with because as you see in the George Floyd UH
Speaker 6: situation case murder. You know, although Derek Chauvin was found
Speaker 6: guilty for or for what he did, George Floyd was
Speaker 6: on trial for his own murder, you know, and you
Speaker 6: see that in a lot of cases. You see that
Speaker 6: in almost every single case, right the person that got
Speaker 6: shot or or you know, brutalized by the police in
Speaker 6: some way become the victim of their own uh murders
Speaker 6: or or offenses.
Speaker 1: That try to well, he deserved it.
Speaker 6: And even in the you know Andrew Brown situation, I
Speaker 6: haven't watched the video and and don't know a ton
Speaker 6: about the story because these cases they're they're really difficult
Speaker 6: to to hear often, and I try to save my
Speaker 6: emotional capacity for for the situations that happen here locally,
Speaker 6: since we are a local organization and we fight, you know,
Speaker 6: those police brutality here in our local area.
Speaker 4: Try to save my.
Speaker 6: Compassion and and and just energy for these cases happen
Speaker 6: closer to home. But I definitely saw that they're you know,
Speaker 6: they're trying to vilify him from the moment that it happened,
Speaker 6: trying to vilify him for his own murder and justify well,
Speaker 6: if he wouldn't have ran, he would have still be alive.
Speaker 4: All you have to do is.
Speaker 6: You know, follow the law and you know you wouldn't
Speaker 6: get shot, right.
Speaker 4: So it's like you have those.
Speaker 6: Situations, it is it is a struggle to hold on
Speaker 6: to hope while while seeing this happen every single day.
Speaker 6: But for me, if I didn't have hope, there would
Speaker 6: be nothing to fight for, you know, So I have
Speaker 6: to allow myself to even if I don't always believe.
Speaker 6: I have to allow myself to.
Speaker 4: Fake it till I make.
Speaker 6: It, you know, because if I didn't, I wouldn't have
Speaker 6: the strength to get up every day and do this work.
Speaker 1: Sure sory what you got?
Speaker 5: I feel like you know of something that we always
Speaker 5: say in the movement is you know, the system isn't broken.
Speaker 4: It's working exactly the way that it's supposed to. And
Speaker 4: so you know when.
Speaker 5: The way he works, I mean, you know, you say
Speaker 5: that the badge is a license to kill, right literally,
Speaker 5: it's that where they're qualified immunity, and so you know,
Speaker 5: the way that the laws and everything is set up,
Speaker 5: they're gonna get free. You know, Derek Shavin was a
Speaker 5: sacrificial lamb that the police gave to us because they
Speaker 5: knew that we would have completely lost faith in the system.
Speaker 5: But honestly, you know, if you haven't yet, it's like,
Speaker 5: come on, like, we know how this goes. We know
Speaker 5: how they criminalize, we know how they you know, and
Speaker 5: at this point it's just about especially you know, for
Speaker 5: for us as an organization that works directly with families,
Speaker 5: you know, we try to you know, smile and you know,
Speaker 5: tell them we're going to get justice, but more more
Speaker 5: often than not, that's not the case. And and honestly,
Speaker 5: now we've been talking about it ourselves as an organization,
Speaker 5: when we meet with these families, we kind of have
Speaker 5: to be honest that, like, you know, we will advocate
Speaker 5: for you, but the likelihood that will win is you know,
Speaker 5: it's not it's not really high.
Speaker 1: But you know, we're going to try what we can.
Speaker 5: We're going to make sure and and more so, what
Speaker 5: we see what happens after these cases is depending on
Speaker 5: the level of uprising that comes afterwards, you might get
Speaker 5: some policy changes or something, you know, but but most
Speaker 5: of the time, it's mostly window dressing, you know. And
Speaker 5: the system is the same, and it's going to continue
Speaker 5: to kill us, and we're going to continue. Uh, the
Speaker 5: murderers are going to continue to go free because it
Speaker 5: was built that way. You know, police are the modern
Speaker 5: day slave catchers. So you know, if we shouldn't really
Speaker 5: expect almost anything else, and you know, to that point, Uh,
Speaker 5: that is why you know, doing this work. And uh,
Speaker 5: for as long as I've been doing it, you know,
Speaker 5: I don't watch the videos. You know, I didn't watch
Speaker 5: the whole George Floyd video, you know, because I watched
Speaker 5: the Eric Gardner video, you know, and that's what you know.
Speaker 5: It brought me out to the streets, and I, you know,
Speaker 5: I can't keep watching them because I feel like we
Speaker 5: get desensitized to black death. And if black lives are
Speaker 5: supposed to matter, we can't become desensitized to black death.
Speaker 5: And if you see the difference with the school shootings,
Speaker 5: with the grocery store shootings, with all the other times
Speaker 5: when white people decide to shoot up places, you know, uh,
Speaker 5: they never show the bodies, but when black people get killed,
Speaker 5: it's these public executions.
Speaker 1: And that's because our lives don't matter as much.
Speaker 5: And so I feel like, you know, especially as US
Speaker 5: as an organization, we don't repost that. And you know,
Speaker 5: and uh, because you know it is uh.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 5: Does become desensitizing to black death. And you know, how
Speaker 5: are we supposed to matter?
Speaker 4: Me? Me? Yeah, I feel it. You know.
Speaker 3: The level.
Speaker 4: Of black death surrounding I said, any moment is absolutely overwhelming,
Speaker 4: and I don't know how we as a people do it.
Speaker 4: And I think, if anything, that's what keeps me going
Speaker 4: is the fact that we are actually still alive and
Speaker 4: here and doing it. Eleven million Africans died at sea
Speaker 4: before we got to this terrible, terrible place that we
Speaker 4: called the Americas. Okay, so before we even got here,
Speaker 4: black death was a huge thing. Eleven million. The boat
Speaker 4: is too heavy, you have to go. So here we are.
Speaker 4: Imagine what they did to us. For as long as
Speaker 4: we were here, we were nothing but extra scraps on
Speaker 4: the ship to them. So of course we look around
Speaker 4: us now on that that same level in different forms
Speaker 4: of black death is around us and everywhere. So if anything,
Speaker 4: you know, looking to our ancestors and movements before us,
Speaker 4: what what made you fight in this fight that seems
Speaker 4: unfeatable at all times, you know, and what they still
Speaker 4: continue to do? And then that's the that's the we
Speaker 4: call it afrofuturist in all of us, you know. So
Speaker 4: we have the pessimists and we have the Afro futurests,
Speaker 4: and there they go head to head, right, But it's
Speaker 4: just like there's there's something, there's some kind of freedom
Speaker 4: dream in what we've been trying to achieve. But there's
Speaker 4: also this is very deep rooted anti black violence in
Speaker 4: our communities and in ourselves, and sometimes we you know,
Speaker 4: take things out on ourselves and in ways and the
Speaker 4: people around us in ways that we shouldn't write. But
Speaker 4: I think that there's no excuse and there's no other
Speaker 4: reason behind why somebody would shoot and kill somebody in
Speaker 4: the back and talk about their threat and actually get
Speaker 4: the way with it. Then the fact that anti black
Speaker 4: violence is just as real now as it was then
Speaker 4: as the eleven million, you know, So when we bring
Speaker 4: our ancestors in the room, this makes sense differently, Okay,
Speaker 4: So we forget about time. Time is a colonial construct.
Speaker 4: We have to go into it, y'all. They hear me
Speaker 4: talk like this all the time too. That's why they're laughing.
Speaker 4: This didn't happen as long ago as we think it did,
Speaker 4: because guess who created time? A bunch of colonizers say
Speaker 4: that happens so long ago. Just forget about it. Forget
Speaker 4: about it because it benefits who. So let's disrupt it all,
Speaker 4: disrupt their time too. This we're on. We don't need
Speaker 4: to be on white time anymore. You did this? Do
Speaker 4: we feel it in our bodies still? So, that black trauma,
Speaker 4: that ancestral trauma, that post traumatic slave syndrome, it's very
Speaker 4: much here, and it's with our brothers and sisters on
Speaker 4: the continent too, because again we didn't even make it
Speaker 4: here before. They dumped us like garbage. Now they dumped
Speaker 4: my brother in the street like the same mother. Okay,
Speaker 4: let's stop, same MF and thing. You see. So it's disgusting.
Speaker 4: When when do when is there an intro? When does
Speaker 4: there stop to it? We don't know, but we know
Speaker 4: there is a fight for it, and there's a there's
Speaker 4: a fight and people are fighting against it, you know,
Speaker 4: So invoking invoking their hopes it is what keeps us going.
Speaker 4: But I think it's it's always you know, it's balanced
Speaker 4: because you'll we have to go back and see you
Speaker 4: know what happened then and now is then and now?
Speaker 4: And why people need to stef weaponizing time to make it
Speaker 4: like it was so long ago. Fair point, Well, give
Speaker 4: us back our reparations. We can't talk about black lives
Speaker 4: if we're not talking about reparations.
Speaker 1: Give me my money, run me my money, talk to money.
Speaker 1: So listen, I got to say a couple things. The
Speaker 1: first thing I want to say is I read some
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, I want to say, and
Speaker 1: it was a report study and it said men interrupt
Speaker 1: women at a rate of seventy seventy percent more often
Speaker 1: than women interrupt men in the same conversations. Right, So
Speaker 1: when I read that me trying to be the person
Speaker 1: that I aspire to be, I was like, oh, you
Speaker 1: know what, let me check myself. And over the past
Speaker 1: few years, I've been trying my best to check myself. Right,
Speaker 1: want a woman to speak and letters say air pece,
Speaker 1: state of brief, try to learn. And I think that
Speaker 1: listening to U three say that right now should serve
Speaker 1: as proof to every other man listening that you should
Speaker 1: let these women talk. If they talking, you sit there
Speaker 1: and listen and you get educated. Now, of course I've
Speaker 1: heard you all speak before, so you know we kind
Speaker 1: of have the dynamics you're established.
Speaker 3: But just.
Speaker 1: To be able to listen to that passion, it's very
Speaker 1: moving and very empowering. So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2: I'm cutting rams Ands off very intentionally right now. You know,
Speaker 2: I know that's some kind of social pun based on
Speaker 2: what he just said, but I just picked up my
Speaker 2: phone and text our group let these women speak. And
Speaker 2: you didn't see that before you said what you just said,
Speaker 2: because you don't even have your phone.
Speaker 3: So that's how a line we were just now. I
Speaker 3: know you saw it.
Speaker 2: I said, let them speak because it's so nests, it's
Speaker 2: so powerful, it's so moving. Our superheroes, our real superheroes,
Speaker 2: are represented by here listen now Captain America, not the
Speaker 2: Incredible Hulk them. So let these women speak because those words,
Speaker 2: those thoughts, those real raw emotions are powerful and necessary.
Speaker 2: So it's almost spooky that I text that and you
Speaker 2: without seeing it set.
Speaker 1: It absolutely absolutely. You know, I listened all day. I
Speaker 1: made a radio show, so so everybody listen, you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and then there's a there's a nurturing quality
Speaker 1: that just is absent when the man speaks, you know, originally,
Speaker 1: you know, when we try to work out these dynamics
Speaker 1: and the optics and everything like that, we try to
Speaker 1: account for that. But one thing I do want to say, though,
Speaker 1: in terms of a contribution to the to the narrative
Speaker 1: here in the conversation, is that, in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: keeping myself enthused and optimistic about the future prospects, you know,
Speaker 1: I just have to think, you know, what are we
Speaker 1: doing this for if not to have a better tomorrow,
Speaker 1: And so I try to keep that at the center
Speaker 1: of my imagination. If you will and just remain hopeful.
Speaker 1: And then you know, there are some shiny examples in
Speaker 1: my life of people who are really going to go
Speaker 1: out of their way, to their own detriment to make
Speaker 1: the world a little bit more fairer, for place fair
Speaker 1: place for people that don't look like them, and granted,
Speaker 1: relative to everyone else, it's a small number, but it's
Speaker 1: enough to keep me hopeful about the future. So with
Speaker 1: that said, you know, I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: you know what you're listening to. This is a civic
Speaker 1: sipher from your host Rams's Jah.
Speaker 2: They call me q Ward, and that's almost my name.
Speaker 2: Quentin Ward makes you say she was just way easier
Speaker 2: to say. I don't mind you saying Quentin, though, by
Speaker 2: the way, I just really can't rock with Quentin, not
Speaker 2: because it's not a cool name, it's just not mine.
Speaker 2: It'd be like calling me Michael. They're not the same.
Speaker 2: So Quentin or q Ward, whichever you prefer.
Speaker 1: I want to educate people, man, because sometimes people that
Speaker 1: don't know me, if I'm out of town, they hear Ramsey,
Speaker 1: no disrespect anybody named Ramsey. But my name is Ramses.
Speaker 1: That's what my father named me. Anyway, Big news big
Speaker 1: news if you live in Arizona, you live in Phoenix, especially, uh,
Speaker 1: the folks who live in in this state and in
Speaker 1: this city and in Tucson too. You know, there's an
Speaker 1: event coming up. It'll be this Tuesday, and what we're
Speaker 1: going to do is it's it's it's it's an anniversary
Speaker 1: of the passing of two people that were very central
Speaker 1: to the marches and the protests last year and are
Speaker 1: still very central to you know, our hearts and the
Speaker 1: stories that we're continuing to write these days. Of course,
Speaker 1: George Floyd would be the anniversary of his passing and
Speaker 1: Dion Johnson. It's another high profile case here in Arizona.
Speaker 1: And we're going to have an event to celebrate the
Speaker 1: lives of these people and to also empower economically, specifically
Speaker 1: the family of Dion Johnson, which is something that we
Speaker 1: can do here locally. And so I want to take
Speaker 1: a moment and you know, any one of you can
Speaker 1: answer this, but you know, what are your thoughts on
Speaker 1: you know, why this is important or why this is
Speaker 1: necessary to commemorate you know, this event and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: to do something.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we so much just happened George Floyd and Dion Johnson.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: You know, Dion was our own local Floyd incident happened
Speaker 5: on the same exact day and didn't get nearly as
Speaker 5: much attention or justice. And so you know, we've we've
Speaker 5: done a lot, We've done direct actions, We've you know,
Speaker 5: had thousands of people in the streets for for Dion.
Speaker 5: We you know, surrounded DPS. We we we did a lot.
Speaker 5: You know, we got arrested for Dion Johnson, and still
Speaker 5: we haven't gotten justice. And now it comes up on
Speaker 5: a year and in that time, uh irma who's uh
Speaker 5: Dion's mom has gotten her other son taken from by
Speaker 5: the same the same state, the same police. They're they're
Speaker 5: trying to uh frame him on a bunch of charges
Speaker 5: and basically take him away forever. And so, you know,
Speaker 5: when we thought about what could we do to commemorate this,
Speaker 5: what can we do, We're like, we have to bring
Speaker 5: her son home. You know, we can't let you know,
Speaker 5: two of her sons be be taken by the state.
Speaker 5: Uh that's just you know, too tragic of a story
Speaker 5: in one year, you know, in the middle of an uprising.
Speaker 5: We we have to do something. So that's why we
Speaker 5: decided to do a benefit concert. It's our first time
Speaker 5: putting on a concert. I know, y'all know us b
Speaker 5: LM for protests, but we we get getting into something
Speaker 5: new here so that we can raise the money for
Speaker 5: uh Dion's family, so that we can bring Erma's son home,
Speaker 5: and so that we can remember, you know, everything that's
Speaker 5: happened in the last year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that that's the fact that we're
Speaker 1: going into this with that level of enthusiasm and confidence.
Speaker 1: A lot of folks that may not have been out
Speaker 1: on the streets or whatever, they might not be aware
Speaker 1: of just the huge crowds that come out even though
Speaker 1: the numbers have kind of shrink in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: from twenty twenty, still huge numbers of people. And the
Speaker 1: fact that you're able to do this and connecting not
Speaker 1: just with Dion's family but with the city in this
Speaker 1: way is very significant. And you know, I unfortunately I
Speaker 1: can't talk about my affiliation with the event because of
Speaker 1: the nature of broadcasting on the FM of frequency. The
Speaker 1: FCC has some rules about that. But you can let
Speaker 1: folks know how they can participate. If they can't participate,
Speaker 1: how can they support, you know, And so forth. That's
Speaker 1: what this time is for.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, uh this Keisha here. So the concert is
Speaker 6: going to be on May so, exactly one year from
Speaker 6: the date of of this tragic loss. We're opening the
Speaker 6: doors at six pm, so it'll be from six pm
Speaker 6: to ten pm at the Monarch Theater and uh, yeah,
Speaker 6: we're excited. We have a pretty dope lineup setup for y'all.
Speaker 6: We've gone out of our uh stretched our comfort zone
Speaker 6: here to bring you guys a pretty dope concert with
Speaker 6: some uh you know, some local like uh artists in
Speaker 6: who are in the movement.
Speaker 4: Who's on that lineup?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so who's on the lineup? So we got our
Speaker 6: and excuse me if I mess up anyone's names here,
Speaker 6: but uh we have Arian Nicole with PLC dope artists,
Speaker 6: check her out. We got Rocky Tirade who's also in
Speaker 6: the movement as well, so dope dope artists. We got
Speaker 6: our We got some dancers from our very own uh
Speaker 6: uh choreograph a dance choreograph by Nissa Vibe, who's our
Speaker 6: very own member of BLM Phoenix Metro. Yeah, we got
Speaker 6: pokea face on here. We got dj Rams this job
Speaker 6: turning up the tables in the house. You know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying. We got Q in the house. We got
Speaker 6: MC fresh Maker. Yeah, I mean, we got we got
Speaker 6: just you know, we got a dope line up for y'all.
Speaker 6: And this is gonna be hosted by all of your
Speaker 6: uh prominent local orgs here in Arizona. And again the
Speaker 6: purpose of this benefit concert is to bring uh Donovan
Speaker 6: Johnson home back to his mom. Irma Johnson and the
Speaker 6: family will be present at this event and family friendly,
Speaker 6: all age welcomes. It is hosted at the Monarch Theater,
Speaker 6: but we are keeping it family friendly. Uh So there
Speaker 6: will be non alcoholic beverages, have, vendors will have It's
Speaker 6: going to be a good time, So come out. Check
Speaker 6: it out by the tickets online. We are on event right,
Speaker 6: so check out the tickets online. You can go to
Speaker 6: our Facebook page. It's in our Instagram pages and the
Speaker 6: link is in the bio as well.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and once again, that will be this Tuesday at
Speaker 1: Monarch Theater in downtown Phoenix, one twenty two East Washington.
Speaker 1: I know the address and you can find out more
Speaker 1: information on social media. So you guys please share your
Speaker 1: social media so folks can follow you and keep up
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so on Instagram we have it's at BLM Phoenix Metro.
Speaker 6: Twitter is also at BLM Phoenix Metro. And then we
Speaker 6: also have our Facebook page at Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro.
Speaker 5: And that's spelled BLM PHX Metro for ig Twitter.
Speaker 1: Okay, any personal instagrams y'all want to share. If not,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. It's all good. It's about the move,
Speaker 1: all good. Okay, I'm not mad at that. We'll shoot.
Speaker 1: You can follow our personal instagram at Civic Cipher and
Speaker 1: also you can hit the website Civiccipher dot com. You
Speaker 1: can make a donation to the show that really helps
Speaker 1: the show grow. We have new cities that we'll announce soon,
Speaker 1: so we're really appreciative of everyone's support. You can also
Speaker 1: submit topics if there's things that we need to talk about,
Speaker 1: things we need to know about that happened in the community.
Speaker 1: This is your show just as much as it is
Speaker 1: our show, so please feel involved and feel free to support.
Speaker 1: And of course you can download this show. If you
Speaker 1: tuned in in the middle or any previous show, you
Speaker 1: can listen to the unedited version of it. And you
Speaker 1: know what Another thing that we don't do is we
Speaker 1: don't push the YouTube. So if you ever want to
Speaker 1: engage visually, you can check out our YouTube channel as well.
Speaker 1: That's YouTube dot com slash Civiccipher again. That's all on
Speaker 1: the website, civiccipher dot com. Once again, I'm Rams's Jah,
Speaker 1: call me Qward and that's going to do it for us.
Speaker 1: So until next week, y'all.