Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'man host
Speaker 1: Ramsey's job.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsey's job, so most of the times I'm
Speaker 2: just Q War today I am Scoop Newsworth.
Speaker 1: According to Ramsey's job, he knows exactly what you'll see
Speaker 1: what he's talking about. Just a second, we got a
Speaker 1: lot of people stick around for a great show lined
Speaker 1: up for you. We recently had an experience, both Q
Speaker 1: and I with a friend of ours where we had
Speaker 1: to articulate the differences between the two political parties in
Speaker 1: this country where a dear friend of ours, again, a
Speaker 1: dear friend, was trying to say that they're the same
Speaker 1: and there's no reason to engage. And I feel like
Speaker 1: that is a common thought, common feeling amongst people in
Speaker 1: is particular age group, and indeed in our age group
Speaker 1: as well, and so we wanted to point out some
Speaker 1: things that really illustrate some key differences, especially in the
Speaker 1: past let's call it eight to ten years, that you
Speaker 1: should know about if you don't follow politics as closely
Speaker 1: as we need to hear on this show. So that's
Speaker 1: one of the things we want you to stick around for.
Speaker 1: We're going to be, of course, talking about some recent
Speaker 1: events over the past week, the former president being found
Speaker 1: liable or sexual assault, I believe, and we're also going
Speaker 1: to be talking about the most recent major mass shooting event. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: these are things that kind of fall under our wheelhouse
Speaker 1: here as well, because there is definitely a racial component
Speaker 1: that we need to pay attention to. And we're going
Speaker 1: to be talking about a white man for our way
Speaker 1: Black History fact, and you don't want to miss that.
Speaker 1: So a lot to stick around for. But first and foremost,
Speaker 1: like we always do this time, kinda the illustrious kind
Speaker 1: of how we always do it this time the one
Speaker 1: and only Q word.
Speaker 2: Who's going to hit you in the head with some
Speaker 2: ebony excellence every excellence this week sponsored by Major Threads.
Speaker 2: You guys don't know how much I love Ramdas And
Speaker 2: because you can't see me right now, you really don't
Speaker 2: know how much love I'm expressing for my brother, teammate
Speaker 2: and partner in crime right now. On May third, veteran
Speaker 2: journalist Nicole Avery Nichols was named editor in chief of
Speaker 2: the Detroit Free Press What Updo Detroit? For the past
Speaker 2: twenty five years, Nicholas has reported on news in Detroit,
Speaker 2: covering topics such as culture, culinary arts, and more recently,
Speaker 2: COVID nineteen. The past two years, Nichols served as editor
Speaker 2: in chief at Chalkbat, a nonprofit publication centered on education.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 2: I firmly believe in centering people and their experience within
Speaker 2: the heart of journalism, and I am thrilled to be
Speaker 2: leading one of America's most powerful news homes as we
Speaker 2: tell the stories that matter the most, Nichols said in
Speaker 2: a press release.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 2: Nichols deep knowledge of local issues most important to Detroit residents,
Speaker 2: combined with a fearless and unflinching commitment to journalism that
Speaker 2: is essential in the communities we serve, makes her the
Speaker 2: perfect fit for the Free Press end quote. Kristin Roberts,
Speaker 2: a chief content officer at Gannett and the USA Today Network, said, quote,
Speaker 2: I am confident that under nichols leadership, the Free Press
Speaker 2: will deliver exclusive and solution focused journalism to our readers, viewers,
Speaker 2: and listeners wants. Nicholas began her career rather as a
Speaker 2: news reporter at the Utica Observer Dispatch, also holding positions
Speaker 2: at the Detroit News My mom used to work in Utica,
Speaker 2: so shout out to Ford Motor Company in Utica. Nichols,
Speaker 2: who attended Tuskegee and Syracuse Universities will replace, and Jeanette Delgado,
Speaker 2: who is currently serving as an intern executive editor for
Speaker 2: The Free Press, shouts out to w NUC ninety six
Speaker 2: point seven FM in Detroit.
Speaker 1: What up though? Once again? Yeah, thank y'all for carrying
Speaker 1: civiccer and I want to shout out Black Enterprise for
Speaker 1: that story right there. Now you understand why we had
Speaker 1: to make sure that you got that off, because I
Speaker 1: don't know what up dosed that he's able. Don't understand
Speaker 1: anything from Detroit. Shout out to the Motor one time exactly. Now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the conversation that we had recently with
Speaker 1: a friend of ours, who is is the word apolitical
Speaker 1: when a person doesn't really is that? Am I saying
Speaker 1: that right?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure right, because I think the A as
Speaker 2: a prefix in that instance would be more prescribed to
Speaker 2: someone who does not follow or care about politics at all.
Speaker 1: And it's not really that. Okay, But I said the
Speaker 1: right word, but that doesn't really fit for this. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So let's explain a little bit of background.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's it is right though, because having strong opinions
Speaker 2: while not participating might render you.
Speaker 1: A political right. Okay, maybe there's that. Well, so paying
Speaker 1: a little bit of a picture of.
Speaker 2: Our dear friend, I think he's kind of the genesis
Speaker 2: of this, kind of the crux of what led to this,
Speaker 2: but he's not singular at all.
Speaker 1: But it gave me a lens into this type of thinking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's for you.
Speaker 2: I think you finally saw something that I've been dealing
Speaker 2: with for years, not just with him, but with the
Speaker 2: people that we know, which is kind of discouraging.
Speaker 1: And it's this idea and it's really not their fault.
Speaker 2: You and I had a conversation with Charlemagne and to
Speaker 2: God and we were highlighting all of the reasons why
Speaker 2: so many people who would normally vote on the same
Speaker 2: side of the aisle as us and have the same
Speaker 2: interest and want the same political and social outcomes, have
Speaker 2: decided to just kind of tap out and not participate.
Speaker 2: And it's because political parties in this country, this is
Speaker 2: where they do have some similarities, are very much out
Speaker 2: for themselves individual and not their constituencies or the places
Speaker 2: that they come from or the people that vote for them.
Speaker 2: So because politicians have found a way to turn politics
Speaker 2: into a way to just make a lot of money
Speaker 2: for themselves, no matter which way they lean, they can
Speaker 2: be persuaded, they can be lobbied, they can be encouraged
Speaker 2: to do things that are not in anyone's best interest
Speaker 2: in particular, and really not feel a way about it
Speaker 2: either way. In which direction will the most money come from? Okay,
Speaker 2: let's push forward policy that supports those groups. And when
Speaker 2: you have people who while running for office, making promises
Speaker 2: and give you the impression that they're fighting for you
Speaker 2: only for you to vote for them, and then see
Speaker 2: that that's not their agenda at all, over and over again,
Speaker 2: it really does make you want to just throw up
Speaker 2: your hand and say, Okay, forget it, man, this is
Speaker 2: not benefiting me or my children, or my family or
Speaker 2: my community in any way, any tangible way.
Speaker 1: Anyway. Sure, so let's say it this way. Then what
Speaker 1: our friend was trying to say is not, in and
Speaker 1: of itself baseless. There for folks that feel very disconnected
Speaker 1: from outcomes after having cast their vote, we don't want
Speaker 1: to pretend like that the feeling that these people might
Speaker 1: be experiencing is imagine, right. So for folks like him
Speaker 1: who feel maybe exhausted or maybe feel like it's a
Speaker 1: six to one half a dozen of the other, we
Speaker 1: understand that. But what we're going to do today is
Speaker 1: kind of illustrate the difference between bad and worse. I
Speaker 1: guess you know what I mean for those people and
Speaker 1: that that subscribe to that reality. It does, you know,
Speaker 1: and I understand it. We've actually been very critical of
Speaker 1: you know, I think that on this show we tend
Speaker 1: to well, first off, the truth has a liberal bias
Speaker 1: to it, no matter what, and this is in fact
Speaker 1: the liberal country. You know, if you surveyed one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the population, you'd find that most folks have
Speaker 1: a more liberal philosophy to them. And so here we
Speaker 1: like to subscribe to the truth. We own our mistakes,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But we want to we don't want to
Speaker 1: shy away from the fact that there is a necessity
Speaker 1: to being critical of whatever political party you subscribe to,
Speaker 1: in addition to the opposing political party, and that to
Speaker 1: be critical of any institution is to in effect push
Speaker 1: it to be better, right, holding people accountable, and that's
Speaker 1: in fact what we're talking about today. So first things first,
Speaker 1: this mass shooting this past week, which I know, which
Speaker 1: mass shooting this past week? I know? Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: was the one in Texas at the outdoor mall.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sadly, I'm not being facetious, No, I know there was.
Speaker 3: We had to talk about this on my other show.
Speaker 3: There was a total of eight. But depending on who
Speaker 3: lives and dies, because there's some people still in critical condition,
Speaker 3: and if one more person dies in an additional two
Speaker 3: shooting events, that will be the ultimate deciding factor.
Speaker 1: And insofar as whether or not those additional two events
Speaker 1: will be quite fight as mass shooting events or not.
Speaker 1: So they're we're saying, because those people still got shot,
Speaker 1: whether they die or not. Right, But that there's every
Speaker 1: everyone has to measure. You're you're not wrong, but everyone
Speaker 1: has to agree on a set of statistics that qualify
Speaker 1: a mass shooting event from just a shooting. Right, And
Speaker 1: funnily enough, we'll get there.
Speaker 2: But this is our country to provide semantics in ways
Speaker 2: that they're just not needed.
Speaker 1: We wait until people get shot, but nobody dies and
Speaker 1: it was just a shooting, So waiting wait until we
Speaker 1: get to the end here, But watch this, Okay, so
Speaker 1: let's start off here. I'm gonna read from Yahoo. The
Speaker 1: gunman who killed eight people before he was fatally shot
Speaker 1: by a police officer at a Dallas area mall last
Speaker 1: Saturday was wearing a tactical vest with the patch that
Speaker 1: reads r w DS, an acronym which stands for right
Speaker 1: wing Death Squad, a phrase that has been embraced in
Speaker 1: recent years by far right extremists. Or Sigal, vice president
Speaker 1: of the Anti Defamation League's Center on Extremism, told the
Speaker 1: news service that RWDS re emerged in the twenty tens
Speaker 1: among some right wing groups. We used it on stickers, patches,
Speaker 1: in online forums, quote and essentially became a phrase that
Speaker 1: was co opted to demonstrate the opposition to the left
Speaker 1: more broadly by whitestream extremists. Seagull said. Right Wing Desk
Speaker 1: Cloud was the name of these smaller groups that participated
Speaker 1: in the White Nationalists Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,
Speaker 1: Virginia in August twenty seventeen, where they ran over. One
Speaker 1: of the guys ran over that I forget her name,
Speaker 1: but she was a white woman ally student actually went
Speaker 1: to that school and she lost her life that day. Right,
Speaker 1: So before we read further, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: this right wing death squad. Okay, So the policies, the culture,
Speaker 1: the ideals of the right in this country, including the media,
Speaker 1: and just the very nature of the political party itself
Speaker 1: can and has indeed yielded this as a result. Right now,
Speaker 1: what folks on the right might say to counter this
Speaker 1: point is, well, look at antifa. Antifa is violent. Antifa
Speaker 1: is you know, blah blah blah whatever, which is largely unfounded. However,
Speaker 1: in the incidents that can really substantiate any claim that
Speaker 1: they have, the violence is not directed at human beings,
Speaker 1: it's not directed at any particular racial group. Antifa, for
Speaker 1: folks that are not familiar, is anti fascist Antifa. So
Speaker 1: basically people who hate Nazis, Nazism or any version of
Speaker 1: that re emerging in this country or indeed globally. So
Speaker 1: it's the group of vigilanti fighters that push back against
Speaker 1: basically the foundations of the Nazi Party in Germany and
Speaker 1: what that would re emerge as in this country. Right So,
Speaker 1: you might see people being destructive, starting fires, throwing bricks,
Speaker 1: this sort of stuff, but you won't see any mass shooters.
Speaker 1: There's a different like hate is one thing. Fighting back
Speaker 1: is what I if I was to be as unbiased
Speaker 1: as possible. Fighting back is what I feel like Antifa
Speaker 1: does or exists to do. It's not an organization, so
Speaker 1: far be it for me to paint with broad strokes.
Speaker 1: It's just people who subscribe to a philosophy. But for
Speaker 1: the Antifa folks, the intention is to bring attention to
Speaker 1: or disrupt the movements that are based in fascism or
Speaker 1: indeed seed fascism, whereas the far right extremists actually do
Speaker 1: commit real harm.
Speaker 2: I mean, a great example to use is the brother
Speaker 2: who recently got let go by Fox News hyper popular.
Speaker 1: Yeah, our right wing extreme.
Speaker 2: Idiots, excuse me, I got my allergies kicked in almost Yeah.
Speaker 1: The guy that said they are trying to replace you
Speaker 1: him to his listeners.
Speaker 2: Some text messages or something leaked recently where an antif
Speaker 2: a supporter got jumped and he was not impressed by
Speaker 2: the amount of harm that was done to I thought
Speaker 2: it should have been far more in the moment he had,
Speaker 2: I think what he even described as a kind of
Speaker 2: ravenous desire for these white men to really show how
Speaker 2: white men can harm people, and didn't feel like they
Speaker 2: were doing enough, a good enough job, just to paint
Speaker 2: you a picture of the differences between the two ideologies.
Speaker 2: You know, this far right wing, right wing extremist while
Speaker 2: seeing this young person get beat up, jumped, stomped on,
Speaker 2: and his own heart, his own mind and his private
Speaker 2: thoughts wanted more, wanted blood, wanted carnage, wanted as much destruction,
Speaker 2: and let's get this guy as close to dead as
Speaker 2: we can. And then tries to walk it back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you said that, because we don't want
Speaker 1: to seem like we tell half truths over here.
Speaker 2: Unlike him, they tried to walk it back, and I
Speaker 2: think that was just, you know, a way to give
Speaker 2: himself some plausible deniability when when brought to the attention
Speaker 2: of the masters to the public that this is how
Speaker 2: this guy really thinks and feels, because you said it,
Speaker 2: there are no there are no examples to the other extreme.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no Antifa folks who kill people indiscriminately at
Speaker 1: the mall right, there is an enormous amount.
Speaker 2: And please know that if there was, we know, like lett,
Speaker 2: they would they would make sure that he knew that
Speaker 2: that'd be front page on as many news outlets that
Speaker 2: they control as possible. So let me let me add
Speaker 2: so the fact that they haven't even made it up.
Speaker 2: Let you know that as an idea, it doesn't exist. Sure,
Speaker 2: they haven't even in there, and they have shown us
Speaker 2: that being dishonest is not beneath them.
Speaker 1: Oh what, wait until we gets to the second part
Speaker 1: of the show. So what I wanted. I don't want
Speaker 1: to necessarily focus on the right wing death squad.
Speaker 4: There is no left wing death squad, just clear, exactly,
Speaker 4: And the closest thing would be Antifa in the minds
Speaker 4: of those people who've made them into the villains.
Speaker 1: Sure, but Antifa is nowhere near a death squad. The
Speaker 1: only stories that I've encountered, the only people who subscribe
Speaker 1: to that philosophy that I've ever even been made aware of.
Speaker 1: They only attempt to like disrupt, just in the idea
Speaker 1: that they don't call themselves a death squad. Sure, just
Speaker 1: anti fascist, and you shorten it it's antifa, that's it, right,
Speaker 1: But if you don't know it stands for anti fascists,
Speaker 1: and you are a right wing person who want to
Speaker 1: get your news from one source, then it very easily
Speaker 1: could become a bad word Antifa. The same way they've
Speaker 1: made socialist bad work, sure, and thank you for that.
Speaker 1: So what I wanted to make sure that we highlight
Speaker 1: is that it's the again culture, It's the ideals, it's
Speaker 1: the policies, and it's the let's call it the framework
Speaker 1: of personalities and personnel in the right that has yielded
Speaker 1: a safe space for a place like right wing death Squad.
Speaker 1: It's yielded fertile soil for that seed to be planted,
Speaker 1: watered continuously by Fox News and bro and sprout into
Speaker 1: a person who would walk into a mall and kill people.
Speaker 1: Now let me continue to read here. According to Heidi Branch,
Speaker 1: co founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism,
Speaker 1: the Proud Boys and neo fascist group of self described
Speaker 1: Western chauviness self described our Google chauvin is free. So
Speaker 1: this group is largely responsible for popularizing the use of
Speaker 1: our wds again, that's right wing Desk Squad among their
Speaker 1: far right. Following the twenty twenty election, members of the
Speaker 1: Proud Boys joined supporters of then President Donald Trump at
Speaker 1: rallies protesting the results. Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Carrillo
Speaker 1: and other leaders of the group were photographed wearing r
Speaker 1: WDS patches at those demonstrations. I am now super curious
Speaker 1: about Enrique. So I know about this guy. Okay, now
Speaker 1: you read his name, makes you think Hispanic person, right,
Speaker 1: a person of Latin descent. Indeed, he is not unlike
Speaker 1: this most recent shooter in the Dallas area in Texas. Right,
Speaker 1: here's a difference. Well, you know what. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about that, but suffice it
Speaker 1: to say that the person who carried out the shooting
Speaker 1: in Dallas, they've done their best to position this individual
Speaker 1: as a Mexican gang member rather than a we'll talk
Speaker 1: about a little bit more, but they've done their best
Speaker 1: on the right to position him as a Mexican gang
Speaker 1: member rather than a neo Nazi, completely ignoring his huge
Speaker 1: swastika tattoo and the RWDS patch on his clothes and
Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff. And what they're trying to
Speaker 1: do is so doubt in the minds of the people
Speaker 1: who subscribe to their news or The troubling thing is
Speaker 1: they don't need to sew doubt with those they're looking
Speaker 1: for the doubts, and once they got something, they're simply
Speaker 1: saying it is enough. A shred of doubt is enough
Speaker 1: for them to do it. They already feel that way,
Speaker 1: And okay, that's what I thought. Yeah, And it's and
Speaker 1: they ignore the pattern of behavior and the the amount
Speaker 1: of evidence that is building, you know. But uh, well
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that a little bit more. Okay.
Speaker 1: So another thing that people might say on the right is, well, listen,
Speaker 1: you're always blaming white men for these mass shootings who
Speaker 1: go into grocery stores and execute black people intentionally, or
Speaker 1: people who go into churches and kill this group or
Speaker 1: that group or black people intentionally or whatever. But what
Speaker 1: about the transgender shooters?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: So, for the uninitiated, and it might have been Nashville,
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks back school shooting, person who was
Speaker 1: trans had gone to the school and she shot the
Speaker 1: school up. And I don't like talking about this. It's
Speaker 1: just so sad and I have to like keep my composure,
Speaker 1: forgive me. Everyone. So this person identified openly as trans, right,
Speaker 1: But what they did was they tried to establish a
Speaker 1: couple of other examples of folks who identified as trans.
Speaker 1: So I think there was three in total, including the
Speaker 1: most recent shooter in Nashville school shooter, and one of
Speaker 1: those examples was a person who tried to identify as
Speaker 1: trans in the last moments so that he would not
Speaker 1: be charged with a hate crime. Right, very obvious that
Speaker 1: that was what was happening, because there was no evidence
Speaker 1: or anything like that prior to this. And indeed, this
Speaker 1: person who was in Colorado, this person's father was on
Speaker 1: the news saying some wild stuff. Anyway, you feel free
Speaker 1: to look it up. I know I'm not giving you
Speaker 1: all the details. We have to walk a fine line
Speaker 1: here between glorifying these people's names and all this stuff
Speaker 1: and really just kind of painting a broad picture with
Speaker 1: broad strokes. It's not that kind of show here, but
Speaker 1: we recognize patterns. The thing is of those three one
Speaker 1: and a half might have had some credibility to it,
Speaker 1: and that's enough for the folks on the right to
Speaker 1: excuse mountain of evidence that clearly suggests that there is
Speaker 1: a problem with the far right, with far right ideologies,
Speaker 1: and these people are being radicalized. They in fact, are
Speaker 1: the terrorists that they tried to make out folks from
Speaker 1: the Middle East to be around the turn of the century,
Speaker 1: the early two thousands. For those that weren't around back then,
Speaker 1: there was a time in this country, and it hasn't
Speaker 1: really fully subsided where people. I don't know that it
Speaker 1: ever will, but this time has not. This time in
Speaker 1: the country, people were very prejudiced and discriminated openly against
Speaker 1: folks who had roots in the Middle East. Folks will
Speaker 1: also point to a couple of examples of black mass shooters,
Speaker 1: most recently the one in Atlanta, but that was based
Speaker 1: on and first off, trans people. A lot of times
Speaker 1: they're bullied, which you know, that's a thing that happens,
Speaker 1: something we have to deal with. It's not as prevalent
Speaker 1: as indeed the white mass shooters are. This black gentleman
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta hospital, he was mad at a doctor
Speaker 1: for not giving him certain pills that he needed to
Speaker 1: addict it to the hospital's pills, shoots the hospital up.
Speaker 1: We will see that in its entirety, but we can't
Speaker 1: ignore the prevalence of white male mass shooters. And folks
Speaker 1: always point to gun violence as well. That's a different
Speaker 1: type of terrorism and indiscriminate shooting at crowds. We have
Speaker 1: to make sure that we say that as well, so
Speaker 1: again the two parties are not the same. Will continue
Speaker 1: in just a minute