Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Watch with my mic back you're like that you can strike.
Speaker 3: Waters from headquarters behind him to be line side in
Speaker 3: the borders.
Speaker 2: If you're just tuning into Civic Cipher. I'm the host.
Speaker 1: Fans this jock go by the name with Q word
Speaker 1: most of the time. Once upon a time there was
Speaker 1: a DJ on the front of there. Sometime my mom
Speaker 1: substitutes a ward for dirty Q. Dirty is a whole
Speaker 1: different name that I'll explain to you guys at some
Speaker 1: point in the future.
Speaker 2: Well, uh, we are the Dynamic Duo and we got
Speaker 2: a lot more show for you, so be sure to
Speaker 2: stick around because, uh, we're going to discuss the statement
Speaker 2: I'm not racist. I have a black friend. We're also
Speaker 2: going to talk about the origins of yoga, the true
Speaker 2: origins of yoga.
Speaker 1: And uh.
Speaker 2: Give our thoughts on that because I think that this
Speaker 2: is a beautiful thing. It's it's kind of a a
Speaker 2: nation of things, not just one. And then it went there,
Speaker 2: someone took something. It's just we're all in this together
Speaker 2: and I like that. But first we're going to discuss
Speaker 2: how to become a better ally and so this comes
Speaker 2: from The Guardian and for this we're going to shout
Speaker 2: out our friends from across the pond. So now people
Speaker 2: who post racist abuse online could be banned from attending
Speaker 2: football matches in England. We'll call it soccer from football
Speaker 2: matches in England and Wales for up to ten years.
Speaker 2: Pret Patel has said, so real quick. This is the
Speaker 2: Home Secretary right, that's a title of a position order.
Speaker 2: But for those that don't know, for our non black listeners,
Speaker 2: because I'm sure our black listeners probably will aware of this.
Speaker 2: A lot of times if there are black players playing
Speaker 2: soccer in big matches over there, people will throw like
Speaker 2: banana peels on the field to suggest that the black
Speaker 2: players are monkeys. They will do racist taunts, they will
Speaker 2: do all kinds of really offensive things, and then of
Speaker 2: course post racist stuff online. I'll continue pretty Patao. The
Speaker 2: Home Secretary is reportedly bringing forward legislation so football banning orders,
Speaker 2: which can be imposed on those convicted of violence, disorder
Speaker 2: and racist or homophobic chanting, can be expanded to include
Speaker 2: online hate defenses. And there's a quote racism is unacceptable
Speaker 2: and for too long football has been marred by this
Speaker 2: shameful prejudice. Fatela said. Those responsible for racist abused online
Speaker 2: must be punished. The changes to the law I'm announcing
Speaker 2: will make sure they are banned from attending football matches.
Speaker 2: It's not everything, but it's not nothing. And we like that.
Speaker 2: We like anybody that that aspires to become a better
Speaker 2: ally and we think that Prete Patel and all those
Speaker 2: who are supporting this legislation are doing just that, and
Speaker 2: we're hoping that we inspire people to do that here
Speaker 2: as well. So that is how accountability.
Speaker 1: It's very important. Absolutely, That's that's what I have to
Speaker 1: say about that.
Speaker 2: Well, all right, So now this is one that we
Speaker 2: we've talked around it for a long time Q and I,
Speaker 2: but we haven't talked about it on the show. You know,
Speaker 2: the person they say something that is upsetting everyone growns.
Speaker 2: Usually this person is white, and this person is around
Speaker 2: other white folks, and we recognize that a good number
Speaker 2: of our listeners are white, you know. But they'll say
Speaker 2: something and misread the room or whatever, and it just
Speaker 2: doesn't land. It's something racially based or something like that, right,
Speaker 2: and then everyone looks at them like, oh, did you
Speaker 2: just say that or did you just do that? Or
Speaker 2: is this real? And they will say, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I didn't mean that I'm not racist. I have a
Speaker 2: black friend. Right, we all know who this person is.
Speaker 2: It might have even have been you, right, And it's
Speaker 2: cool I have a black friend, at least one.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: You've got a couple of those two, Okay. So so
Speaker 2: we need to talk about this because it is possible
Speaker 2: to be racist and have a black friend. Many people
Speaker 2: harbor racist ideas and exhibit racist behavior despite growing up
Speaker 2: in racially diverse environ mens. I think it's Her name
Speaker 2: is Jane Elliott. She's a teacher, but like the biggest baba,
Speaker 2: the biggest like ally and champion of equality and fairness
Speaker 2: and equity that I've seen in the education system, at
Speaker 2: least in my lifetime. She's an older white woman. She's
Speaker 2: famous for doing the brown eyed versus blue eyed study
Speaker 2: as a metaphor for racism. You know, you can't born
Speaker 2: you can't you're born with your color eyes, and people
Speaker 2: with this color eyes get to do this, and people
Speaker 2: with that color eyes, you know, thirty percent of you
Speaker 2: have to stay here and you know that sort of thing,
Speaker 2: and then has dedicated her life to other experiments and
Speaker 2: speaking in that way, she says something that I believe
Speaker 2: is Mary potent in relevant to what we're talking about
Speaker 2: right here. She says, if you're white in America and
Speaker 2: you are not racist, then you haven't been paying attention.
Speaker 2: I believe that's almost an exact quote from her, and
Speaker 2: I know what she's saying. She she, I mean, you
Speaker 2: could look at look this up. I forgive me. I
Speaker 2: didn't you know, I didn't know that I would think
Speaker 2: of her in this moment, but so I didn't prepare
Speaker 2: any of her words. But she, I know that. She
Speaker 2: explains that this country, this is built in your likeness,
Speaker 2: in your image. When you look around and you see
Speaker 2: what when I say police officer, a white man just
Speaker 2: popped in your head. When I say judge, same thing
Speaker 2: when I say doctor, you know, blah blah, you know,
Speaker 2: on and on and on. Right, when I see when
Speaker 2: I say a model in a shampoo commercial, guess what
Speaker 2: kind of hair she has? In your mind, it's not
Speaker 2: my hair. It's not that my son's hair, it's not
Speaker 2: my sister's hair. It's the hair that you thought of.
Speaker 2: And you know, you know exactly what I mean, right,
Speaker 2: And she and these are the points that she's illustrating
Speaker 2: in her talk. I have to find it and share
Speaker 2: it with you, or we'll share it on social media,
Speaker 2: or you can you know, look it up yourself. Again.
Speaker 2: Her name is Jane Elliot, I believe. But it's things
Speaker 2: like that that position or maybe position is not the
Speaker 2: right word, but frame the world around it's it's white,
Speaker 2: male centric, at least in this country. You know, I
Speaker 2: could make an argument that it's that way across the world,
Speaker 2: but you know, we're talking about the US, and so
Speaker 2: then we'll keep it here, and has established that as
Speaker 2: the platonic ideal. Right, this is just kind of like
Speaker 2: I said, when you think of the police officer, who
Speaker 2: does that person look like? And you're not wrong. I
Speaker 2: think it's sixty percent of police officers are white men,
Speaker 2: not white men and women white men, and then forty
Speaker 2: percent of them are white women, black men, black women, Asian, Hispanic,
Speaker 2: on and on and on, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Other but the huge majority is white men. Challenging racist
Speaker 2: thoughts begins with examining the things that you take for granted,
Speaker 2: you know, because you might not think or this person
Speaker 2: that you thought of that says, oh we go to
Speaker 2: black friend, they might not think they're racist. But the
Speaker 2: truth is, once you start to examine things that you
Speaker 2: take for granted, especially things that other people may not
Speaker 2: be able to take for granted. Then you start to
Speaker 2: realize where your biases lie. Dare I say your privilege
Speaker 2: lives right, We've said it on the show before, Q
Speaker 2: and I. Privilege is not a bonus check. It's not
Speaker 2: a head start, per se. It's just not being born
Speaker 2: with a strike against you. It's not the same amount
Speaker 2: of hurdles on your journey, you know, it's not the
Speaker 2: same amount of pitfalls. It could be the same distance,
Speaker 2: you know, So for you just looks like I had
Speaker 2: to work hard, I had to do all this stuff.
Speaker 2: I worked and there was no privilege, no fairy godmother.
Speaker 2: I didn't inherit any money. There's no white privilege. But
Speaker 2: what that doesn't account for is the potential pitfalls that
Speaker 2: are present when you don't look like that, when you're
Speaker 2: not born a healthy, white, straight Christian male in the
Speaker 2: United States. That there are some people who are born
Speaker 2: with one or more of those things not being the
Speaker 2: case for them, and those things might make it a
Speaker 2: little bit more difficult for them to get to what
Speaker 2: their idea of utopia is right, or even just success,
Speaker 2: even if it's just enough. You know, there's there's pitfalls
Speaker 2: all over the place, and it's hard to see that
Speaker 2: if you're looking at your struggle and saying, well, I
Speaker 2: have to struggle too. Right, everybody's I mean, nobody gets
Speaker 2: out of this thing alive. Right, So everybody's got their
Speaker 2: own stuff to deal with. But when you account for
Speaker 2: the fact that other people got more to deal with,
Speaker 2: it starts to help give you some perspective.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: And this statement I'm not racist I have a black
Speaker 2: friend is very dangerous because people that say this and
Speaker 2: things like this don't critically examine their biases. They don't know.
Speaker 2: They genuinely think, I'm not racist. I have a black friend,
Speaker 2: meaning like I can like this black person. This person
Speaker 2: has been in my house, our kids have played together.
Speaker 2: That's that. But you know, when they cast a vote,
Speaker 2: they don't consider how will this vote impact these other people?
Speaker 2: How does it alter the reality of these other people?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: When I chose not to vote for Donald Trump, the
Speaker 2: name I shouldn't have said, but whatever, When I chose
Speaker 2: not to vote for him, that wasn't because of me.
Speaker 2: That could have been enough of a reason by itself,
Speaker 2: But that was for my Hispanic brothers and sisters. I
Speaker 2: remember that because he was talking about building a wall,
Speaker 2: and I remember everybody that I knew. For those that
Speaker 2: don't know, I live in Arizona and I was born
Speaker 2: in California. My whole life was shaped by what was
Speaker 2: once Mexico. All the street names, the foods, the people
Speaker 2: that live here, the beans, the rice, the cheese. It
Speaker 2: grows from the ground. Food is not racist, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. People are weird anyway. All these people
Speaker 2: that I know and love that have helped shape my life,
Speaker 2: hopefully I've helped shape their lives too. I realized that
Speaker 2: if in a parallel universe, like a weird alternative reality,
Speaker 2: I would have voted for that man who was saying
Speaker 2: build the wall and all this, all this flagrant stuff
Speaker 2: that was really scary to them, that his being elected
Speaker 2: could alter their reality. You know, you know, I made
Speaker 2: enough money where conceivably I could have voted for that
Speaker 2: man and it would have benefited me. You know, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't really you know, I would not be at
Speaker 2: the worst end of his policies, the receiving end of
Speaker 2: a lot of his more negative whatever. You know. I
Speaker 2: know that, but I also reckon recognize that this is
Speaker 2: not just my world right, and so again being able
Speaker 2: to examine the world from beyond just your front porch
Speaker 2: really helps. And when you say things like I'm not racist,
Speaker 2: I have a black friend, it chops you, like you
Speaker 2: chopping yourself off at the knees in terms of limiting
Speaker 2: your potential to grow and to learn. How can I
Speaker 2: be better? I want to be better for you if
Speaker 2: you are that white Christian, healthy, straight male. I want
Speaker 2: to be a better brother to you, because that is
Speaker 2: my journey. I want to be better to everybody because
Speaker 2: I believe that I can be as good as I
Speaker 2: think I am. I think I can do better and
Speaker 2: still do better. And when you say things like well,
Speaker 2: I'm not racist, because it is I'm not racist because
Speaker 2: of that I went I went to college with a
Speaker 2: black guy, you know what I mean? It gives you
Speaker 2: a false sense of It gives you like a false
Speaker 2: barrier to hide behind in your own mind. You develop
Speaker 2: a complex and then everything that you do that keeps
Speaker 2: it in check, and you don't really check yourself like
Speaker 2: that might have been a little out of pocket. What
Speaker 2: do you think you.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to unpack here. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: A person with a black friend can be racist in
Speaker 1: the same way that a person with the daughter can
Speaker 1: be a rapist, in the same way that a person
Speaker 1: with a family who they have no intention on killing
Speaker 1: can be a serial killer. Right. The presence of something
Speaker 1: that fits into the group that you offend doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that you're not against that group. Uh. And in some
Speaker 1: cases I have to be fair, and we've talked about
Speaker 1: this before. Sometimes those biases are implicit, they're not even
Speaker 1: some most people are not even.
Speaker 2: Aware of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, in their head, their black friend is an
Speaker 1: exceptional black person. So I'm not talking about you rams,
Speaker 1: I mean them. You're my friend, of course, I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about you. I'm talking about the ones that drink
Speaker 1: the Hennessy. You're well spoken, in articular, because I don't
Speaker 1: mean you as if you're one of one or a unicorn,
Speaker 1: because you're intelligent and can articulate. And a lot of
Speaker 1: those biases are born out of what our capitalist country
Speaker 1: did very intentionally, and that's making minorities the enemy of
Speaker 1: the white man, even if the white man is poor
Speaker 1: and has far more in common with those oppressed and
Speaker 1: held back minorities. Right, give them someone to hate, give
Speaker 1: them somebody to point to as to why their version
Speaker 1: of the American dream isn't happening. So there are poor people,
Speaker 1: poor white people all around the country that have to
Speaker 1: be looking like, what are you talking about white privilege?
Speaker 1: I'm poor, My dad was poor. His dad was poor.
Speaker 1: So we sound crazy when we're talking about white privilege
Speaker 1: to a certain sector of our population. But they're being
Speaker 1: held back and pressed down by the same laws and
Speaker 1: same ideology that there non Caucasian brothers and sisters are
Speaker 1: being held down by, except they don't think it should
Speaker 1: be happening to them, So someone else has to be
Speaker 1: the reason why.
Speaker 2: I think that in and of itself is never mind.
Speaker 2: I don't want to go in that drag. I do
Speaker 2: want to share a quick story to your point. Once
Speaker 2: upon a time I knew a person. His name was Jared,
Speaker 2: and Jared and I were friends. I would go and
Speaker 2: hang out with him every weekend, and his roommate was
Speaker 2: really my friend, but Jared was there. Jared loved me.
Speaker 2: We all hung out. It was my guy, right. Jared's white,
Speaker 2: maybe a year or two older than me. He was
Speaker 2: really into sports, which I totally was not but he
Speaker 2: knew that I knew a little bit about basketball, like
Speaker 2: early nineties basketball, and Shaquille O'Neil was a name that
Speaker 2: I knew and whatever. So he tells me the story.
Speaker 2: He's like, man, Shack did something the other day. I
Speaker 2: forget what the story was, but he's like, yeah, Shack
Speaker 2: and it was something he was disappointed and Shaquille O'Neil
Speaker 2: for doing. Right, So he's like, yeah, Shaq did this
Speaker 2: and blah blah blah. And he's like, and you know,
Speaker 2: I think that that's that's that's one guy where I
Speaker 2: think it's okay to use the N word. And I
Speaker 2: was like, uh huh huh. You know that like laugh
Speaker 2: where you're like, uh oh, did he really just say that?
Speaker 2: Because you know, the way he's setting it up is
Speaker 2: like it's going to be funny, So your body, I think,
Speaker 2: is prepared to laugh, and then once your mind catches
Speaker 2: up and processes the words, it like chokes the laugh
Speaker 2: from coming out. And so that's the noise that you heard.
Speaker 2: And I did this little half laugh and then he
Speaker 2: kind of did a little chuckle. And you know, James,
Speaker 2: our other friend, was in there like kind of on
Speaker 2: the way to the kitchen or something like that. So
Speaker 2: he kind of overheard, but he was he wasn't engaged, right,
Speaker 2: so he had a bit of an audience me in
Speaker 2: fifty percent James. So it just it felt like a
Speaker 2: joke that didn't land. But he knew better because I'm
Speaker 2: really good at making people uncomfortable, right, So I kind
Speaker 2: of said with it, and you know, he said something
Speaker 2: else and tried to change the subject and you know
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. But you know, I really had
Speaker 2: to like come to terms with like how in the world,
Speaker 2: Like I can't do that, And I'm like, do I
Speaker 2: educate him? Or is he a lost cause? Or like,
Speaker 2: you know, you had to figure out who you are
Speaker 2: in that moment. So I get it. You know, sometimes
Speaker 2: you got it because that's a hard line for me
Speaker 2: and for a lot of you. If you're listening to us,
Speaker 2: that perhaps is a hard line for you too, But
Speaker 2: it doesn't it's not easy to cut that limb off,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. You have to figure out
Speaker 2: how you're gonna do it, or if it's necessary, can
Speaker 2: we save it? You know, can this person?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: You don't want to just give up on people, but
Speaker 2: obviously for me, with the story of my life, it's
Speaker 2: not something that I'm able to tolerate, right, So I
Speaker 2: sit with it and he's trying to change the subject.
Speaker 2: He comes back around and he's like, yo, man, listen,
Speaker 2: I noticed when I said that thing about Shack. He
Speaker 2: didn't say be in word. He said the word. He
Speaker 2: said the phrase right, but conveyed the full weight of
Speaker 2: what he was trying to say to me. He's like, hey, man,
Speaker 2: I know you know that I didn't say that word.
Speaker 2: And of course I would never talk about you like that.
Speaker 2: I was trying to say, you know, Shack because of
Speaker 2: what he did, I think it's okay to call him that.
Speaker 2: And I was like, man, strike two, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. And I took a moment and I says
Speaker 2: to him, listen, when you use that word, you're using
Speaker 2: that word because he's black. If Shaq was not black,
Speaker 2: you would not that sentence would not have come out
Speaker 2: of your mouth. So that word is associated with blackness
Speaker 2: in your mind. And that we don't even have to
Speaker 2: go any further than that. We don't have to go
Speaker 2: any further than that, but we can, because even at
Speaker 2: that young age, I might have been seventeen and eighteen
Speaker 2: somewhere in there, twenty one years ago. But even at
Speaker 2: that young age, I was able to say, listen, man,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of stuff that you need to like
Speaker 2: really deal with and don't get it twisted. You know,
Speaker 2: racism is not just the inWORD. In fact, that's a
Speaker 2: very very small part of racism. That's perhaps the kind
Speaker 2: that you can make an argument that you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of people prefer that kind of racism. It's that
Speaker 2: quiet racism that's powerful, that shapes societies and lifetimes and outcome.
Speaker 2: That's the racism that really, that's the monster. Somebody calling
Speaker 2: you the inWORD is like okay, well I know, not
Speaker 2: to walk down this street no more or whatever. You know.
Speaker 2: So don't think that just because you don't say the
Speaker 2: in word, or someone else doesn't say the in word,
Speaker 2: that they can't be, you know, harbor these sorts of thoughts, sentiments,
Speaker 2: or contribute to shaping the society that is a white
Speaker 2: supremacist society, a racist society. I do want to read
Speaker 2: this though, real quickly. And one of his most famous studies,
Speaker 2: Gordon Allport conducted surveys of white soldiers who fought alongside
Speaker 2: black soldiers during World War Two. He discovered that in
Speaker 2: companies where both black and white platoons, white soldiers disliked
Speaker 2: black people far less than did white soldiers who served
Speaker 2: in segregated units, meaning that in mixed platoons white soldiers
Speaker 2: were there wasn't as much in the way of hard feelings.
Speaker 2: Everybody just kind of was having a human experience together.
Speaker 2: Where it was segregated, they kind of looked down on
Speaker 2: the white soldiers or on the black soldiers. White soldiers
Speaker 2: looked down on black soldiers and segregated companies. But Allport
Speaker 2: found it was not enough for whites and non whites
Speaker 2: to simply know one another. Other conditions also had to
Speaker 2: be met, such as personal interaction, equal status, and both
Speaker 2: groups sharing common goals. Allport's findings, which were replicated with
Speaker 2: civilians in varying settings, proved that hatred and racism stemmed
Speaker 2: from a lack of contact, and the historian Rutger Bergmann
Speaker 2: or Brigman wrote an essay describing all ports work. There's
Speaker 2: a quote, we generally wild We generalized wildly about strangers
Speaker 2: because we don't know them, Win wrote. So the remedy
Speaker 2: seemed obvious, more contract when you say I have a
Speaker 2: black friend. It shows your willingness to reach across racial
Speaker 2: lines to learn about a person, but not about a culture.
Speaker 2: So don't limit yourself. Okay, and we got about a
Speaker 2: minute left. I do want to share this.
Speaker 1: Q.
Speaker 2: His best friend is white, me my best friend. I've
Speaker 2: known him since he was three. I was seven when
Speaker 2: we met. He's white. You can look him if you're
Speaker 2: listening on the radio. You might be a fan of radio.
Speaker 2: Look him a blueleg keV best friend, best man at
Speaker 2: his wedding, the whole nine. I think Tommy was the
Speaker 2: best man at your wedding, right, yes, sir, and I
Speaker 2: was his exactly that our best friends are. I mean,
Speaker 2: we're best friends too. But you know, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to say, our lifelong best friends white. They
Speaker 2: would never say I'm not racist, I have a black friend.
Speaker 2: It would never be in the situation in the first place.
Speaker 2: But also they would know how to approach that with
Speaker 2: a bit more sensitivity and never hide behind that.
Speaker 1: And they also have excellent relationships with way more than
Speaker 1: one black person person exactly. And so again, it's not
Speaker 1: a it's not a person, it's a culture. So just
Speaker 1: gonna leave you with that, use it with your friends,
Speaker 1: use it with yourself. But now it is time for
Speaker 1: the way black history.
Speaker 2: Fact. I did yoga once. I did the downward dog,
Speaker 2: and did my favorite was the happy Baby downward dog.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna hear something funny too. So I took my
Speaker 2: son with me. He was a baby at the time,
Speaker 2: and I went to a yoga class and he had
Speaker 2: his little He was trying to do what we were
Speaker 2: doing in the yoga class, right, and so he was
Speaker 2: on his back with his little baby feet in the air,
Speaker 2: you know, all that sort of stuff. And I took
Speaker 2: a picture of him and I posted it on my
Speaker 2: Facebook or something, and the caption said, my dog stayed downward,
Speaker 2: you know, because that's my dog. I thought that was
Speaker 2: so fun. Anyway, Yeah, I I am a big fan
Speaker 2: of yoga, even though I don't practice it. I just
Speaker 2: appreciate yogi's and the culture and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: I got more into like meditating and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Yoga was more physical, and I probably will get into
Speaker 2: it eventually. But I want to read this. This comes
Speaker 2: from Yoga International dot com. Okay, so you can read
Speaker 2: it yourself. Yoga researchers have found evidence to suggest that
Speaker 2: yoga not only originated in India, but also has roots
Speaker 2: in parts of Africa, particularly Egypt. The practice of yoga
Speaker 2: was created by brown and black people as a tool
Speaker 2: for spiritual growth, as a way to integrate the spiritual
Speaker 2: element with physical experience. Over time, the practice has evolved
Speaker 2: into many different forms, some more accessible than others. Today,
Speaker 2: many people have a distinct expectation of what yoga should
Speaker 2: look like, an expectation that often has little to no
Speaker 2: connection to yoga's roots. If we choose to look at
Speaker 2: modern yoga as a collection of mindful movements, we can
Speaker 2: see that other cultures have had an influence on yoga's
Speaker 2: history and evolution. We can, for example, see the Western
Speaker 2: influence through many accessible yoga modalities, as well as the
Speaker 2: development of fitness centered yoga. Cometic yoga, which originated in Egypt,
Speaker 2: focuses on the movement of energy through the body in
Speaker 2: order to connect with one's higher intelligence and the divine.
Speaker 2: One practices cometic yoga at a much slower pace than
Speaker 2: in a standard asana class, and there is more of
Speaker 2: a focus on meditation and the chakras, which are energy centers.
Speaker 2: The physical poses of comedic yoga are taken from ancient
Speaker 2: illustrations of Egyptian gods and goddesses. There's a practice with
Speaker 2: African roots that has been largely ignored by mainstream yoga culture.
Speaker 2: This comes from Yoga International dot com. I didn't write this.
Speaker 2: This is not surprised in giving the history of oppression
Speaker 2: against people of African descent in North America. The contributions
Speaker 2: of people of color to modern society. Society rarely make
Speaker 2: it into history books and even though they played a
Speaker 2: huge part in the development of modern world culture. Several
Speaker 2: pre eminent researchers of comedic yoga and comedic culture, particularly
Speaker 2: see Who Kippara, Unc, Saint Clair Drake, and Your Sir Rajotep,
Speaker 2: aimed to make the practice of comedic yoga more widely known,
Speaker 2: especially the African influence on contemporary spiritual practices. Kimmit or
Speaker 2: Kmt was an ancient name for Egypt during the era
Speaker 2: of the Pharaohs. Shout out to all the pharaohs one
Speaker 2: time that that's kind of an inside joke between me
Speaker 2: and too, because my name is Ramses and that's I'm
Speaker 2: named after a pharaoh Ramses the second so haha. Research
Speaker 2: suggests that the first Egyptians were black skinned and came
Speaker 2: from the Sudan, Ethiopia, and southern Arabia as well as Babylon.
Speaker 2: The Kmetic people designed and built pyramids and made important
Speaker 2: contributions in many fields, including mathematics, architecture, chemistry, medicine, and more.
Speaker 2: They expressed their ideas and sacred symbols, such as those
Speaker 2: found in the pyramids and in the tombs like that
Speaker 2: belonging to Tutan Common and Ramses. The second, the person
Speaker 2: my father named me after your Sir, Rajo Tep is
Speaker 2: the most senior instructor of Chemetic yoga in the United States.
Speaker 2: He states, quote through modern eyes, what those ancient people,
Speaker 2: by their symbolic drawings and carvings appear obscure and mysterious,
Speaker 2: through the eyes of one enlightened to their worldview, their
Speaker 2: obvious and magnificent messages are easily understood. As teachers and
Speaker 2: practitioners of higher consciousness, we need to be open to
Speaker 2: the idea that yoga is much larger than we perceive
Speaker 2: it to be or have been taught to believe, and
Speaker 2: that its origins are likely far richer and more complex
Speaker 2: than what we think and understand about modern yoga culture today.
Speaker 2: It is important for black people and other people of
Speaker 2: color to know that our history is valid. The world
Speaker 2: belongs to us too, and our experiences and contributions matter.
Speaker 2: Black and brown lives matter and are an important part
Speaker 2: of the creation of the world we have today. People
Speaker 2: need to recognize this. Allowing a culture to know its
Speaker 2: roots and take pride in its contribution to society and
Speaker 2: to acknowledge its heritage and tradition takes nothing away from
Speaker 2: the dominant culture. It is not oppressed the dominant culture,
Speaker 2: but rather it enriches the experience of all of us.
Speaker 2: If people of color are celebrated for our accomplishments and
Speaker 2: are seen as equals in this culture, we can begin
Speaker 2: to dismantle white supremacy and finally focus on healing this
Speaker 2: society and this world again. Yoga International dot Com. That's
Speaker 2: not you know, you know, blackie black Black Black dot com.
Speaker 2: This is like the bona fide yoga people that I
Speaker 2: was just as surprised to read this, but that I mean,
Speaker 2: I read a few articles, but this was the one
Speaker 2: that really kind of captured everything that I wanted to say.
Speaker 2: In researching this, I kind of knew this for some time,
Speaker 2: but of course in doing this show, I've been made
Speaker 2: to study all kinds of neat little things like this
Speaker 2: and to kind of know that not only is it
Speaker 2: more beautiful when it's stout like this, but the people
Speaker 2: that are acknowledging it are doing so with some flair.
Speaker 2: You know, you know that it's almost celebrated. That that
Speaker 2: feels kind of special your thoughts, you know what, you think?
Speaker 2: Our history and its richness.
Speaker 1: Continues to inspire me, continues to make me feel proud
Speaker 1: and continues to make me more curious. I want to
Speaker 1: know more, I want to learn more. I'm proud of us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Maya Angelo said it still we rise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, thousands of years of history removed from
Speaker 1: history books and then a lot to try to erase
Speaker 1: the richness of what our people has brought have brought
Speaker 1: to this planet to civilization, to science, to medicine, to
Speaker 1: all forms of everything. So the more I learn about
Speaker 1: things like this, the more excited, the more inspired, and
Speaker 1: the more proud I am.
Speaker 2: I love that. Well that's that's That's about all the
Speaker 2: time that we have for today. So once again we
Speaker 2: want to thank you for tuning in to Civic Cipher.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Rams' job, I go on a nam
Speaker 2: q ward. Yes indeed, and we really do appreciate your support.
Speaker 2: I can't I can't stress that enough. This has been
Speaker 2: the most amazing ride. Uh and we're still on it
Speaker 2: and we're still growing, and there's a lot more growth
Speaker 2: opportunities and you can help us out with those. As always,
Speaker 2: you can hit the website Civiccipher dot com and make
Speaker 2: a donation. That's really how the shows are growing, and
Speaker 2: can also submit any questions or topics you want us
Speaker 2: to discuss and follow us on all of our social
Speaker 2: media at Civic Cipher. Of course, you can download this
Speaker 2: in any previous episodes of the show all Civiccipher dot
Speaker 2: com and Internal netweek You correct, shock and Yo, we
Speaker 2: hand the lave.
Speaker 3: These brothers are fabulous, O our lady showing you where
Speaker 3: Vron travel is. World speak tone from sunlight to morow,
Speaker 3: busting on stage like gonna fight, suppose row my mic back.
Speaker 3: You're like that journalists with journalists too, we can strike
Speaker 3: back hard horb borders with orders from head borders behind
Speaker 3: in the beline side, step in the borders. The press passes.
Speaker 2: We bring it to you as it habits the streets.
Speaker 2: Love popping from music and rapping the street.
Speaker 3: Compared the slash bag expando, you'renna fight the slander with
Speaker 3: the proper propaganda.
Speaker 2: What's happening, It's happen. You've got any questions and ask him.
Speaker 2: The news is just a TV show. You're pasty and
Speaker 2: this woman