WEBVTT - Civic Cipher 050821 Ramses Ja and Q Ward 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.200 Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host, 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:08.920 Ramsy's Jah. The name is Ward Quentin J but my 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.440 friends called me Q. Yes indeed, And of course we 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:17.759 are back to talk more about the goings on in 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:24.560 the world of melanated peoples in this country. And we've 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:29.479 got a lot to talk about, unfortunately, but before we 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:34.639 get to recent videos, before we get to processing you know, 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:40.360 what's happening in the world of political activism and so forth. 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:49.839 You know, we had some some comments via our Instagram 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:56.080 page and I thought it was worth, you know, us 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:01.080 talking about them. For those that we don't already, please 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:06.920 follow our Instagram and our Facebook just search Civic Cipher 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.080 and keep up with us during the week, and of 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.880 course interact with us because we need to know your thoughts. 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:15.559 This is all of our show. We're just the ones 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.479 giving a voice to it. But the hope, of course 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.280 is that it will benefit not only us in our future, 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:23.560 but you as well. And it doesn't matter what color 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:25.200 you are, what your faith is, or any of that 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.640 sort of stuff. We're all trying to create a better 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:34.160 world for each other. But I digress. One such thing 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:43.160 that came up this week is someone wanted to know 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:51.000 where the outrage is when the police take aggressive action 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:57.960 or otherwise shoot, slash kill someone who's white in the 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:03.440 same manner that they do black folks. One to know 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:11.680 where's the reaction, Where are the people? Why is it 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.280 that no one's coming to the defense of someone just 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.240 because he's white and he's subject to the same system. 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.799 And I thought that was a fair question, because obviously 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:31.160 we don't want the show to constantly frame our position 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.519 as though we are the only ones underneath the foot 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:41.600 of a corrupt criminal justice system, although we do acknowledge 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.400 that oftentimes we're the ones who get the worst of it. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.000 So again, I thought that it was important to address 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:54.520 that question and you know, provide some at least from 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.120 where we sit, some context for how that looks and 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.000 how that feels relative to seeing it happened to a 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.840 black person, and you know, provide some context. And so 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:07.880 I'll go first. I would love to hear your thoughts 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:19.640 on it. So obviously, there's a long storied relationship with 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.760 the police and black people in this country. You know, 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:27.960 policing was literally born out or rather patrolling was literally 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.760 born out of slave patrols in this country. And so 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:39.280 it's almost a symbiotic relationship. Unfortunately, that police need black bodies. 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.280 And I know that's a weird way of looking at it, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.240 but you could make an argument if you so chose. 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:54.520 But I believe that the result of you know, politicians 0:03:54.760 --> 0:04:00.880 peddling fear for decades has resulted in a policing culture 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:09.080 that has created an army of bullies, an army of 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:18.479 people who have unlimited fiscal resources, zero accountability, and oftentimes 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:24.920 are able to vent their frustrations in the line of duty. 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.120 I read a statistic many times, and I don't know 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.840 because I didn't conduct the research myself, but I've come 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.400 across a statistic that I believe would be I believe 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.039 it to be true. So again, take this with a 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.080 grain of salt. I don't want to misrepresent any police 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:43.600 officers or anything like that. I don't want to have 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.880 fair conversations. But my understanding is that there is an 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:55.480 unusually large amount of police officers who are also wife beaters. 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.279 You know, these are people who abuse their wives at home, 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:06.479 which to me suggests that these violent, aggressive behaviors are 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.680 kind of part and parcel with the gig or otherwise, 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:14.520 people that are prone to those violent outbursts tend to 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.120 find themselves in that line of work. They seek out 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.960 that line of work, right, And so if that's true, 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:24.240 and I believe it to be true, so I'm going 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.400 to continue. If that's true, then what you end up 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:35.320 with is again an army of violent, overly violent folks 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.240 mostly who I mean. And I understand some folks want 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:40.719 to do good, they want to be the good guys, 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:42.359 they want to be the heroes and so forth. But 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:51.520 if these statistics are are any indication of who the 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.640 people are that actually man the lines, you have violent 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.839 people again with who are able to operate with impunity, 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.600 who have a culture of protecting themselves and you know, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:09.720 burying their sins and are able to kind of get 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:14.360 their aggression out when they work. They just jump people 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.520 all the time. You know, if your show, if you 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:19.920 show up somewhere and you got three of your guys 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.599 with you, you know you're going to be able to 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.680 do whatever it is that you want. Someone's talking back 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.599 to you and you don't like it, instead of you know, 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.479 arguing your way through it or just kind of understanding 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.800 that you're a public servant and sometimes the public is 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.240 not as nice. Now you have three or four of 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:38.680 your guys with that you're able to kind of get 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.159 off a couple of punches and kicks and stop resisting 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.240 to people that aren't resisting and so forth. And we 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:50.200 know that to be true. That's standard procedure. You're on 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.320 the ground with four people on you, and then they 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.800 yell stop resisting when you literally can't stop trying to 0:06:55.880 --> 0:07:03.320 stop yourself from being harmed, right, stop it? And uh so, 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:10.320 so how does this relate to the ah, how how 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:18.160 people deal with you know, black bodies versus white bodies? Right? 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:24.480 My thoughts are that because we have such a long 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:32.000 standing beef, if you will, with police and policing and 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:41.800 how it's been done, we are as a as a 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.560 people just more tired of it. We are the people, 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.160 We as a people have more resources dedicated to it. 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:52.360 We as a people understand that the numbers overwhelmingly favor 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:58.320 black and brown bodies being abused by police relative to 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.520 to white folks. And and I think that once we 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:04.200 take a step back from that, we can all agree 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:10.560 that policing as an institution and as a culture is predatory. 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:17.960 It's overfunded, there's no accountability, as I stated, and it's 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.760 doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It was designed 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:29.600 to address unfounded fears in the general population. And if 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.600 these fears don't really exist, and you have a bunch 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:37.040 of bullies with unlimited resources and impunity, then you end 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.480 up with folks who might abuse a white guy or 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:45.040 two here and there. And another part of this is 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.840 that a lot of times, I think the statistic is 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.559 that some like sixty percent of police officers are white 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:56.240 men something like that. It's a huge number. And there's 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.120 a smaller percentage that are female, white women, and I 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.960 think white women are ten percent something like that, and 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.640 then the other twenty five percent of police are others, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.600 including black officers. Again I believe that to be true. 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:10.960 I don't have the stats in front of me, but 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.040 if that's not accurate, it's somewhere around that number. And 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:20.040 so for us, a lot of times, the police, like 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:22.400 if you close your eyes and imagine a police officer, 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.520 the platonic ideal police officer, what the image that pops 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.480 in your head is a white man? You know, I 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.840 would guess right, you're not in your head, but white 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:37.280 man with the hat shirt, the badge and the little mustache. 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.480 You know, maybe or maybe not, depends on if he's younger. Younger, oh, 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.040 fresh out of the academy, there's no facial hair. He's 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.600 the most eager to show how down he is. Yeah, 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.400 he's worked his whole life. But I do want to 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:57.280 say this that any unjust harm on any human being is, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:00.800 at least for us, something that we wouldn't stand for. 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:03.160 You know, we don't want to see anybody get hurt. 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:04.880 We certainly don't want to see anybody lose their life 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:11.400 at the hands of the police. And because it's less 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.560 common in those with respect to white males, which is 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:22.679 what the question is about, it doesn't happen with any regularity, 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:27.839 and oftentimes, I believe the thing that really makes all 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:32.200 the difference is that I still feel like that white 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.319 man who's being abused and take advantage of it by 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:40.000 the police, if he or his father, or his family 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:44.200 or whatever wanted to seek justice, that they would at 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.760 least be heard, they would have their day to plead 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.840 their case, and they would be given a fair trial, 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:55.840 you know. And if you swap that out with a 0:10:55.880 --> 0:11:00.240 black person, I think that our expectation has for the 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.480 most part, man, I think you mentioned a couple weeks 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:10.000 ago that out of fifteen thousand police shootings of black 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.400 men in this country, two of them resulted in actual 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:19.880 convictions seven seven and fifteen thousand, that was the number. Okay, so, 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:26.559 but that shows how there needs to be some change 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.959 with respect to police officers and black men. I think 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.680 that our assumption is often or maybe maybe it's not 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:34.679 an assumption, because I don't think our thoughts even go there, 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:39.360 at least mine don't. But I think that the understanding 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:46.920 is that black folks do not get a fair shot 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:54.520 at justice if the police mishandle mismanage, whatever the cases, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:59.720 they abuse their power. And so those are my thoughts 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.800 on why there's a different reaction when the victim is 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:11.640 black versus when the victim is white. There's a lot 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:19.439 with regards to this topic and the question that's being posed, sots. 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:25.080 Let's start with the very, very easy and explainable numbers. 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:31.600 A black man is one hundred and fifty percent more 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.600 likely to be killed by police in his lifetime than 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:41.439 any other person in the United States. And this data 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.000 is from the National Academy of Sciences of the United 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.640 States of America, not the Black Panther Party. Just so 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.040 we're clear that we're not inventing this data or skewing 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:56.080 it in favor of the argument being made that we're 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.199 I see those stats in front of me that were 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:06.320 more likely to be killed by police. So that's the 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.400 first reason why there's not as much outrage, because it's 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.240 one hundred and fifty percent more likely to happen to us. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:22.560 Another issue that some might argue I won't, but some might, 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.840 is that white men being killed by police are not 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:31.360 being killed because they're white. And I think there is 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:37.000 irrefutable evidence that in a lot of these cases, black 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.680 men are being killed because their skin is the crime. 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:43.560 Being black is what they're guilty of. It's why they 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.520 were pulled over in the first place. They didn't just 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:53.800 break the law. They were not brandishing a weapon. Sometimes 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:58.640 they're sitting in their own homes and officers get to 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:03.240 enter their homes and kill them and still not go 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:09.720 to prison for the rest of their lives. There's a 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:18.720 bit of Stockholm syndrome with regards to non black, specifically 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:24.040 white people in this country that are poor, that are 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:30.760 victims of injustice, that are not treated fairly. That's not 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.200 because they're white, which I bring up again because that's very, 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:42.160 very important. But the system in place has done a 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:48.600 remarkable job of marketing itself to most of the people 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.400 that it oppresses, because we are still what fourteen fifteen 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.920 percent of the population, and that would be me being generous. 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.560 There's a very large group of white Americans that live 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.880 below at or very close to the poverty line, that 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:11.080 vote and carry out the civil duties of completely different 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.120 people than who they are. The only thing they have 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:18.840 in common is their lack of melanin exactly, So, when 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:23.680 you can convince more than half of the population who 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.840 you oppress, who you try to keep uneducated and poor 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.200 so that the richest and most successful of you can 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.560 continue to thrive, when you've convinced them that we're all 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.880 on the same team and they will fight to uphold 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.480 your best interest, then you won't have those same people 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.280 taking to the streets in protest of the rights and 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.440 privileges and liberties that they're not being afforded. I think 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:54.520 that's why there's such a huge amount of folks that 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:01.440 shout things like blue lives matter, all lives matter, or 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.120 that you know, I saw this is funny because this happened. 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.720 My hand to God, this happened to day. I was 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.560 driving and I saw what looked like a beat up 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.960 old police car. It was weird because normally police cars 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.520 are keeping them pretty nice, pretty new. They got a 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:26.400 you know, but it was a two door GMC jimmy 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.800 with the yellow lights on the top of the car, 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:31.640 not a red and a blue one, but they were yellow. 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.000 But it had like a sticker around the car. The 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.880 car had been in an accident, so the front of 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:43.760 it was kind of crumpled into the passenger compartment. The 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.800 stickers didn't go together, but they were blue like like 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.680 it was like someone had almost like someone painted on 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.400 to a police car, but they put the stickers on it. 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:55.880 And the stickers were crooked. The letters were crooked, but 0:16:55.920 --> 0:17:02.040 it said neighborhood Patrol and something like that. And then 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.840 there were two guys in this truck. This truck was 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.359 who had son And there was two guys in the truck, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.360 and one of them had the American flag as a 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.520 COVID mask on his face, and the other one had 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.000 that flag with the blue line, which is an abomination 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.359 and an affront to the actual American flag, and so 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:22.600 is the other one. By the way, if you know 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:24.800 anything about flag code. You're not supposed to wear the 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:26.840 flag on anything, and you're not supposed to change the 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.280 colors of the flag. So anybody talks about disrespecting the flag, 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.040 he needs to read the actual flag code. And don't 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.560 come at me without anything about that except those people 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.360 don't care about so let me finish respecting the flag. 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.639 So these people who are clearly not officers, were for 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:47.679 all intents and purposes, impersonating officers. Clearly these guys have 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.520 none of the massive police budget. Because that car, it 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:55.560 looked like it had been in an accident. And and 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.520 dig this. Those GMC jimmies they stopped making those in 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.800 the nineties. The car is so old, you know, it's 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.080 leaning on the everlasting arms. Man. I don't know how 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.320 that thing is still moving. But and these guys are 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:13.840 just in their windows down. That means no AC And 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.480 if you don't know, we live in Arizona and it 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.600 is warm outside right now. So these guys are just 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:26.200 out cruising around trying to fight crime alongside the cops. 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.600 I guess that they really dressed that vehicle up to 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:30.040 look like it was a police car. This wasn't a 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.240 private security company. There was two dudes in their car. 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:39.919 So you're absolutely right. This system has marketed itself to 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.560 people who, in my estimation, those guys had no money 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.560 and really perhaps they didn't really have anything exciting to 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:51.400 live for other than America America, you know. And that's 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:55.040 something that really surprises me, is that a lot of 0:18:55.080 --> 0:19:00.320 times people's whole identity is being American, which sometimes as 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.280 a stand in for being white in America and the 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.119 cot and see other folks take that same approach, the 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:11.480 colloquialism that you just used, America positions itself as an 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:18.760 adversary to black people. Yeah, so again, you have an 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:24.359 entire group of people that votes and performs several civic 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:30.159 duties and direct conflict of their own best interest because 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.720 at least they're not black. And you know who's that 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.639 politician where you would be better off if not for 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:44.680 these people, you poor white sir. It would be better 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.639 off if not for all of the Mexicans that snuck 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.840 into the country and stole your jobs, if not for 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.000 all the criminal black people who are driving through a 0:19:55.000 --> 0:20:00.320 neighborhood they don't belong in because they're black. You talk 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.280 about those fears that shouldn't exist, but they do because 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.240 those seed a completely unfounded, but those seeds have been 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.960 as deeply planted as possible. Sure, and take it to 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.119 our cinema and our pop culture. You know, the movies 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.280 that we love that grows very high, that take you 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.560 on a tour of our neighborhoods, show us as murderous 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.360 gangster thugs. Not to mention our own music, but that 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:25.920 brings me to the next thing. I want to talk 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:34.320 about music. So music, the music, the music, So listen. 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.359 If you're listening to our voices, you're listening to a 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:44.520 radio station that plays black music. You may or may 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.760 not know the name I'm about to mention, but there's 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:52.640 a rapper from Chicago's name is g Herbo pretty good, 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:56.720 and I caught a clip of him sitting down with 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.520 Charlemagne and he was talking and he tells a bit 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:04.960 of a story. I'll try to be brief, but the 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:10.200 way the story goes is he says, you know, when 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:17.159 I was sixteen seventeen growing up in Chicago, there were 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:24.159 people who wanted to kill me because of who my 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:28.360 older brother was. They could hurt my older brother if 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:33.240 they could kill me. And I knew that because I 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:34.800 would see him and then I'd be able to get 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.359 away from them or whatever. And this is the result 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.040 of living in these environments, which we've talked about how 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.359 these environments developed. This is not like if you go 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:46.840 to Africa. It's not like that black people don't just 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:54.119 it was ghettos. Yeah, this is government intervention and the 0:21:54.560 --> 0:22:00.520 strategic deployment of drugs to disrupt black and brown can unities. 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:08.240 This is all researchable, so you end up with these 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:12.920 environments we'll call them ghettos. You know. Gi Herbo is 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.119 from one such place in Chicago, and he's telling a 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.919 story about how he has to go to school and 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:23.040 come home and he says, you know, in his interviews, 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.639 like you know, I love my mom. I'm not a 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.240 horrible person. I wouldn't Why would I ever want to 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:32.320 hurt anybody? You know, It's just like I'm a normal 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.040 human being. I'm a normal creature on the planet, same 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:38.240 as any any other creature on the planet. I'm not 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.240 here to just just you know, why would I do that? 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.359 But yeah, carried a gun for a good part of 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:50.439 my life because I knew that there were people that 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:53.960 could hurt me. It's just a function of the culture 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.280 and the environment you know that you live in when 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.000 there's a lot in the way of scarcity, and you know, 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.520 folks are over limited resources and so forth and so on. 0:23:02.600 --> 0:23:05.360 The story tells its the story rights itself and other 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:08.440 countries across the world, of all peoples of all colors. 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:13.040 But such his story is, you know, like I said, 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:15.960 So he says, yeah, I had to carry a gun 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:19.960 with me to school every day. And you know what 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:22.919 happens if the police pull up and they harass you. 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:24.840 They don't want to hear none of that stuff, because 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.000 as soon as they find out that you have a gun, 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.479 that's the end of your life. But at least if 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:32.480 you have a gun, like you know for a fact, 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:34.119 you got to go to school that day, you don't 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:37.120 know if you're going to run into the police. Right. 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:41.720 So he's telling this story and you realize that it's 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.840 just a trap which is so funny because a lot 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:48.119 of the music that we enjoy and hip hop, we 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:50.639 call it trap music, you know, especially if you like 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:55.800 really like real trap music. But you begin to see 0:23:55.840 --> 0:24:02.879 how the music does it just glorify these sorts of 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:06.760 things for the sake of glorifying it. It's an accurate 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:11.480 reflection of society. Now, I'll grant that, you know, there's 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:15.199 a degree of you know, machismo, and you know, I 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:16.920 want to get all the girls, I want all the money, 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:19.000 that sort of stuff, which is common for any young 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:24.280 man in any culture around the world and in any industry. Sure, 0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:26.440 but hip hop just kind of gets a bad rap. 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:32.120 And I think that's also because in this country, especially, 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:35.840 we're taught to be afraid of black people. Now, well, 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:39.800 that said, hopefully that does answer that question and you know, 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:44.440 address at least a little bit about the hip hop. 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:46.880 But fortunately, so far on the show, we were able 0:24:46.920 --> 0:24:50.720 to discuss a question that came to us via our 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:54.680 social media at Civic Cipher. If you're on Instagram, where 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.960 a person asks, where is the outrage when you know 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:05.200 police these white victims? And so we're able to talk 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:07.399 about that. We spend a little bit of time talking about, 0:25:08.400 --> 0:25:10.119 you know, hip hop and what it's like to just 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:12.560 grow up in an impoverished community. And I want to 0:25:12.560 --> 0:25:16.320 say something before we move on. I don't even know 0:25:16.320 --> 0:25:19.439 how I forgot to say this already, where's the outrage? 0:25:20.840 --> 0:25:25.879 We've been screaming defund the police for a little bit now, 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:31.600 except almost one hundred percent of the pushback and let 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:33.359 me just take that down the eighties so I can 0:25:33.440 --> 0:25:40.560 be generous comes from the subjects of that question. Where's 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:43.639 all the outrage when all of these awful things happen 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:47.920 to people that aren't black? The cry has never been 0:25:48.359 --> 0:25:53.120 defund police in black neighborhoods. Yeah, we're trying to change 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:55.879 the whole system. It's very clear that the entire everyone 0:25:56.000 --> 0:26:00.320 in infrastructure, it's rotten. Everyone benefits from that. So so 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:05.280 the injustice that we're looking to snuff out would benefit 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:10.240 all victims of that injustice, not just black people. I 0:26:10.359 --> 0:26:17.240 like that. So during the week. During the past week, 0:26:17.240 --> 0:26:19.560 we were able to share some content on social media, 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:25.240 some videos, and you listening to our voices may have 0:26:25.280 --> 0:26:28.320 seen some of the videos, you may not have seen them. 0:26:28.720 --> 0:26:30.760 A lot of these videos come from Sean King because 0:26:30.760 --> 0:26:32.720 a lot of the high profile videos make their way 0:26:32.720 --> 0:26:35.080 to his page. So if you like check out Sean King, 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:38.240 you can just google this guy. DL Hughgley is another 0:26:38.280 --> 0:26:41.560 one that we both follow, and you know a lot 0:26:41.560 --> 0:26:44.600 of folks will send videos to them. Sometimes folks will 0:26:44.600 --> 0:26:48.719 send videos to us, even though we're not on that 0:26:48.800 --> 0:26:53.119 level with millions of followers, but I implore you to, 0:26:53.480 --> 0:26:55.639 you know, go back and research these videos. If you 0:26:55.680 --> 0:26:58.040 can't find them on our page, because sometimes they get deleted, 0:26:58.920 --> 0:27:03.280 they might still be hosted on those pages. But there's 0:27:03.320 --> 0:27:09.000 something that I really wanted to talk about. There was 0:27:09.040 --> 0:27:11.320 a video that I saw, and y'all know, I'll be 0:27:11.359 --> 0:27:14.840 crying all the time. It comes with the job. He's 0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:19.880 emotional like Carl Thomas, you know, but it's because I mean, 0:27:20.119 --> 0:27:23.840 you imagine having to see what Q and I have 0:27:23.920 --> 0:27:26.040 to see every week. And we've shared this before. We 0:27:26.080 --> 0:27:28.119 take turns watching the videos so that we don't get 0:27:28.160 --> 0:27:31.680 overwhelmed with it. You know, there's so much discussion about 0:27:31.680 --> 0:27:34.239 mental health and making sure that we're pacing ourselves and 0:27:34.960 --> 0:27:38.720 you know, not allowing ourselves to become overwhelmed with death 0:27:38.760 --> 0:27:43.800 and with violence. You know, I'm a happy person. I 0:27:43.840 --> 0:27:46.520 love love, I love happiness, I love being happy, and 0:27:47.160 --> 0:27:49.639 it just so happens to be the case that we 0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:52.480 found ourselves in this position where we have to deal 0:27:52.560 --> 0:27:55.159 with these things. We have to watch these incidents, we 0:27:55.240 --> 0:27:58.120 have to feel them, the full weight of them, so 0:27:58.160 --> 0:28:03.159 that we can provide I had context to rally the 0:28:03.200 --> 0:28:06.320 troops in a manner of speaking to decide what's the 0:28:06.400 --> 0:28:09.280 right path forward, to call on the right folks to 0:28:09.320 --> 0:28:11.440 come and give them a platform so that they can 0:28:11.440 --> 0:28:13.879