Speaker 1: And now proper wat my mic back like that.
Speaker 2: Strike headquarters, it's behind.
Speaker 3: And those are you just tuning in the civic cyper.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Ramsey's job job.
Speaker 1: I am frust I know left you, but I am
Speaker 1: discouraged because of an earlier topic, heartbroken and uh less
Speaker 1: and less hopeful.
Speaker 3: I got enough hope for the both of us. I
Speaker 3: don't worry about that. Wow. Man, Well listen, this is
Speaker 3: my partner q Ward and uh we do the show
Speaker 3: for you every week. We appreciate your support and we
Speaker 3: appreciate you listening for the next part of the show
Speaker 3: because we've got more to talk about. We're gonna be
Speaker 3: discussing why GOP voters are so loyal to Trump. It's
Speaker 3: uh eluded me, and I think I have a little
Speaker 3: bit more insight.
Speaker 1: It has not eluded me.
Speaker 3: Well, we're gonna talk about I'm gonna learn from you today,
Speaker 3: and we're also going to talk about some more cool stuff.
Speaker 3: But first and foremost, let's discuss becoming a better ally
Speaker 3: Baba Baba. Today's Baba sponsored by Unknown Union, the fashion
Speaker 3: house situated at the intersection of meaning, innovation and culture.
Speaker 3: More information check out unknownunion dot com. All right. Shout
Speaker 3: out to the Smithsonian. We like those guys. They treat
Speaker 3: us good, and I will read. The Smithsonian National Museum
Speaker 3: of African American History and Culture, will host its second
Speaker 3: annual hip Hop block Party this August, featuring performances, interactive art,
Speaker 3: and focused exhibits celebrating fifty years of the genre. The
Speaker 3: block party will take place on Saturday, August twelfth, The
Speaker 3: museum announced recently. The event will be held at the
Speaker 3: intersection of Madison Drive north less than fourteenth Street northwest,
Speaker 3: outside of the museum. This is in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: For those that don't know, and it is worth it
Speaker 3: to make your way there. I know Q and I
Speaker 3: are going to be there. You and I have been there.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to go back.
Speaker 3: Yes, and we have a lot of friends there and
Speaker 3: supporters there, and it's just an awesome time, in a
Speaker 3: life changing experience to have. We wouldn't say it if
Speaker 3: it wasn't true. Man, even me who grew up with
Speaker 3: all this beautiful history that is troubled and hard and
Speaker 3: gorgeous and inspirational and all of everything in the middle man,
Speaker 3: it grew me up even more than I thought I
Speaker 3: would experience in a museum like that. Please go all right,
Speaker 3: I'll keep reading. A full time lineup of artists and
Speaker 3: programming will be released in the coming months, according to
Speaker 3: the museum. The event will be free to attend, though
Speaker 3: tickets are required for entry, and will be available online
Speaker 3: in July. While the inaugural twenty twenty two celebration mark
Speaker 3: the one year anniversary of the Smithsonian's Anthology of Hip
Speaker 3: Hop and Rap, this summer's event will celebrate fifty years
Speaker 3: of the Revolution and Innovation. In conjunction with the event,
Speaker 3: the museum will install an outdoor panel exhibition including artifacts
Speaker 3: from the museum's collection. The party also coincides with the
Speaker 3: museum's high profile Afrofuturism exhibit. So again, the Smithsonian National
Speaker 3: Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
Speaker 1: D C.
Speaker 3: Be there, all right? Why are GOP voters sol loyal
Speaker 3: to Trump? I want to let you know that I
Speaker 3: sourced a lot of our talking points from a conversation
Speaker 3: from an article was published in The Hill and the
Speaker 3: author was Caroline Vakil. So credit where it's due, because
Speaker 3: these are some interesting things to think about. And of
Speaker 3: course I want to shout out Yahoo News as well
Speaker 3: for sending this over, I'll read a bit. Trump's lead
Speaker 3: in the presumptive field of GOP presidential candidates has widened
Speaker 3: in most polling, even as he finds himself embroiled in
Speaker 3: high profile legal battles and as the party grapples with
Speaker 3: a worse than expected midterm election. That by itself is
Speaker 3: it shouldn't be surprising, and yet it still is. Now.
Speaker 3: You bring up this point quite a bit on the
Speaker 3: show Cube. Once upon a time we had a video
Speaker 3: of a man who's running for president on a bus
Speaker 3: with a reporter or journal or something like that, and
Speaker 3: he says, you know, if you're famous, they let you
Speaker 3: do it. You can walk up to a woman if
Speaker 3: you're a celebrity and just grab them by the genitals.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure you know the word if you
Speaker 3: live in the same country as I do, because it
Speaker 3: was everywhere, And you make this point quite frequently, Q
Speaker 3: that that historically would have been enough to not only
Speaker 3: invalidate someone's presidential run and disqualify them from being the
Speaker 3: presumptive nominee or a major political party, but it would
Speaker 3: have kind of had them blacklisted from politics altogether and
Speaker 3: from everything. Every Yeah, exactly exactly. And so when I
Speaker 3: say that this is it shouldn't be surprising, and yet
Speaker 3: it is. I mean that because this is, this behavior
Speaker 3: is still shocking. This man can be convicted, he can
Speaker 3: be determined to be guilty and liable and uh, what's
Speaker 3: the word where they indicted and charged? Criminally charged over
Speaker 3: and over and over again, and all his cronies over
Speaker 3: and over and over again. And somehow on the right
Speaker 3: there's this narrative that Joe Biden is at the head
Speaker 3: of this like criminal family, the Joe Biden crime family.
Speaker 3: From what I understand, Joe Biden's son has had a
Speaker 3: problem with addiction, and see he's lived kind of a
Speaker 3: wild lifestyle. Joe Biden not a perfect man, none of
Speaker 3: these people are. Indeed, I'm not either. But when you
Speaker 3: compare him to Donald Trump in terms of like integrity
Speaker 3: and quality of human being by any any measure, from
Speaker 3: any any standard that any human being has, any moral standard,
Speaker 3: pull it straight from the Bible, if you will, right,
Speaker 3: because many people do that there is no comparison. It
Speaker 3: is not even fair. It is so overtly, out loud,
Speaker 3: in front of your face, hypocritical, and as you mentioned, Q,
Speaker 3: people will see it right in front of their face
Speaker 3: and be like, Nah, that isn't it. It's like, no,
Speaker 3: we see it. We're looking at it. Nah. And it's
Speaker 3: like I know they're not delusional. I know they're not
Speaker 3: in denial.
Speaker 1: They used to. They used to say, Nah, that ain't it.
Speaker 1: They do not anymore.
Speaker 4: Okay, I see where you're going. They embrace it, they
Speaker 4: used to say, because I guess we can be straightforward here.
Speaker 4: Capitalism would have once required them to deny it to
Speaker 4: protect their bottom line. One of the scariest and lowest
Speaker 4: points in my life was that man, with all that
Speaker 4: we know about him, with all that we knew about
Speaker 4: him prior to that video, but with all that we
Speaker 4: knew about him prior with that video and all that
Speaker 4: we've learned since, still becoming the president. Because then every
Speaker 4: other person that was pretending to be decent realized.
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't have to do that no more. Let
Speaker 3: me tell you how I really feel.
Speaker 1: I don't have to pretend to not be racist anymore.
Speaker 1: And not only can I still make money, I can
Speaker 1: become the president of the United.
Speaker 3: States, and we see these other people, I can be.
Speaker 1: A racist, fascist, sexist, bigot, and everyone can know it,
Speaker 1: and I can still become president. And then even after
Speaker 1: doing a horrible job at presidenting, even after making a
Speaker 1: mockery of the office, even after inciting a riot.
Speaker 3: Hold on, even after running up twenty five percent of
Speaker 3: our national debt that happened under Donald Trump's administration, I can.
Speaker 1: Still get the sixty million people to come out and
Speaker 1: vote for me.
Speaker 3: How about that?
Speaker 1: So why would I ever pretend to be anything other
Speaker 1: than what I am? Actually, let me dig in a
Speaker 1: little down, let me let me go a little bit harder,
Speaker 1: because not only will I not be punished, I'll be exalted,
Speaker 1: I'll be lifted up.
Speaker 3: I'll be deified.
Speaker 1: Like trump Ism is almost a religion now, you know,
Speaker 1: after one of our shows, I had to show Rama's
Speaker 1: a video of a woman telling her daughters that it
Speaker 1: was okay for a man to grope them because she
Speaker 1: just doubled down on her support of Donald Trump. So
Speaker 1: rather than say, you know what, maybe I was tripping, Nope,
Speaker 1: he is who he is and who he is who
Speaker 1: we believe in. So she turns to her daughters and
Speaker 1: coaches them into saying it's no big deal for a
Speaker 1: man to grope them and touch them unappropriate.
Speaker 3: It was it was really gross video to watch.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and this wasn't in private, This was on
Speaker 1: a low news on television. It might have been national news.
Speaker 1: Cameras pointed at them, made her daughters humiliate themselves an
Speaker 1: effort to stand in support of a man she's never met.
Speaker 1: It is really really scary and disturbing.
Speaker 3: So we need to figure out why, Well, these are
Speaker 3: human beings, and we need to have the conversation. I
Speaker 3: give what you're saying. I'm not trying to figure out why.
Speaker 3: Let me let me say that. I say I say
Speaker 3: this with some frequency on the show. We started this show,
Speaker 3: and we knew that we were going to have to
Speaker 3: love our way through some very challenging times, right, and.
Speaker 1: We though, and I don't I don't say that to
Speaker 1: say that to knock us off track, but I think
Speaker 1: at some point we figured that with love and with reason,
Speaker 1: we'd be met with to be able to get to
Speaker 1: a common place. I do not think now such a
Speaker 1: place exists anymore for.
Speaker 4: Me.
Speaker 3: None of this stuff that I do, not here, not anywhere,
Speaker 3: works without the belief that it is possible. Now here's
Speaker 3: where I allow the space for this conversation and to
Speaker 3: learn what is going through the minds of these people.
Speaker 3: Here's the point, Okay, I realized that human beings are imperfect.
Speaker 3: I realize that human beings, black people, we are the
Speaker 3: first human being, and all people are susceptible, vulnerable to fear.
Speaker 3: We have a drive to protect our species, our posterity,
Speaker 3: our lineage, et cetera. And you know that list goes on,
Speaker 3: and we are motivated to take action or corrective action
Speaker 3: by what we perceive as fear. And if we can
Speaker 3: be tricked, other people can be tricked. One of the
Speaker 3: things that helped me frame this is that when doctor
Speaker 3: King was alive. We talk about this quite a bit.
Speaker 3: When Doctor King was alive, he had a twenty percent
Speaker 3: of approval rating from black people, meaning eighty percent of
Speaker 3: Black people did not approve of doctor King, not as policies,
Speaker 3: not as anything like that. We can be lost in
Speaker 3: the sauce too, Okay. So when I look on the
Speaker 3: right and I see, forgive me my brothers and sisters,
Speaker 3: When I look at police, when I look at that
Speaker 3: police officer that was messing with me last week, there
Speaker 3: has to be a part of me that says, this
Speaker 3: is my brother. He's lost and I'm older than he is,
Speaker 3: so it's more like this is my son. I'm from
Speaker 3: Africa to most ancient people, right, that's the spirit that
Speaker 3: moves this body. So I have to look and say, okay,
Speaker 3: the love that has caused me to be here, I
Speaker 3: have to draw from that well in order to interact
Speaker 3: appropriately with my brother or my son. That might be lost.
Speaker 3: Now he might have a gun, they might have a
Speaker 3: political power to my you know this and the third
Speaker 3: But as a philosophy, as a person who studied doctor
Speaker 3: King and Malcolm X, it realizes that there was indeed
Speaker 3: a place for both of those philosophies. Trust me, I
Speaker 3: be Malcolm X A lot of the time. I have
Speaker 3: to realize that without love, a what's inside of me
Speaker 3: doesn't really work. I was made out of love. My
Speaker 3: mother and my father loved each other. That's where that's
Speaker 3: why I exist. And then be I feel like you
Speaker 3: can have a meaningful conversation based out of love, and
Speaker 3: you can have a divisive, destructive conversation when you don't
Speaker 3: have that, and it could get devolved, not even with
Speaker 3: your intention, it could get devolved because they're on their
Speaker 3: weird stuff. In other words, it's like interacting with a
Speaker 3: little kid. If I meet a little kid where the
Speaker 3: little kid is a little kid, don't know no better,
Speaker 3: and then I do, so that it's not gonna work.
Speaker 3: I have to have a little bit more patience. And
Speaker 3: I don't mean no disrespect. Well, I kind of do
Speaker 3: mean disrespect, because a lot of these people need to
Speaker 3: grow up. But I don't mean it like they're beyond redemption.
Speaker 3: I mean that it's going to be along road. It
Speaker 3: might not happen in my lifetime. And the conversation that
Speaker 3: we're having right now.
Speaker 1: How many lifetimes?
Speaker 3: That's an excellent question and a valid question. And I
Speaker 3: don't know the answer, man, but I you and I
Speaker 3: both know that, like, don't let you feel fuel you
Speaker 3: ladies and gentlemen. Q has a heart big as his chest.
Speaker 3: She is a lover too.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Ramses has said that out loud, and it's true,
Speaker 1: and that it's part of the reason that there's callous Now,
Speaker 1: how long is my heart supposed to be exposed and
Speaker 1: broken and stepped on and stabbed and shot and hang
Speaker 1: and burned? How many cheeks do I have to turn?
Speaker 1: How much time do we have? How many lifetimes?
Speaker 3: Mine?
Speaker 1: My father's his fathers, his fathers, his fathers, his father Like,
Speaker 1: at some point this road is long, sure, but if
Speaker 1: we're both walking that way, then we'll get there. If
Speaker 1: the other person has either stopped or started walking the
Speaker 1: opposite direction, then what are we doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Right, because this double down has gotten to be ridiculous
Speaker 1: at this point, Like I said, there is no longer
Speaker 1: a denial of the racism. There's no longer aim to
Speaker 1: see this twer is no longer a pretending to be
Speaker 1: ignorant anymore. There is no longer a requirement for them
Speaker 1: to be righteous or just. They are singular in this
Speaker 1: idea of white supremacy. I don't We don't have to
Speaker 1: dance around us and unite it on it in a
Speaker 1: way that is terrifying. Sure, because the rest of us,
Speaker 1: they're leaning right meaning people, just meaning people, good intentioned people,
Speaker 1: are not united on anything. And the party that is
Speaker 1: united on racism and white.
Speaker 3: Supremacy is very united.
Speaker 1: They're very united, and they're all going to show up
Speaker 1: and vote. So they're not just Florida, not just Texas,
Speaker 1: not just Kansas, but everywhere can start to adopt and
Speaker 1: vote on laws that make it illegal for us to
Speaker 1: exist so let me say this. We don't get to
Speaker 1: have history in some of these states right now. This
Speaker 1: is not something that's mythological or that might happen, or
Speaker 1: that was introduced and perceived to be ridiculous. Because I
Speaker 1: have friends that argue with me when some of those
Speaker 1: bills were introduced. I said, this is scary, and they
Speaker 1: said to me out loud, there's no way that's going
Speaker 1: to happen. Why do you believe that? What evidence do
Speaker 1: you have that makes you think that there's no way
Speaker 1: it's going to happen.
Speaker 3: Donald Trump won, that happened.
Speaker 1: That happened. He's the person most likely to win again.
Speaker 1: And you can say the first time caught you off guard.
Speaker 1: You thought they was just playing. You thought there was
Speaker 1: no chance he will went okay, now that he has
Speaker 1: back in the front again and the people on the
Speaker 1: other side are not even pretending to be decent, keep
Speaker 1: wanting to meet in the middle, and they keep standing
Speaker 1: right justified. So again, so meeting in the middle means
Speaker 1: meeting on the right.
Speaker 3: On their side. I understand this.
Speaker 1: And only we want to meet in the middle.
Speaker 3: They have no interest.
Speaker 1: You guys, come over here or not. Everything that you're
Speaker 1: trying to do that's actually for the people we cool
Speaker 1: on that we're not letting it happen. No so, and
Speaker 1: the people you're trying to do it for are going
Speaker 1: to sour because you didn't deliver on any of those promises.
Speaker 1: They're going to stop voting our people. Are you not
Speaker 1: on any single front. It is not about policy, It
Speaker 1: is not even about doing what's in the best interest
Speaker 1: of your constituents. It is white supremacy, racism, the word
Speaker 1: that they're making illegal out loud in front of everyone.
Speaker 1: And we have to keep hope alive.
Speaker 3: Yes on what Yes, yes, absolutely so. Now I said
Speaker 3: something earlier in the show. I said that we are
Speaker 3: a liberal country. We are a liberal plant planet. Now
Speaker 3: I don't want to say that that means that everybody's
Speaker 3: a liberal is good and everybody who's conservative is bad.
Speaker 3: Is that's pain with two broader strokes. And it's not
Speaker 3: entirely accurate.
Speaker 1: Used to not be accurate, it's still not entirely conservative
Speaker 1: in this country. It's almost synonymous with that. And well
Speaker 1: here's very very negative. Just so let me so, let
Speaker 1: me add let me add to that, let me add
Speaker 1: to that. I happen to know that even this show
Speaker 1: where we're sharing these ideas and these thoughts right now
Speaker 1: with our listeners. This would not be on the radio
Speaker 1: in certain cities had it not been for white men
Speaker 1: who were admittedly conservative saying this program is necessary. These
Speaker 1: are conversations we need to have. So I recognize that
Speaker 1: for me to paint with that broad a stroke might
Speaker 1: be inappropriate.
Speaker 3: Are there huge problems that are affecting our people and
Speaker 3: our brothers and sisters who are also minorities in this
Speaker 3: country that stem from that wing of the government.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, how you're voting, who you support, means more than
Speaker 1: even the opportunity that you extend to me to talk
Speaker 1: about this stuff.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, I realize that, But it is also possible
Speaker 3: for a person to vote a certain way and shut
Speaker 3: the door in our face. And half of something is
Speaker 3: better than all of nothing.
Speaker 1: So as long as you pay for me to go
Speaker 1: to college, it's fine that you've abused me my whole life.
Speaker 1: See how ridiculous it sounds, No, So sure a person
Speaker 1: could double down on it, But I don't get to
Speaker 1: pretend like you didn't abuse me because you pay for college.
Speaker 1: If after you know better, if after you say yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys do need to talk about that. If that's
Speaker 1: still how you think and still how you vote and
Speaker 1: stell who you support, then I don't care.
Speaker 3: So let me say this again. There's there's a.
Speaker 1: Because you no longer have the plausable and not belie.
Speaker 1: That's my point. I know as people, they're no longer
Speaker 1: pretending to even here's here's.
Speaker 3: Here's what I'm saying you you're not wrong. I can't
Speaker 3: say that you're wrong. What I can say is that
Speaker 3: there's always a way that I have found to be
Speaker 3: hopeful in the outcomes that shape the world that I
Speaker 3: would like to see my sons and my grandchildren and
Speaker 3: great grandchildren grow up in. And to look at a
Speaker 3: person who abused me, who then paid for me to
Speaker 3: go to college, It's an awful reality to have to
Speaker 3: deal with. It's awful reality, especially if they're still abusing you. Sure, sure, sure,
Speaker 3: you're not wrong. But I realize that no matter what,
Speaker 3: this is a long road full of baby steps, and
Speaker 3: a long road means yes, several lifetimes for several people.
Speaker 3: I said in the beginning of this show, nobody deserves this,
Speaker 3: but here we are, and we have made progress. We
Speaker 3: have made progress and I believe that we will continue
Speaker 3: to make progress. The thing is, we are up against
Speaker 3: people like these loyalists who here I'll read this real quick.
Speaker 3: Through the presidential debates and primaries, polsters and even some
Speaker 3: anti Trump Republicans point to the former president's recent indictment
Speaker 3: and is no hold bar no holds bar approach to
Speaker 3: his GOP rivals as being among the reasons that some
Speaker 3: of the party are still leaning toward the former president.
Speaker 3: They like the fact that he's a bully. They like
Speaker 3: the fact that he gets in trouble and breaks.
Speaker 1: The rules everything about him.
Speaker 3: They like the fact that he uses nicknames. They call
Speaker 3: him a giga chad. This is a term that they use.
Speaker 3: It's like the ultimate buff white guy that doesn't take
Speaker 3: any mess and gets all the girls and the sort
Speaker 3: of thing. It's like an internet meme, really gross, cartoonish
Speaker 3: looking thing, like something off Abuts and b Head, But
Speaker 3: it exists. And a lot of people think that he's
Speaker 3: their greatest chance at fighting back against the great replacement theory.
Speaker 3: A lot of white people think that they're being replaced intentionally,
Speaker 3: and I think Donald Trump is their best chance to
Speaker 3: push back against the US that are controlling the media
Speaker 3: and the liberals that run the country deep state, we're
Speaker 3: trying to replace white voters and white people in this country,
Speaker 3: which is all unfounded. But if that's their reality, then
Speaker 3: Trump is their guy. So we have to move on, unfortunately,
Speaker 3: because there's a lot more to talk about there, obviously,
Speaker 3: but it's time for the Way Black History Fact and
Speaker 3: today's Way Black History Fact sponsored by Underground Beach Club
Speaker 3: from the streets to the beach, the finest in beachware.
Speaker 3: Visit Underground Beach Club dot com and I'll be pulling
Speaker 3: from a couple of sources today in wyhistory dot org
Speaker 3: and Central parkyc dot org so you can go and
Speaker 3: check out the full stories. We had to just kind
Speaker 3: of compile some stuff to share this with you today,
Speaker 3: but I'll read since eighteen fifty nine, millions of people
Speaker 3: have enjoyed the natural beauty of Central Park. What do
Speaker 3: you know about the origins of Central Park? Did you
Speaker 3: know that before the park existed, the land it lies
Speaker 3: on was home to about sixteen hundred residents. One neighborhood
Speaker 3: that once lay within the boundaries of the park was
Speaker 3: called Seneca Village, although the residents may not have called
Speaker 3: it that So that's what we're talking about today for
Speaker 3: our way black history fact Seneca Village. All right. No
Speaker 3: photographs of Seneca Village survive, and no personal papers or
Speaker 3: living descendants of its residents have yet been found. So
Speaker 3: how do we know anything about it? What we do know,
Speaker 3: and why should we care? An important story about this
Speaker 3: place emerges from newspaper articles, maps, census data, and other
Speaker 3: records of the day. Seneca Village deserves our attention as
Speaker 3: one of the first communities of free African American property
Speaker 3: owners and immigrants in pre Civil War New York. That's great,
Speaker 3: doesn't it. Well the story, the story gets a lot darker.
Speaker 3: So turn that brown upside now, all right, here we go.
Speaker 3: Here's what we know. Seneca Village existed between eighteen twenty
Speaker 3: five and eighteen fifty seven. The boundaries of Seneca Village
Speaker 3: were roughly eighty second Street to eighty ninth Street, between
Speaker 3: Seventh Street and eighth Avenues for those that live in
Speaker 3: New York or have been to New York, basically where
Speaker 3: Central Park is or Central Parks a lot bigger than this,
Speaker 3: but it was right in the middle of Central Park. Initially,
Speaker 3: John and Elizabeth Whitehead, a white couple bought the land
Speaker 3: that made up Seneca Village. They soon subdivided and sold
Speaker 3: it to Andrew Young Epiphany Davis, both African Americans, and
Speaker 3: the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church out to the Amy Church.
Speaker 3: In the eighteen forties, Irish and German immigrants began moving in.
Speaker 3: All these groups may have enjoyed being far away from
Speaker 3: the dirty, crowded slums downtown Manhattan, where most Irish, German,
Speaker 3: and African people lived. The eighteen fifty five census reported
Speaker 3: two hundred and sixty four residents of Seneca Village. For
Speaker 3: African Americans, Seneca Village offered the opportunity to live in
Speaker 3: an autonomous community far from the densely populated downtown. Despite
Speaker 3: New York State's abolition of slavery in eighteen twenty seven,
Speaker 3: demest sorry discrimination was still prevalent throughout New York City
Speaker 3: and severely limited the lives of African Americans. Seneca Village's
Speaker 3: remote location likely provided a refuge from this climate. It
Speaker 3: also would have provided an escape from the unhealthy and
Speaker 3: crowded conditions of the city and access to more space
Speaker 3: space both inside and outside of the home compared to
Speaker 3: other African Americans living in New York, residents of Seneca
Speaker 3: Village seemed to have been more stable and prosperous. By
Speaker 3: eighteen fifty five, approximately half of them owned their homes.
Speaker 3: With property ownership came other rights not commonly held by
Speaker 3: African Americans in the city, namely the right to vote.
Speaker 3: In eighteen twenty one, New York State required African American
Speaker 3: men to own at least two hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 3: in property and hold residency for at least three years
Speaker 3: to be able to vote. Of the one hundred Black
Speaker 3: New Yorkers eligible to vote in eighteen forty five, ten
Speaker 3: lived in Seneca Village. The fact that many residents were
Speaker 3: property owners contradict some common mis perceptions during the mid
Speaker 3: nineteenth century that the people living on the land slated
Speaker 3: for the park were poor squad living in shanties. In
Speaker 3: other words, in order to take the land from them
Speaker 3: to build the park, they had to spread falsehoods about
Speaker 3: the black people living there, saying that they lived in squalor,
Speaker 3: when actually this was a prosperous neighborhood. We'll get there.
Speaker 3: While some residents lived in shanties and in crowded conditions.
Speaker 3: Most lived into two story homes. Census records show that
Speaker 3: residents were employed, with African Americans typically employed as laborers
Speaker 3: and in service jobs, the main options for them at
Speaker 3: the time. Records also show that most children who lived
Speaker 3: in Seneca Village attended school. According to data, this community
Speaker 3: was comprised of mostly working class people and some rising
Speaker 3: middle class folks. However, prejudice against African Americans and the
Speaker 3: Irish sometimes caused newspapers to report otherwise. One newspaper article
Speaker 3: compared African Americans and Seneca Village and Irish residents of
Speaker 3: a lower part of the park. It states that Seneca
Speaker 3: Village is a neat little settlement that presents a pleasing
Speaker 3: contrast to their habits and the appearance of their dwellings
Speaker 3: to the Celtic occupants in the lower part of the park.
Speaker 3: If some of the hogs, goats and other inmates of
Speaker 3: the shanties in this vicinity do not die of the
Speaker 3: yellow fever this summer, it will only be because death
Speaker 3: himself hesitates to enter such dirty hovels. And that was
Speaker 3: something printed in the New York Daily Times on July ninth,
Speaker 3: eighteen fifty six. All right, other articles referred to the
Speaker 3: residents of Seneca Village as squatters, as though they were
Speaker 3: living illegally on public lands while they still own them.
Speaker 3: In eighteen fifty three, the city government approved a plan
Speaker 3: to use something called imminent domain to take over all
Speaker 3: land in what is now Central Park during the eighth sorry.
Speaker 3: During the early eighteen fifties, the city began planning a
Speaker 3: large municipal park to counter unhealthful urban conditions and provide
Speaker 3: space for recreation. In eighteen fifty three, the New York
Speaker 3: State legislature enacted a law that set aside seven hundred
Speaker 3: and seventy five acres of land in Manhattan from fifty
Speaker 3: nine to one hundred and six Street between Fifth and
Speaker 3: eighth Avenues to create the country's first major landscaped public park.
Speaker 3: Imminent domain is the state's power to take over private
Speaker 3: lands for public use. The government offered to pay owners
Speaker 3: what it claimed was their fair value for their land.
Speaker 3: They offered nothing to families who rented property in Seneca Village.
Speaker 3: Many of the land owners believed the government was not
Speaker 3: valuing the land highly enough, which is likely true given
Speaker 3: the history of this country's treatment of black people, and
Speaker 3: at that time Irish people too, all right, African American
Speaker 3: landowners had more than just their property to lose with
Speaker 3: the destruction of Seneca Village. Again, at the time, African
Speaker 3: Americans could vote if they owned at least two hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty dollars worth of property. Losing their homes meant
Speaker 3: losing the right to vote, a right that would not
Speaker 3: be protected by the US Constitution until the passage of
Speaker 3: the Fifteenth Amendment in eighteen seventy. That was still not
Speaker 3: practiced for the next century. So again, you know, we
Speaker 3: talk about a lot on this show, A lot of
Speaker 3: a lot of what we would consider to be problematic
Speaker 3: in the black community stems from a lack of wealth,
Speaker 3: lack of resources. And the reason for that lack of
Speaker 3: wealth and the lack of resources is immense, from everything
Speaker 3: to redlining black codes, the New Deal not being available
Speaker 3: to black people all the way to nowadays our houses
Speaker 3: being undervalued, us getting higher interest rate loans or the
Speaker 3: same sort of credit history and so forth. And that's
Speaker 3: a whole segment by itself, that's a whole show by itself,
Speaker 3: be honest, and we've done that show. So if you
Speaker 3: want to find out more, please go back and check
Speaker 3: it out. But here's another example of the theft of
Speaker 3: black wealth. And you can show out a piece that
Speaker 3: I made for the Black Information Information that we're called
Speaker 3: should the free Market dictate social Outcomes, where I describe
Speaker 3: how black people don't participate in the free market to
Speaker 3: the degree that white people do because white people have
Speaker 3: more money. So that's it for us here on Civic Cipher.
Speaker 3: So once again, i'm your host, Rams's job. He is
Speaker 3: Ramsey's job.
Speaker 1: I am once again really really discouraged, tough show. And yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's scary because we're parents now and once
Speaker 1: upon a time, a brighter, better future for our children
Speaker 1: seem realistic, and today it doesn't.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we'll find our light again real soon and hopefully
Speaker 3: you can help us out with that. Keep on rocking
Speaker 3: with us in the free world. Follow us on all
Speaker 3: social media. I'm at Ramsey's job. I am q woard
Speaker 3: And of course you can hit us at Civic Cipher
Speaker 3: on all platforms. Send us some kind words, make a
Speaker 3: donation on the website, follow share.
Speaker 1: Right all of that hate comment like, especially on YouTube,
Speaker 1: a little less hate this week.
Speaker 3: So uh, I think that's about it. So until next
Speaker 3: week you'll corect.
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Speaker 2: Speak too, from sunlight to move, busting on stage like
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Speaker 3: You're like that jonalist with journalists too.
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Speaker 3: What's happening? It's hot. You've got a questions to ask
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Speaker 2: Get passing and this from a white wartime journalists headlines,
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