Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsy's job. He is rams Joh I am Q Ward.
Speaker 1: Together we like to call ourselves unlucky weirdos sometimes, but
Speaker 1: you are currently listening to Civic Cipher this indeed, uh Man,
Speaker 1: unlucky wirdos. That's right for those that don't know the uninitiated.
Speaker 1: Q and I we started off DJs, and when we
Speaker 1: work together we call ourselves unlucky weirdos. I think that
Speaker 1: name is excellent. Still, yeah, we're bringing it back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but right now Civic Ciphers in full effect. A lot
Speaker 1: to stick around for, so please do. Today we are
Speaker 1: going to be talking about something.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a bit of a discussion.
Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna open the floor up to our listeners.
Speaker 1: We will not profess to be experts, but it's something
Speaker 1: interesting that I think it's we're talking about again. We're
Speaker 1: going to discuss standpoint theory. Heard about this recently and
Speaker 1: I thought it was important given a conversation I had recently.
Speaker 1: And also, we are going to spend some time talking
Speaker 1: about a any excellence.
Speaker 2: You know, we spend this show.
Speaker 1: We spend a lot of time talking about really heavy things.
Speaker 1: But this past week, so many amazing things have happened,
Speaker 1: so many things worth highlighting, that we felt like we
Speaker 1: can dedicate a whole segment to that.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna We're gonna.
Speaker 1: Enjoy some accomplishments today, do some celebrating, and of course
Speaker 1: we're going to have our own dedicated any excellence as well.
Speaker 1: Let's see what else we have to stick around for
Speaker 1: our baba become a better ally This week is excellent,
Speaker 1: and we're going to tell a story about a woman
Speaker 1: who made history before Rosa Parks did. Her name is
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Jennings Graham, and I promise you'll definitely want to
Speaker 1: stick around for that story for our way Black history fact.
Speaker 1: But first and foremost, I think it's time to get
Speaker 1: an Ebony excellence. Q. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1: Shall we shall so? Our first Ebny Excellence that we'll
Speaker 1: be discussing this week is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly
Speaker 1: Media and the story comes from the La Times and
Speaker 1: we are shouting out once again on the show the
Speaker 1: One the Only Beyonce and I will read. Beyonce has
Speaker 1: broken the record for most lifetime Grammy wins with thirty
Speaker 1: two with her victories for Dance Electronic Music Recording, Traditional
Speaker 1: R and B Performance, Best R and B Song, and
Speaker 1: Dance Electronic Music Album. Beyoncey surpassed late classical conductor Greg Solty,
Speaker 1: who won thirty one Grammys. She entered the night with
Speaker 1: twenty eight Grammys, and she is the most nominated artist
Speaker 1: on Earth. She has eighty eight nominations, and that's a
Speaker 1: distinction that she shares with her husband, Jay Z. Her
Speaker 1: career triumph came in the wake of her twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two album Renaissance, which dipped into nineties dance music, seventies disco,
Speaker 1: modern electronic music, and classic R and B and a
Speaker 1: virtual stick sprawling ode to black queer club culture. And
Speaker 1: there are those of us who feel that she should
Speaker 1: have won Album of the Year, And if you know
Speaker 1: anything about the Beehive, you know that that's not.
Speaker 2: A small amount of people.
Speaker 1: I can't pretend that I'm the biggest Beyonce fan. I
Speaker 1: am a huge fan, but you know, there are certainly
Speaker 1: people who know more about her career and just everything
Speaker 1: about her and all that she and bodies than I do.
Speaker 1: But I definitely recognize the Aveny excellence when I see it,
Speaker 1: and That's why she's been the subject of our Aveny
Speaker 1: Excellence feature maybe five times now. So once again, credit
Speaker 1: words do shout out to Beyonce, mostly the most awarded
Speaker 1: Grammy winner in history of the Grammys.
Speaker 2: But it don't stop there, and it shouldn't.
Speaker 1: That way, because as I mentioned, we're going to spend
Speaker 1: some time this episode talking about any excellence. Now, I
Speaker 1: want to take a moment and let you know a
Speaker 1: little bit about radio. So you know, our show, we
Speaker 1: didn't start off doing civic cipher. We started off doing
Speaker 1: typical hip hop radio shows, djaying, you know, throwing to
Speaker 1: you know, commercial breaks, teasing, you know, for folks to
Speaker 1: come back, you know, all this sort of stuff. Right,
Speaker 1: we wanted to make this show kind of consistent with
Speaker 1: that format. So Abny Excellence was a feature we thought
Speaker 1: really helped us to anchor this to positivity and a
Speaker 1: positive momentum with the show that really dealt with some
Speaker 1: heavy subjects. Right, But we always knew that two minutes
Speaker 1: per hour per week wasn't enough, and that always felt
Speaker 1: like a sacrifice that we had to make. I'm speaking
Speaker 1: for both of us, but you know the sacrifice we
Speaker 1: had to make because of course we had to deal
Speaker 1: with a lot of more pressing issues.
Speaker 3: I guess we knew it wasn't enough, But I think
Speaker 3: one of the first things you said that is that
Speaker 3: it wasn't nothing because we didn't always have a segment
Speaker 3: of the show that made us smile, Like it was
Speaker 3: just the things that we had to talk about. And
Speaker 3: you and I both agree, like, it can't just be that, Yeah,
Speaker 3: even when that's all that we're being given.
Speaker 2: We have to seek out some reasons that we're happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think a reason too, you know, for
Speaker 1: folks that are listening to our show every week and
Speaker 1: not black.
Speaker 2: We felt like it was important to not just be
Speaker 2: the source of or like.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even know how to say it, just constantly
Speaker 1: wallowing in our own misery effectively, is what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say. We do smile, we do celebrate, we are happy,
Speaker 1: we do accomplish amazing things, and at the same time,
Speaker 1: the other side of that coin is that we deal
Speaker 1: with a reality that is problematic at points, and you know,
Speaker 1: both of those things can be true, and a lot
Speaker 1: of what we were learning at the time when the
Speaker 1: show was initially conceived is that many people who really
Speaker 1: do celebrate black culture and black people, and they love
Speaker 1: black people. They don't really have access to meaningful access
Speaker 1: to the other side of that coin. They don't recognize
Speaker 1: the struggles. They just think, well, Obama did it, why
Speaker 1: can't you do it? You know, Beyonce did it, why
Speaker 1: can't you do it? You know? And that's a very
Speaker 1: unfair approach because not everybody is Beyonce talented, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: But also there's a significant amount of what you may
Speaker 1: end up calling luck. It's not luck, but you know,
Speaker 1: luck that goes into these these stories where people that
Speaker 1: have these talents or have these gifts or whatever that
Speaker 1: they actually peek through and make make it to the
Speaker 1: end of that long journey.
Speaker 3: I think you're more right than you realize, though, like
Speaker 3: the luck part, because you can work very hard and
Speaker 3: be very talented, and the only people that we know
Speaker 3: plenty of stories like yeah, So I think that I
Speaker 3: don't want to downplay the luck part. And you can
Speaker 3: call it luck, you can call it prayer, you can
Speaker 3: call it divine intervention. But it's not just you. It's
Speaker 3: not just you were dope and work really hard, so
Speaker 3: you made it. Like it doesn't does it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: That way, right, there's definitely some divine alignean even for
Speaker 1: the show that we're talking about now, our show Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: For us to be as successful with this endeavor, there
Speaker 1: had to be some people along the way who, despite
Speaker 1: having a different opinion, a different political philosophy, persuasion, et cetera,
Speaker 1: you know, had to green light our ability to talk
Speaker 1: to you right now. And you know, most of the
Speaker 1: people would not even want that, They would not even
Speaker 1: encourage the conversations that we're having because it does not
Speaker 1: reflect their worldview. I'm happy to say that many of
Speaker 1: them have kind of moved a little bit more towards
Speaker 1: the center since kind of dipping their tone in these
Speaker 1: civic cipher waters and subscribing to the scife life along
Speaker 1: with me and Q here but one, sir, But yeah,
Speaker 1: we needed to make sure that we represented a full
Speaker 1: spectrum of what it meant to be black and brown
Speaker 1: and indigenous and so forth.
Speaker 2: We hold this.
Speaker 1: Space for our brothers and sisters, our AAPI doesn't and everyone.
Speaker 2: Else who maybe they don't have a space like this.
Speaker 1: We do believe in solidarity here, but primarily it is
Speaker 1: a black space. It was conceived to be a black space,
Speaker 1: and we needed to not misrepresent our people here. And
Speaker 1: so Ebny excellence was something that we had to work
Speaker 1: into the we wanted to and had to work into this.
Speaker 1: They're called clocks, it's radio terminology. We had to work
Speaker 1: it into our clock as a segment so that we
Speaker 1: had a bright moment.
Speaker 3: And we had to commit ourselves to having a bright
Speaker 3: moment because it'd be easy to get lost in just what.
Speaker 2: Is me or what was U?
Speaker 1: And then you know, you guys be tuning out, like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's such a drag listening to that. We're happy people,
Speaker 1: We celebrate, we love, we live, We play with our children.
Speaker 1: Last night my son was doing science experiments in my house,
Speaker 1: was a little National Geographic science kid.
Speaker 2: You know, we made memories last night.
Speaker 1: You know this is no different, right, but you know
Speaker 1: you may not have glimpses into that beyond the more traumatic,
Speaker 1: troubling things you see in the news. And so again,
Speaker 1: have any excellence was meant to bring that balance. In fact,
Speaker 1: our positioners broadcast the balance and defend the discourse. So
Speaker 1: dedicating a segment to it is something that feels long overdue,
Speaker 1: and so I want to make sure that we shine
Speaker 1: a light on some of these things that we believe
Speaker 1: our examples of that any excellence. So first up is
Speaker 1: a woman named Ruth Simmons, So I'll read a bit
Speaker 1: about her. She was born Gene Stubblefield on July third,
Speaker 1: nineteen forty five. She's an American professor and academic administrator.
Speaker 1: She is president of Prairie View A and M University,
Speaker 1: which is a historically black university.
Speaker 2: One time for today, HBCUs.
Speaker 1: Indeed, Now, the reason that we're talking about her today
Speaker 1: as an example of ebony excellence is because in her
Speaker 1: previous assignment, she served as the eighteenth president of Brown University.
Speaker 1: She did this from two thousand and one to twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: where she was the first African American president of an
Speaker 1: Ivy League institution, not African American woman, African American person,
Speaker 1: and that happened in two thousand and one Ivy League institution. Now,
Speaker 1: you know that, you know that there were brilliant Black
Speaker 1: minds prior to two thousand and one. You know, we
Speaker 1: hear the stories and they're incredible academics.
Speaker 2: But I think this shows that they're still.
Speaker 1: Sort of a good old boys club. Not to take
Speaker 1: anything away from the people that deserve those positions. But
Speaker 1: it's hard to break in, it's hard to affect change.
Speaker 1: And we are now catching up, as illustrated by the
Speaker 1: first black president of an Ivy League school happening in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, the effects of this type of
Speaker 1: trajectory in this country, this type of storyline in this country,
Speaker 1: the ripple effect is that now there's a battle on
Speaker 1: educating children under the guise of protecting children.
Speaker 3: There's a battle on books at this point, which is
Speaker 3: a really scary part. It's kind of happening under our nose,
Speaker 3: but right in front of our faces at the same time.
Speaker 3: The idea, I think there was like a book I
Speaker 3: can't remember who wrote it, but it was called Fahrenheit
Speaker 3: four or five one or fahrenheit four one five. It's
Speaker 3: the temperature which pages burned, and the book they made
Speaker 3: a movie about it about, you know, essentially destroying books.
Speaker 2: That was like a that was science fiction when it
Speaker 2: was written.
Speaker 1: Now and you know, we're actually going to talk about
Speaker 1: that a little bit more later. Well, yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 1: there's the second part of the show where we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about standpoint theory. There's a great example of that
Speaker 1: and it uses an author whose books have been banned.
Speaker 1: She's probably the most banned author Tony Morrison.
Speaker 2: And so dangerous. Yeah, so.
Speaker 1: Before we get there, still talking about Ebney excellence, this
Speaker 1: one makes me very very happy. You know, some of
Speaker 1: us call her Auntie And if when you find out
Speaker 1: who it is, you'll know why Viola Davis has officially
Speaker 1: achieved the coveted egot status. Uh and just so you
Speaker 1: know this this part for the OA Davis I'm pulling
Speaker 1: from the Black Information Network. She won at the Grammys
Speaker 1: this year as well, and she took home the award
Speaker 1: for Best Audiobook Narration and Storytelling Recording.
Speaker 2: Have you had a chance to hear it yet? I
Speaker 2: have not. I have not you it's incredible. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I believe it.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, I know she's an incredible actor,
Speaker 1: so she's reading her own books. You probably sell it, right,
Speaker 1: But I knew going into that that she was up
Speaker 1: for an egot. Now, for those who don't know egot is.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't want you to say for an egot
Speaker 3: because it's not a singular thing that.
Speaker 2: You for the egot.
Speaker 1: I guess which is the quadruple crown if you will,
Speaker 1: So These are all prestigious awards that very few individuals
Speaker 1: get all four of them. This is like your cemented
Speaker 1: in entertainment history with an elite few. And this is
Speaker 1: not just box office success, her album sales or anything
Speaker 1: like that, which are all well and good. This is
Speaker 1: recognized by your peers, I believe, and by the community
Speaker 1: that the entertainment community at large as having made significant
Speaker 1: contribute contributions in multiple veins of entertainment. And so it's
Speaker 1: it suffices to say it's it's quite coveted. Whoopi Goldberg
Speaker 1: is an is an EGOT uh winner and so or
Speaker 1: she won all of the EGOT awards and.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of the benchmark and uh, and remind
Speaker 2: the audience what E G O T stands. Absolutely So it's.
Speaker 1: Emmy, Grammy Oscar and Tony Emmy being for.
Speaker 2: Television, sir.
Speaker 1: Uh, So you have to be recognized as as an
Speaker 1: elite performer in television and win that award Oscar sorry,
Speaker 1: Grammy of course's music. And this is what Aiola Davis
Speaker 1: won this year Oscars of Courses. You know, it's from movies.
Speaker 1: So she's an Oscar winner, which any one of these
Speaker 1: by themselves, Yes, is an incredible It comes you know,
Speaker 1: just to be nominated. That's something that follows you through
Speaker 1: the rest of your risk. Win them is you know,
Speaker 1: it puts you so to win all four.
Speaker 2: Hopefully this is not making sense.
Speaker 1: And then a Tony is for stage performances, so like
Speaker 1: a live like Broadway theater, you have to win an
Speaker 1: award for your performance in a live arena. And so
Speaker 1: you can imagine how difficult this is to accomplish, and
Speaker 1: so only a handful of people who have actually done it.
Speaker 1: Now Viola Davis has done it, and I can't say
Speaker 1: it enough. That's absolutely a glowing example of ebony excellence.
Speaker 1: I will say this last bitness is from NBC News.
Speaker 1: She's quoted as saying, it's been such a journey. I
Speaker 1: just got an egot. Uh. And if you wanted to
Speaker 1: find the book and I need to find myself. The
Speaker 1: audiobook is called Find Me, and that's the one that
Speaker 1: got the twenty twenty three Grammy Award. So shout out
Speaker 1: to the Yola Davis. Now, Autumn Lockwood, we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna shift gears here because you know, we're in Super
Speaker 1: Bowl time and we're in the city where the super
Speaker 1: Bowl is taking place, you know, putting putting our show
Speaker 1: together this week, So I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: we acknowledge that, but also we acknowledge the people who
Speaker 1: are involved, so you understand why it's important to us,
Speaker 1: but also that it's important to us not just because
Speaker 1: it's here, but because of.
Speaker 2: The people involved.
Speaker 1: So I want to you want she take this next one,
Speaker 1: because we're again getting into the sports arena, and that's
Speaker 1: a little bit beyond.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing about coach Lockwood is that she's in
Speaker 3: a space where the organizations in the National Football League have,
Speaker 3: with very little resistance, been able to almost exclusively promote
Speaker 3: hire and employ white men in positions of power and leadership,
Speaker 3: and just being able to point to what they consider
Speaker 3: not just the talent pool, but those who are in
Speaker 3: waiting and those who are being groomed as if the
Speaker 3: only people that fit into those positions are white men,
Speaker 3: even though the talent pool of players is predominantly African American.
Speaker 3: For there to not just be a black person, but
Speaker 3: a black woman in a position in an NFL, it's
Speaker 3: hard because you want to give them credit for hiring her.
Speaker 3: But just like you said earlier with Ruth Simmons man,
Speaker 3: it took too long, right in twenty twenty three, it'd
Speaker 3: be the first time, Like we shouldn't still be having
Speaker 3: these first But I don't want to rain on this parade.
Speaker 3: I do want to celebrate her Autumn is an assistant
Speaker 3: sports performance coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, who just arrived
Speaker 3: in Arizona for the Super Bowl a few days ago.
Speaker 3: She would take the field as the first black woman
Speaker 3: to coach in the Super Bowl when her team faces
Speaker 3: off against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, February twelfth. Lockwood,
Speaker 3: a graduate of the University of Arizona shout out to
Speaker 3: the Cats bare Down and a former soccer player, broke
Speaker 3: into the industry as a sports information director and Olympic
Speaker 3: strength and conditioning coach at her alma mater. Lockwood went
Speaker 3: on to work with the University of Houston as a
Speaker 3: sports performance coordinator in twenty twenty one. She continued her
Speaker 3: line of work as a strength and conditioning assistant at
Speaker 3: East Tennessee State, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV,
Speaker 3: and with the a Loant of Falcons before joining the
Speaker 3: Eagles in August of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to say something for those of
Speaker 1: you listening. These conversations that we're having are important, but
Speaker 1: I have to remind you. I do this probably every
Speaker 1: two or three shows. I want to remind you again
Speaker 1: that none of this comes from a place of anger.
Speaker 1: Some of it is like our coming to terms with reality,
Speaker 1: our realizing dang, that's never happened before. Now, wow, the
Speaker 1: system is more broken than we originally thought, or you
Speaker 1: know this, how can this be?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And I recognize that if we're playing a numbers game,
Speaker 1: more men are interested in football overall than are all women.
Speaker 2: But you know, you're absolutely right there.
Speaker 1: If we're looking at the color line, they're overwhelmingly more
Speaker 1: people in those thinking, planning, strategizing, leading positions in football organizations.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't necessarily mean that that's, strictly speaking, where
Speaker 1: the concentration of talent is. That's where the opportunities are focused.
Speaker 1: This is my understanding of how it is coming together. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's where we are in twenty twenty three. And I
Speaker 1: think it was further illustrated when I saw Dion Sanders
Speaker 1: interacting with his students that he was coaching. What a
Speaker 1: good man he is and a good role model he is,
Speaker 1: and I can't imagine that there could be a more
Speaker 1: effective role model for the class that he was talking
Speaker 1: to in the clips that I've seen, the classes where
Speaker 1: he's just up there being and saying and teaching and
Speaker 1: being an example of what they can aspire to, and
Speaker 1: that means something. And oftentimes people that end up in
Speaker 1: that position don't look like him, don't have his perspective,
Speaker 1: don't understand what some of those kids might be up
Speaker 1: against with their their aunties and cousins still starving and
Speaker 1: you know, living different lifestyles and so forth, and what
Speaker 1: challenges may be ahead for some of these folks.
Speaker 3: And so especially as his former employer, he was the
Speaker 3: head coach at Jackson State in Mississippi. I'm still sad
Speaker 3: we didn't get a chance to go down there while
Speaker 3: he was still there. But you know, Jackson didn't have
Speaker 3: clean drinking water, and he had and educate these kids
Speaker 3: and get them prepared to go play a game while
Speaker 3: also getting an education. Like it's more than a notion, man.
Speaker 2: But I'm glad that there's progress.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to say that we're moving in the
Speaker 1: right direction just because we're saying this stuff doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that we're mad about the past. We're just acknowledging it.
Speaker 1: We're excited about the future and the direction we're going in. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: I go ahead and knock out that last one. This
Speaker 1: comes from CNN. Both Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurt spoke
Speaker 1: to the media on Thursday as they recognized the significance
Speaker 1: of being the first two black quarterbacks to start in
Speaker 1: the same Super Bowl. Boo, wow, before I move on,
Speaker 1: good and it's great.
Speaker 2: That's cool man.
Speaker 3: And you know, being a former football player, you know,
Speaker 3: from five all the way through college, I've heard those
Speaker 3: conversations ram this did play football about how they used
Speaker 3: to perceive black people that play this position or kept
Speaker 3: us from playing the position because they figured we didn't.
Speaker 2: Have the mental capacity to do the job. You see
Speaker 2: what I mean. You have to talk about it.
Speaker 3: So once again, I don't want to. I'm not reigning
Speaker 3: on these celebratory moments, just giving you guys some context
Speaker 3: as to why it's a big deal.
Speaker 2: These are good things.
Speaker 3: Almost exactly thirty five years after Doug Williams became the
Speaker 3: first black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl
Speaker 3: with the then Washington Redskins. They are now the Washington Commanders,
Speaker 3: I believe because it took them this long to realize
Speaker 3: Redskins probably wasn't the best name for your team, probably
Speaker 3: the worst name with an aboriginal face on the side
Speaker 3: of the helmet. But we'll move on. For twenty seven
Speaker 3: year old Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, he's looking at his
Speaker 3: second Super Bowl, looking to win his second as the
Speaker 3: team's face off on February twelve, which would make him
Speaker 3: the first black quarterback to win multiple Super Bowl titles.
Speaker 3: So either way, this is going to be a moment
Speaker 3: in history. Yeah, and Patrick, for what it's worth, might
Speaker 3: be the best we've ever seen play the position.
Speaker 2: Great, and that's not q's opinion. That's kind of you.
Speaker 3: There's Tom Brady, who's considered the goat, and then there's
Speaker 3: this kid who they think might be the only person
Speaker 3: to ever have a chance to give him a run
Speaker 3: for his money.
Speaker 2: Well, I can't wait to see what happens.
Speaker 1: Also, I want to acknowledge this that we're recording this
Speaker 1: before February twelfth. Of course, yes, you know, some stations
Speaker 1: air our show at different times around the country.
Speaker 2: But either way, we're really excited about this.
Speaker 1: We do believe that these are amazing examples of Ebony excellence.
Speaker 1: This is a celebratory, jovial moment for both of us
Speaker 1: and it should be for you as well. And welcome
Speaker 1: to our reality, because even when we're happy, it's sometimes
Speaker 1: a mixed back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.