Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
Speaker 1: mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I am
Speaker 1: your host, Ramsy's job.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsey's job. I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 2: tuned in to Civic Cipher, Yes you.
Speaker 1: Are, and you know what, it's our birthday. It is
Speaker 1: our birthday. We've made it four years of fighting the
Speaker 1: good fight, and we are in a jovial mood. We
Speaker 1: have a lot to celebrate, we have a lot to
Speaker 1: reflect upon. So we're going to spend the first half
Speaker 1: of today's episode kind of telling you a little bit
Speaker 1: about the origin story of this show, to reaffirm why
Speaker 1: we feel like this show is important, to kind of
Speaker 1: give you a sense of sort of the primordial ooze
Speaker 1: that what we'll call ourselves, like a typical African American
Speaker 1: male comes from, and we just happen to have the
Speaker 1: access to a platform like this to be able to
Speaker 1: create it. But you know, for a lot of the
Speaker 1: folks that have joined us along the way in living
Speaker 1: the scife life as we like to call it, we
Speaker 1: feel like it's important for us to as often as
Speaker 1: it makes sense, provide you an aperture into what life
Speaker 1: is like for folks who don't have nationally syndicated radio
Speaker 1: shows but do live very much the black experience and
Speaker 1: a lot of the hopelessness and problems that come along
Speaker 1: with that. For the second half of the show, we're
Speaker 1: going to have a little bit brighter tone because we're
Speaker 1: going to look back on the past four years and
Speaker 1: really celebrate some of the accomplishments that we have seen,
Speaker 1: not only as a show, but as a country. You know,
Speaker 1: we've done a lot of growing and for all of
Speaker 1: the setbacks that we endure, it's important to also remind
Speaker 1: ourselves of the progress that we make and overall remind
Speaker 1: ourselves that we are tending toward progress and so that
Speaker 1: and so much more to stick around for. Before we
Speaker 1: get there, let us start with some Ebony excellence.
Speaker 2: Shall I think?
Speaker 1: We shall? You want me to take this one?
Speaker 2: Please?
Speaker 1: All right? I'll take this one. Today's ebny Excellence is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Actively Black. There is greatness in our DNA.
Speaker 1: Visit actively black dot com and today's Ebney Excellence comes
Speaker 1: from Blacknews dot Com. Adhara Perez Sanchez, an eleven year
Speaker 1: old brownskinned girl from Mexico City, is making headlines for
Speaker 1: her exceptional intelligence, with an ice Q score higher than
Speaker 1: that of Albert Einstein. Adara, who is of Afro Mexican descent,
Speaker 1: has an IQ of one hundred and sixty two and
Speaker 1: has already received a bachelor's degree in systems engineering from
Speaker 1: CNCI University and is currently studying a master's program in
Speaker 1: mathematics at the Technological University of Mexico. Her dream is
Speaker 1: to be an astronaut for NASA. According to The Daily Mail,
Speaker 1: at Hara's parents first noticed her advanced capabilities when she
Speaker 1: was a toddler. She was able to read and write
Speaker 1: by the age of three, and by the time she
Speaker 1: was five, she was doing complex algebraic equations. He has
Speaker 1: a fascination with space and is able to solve problems
Speaker 1: that even adults find challenging. Ataura's passion for learning led
Speaker 1: her to begin attending classes at the University dad CNCI
Speaker 1: in Mexico City when she was just eight years old.
Speaker 1: She was able to complete a degree in industrial engineering
Speaker 1: in just two years, an accomplishment that typically takes four
Speaker 1: to five years. At Our's achievements have made her a
Speaker 1: role model for young people around the world and she
Speaker 1: has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades. She has
Speaker 1: been invited to speak at events across Mexico, and she
Speaker 1: has also been featured in international media. And again I
Speaker 1: want to say her name, Adara ad h Ara Perez Sanchez.
Speaker 1: You got to take a look at this little girl.
Speaker 1: She is just a doll. And I love stories like
Speaker 1: this because, you know, for a lot of folks that
Speaker 1: don't get a chance to see how intelligence or gifts
Speaker 1: or talents or whatever are distributed, this one certainly helps
Speaker 1: chronicle the narrative that black people are just as gifted
Speaker 1: as everyone else. Moving on, it's our anniversary four years,
Speaker 1: congratulations Q.
Speaker 2: I wish I could sing because that was, like you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like that was my moment to
Speaker 2: really shine and I almost did. Yea for those that
Speaker 2: are listening, I almost gave you. I almost gave the
Speaker 2: people what they wanted. Yeah, man, they need it. But
Speaker 2: I've heard me singing for y'all, haven't, And that's exactly
Speaker 2: why I did not give the people what they want
Speaker 2: to know. Yes, it's our anniversary, it's our birthday, it's
Speaker 2: is it is that call for celebration.
Speaker 1: I think so I think so, and that's where I
Speaker 1: was going. You know, a lot of times on the show,
Speaker 1: for long time listeners, you'll know that we don't get
Speaker 1: a chance to be happy as often as we'd like.
Speaker 1: You know, we come from a space, you know, where
Speaker 1: we were traditional radio broadcasters. We come from hip hop
Speaker 1: formats and or DJs, you know, like stadium, DJ's, nightclub,
Speaker 1: DJ's arena DJs and Q's case and I've done a
Speaker 1: couple of arenas myself too, and you know where we
Speaker 1: are the parties at right, And we kind of felt
Speaker 1: like this show was necessary, and so we left a
Speaker 1: lot of the stick around after the break, we got
Speaker 1: your tickets coming up. We left that all behind to
Speaker 1: kind of do some real work that we felt was
Speaker 1: really necessary and we could galvanize our different tribes under
Speaker 1: the guise of friendship and understanding and growth and really
Speaker 1: leaning into our relationships with each other and building those bridges.
Speaker 1: And this is a different type of work. This requires
Speaker 1: different muscles that we had to develop in short order,
Speaker 1: and that was not an easy process for us. And
Speaker 1: often when we are in the thick of this show,
Speaker 1: we shed tears here, you know, And I'm because Q
Speaker 1: is very I couldn't imagine this journey with anyone else.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being my friend and my brother to
Speaker 1: makes it very, very easy for I think something that's
Speaker 1: very natural to feel like it has a soft place
Speaker 1: to land. So, yes, there are a tears shed on
Speaker 1: this show, often by me, because I kind of go
Speaker 1: through it. I got to read all these stories of
Speaker 1: you know, people losing their lives at the hands of
Speaker 1: corrupt systems, dying before they had a chance to finish
Speaker 1: living on a sidewalk.
Speaker 2: Sometimes dying before they had a chance to start living.
Speaker 1: There you go, and I sell this to say that
Speaker 1: while again there's a lot of hopelessness and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, bleak stories and realities that we
Speaker 1: have to brush up against here, when we do get
Speaker 1: a chance to have a show like this, I do
Speaker 1: think it's caused for celebration because we get to be happy,
Speaker 1: you know, we get a chance to look on something
Speaker 1: that you know, overall is very sp I do want
Speaker 1: to get to the origin stories and we'll move through
Speaker 1: it a little quickly, but something that I want to share
Speaker 1: before before.
Speaker 2: You move on, And as you're thanking me for this,
Speaker 2: I encouraged you multiple times to find a better partner
Speaker 2: than me for this endeavor, first and foremost, because I
Speaker 2: don't like the sound of my own voice. I've always
Speaker 2: been very uncomfortable speaking into microphones, especially when it's amplified
Speaker 2: so that I also hear it. It's something that's always
Speaker 2: made me cringe. And I didn't know or have the
Speaker 2: self efficacy to believe that i'd be the best partner
Speaker 2: for this journey or the best teammate. And Ramses, as
Speaker 2: you guys can probably tell, insisted that I do all
Speaker 2: of these things that I was very, very uncomfortable with doing, and.
Speaker 1: I just ignored you saying that you did.
Speaker 2: I know a lot too listening to my voice right now,
Speaker 2: you have no idea how many times I said no.
Speaker 2: I even had my own theme song, remember that of
Speaker 2: my no some emphasis, So you know, before we move on,
Speaker 2: I can't just allow Ramses to kind of thank me
Speaker 2: for being here, because I literally wouldn't have been here
Speaker 2: without them. That's not a figurative statement. That's not me
Speaker 2: trying to be warm or emotional or to get your heartstrings.
Speaker 2: I literally would not have been a part of this
Speaker 2: show or speaking into anyone's microphone if not for rams's job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we have been each other's brother, because there's
Speaker 1: no contribution that I've given to your story that you
Speaker 1: haven't given to mine in some other meaningful way. And
Speaker 1: so this was what was supposed to happen. Now, I
Speaker 1: do want to to share with you, our listener, that
Speaker 1: some of the stories that we're about to share with
Speaker 1: you there there are stories of progress. And the reason
Speaker 1: that we felt that this episode was important. We try
Speaker 1: to do this once a year, but this is important
Speaker 1: because a lot of people will look around, especially in
Speaker 1: terms of like politics, in terms of you know, Supreme
Speaker 1: Court decisions obviously in the past couple of years, in
Speaker 1: terms of the fights that we've been fighting for decades,
Speaker 1: you know, and they don't see the progress. And the
Speaker 1: reason is because oftentimes the progress is that that people
Speaker 1: are wanting to see is measured in, if they're being generous, decades,
Speaker 1: and progress, you know, for a country is a little
Speaker 1: slower than that. Progress is more measured in generations, lifetimes.
Speaker 1: And when you take a step outside of your immediate
Speaker 1: reality where you're trying to you know, why hasn't police
Speaker 1: reform taken place? Why haven't you know, you know, there
Speaker 1: was that mass shooting that we had earlier in the week.
Speaker 1: You know, why haven't the gun laws been changed? You
Speaker 1: know that sort of thing, things like that. Sure, sure,
Speaker 1: I understand your frustration. I think it's important for us
Speaker 1: to remain optimistic, for us to remain hopeful. And the
Speaker 1: basis of that optimism, and the basis of that hopefulness
Speaker 1: I think comes from taking again a step outside of
Speaker 1: the span of a couple of decades and looking at
Speaker 1: a lifetime and you know, where has where have we
Speaker 1: come as a nation in the span of a lifetime
Speaker 1: or two lifetimes? You know what was life like for
Speaker 1: my for my father when he was born, what was
Speaker 1: the life like for his father when he was born?
Speaker 1: And and is there progress? And do I live in
Speaker 1: a freer world where there's more mobility? Am I the
Speaker 1: wildest dream of my great grandfather? And if I say yes,
Speaker 1: then I think that that's progress. And so we're going
Speaker 1: to celebrate the small wins here.
Speaker 2: I think for most of our lifetime, the answers to
Speaker 2: that question would have been yes. But over the last
Speaker 2: few years I might feel like of our country, our
Speaker 2: countrymen that are trying to take us back to those
Speaker 2: times where we didn't have those freedoms and our life
Speaker 2: was not some realization that our forefathers had. There are
Speaker 2: people actively working to take us back to there. So
Speaker 2: hopefully we can keep singing this song of celebration and
Speaker 2: progress that we'd like.
Speaker 1: To absolutely and you know, I'm not going to pretend like,
Speaker 1: you know, the song of celebration and progress and freedom
Speaker 1: hasn't been sung for hundreds of years in this country.
Speaker 1: But you know, if we're talking about lifetimes in recent
Speaker 1: history in terms of how well things were documented, the
Speaker 1: civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties is obviously one
Speaker 1: of the formative moments in this country's history in terms
Speaker 1: of how, you know, we treat each other and how
Speaker 1: this country treats black people and brown people and marginalized people.
Speaker 1: This was the end of Jim Crow and the beginning
Speaker 1: of a legally federally protected framework for how we should
Speaker 1: treat each other with respect to housing, with respect to employment,
Speaker 1: with respect to you know, even the government's approach, you know,
Speaker 1: and state and local laws. There were just there's things
Speaker 1: protections put in place in the sixties, and this show
Speaker 1: began in the spirit of the echo of the civil
Speaker 1: rights movement in the sixties So for those that don't know,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, you know, Q and I were out
Speaker 1: protesting in the Freedom Summer. You know, it's been called
Speaker 1: a number of things. But you know, we weren't just
Speaker 1: all right, let's go talk on his radio and then
Speaker 1: go back home. You know, we recognized that we had
Speaker 1: a responsibility as human beings to stand with the people.
Speaker 1: You know, we weren't just peddling, you know, our personalities
Speaker 1: to the people and being exalted above them. We knew
Speaker 1: that we also were these people. We didn't own them
Speaker 1: radio stations at all, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: so and then the truth is right is right. You know,
Speaker 1: there were other people who weren't black men that got
Speaker 1: out there and protested, and they left high positions as well.
Speaker 1: But you know, for Q and I, we just felt
Speaker 1: like this was this was really important. And I know
Speaker 1: that Q got out. You got out when you could
Speaker 1: because you had, you know, a little one in the house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I had my little boys were a little older,
Speaker 1: so I could take them to the protests with me.
Speaker 1: And what ended up happening was we ended up meeting
Speaker 1: some folks who were they they just kind of knew
Speaker 1: who we were. And what platforms we had and that
Speaker 1: our voice could go a little further than the bullhorns could.
Speaker 1: And there's thousands of people out protesting and marching police
Speaker 1: injustice and police violence and brutality. And you know, the
Speaker 1: conversation came up, you know, why not why not challenge
Speaker 1: what Channel twelve is saying. Channel twelve is saying, we're
Speaker 1: out here rioting. You know, Channel fifteen is saying that
Speaker 1: we're out setting fires and that's not happening. The police
Speaker 1: are doing X, Y and Z to us. And then
Speaker 1: they're saying that we started that. And you know, and
Speaker 1: again these are people. I'm standing with them with my children.
Speaker 1: They're ensuring that I'm safe every day they walk me
Speaker 1: to and to my car because they recognized, Okay, Ramses
Speaker 1: has the potential to do more than just hold up
Speaker 1: a sign here, Ramses, can you know whatever? So that
Speaker 1: was that was very important to meet these powerful leaders,
Speaker 1: these great thinkers, these people that knew about activism. They
Speaker 1: knew about what political systems were corrupt and what political
Speaker 1: systems could benefit more people more of the time. And again,
Speaker 1: I was a DJ, so I didn't know these things,
Speaker 1: but I was fueled by the conviction in my heart.
Speaker 1: I had the support of Q, because I was a
Speaker 1: lot of times when you weren't there. You know, I
Speaker 1: was acting on your behalf to one part of the
Speaker 1: story you'll hear in just a second. And you know,
Speaker 1: I felt like these folks needed a place to be
Speaker 1: able to share their stories. So I took that back
Speaker 1: to the radio station and I says, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: there's some some great thinkers out here, and they should
Speaker 1: be able to say, you know, why these protests matter.
Speaker 1: They should be able to explain these concepts that sound
Speaker 1: you know, unusual and scary, defund the police, you know,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Apparently black lives matter, lives matter, scary, all these things,
Speaker 2: and what does it mean and what is what is
Speaker 2: the push?
Speaker 1: You know? And originally the folks at the radio station
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, that's a great idea, we want you
Speaker 1: to do that. And then, so you know, Q and
Speaker 1: I that's when we first started. I started having the
Speaker 1: conversations because we weren't doing a Radio Solstice anymore at
Speaker 1: that time, so we this was our next show. It
Speaker 1: was going to be our next show, and so we
Speaker 1: started preparing for that, and one week turns into two
Speaker 1: weeks and I still don't have my cart number. I
Speaker 1: don't have my imaging for the show. I don't have
Speaker 1: anything that the radio station is supposed to provide. I
Speaker 1: don't have my time slot. I don't know how long
Speaker 1: the show's going to be. Whatever I asked for thirty
Speaker 1: minutes originally. Then you know when week turns into two,
Speaker 1: two turns into a month, you know, and on and
Speaker 1: on and then finally I'm like, hey, so we're waiting.
Speaker 1: We got these interviews lined up. We want to get
Speaker 1: these powerful voices on. We need to do more than
Speaker 1: just have a black square on Instagram. That's that's fair
Speaker 1: Weather friend energy. And this is the hip hop station.
Speaker 1: What are we really doing here? You know, you don't
Speaker 1: need to do anything. You just need to give me
Speaker 1: the time slot. I will produce the rest of it.
Speaker 1: And you know, I already got the show built. And
Speaker 1: the program director at the time of that station said
Speaker 1: Will rams Is, I'm going to explain to you what's
Speaker 1: really going on. Listen, bad boy, I don't want to
Speaker 1: do a black show.
Speaker 2: And it's a gut punch every time I hear it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: every time we retaill the story, every time I re
Speaker 2: remember that it hits every time I know it's coming,
Speaker 2: and it's still jolts me a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so that was the highest of insults, you know.
Speaker 1: And you got to bear in mind that this came
Speaker 1: on the heels of Q and I driving back. You know,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, we flew to Miami to pick up
Speaker 1: a car for Q. It was a nice it was
Speaker 1: a Porsche, and we were driving this back from Florida, Florida, right.
Speaker 1: So it's a new car with the paper dealership tags
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff, and it's it's a fancy car,
Speaker 1: and we're driving back. We get pulled over in Mississippi.
Speaker 1: And the short version of the story.
Speaker 2: At like three o'clock in the morning, by the way, Yeah,
Speaker 2: in the same summer of George Floyd, Ad Aubrey and
Speaker 2: Black Lives Matter, that same summer, We're in the deep South, Mississippi,
Speaker 2: three o'clock in the morning, no light, no moonlight, light,
Speaker 2: no street lights, no nothing.
Speaker 1: Them trees are real tall out there, so blocked out
Speaker 1: the moonlight too. But anyway, we got pulled over for
Speaker 1: no reason. But you know, just to level with you
Speaker 1: in Arizona where we live, you know, on the road
Speaker 1: there's a white line to give you the border of
Speaker 1: the traffic lane, and then there's a ridge outside of that,
Speaker 1: like a rumble strip to let you know, to wake
Speaker 1: you up if you're like drifting off the road or something.
Speaker 1: So there's a white line and then there's a like
Speaker 1: a guard line outside of that that'll rumble your tiers.
Speaker 1: In Mississippi, the white line has that rumble strip in it,
Speaker 1: so if you if your tire touches the white white.
Speaker 2: Painted over those grooves that make that noise to kind
Speaker 2: of give you an idea that you've swerved out of
Speaker 2: your lane.
Speaker 1: So so what happens is we're driving and I think
Speaker 1: we might have been switching an outcast song or something
Speaker 1: like that because we was groove. Yeah, we were doing
Speaker 1: our thing. We was on our way to Louisiana, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know that little tiny swerve where you just kind
Speaker 1: of touch the the rumble strip and it's like.
Speaker 2: A which also could have been us changing lanes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't have just because of the word its positioned.
Speaker 1: But we ended up getting pulled over. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: went on Facebook live just because again it was a
Speaker 1: heightened heightened emotion emotional time and you know, I needed
Speaker 1: everybody that this is going to be recorded. But you know,
Speaker 1: these were two police officers from the south and they
Speaker 1: were not that you know, they saw me and Q
Speaker 1: in the car. They took one look at Q, talked
Speaker 1: to him, realized he hadn't been drinking, which is the
Speaker 1: reason you pulled someone over. If you're going to pull
Speaker 1: someone over. That wasn't a crazy swerve.
Speaker 2: It was definitely weren't speeding. But yeah, none of that
Speaker 2: cruise control set to five miles above the speed limit because.
Speaker 1: We knew where we were. Yeah, we was trying to
Speaker 1: just do our thing. But they ended up pulling Q
Speaker 1: out of the car. Uh, you know, and they had
Speaker 1: those bright lights on your middle of night so you
Speaker 1: can't see I'm on Facebook Live people can see the
Speaker 1: police lights or whatever. Then they come ask me for
Speaker 1: my ID. I wasn't even driving. I had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the rumble strip. But then they're like, I
Speaker 1: need you to step out of the car, and they take
Speaker 1: me out of the car. Then my phone dies. So
Speaker 1: now everybody's like stressed out because I get snatched out
Speaker 1: of the police car. Well, not snatched out. I don't
Speaker 1: want to make it too dramatic, but I got taken
Speaker 1: out of the car, my phone died, so everybody was
Speaker 1: on Facebook live. They're going crazy for us because they
Speaker 1: don't know what's happening. People are crying back home whatever.
Speaker 1: And then they you know, they had us hemmed up
Speaker 1: against the car. Then they asked us, of course, to
Speaker 1: the standard of questions, just because how we look, you know,
Speaker 1: do we have drugs in the car and y of
Speaker 1: that stuff, And of course we don't, it's a brand
Speaker 1: new car. And then they're like, okay, we're going to
Speaker 1: get the dogs out here. So then they get the
Speaker 1: dogs out and then they have to sniff to that.
Speaker 1: So we're on the side of the road for hours,
Speaker 1: just and the humiliation and all of that sort of
Speaker 1: stuff that comes along with that. Of course, they didn't
Speaker 1: find anything, but and this isn't that's not the only
Speaker 1: time that's happened in our lives, but it happened at
Speaker 1: a pivotal time for us because oh and by the way,
Speaker 1: it's not a racial thing because both of those officers
Speaker 1: were black. This is this is a police issue, right.
Speaker 2: Was both Yeah, because both of the officers were black,
Speaker 2: but so were we And we'd love to to think.
Speaker 2: I almost know for certain. Were we two white people,
Speaker 2: it doesn't even happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And were they two white people, it could have
Speaker 1: went a lot worse.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So there was some one of them was trying
Speaker 1: to be a cop first and the other one was
Speaker 1: trying to be a man first. And I think that's
Speaker 1: really what gave us our saving grace, but again a
Speaker 1: formative experience, and that coming into the conversations we were
Speaker 1: having back home about you know, getting a show off
Speaker 1: the ground that allowed black people to share stories, black leaders,
Speaker 1: black you know, visionaries, people who were politically engaged and
Speaker 1: knew better to come up and explain themselves. We felt
Speaker 1: that that was necessary, and of course, with the powers
Speaker 1: that be at the old station saying that they didn't
Speaker 1: want to do a black show, that that is the
Speaker 1: highest of insults, the highest I've ever heard in my
Speaker 1: life saying that to me. You know, we decided that
Speaker 1: we were going to resign. I resigned, and it resigned
Speaker 1: on behalf.
Speaker 2: Of Q decided that we were going to resign. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so we resign, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: And then shortly after that, you know, the newspapers came
Speaker 1: because we were the only black radio personalities on the
Speaker 1: air at the time. During that season of racial reckoning,
Speaker 1: folks started reaching out because of the press and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I heard about you resigning. Would you like to do
Speaker 1: that show over here on this station, And of course
Speaker 1: we're like yes, and we went live. It would have
Speaker 1: been September tenth, twenty twenty. And obviously the show has grown.
Speaker 1: We're now syndicated across the country. We're in seventy five
Speaker 1: seventy six stations now and most importantly we have you
Speaker 1: to thank for that. So these past four years have
Speaker 1: been magical. Hopefully we've been making an impact and one
Speaker 1: trying our best. Yeah, and one thing we'll never be
Speaker 1: able to do is thank you enough for your support
Speaker 1: along the way. Right now, it's time for the Way
Speaker 1: Black History Fact and Today's Way Black History Factor, sponsored
Speaker 1: by Major Threads for innovative fashionable sportswear. Checkmajorthreads dot com.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to share a letter with you. I
Speaker 1: verified this letter. You can verify it yourself check out
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian. It is a real letter from a real
Speaker 1: person to his former master, Dayton, Ohio, August seventh, eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five, to my old master, Colonel P. H. Anderson,
Speaker 1: Big Spring, Tennessee. Sir, I got your letter and was
Speaker 1: glad to find that you had not forgotten Jordan, and
Speaker 1: that you wanted me to come back and live with
Speaker 1: you again, promising to do better for me than anybody
Speaker 1: else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I
Speaker 1: thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this
Speaker 1: for harboring reps they found at your house. I suppose
Speaker 1: they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to
Speaker 1: kill the Union soldier that was left by his company
Speaker 1: in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before
Speaker 1: I left you, I did not want to hear of
Speaker 1: your being hurt, and I'm glad you are still living.
Speaker 1: It would do me good to go back to the
Speaker 1: dear old home again and see Miss Mary and Miss
Speaker 1: Martha and Alan Esther Green and Lee. Give my love
Speaker 1: to them all. Tell them I hope we will meet
Speaker 1: in the better world. If not in this, I would
Speaker 1: have gone back to see you when I was working
Speaker 1: in the Nashville hospital, But one of the neighbors told
Speaker 1: me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever
Speaker 1: got the chance. I want to know, particularly what the
Speaker 1: good chances you propose to give me. I am doing
Speaker 1: tolerably well. Here I get twenty five dollars a month
Speaker 1: with victuals and clothing. I have a comfortable home for Mandy.
Speaker 1: The folks call her Miss Anderson. And the children Millie,
Speaker 1: Jane and Grundy go to school and are learning well.
Speaker 1: The teacher says Grundy has a heart. Sorry, it has
Speaker 1: a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school
Speaker 1: and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we overhear others saying them colored people were slaves
Speaker 1: down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear
Speaker 1: such remarks, but I'll tell them it was no disgrace
Speaker 1: in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkies would
Speaker 1: have been proud as I used to be to call
Speaker 1: you Master. Now, if you will write and say what
Speaker 1: wages you will give me, I will be better able
Speaker 1: to decide whether it would be in my advantage to
Speaker 1: move back again my freedom, which you say I can have.
Speaker 1: There is nothing to be gained on that score. As
Speaker 1: I got my free papers in eighteen sixty four from
Speaker 1: the Provost Marshall General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy
Speaker 1: says she would be afraid to go back without some
Speaker 1: proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly.
Speaker 1: And we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking
Speaker 1: you to send us our wages for the time we
Speaker 1: served you. This will make us forget and forgive old
Speaker 1: scores and rely on your justice and friendship in the future.
Speaker 1: I served you faithfully for thirty two years and Mandy
Speaker 1: twenty years. At twenty five dollars a month for me
Speaker 1: and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would
Speaker 1: amount to eleven six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to
Speaker 1: this the interest for the time our wages would have
Speaker 1: been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our
Speaker 1: clothing and three doctors' visits to me pulling a tooth
Speaker 1: for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are
Speaker 1: in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adam's
Speaker 1: Express in care of V. Winter's Esquire, Dayton, Ohio. If
Speaker 1: you fail to pay us for faithful labours in the past,
Speaker 1: we can have little faith in your promises in the future.
Speaker 1: We must trust the Good Maker has opened your eyes
Speaker 1: to the wrongs to which you and your fathers have
Speaker 1: done to me and my father's in making us toil
Speaker 1: for your generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages
Speaker 1: every Saturday night, but in Tennessee there was never any
Speaker 1: payday for the negroes more than for the horses or cows.
Speaker 1: Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those
Speaker 1: two who defrauded the labor of his hire. In answering
Speaker 1: this letter, please state, if you would, if there would
Speaker 1: be any safety for my Millie and Jane, who are
Speaker 1: now grown up in both good looking girls. You know
Speaker 1: how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would
Speaker 1: rather stay here and starve and die if it come
Speaker 1: to that, than have my girls bought to shame and
Speaker 1: violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also
Speaker 1: please state if there has been any schools open for
Speaker 1: the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of
Speaker 1: my life now is to give my children an education
Speaker 1: and have them form virtuous habits. From your old service, servant,
Speaker 1: Jordan Anderson. PS, say howdy to George Carter and thank
Speaker 1: him for taking the pistol from you when you were
Speaker 1: shooting at me. Sorry I had to read that fast,
Speaker 1: but it was a long letter, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: get as much in as I could. Back in the day,
Speaker 1: you could not insult white people, and so I think
Speaker 1: that was just a masterful job of playing above board.
Speaker 1: Keep on riding with us as we continue to broadcast
Speaker 1: the balance and defend the discourse from the Hip Hop
Speaker 1: Weekly Studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Ramsy's.
Speaker 2: Joh he is Ramsey's Jah, I am q Ward. You
Speaker 2: are tuned into Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: Indeed, and we are celebrating. It's a celebration around here.
Speaker 1: We are four years old. That's a long time for
Speaker 1: a radio show, and so we're.
Speaker 2: Uh, who would have thought?
Speaker 1: Who would have thought? You know, we thought we were
Speaker 1: going to be on for.
Speaker 2: Thirty minutes once without a home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, here we are all over the whole country.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? And we're taking the second half of
Speaker 1: the show to talk about some of the positive things
Speaker 1: that have happened in the past four years. For those
Speaker 1: who don't know, we often talk about some of the setbacks,
Speaker 1: some of the traumatic things that happen, some of the
Speaker 1: heavier news stories. But today we are going to look
Speaker 1: back and revel in the progress that we've made and
Speaker 1: remind ourselves of what it is we're doing, why we're
Speaker 1: doing it, and hopefully what outcomes we can expect. Long
Speaker 1: But before we get there, it's time to Baba become
Speaker 1: a better ally Baba and today's Bobba sponsored by Friends
Speaker 1: of the Movement. You can sign up for the free
Speaker 1: voter wiler from fotmglobal dot com to support black businesses
Speaker 1: and allied businesses as well as make an impact with
Speaker 1: your spending. Again, that's Fotmglobal dot com and today we
Speaker 1: want you to check out code Pink see if it's
Speaker 1: for you all right. Code Pink is a feminist grassroots
Speaker 1: organization working to end US warfare and imperialism, support peace
Speaker 1: and human rights initiatives, and redirect resources into healthcare, education,
Speaker 1: green jobs, and other life affirming programs, and you can
Speaker 1: join them at codepink dot org. Life affirming programs are
Speaker 1: investments and social programs that uplift human dignity instead of
Speaker 1: tear it down. They believe universal healthcare must be must
Speaker 1: include the right to an abortion, access to education must
Speaker 1: not be determined by income bracket, and housing as a
Speaker 1: human right. Founders in the Fall of twenty sorry two
Speaker 1: thousand and two as a grassroots effort to prevent the
Speaker 1: US war on Iraq. They continue to organize for Justice
Speaker 1: for Iraqis, to hold war criminals accountable, and to end
Speaker 1: and prevent other US wars and regime change efforts. They
Speaker 1: actively oppose you as sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba,
Speaker 1: as well as torture and detention center at Guantanamo, weaponized
Speaker 1: and spy drones, and the prosecution of whistleblowers. They form
Speaker 1: companies that derive their profits from US military interventions, the
Speaker 1: global arms trade, and the militarization of our streets. Rooted
Speaker 1: in a network of local organizers, online supporters, and generoust
Speaker 1: donors with an emphasis on joy and humor, their tactics
Speaker 1: include satire, street theater, creative visuals, civil resistance, and directly
Speaker 1: challenging powerful decision makers in government and corporations, and of course,
Speaker 1: wearing pink again. Check them out at code pink dot
Speaker 1: org and see if they're right for you. You know, I
Speaker 1: forgot how these folks came on to my radar, but
Speaker 1: I remember that they did, and you know, I knew
Speaker 1: that I needed to share that because some people you
Speaker 1: just kind of find an initiative, an effort that just
Speaker 1: kind of speaks to your spirit, and these might be
Speaker 1: the right folks for you again, codepeak dot org. All right,
Speaker 1: the past four years?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: Four years, man, that's a long time. Again. Congratulations, thank you,
Speaker 1: well done, sir. Likewise, Likewise, when we started this show,
Speaker 1: it was underneath the presidency of Donald Trump, which.
Speaker 2: I still can't believe happened. Like I thought so much
Speaker 2: more of my countrymen, my brothers and sisters from every
Speaker 2: background of life, than to ever see them collectively, by
Speaker 2: the tens of millions elect someone like him to be
Speaker 2: the president of the United States. It was, you know,
Speaker 2: I steal as you know, struggle with that reality today
Speaker 2: that so many of our neighbors would see someone like
Speaker 2: him fit to not just lead, but to be the
Speaker 2: permanent leader if they could have their way. It's a
Speaker 2: it's a much more scary thing for me than seemingly
Speaker 2: everyone else. I get stuck in the idea sometimes, But yeah,
Speaker 2: him becoming the president and living in this country under
Speaker 2: his presidency, I've had better years, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm glad you mentioned it that way, because
Speaker 1: it's important to think back to the weight. For many
Speaker 1: of you, this might not be your reality, but for
Speaker 1: people like us, for me and Q and people that
Speaker 1: look like us, and people that kind of walk a
Speaker 1: similar path to us. Donald Trump's presidency was a very
Speaker 1: scary time, not because of necessarily the president himself former president,
Speaker 1: but because of what he represented to the people who
Speaker 1: voted for him. He emboldened a group of people in
Speaker 1: this country who could not only shape outcomes for those
Speaker 1: of us who have historically been disenfranchised, but they could
Speaker 1: take direct action and often threatened to do so, and
Speaker 1: in some instances did. And so during twenty twenty, when
Speaker 1: the show was born, there were people who were either
Speaker 1: arming themselves or doing their best to kind of support,
Speaker 1: let's say, support police initiatives think Kyle Rittenhouse, but on
Speaker 1: a smaller scale, right counter protesters that stood to really
Speaker 1: gain nothing. They just wanted to show up in defense
Speaker 1: of the police because they were Donald.
Speaker 2: Trump had important to point out though we've now learned
Speaker 2: this that we know this, this isn't just me talking
Speaker 2: about how I feel. Those people were not really in
Speaker 2: support of the police. They were against us. They were
Speaker 2: in support of those they felt the police oppressed. Which
Speaker 2: so in that moment, yeah, we're pro police, but we
Speaker 2: saw on January sixth, after the following election, they're not
Speaker 2: didn't care at all about the police. They had a
Speaker 2: very very precise and pointed agenda, and as soon as
Speaker 2: they thought the police did not fall in line with
Speaker 2: that agenda, it was forget the police. It was it
Speaker 2: was back to blue before that. But then we've seen
Speaker 2: actual footage of them assaulting officers by the thousands. Were
Speaker 2: thousands of them insulting hundreds of officers.
Speaker 1: Rather, I'm glad you said that, because that's that's a
Speaker 1: much better way to say what I was trying to say.
Speaker 1: But also it really gives you insight into the mind
Speaker 1: of the people that have been that were in bolded
Speaker 1: underneath Donald Trumps presidency, where they could never be wrong,
Speaker 1: there was no room to grow, no room to learn,
Speaker 1: and anything that didn't fit. Rather than adjust their mental framework,
Speaker 1: they just change their outward reality. It's a very strange
Speaker 1: thing to see happen over and over again.
Speaker 2: I don't want us to spend an entire segment on
Speaker 2: this topic, but it's important to establish aback off of
Speaker 2: what you're saying. They don't even have a set ideology.
Speaker 2: They don't have a set list of morals or principles
Speaker 2: that they are defined by. Because we've learned and we've
Speaker 2: watched them. I hate to say it, but make fools
Speaker 2: of themselves in support of him, go against their own
Speaker 2: children and against their own well being. Out loud, you
Speaker 2: can ask them a question, what do you feel about this?
Speaker 2: Be at the Bible or be at laws or be
Speaker 2: it outcomes, and they'll tell you their answer, and then
Speaker 2: you tell them in the next line, okay, Donald Trump's
Speaker 2: opposed to what you just sa And without hesitation, they
Speaker 2: just fold on what they just said and adopt whatever
Speaker 2: Donald Trump said. It's like he can do no wrong.
Speaker 2: So I know, I just said that I want to
Speaker 2: protect my kids. I know I just said that a
Speaker 2: person that commits a felon you should go to jail.
Speaker 2: I know I just said that. But now we're talking
Speaker 2: about Donald Trump, and forget everything I just said. I
Speaker 2: didn't mean any of it, and then look at their
Speaker 2: children and tell their children it's okay x y Z
Speaker 2: and x y Z could be something that directly harms
Speaker 2: or directly goes against not just their core beliefs, but
Speaker 2: the very children that they're talking to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't want us to forget about these people.
Speaker 1: And I know it's kind of tough because we're so
Speaker 1: polarized in this moment, but you know, there were people
Speaker 1: who voted for Hitler or people who voted for you know,
Speaker 1: these are like duly elected individuals around the world and
Speaker 1: throughout history, and we're seeing it's possible for people to
Speaker 1: get duped in Mass. Drink the kool aid if you will,
Speaker 1: join the cult in Mass. But right now, you know,
Speaker 1: we have to affirm, probably now more than ever, that
Speaker 1: right is right and wrong is wrong. But one of
Speaker 1: the good things that has happened since the show has
Speaker 1: started is that Donald Trump was voted out of office.
Speaker 1: A lot of people will agree with me when I
Speaker 1: say this that when Joe Biden was elected, it wasn't
Speaker 1: because Joe Biden was him. You know, Joe Biden was
Speaker 1: the person who was most likely going to appeal to
Speaker 1: enough people who were not going to vote for Trump
Speaker 1: a second time, and he just was the man at
Speaker 1: the time to get Donald Trump out of the office. Uh.
Speaker 2: People who were people who were just right or just
Speaker 2: left of center and undecided if you will, or or
Speaker 2: who had come to Jesus with regards to what they'd
Speaker 2: seen from the president, they still were not people that
Speaker 2: would lean left. So it had to be someone that
Speaker 2: could appeal to conservatives, even as a liberal. And you know,
Speaker 2: Joe Biden represented our sadly best chance in that moment.
Speaker 2: And it's a little less sad today because there's a
Speaker 2: there's a record of things that have happened since he's
Speaker 2: been in office. That doesn't mean he's gotten everything right,
Speaker 2: that doesn't believe, that doesn't mean that we agree on
Speaker 2: everything that he's done. But we were able to have
Speaker 2: someone less despicable in that office.
Speaker 1: And and now I'm glad that we painted the picture
Speaker 1: of slightly painted the picture of what life was like
Speaker 1: underneath the Trump presidency, where all these emboldened people in
Speaker 1: our day to day lives with walking around with their
Speaker 1: whole chest out and their racism on their sleeve. And
Speaker 1: you know, we have children, we have you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, so that our children have to go out
Speaker 1: into the world and interact.
Speaker 2: They made for a far less safe world for our.
Speaker 1: Kids, right right, So, Joe Biden presidency, how to it
Speaker 1: lets some of the air out of the ball in
Speaker 1: a manner of speaking in our in our individual lives.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, not all of the air, because here we go again,
Speaker 2: someho and who would have thought here that that we
Speaker 2: could get here again? But we're here again, bro, And
Speaker 2: it's within the margin of error, which is it's is
Speaker 2: as much as this is a celebratory show today and
Speaker 2: we're celebrating the fact that we're even here and that
Speaker 2: we're still here and we have the right to do so,
Speaker 2: the fact that we're in a place where this very
Speaker 2: heavy and very yeah, this election is I just can't
Speaker 2: believe we hear again. I can't believe there's enough people
Speaker 2: still who have seen and heard this man, because before
Speaker 2: they didn't know the first time around, a lot of
Speaker 2: people didn't know people that I respect. They just wanted
Speaker 2: something different. They were tired of politics as usual, and
Speaker 2: he represented something they thought outside of the box, anti
Speaker 2: establishment and tie whatever. Yeah, and now it's not funny nomore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like, wake.
Speaker 1: Up, I get it, I get it. Well, you know
Speaker 1: what we were saying is that one of the positive
Speaker 1: things is that he was voted out of the office.
Speaker 1: And regardless of how you feel, that does breathe some
Speaker 1: life back into our day to day coming out of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, because twenty twenty we're like outside protesting, We're like, okay,
Speaker 1: well these police are you know, I'm from Compton, California.
Speaker 1: So it was an LAPD, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So the LAPD for those who don't know, the LAPD
Speaker 1: used to be wild in the eighties.
Speaker 2: And in the seventies. Yeah, talk to me. When was
Speaker 2: the watch riots were sixty seventies somewhere in the area. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it wasn't just the eighties. No, No, LAPD wold for
Speaker 2: some time.
Speaker 1: So so for us, it's you know, I was never
Speaker 1: born in There was never a time in my life
Speaker 1: when the police were the good guys like you know
Speaker 1: in the movies, they're the good guys in real life.
Speaker 1: I never looked at the police like yeah, that's what's up. Noah,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to stay away from them, like the
Speaker 1: gang bangers and the you know, other people that you're
Speaker 1: taught to stay away from. So, you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: grow up like white people are like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I love to talk to the police. No, no, not me.
Speaker 1: I'm staying over here and hopefully they don't buy them.
Speaker 1: It's like a loose dog with no chain.
Speaker 2: The police policing in our country is a really interesting establishment,
Speaker 2: and they're they're they've othered enough of us to give
Speaker 2: themselves a target or an enemy, if you will, then
Speaker 2: I think that's an appropriate term when you look at
Speaker 2: the militarization of police. They've othered enough communities and enough
Speaker 2: of us to give themselves a target or an enemy.
Speaker 2: And when someone that didn't fit the profile of target
Speaker 2: enemy attacked them in mass, they kind of didn't respond.
Speaker 2: The military, the police, and our nation's capital were kind
Speaker 2: of like stuck. The former president led an insurrection against
Speaker 2: our country, stormed and attacked our capital, and the police
Speaker 2: were like underrepresented, undermanned, and underprepared because they were being
Speaker 2: attacked in mass by people who did not fit the description.
Speaker 1: Of bad bad guys.
Speaker 2: It was a moment where that system that they've relied
Speaker 2: on for all of their existence failed them in real
Speaker 2: time because they saw it. It was he announced it
Speaker 2: on television.
Speaker 1: Let me let me restate what you're saying. Please, If
Speaker 1: it was black people that had gone to the capital,
Speaker 1: Let's say it was a BLM protest on January sixth,
Speaker 1: and black people attacked the capital. It would have been
Speaker 1: a whole different story. But that's what he was trying
Speaker 1: to say, But it was.
Speaker 2: You said that. You said that as as g rated
Speaker 2: as you could. Yeah, it would have been a whole
Speaker 2: different story, is a good way to say it. We
Speaker 2: won't even go into the DT. You already know what
Speaker 2: it would be a national history lesson and there's a
Speaker 2: word that would be a that would be attached to it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: speak would have they would have known how to respond.
Speaker 2: Speaking of which, while we're talking about Joe Biden, and we'll.
Speaker 1: Get through the rest of these, I think it's important
Speaker 1: for us to to spare a moment for our Palestinian
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters because we know that they have a
Speaker 1: major issue with Joe Biden, which is our major issue
Speaker 1: with Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: And they're not by themselves, not at all. So just
Speaker 2: our Palaestinian brothers and sisters that have a justified issue.
Speaker 2: It's not just airing out their grievances.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's it's active, and it's it's very harmful
Speaker 1: and heartbreaking. But we're looking at Joe Biden compared to
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. You know that. So that's the lens through
Speaker 1: which we're having this conversation, and then under a Joe
Speaker 1: Biden presidency, obviously elected the first black woman to the
Speaker 1: vice presidency, and that's the highest level of black women
Speaker 1: has ever achieved politically in this country. She's you know,
Speaker 1: the second most powerful person on earth, and that's a
Speaker 1: big deal. That was a big deal when it happened. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the story goes on, but you know, if we're looking
Speaker 1: over the past four years, that was a moment in.
Speaker 2: And of itself something for us to celebrate.
Speaker 1: We did, you know, we had to have a few
Speaker 1: episodes on you know, COVID and misinformation and disinformation surrounding COVID,
Speaker 1: and now that the pandemic portion of COVID nineteen is over,
Speaker 1: that's something to look back on and say, Okay, we've
Speaker 1: survived that because during the COVID times, we didn't know
Speaker 1: if that was our new normal, you know, Q and I.
Speaker 1: We again, we come from nightlife, entertainment, that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: so that was our primary industry and we didn't know
Speaker 1: what it would look like to come back to that.
Speaker 2: So we mean, we were doing that show two thousand
Speaker 2: miles apart.
Speaker 1: Oh that's too Yeah, yeah, you were in Atlanta for
Speaker 1: a big part of that. Yeah. Another bright moment in
Speaker 1: the past four years, Katanji Brown Jackson was was appointed
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court. That's another win for black women everywhere.
Speaker 1: This this show believes in black girl magic. And if
Speaker 1: you don't believe in that, you came to the wrong show.
Speaker 1: June teenth, a lot of people had a lot to
Speaker 1: say about Juneteenth. We we didn't ask for Juneteenth. We
Speaker 1: asked for police reform, We asked for you know, economic
Speaker 1: restorative justice, we asked for reparations. We asked for a
Speaker 1: lot of different things as as black people, as brown
Speaker 1: people in this country, we asked for you know, so
Speaker 1: many different things. The filibusters did stood in the way
Speaker 1: of Doctor King, It stands in the way of you know,
Speaker 1: our progress today.
Speaker 2: And we're not mad at Juneteenth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got Juneteenth, right, So what I want to
Speaker 1: say is, yeah, please, Juneteenth is not nothing, because we
Speaker 1: also know what it's like to get nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So you know, again, on the on the scale of
Speaker 1: progress for a country, a country, you're looking at one,
Speaker 1: maybe three lifetimes for the progress that you may want
Speaker 1: to see happen, and we're expecting it to happen in
Speaker 1: the matter of like decades, maybe twenty years or something
Speaker 1: like that, and it doesn't often work out that way.
Speaker 1: Some of the other things that have taken place, some
Speaker 1: student loan relief. I know that when that came down,
Speaker 1: a lot of people were really grateful for that.
Speaker 2: Shouts out to the millions of people that have experienced
Speaker 2: that relief, and for all of y'all mad that they
Speaker 2: got that relief. Your whack, all of you, like everyone
Speaker 2: that's mad that they got the relief, your whack.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I still got one hundred thousand in student
Speaker 1: on debt.
Speaker 2: I had all of my debt back myself. My taxes
Speaker 2: were garnered, garnished is the word. Every year once I
Speaker 2: couldn't afford to pay it back. At times that I
Speaker 2: couldn't afford to pay my loans back, they just took it.
Speaker 2: I am not mad at the millions of people that
Speaker 2: had their debt forgiven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's special. And of course another thing to be
Speaker 1: happy about, of course, is Kamala Harris's nomination to the
Speaker 1: uh you know, the Democratic you know, candidate for President
Speaker 1: of the United States. That's another moment in this history,
Speaker 1: in the history of this country and a and another
Speaker 1: moment that a lot of people are a lot of
Speaker 1: people is kind of an understatement are really excited about
Speaker 1: and and these are some of the positive things that
Speaker 1: have taken place in the past four years now in
Speaker 1: terms of civic cipher again with your support, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we've we've done our best to kind of support a
Speaker 1: lot of these initiatives to inform our listeners. Obviously, we've
Speaker 1: talked about a lot of the things that have happened
Speaker 1: in between, a lot of the stories of of you know,
Speaker 1: police uh injustice and police violence, a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: political ups and downs like that that we've covered over
Speaker 1: the years. But as a show, we've managed to grow
Speaker 1: to now seventy six radio stations around the country.
Speaker 2: Is that deserved like a pause?
Speaker 1: That's a big deal.
Speaker 2: We walked away from our careers in radio because we
Speaker 2: had to stand for something. And when the story is told,
Speaker 2: it's somehow sometimes told backwards. It's told from the start
Speaker 2: of Hey, we're on seventy six radio stations.
Speaker 1: Yes, no, we started it and.
Speaker 2: We had zero stations at first, not one with zero.
Speaker 2: We kind of had like negative one because they we
Speaker 2: had to walk away from the station. That we were at.
Speaker 2: So it's you know, things worked out, thank god, but
Speaker 2: there was a moment where we had no home and
Speaker 2: we didn't know that this was going to work out
Speaker 2: the way that it did.
Speaker 1: Well. Since then, we've been invited around the country to
Speaker 1: speak like we couldn't even count of times that you know,
Speaker 1: people have relied on us. And indeed, the research we've
Speaker 1: done with you know, four years of way black history facts,
Speaker 1: four years of dissecting policy, four years of determining how
Speaker 1: country works, how how movements work, activism works, so forth.
Speaker 1: You know, that's enough to get a college education. So
Speaker 1: we're you know, able to offer some insight in our
Speaker 1: own experts in this space. And so you know, for
Speaker 1: us to have gone to d C, to Virginia, to
Speaker 1: Norfolk State to you know, we've done universities around the country.
Speaker 1: We've done the National Museum of African American History and Culture,
Speaker 1: we did the National Urban League earlier this year. You know,
Speaker 1: for us to have a book deal, be on the
Speaker 1: lookout for our book where our working title is proper propaganda.
Speaker 1: We hope we're going to end up with it. But
Speaker 1: you know, fingers crossed and the book is about allyship
Speaker 1: as The show is about allyship, you know, and you
Speaker 1: know we're looking forward. We want to get to one
Speaker 1: hundred stations and then two hundred stations. We want you know,
Speaker 1: Kamala Harrison Office, We want so much more. So keep
Speaker 1: riding with us, y'all. But for now we'll leave it
Speaker 1: right there. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 2: Thank you for everything year. Honestly, like none of this.
Speaker 2: People say this and their speeches all the time, none
Speaker 2: of this happens without you and our case. That's literally yeah,
Speaker 2: we didn't. None of this actually happens without you all.
Speaker 2: We never step away from spending records on the radio
Speaker 2: and just having a good time. If you guys didn't
Speaker 2: give us something and someone that we had to show
Speaker 2: up for. So if you can hear my voice, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for supporting us, for listening, for your
Speaker 2: down loadsscribing, for donating, for sharing, for commenting, and as
Speaker 2: we continue to grow, I promise we will continue to
Speaker 2: try to do the best version of this work for you.
Speaker 1: Absolutely don't forget. You can find us on all social
Speaker 1: media at Civic Cipher. You can hit the website at
Speaker 1: civiccipher dot com. You can follow me on all social
Speaker 1: media at rameses jah I.
Speaker 2: Am Qward on all social media as well, and
Speaker 1: Until next week, y'll peace.