Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'my host, rams
Speaker 1: is Jah.
Speaker 2: They called me q Ward and I think you guys
Speaker 2: know that that's my name.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, back to do it till you want more.
Speaker 1: Gain a lot to talk about this week, per usual. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we have some.
Speaker 2: Some things that we really need to discuss as.
Speaker 1: A community, and certainly to discuss with other communities, minority communities,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was timely that we took it
Speaker 1: a show to discuss what it means to be afraid
Speaker 1: of each other.
Speaker 2: You're full of.
Speaker 1: Each other as minority groups, and you know ways that
Speaker 1: we can strengthen our relationships with each other.
Speaker 2: So we're definitely going to talk about that.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about an instance in Hawaii where
Speaker 1: a man by the name of Dannie Miyami I believe
Speaker 1: it's how I say his name. His life was taken
Speaker 1: by the police on Honolulu as a result of a
Speaker 1: phone call from Asian family that he was afraid he
Speaker 1: was a brokeler.
Speaker 2: We'll get into that story in just a bit. Later
Speaker 2: in the show.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about a Latino man in Las
Speaker 1: Vegas who was randomly.
Speaker 2: Attacking black folks walking around, and.
Speaker 1: We're we're really going to examine what mental illness is
Speaker 1: and what it means to to really love each other
Speaker 1: through these these seem they seem like tragedies. I mean
Speaker 1: in the first intance it certainly was. And how we
Speaker 1: can heal and how we can do better and do
Speaker 1: right by each other. And you know, we also want
Speaker 1: to talk about, uh, how to not be so defensive
Speaker 1: and and you know Q mentioned that, you know, we
Speaker 1: should probably relegate that to our become a better ally.
Speaker 2: Segment of the show.
Speaker 1: We're gonna uh talk about Abraham Lincoln, some of the
Speaker 1: myths myths about uh our our black savior in this company,
Speaker 1: in this country, and uh just kind of really deal
Speaker 1: with the real not not trying to vilify him or anything,
Speaker 1: but really.
Speaker 2: Really educate ourselves.
Speaker 1: And educate, you know, our posterity so that we know
Speaker 1: really where we come from, why we're here, and where
Speaker 1: we're going.
Speaker 2: So Djswell is going to handle our way black history facts.
Speaker 1: But first all I do is when win win, no
Speaker 1: matter what, I want to talk about our.
Speaker 2: Avenue excellence. So, uh Mahala Norris heard that name, tell
Speaker 2: me a little bit about mist it.
Speaker 1: I will so we have a video of on our
Speaker 1: Facebook page. I want to say of a little tiny woman.
Speaker 1: She's four feet eleven inches tall and she recently won
Speaker 1: the national championship in the three hundred three sorry, the
Speaker 1: three thousand meters steeple chair. Now, I didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about a steeplechase. I didn't know anything about meters or
Speaker 1: running or anything like that. I'm not into sports in
Speaker 1: the way that you are. But once upon a time,
Speaker 1: you were a world class runner.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It's weird to say out loud now because I'm super
Speaker 3: duper slow now, but yes, I was a world class
Speaker 3: sprinter and All American sprinter once upon a time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm twenty something years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but at that time, you were one of the
Speaker 1: five fastest humans on Earth.
Speaker 2: One of the six sixth fastest something.
Speaker 3: And I'll say this plainly. I was a part of
Speaker 3: the sixth fastest relay team of people under the age
Speaker 3: of eighteen, right in the United States.
Speaker 1: So this is right up your alley. Well, anyway, our
Speaker 1: Ebony excellence. This week, we wanted to shout out Mahalan Norris,
Speaker 1: so a little bit about her story. She was adopted
Speaker 1: from Partel Prince in Haiti.
Speaker 2: I think she's a service member, correct, yep.
Speaker 1: So she graduated from the Air Force Academy. Believe it
Speaker 1: or not, she's now in the Space Force. Wow, that's
Speaker 1: a real thing and she's a part of it. So
Speaker 1: you know, hey, kudos. But you know, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: she's four foot eleven and when you watch the video,
Speaker 1: it is extremely inspirational. You see this tiny, little black woman.
Speaker 1: And I guess the steeplechase lends itself more to taller
Speaker 1: folks doing better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And if you don't follow track and field.
Speaker 3: First of all, she's the twenty twenty one national champion
Speaker 3: at the steeple chase. The steeplechase competition came from in
Speaker 3: Europe in yester years. The actual idea of running from
Speaker 3: steeple to steeple, you know, through lakes and ponds. They
Speaker 3: made it into a track and field event and they
Speaker 3: created these man made obstacles to make it a bit
Speaker 3: more difficult. You have to jump over like a horse
Speaker 3: barrier and two feet of water. Yeah, and then continue
Speaker 3: to run three thousand meters a lot tougher when you're
Speaker 3: four legs, and it's impossible to seem even when you're
Speaker 3: watching it, there's a moment if you don't know any
Speaker 3: better what it doesn't seem like she would have a chance,
Speaker 3: and she ended up, you know, triumphant at the end
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 2: So definitely check out that video. Again.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Mahala Norris for our Ebony excellent section
Speaker 1: of the week.
Speaker 2: And now.
Speaker 1: It's time to get in the meat and the potatoes
Speaker 1: of this show. So a little bit about Lindani Miami.
Speaker 1: So I got this article originally maybe two or three
Speaker 1: months ago in our you know, in our group chat.
Speaker 1: We have a group chat for the show where we
Speaker 1: send articles things that we feel need to be discussed,
Speaker 1: and at the time, I remember, we weren't able to
Speaker 1: discuss it on the radio because we had so many
Speaker 1: other things to discuss and this wasn't the one that
Speaker 1: was getting the most national attention, and so we really
Speaker 1: needed to speak to what was going on in the world,
Speaker 1: and as much as we'd like to highlight things that
Speaker 1: are really important like this, we weren't able to. Well,
Speaker 1: fortunately this has lingered a bit and some additional footage
Speaker 1: has come out. So what I'll do is I'll kind
Speaker 1: of tell a little bit about the backstory. So basically,
Speaker 1: what happened is a husband and wife moved to Hawaii. Right,
Speaker 1: the man is African, but he lived with his wife
Speaker 1: in Colorado and moved to Hawaii and on the island,
Speaker 1: what they would do is they would go to a
Speaker 1: temple to like meditate or pray or whatever the case is.
Speaker 1: So the way the story goes, and the way that
Speaker 1: we got the story originally in the group chat was
Speaker 1: that the man went to this to the temple where
Speaker 1: he was attempting to go to the temple, and he
Speaker 1: went at night and he went into the building next door,
Speaker 1: which ended up being a private residence, and through a
Speaker 1: series of unfortunate events, the police ended up killing him.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's all we knew, right and at
Speaker 1: the time, that's enough for us to you know, demand
Speaker 1: an investigation, find out what's going on, you know, shout
Speaker 1: black lives matter, and kind of bring some attention to
Speaker 1: this because these deaths, as we know and often feel
Speaker 1: or feel and often know in the black community, are senseless, unwarranted,
Speaker 1: and they kind of desensitize us over the long run
Speaker 1: to black violence, you know, violence against black bodies. And
Speaker 1: I I know that that's true because as I read
Speaker 1: the story. My heart didn't break as much as it
Speaker 1: would have had this been years ago, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It's like, Okay, I kind of know the
Speaker 1: way the story goes. So I'll read a little bit
Speaker 1: about the story to you, and forgive me. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I do want to read this. So this comes from
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Black Star, and I'll read just a little
Speaker 1: bit from the article. So what happened is a ring
Speaker 1: camera came out and then they released the unredacted police
Speaker 1: camp so you're able to see everything. So allow me
Speaker 1: to describe what happens. So Lendanni Miyani can be seen
Speaker 1: walking up to the residents and stopping to take off
Speaker 1: his shoes, as you do when.
Speaker 2: You're going into a temple. Okay, back to the article.
Speaker 1: Less than a minute after he enters, Mayanni is seen exiting,
Speaker 1: and viewers can hear the woman calling nine to one
Speaker 1: one saying he break into my house. As Lendanni appears
Speaker 1: to try to assuage their fears at the front door,
Speaker 1: the woman can be heard telling the nine to one
Speaker 1: to one operator that Miyani didn't appear to have any
Speaker 1: weapons and was not behaving aggressively toward the couple. He
Speaker 1: can be seen apologizing to the couple multiple times. Len
Speaker 1: Donnie walks to the patio column where he left his
Speaker 1: shoes and puts them on at he leaves the residents,
Speaker 1: apologizing one final time. And I'm skipping over parts of
Speaker 1: this to get through real quick. But there's a part
Speaker 1: I skipped over, and he says he actually asked to
Speaker 1: see the phone. The woman's on the phone with nine
Speaker 1: one one as he's leaving. He asked to see the
Speaker 1: phone to let them know. I'm assuming you know, he
Speaker 1: can't tell his story anymore because he's probably buried somewhere.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: A quote from the lawyers who released the video said,
Speaker 1: Honolulu police quote tried to convince the public that this
Speaker 1: was a burglary and that Lendonni Miami was acting erradically,
Speaker 1: But the doorbell video we have now obtained from the
Speaker 1: owner shows that HPD knew all along these stories were untrue.
Speaker 1: The ring footage end quote. The ring footage next depicts
Speaker 1: the woman walking back and forth through the door of
Speaker 1: the residence, telling the nine to one one dispatcher how
Speaker 1: fearful she is of Lundani. Well after he walked away
Speaker 1: from the residence to his car, a frantic call that
Speaker 1: culminated with her screaming that's him, as she pointed out
Speaker 1: Lendanni to arriving police. And now's the unredacted bodycam. The
Speaker 1: footage shows the officers Confrontinglendanni, who had remained in his
Speaker 1: car nearby. The three cops run toward him, yelling get
Speaker 1: on the ground now, to which Lendanni, now out of
Speaker 1: his car, responds, who are you. The shaky bodycam video
Speaker 1: shows a scuffle start within seconds, a taser deployed, then
Speaker 1: someone yells shoot him before a shot rings out. Another
Speaker 1: voice is heard yelling fu, followed by three more gun
Speaker 1: shots and only then an officer yelling police. So they
Speaker 1: executed him without even identifying who they were. And I'm
Speaker 1: almost done. The police account of the incident on April fourteenth,
Speaker 1: outside of the house, it says outside the house, he
Speaker 1: ignored commands to get on the ground and physically attacked officers.
Speaker 2: Leaving one with a concussion. So that's what the police
Speaker 2: said happened.
Speaker 1: And of course the video shows that the police rushed them,
Speaker 1: shot him, and then identified themselves.
Speaker 4: And then.
Speaker 1: This is a letter from his widow, who's a white woman.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if that matters, but I want to
Speaker 1: say that because it's people like her that I feel
Speaker 1: like they are entitled to experience this trauma with us,
Speaker 1: with black folks. You know, she's she's obviously fell in
Speaker 1: love with this man, her futures tied to this man's future,
Speaker 1: and so forth, And I just.
Speaker 2: Think it's important to mention that.
Speaker 1: Lindsay Mayani alleges that police reaction was motivated by racial
Speaker 1: discriminations towards people of mister Miyani's African descent, and has
Speaker 1: filed a lawsuit against the City of Honolulu. The widow
Speaker 1: claims she spoke with her husband earlier that evening and
Speaker 1: believes he mistook the residence for a hare Krishna temple
Speaker 1: located next to the residence. He entered because Lindani was
Speaker 1: wearing his a tradition old Zulu men's headband and took
Speaker 1: his shoes off at the door. Lindsey feels he entered
Speaker 1: the home with respectful intentions and serves as proof he
Speaker 1: made a mistake. Harry Krishna, Is that how you say that?
Speaker 2: Harry Christian? Okay, sorry about that.
Speaker 1: One more thing I want to say is that in
Speaker 1: the first article I read a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1: She mentioned that the two of them, her and her husband,
Speaker 1: went to that temple prior to that and worshiped there together.
Speaker 1: And so he was returning there to worship again by himself,
Speaker 1: hit the wrong door and then ultimately that and probably
Speaker 1: was confused outside on in his car trying to figure
Speaker 1: out where he was supposed to be.
Speaker 2: Who knows, please show up, you know, and then the
Speaker 2: story goes away. It goes.
Speaker 1: Now, of course, we need to talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: the police interaction, and we need to talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: why people shouldn't be victim blamed and how police stories
Speaker 1: like this tend to paint the police always says the
Speaker 1: good guys, or paint the police as the victims and
Speaker 1: paint oftentimes black and brown individuals as the aggressors and
Speaker 1: so forth. And there's one hundred things wrong with this.
Speaker 1: But for today's episode, I wanted to talk specifically about
Speaker 1: the couple that called the police. This is not an
Speaker 1: old white couple. This seems to be an old Asian couple.
Speaker 1: And I feel like, especially after the year that we've had,
Speaker 1: especially after locking arms with our Asian brothers and sisters,
Speaker 1: that this gives a certain faction of the population cause
Speaker 1: to say, oh, they're not with us, right. You know,
Speaker 1: I grew up in California, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: Asian folks in California, and a lot of those Asian
Speaker 1: folks coming to California, and they build their infrastructure and
Speaker 1: how they their their revenue streams right.
Speaker 2: In poor black neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: And there is a history of black folks and Asian
Speaker 1: folks not really treating each other all that well.
Speaker 2: Being in the same environment.
Speaker 1: Some folks feel like it's disrespectful and exploit exploitative, and
Speaker 1: some folks feel it's just enterprise. And we're doing our best.
Speaker 1: We're in the same boat, you know, we're trying to
Speaker 1: get out of it. But the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is that I've seen this before, and it's our job
Speaker 1: to speak to what we could be, where we could be.
Speaker 1: And I think that this story that we just read
Speaker 1: is based in fear and stereotypes and ultimately resulted in
Speaker 1: someone another person losing his life.
Speaker 3: Always, and I've spoken, you know, to our audience, and
Speaker 3: we've spoken to each other about this before. I always
Speaker 3: have a something that gives me pause when we get
Speaker 3: to give people to get out of jail free card
Speaker 3: of fear. I think sometimes it's hate, sure, maybe, And
Speaker 3: when people who don't like people based on their ethnicity
Speaker 3: or the color of their skin weaponize what they call
Speaker 3: fear simply as a way to justifiably hate and hold
Speaker 3: down and in a lot of cases kill people they
Speaker 3: just don't like. And because everything that you said, the
Speaker 3: video of the phone call, he's not acting aggressive, he
Speaker 3: doesn't have a websit, he has regressed, he has left,
Speaker 3: he's but we're still acting frantically afraid, knowing the type
Speaker 3: of response that elicits from law enforcement who seemingly, by
Speaker 3: training and by their very nature, don't like people that
Speaker 3: look like us anyway. Yeah, this guy never no matter
Speaker 3: what ethnicity the officers are. That's fair too, because.
Speaker 2: That's something that we don't always point out. It's not
Speaker 2: you know, white cops. Officers don't like it.
Speaker 4: It's cops.
Speaker 3: So she knows what she's doing when she's making it
Speaker 3: her business to keep saying that's him and I'm afraid,
Speaker 3: and when there's nothing, there's no actual reason.
Speaker 2: For her to feel that way. So I don't I
Speaker 2: don't know that that's actual fear.
Speaker 3: I think that's a way of weaponizing your hate in
Speaker 3: a way that doesn't paint you out to be the
Speaker 3: bad guy.
Speaker 1: That's fair, that's that's that's I think that's more than fair.
Speaker 1: But what I think I'm trying to establish here is
Speaker 1: that even if it is hate, it's taught. And we're
Speaker 1: speaking about an Asian cup well, so Asian folks, some
Speaker 1: of them really do fit that stereotype, harmful stereotype of
Speaker 1: the quote model minority. And if you do fit that
Speaker 1: harmful stereotype, there's a chance that you culturally and certainly
Speaker 1: economically identify more with wealthier white folks in this country. Right,
Speaker 1: And so this is why you get this sort of
Speaker 1: Karen esque behavior out of an Asian woman. But what
Speaker 1: I don't want to have happen is articles like this
Speaker 1: get too far away from us, even if the woman
Speaker 1: is white. You know, on this show, we talk about
Speaker 1: it all the time. And if you listen to us
Speaker 1: every week, you know that we talk about it even
Speaker 1: if you're white.
Speaker 2: You are our sister, you're our brother. That's just how
Speaker 2: we feel about it.
Speaker 1: And we're going to even if you don't agree with
Speaker 1: that statement, I know that we're going to get there.
Speaker 1: It might not be in your lifetime, but we'll get there.
Speaker 1: That's what propels that's what fuels me to come to
Speaker 1: come and do the show.
Speaker 2: Everything. I love and appreciate my brother's hopefulness.
Speaker 1: But it's it's particularly it's it's a particularly unusual situation
Speaker 1: when the when the person is also a minority, the
Speaker 1: person causing harm, because you would think you would assume
Speaker 1: that you identify with discrimination. You understand what that's like.
Speaker 1: You understand how a mistake can get you beat up
Speaker 1: or hurt or whatever. You know, a common human mistake.
Speaker 1: It's an error. I'm not from you. I just moved
Speaker 1: to Hawaii. I'm trying to go to church or temple,
Speaker 1: and I walked in the wrong door. The evil oppressor
Speaker 1: is also brilliant.
Speaker 3: And the ideology and the psychology that goes behind another
Speaker 3: minority feeling that model minority, or that sense of superiority
Speaker 3: that's ingrained, like you said, it's taught, and the fact
Speaker 3: that it's so and rooted and cultures everywhere and has
Speaker 3: sustained for this long shows the brilliance of the ideology
Speaker 3: really convinced groups, subgroups everywhere that there is a superior subgroup.
Speaker 3: We're the superior main group, but you're a part of
Speaker 3: the superior subgroup.
Speaker 2: And they're not.
Speaker 3: So they're beneath you, and you should keep them there
Speaker 3: because if they somehow grow or have any type of prosperity,
Speaker 3: it's going to harm yours. It's going to take away
Speaker 3: from yours. As a matter of fact, the hardships that
Speaker 3: you've had have been.
Speaker 2: Because of these people. How about that?
Speaker 3: And if they could just if they could just pull
Speaker 3: themselves up by their bootstraps, then they could be just
Speaker 3: success as successful as you, and then by nature you
Speaker 3: can be just as successful as us.
Speaker 1: That isn't masterful, uh, manipulation of a group of people.
Speaker 1: And I know that on this show we often paint
Speaker 1: with broad strokes, and we have to and I do
Speaker 1: recognize that there's it's not that cut and dry. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of little things that go into that. But
Speaker 1: you know, we've chronicled, actual, documented, written into law discrimination
Speaker 1: where Asian people have been named in this country federally.
Speaker 1: And so from where we sit, for those of us
Speaker 1: who actually know the history in this country and really
Speaker 1: recognize that we do all rise together in solidarity, we
Speaker 1: recognize that these systems exist and they thrive off of
Speaker 1: us bickering and arguing with each.
Speaker 2: Other on this level.
Speaker 1: And I in no way want to make an excuse
Speaker 1: for this behavior.
Speaker 2: We do need to talk about it, I do.
Speaker 1: We did really need to mention this on the show,
Speaker 1: because you know, there's another human being who who had
Speaker 1: a life ahead of him with his new bride. You know,
Speaker 1: we've heard stories that there's countless stories of people getting
Speaker 1: killed on the way to or from church, so this
Speaker 1: is nothing new, unfortunately, but killed while attending church.
Speaker 2: That too, you know. But this.
Speaker 1: Certainly helps us too. And you know, I remember seeing
Speaker 1: a video too, I want to be fair. I remember
Speaker 1: seeing a video and it broke my heart. There was
Speaker 1: a man who was walking in front of a hotel
Speaker 1: and there was a woman in front of the Asian woman.
Speaker 1: She was older, defenseless and kicked her. Yeah, so beat
Speaker 1: her up, kicked her and then they just shut the
Speaker 1: door of the hotel and didn't even help her.
Speaker 2: It was the saddest thing in the world.
Speaker 3: And that grown men watched that happen to her and
Speaker 3: didn't do closed the door to make sure that they
Speaker 3: weren't a part of it. Yeah, the solution or what
Speaker 3: they perceived to be the problem exactly.
Speaker 2: That has nothing to do with us.
Speaker 1: So I reckonize that this is not a one way thing.
Speaker 1: There's two We're all in this together, and we all
Speaker 1: need to figure it out together. But you know, I
Speaker 1: guess what I would say is that if you are
Speaker 1: in a household and your parents or your grandparents or
Speaker 1: whatever have some prejudices against some other folks, you know,
Speaker 1: or even if you it doesn't have to be your
Speaker 1: parents or grandparents. Don't have to be older people. This
Speaker 1: is what we're talking about in these instances, but it
Speaker 1: could be younger people too. You can change those people's
Speaker 1: minds before they get to the point where they're going
Speaker 1: full Karen, before they're calling the police, before they're letting
Speaker 1: their fear whether or not it actually is that turn
Speaker 1: into what we would both understands hatred. We would all
Speaker 1: understand his hatred, because I think that those are really
Speaker 1: two sides of the same coin. You know, there's an
Speaker 1: excellent quote from Nas. I'm glad we're on the hip
Speaker 1: hop station, but Nas, I'm a little older than a
Speaker 1: lot of our listeners. But you know, Na's one of
Speaker 1: the great MC's of all time. He says, people fear
Speaker 1: what they don't understand and hate what they can't conquer.
Speaker 1: And I believe that certainly that first part is very true,
Speaker 1: fear that you don't understand. And so by you taking
Speaker 1: black stories into a white household, by you taking Asian
Speaker 1: stories into Hispanic household, by you taking you know, Native
Speaker 1: stories into a black household, or LGBTQ stories into a
Speaker 1: conservative household, even you know, however you identify. You know,
Speaker 1: the point of this show is obviously to empower black
Speaker 1: voices and to galvanize us to create social change for
Speaker 1: the better for all people. But also it's to really
Speaker 1: help us build an infrastructure so that we learn how
Speaker 1: to love each other better. You have to teach people
Speaker 1: how to love you, and this is what we're doing
Speaker 1: in this space. And I think that's a way that
Speaker 1: we can all do that with each other, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, you talk about it all the time.
Speaker 1: Q picks on me, of course that I'm kind of
Speaker 1: an optimist, but I maintain that this show wouldn't exist
Speaker 1: without optimism from lots of people. You know, whatever station
Speaker 1: you're listening to this on, there's a programmer that works
Speaker 1: there that felt like the world could be a little
Speaker 1: bit better, and that they should air this program. And
Speaker 1: you know, whatever city you're in, whatever place you're in,
Speaker 1: in the fact that you're listening to us right now
Speaker 1: tells me that you feel that way too to some degree,
Speaker 1: And that's not lost on me. And so I'll do
Speaker 1: my best to continue to try to tell these stories
Speaker 1: and provide some sort of context and maybe a framework
Speaker 1: of how we.
Speaker 2: Can do better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I have to be fair, you know, my.
Speaker 2: My pessimism to rams is optimist. It's not. It's not
Speaker 2: hope law right.
Speaker 3: I have an understanding and a realization that there are
Speaker 3: probably more people that think and feel the way we
Speaker 3: do then that don't. The problem is so many people
Speaker 3: that don't are in positions of power and influence, and
Speaker 3: they get to not only feel the way they feel,
Speaker 3: but they're putting forth legislation and making laws and passing
Speaker 3: laws that make our lives harder right in front of us.
Speaker 3: And it kind of puts us in a position where
Speaker 3: you get to feel a bit helpless sometimes because we
Speaker 3: watch these things happen over and over again, even when
Speaker 3: the outcry is loud, well said, and now.
Speaker 2: Watching my mic back like strike head borders behind him.
Speaker 2: And then if you're just tuning in a civic cipher,
Speaker 2: I'm me host rams this job.
Speaker 1: They call me DJ Q War indeed, and coming up
Speaker 1: in the show, we're going to talk about, uh, another story.
Speaker 1: This time it's a Latino man attacking random black people
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. He says he's quote at war with blacks.
Speaker 1: You know, we're also going to discuss some myths about
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln with DJ Swirl. But first we're going to
Speaker 1: discuss how to become a better ally and we have
Speaker 1: been talking about that, but Q has some thoughts on
Speaker 1: how to perhaps not be so maybe defensive is the
Speaker 1: right word when it comes to interacting with each other
Speaker 1: as brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3: And I realize that that's you know, you mentioned us
Speaker 3: painting with broad strokes. Often you hear us talking about
Speaker 3: racism in this country, and by nature, the ruling class,
Speaker 3: the people that colonized and settled this land that we
Speaker 3: live on, we're white people hundreds of years ago. So
Speaker 3: it's really impossible to talk about it without it coming
Speaker 3: across as racist, white supremacist versus black people. That by
Speaker 3: nature is uncomfortable because we know a bunch of wonderful
Speaker 3: white people.
Speaker 2: We know, we know white people that.
Speaker 3: Don't have an ounce of that ideology, that love us,
Speaker 3: that support us. You mentioned if you're listening to this show,
Speaker 3: there's probably someone that doesn't look like us that felt
Speaker 3: there was important, valuable enough to put across their airwaves. So,
Speaker 3: you know, i'd have to imagine that sometimes you listen
Speaker 3: to a show like this and you want to speak
Speaker 3: up as to not be lumped into that group. And
Speaker 3: I just want to say, please, don't think we're speaking
Speaker 3: to or about you, because we do know better. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, this is not a you know, everyone on
Speaker 3: that side of the street, even across political lines, are
Speaker 3: not just by nature ingrained bad evil people. It's just
Speaker 3: that they exist, and we do have to talk about it.
Speaker 3: Be irresponsible not to that's fair.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1: There's no real reason to be too defensive because we
Speaker 1: do recognize that a lot of the people in the
Speaker 1: civil rights movement, a lot of people that were out
Speaker 1: last year for the Black Lives Matter rallies, a.
Speaker 2: Lot of people that spent time celebrating.
Speaker 1: Juneteenth did not look black at all. We're not black,
Speaker 1: did not identify as black, but we're certainly allies, and
Speaker 1: if you're an ally, we want to say, please keep
Speaker 1: doing what you're doing. Please keep helping us change the
Speaker 1: world so that there's a better tomorrow for us and
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Well said Q. I like that.
Speaker 1: So switching gears again, I have to tell these really
Speaker 1: tough stories. But you know, as minority groups, we are
Speaker 1: often overlapping, crossing each other's paths and inner cities, and
Speaker 1: you know, there's this sort of you know, I'm from California,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, there's gangs in California. There's Mexican gangs,
Speaker 1: there's Asian gangs, of course, there's black gangs, blood's cribs,
Speaker 1: there's you know, all kinds of stuff, and that culture
Speaker 1: is really real, and it's it has strong roots or
Speaker 1: a strong foundation in the prisons because as we know, prisons,
Speaker 1: people tend to run along the color line. Those are
Speaker 1: just they overwhelmingly tend to be the people that you
Speaker 1: identify with. You share a lot of values, culture, sometimes language,
Speaker 1: and so forth.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't work in.
Speaker 1: The real world with normal people and children growing up
Speaker 1: and you know, folks playing and having a cooperative society
Speaker 1: in prison where you know, I guess people kill each other.
Speaker 1: I've never been to prison before, but whatever happens in prison,
Speaker 1: maybe that works.
Speaker 2: I don't like it, but maybe it works.
Speaker 1: But you know, out here, for those of us that
Speaker 1: are pushing toward, you know, stronger relationships, you know, in
Speaker 1: the community, we recognize that we have to deal with
Speaker 1: incidents where we kind of have folks from this race
Speaker 1: attacking folks from that race, and vice versa. You know,
Speaker 1: black folks doing wild stuff or whatever. We have to
Speaker 1: condemn those actions if it's black folks because we're both black,
Speaker 1: and so all swirl, Well he's swirl, so he's black.
Speaker 1: Get it, Swirrel. Very well placed, sir, But you know,
Speaker 1: the sentiment is still the same, you know, and we
Speaker 1: have to deal with each other. And so this story
Speaker 1: is a particularly alarming story, and I think that it
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with poor mental health on
Speaker 1: the individual's part. But I do want to read a
Speaker 1: little bit about the story, discuss it. And again, this
Speaker 1: is not to pit us against each other.
Speaker 2: This is not.
Speaker 1: To you know, discuss who was wronged or why it's
Speaker 1: unfair or anything like that. It's more to say, these
Speaker 1: things happen, we have to deal with them. We have
Speaker 1: to figure out how to be brothers and sisters. You know,
Speaker 1: one thing is true for both of us, me and
Speaker 1: Q is that our children are all half Hispanic and
Speaker 1: half black.
Speaker 2: That's what it.
Speaker 1: That's the reality, and a lot of people are like that.
Speaker 1: My grandmother is from Cuba. You know, Spanish was my
Speaker 1: first language. You would never know looking at me, but
Speaker 1: that's that was with my grandma all the time. She
Speaker 1: spoke Spanish. So I spoke Spanish. You know, you catch
Speaker 1: me in Mexico, I might speak little more. So again
Speaker 1: this is you gotta be real careful with stuff like
Speaker 1: this because you know, we're talking to folks that are
Speaker 1: our allies and people that love us. And again, just
Speaker 1: to bring attention to it. So, a man was arrested
Speaker 1: June sixteenth after chasing and punching a black.
Speaker 2: Man who was walking home from work in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Speaker 1: The assailant, twenty four year old John Ariano, told police
Speaker 1: he should have killed the man and that he is
Speaker 1: at war with black people, and has since been charged
Speaker 1: with hate crime and attempted murder.
Speaker 2: Let me skip down here, Okay, here's the story.
Speaker 1: Authority has received a call around five pm about a
Speaker 1: man being chased down the street. When police arrived, they
Speaker 1: ordered the man, identified as Ariano to get down on
Speaker 1: the ground, but he began marching toward them, yelling.
Speaker 2: I hate in words.
Speaker 1: Officers then fired a non lethal bean background and a
Speaker 1: stun gun at Ariano, who said he was being placed
Speaker 1: under arrest. I punched him. He's also facing a charge
Speaker 1: of assault on a protected person because he advanced towards
Speaker 1: an officer at the scene. I think black people should
Speaker 1: be protected people's too, But we got junetie.
Speaker 2: Why can't all people be protected people?
Speaker 3: Of course, but can't the last inclination, the last absolute
Speaker 3: resort be killing someone.
Speaker 1: Well, in this case, they didn't kill him, and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that's really better. According to the victim, Ariana chased
Speaker 1: him as he walked home from work and then called
Speaker 1: him a racial slur and punched him in the eye
Speaker 1: near a bus stop at Fairwood Circle in Jones Boulevard,
Speaker 1: then chased him for thirteen minute period over seven blocks
Speaker 1: and did not arrive, did not stop until officers arrived.
Speaker 1: And this guy goes on to say, I should have
Speaker 1: killed that black guy that I hit, and the officer
Speaker 1: asked him if he was referring to the victim, and
Speaker 1: he replied, yes, it can affect to my pride because.
Speaker 2: He is at war with black people.
Speaker 1: He is also suspected of attempting to stab a black
Speaker 1: woman the night before in the same location, and he's
Speaker 1: being held on thirty thousand dollars bail and has a
Speaker 1: status check scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Speaker 2: And there's a little note here.
Speaker 1: Again, this whole thing is from the Atlanta Black Star,
Speaker 1: but there's another note here that says that a lot
Speaker 1: of the hate crimes against black residents, although they rose
Speaker 1: sharply in twenty twenty, which is a trend scene across
Speaker 1: all states, the majority of hate crime victims don't report it,
Speaker 1: and the majority of them are still black, you know.
Speaker 2: So that's what we got there. Now.
Speaker 1: I do want to say that I feel very strongly
Speaker 1: that this person's mental health is should come into question. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to excuse this behavior. And if you
Speaker 1: listen to the first half of the I wasn't trying
Speaker 1: to excuse the behavior of the Asian couple in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: I don't think that that's fair and I think that
Speaker 1: that's cruel to the victim. You know, people that are
Speaker 1: victims in this case. But I do think that it
Speaker 1: helps us to frame the story the right way and
Speaker 1: it helps us to not react because you know, in
Speaker 1: prison and in gangs, the tendency is to, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a mob mentality. Mob mentality is horrible, you know,
Speaker 1: but it's it's a human condition. The tendency is to say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: they that group in their in their entirety, did something
Speaker 1: to us, even though it might have been one person,
Speaker 1: they did something.
Speaker 2: To us, so we all of us should.
Speaker 1: Do something to them. And that's how you get gangs
Speaker 1: and you know, prison culture and all that this warring
Speaker 1: stuff to start and perpetuate it. It's like a snake
Speaker 1: eating its own tail. And if we take this example,
Speaker 1: or take these types of examples on an individual basis,
Speaker 1: and we examine them for what they are, Okay, this is,
Speaker 1: you know, a person with mental health challenges. It's my assumption.
Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor, I'm not a professional, but this
Speaker 1: type of language and behavior is just not commonplace. It
Speaker 1: might be hate might actually feel that way, but you know,
Speaker 1: usually people that are going to get out there and
Speaker 1: behave like this, they have a plan to get away
Speaker 1: or they are not going to do it. In the
Speaker 1: same location day after day, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I think it's up to us to think critically
Speaker 1: about how these stories hit us and how we want
Speaker 1: to react to them. There's if we say, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to support that group because they do this
Speaker 1: all the time. This is kind of what I was
Speaker 1: talking about earlier in the show when the Asian folks
Speaker 1: and black folks in California, where the Asian folks oftentimes
Speaker 1: own stores in the neighborhoods, instead of cooperating, instead of
Speaker 1: sitting down and discussing our issues and airing out our
Speaker 1: grievances and so forth, if we're pitted against each other,
Speaker 1: if we're going back and forth and what we end
Speaker 1: up with is a no win situation where we're tearing
Speaker 1: each other down and we've got a lot bigger problems
Speaker 1: than each other. There's much bigger problems, much more powerful
Speaker 1: problems that we have to deal with. And I think
Speaker 1: that sometimes when these stories get brought up and the perpetuit,
Speaker 1: the perpetrator, sorry is not white, which is a common
Speaker 1: enemy if you will, throughout history, maybe enemy is not
Speaker 1: the right word, but that has been the enemy in
Speaker 1: the story or the bad guy. You know, in the
Speaker 1: black stories, you know, it's always white folks coming to
Speaker 1: burn down our churches and hang us from trees and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So I don't mean that in a
Speaker 1: modern context, but just throughout.
Speaker 2: The history, the history of black.
Speaker 1: People in this country antagonists, I'll say that oftentimes it's white.
Speaker 1: If you view the history through through a black lens.
Speaker 1: When you come across the story where the person is
Speaker 1: not white, who is the antagonist in the story, I
Speaker 1: think that maybe you feel a little bit more like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we can do something about this, and we can do
Speaker 1: something physical, or we can respond in kind, and so
Speaker 1: that times that oftentimes it spills out into the real world,
Speaker 1: you know, and again it just we need to take
Speaker 1: a moment to address that and acknowledge that that is
Speaker 1: definitely an outcome, and try our best to figure out
Speaker 1: what the next move is, what's.
Speaker 2: The right move. I wish we had some remedies because
Speaker 2: it seems like it should be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ramses, you guys will hear him say often if
Speaker 3: you listen to us enough to lead with love, you know,
Speaker 3: and it can't be more difficult to love each other
Speaker 3: than it is to hate. It can't be more difficult,
Speaker 3: even if it's just as challenging. You know, I just
Speaker 3: wish that that was the course less chosen or less taken,
Speaker 3: the route less taken, like the ability to lift each
Speaker 3: other up and love each other, smile support instead of
Speaker 3: tearing down, hating and oppressing. It can't be the path
Speaker 3: we choose because it's the more simple one. So you know,
Speaker 3: I don't like to feel or sound discouraged as often
Speaker 3: as I do.
Speaker 2: It's just really exhausting, you know that.
Speaker 3: We seem to be on a merry go round or
Speaker 3: running in a loop or like you said, a snake
Speaker 3: eating his tail. Of the problems are perpetual. It's the
Speaker 3: same issues, and I don't know, we've seen examples of better, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and it's just really discouraging that we're still here.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a you know, far bit for me to.
Speaker 1: Just only talk about the individuals and not bring attention
Speaker 1: to the fact that they are the product of the
Speaker 1: same system as all the rest of them.
Speaker 2: Granted they might be.
Speaker 1: Outliers, but certainly a product of a racist country founded
Speaker 1: in white supremacy, specifically a form of white supremacy that
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly benefits.
Speaker 2: Straight Christian males. Almost explicitly.
Speaker 1: Sure, Sure, And you know, we talk a lot on
Speaker 1: the show about wanting to avoid becoming desensitized to violence
Speaker 1: against black bodies. But I think on some level, you
Speaker 1: and i Q and you too, Swirl know that maybe
Speaker 1: to a degree, we are perhaps a bit desensitized to it.
Speaker 1: We've learned how to, you know, cut a path through
Speaker 1: all of the muck that we have to go through
Speaker 1: to produce the show every week. But we recognize that,
Speaker 1: or at least I recognize in myself that the violence
Speaker 1: against you know, like if I if I read a
Speaker 1: story about a child, you know, I still have the
Speaker 1: full emotional response in me to do that. If I
Speaker 1: read a story about I don't know, a puppy or something,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, you know, I still have the full
Speaker 1: emotional reserves for it.
Speaker 2: When it's a.
Speaker 1: Black body getting beat on camera or whatever, it's certainly overwhelming.
Speaker 2: I'm still a human, I still feel it.
Speaker 1: But there's a part of me that's like, okay, let's go,
Speaker 1: you know, And I recognize that it's almost normal. So
Speaker 1: maybe maybe I'm not saying it the right way. It's
Speaker 1: it's normalized, you know, and I don't like that. It's
Speaker 1: maybe because I live in this world, and you know,
Speaker 1: we do this type of show. But I think that
Speaker 1: it's by and large normalized across the history of this country.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's part of the reason why
Speaker 1: people like this man John Ariano in Las Vegas can
Speaker 1: say things like I hate in words and I should
Speaker 1: have killed him, and why the couple in Why that
Speaker 1: we talked about in the first half of the show
Speaker 1: felt like, oh, you know what, I should call the
Speaker 1: police and let the police deal with this because.
Speaker 2: The person is black.
Speaker 1: Because if this had been a white what is the
Speaker 1: example we use all the time, a sixty year old,
Speaker 1: privileged corporate executive looking white male wouldn't have been a misunderstanding,
Speaker 1: you know, or it would have only been a miss
Speaker 1: or yeah, only a misunderstanding, and that's it. But because
Speaker 1: it is a black person, it's almost like the world
Speaker 1: that we live in or the country that we live in,
Speaker 1: certainly allows people to think that it's okay to treat
Speaker 1: black bodies like this.
Speaker 3: I don't think and I'm just speaking for us. I'm
Speaker 3: sure that there's some people that this applies to. I
Speaker 3: don't think we become desensitized.
Speaker 2: Help me say what I was trying to say.
Speaker 3: I think it's an involuntary coping mechanism. James Baldwin said,
Speaker 3: to be a Negro in this country and to be
Speaker 3: relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all
Speaker 3: the time. That's the only way that would be the
Speaker 3: only outcome. If every time we saw it we let
Speaker 3: ourselves fully digest and fully feel, we.
Speaker 2: Will be running through the streets burning things down.
Speaker 3: Because it's every day, these stories that we talk about
Speaker 3: and that we share with each other. Like when I
Speaker 3: see Swirl's name pop up, I'm hoping it's a funny meme.
Speaker 3: When I see your name pop up, I hope you
Speaker 3: want some real chicken. And that's an inside joke between us,
Speaker 3: but you know what I mean, Like, I'm hoping it's
Speaker 3: going to be something light, because there's so much that
Speaker 3: isn't ye. If we really read every story, watched every video,
Speaker 3: and let it hit us the way that it should,
Speaker 3: it be impossible to just hug our kids and live
Speaker 3: our lives and try to be in any type of
Speaker 3: normal emotional state. So it's not desensitized. We don't see
Speaker 3: it and be like, Okay, that's nothing. We have to
Speaker 3: make the decision to not lose our mind every time
Speaker 3: because we're looking at people that look a lot like
Speaker 3: us all the time in situations that we're always in.
Speaker 3: It's not like we're not looking.
Speaker 2: At like.
Speaker 3: New Jack City or the untouchables. When you see gangsters
Speaker 3: doing gangster stuff and they end up in situations that
Speaker 3: are to their peril, that's diff We see people going
Speaker 3: to like Walmart or to get some gas or to church,
Speaker 3: like we see people doing the things that we do
Speaker 3: every day, not criminal things, not things that are dangerous
Speaker 3: in nature, just being black and being alive. And that's
Speaker 3: the crime that every day cost them their lives at
Speaker 3: the hands.
Speaker 2: Of people who sign up to protect them.
Speaker 1: Quote unquote you know, I think that you're right about
Speaker 1: that too, because there's so and this is a little
Speaker 1: bit of personal story, but I want you to follow
Speaker 1: me here.
Speaker 2: So cute.
Speaker 1: I came across the story and it was kind of gruesome.
Speaker 1: It's about a black person who's lost his head. His
Speaker 1: head was taken off of his body, and there wasn't
Speaker 1: enough in that story worry for me to really turn
Speaker 1: it into anything for the radio. And if we were
Speaker 1: to talk about it, we would have to because this
Speaker 1: is not that kind of a show. Well it is
Speaker 1: now because we're talking about it. But you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1: There's something that you're forced to reckon with it, and
Speaker 1: you have to decide, Okay, am I going to be
Speaker 1: crushed under the weight of this? Or am I going
Speaker 1: to be resilient and am I going to be optimistic?
Speaker 1: Am I going to recognize that this is, relatively speaking,
Speaker 1: rare isolated types of behavior.
Speaker 3: It's not either or though right, because I'm neither of
Speaker 3: those two. I don't think it's rare. I see it
Speaker 3: too often, and I also don't let myself get.
Speaker 2: Crushed underneath it.
Speaker 3: What I mean, it's almost an acceptance of this is
Speaker 3: our reality going to keep happening.
Speaker 2: What I was saying is is more like.
Speaker 1: Rare relative to all of the billions or trillions potentially
Speaker 1: of interactions between people of all different types of colors
Speaker 1: and backgrounds and so forth on a day to day basis,
Speaker 1: it's very rare that someone would end up without a head.
Speaker 2: You know. That's that's that's that's a that's an extreme case.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what I was speaking to. But
Speaker 1: I think that you know you're right, You're right there.
Speaker 2: There is.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to digest this. This is a kind
Speaker 1: of a strange show because there's no answers. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's clearly issues here, and I think that what I'll
Speaker 1: say again is if you're in a position to you know,
Speaker 1: if in your home you come across any sort of
Speaker 1: racist language behaviors, you know, if you have friends or
Speaker 1: relatives or whatever, and they're just beyond you know, your
Speaker 1: what you're comfortable with, with their jokes and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: I think that if you were to speak up, if
Speaker 1: you were to say that's unacceptable, if you were to
Speaker 1: kind of help root out the ideas that fester and
Speaker 1: grow like a cancer and manifest themselves into these types
Speaker 1: of behaviors, I think that in calling attention to that
Speaker 1: and calling people out for those behaviors, you can help
Speaker 1: inch us a little bit closer to where we need
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 3: So, even recognizing how difficult that is to do, sometimes
Speaker 3: that too, you're talking about typically family and close friends
Speaker 3: making those off color jokes or those racist remarks that
Speaker 3: you have to have a very you know, confrontational, uncomfortable
Speaker 3: conversation with exactly.
Speaker 1: So with that said, uh, let's uh, let's let's discuss some.
Speaker 2: Some history with the way black history facts sor are
Speaker 2: you over.
Speaker 4: There with some more.
Speaker 2: Positive news.
Speaker 5: It's a heavy show today, right Hey man'll y'all handicapped
Speaker 5: me with the with the the Debbie Downer of every episode.
Speaker 5: But that's why I'm here, so I'm all for it. So, uh,
Speaker 5: the way black history fact has less to do with
Speaker 5: just black a black fact, and it has to do
Speaker 5: with facts surrounding someone who is exalted in this country
Speaker 5: in terms of the black experience and how it allegedly
Speaker 5: which I'll use now because they'd like to do that
Speaker 5: even when there's video being shown, but like allegedly, uh,
Speaker 5: he took care of he put us in a he
Speaker 5: pointed us in a better direction. So so yeah, this
Speaker 5: is five facts, five things you didn't know or you
Speaker 5: may not know about Abraham Lincoln, slavery and emancipation.
Speaker 2: First, all five of them.
Speaker 5: Today we're going to go We're gonna knock out two right.
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, So we're gonna do it in two parts, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do that.
Speaker 5: So first off, the Lincoln, contrary to popular belief, was
Speaker 5: not an abolitionist.
Speaker 2: So he did.
Speaker 5: Believe that slavery was morally wrong. But his issue lied
Speaker 5: with the Constitution. He struggled like our founding fathers did
Speaker 5: in addressing slavery. And while they didn't explicitly put slavery
Speaker 5: into the Constitution, the different clauses that include a fugitive
Speaker 5: slave clause and the three fifths clause which allowed Southern
Speaker 5: states to count enslaved people for the purposes of representation
Speaker 5: in federal government. So he always had an issue with it,
Speaker 5: but not in the way someone who wants to get
Speaker 5: it eradicated asap, because that's how abolitionist role. And so
Speaker 5: he in history, the way that I remember learning this
Speaker 5: was that Abraham Lincoln is and was an abolitionist, and
Speaker 5: reading this article leads you to believe that he kind
Speaker 5: of warmed up to the idea.
Speaker 2: So wait, so which article is that? This is from
Speaker 2: history dot com. Okay, so it's the History Channel.
Speaker 5: So it's the History Channel, And so they go in
Speaker 5: they go at link talking about how he was not
Speaker 5: an abolitionist, but he understood that through emancipation and that
Speaker 5: eventually through the thirteenth Amendment, that he would align himself
Speaker 5: with abolitionists.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 5: The second fact, I'm oh, no doubt. So it was
Speaker 5: it was a political theater. Have you will you see
Speaker 5: what goes on nowadays, and everything is a show. Second fact,
Speaker 5: Lincoln did not believe that black people should have the
Speaker 5: same rights as white people. Okay, another issue abolitionists I'm
Speaker 5: sure had so. Of course, the Constitution has the phrase
Speaker 5: all men at are created all men are created equal,
Speaker 5: and he understood that this should apply to both black
Speaker 5: and white folks in terms of work and in terms
Speaker 5: of social and political equity, but he did not think
Speaker 5: that it meant the same social and political rights. And
Speaker 5: the debate he had in nineteen I'm sorry eighteen fifty
Speaker 5: eight was Stephen Douglas. Stephen Douglas called him out and
Speaker 5: accused him of supporting Negro equality, which he went out
Speaker 5: of his way to separate himself from the abolitionists of
Speaker 5: the time, so that way he didn't get that label.
Speaker 2: So yeah, good old abe man.
Speaker 3: My issue with incrementalist like him is that they often
Speaker 3: end up doing something for you, I don't want to
Speaker 3: say by a mistake.
Speaker 2: But as a consequence of their other right.
Speaker 3: Like I own this apartment building you live in it.
Speaker 3: The fire out because it's my property, not because I
Speaker 3: was trying to save you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. You understand their own ambition. It's for their
Speaker 2: own benefit.
Speaker 1: There's a pattern of whitewashing history and making history seem
Speaker 1: less flagrant and insidious and harmful as it is. And
Speaker 1: you know, I think that coming to terms with and
Speaker 1: recognizing that Abraham Lincoln wasn't the hero, the guy.
Speaker 2: That just came in and freed the slaves.
Speaker 1: While that's true, I think that for folks who want
Speaker 1: to make an argument, oh, this is not a racist country.
Speaker 1: There's Abraham Lincoln, there's him. Okay, we elected a black president.
Speaker 1: This is not a racist country, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Or this country is its roots were not founded in racism.
Speaker 1: You know, whatever folks argument folks want to say, they
Speaker 1: can use examples like these whitewashed examples. And then for
Speaker 1: folks who are listening, tuned in, not doing their own
Speaker 1: research and certainly gullible, I think I don't mean to
Speaker 1: be unkind with that word, but you know, gullible. We're
Speaker 1: all gullible to some of your another. Depending on the circumstances,
Speaker 1: you know, they can get caught up in that like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, this isn't a racist country, you know, not
Speaker 1: since Lincoln left office, once.
Speaker 2: The slaves are free, that's over.
Speaker 1: And I think that when you add, you know, some
Speaker 1: context to what really was happening. Okay, this guy really
Speaker 1: had a And these are only two of the five minutes.
Speaker 2: We have to hit the other two five on this one.
Speaker 2: There's more on others.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, you know our next show we're gonna you know,
Speaker 1: follow up with that. But you know, I think that
Speaker 1: you know, coming to terms with the fact that a
Speaker 1: lot of our current circumstances were born out of necessity
Speaker 1: and not necessarily out of the kindness in someone's heart
Speaker 1: or you know, someone's wreckinggnizing that Okay, these are my
Speaker 1: brothers and these are my sisters, and this shouldn't be
Speaker 1: the way our society is built or run. I think
Speaker 1: that it helps when it comes time to really deal
Speaker 1: with who we are, where do we come from, and
Speaker 1: what are we doing to move forward as brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: And so I'm glad that we discussed this again, not
Speaker 1: to vilify aid Lincoln or anything like that, but really
Speaker 1: just to kind of deal with the real which is
Speaker 1: kind of what we do over here.
Speaker 2: So I have a question.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So the mental health that you talked about in
Speaker 5: the previous segment, and how seeing it over and over
Speaker 5: and over and over and over again, how it lessens
Speaker 5: the blow, right, not maybe not in terms of you
Speaker 5: being less sensitive to it, but to the fact that
Speaker 5: you actually have no choice because of love diminishing returns.
Speaker 5: Do you think that the whitewashing of American history is
Speaker 5: to protect white fragility so they don't have to think
Speaker 5: about that, So that way the trauma that we have
Speaker 5: to avoid by splitting up clips, so we don't carry
Speaker 5: the weight of all of this trauma. Do you think
Speaker 5: that that's the reason why they soften the blow and
Speaker 5: every and Abe Lincoln is uplifted instead of the true
Speaker 5: There is no other reason.
Speaker 2: That's of course that's the reason. Yeah, ye, just around
Speaker 2: the same page.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, and and and it makes sense,
Speaker 1: you know, I get. I get why people don't want
Speaker 1: to deal with an ugly past of people that look
Speaker 1: like them and deal with the narrative that says, well,
Speaker 1: we got a leg up, or at least we didn't
Speaker 1: have to start before the start line, you know, like
Speaker 1: some of those guys we started at zero. They started
Speaker 1: at negative four, and I'd rather start at zero, you know, Folks,
Speaker 1: don't really like the idea of dealing with that reality
Speaker 1: or feeling like they they owe.
Speaker 2: Something, feeling guilty or anything like that.
Speaker 1: So you know, I understand it, but you know we're
Speaker 1: going to have to come to terms with it, and
Speaker 1: so that's what we're going to do, and we're going
Speaker 1: to continue to do.
Speaker 2: So I guess that's as good a place to stop
Speaker 2: as any.
Speaker 1: So I want to thank each and every one to
Speaker 1: be for tuning in this week to Civic Cipher.
Speaker 2: Once again, I'm your host, rams this job.
Speaker 1: They shout out to DJ Swirl show producer, making it
Speaker 1: happy for us each and every week. If you haven't
Speaker 1: done so yet, please hit the website civiccipher dot com.
Speaker 1: You can go on there and submit any questions or
Speaker 1: topics to the show.
Speaker 2: We do rely on your feedback. If that's a tall order.
Speaker 1: For you, you can also hit us on our social media
Speaker 1: everything's at Civic Cipher. You can review these topics we
Speaker 1: discussed today on our Facebook or our Instagram.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: At Civic Cipher, you can download this and any other
Speaker 1: previous episodes as well on any podcasting platform, and of course,
Speaker 1: you can make a donation that helps the show grow
Speaker 1: and until next week, y'all, please pease