Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsey's job.
Speaker 2: I go by the name Hugh Ward, except when my
Speaker 2: mom's mad at me, she might call me some different
Speaker 2: variation of that.
Speaker 1: Well, unfortunately, I don't think you're mad at you right now.
Speaker 1: Neither are we, uh, because we're having a good day today,
Speaker 1: having a good week, and we're healthy. Name covid is
Speaker 1: on the rampage again and uh at present, we are
Speaker 1: still able to communicate and do this show.
Speaker 2: So not mad at all before you before you even
Speaker 2: move on and get into the show. Okay, you're listening
Speaker 2: to us on the radio. You can't see Ramses. Ramses
Speaker 2: looks glorious ladies and gentlemen. So when you say we're
Speaker 2: all healthy, we're all feeling good, there's levels to that. Yes,
Speaker 2: we're all healthy, but I look regular healthy. Ramses looked
Speaker 2: like won lottery twice, healthy one lottery twice, and it's
Speaker 2: mid vacation after the show. He's going back to the
Speaker 2: yacht healthy. So I just wanted y'all to take that
Speaker 2: in just mentally imagine that Rams just looks like there's
Speaker 2: a yacht involved with the show.
Speaker 1: Well, I definitely appreciate the sentiments and hopefully we get
Speaker 1: to share a little bit of this with you through
Speaker 1: the form. We have some heavy subject matter to cover,
Speaker 1: but we're going to try to do it, you know,
Speaker 1: the way. We know how to as much positivity as
Speaker 1: we can, so be sure to stick around. Later show,
Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about why back black people
Speaker 1: vote Democrat. That's something that a lot of folks wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, what have the Democrats done for black people
Speaker 1: to get their loyalty. We're also going to talk about
Speaker 1: unfair prison sentencing and a whole host of other things
Speaker 1: to come. But first and foremost, like we always do
Speaker 1: with this time, let's get into some ebony excellence, shall we?
Speaker 1: I do believe we shall, sir, So I like this one.
Speaker 1: Rico Oxendine, who was an entrepreneur and financial literacy advocate
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania, has made building generational wealth and closing the
Speaker 1: racial wealth gap core pillars of his existence. He began
Speaker 1: with his daughter, Amia I believe Oxenden, who's twelve years old,
Speaker 1: by selling candy at local events, barbershops, and hair salon's
Speaker 1: using a wagon, and as their candy selling business grew,
Speaker 1: they went from pulling wagons to using their own vending machines.
Speaker 1: This story made national news, you know about teaching our
Speaker 1: children financial literacy and independence, and of course I wanted
Speaker 1: to share this on this stage because you know, hats
Speaker 1: off to him. This is an example of Ebony excellence.
Speaker 1: Let's see. In December twenty nineteen, Oxenden gifted his daughter
Speaker 1: her own vending machine, and unfortunately the pandemic ensued. But
Speaker 1: the good news was that, you know, things have turned around.
Speaker 1: They put it in in a senior citizen's home and
Speaker 1: now that you know the pandemic isn't as gripping as
Speaker 1: it once was, they're actually making money. So I'll read
Speaker 1: this quick quote. It says I never thought I would
Speaker 1: buy a machine, just wanted to learn how to make
Speaker 1: money myself and with my child. Oxendine said says anyone
Speaker 1: with the right mindset to create passive income can be successful.
Speaker 1: He says individuals must first have a desire to build
Speaker 1: wealth through entrepreneurship. Second, they have to build relationships with
Speaker 1: other entrepreneurs and businesses to leverage their assets. In Oxendine's case,
Speaker 1: he was able to place his vending machines in the
Speaker 1: barbershops and hair salons he once sold candy to out
Speaker 1: of his wagon. Third, the would be entrepreneurs must learn
Speaker 1: how to perfect their craft. Oxenden learned about vending machines
Speaker 1: and understood maintenance costs. Lastly, parked your money in stocks
Speaker 1: on in best accounts. Oxen Dene believes in order to
Speaker 1: close the racial wealth gap and build wealth, African Americans
Speaker 1: must learn to overcome a poverty mindset. So what his
Speaker 1: daughter's name is, Amaya a Maya. That's it perfect? Thank
Speaker 1: you for that. But yeah, a little bit of ebony
Speaker 1: excellence for you, and uh, it's time to move on.
Speaker 1: So if you're African American, could you tell me anything
Speaker 1: whatsoever the Democratic Party has done for Black people in
Speaker 1: the last twenty years. So most of what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: read here comes from a writer named Kean Charles, Right,
Speaker 1: but before we get into that, your your initial thoughts Q.
Speaker 2: So as you can imagine, because you and I are
Speaker 2: so active in the community as especially around election time, right.
Speaker 2: And the interesting thing is if you notice who's active
Speaker 2: around election time as far as party lines go, the
Speaker 2: people who are just simply saying go vote are typically Democrat, right,
Speaker 2: And that in itself kind of speaks to the why right,
Speaker 2: it's not what have you done specifically for black people?
Speaker 2: Because you can punch so many holes in that argument.
Speaker 2: We can spend a lot of time saying that they've
Speaker 2: done nothing and this kind of blind loyalty might not
Speaker 2: be earned. However, we've been kind of given this choice
Speaker 2: between two parties and those are the only choices we
Speaker 2: like to be more hopeful. And you know, these libertarians
Speaker 2: and independence and all this stuff, they have no shot.
Speaker 2: That's why they never win. And I hate to say
Speaker 2: that with such absolute confidence, but tell me the last
Speaker 2: time that someone that was a Democrat or Republican one
Speaker 2: and I'll sit here and wait for the hundred years
Speaker 2: it takes you to find someone. And of course I'm exaggerating,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't take you that long. Pull out of Wikipedia
Speaker 2: or an encyclopedia or a Google exist, you'll see that.
Speaker 2: You know, especially in our in our lifetime, you know,
Speaker 2: the Democrats or the Republicans win, and you're kind of
Speaker 2: giving the choice sometimes unfortunately the lesser of two evils.
Speaker 2: When you have one party that's saying, hey, everybody, go vote,
Speaker 2: and you have another party saying, well, not everybody, it
Speaker 2: kind of makes your choice for you, even if the
Speaker 2: specific candidate isn't blowing you away. So those are my
Speaker 2: initial thoughts. I know we have more nuanced, more contacts,
Speaker 2: more information, but you know, in my lifetime as an
Speaker 2: adult voter, there's only been one time where I've been
Speaker 2: excessively proud and excited about my candidate. I think everyone
Speaker 2: knows who I'm talking about. I do, yes, him, Yes,
Speaker 2: whoever came to mind first him. Other than that, it's
Speaker 2: been okay, I know what I don't want. Yeah, neither
Speaker 2: of you are. Neither of you are what I absolutely want.
Speaker 2: But I can't have that. And you know, whoever you
Speaker 2: think I'm talking about now, you're probably right on that
Speaker 2: one too.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you said that, and I'm glad we
Speaker 1: took a moment to kind of bring your thoughts into
Speaker 1: the conversation, because that is precisely what Charles is writing.
Speaker 1: Not only that, you know, I voted in my first
Speaker 1: election in two thousand, right, and there's been an election
Speaker 1: every four years since then. And for me, well, you
Speaker 1: know what I'll do this, I'll read his words and
Speaker 1: then I'll save my my my thoughts until afterward. So
Speaker 1: to me, all right, So this is what he writes, says,
Speaker 1: I'll let you in on a closely guarded secret, something
Speaker 1: that we African Americans don't share with outsiders. Are you
Speaker 1: ready lean in for this one? African Americans don't like
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party. Mind blowing right, How shooketh are the
Speaker 1: Your surprise is understandable. After all, this is a secret
Speaker 1: in the black community. We don't talk about this with outsiders.
Speaker 1: Except for all the articles and books and Twitter posts
Speaker 1: and protests and graffiti scrawls that bemoan the Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: stretching back at least to the nineteen sixties, produced by
Speaker 1: everyone from black liberals to Black conservatives to Black revolutionaries.
Speaker 1: Let me say again, but this time without the silliness.
Speaker 1: African Americans don't like the Democratic Party, but we like
Speaker 1: real politic. There is a saying that came out of
Speaker 1: the early Congressional Black Caucus. Quote. Black people have no
Speaker 1: permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests. In this
Speaker 1: two party state we live in, the only options are
Speaker 1: between the GOP and Democrats. Democrats, for all their many,
Speaker 1: many flaws, flaws that Black people bring up regularly and
Speaker 1: with exasperation, still fulfill Black interest more than the GOP,
Speaker 1: so they get more votes from us. You might ask,
Speaker 1: what is so wrong with the GOP? All right, so
Speaker 1: I'm going to stop there. I do want to finish that.
Speaker 1: But I think that points us in a largely similar
Speaker 1: direction to the one that you were taking us in
Speaker 1: with your thoughts right now. Again, the two party system,
Speaker 1: it forces really the vast majority of people to choose
Speaker 1: between the lesser of two evils. There is no precision
Speaker 1: in a two party system. I get that it has
Speaker 1: to be some for simplicity's sake, you know, to get
Speaker 1: everybody either doing this or doing that, talking hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of people, we have to have some basic philosophy,
Speaker 1: some base code language for our government, and a two
Speaker 1: party system is just easier to implement in mass when
Speaker 1: the country is this large. But when you look at
Speaker 1: not just black people, but the vast majority of minorities,
Speaker 1: we tend to vote more democratic and be overwhelmingly more
Speaker 1: liberal in our beliefs. In fact, the country is overwhelmingly liberal,
Speaker 1: but most people in the country are unable to vote,
Speaker 1: or most people that you would poll. The reason why
Speaker 1: the numbers don't reflect that in elections is a lot
Speaker 1: of people are not able to vote. A lot of
Speaker 1: people are either too young or you know, there's other
Speaker 1: issues there, and the biggest issue is that liberal minded
Speaker 1: people don't turn up in elections to the same degree
Speaker 1: that conservative minded people do. Conservative minded folks it is
Speaker 1: their duty to vote. They would not miss it. Liberal
Speaker 1: folks tend to be just that kind of liberally. You know,
Speaker 1: it'll work itself out, you know, throw up a shaka
Speaker 1: like as they do in Hawaii. So this is part
Speaker 1: of the reason why on the democratic sides of things,
Speaker 1: it's okay to just say vote, because as long as
Speaker 1: you get to the poll. The idea I believe behind
Speaker 1: it is that the more people vote, the more the
Speaker 1: poll numbers will reflect the the the rather the liberal
Speaker 1: philosophy that is more prevalent in society. And the reason why,
Speaker 1: in my belief concernervative minded folks don't really love the
Speaker 1: idea of everyone turning out to vote is because it
Speaker 1: goes against their specific agenda, not the agenda of hey,
Speaker 1: let's have a free and fair democracy where everyone votes
Speaker 1: and we put the right people in to reflect the
Speaker 1: attitudes and beliefs and philosophies of the people in this country.
Speaker 1: But no, rather, let's get less people out there because
Speaker 1: we know our base votes more at a higher percentage
Speaker 1: rate rather, and then we can continue to have power
Speaker 1: and shape the country according to our beliefs, even though
Speaker 1: the majority of people don't share these beliefs with us.
Speaker 1: So I think that when you take into account how
Speaker 1: a two party system manifests results in a society like
Speaker 1: as complicated as this one, we're going to have issues
Speaker 1: like what Charles is pointing out. You know, black people
Speaker 1: don't necessarily I'm softening his words, you know, I know that.
Speaker 1: But black people don't necessarily like the Democrats. But when
Speaker 1: you have to choose between the lesser of two evils,
Speaker 1: the Democrats are certainly that when it comes to a
Speaker 1: lot of fundamental beliefs. Right now, for me, that is
Speaker 1: one hundred percent true. I believe in basic human principles, sharing,
Speaker 1: helping my fellow man. I shared a video with you,
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know, just before we started recording. Right now,
Speaker 1: hear me on this, you're listening. But Q and I
Speaker 1: we shared a video on the text I sent it
Speaker 1: over to them. I just want to paint this picture
Speaker 1: for you. In this video, there was a family living
Speaker 1: in Panama or someplace like that. You know, you may
Speaker 1: not be familiar, but there are lots of folks that
Speaker 1: lived near garbage dumps and they recycle from the garbage
Speaker 1: dumps to make money to feed themselves. They live in
Speaker 1: houses that they built out of the garbage and they
Speaker 1: live there in the landfills. Right, a woman and her children,
Speaker 1: her house caught on fire, burned down, whatever. Some volunteer
Speaker 1: folks were down there helping out. Caught winto this story.
Speaker 1: Did a gofund me or raise some money for this
Speaker 1: family who raised, you know, thirty thousand dollars something like that,
Speaker 1: were able to buy this woman a real house, put
Speaker 1: toys in it for her children, do all this sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. This kind of I mean, Q and I
Speaker 1: lived a story like this once upon a time where
Speaker 1: we helped the homeless woman out on the streets where
Speaker 1: we where we live, and it went viral, and you know,
Speaker 1: there was a little girl involved named Neyla, and you know,
Speaker 1: we were able to help make a difference in the
Speaker 1: life of this little girl and her mother. So this
Speaker 1: is kind of a story right up our alley. There's
Speaker 1: some people that look at that and say, yeah, totally,
Speaker 1: we should give money to people that need it. If
Speaker 1: people whose circumstances perhaps weren't as advantageous as our own,
Speaker 1: we should share. We should you know, as long as
Speaker 1: I have enough, then I have. And the next thing
Speaker 1: that I get is I'm able to give away. Right,
Speaker 1: there's people that have that as a base belief for themselves.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people. I don't need more than
Speaker 1: I have, and I certainly don't need more than I need.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, what do I do with
Speaker 1: more than what I can do something with? I know
Speaker 1: that doesn't really make a lot of sense, but think
Speaker 1: about what I'm trying to say. If I have more
Speaker 1: than I can use, then what's the point of having it?
Speaker 1: You know? And for those of us who have ever
Speaker 1: felt how gratifying and fulfilling it is to provide something
Speaker 1: for someone who can never pay us back, to give
Speaker 1: it freely and wish that person well on their journey,
Speaker 1: that's a fulfillment that you can never buy for yourself.
Speaker 1: It only comes through giving. And science has actually proven
Speaker 1: that I don't have time to go in that direction,
Speaker 1: but that's actually fact based on the human condition. So
Speaker 1: with that said, I believe that those ideas and those
Speaker 1: beliefs are more in line with the Democratic Party's fundamental
Speaker 1: doctrine than that of the Republican Party's doctrine. Right. You know,
Speaker 1: we might talk about black conservatives black Republicans. A lot
Speaker 1: of times. Black Republicans are that way because they've achieved
Speaker 1: some success and they are enjoying the money, or they
Speaker 1: think they're enjoying the money. They want to keep more
Speaker 1: of it for themselves. And if that is your priority
Speaker 1: in your life, everything else becomes less significant. Doesn't matter
Speaker 1: how you feel about abortion or it doesn't matter, none
Speaker 1: of those things matter. You know, you might not be
Speaker 1: the you know, a gun totin Middle American blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: But if you want to keep your hand on your money, well,
Speaker 1: this political party, their belief system is that you should
Speaker 1: keep more of your money and you should not pay
Speaker 1: into a common fund that helps kind of raise the
Speaker 1: water level for all the ships in the ocean. As
Speaker 1: a metaphor, and for me, I'm a human being before
Speaker 1: anything else. I've achieved a great amount of success. I
Speaker 1: have no problem sharing it, not a bit. What am
Speaker 1: I going to do with it? You know, I don't
Speaker 1: need more rolexes or whatever. I forgive me if that's vulgar.
Speaker 1: But you get what I'm trying to say. You just
Speaker 1: don't need six or eight of these things. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people whould disagree, but I just know that
Speaker 1: for me that's not the case. And so I find
Speaker 1: that my beliefs are more in line with the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party in that way. Now, you could take a bunch
Speaker 1: of ideas that Democrats champion, you know, climate change, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, a woman's right to choose, and you know,
Speaker 1: on and on. The list goes on, and for the
Speaker 1: most part, all of them, I can see the human
Speaker 1: component in there. It's not numbers, it's not dollars and cents,
Speaker 1: it's not black and white. I try to feel what
Speaker 1: is the intention here? What's the goal here? You know?
Speaker 1: Is it every man for himself, you know? Or is it, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to get through this together. And again, I'm
Speaker 1: not knocking anyone with conservative beliefs. I'm just not one
Speaker 1: of those people. You know, there's a law of the
Speaker 1: jungle that's eat or be eaten, and then there's another
Speaker 1: law of the jungle that says live and let live.
Speaker 1: I'm one of the live and let live people, right.
Speaker 1: I find that a lot of minorities at people. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't eat each other. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: people are of that same persuasion, live and let live.
Speaker 1: For some reason, there's a pride associated with being Republican
Speaker 1: that is almost like I'm proud to be this mean person,
Speaker 1: this hard nosed, hardline gun. Totally like, what do you
Speaker 1: need a gun for? The only purpose of a gun
Speaker 1: is to end the life of a living creature. That
Speaker 1: is the only purpose, the only designation. And if you
Speaker 1: think of a gun, what side is it typically associated with?
Speaker 1: The Republican side. Now I will finish, and then I
Speaker 1: want to get some more thoughts from you. Q. So
Speaker 1: Charles goes on on the best days when stars align
Speaker 1: just right, this is the best outreach the GOP can
Speaker 1: offer African Americans. Quote what do you have to lose?
Speaker 2: End?
Speaker 1: Quote? And we know where that quote came from, right,
Speaker 1: our firmer president. You remember he was on stage. He's like,
Speaker 1: what have you got to lose? Blacks or however you
Speaker 1: said it, what have you got to lose? You know?
Speaker 1: So our former president actually said that, and that in
Speaker 1: Charles's you know, writing here reflects the attitude of the
Speaker 1: Republican Party. I'll continue, He says, huh, is that it?
Speaker 1: That's your pitch. I used to work in sales. I
Speaker 1: would have gotten fired if I said that to a customer.
Speaker 1: What do you have to lose? No platform information, no
Speaker 1: specific policies, not even a dream, just a dare. It's
Speaker 1: basically like saying, what's the worst that could happen? And
Speaker 1: that's the GOP's best pitch. That's what happens when their
Speaker 1: third eye opens and the music speak through them. The
Speaker 1: average GOP pitch GOP, for those that don't know, stands
Speaker 1: for Grand Old and it's a term associated with Republicans.
Speaker 1: The average GOP pitch is to insult African American history
Speaker 1: and circumstances, insult Black culture, and call them slaves for
Speaker 1: voting Democratic i e. The Democratic Plantation, enforce policies that
Speaker 1: African Americans regularly oppose, and then ask why won't you
Speaker 1: vote for us? On the one hand, the GOP promised
Speaker 1: to crack down on BLM protests and suppress Black votes,
Speaker 1: but on the other they also called me a slave
Speaker 1: for voting against them. Oh, decisions, decisions, It's what I've
Speaker 1: come to call the quote, Hey, stupid, vote for me
Speaker 1: end quote strategy. The GOP and libertarians to a lesser extent,
Speaker 1: love this strategy. It's an extremely effective strategy if your
Speaker 1: goal is to make an enemy for life, not so
Speaker 1: much if you want to make friends.
Speaker 2: All right, what you got to The alienation strategy works sometimes. However,
Speaker 2: in the age of contrarianism disguised as intelligence or disguised
Speaker 2: as intellectualism, it works. You know, hey, why are you
Speaker 2: doing what everybody else is doing? Why don't you step
Speaker 2: out and vote for me? What do you got to lose?
Speaker 2: And sadly, that strategy is more effective than you might think.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a waiting that people who love.
Speaker 2: There's people who love to stand on the other side
Speaker 2: of the street and tell everybody else that they're wrong
Speaker 2: just because they're everybody else. Hey, if everybody's doing that,
Speaker 2: shouldn't you question it? It's like, no, sir, it's flooding
Speaker 2: over there, it's dry over here. That the decision was
Speaker 2: actually pretty easy to see. How the water's up to
Speaker 2: your waist now, and that guy's over there just tread
Speaker 2: and water because he doesn't subscribe to group think. So,
Speaker 2: you know, Unfortunately, when given one of two choices. It
Speaker 2: gives both sides a lot of latitude. I think you
Speaker 2: said earlier. They're just not very precise because they don't
Speaker 2: have to be right, they don't have to speak to
Speaker 2: the needs of this very diverse population. They kind of
Speaker 2: ride in the extremes, and the GOP does a better
Speaker 2: job at writing on their extremes. So the people who
Speaker 2: subscribe to that, they subscribe to it wholeheartedly. So that's
Speaker 2: why you don't see them screaming for people to come
Speaker 2: out to the post. Their people are coming because they
Speaker 2: love what they're selling. Over there. You don't see a
Speaker 2: lot of people that are Republicans screaming for bipartisanship. They
Speaker 2: don't care. They want to do what they want to do.
Speaker 2: And that's why a lot of people start to call
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party week because they're trying so hard to
Speaker 2: meet them in the middle, and at some point you
Speaker 2: have to question, why are we meeting them in the middle.
Speaker 2: A lot of their policies, the things that they practice,
Speaker 2: preach and believe, they should be extremely against what you think.
Speaker 2: But you know, we want to sing Kumaya and we
Speaker 2: are the world and hold hands and kind of meet
Speaker 2: this party in the middle. That has no desire to
Speaker 2: do the same thing. And as with any relationship, we
Speaker 2: both have to want this. If one of us wants
Speaker 2: this and the other one wants this, that gap still exists, right,
Speaker 2: And I guess you feel like it's less wide, and
Speaker 2: you can say I gave it the good old try.
Speaker 2: But it's the lack of commitment to some of these
Speaker 2: promises that they make during their campaigns that kind of
Speaker 2: have some people just say, you know what, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to vote at all. People are starting to become
Speaker 2: apathetic to the entire system because they don't see results
Speaker 2: and they don't feel heard or cared about. So it's
Speaker 2: it's fishy, man. But like we've both kind of said,
Speaker 2: and like this author said, when given the choice of
Speaker 2: choose one of two evils, we go with the lesser
Speaker 2: one that doesn't want us to be eradicated. That doesn't
Speaker 2: make that hasn't made it clear that they absolutely don't
Speaker 2: care about us. Well, even if they haven't gone as
Speaker 2: far to show us that they really really support us either.
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate your thoughts. It's definitely something to think
Speaker 1: about and hopefully it gets folks started in that direction.
Speaker 1: Stick around your radios. We're coming back with more Cify
Speaker 1: cipher right after this