Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'my host Rams's Jah.
Speaker 2: He calls me q war because that's what my mom
Speaker 2: calls me too.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, and we are back once again after another
Speaker 1: week full of events. Is very much an understatement.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad we just both laughed and smiled, because
Speaker 2: when I was on my way here, Bro, I did
Speaker 2: not expect to be.
Speaker 1: In a good mood at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah. People ask about the show all the time, and
Speaker 2: it's we're never short on content, but just by the
Speaker 2: nature of the show, the things that that we are
Speaker 2: that it's our responsibility to talk about are just in nature.
Speaker 1: Not typically fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and sometimes it's heavy, man. And literally, when I
Speaker 2: was driving here, I'm like, I don't know how I'm
Speaker 2: going to talk about these things tonight and not be
Speaker 2: actually angry. So I'm glad that we both just at
Speaker 2: the idea of last week, we're able to, at least
Speaker 2: right now before we dig into it, exhale and chuckle,
Speaker 2: because goodness, gracious man.
Speaker 1: You know what a lot of times people will, you know,
Speaker 1: if I meet them and they're not familiar with the
Speaker 1: show or the work that I've done up until now,
Speaker 1: or what we're doing now with Civic Cipher. They'll ask
Speaker 1: about Civic Cipher. You know, we'll tell me about the show,
Speaker 1: and the easiest way to explain it to people is
Speaker 1: to start by saying that it's therapy, you know, and
Speaker 1: so you know, there's a big part of this that
Speaker 1: really feels therapeutic to be able to talk about. And
Speaker 1: of course it's our hope that you know, everyone that
Speaker 1: listens and participates in whatever capacity with the show gets
Speaker 1: this not only a little bit more perspective and education,
Speaker 1: but also you know, it has a sense of release
Speaker 1: and after listening, just a more concrete version of reality
Speaker 1: that they can subscribe to. But you know, as stated,
Speaker 1: this past week was full of just all kinds of
Speaker 1: you know, you know what I think the heaviest thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, being black in this country. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: there's this idea that the deck is stacked against you,
Speaker 1: and then there's this idea that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that are really going to help you and that
Speaker 1: really want the world to be a little bit more fair.
Speaker 1: And then there's those people who are in the middle
Speaker 1: that will do whatever the right thing is at whatever
Speaker 1: the right time is, depending on the optics and depending
Speaker 1: on you know, whatever forces are at play, and you know,
Speaker 1: in seeing the way that you know, the police ultimately
Speaker 1: came around and responded to the folks that you know,
Speaker 1: attack the Capitol building. The police responded somewhat. You know,
Speaker 1: they're they're people are getting arrested, and you know.
Speaker 2: Well, I gotta I gotta rewatch the video I didn't. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's that's footage I saw. I didn't even have
Speaker 2: a police response, well, you know, except for opening gates
Speaker 2: and ushering people and out of the building exactly.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of hard to find out how to
Speaker 1: feel about things. And then even if we do figure
Speaker 1: out like okay, well they're finally taking some action against
Speaker 1: these people waving the Confederate flag and the lobby of
Speaker 1: you know, the Capitol Building, it's there's a part of
Speaker 1: me that feels like, you know, it might be you know, uh,
Speaker 1: just them doing it because they're pandering, or it's you know,
Speaker 1: they're like, Okay, I guess we got to do something
Speaker 1: as opposed to while this is wrong, this is a
Speaker 1: huge injustice, and you know, let's you know whatever, let's
Speaker 1: let's take action. It's like kind of they were compelled
Speaker 1: to do it after however long. So the the thing is,
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that we talk about a
Speaker 1: couple of things things. The first thing is I want
Speaker 1: to say, Hi, Mom, who's checking us out live right now?
Speaker 1: And I want you to know that we appreciate your
Speaker 1: support and all your input. But one of the other
Speaker 1: things that I wanted to talk about was Donald Trump
Speaker 1: and him losing his his Twitter account. Something that I've
Speaker 1: encountered quite a bit is people the backlash against all
Speaker 1: these to pushback, yeah, saying that it's a matter of
Speaker 1: free speech. So my brother shout out to Sean. He
Speaker 1: called me the other day, and Sean works in it.
Speaker 1: That's very much an understatement. But more importantly, he's a
Speaker 1: brilliant mind, probably the smartest person that I I certainly
Speaker 1: that I know. But you know, he explained a lot
Speaker 1: to me about how this actually works. He told me
Speaker 1: about a lawsuit and it escapes me right now, but
Speaker 1: it's it's a lawsuit from the early nineteen hundreds, maybe
Speaker 1: like nineteen nineteen or something like that, and basically this
Speaker 1: lawsuit was, you know, you know, the First Amendment. We
Speaker 1: have freedom of speech, tray, but there's certain things that
Speaker 1: you cannot say, you know, if they cause harm, or
Speaker 1: if they you know, incite some sort of action, you know.
Speaker 2: Or you know, inside a riot. Yeah, caused people to
Speaker 2: storm the United States Capital exactly.
Speaker 1: Perhaps another example that he gave to me was that
Speaker 1: he wanted to or he suggested rather that you know this,
Speaker 1: the result of this lawsuit is why you can't run
Speaker 1: into a building in yell fire. If the building's aren't
Speaker 1: on fire, that's not protected under the First Amendment. Right
Speaker 1: And I will get the exact the details of the lawsuit.
Speaker 1: But there was a combination of this with the Amazon,
Speaker 1: the Amazon pulling down the Parlor app. The Parlor app,
Speaker 1: and for those that you don't know, there's another app
Speaker 1: that exists outside of Twitter and Facebook and all these
Speaker 1: other app apps that you can download and communicate with
Speaker 1: people their social networks. Parlor is one that really caters
Speaker 1: to real right wing extremists because they do it well.
Speaker 2: They kind of co opted it, sure because make it
Speaker 2: that made it sound like Parlor was designed for them,
Speaker 2: and it wasn't. It wasn't, okay, I'm sure, trust me.
Speaker 2: I had a long I just drove thirty two hours.
Speaker 2: I had a lot of time on my hands. They
Speaker 2: co opted it and turned it into their own. It
Speaker 2: was initially, I think, designed to talk about like what
Speaker 2: we had for lunch today or something, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: like something super basic, super simple, and it was co
Speaker 2: opted into like.
Speaker 1: Okay, then yeah, then that launched a cool together, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: So then that that then what you're saying happens before,
Speaker 1: you know, a little bit before the research that I
Speaker 1: did on it goes back, and it goes back so far.
Speaker 2: But it's been what you're saying for so long that
Speaker 2: that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't designed originally for that, Like somebody didn't say,
Speaker 2: let's design an app so that, right, we extremists can
Speaker 2: plan a cool like that wasn't there, right, okay, Okay.
Speaker 1: The genesis of it. The thing about it is, uh,
Speaker 1: I actually downloaded this on my on one of my phones.
Speaker 1: Oh word, yeah, which is for sale by the way,
Speaker 1: if you want to spend. I got actually two phones,
Speaker 1: once for five for ten. If you want to buy it,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to sell it to god Parlor already run
Speaker 1: it for you if you need it. I didn't even
Speaker 1: log in. But yeah, this app, well, I guess it
Speaker 1: became a space where free speech wasn't limited. You know
Speaker 1: how on Facebook and and and Twitter especially, the president
Speaker 1: would treat tweet things and then it would say these
Speaker 1: these facts are disputed or this is proven to be
Speaker 1: not true whatever like label on his tweets. Well, Parlor
Speaker 1: was a place that didn't do that. Or you could
Speaker 1: just basically yell fire and there would be no consequences
Speaker 1: on that platform. Another thing is that these are private businesses,
Speaker 1: so they can you know, extend you know, their platform
Speaker 1: to whoever they want and deny other people, you know,
Speaker 1: as they choose. So it's not necessarily limiting free speech
Speaker 1: because it's not like press in the same way. So
Speaker 1: there's no there's no press badge that you get, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm such and such a journalist from a press credential,
Speaker 1: right exactly, It's it's a platform. So anyway, so Parlor
Speaker 1: they instead of like building their own infrastructure, they used
Speaker 1: Amazon's like excess infrastructure to become the platform, right, which
Speaker 1: is effectively what my brother Sean does. So Sean understood
Speaker 1: how it worked, and they have it's it's the it's
Speaker 1: a u P. I figured what that's called for two
Speaker 1: and figure that out. But Basically, it's like terms and
Speaker 1: conditions where if you you sign up to use Amazon's
Speaker 1: infrastructure to host your you know, your app, then you
Speaker 1: have to abide by their their rules, and Parlor by
Speaker 1: not you know, throat, not throttling, but monitoring the way
Speaker 1: the app was being used, they ultimately found themselves in
Speaker 1: violation of the terms and conditions. Now this isn't something
Speaker 1: that is you know, executed across the board. It's just
Speaker 1: when you when you become a big enough problem, you
Speaker 1: become a big enough fire, they'll put you out, which
Speaker 1: is exactly what happened. So Parlor ended up losing all
Speaker 1: of their their online infrastructure and have to start over
Speaker 1: from beginning. So that's really what ended up making this
Speaker 1: look like everyone's out to get Donald Trump, you know,
Speaker 1: because he got banned from Spotify and Pinterest and everything
Speaker 1: stuff that is not even relevant for him to communicate.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that people need to understand
Speaker 1: that that's the way it works, you know. And and
Speaker 1: the funny part about it is a lot of times,
Speaker 1: especially you know, you know Republicans, you know, right wing subscribers,
Speaker 1: they love the idea of you know, small government, you know,
Speaker 1: and business and the free market, you know, and that's
Speaker 1: essentially what is happening here. But because this is the
Speaker 1: platform that the president has chosen to speak from and
Speaker 1: to tweet his you know, presidential policy, for him to
Speaker 1: be limited or denied that it feels like he's being
Speaker 1: you know, that they're limiting free speech of the man.
Speaker 1: And it's it's it's amazing the links that people will
Speaker 1: go through go to rather to justify or otherwise completely
Speaker 1: ignore what's happening, and they'll call it anything other than
Speaker 1: what it is. You know, everybody that decided to limit
Speaker 1: this man's reach and his capacity to incite you know,
Speaker 1: violence and all this sort of stuff. Do you remember
Speaker 1: there was the the video in Texas where there was
Speaker 1: a bunch of trucks and they were traveling next to
Speaker 1: a Biden Harris ban.
Speaker 2: Yeah, next to the the word I'm losing it right now,
Speaker 2: but yes, yeah, So there was campaign the campaign.
Speaker 1: Bus for Biden and there were all the Trump trucks
Speaker 1: with the flags whatever, and they like ran this truck
Speaker 1: off or they were I don't know if they ran
Speaker 1: it off the road, but they were like attempted to sure,
Speaker 1: so you know, that wasn't enough. And then you know,
Speaker 1: Trump like retweeted the picture and he's like, I love
Speaker 1: Texas and like encouraging this sort of behavior where people
Speaker 1: get hurt. And then now that we've seen five people's
Speaker 1: lives get lost because of this past you know, riot
Speaker 1: or whatever, you know, people are actually taking action against
Speaker 1: this guy and limiting their involvement with him or otherwise
Speaker 1: his involvement with them and their business because they feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, to free market and you know, this is capitalism.
Speaker 1: And again all the right, they really champion this idea
Speaker 1: of capitalism so much. They're doing what's in their best
Speaker 1: interest of the business, and they're protecting their bottom line. Amazon.
Speaker 1: You know there's people that will log into Amazon and
Speaker 1: try to take Parlor down. You know, there's hackers, there's
Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff. So Amazon has to say, what,
Speaker 1: I got a whole other business to run. I can't
Speaker 1: afford to expose myself to this type of attack. Let's
Speaker 1: severitize with these guys because it's not worth it because
Speaker 1: we're making real money over here and Parlor is just
Speaker 1: a thing billions of dollars. So you know, when people
Speaker 1: really understand it, it's like you can't have it both ways.
Speaker 1: You can't have you know, h this free market and
Speaker 1: then you know, you know, uh, small business or small government,
Speaker 1: you know, big business, business decides how it works, and
Speaker 1: then you know, cry foul when a business decides to
Speaker 1: sever their ties with someone who could potentially expose them
Speaker 1: to risk or you know, affect their bottom line. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure we started the show off
Speaker 1: by saying that because a lot of people have been
Speaker 1: saying that a lot and they're just they he says,
Speaker 1: it's a witch hunt. So everyone echoes that.
Speaker 2: I mean, of course, and I just see it. We
Speaker 2: got a comment from DJ Swirl Ryan wood updo you know,
Speaker 2: talking about the way the NFL chose to limit Colin
Speaker 2: Kaepernick's speech when all he did was neil right, the
Speaker 2: most respectful gesture in history. He kneeled during the singing
Speaker 2: of the national anthem, and that was co opted you know,
Speaker 2: by you know, Donald Trump, and they turned it into
Speaker 2: something completely different, but because it might affect their bottom line.
Speaker 2: That man has been unemployed for going on four years,
Speaker 2: so you know those But it's the funny thing is
Speaker 2: it's the same people, the same people who are arguing
Speaker 2: free speech and talking about you can't limit this man,
Speaker 2: and you can't take him down, and you can't stop
Speaker 2: him from expressing himself. Were the same ones on the
Speaker 2: other side of the same argument. Yeah, when it didn't
Speaker 2: serve their best interest.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, And so I wanted to start there, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to, you know, not to dwell on everything
Speaker 1: that's going you know, on with that, because you know,
Speaker 1: really the truth is, we're waiting on We're waiting on
Speaker 1: a new administration, you know, And I don't want to
Speaker 1: give too much power to that, but I do need
Speaker 1: to check that when when I need it, when it
Speaker 1: feels necessary, because no matter, we might not take Donald
Speaker 1: Trump into next month, but we have to take that
Speaker 1: half of America in the next month.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to take a and seventy five million
Speaker 2: of the people that voted, and lots of people that
Speaker 2: just don't participate, but that agree sure with that seventy
Speaker 2: five million people that voted for him.
Speaker 1: Sure, absolutely. And so again just something that needs to
Speaker 1: be said. Now today's show, I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: the N word. So obviously this word is horrible words.
Speaker 1: It's the ugliest word in the English language, and it's
Speaker 1: been a source of debate in the black community and
Speaker 1: in the black versus everyone else community for one hundred
Speaker 1: years maybe, and we haven't talked about it yet on
Speaker 1: this show. Wow. And I think that it's important to
Speaker 1: discuss that because I think that that leads us to
Speaker 1: discussing one better, one, one additional way where we can
Speaker 1: become We can create allies. Black folks can create allies,
Speaker 1: and people who are not black can become allies to
Speaker 1: black people, you know, people that sympathize with with black
Speaker 1: people's plight in this country. In understanding this this word
Speaker 1: and how it feels and how it's used, it can
Speaker 1: help because it and I'll before the show is over,
Speaker 1: I'll explain what I mean. But let's start here. So
Speaker 1: the N word. One of the things that people might wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, is why does a word have so much power?
Speaker 1: Why do you allow a word to be so hurtful?
Speaker 1: You know? And this is not a er versus a conversation.
Speaker 1: This is just you know, someone else saying that word
Speaker 1: who's not black to someone who's black. You know, Why
Speaker 1: would a word have so much power? Why would you
Speaker 1: allow it to affect you? If someone you know yells
Speaker 1: a racial slurred any any other race, that's not a
Speaker 1: life and death thing. It's just a you know, a
Speaker 1: very strong insult. You know, with black people, it's especially flagrant.
Speaker 1: Why do you allow this word to have so much
Speaker 1: control over your emotions and over your life. It's a
Speaker 1: very sensible question to ask, because it it's the beginning
Speaker 1: of understanding. You know, if you're not black, then it
Speaker 1: might not hit you in the same way. You might
Speaker 1: not understand the depths of it. And so I wanted
Speaker 1: to help paint that picture, at least from my perspective,
Speaker 1: And then I want you to offer yours so that
Speaker 1: we can help people understand what it's like for me.
Speaker 1: You know, I was born, I learned how to speak.
Speaker 1: You know, words didn't have any power. You know, there
Speaker 1: was Google, gay guy, and then there was ABC's and one,
Speaker 1: two threes, and you know, and so forth, and how
Speaker 1: you learned and somewhere age between, you know, maybe four
Speaker 1: and six, I recognize that there exists a word that
Speaker 1: is really a bad word. It's the word that should
Speaker 1: make your ears per cup. And you know, of course
Speaker 1: I've heard it in my lifetime, yelled at me. I've
Speaker 1: heard it in film, I've heard it amongst friends and
Speaker 1: and you know, the full gambit. But you know, when
Speaker 1: it's used as an insult I'm talking about with the
Speaker 1: hard r At least for me, it calls into question
Speaker 1: who I am. It calls into question like it it
Speaker 1: compels me to be the bravest, strongest version of myself.
Speaker 1: I recognize that there are human beings who had committed
Speaker 1: no crime, meant no harm to anyone, were hated for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, and lived hard and short lives, and oftentimes
Speaker 1: the last word they heard was that word was the
Speaker 1: N word. And those people's bodies are buried in the
Speaker 1: ground in this country, all across it, top to bottom,
Speaker 1: left to right, And I am a descendant of those people,
Speaker 1: and there's a connectedness from me to them. I can't
Speaker 1: explain it beyond that, but I will say that I
Speaker 1: will never slap those people in the face. Those are
Speaker 1: my mothers, those are my fathers. You know. I will
Speaker 1: stand up for them because they cannot stand anymore. I
Speaker 1: owe my life to them because I am their descendant,
Speaker 1: I am their son right And so for me to
Speaker 1: let something like that continue to go unchecked, I believe
Speaker 1: flies in the face of the memory of those nameless,
Speaker 1: faceless people. That I'll never know, you know, records get scrambled.
Speaker 1: I don't know where I came from. You you shared
Speaker 1: a story recent well a few times with me about
Speaker 1: being in Spain and was it Spain?
Speaker 2: Yea?
Speaker 1: And they will tell the story real quick.
Speaker 2: Well, having dinner in Barcelona and was the only person
Speaker 2: at a table of seven or eight people that couldn't
Speaker 2: answer the question where are you from? And you know
Speaker 2: my initial reaction, very very proudly as usual Detroit, yeah, man.
Speaker 2: And they're like, no, no, no, no, where's your where's your
Speaker 2: mother from? Very very proudly, once again making Georgia. And
Speaker 2: they're like, everybody's looking confused, like as if I don't
Speaker 2: understand what they're asking, because clearly I don't, because I'd
Speaker 2: never been asked the question with the expectation of an
Speaker 2: answer that they were looking for. So then they start
Speaker 2: telling me where they were from, different parts of Germany,
Speaker 2: different parts of the West Indies, different parts of Asia,
Speaker 2: different parts of direct heritage to an ethnic group from
Speaker 2: a specific place in the world that was not the
Speaker 2: United States, and African American or black almost doesn't mean
Speaker 2: anything everywhere else in the world.
Speaker 1: Where does your.
Speaker 2: They one of the gods at the table rubbed his skin.
Speaker 2: Where does that come from? That meaning my brown melan
Speaker 2: my melanin, where does that come from? And it was
Speaker 2: an embarrassing moment. Black people in America are the only
Speaker 2: people on earth that can't answer that question because we
Speaker 2: have no idea where we were torn away from.
Speaker 1: Okay, so understanding that, in the understanding that that same
Speaker 1: melanin was crime, may as well have been or quite
Speaker 1: literally not even may as well have been quite literally
Speaker 1: a crime in some instances, and so forth, and just
Speaker 1: it feels like, do you know, I say this a lot.
Speaker 1: I say that black people, black men are kings specifically.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's important to say because I recognized
Speaker 1: that there was a lot of people who were black
Speaker 1: that lived and died and they were never able to
Speaker 1: refer to themselves in any uplifting positive manner. They had
Speaker 1: slave names, they were insulted, you know, when they made mistakes,
Speaker 1: and again they lived very harsh lives and died young.
Speaker 1: That was their life. That's the most precious thing that
Speaker 1: a person can have, and it was reduced to like
Speaker 1: in the matrix when it says, you know, reducing human
Speaker 1: being to a battery. You know, that's that's the kind
Speaker 1: of the same thing. So this word, this n word
Speaker 1: for me, connects me with those people in a way
Speaker 1: that is visceral, that is palatable, that I feel and
Speaker 1: that I am compelled to honor. And because of that,
Speaker 1: I cannot let it go and checked. And so it's
Speaker 1: more than just someone saying something and me, you know,
Speaker 1: letting it slide off my back. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's an attack on not just me, but everyone
Speaker 1: that has worn this color before me, those people that
Speaker 1: have been attack those people that didn't make it, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're not here to defend themselves, and so I
Speaker 1: think that it wells up in me to defend them
Speaker 1: and me if it's just me, Like watch this cue. Okay,
Speaker 1: if somebody insults you, you're gonna have a problem with that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna speak for you because I already know if
Speaker 1: somebody insults you're gonna have a problem with that, right.
Speaker 1: But if somebody insults me, you have a very very big,
Speaker 1: serious problem. Is it's a much different problem. And so
Speaker 1: it's the same thing. And I think that people need
Speaker 1: to understand that because history matters, and even folks that
Speaker 1: black folks that don't understand their history. This word is
Speaker 1: given to them with the same weight, It has the
Speaker 1: same gravity. They understand that it's that serious. If someone
Speaker 1: says that to you, they're attacking you at your core.
Speaker 1: They don't need to know everything else so that they
Speaker 1: just know that this is something that people fought for
Speaker 1: and died for. And I was born into that fight,
Speaker 1: and for better or worse, I must continue to fight
Speaker 1: on the side that I'm on right, And so this
Speaker 1: is part of the reason why this is not something
Speaker 1: that we take lightly. Now, well, before we go any further,
Speaker 1: have you had any incidents that are top of mind
Speaker 1: where you can draw from, like the feelings that stirred
Speaker 1: up in you.
Speaker 2: I mean I've actually had as you can imagine, multiple
Speaker 2: you and I have had the privilege and the pleasure
Speaker 2: of having been able to use music as a vehicle
Speaker 2: to go.
Speaker 1: All over the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and our experiences, and we've talked about this, have
Speaker 2: been a lot different abroad than right here at quote
Speaker 2: unquote home. But the two things that are top of
Speaker 2: mind is I was leaving a gig one night and
Speaker 2: Chandler and Chandler you'd imagine to be you know, a
Speaker 2: more progressive place. You know, it's a more newly developed
Speaker 2: part of the valley than Phoenix, Tempi and Mesa. And
Speaker 2: I stopped to fill up and one of those trucks,
Speaker 2: And when I say those trucks, I think everybody that's
Speaker 2: listening knows what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like one of those trucks.
Speaker 2: Trucks pulled up at the I think it was a
Speaker 2: circle K or a quick trip gas station. I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't recall which, and one of the guys rolled
Speaker 2: the window down and in an attempt to intimidate me,
Speaker 2: called me the N word. I'm just putting gas in
Speaker 2: my car. And I never responded in a way that
Speaker 2: was more calm in my life. I just simply finished
Speaker 2: pumping my gas, got in my car, and drove away
Speaker 2: because I understood that there was no response other than that.
Speaker 1: That would have yielded a good outcome. Right.
Speaker 2: And there are five or six guys in this truck,
Speaker 2: and they left the house with the intention of causing
Speaker 2: some trouble with someone. You know, I didn't invite that
Speaker 2: attention from them. I didn't invite that energy. I didn't
Speaker 2: cause it. So that wasn't even in response to me.
Speaker 2: They were going to find someone to interact with in
Speaker 2: that way, and I just so happened to be the
Speaker 2: maybe the easiest or the nearest target. And you know,
Speaker 2: I got in my car, drove home, and the whole
Speaker 2: ride I just thought about how that could have gone
Speaker 2: had one of them just gotten out, because that's just
Speaker 2: the mood they were in. It goes way different because
Speaker 2: I'm you know, I'm going to defend myself. I don't
Speaker 2: know how effectively against five or six guys, but you know,
Speaker 2: one of you will have a much different story than
Speaker 2: the rest of you, I promise. Another instance that was
Speaker 2: a bit more difficult to digest and reconcile as a
Speaker 2: person that I always viewed as a friend.
Speaker 1: DMed me.
Speaker 2: After I posted something unflattering about, you know, the current
Speaker 2: president to defend him, and at some point pointed out
Speaker 2: in this message that he often says.
Speaker 1: White power.
Speaker 2: And felt it was no different than saying black power.
Speaker 2: And I think about the very, very different histories of
Speaker 2: those phrases, and you know, piggybacking off of you speaking
Speaker 2: about the use of the N word, And in that moment,
Speaker 2: I remembered seeing a photograph from either a burning at
Speaker 2: the stake or a lynching. And all I know that
Speaker 2: in the all I know that is in the photo
Speaker 2: there are two dead black bodies I think hanged and burned,
Speaker 2: and around them are just regular But but I don't
Speaker 2: even want to use the word mob, right, because it's
Speaker 2: like it was children. It was like it was like
Speaker 2: a picnic. That's literally what it was. Yes, look up
Speaker 2: the picnics, the woor history. Right, it was a picnic.
Speaker 2: There's families, there's children. This is a regular day. This
Speaker 2: isn't like an angry mob of people.
Speaker 1: Real quick, hold on picnic for those of you the
Speaker 1: too lazy to google, it has its history in lynching
Speaker 1: black people. All right, go ahead, So.
Speaker 2: I really want to make the distinction that this wasn't
Speaker 2: a mob. This was for lack of better well to do,
Speaker 2: normal middle class families hanging out with the kids that
Speaker 2: I'm assuming they had food, beverage and a fun day, right,
Speaker 2: And the word used to make these non radical people like,
Speaker 2: because this is not a mob, to make these regular
Speaker 2: normal let's just say, for lack of better decent people, okay,
Speaker 2: with what they were witnessing was that word. That word
Speaker 2: reduced us to less than yea and had always had
Speaker 2: with it its intentions of not just making us beneath,
Speaker 2: but in causing us harm. So you know, when my
Speaker 2: friend and it's it's I hesitate to say friend now,
Speaker 2: And that sucks because it's just based on this, on
Speaker 2: him caping up for Donald Trump and the way that
Speaker 2: he did, and the rhetoric and the language that he
Speaker 2: used to do. So that makes it very very clear
Speaker 2: that we're not similar people. But this dude has always
Speaker 2: been kind to me, had always been very very nice.
Speaker 2: I always got excited when I saw him, So him
Speaker 2: telling me that he says white power, as you could imagine,
Speaker 2: was startling. Almost It shook me, and I had to
Speaker 2: explain to him how it's not just the black and
Speaker 2: the white, like the night and the day, like the
Speaker 2: wet and the dry. The phrases in and of themselves
Speaker 2: have no similarities. One is based on supremacy, murder, and
Speaker 2: the eradication of a people. The other one is based
Speaker 2: in pride, self assurance, reassurance to my brothers and sisters
Speaker 2: that we are here together.
Speaker 1: How about this go ahead. Don't want to cut you out,
Speaker 1: so and I'll cut.
Speaker 2: It short because it was a really, really long conversation.
Speaker 2: It was a back and forth that had no end
Speaker 2: because his roots were deep and how he felt, and
Speaker 2: I just made it clear to him We're not getting
Speaker 2: anywhere with this because I'm definitely not. This is not
Speaker 2: a good conversation because neither of us are open to
Speaker 2: the opinion of the other except I'm objectively right and
Speaker 2: you're objectively wrong. And that's not typically a stance you
Speaker 2: should take. Yeah, it is, well, typically a discussion you shouldn't.
Speaker 2: You should be open to learning more and being open minded.
Speaker 2: And but I'm not being swayed in this. I'm right
Speaker 2: and you're wrong. Yeah, it's how I feel and feel today. Well,
Speaker 2: and it's factual, you know what I mean? So so
Speaker 2: real quick, That's what I was going to say. So
Speaker 2: a lot of times when people will say things like,
Speaker 2: you know, why can't there be a white entertainment television
Speaker 2: and if there's a black entertainment television, or why can't
Speaker 2: there be you know, white power, if there's black power,
Speaker 2: and why can't there be you know, white pride if
Speaker 2: there's a well, brown pride is a popular thing where
Speaker 2: I'm from in California, brown pride for Hispanic folks.
Speaker 1: And what people fail to realize is that. You know,
Speaker 1: if you want to talk about you know, Irish pride,
Speaker 1: that's totally fine. You know, we'll go and hang out
Speaker 1: with you. You know what I'm saying, that's yeah, good, I'll
Speaker 1: DJ your parade and event we've done it. If you
Speaker 1: want to talk about you know, you know, whatever type
Speaker 1: of pride you know, specific you know, or or or power,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, there's community, there's culture there. You know,
Speaker 1: we're happy to support that because it's based on something real,
Speaker 1: an actual history. That is that that people can be
Speaker 1: proud of heritage, culture, et cetera. For black people in
Speaker 1: this country, you know, as you stated, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of ours got mixed up. So black just became
Speaker 1: a catch all term for all of us with our
Speaker 1: shared experiences, regardless of where we're from in Africa. So
Speaker 1: we developed a new community culture, you know, sense of
Speaker 1: who we are relative to each other and relative to
Speaker 1: everyone else, and so and absolute needed to you know,
Speaker 1: be empowered and continue to empower ourselves and our posterity.
Speaker 1: So you know that those those phrases are born out
Speaker 1: of that and people.
Speaker 2: So not to cut you off, born out of the
Speaker 2: necessity to have somewhere where we could belong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we were kicked out of everything else.
Speaker 2: It's the same reason we have historically black colleges and universities.
Speaker 2: That was not to say, hey, white people, you can't
Speaker 2: come to school here. It was to say, hey, black
Speaker 2: people that can't go anywhere else, at least you.
Speaker 1: Can come here. Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so many of our institutions were born from that.
Speaker 2: We were being It was more of an inclusive we
Speaker 2: than an exclusive we.
Speaker 1: Just that needs to be said. Absolutely sorry about that. No,
Speaker 1: you're good, You're good. The thing is, so where I
Speaker 1: was going with that was the thing is when people
Speaker 1: say like white power and white pride, they're not referring
Speaker 1: to a culture as much as they're referring to, you know,
Speaker 1: their skin, you know. So there's not the entitlement that
Speaker 1: comes along with it. It's it's rooted, like get rooted
Speaker 1: in the supremacy of whiteness, you know, not just a
Speaker 1: general celebration, because those general celebrations often always are like
Speaker 1: the Irish, like the Saint Patrick's Day Parade is white folks,
Speaker 1: red hair, you know, get out there with the freckles
Speaker 1: and the green you know, kiss me. I'm Irish, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll put one of them sorts. I get out there
Speaker 1: and get jiggy with them. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: It's it's all love. But you know, once you try
Speaker 1: to make a blanket statement, especially in this country, it
Speaker 1: ignores the sins of white folks and it and it,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of the the other prideful statements
Speaker 1: are born out of necessity, you know, as we stated,
Speaker 1: and that there is no necessity for that. There's no
Speaker 1: necessity for white entertainment television because you can just turn
Speaker 1: on the television black entertainment, all the rest of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so there's no space that you need to go
Speaker 1: with specifically only white because that in and of itself
Speaker 1: is exclusionary in its nature. So again it's important to
Speaker 1: say that. Now I do want to share a story,
Speaker 1: an inward story, because this is something kind of similar
Speaker 1: to what happened with you. But it was a friend
Speaker 1: of mine. His name was Jared, and once upon a time,
Speaker 1: Jared was you know, Jared was a good friend too.
Speaker 1: We'd go to Jared's house all the time, and you know,
Speaker 1: we're his roommate's house, but Jared was there, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was my guy, you know, cracked jokes, play
Speaker 1: video games, all that sort of stuff growing up. And
Speaker 1: then one day Jared said something and it changed our
Speaker 1: friendship forever because I'm not the one. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you want to show every way every week, not
Speaker 1: the one, nor the two, Nor am I the two.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so Jared was Shaquille O'Neil. That's all I remember.
Speaker 1: Shaquille O'Neil did something silly, and Jared was one of
Speaker 1: those sports people. I'm not a sports guy, not but
Speaker 1: I know who Shaq is at all. No, I don't
Speaker 1: know nothing about sports, but I know who Shaq is. Right,
Speaker 1: So Jared was upset with Shaq because he like dunked
Speaker 1: on his team or did something something I don't know,
Speaker 1: and then Shaq did something like maybe unsportsmanlike who knows.
Speaker 1: I wasn't paying attention, but Jared said something. He's like, man,
Speaker 1: I can't stand this guy. Shaq hate this guy, you know,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah whatever, and he's just talking, he's talking,
Speaker 1: and then he said something. He's like, I think Shaq
Speaker 1: is the only person where I think it's okay to
Speaker 1: say the inWORD. Now. He didn't say the inWORD, he
Speaker 1: said quote the in word and end quote. He didn't
Speaker 1: say the actual in word to me. He wouldn't do that,
Speaker 1: but I took exception to it. And I think that
Speaker 1: it's important to tell this story because there's lots of
Speaker 1: people who might flirt with this word on some level
Speaker 1: and tell themselves that, Okay, this is not racist behavior.
Speaker 1: You know, I would never do that. You know, the
Speaker 1: people I know are the people I know blah blah
Speaker 1: blahn this, that and the other. But you know, Jared
Speaker 1: and I we didn't talk for some time. This advice
Speaker 1: is to say, I just kind of left because I
Speaker 1: learned a long time ago that and I've since unlearned it.
Speaker 1: But a long time ago I recognize that it's very
Speaker 1: difficult to teach people something that they're not willing to learn.
Speaker 1: You know, people, when they operate from a place of privilege,
Speaker 1: they you know, it's very difficult for them to try
Speaker 1: to learn anything that doesn't suit their immediate you know, reality,
Speaker 1: or enhance their immediate reality. So to learn what the
Speaker 1: world looks like for someone else is cumbersome, you know.
Speaker 1: So I didn't even by to explain to him why
Speaker 1: he was wrong. He's gotten left right, But he recognized
Speaker 1: that he had sort of made a mistake and that
Speaker 1: he needed to apologize. So this might have been did.
Speaker 2: He recognize that he'd defend it or hurt you in
Speaker 2: some way and wanted to fix it, yeah, or did
Speaker 2: he recognize that he was wrong?
Speaker 1: Those are two very different. The first thing, okay, so
Speaker 1: that's where I'm going with the story. So it was
Speaker 1: the first one. He recognized that what he said upset
Speaker 1: Ramses and that he needed to you know, make you know,
Speaker 1: make that right. So after about maybe a year, we
Speaker 1: ended up kind of in the same place, you know whatever,
Speaker 1: and he pulls me aside and he starts talking to me,
Speaker 1: and he's like, hey, man, listen, it's been on my
Speaker 1: mind for a long time. But I remember that day
Speaker 1: when you left kind of quick, you know. I remember
Speaker 1: I said something about, you know, shack and you know,
Speaker 1: using the N word or whatever, and I just want
Speaker 1: you to know, man, I didn't, you know, mean to
Speaker 1: upset you. And so I says to him, and the
Speaker 1: reason I'm telling the stories because I want people to
Speaker 1: listen to us, because hopefully this will add some perspective.
Speaker 1: But I says to him, Jared, you have to understand
Speaker 1: that that word is a word that you could only
Speaker 1: use with Shack. You could not use it with Larry Bird.
Speaker 1: Could You wouldn't make sense, would it. And he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I see your point. I would never say it for
Speaker 1: Larry Bird because I wouldn't say unless the person is black.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, exactly, so, using that word to insult
Speaker 1: one black person, you have to understand that that word
Speaker 1: carries the weight of all black people who have heard it,
Speaker 1: who come from it, come from the pain that associated
Speaker 1: with it, you know, and it brings with it all
Speaker 1: the feelings. And I know that you are a well intentioned,
Speaker 1: well meaning person. There's a lot of racist people and
Speaker 1: they don't know that they're racist. They think they're good people,
Speaker 1: and bless their heart, they're working on it, but they
Speaker 1: need to be shown. Hey, this behavior.
Speaker 2: Some of them are not working on it because of
Speaker 2: what you said though. They actually don't realize that.
Speaker 1: They are sure and it's tough, it's hard, you know,
Speaker 1: and and would fight you if you accuse them of it. Oh,
Speaker 1: let me say it. Blue lives matter flags. Listen, y'all
Speaker 1: don't think you're racist. You don't. I know you don't
Speaker 1: think so. I know you don't think that. But eventually
Speaker 1: you'll come around and you'll start to see, you know,
Speaker 1: I was out of pocket. That was the wrong thing
Speaker 1: to do. That was the wrong horse to back. Those
Speaker 1: people were not oppressed. The black people were oppressed. That's
Speaker 1: gonna come in your lifetime. You're gonna see it, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna come and you're gonna apply. And guess what,
Speaker 1: black as we are good at one thing. Letting y'all know, hey,
Speaker 1: we forgive you.
Speaker 2: You are our baby, are the best in the history
Speaker 2: of this planet at it. We're the first people makes
Speaker 2: you our babies. If you if you have parents, you
Speaker 2: recognize they're very forgiving. And I don't mean to, you know,
Speaker 2: be disrespectful if you're older than me or whatever, but
Speaker 2: I do recognize that cult for really speaking, you know,
Speaker 2: there's you know, we can be a little bit more
Speaker 2: patient than we probably should be.
Speaker 1: And it works. Hopefully it will continue to have been
Speaker 1: throughout history, and it will work in the benefit of
Speaker 1: people who are well intentioned and really do desire to grow.
Speaker 1: But for now, waving that flag as a slap in
Speaker 1: the face of all of us trying to actually make
Speaker 1: the world a little bit better for all of us,
Speaker 1: not just some of us. So and real quick if
Speaker 1: you're just tune in NACIPI side from my host rams
Speaker 1: as Josh, they call me q Ward And today's show,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the in word and just the weight
Speaker 1: of it and what it means and so forth. And
Speaker 1: then again, this is not a debate of who can
Speaker 1: say it this this conversation assumes that when it's said,
Speaker 1: it's meant as an insult, and why or even if
Speaker 1: it's not meant as an insult, but it's from a
Speaker 1: non black person to a black person, why we could
Speaker 1: be offended or take exception to it. So well, that said,
Speaker 1: I want to share a story and I hope that
Speaker 1: this story will inspire people listening to it to check
Speaker 1: things that happen in their lives, you know, things that
Speaker 1: they see that they observe. Because the's a lot of
Speaker 1: people listening that would that would I would never say that.
Speaker 1: I would never do that, And they're right, they would
Speaker 1: never do that. You know, I believe that most people
Speaker 1: would never do that. There's some people that want to
Speaker 1: be cool or they think they're cool enough to pull
Speaker 1: it off or whatever. I promise you're not. I don't
Speaker 1: even say that word. I don't even have friends who
Speaker 1: are that word, you know, even if they call that
Speaker 1: to themselves, you know, but you know, in my house,
Speaker 1: that's just not a word that exists. So far be
Speaker 1: it from you to assign it to me or anyone
Speaker 1: in mine. But again, for everyone, I want to show
Speaker 1: you an example that I really like that came up
Speaker 1: in my life and I had an opportunity to do it,
Speaker 1: and I want to walk you through it. It's going
Speaker 1: to take a minute, but I promise it will be
Speaker 1: worth it, especially if you have any amount of empathy
Speaker 1: or love in your heart. So I was at a place.
Speaker 1: It was a workplace, and I was there with a
Speaker 1: person who also worked there. And this person his name
Speaker 1: was Martin. And so when I walked when I walked up,
Speaker 1: Martin says he stopped me at the at before I
Speaker 1: walked inside, and he says, hey, man, don't go in there,
Speaker 1: because you know, the boss is in there with a customer,
Speaker 1: and the customer and the boss are going back and
Speaker 1: forth blah blah blah, and they're yelling at each other.
Speaker 1: And he's like, man, I can't stand when customers do this,
Speaker 1: you know, And he's like venting in you know, talking
Speaker 1: about how frustrated he is. Now just because it matters,
Speaker 1: Martin is white. The boss is black, Okay, the customer
Speaker 1: customer was I couldn't tell you because I never saw
Speaker 1: the customer, but it didn't matter. But Martin was white.
Speaker 1: Martin is probably in his fifties somewhere, beautiful human being.
Speaker 1: I think he's a good man, and I stand by
Speaker 1: that even after you hear this story, because I had
Speaker 1: to make up a lot of I had to decide
Speaker 1: a lot in a very short amount of time, which
Speaker 1: is often the case when you are alarmed by someone's behavior.
Speaker 1: So anyway, Martin is just he's venting his frustration about
Speaker 1: this customer taking out their frustrations on the boss, and
Speaker 1: he says, you know, they're just in there and they're
Speaker 1: trying to jew him, right all right now. Jew is
Speaker 1: a word that describes Jewish people, the Jews. Not a
Speaker 1: bad word, but.
Speaker 2: A religion and an ethnicity. Sure it's not a bad word,
Speaker 2: but if you put a little A lot of people
Speaker 2: don't know that though. Oh okay, okay, yeah, we'll tell them,
Speaker 2: and it's it's both a religion and an ethnicity.
Speaker 1: But you know, the word is the same. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's just a normal word, and it's also a sort
Speaker 1: of a slur, especially in the way that he used it,
Speaker 1: just with a little bit of like if I say, oh,
Speaker 1: my friend is a Jew, right, that does me describing
Speaker 1: my friend. But if I say, oh, my god, they
Speaker 1: look at the Jews over there, it's the same word.
Speaker 1: It's the same exact word, but it just is a
Speaker 1: little has some teeth in it, right, it's the wrong
Speaker 1: way to use it. So it's a it's a funny word,
Speaker 1: but it's it's kind of entry level racism, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's not the the N word, but
Speaker 1: it's you know, and it's it serves as a great
Speaker 1: example for, you know, how to approach these things.
Speaker 2: But it had to be inferred with nuance and context
Speaker 2: exactly to take on a racist meaning, you wouldn't be
Speaker 2: able to read it, whereas the word we're using it's
Speaker 2: just racist.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's built into the word. And he's saying with
Speaker 1: a smile, yeah, they're in word. There ain't no getting
Speaker 1: around that way. So so yeah, he's he's just talking
Speaker 1: a million miles a minute. He's like, you know, they're
Speaker 1: in there, and they're trying to do him and you know,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, this and that and the third and
Speaker 1: I'm like, huh huhm. Right now, most people, I promise you,
Speaker 1: this happened to me most people, because he does. He's
Speaker 1: not a bad person. He's I know that he's not
Speaker 1: racist against uh Jewish people. You know that, just you
Speaker 1: just don't end up in a space like that and
Speaker 1: really harbor that genuine sentiment. He's not a Nazi. You know,
Speaker 1: he's working for a black man. He's talking to a
Speaker 1: black you know what I'm saying. So usually if you're
Speaker 1: gonna be racist against somebody, we're first on the list,
Speaker 1: you know usually. But I knew him, and I knew
Speaker 1: that that's not what he meant. It's just what he said, right.
Speaker 1: So you know, Sasha Baron Cohen, the guy who plays Borat,
Speaker 1: he he said brilliant. By the way, Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: if you get a chance to go down to you.
Speaker 2: If you do, if you don't pay enough attention, because Borat,
Speaker 2: the character in and of itself, might make you think
Speaker 2: this dude is an idiot. He's brilliant, super even that
Speaker 2: character is brilliant. If you're paying attention.
Speaker 1: Absolutely So, speaking of which, one of the things that
Speaker 1: he suggested that Borat points out is that, you know,
Speaker 1: Borat has these very anti Semitic one liners in his
Speaker 1: movies right where he talks, he speaks poorly about Jewish
Speaker 1: people and makes fun of Jewish people and pretty really
Speaker 1: really over the top Jewish caricatures too. Right, but he
Speaker 1: is the actual actor is Jewish.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But he says that what it does is the character
Speaker 1: illustrates people's passivity, like you can be Jewish or you
Speaker 1: can be racist or anti Semitic around me, and I
Speaker 1: won't stop you. I'll just let it go on. And
Speaker 1: he says that Borat brings that out of people. It
Speaker 1: really puts people's ideas of what's right and wrong to
Speaker 1: the test, not for themselves, but for what they'll accept
Speaker 1: in their circle. Right. So similarly, when I'm talking with Martin,
Speaker 1: he says this, He says that the person the customers
Speaker 1: in there trying to trying to jew I'm sorry that
Speaker 1: I keep saying it, but I just don't want to
Speaker 1: lose you the boss, right, So you know, I let
Speaker 1: him finish his his rant and get his frustrations off,
Speaker 1: and I knew that he was being a you know,
Speaker 1: a comrade. He was trying to, you know, stand by
Speaker 1: the boss and whatever. And at the end of it,
Speaker 1: you know, he starts walking away. He's like, man, I
Speaker 1: don't want to keep you. I know, you gotta go.
Speaker 1: I just was venting, you know, cause this guy's been
Speaker 1: here forever long. He starts walking away, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I could just walk away. This guy's old.
Speaker 1: He doesn't mean it, you know whatever, and I really
Speaker 1: I want to impress it. I really had to sit
Speaker 1: with it because I had to find it in myself
Speaker 1: to actually go back to this man who's my senior,
Speaker 1: very much my senior, and approach him about something that
Speaker 1: he did wrong. That's not something that's normal for me,
Speaker 1: a cultural implicator who knows, you know. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: I'm not accustomed to dealing with folks who are that
Speaker 1: much older and visibly older than me. But I went
Speaker 1: back to him, and this is what I said. I says, Hey, Martin.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, man, what's up. I was like, hey, man, listen,
Speaker 1: come back. Can I talk to you for a second.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, yeah, what's up. I was like, listen, man,
Speaker 1: I know you're a good person. I know you're an
Speaker 1: amazing person. You're a good man. You have a good heart.
Speaker 1: And I touched him on his chest when I did this,
Speaker 1: he says, you have a good heart. He's like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: don well, thank you. I appreciate it. And I was like, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm trying my best to be a good man. I
Speaker 1: have to wake up every day and try again. I'm
Speaker 1: not perfect, and what I need you to do is
Speaker 1: hold me accountable. I need you to check my speech.
Speaker 1: I need you to check my actions and my behaviors.
Speaker 1: And what we're going to do is we're going to
Speaker 1: keep each other in line so that we both can
Speaker 1: become better men. Does that sound good? And he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, yeah, absolutely. You know I love you man,
Speaker 1: I love what you stand for all this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: I was like, great, here's the thing. I'm going to
Speaker 1: go first, okay, and he's like yeah yeah, And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, so watch this. I know you didn't
Speaker 1: mean it. I know you're not this type of person.
Speaker 2: If you're listening. Ramses is so compassionate and gracious is
Speaker 2: the word I like to use the most. He really
Speaker 2: extends that benefit of the doubt people.
Speaker 1: I think it's necessary, though.
Speaker 2: I know you didn't mean it, Ramsey said, he's he's
Speaker 2: helping you get off that racist ledge that you might
Speaker 2: be on.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, But see, the thing is when you when you,
Speaker 1: when forgiveness is built into the narrative, sir, you can
Speaker 1: create cheerleaders when there's an adversarial stance. You draw battle lines,
Speaker 1: you know, and that you're over there and I'm over here,
Speaker 1: and we're like this forever, and you're always going to
Speaker 1: attack me every chance you get. And I need you
Speaker 1: to be a cheerleader. I need you to help me
Speaker 1: change the world. And that's how I recruit people into
Speaker 1: this love Army or whatever. But I believe in it,
Speaker 1: you know obviously, Oh no, it's not for the show.
Speaker 1: That's I believe in it. I think that it's possible.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so I'm talking to Martin and I says, so,
Speaker 1: what you said just now, I should have said, I
Speaker 1: should have caught it right when you said it, but
Speaker 1: I had to sit with it because it's very difficult
Speaker 1: to do. But what you said right now, you said
Speaker 1: that there was a customer in there trying to you,
Speaker 1: and he as soon as I said that, he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: in his face. He because he didn't even know that
Speaker 1: he said it, and I was like, I'll do you
Speaker 1: one better. I remember once upon a time when I
Speaker 1: was in high school, I thought that that was the
Speaker 1: word that you used. I didn't even know that it
Speaker 1: was a bad word. I had to learn that you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to say that because it's hurtful to people,
Speaker 1: you know, and everyone's entitled to learn. And I learned
Speaker 1: it in high school and maybe you're learning it today,
Speaker 1: or maybe you didn't know that, or maybe you knew
Speaker 1: it and just forgot or whatever. But we're going to
Speaker 1: hold each other accountable accountable here, So I go first.
Speaker 1: So now you owe me one, okay, So you have
Speaker 1: to watch me now the next time I say something,
Speaker 1: the next time I step out of line or make
Speaker 1: a mistake, I need you to come to me and
Speaker 1: let me know, because I'm going to lean on you
Speaker 1: to help me become a better person in the same
Speaker 1: way that I'm going to, you know, hold you accountable
Speaker 1: because I'm the best version of yourself, you know, the
Speaker 1: best man you can be. And it was peaceful, it
Speaker 1: was agreeable. Dare I say jovial, you know, because you
Speaker 1: know he's like, you know, a laugh, but he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm better. You know, I'm better than this man,
Speaker 1: because I remember the time. And then I was like, listen, man,
Speaker 1: you don't have to convince me. And that's why it
Speaker 1: was funny. So I'm like, hey man, we're on the
Speaker 1: same side of this. Now. Neither of us are Jewish,
Speaker 1: you know, but I do recognize that that type of energy,
Speaker 1: that type of disregard for people's sensitivities, especially groups of
Speaker 1: people's sensitivities, their history, their culture, you know, their struggles,
Speaker 1: the things that they come from. That disregard is what
Speaker 1: perpetuates an environment where stereotypes and prejudices are able to
Speaker 1: thrive and continue to take root generation after generation. And
Speaker 1: it is my responsibility, as a person who is attempting
Speaker 1: to become a better man every day of my life,
Speaker 1: to check that I've noticed. I didn't say stomp it out,
Speaker 1: and I didn't say, you know, no aggressive actions, you
Speaker 1: know when that's necessary. Believe me, I keep that in
Speaker 1: my back pocket because I want to a town stomp
Speaker 1: it out. Yeah, but that's not the first card I play.
Speaker 1: Rarely is it the first card I play. Because I
Speaker 1: recognize that you know that's usually when I'm in defense mode,
Speaker 1: you know, when I'm really trying to attack the root
Speaker 1: of something, I try my best to assume that the
Speaker 1: person is a compassionate person who might be misled or
Speaker 1: might be misinformed. You know, we have a tremendous opportunity,
Speaker 1: you and me with this platform here where we can
Speaker 1: have conversations amongst ourselves and allow people that perhaps don't
Speaker 1: get this type of insight into what it means to
Speaker 1: be black, male, female. You know, when we have those
Speaker 1: types of guests, you know, on the show, and they
Speaker 1: can gain some insight into what the experience might be
Speaker 1: like and become better allies. I really do believe that
Speaker 1: this platform holds the potential to create better allies out
Speaker 1: of the people who are already sympathetic, if you will,
Speaker 1: and compassionate and fueled by some conviction to try to
Speaker 1: create a more equitable world for all of us, no
Speaker 1: matter how much melanin we have. And so this is
Speaker 1: a is very much a part of this thing that
Speaker 1: we're doing here on Civic Cipher, and it's also a
Speaker 1: part of my day to day life. And hopefully if
Speaker 1: you're listening to my voice, you recognize that there is
Speaker 1: an opportunity for you to challenge the word, the inWORD,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes up in your life. There's a
Speaker 1: way to do it where you can create cheerleaders out
Speaker 1: of people and you don't create enemies and further, you know,
Speaker 1: they further entrench themselves into their racist behavior. That's not
Speaker 1: to say you can save everyone, but that is to
Speaker 1: say that now you have a little bit more to
Speaker 1: go with. And with that said, I think it's about
Speaker 1: time for us to get out of here. Yes sir,
Speaker 1: so yeah. Once again, thank you everyone for tuning in
Speaker 1: to Civic Cipher. We're going to be back next week
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. Before I go, I want to
Speaker 1: give a big shout out to all our patreons, for
Speaker 1: everybody checking in with us on Facebook, and again for
Speaker 1: the people that support the show in a number of ways.
Speaker 1: If you would like to support the show, please visit
Speaker 1: our website Civiccipher dot com. You can submit questions or
Speaker 1: topics that you want us to discuss, you can donate.
Speaker 1: Donations are very important. The show is always growing and
Speaker 1: your support means the world to us. You can also
Speaker 1: download this and previous episodes of Civic Cipher to review
Speaker 1: and With that said, we'll see you next week, same time,
Speaker 1: same channel. All right, y'all. Peace, Peace,