Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host, rams' Jah.
Speaker 1: I go by the name q Ward. Talked to him q.
Speaker 2: Most of the time, so well, is it sometimes or
Speaker 2: most of the time? If it, what's the race you
Speaker 2: would have to be for it to be most instead
Speaker 2: of some?
Speaker 1: It's okay, So yeah, most of the time they call
Speaker 1: me q Ward.
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, listen man, we got a interesting show to
Speaker 3: talk about today, and because the way the world works,
Speaker 3: we kind of got a lot of stuff entertainment based.
Speaker 1: So we'll call this an entertainment special. That what you
Speaker 1: do about that?
Speaker 2: I think we were overdue for entertainment special anyway, So
Speaker 2: run the play rounds.
Speaker 1: Let's do it, so stick around. We are, of course
Speaker 1: going to be talking about the slap hurt around the world.
Speaker 1: What did the five fingers say to the face? I
Speaker 1: think those five fingers said slap slap. You gotta talk
Speaker 1: about that, but not for the reasons you may think.
Speaker 1: So definitely stick around because we have to break that down.
Speaker 1: There are some cultural elements that you may not be
Speaker 1: familiar with that are things that we wrestle with and
Speaker 1: we would love to share them with you today. We're
Speaker 1: also going to be talking about rap beef and other
Speaker 1: types of beef, and like those viral videos of students
Speaker 1: fighting and those sorts of things, and how those things
Speaker 1: hit us as well. You know, there's a different weight
Speaker 1: that we carry that a lot of folks may not
Speaker 1: know about, So I definitely want to peel back some
Speaker 1: layers with respect to that. We're going to be talking
Speaker 1: about a woman named Hattie McDaniel for Our Way Black History. Fact.
Speaker 1: She is an actress who was the first Oscar winner,
Speaker 1: first one nominated, first black woman and black person nominated
Speaker 1: to when Oscar, and we're going to share a little
Speaker 1: bit of her story. But first and foremost, we are
Speaker 1: going to talk about a man who maybe you remember
Speaker 1: from your childhood. I certainly do. His name is Tim Reid,
Speaker 1: and we're going to share a little bit about what's
Speaker 1: going on in his world. In Our Way, Sorry, in
Speaker 1: our em any excellent segment, Ramsey is just trying to
Speaker 1: jump to the end of the show. I wasn't trying
Speaker 1: to do that. Topics put a lot of pressure on
Speaker 1: him today. Give him no no. So Tim Reid, for
Speaker 1: those that don't know, starred as the father in a
Speaker 1: show called Sister Sister, and this being our entertainment episode
Speaker 1: and the timeliness of this story coming out, we thought
Speaker 1: it'd be important to share kind of what he's been
Speaker 1: working on. Not if you're like me, you hadn't caught
Speaker 1: up or kept up with this guy over the years,
Speaker 1: but you do remember him the show Sister Sister starring
Speaker 1: Tia and Timara, the twins, and he was their father.
Speaker 1: I think he was a widower in the show, and
Speaker 1: he raised the two girls with I guess it might
Speaker 1: have been their aunt or something like that. But a
Speaker 1: lot of like father daughter lessons and just father lessons.
Speaker 1: So this guy kind of holds a special place in
Speaker 1: our youth, you know, in the way we remember it,
Speaker 1: not unlike that of Uncle Phil, you know, from the
Speaker 1: Fresh Prince. But what he's been up to is he's
Speaker 1: created his own streaming network. This comes from the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Black Star. By the way. He's created his own streaming
Speaker 1: network called LGCYTV. I believe he pronounces it Legacy TV.
Speaker 1: It's a quote from him. I'm not out to fight
Speaker 1: and say blacks invented the world. I mean make a
Speaker 1: case for it, But the contextualization of history is important.
Speaker 1: It's important to me, Reid said of the opportunity. The
Speaker 1: network will include three channels, culture, history and sports. There's
Speaker 1: another quote, blacks have fought in every war on this planet.
Speaker 1: Those kinds of things are what I want to do.
Speaker 1: I can't expect everyone to tell the stories that I
Speaker 1: want told. It's nice to see what black people have
Speaker 1: to say about white people for a change, economically, socially,
Speaker 1: the propaganda wars are real, it's powerful, it's real. There
Speaker 1: has to be another way. It has to be less
Speaker 1: filtered by the European pipeline, He said of his passion
Speaker 1: for his network and how it came to fruition. As
Speaker 1: it relates to people who may not develop an appreciation
Speaker 1: of the channel, Reid said, then don't tune in. Nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with a lot of opinions. Let's have some diversity.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Tim Reid for starting his own
Speaker 1: network and hoping to tell more stories. Love to see it.
Speaker 1: There's your ebony excellence.
Speaker 2: Now looking forward to it the topic of the day.
Speaker 1: You know, we do this show every week, so there's
Speaker 1: been some time between when you first heard about this
Speaker 1: and when we had to process it. And you know,
Speaker 1: we always say we make this show it's a black show,
Speaker 1: but it's for non black people. It's kind of our
Speaker 1: way of giving you a glimpse into what it's like
Speaker 1: for us, your brothers and sisters, who you know. Maybe
Speaker 1: you are a thinking, loving, kind human being, but maybe
Speaker 1: you don't have the connection to the black community in
Speaker 1: the way that you might like. And so we felt
Speaker 1: this show was necessary and we try to speak to
Speaker 1: you using that, bearing that in mind. But by now
Speaker 1: we're sure that you've seen the clip from the Oscars
Speaker 1: where Will Smith, you know, approached the stage and slapped
Speaker 1: Chris Rock in the face. I want to say something.
Speaker 1: I know you have a lot to say to you,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to give you the floor, but i
Speaker 1: want to say a couple of things. First, I've mentioned
Speaker 1: on the show that I do another program day to day.
Speaker 1: I work with the Black Information Network, do a daily show,
Speaker 1: a daily podcast with him. And the day after that happened,
Speaker 1: I was very troubled, very very very extremely deeply troubled
Speaker 1: by Will Smith's slapping Chris Rock in the face on
Speaker 1: the world stage, and for people who might not know why,
Speaker 1: it was so unsettling, you know, I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of insight here. You know. The next day,
Speaker 1: I woke up, had to talk with my other show
Speaker 1: producers and they asked, what's wrong, and I says, if
Speaker 1: I'm honest, I'm just having a I'm just very, very sad.
Speaker 1: And they're like, we can tell. Shout out to Tannita Meyer.
Speaker 1: She said that she's like, I can absolutely tell. I
Speaker 1: see every day, I know there's something off. She's like,
Speaker 1: what's the problem. And I says to her, I just
Speaker 1: can't make that make sense. I can't believe that Will
Speaker 1: Smith slapped That's a special kind of assault from one
Speaker 1: man to another that we're not we're not here to
Speaker 1: break that part apart. But he slapped Chris Rock in
Speaker 1: the face in front of everyone. And you know, he
Speaker 1: had his reasons, but the fact that it happened just
Speaker 1: it was so unsettling. And my other show, I normally
Speaker 1: talk about politics. I talk about you know, conceptual ideas
Speaker 1: and things like that, things that affect you know, the
Speaker 1: black population that you know, conversations of black folks need
Speaker 1: to discuss and need to be aware about. Right, this
Speaker 1: story was more of like a tabloid story. But my
Speaker 1: producer says, you know, no, absolutely, if you feel that
Speaker 1: strongly about it, ramses, that's the show we're going to do.
Speaker 1: She said, I feel the same way. And then the
Speaker 1: vice president of the company was on our call that
Speaker 1: day and he said, I agree one hundred percent. We
Speaker 1: need to talk about this, right So I wrote a
Speaker 1: little bit of a monologue and I'm going to share
Speaker 1: some of it with you right now, just so you
Speaker 1: understand kind of how that feels.
Speaker 2: And I just want to point out I'm hearing this
Speaker 2: monologue with you guys today live for the first time,
Speaker 2: so we get to take this in together, digest it
Speaker 2: fresh while you're listening, and give some some counter.
Speaker 1: Feedback if you're and for those just so you know,
Speaker 1: actually I'll say that at the end. Okay, Sunday evening
Speaker 1: At the twenty twenty two Oscars, Will Smith slapped Chris
Speaker 1: Rock in the face after Rock's mention of Smith's wife,
Speaker 1: Jada Pinkett Smith. Will Smith later received the award for
Speaker 1: Best Actor, and uses used his acceptance speech to mention
Speaker 1: his role as a protector and how quote art imitates
Speaker 1: life and quote now, I look like the angry father.
Speaker 1: Social media was promptly divided as to who had gone
Speaker 1: too far. Rock or Smith. Why did Chris Rock make
Speaker 1: a joke that could be connected to Jada Pinkett Smith's
Speaker 1: medical condition and subsequent hair loss. Why didn't Will Smith
Speaker 1: take his wife's hand and just walk out in protest.
Speaker 1: Regardless of the answers, we are left with a disturbing
Speaker 1: situation that played out on the world stage. We are
Speaker 1: left with the people that society tells us to try
Speaker 1: to emanate looking like the very people's society has come
Speaker 1: to fear angry, violent blacks. So what does it mean
Speaker 1: for the rest of us now that these two black
Speaker 1: comedic icons have ended up in this situation? So this
Speaker 1: is how I got the ball rolling on the show,
Speaker 1: But the way I closed it out was as follows.
Speaker 1: We've all been on one or maybe even both sides
Speaker 1: of a situation like this. The difference is that we
Speaker 1: probably weren't being tested in full view of the world.
Speaker 1: If you're like me, you hear the news stories of
Speaker 1: violence or theft or drugs, and you hope in your
Speaker 1: heart that the suspect isn't black. Pause. Remember this is
Speaker 1: me talking to a black audience right now that I'm
Speaker 1: talking to you, our listener today, I know that this
Speaker 1: is not necessarily a black audience. But on this show,
Speaker 1: it's on the Black Information Network, it's for a black audience.
Speaker 1: So when I'm saying this that whenever we watch news
Speaker 1: stories about drugs or theft or violence, we hope that
Speaker 1: the suspect isn't black. That's a very real thing for
Speaker 1: black people. Right We're gonna, We're gonna peel some of
Speaker 1: those layers back. I'll continue. The part that feels unfair
Speaker 1: is that white people don't seem to experience this in
Speaker 1: the same way. White people are allowed to have cultural
Speaker 1: and behavioral outliers to a degree that black people are not.
Speaker 1: We don't live in fear that all white men are
Speaker 1: mass shooters to the degree that white people often live
Speaker 1: in fear that black men are thugs and gang members.
Speaker 1: Right now, there are, of course, not all white people
Speaker 1: feel this way, and some Black people feel that way.
Speaker 1: But if we really take into account how it really
Speaker 1: feels to live in this world, one of those things
Speaker 1: is way more true than the other. Okay, I'll continue.
Speaker 1: We know that our outliers often reinforce or further shaped
Speaker 1: stereotypes that aren't true to the fullness of our black stories.
Speaker 1: Some of us might talk during comedies or horror movies.
Speaker 1: But I've been in rooms where white people talk through
Speaker 1: friends reruns, aching to tell me behind the scenes details
Speaker 1: are all about their favorite parts. The thing is that
Speaker 1: they don't worry that they are misrepresenting all white people.
Speaker 1: In other words, there's a burden, an extra burden that
Speaker 1: we carry. That burden came to the forefront when Will
Speaker 1: Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face. Oh now, they
Speaker 1: ain't gonna never let us back in here no more.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. It's like a real thing,
Speaker 1: you know. So let me continue and then we can
Speaker 1: break this down. When looking at Will Smith, perhaps the
Speaker 1: disconnect is that the black man would say, let me
Speaker 1: not misrepresent my people, but the man would say let
Speaker 1: me and my wife that night we saw Will Smith,
Speaker 1: the man, Okay, I'm not saying anybody's right or wrong.
Speaker 1: I would never do that. I'll continue. We live in
Speaker 1: a society that doesn't allow black men to be men. First.
Speaker 1: The same is true with black women, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. An angry woman protecting her children, for example,
Speaker 1: is simply an angry woman, But an angry black woman
Speaker 1: is this cultural monster. The same is true for the
Speaker 1: angry black man. Historically, our manhood wasn't even a part
Speaker 1: of this new American identity. Remember, they used to refer
Speaker 1: to us as boy and in some places they still do.
Speaker 1: So maybe no one won out of this situation, but
Speaker 1: at the very least, now the whole world knows a
Speaker 1: bit more about what we're up against. If Leonardo DiCaprio
Speaker 1: had slacked Jerry Seinfeld, the story might be half as big.
Speaker 1: If that two black men leading excellent black lives at
Speaker 1: the height of fame and wealth. However, and the ripples
Speaker 1: go further. It's almost like black excellence as a concept
Speaker 1: is being called into question. That is a weight too
Speaker 1: heavy for me to bear. So this was how I
Speaker 1: closed out my show or my podcast Weekly Podcast, which
Speaker 1: if you want to check that out, just download the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app and look up the Black Information Network. You're
Speaker 1: bound to find it. But this kind of gives you
Speaker 1: an idea of how a moment like that between two
Speaker 1: black people, like I'm so grateful that Chris Rock didn't respond,
Speaker 1: because imagine what it looks like if two black men
Speaker 1: are fighting. It looks like the Source Awards, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, And that's you know, we have to
Speaker 1: be perfect to be good enough. You know, we can't
Speaker 1: have human moments, and thank god, I believe that Chris
Speaker 1: Rock kind of saved that moment for us, you know,
Speaker 1: because it could have gotten a lot worse. But what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to impress upon you is not who is
Speaker 1: right or wrong, but that there's another burden that we
Speaker 1: all have to bear. Like it's almost like we are no.
Speaker 1: We can never be better than what the best of
Speaker 1: us is, right, and if the best of us, in
Speaker 1: your mind is Will Smith, then the best of us
Speaker 1: just dropped the couple rungs on the ladder, and that's
Speaker 1: why we all had to shoulder that burden as well.
Speaker 1: Now I've talked a lot, I do want you because
Speaker 1: I know you got a lot to give me. Q
Speaker 1: go ahead, jump in rams.
Speaker 4: It's so much, you know what I mean, Like, I
Speaker 4: don't know that we have enough show for all that
Speaker 4: I have to give, because it's not like.
Speaker 2: Will Smith is the best of us. Will Smith is
Speaker 2: actually the best of us. It's not like, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, It's not like he's the best, He's
Speaker 2: actually the best of us. There's Tom Hanks, there's Will Smith.
Speaker 2: And maybe that weight is unfair but it wasn't unknown.
Speaker 2: And this is where my problem starts. The topic has
Speaker 2: become explosive in its divisiveness amongst people, but especially amongst us.
Speaker 2: You know, I've seen all the If it ain't that,
Speaker 2: it ain't memes and tweets right right. If you're not
Speaker 2: going on stage to slap in my honor, then that's
Speaker 2: not the love that I want, which is a great
Speaker 2: mean to pass along and laugh about. Except I came
Speaker 2: across some words pointing out that Will Smith proved in
Speaker 2: that space or in that moment, that he didn't belong
Speaker 2: in that room, and those thoughts would have seemed ridiculous
Speaker 2: the day before that happened, and his action in that
Speaker 2: heated moment should not define him.
Speaker 1: Except that's the world we live in, and we cannot
Speaker 1: decide when we feel like it. Well, why do we
Speaker 1: care what white people think about us? Anyway?
Speaker 2: Oh so then what's all this talk about progress?
Speaker 1: And you know a few years ago there was a
Speaker 1: boycott of the Oscars because not enough black people were
Speaker 1: being represented.
Speaker 2: Correct, So we care or we don't care? I'm confused, y'all.
Speaker 2: Let me know, send me a DM. You know, you
Speaker 2: can put a letter in the mail if you want,
Speaker 2: but let me jump in right here please. So this
Speaker 2: is why this is the burden. Okay, we all stand
Speaker 2: shoulder to shoulder in solidarity that, yes, we do need
Speaker 2: more black representation, not just black people. There are non
Speaker 2: black allies that stand with us. Yes, there needs to
Speaker 2: be more diversity. There needs to be more women, There
Speaker 2: needs to be more l G B, t q I
Speaker 2: A plus representation. There needs to be more Native uh
Speaker 2: An indigenous representation, and so forth and so on, Asian
Speaker 2: American and Asian you know, bona fide Asian.
Speaker 1: UH and and Hispanic and and and so forth, right,
Speaker 1: And that is true. We do need that. And we've
Speaker 1: all stood together, we've all boycotted or voiced our opinions
Speaker 1: or shared things online or whatever, and the feeling like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're standing in solidarity, our voices are being heard. We
Speaker 1: see progress. There there's more. There's more films, We see
Speaker 1: more uh empowerment of women and and black folks and
Speaker 1: and on down the list. We you know, there's there's
Speaker 1: been more of that. Right, The weight of Will Smith
Speaker 1: slapping Chris Rock in the face on live television and
Speaker 1: embarrassing everyone, making everybody extremely uncomfortable right what it looks
Speaker 1: like and feels like to me and to us a
Speaker 1: lot of us. I can't speak for every black person,
Speaker 1: but I do live a black life in a black community.
Speaker 1: It feels like, well, now that we got here, that's
Speaker 1: how you're going to act, you know, I and I
Speaker 1: get it. I get it. There are some people who
Speaker 1: say that man had to defend his wife, he had
Speaker 1: to get up there, and he had to draw the
Speaker 1: line somewhere, whatever, whatever the case. But if you're going
Speaker 1: to the optics of this are okay? Are we all
Speaker 1: moving forward? That show is produced by a black person,
Speaker 1: by Will Packer. By the way, there were black presenters,
Speaker 1: women present you know, there was. There was a concerted
Speaker 1: effort to make it. But the award of the night.
Speaker 2: Was presented to Will Smith, the fifth black man in
Speaker 2: the history of the Academy to win the award for
Speaker 2: Best Actor. That isn't even an afterthought. It's not even
Speaker 2: a thought. No one's talking about that. In a passing
Speaker 2: of the torch moment in a category up against Denzel Washington,
Speaker 2: Will Smith won that award. No one cares, and some
Speaker 2: people won't remember because of what happened a few minutes before, you.
Speaker 1: Know the idea that.
Speaker 2: Our woman in the space of bad words has to
Speaker 2: be defended by her masculine hero of a man because
Speaker 2: she can't articulate in her own right, because it's words.
Speaker 2: If that man had physically attempted to assault his woman
Speaker 2: and got slapped in the face, then you got what
Speaker 2: you had coming. But a comedian cracked a joke, as
Speaker 2: they do. They do that, And I don't know if
Speaker 2: you guys have ever watched the Academy Awards. It's a
Speaker 2: room full of really really rich, really really successful people
Speaker 2: giving each other trophies for being really rich and successful.
Speaker 2: So part of the reason why there's a comedian hosting
Speaker 2: every year is to kind of make fun of the
Speaker 2: really rich, successful people in the room side. That's the
Speaker 2: whole point of it.
Speaker 1: I get that. And I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: have ever met Jada Pinkett. Of course they haven't.
Speaker 2: But I don't even mean in a personal sense. I
Speaker 2: mean as an onlooker, as a fan, as a viewer
Speaker 2: a film TV the Red Table. She doesn't have a
Speaker 2: problem with defending herself as an orator. She's not some damsel.
Speaker 1: That The reason I said that because for those that
Speaker 1: don't know, Q actually does meet these people. Q has
Speaker 1: met Will Smith. He actually lives that life, and that's
Speaker 1: why it was a joke. Of course they haven't you have.
Speaker 2: And pointing that out as to why this night was
Speaker 2: so difficult for me. Some of the best advice I
Speaker 2: got as a young man trying to come into my
Speaker 2: own as a professional was from Will Smith at his home.
Speaker 1: So I was let down in a very personal way.
Speaker 1: The other night.
Speaker 2: I watched it about to happen, thinking there's no way
Speaker 2: that this is about to happen. And I think the
Speaker 2: reason why so many people's response was this has to
Speaker 2: be fake is because in their mind, it could not
Speaker 2: be real that he would do that to him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I brought up the idea that this somehow
Speaker 2: proved that he didn't belong in that room, and how
Speaker 2: ridiculous that seems. However, the action in and of itself
Speaker 2: proves the detractor right. I'm going to to add some
Speaker 2: levity or make light of a situation I used to manage.
Speaker 2: I used to be a road manager for comedians, most
Speaker 2: noteworthy of them Earthquake.
Speaker 1: Who's Special just dropped on Netflix. Check it out. It's
Speaker 1: hilarious part of their yearly calendar.
Speaker 2: At some point there is a space in the routing
Speaker 2: for those guys to leave the country and go support
Speaker 2: our troops. Earthquake bo Hugh Ley, like all of the
Speaker 2: biggest and best touring comedians, took some time out to
Speaker 2: go make our troops laugh, you know, in Japan and
Speaker 2: all over the world where our troops are based away
Speaker 2: from their families, defending our freedoms. And I'll never forget
Speaker 2: DL bringing up a story where on one of the bases,
Speaker 2: you know, the black guys show up at Popeyes, and
Speaker 2: the manager in Popeyes comes from behind the counter and says,
Speaker 2: I knew you would come. He meant this in the
Speaker 2: most racist way possible, except the black men are standing
Speaker 2: in Popeyes right and now all you can do is
Speaker 2: laugh at the truth and what should have been insulting
Speaker 2: When you walk on stage and you slap Chris Rock
Speaker 2: in the face ten minutes before you win the Best
Speaker 2: Actor Award, all the people that want to say that
Speaker 2: the best of us are still not them because we
Speaker 2: are prone to violence, because we can't articulate, because we
Speaker 2: can't problem solve our way out of stuff.
Speaker 1: We just want to fight that's the weight and hold on,
Speaker 1: let me let me, let me just say this, that
Speaker 1: weight is unfair. It is because you know what, as
Speaker 1: I mentioned in my monologue for my other show, I'm
Speaker 1: not Will Smith, every individual person should be able to
Speaker 1: make their decisions and be judged by their individual decisions. Right.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not the sort of person that laughs
Speaker 1: in the movie theater or talks throughout the horror movies.
Speaker 1: I don't even watch horror movies, but I am. It's
Speaker 1: sort of married to that stereotype. So I have to
Speaker 1: be extra careful. When I leave a hotel room. I
Speaker 1: try my best to leave it clean because the last
Speaker 1: thing I need is for somebody who is not black
Speaker 1: to come in there and be like, black people are
Speaker 1: so dirty, right, reinforcing I'm somehow reinforcing some not completely
Speaker 1: asinine stereotype, you know, And it's unfair to have to
Speaker 1: live under that pressure. You know, Will Smith walking on
Speaker 1: stage slapping Chris Rock sets me back because now the
Speaker 1: next time I get angry about something, you know, I
Speaker 1: have to be mindful of the fact that now people
Speaker 1: are looking like, I don't know what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to be afraid of me.
Speaker 1: I'm not Will Smith. I'm a different person. And so
Speaker 1: that's I believe a very different experience than from white folks,
Speaker 1: because again, if thoms Hank slaps someone, white people don't
Speaker 1: wear that in the same way. And I think that
Speaker 1: is kind of what I wanted to press when I
Speaker 1: was writing this. Now, we do have to take a
Speaker 1: break right here, but we're going to come back with
Speaker 1: a little bit more