Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsy's job. He is h I am q Ward. You
Speaker 1: are tuned into Civic Cipher, Yes, and we got a
Speaker 1: lot for you to stick around for. We had an
Speaker 1: interesting Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior holiday, and we
Speaker 1: realized that a lot of people really don't know the
Speaker 1: man that we, to be fair, had to had to
Speaker 1: come to know and study, and this version of him
Speaker 1: that has been whitewashed and romanticized is in some ways
Speaker 1: a far cry from the actual man that lived. This
Speaker 1: guy was prolific, and you know, he's almost it's almost
Speaker 1: like he's reduced every holiday to just his I have
Speaker 1: a dream speech and a couple the choice quotes that
Speaker 1: really they've kind of put him in a category with
Speaker 1: Santa Claus right right, and that's not really fair. So
Speaker 1: we're going to take some time and really flesh out
Speaker 1: a little bit more of Doctor King what he stood for.
Speaker 1: And we're going to do that a little later in
Speaker 1: the show by reading his letter from a Birmingham Jail,
Speaker 1: which is a really profound letter. We can't read it all,
Speaker 1: but certainly want to share some parts of it with you.
Speaker 1: And give you a little bit more depth on the
Speaker 1: man that was Doctor King and all that he stood for. Also,
Speaker 1: we're going to take some time and point out the
Speaker 1: hypocrisy found most prominently in the GOP in this country
Speaker 1: when it comes to Doctor King's holiday, where again they
Speaker 1: take little bits and pieces of his life and kind
Speaker 1: of throw a quote up here and there for cloud,
Speaker 1: But they in no way stand for anything that Doctor
Speaker 1: King stood for. So it's up to us to point
Speaker 1: that out and to teach what we know. But first
Speaker 1: and foremost, we're gonna start off on a high, as
Speaker 1: we do, with some ebony excellence. Q Shall we we shall?
Speaker 1: This week's any Excellence sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly Media
Speaker 1: and brought to you or this The source material rather
Speaker 1: is NPR dot Org. Shout out to NPR. I'm always
Speaker 1: gonna love those guys. Anyway, we are going to pay
Speaker 1: particular attention to Black Panther Wakanda Forever. This is our
Speaker 1: example of ebony excellence this week because the movie not
Speaker 1: only did it do well in the box office, but
Speaker 1: it's done well critically and it actually earned twelve NAACP
Speaker 1: Image Awards nominations. With The Woman King and Abbot Elementary,
Speaker 1: also earning top nominations. But the sequel, which is where
Speaker 1: the Marvel film delved into the concept of Wakanda's grief
Speaker 1: in the wake of the death of T'Challa, a character
Speaker 1: played by Chad with Boseman who died in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: went on to create so much of a cultural impact
Speaker 1: and so much of a cultural moment, obviously bringing stars
Speaker 1: like Angela Bassett to the forefront as well as you know,
Speaker 1: many other people that worked on the film like behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. And then of course we can't say enough
Speaker 1: about the director, Ryan Coopler. But the fact is is
Speaker 1: that you know, in all all the nominees have conveyed
Speaker 1: a wide range of authentic stories and diverse experiences that
Speaker 1: have resonated with many in the black community. And this
Speaker 1: comes from Derek Johnson, the President and CEO of the NAACP,
Speaker 1: and he says, we're proud to recognize their outstanding achievements
Speaker 1: and performances, but you know, leading the way, of course,
Speaker 1: Wakanda Forever Black Panther with twelve NAACP Image Awards is
Speaker 1: just a remarkable fee and definitely have any excellence. Now
Speaker 1: hopefully they get a bunch of wins. That's what we're hoping. Now.
Speaker 1: How did you spend your m okay holiday? Q? At work? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I happen to know that you didn't just work, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you did have to work. I get that, but we
Speaker 1: also had to work in this space as we do
Speaker 1: and kind of share a little bit more stories and
Speaker 1: give a little bit more insight. And I don't think
Speaker 1: we can call what we did after work work not
Speaker 1: this time, well it was. It was kind of in
Speaker 1: the same spirit as work, but that was a little
Speaker 1: bit more fun. Admittedly, we got a chance to sit
Speaker 1: down and interview with a good friend of ours, but
Speaker 1: we definitely did fellowship in the name of doctor King
Speaker 1: and for that reason on that day. But also one
Speaker 1: of the things that we did, you know, with the
Speaker 1: time off, you know whatever, you get a chance to
Speaker 1: kind of check in with social media, you get a
Speaker 1: chance to tap in with people you haven't heard from
Speaker 1: an while. And of course, you know, with Q and
Speaker 1: I working in this space, you know, folks think of us,
Speaker 1: you know, being in the space where we're trying to
Speaker 1: kind of create a more equitable world along racial lines,
Speaker 1: and you know, for some of our friends and people
Speaker 1: that were connected with we're top of mind, and so
Speaker 1: things get sent our way. I want to take a
Speaker 1: moment and shout out and instagram handle live Love, Sorry,
Speaker 1: Live Love, Liberate. She's a good friend of mine and
Speaker 1: a good friend of the show, and she managed to
Speaker 1: compile a bunch of stuff that really illustrates the delusion
Speaker 1: that has found its way in recent years to right
Speaker 1: wing social media platforms, certainly right wing political platforms, and
Speaker 1: in no way represent the reality of what doctor King
Speaker 1: stood for. And it feels a little bit insulting that
Speaker 1: they would take Doctor King's words stand on them, at
Speaker 1: least in a digital space, saying that this was a
Speaker 1: great man and these things that he said were so profound,
Speaker 1: and we're glad that the country has reached this level,
Speaker 1: and so forth and so on, and then the other
Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty four days of the year actively
Speaker 1: work against what not only what he would wrote in
Speaker 1: his letters and has given his sermons, but even in
Speaker 1: the I have a dream speech which is in and
Speaker 1: of itself picked apart and used oftentimes out of context
Speaker 1: by these folks. And it's up to us to kind
Speaker 1: of set the record straight, you know, the hypocrisy we do.
Speaker 1: I thank you hypocrisy. We point out a lot of
Speaker 1: hypocrisy and in all you know, political arenas, but not
Speaker 1: enough can be said about the extreme hypocrisy that we
Speaker 1: find in you know, conservative circles. It's it's the strangest thing.
Speaker 1: It's they're so it's like it's like watching crazy people,
Speaker 1: but there's so many crazy people sharing the delusion that
Speaker 1: you can't convince them that they're crazy. Right, But I
Speaker 1: will read to you exactly what made its way to us,
Speaker 1: and we'll discuss and you can see, you know, and
Speaker 1: decide for yourself if in fact this is crazy, this
Speaker 1: is a delusion. So let's start one of the things.
Speaker 1: And this was just a meme that was sent along
Speaker 1: that I thought was kind of important, uh, for us,
Speaker 1: you know, getting into this subject matter right now. The
Speaker 1: meme was a child holding a poster and the poster says,
Speaker 1: stop using MLK as an example of a peaceful protest.
Speaker 1: You shot him too, I was heavy, right, Yeah? Right?
Speaker 1: Is this there's nothing you can do that's good enough? Right?
Speaker 1: And and we're gonna get a little bit more into
Speaker 1: that when we get into the letter from a Birmingham
Speaker 1: ham jail for our way Black history factor. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, doctor King was certainly one of those people
Speaker 1: that had to push back against folks you know of
Speaker 1: the cloth, you know, ministers and pastors and preachers pushing
Speaker 1: back on him, telling him that he should not protest
Speaker 1: in a non violent way. Right. And bear in mind
Speaker 1: that his approval rating again was twenty percent when he
Speaker 1: was alive. Twenty percent. Now everybody looks back and go
Speaker 1: doctor King, you know, but when he was alive, eighty
Speaker 1: percent of the people disapproved of him, his methods, what
Speaker 1: he stood for, his face, whatever. You know, people just
Speaker 1: didn't like him. And that's something that this country loves
Speaker 1: to forget. I don't forget that, all right. First up,
Speaker 1: Rand Paul. Okay, so Rand Paul is, you know, again
Speaker 1: a conservative politician. Rand Paul quoting doctor King on anything
Speaker 1: is laughable. Isn't that crazy? So here's a a It
Speaker 1: looks like a tweet from Rand Paul. It says, as
Speaker 1: we honor MLK today, may his courage inspire us to
Speaker 1: redouble our commitment to working together for change. Let's commemorate
Speaker 1: the life of doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. By uniting
Speaker 1: the two Americas into one. In America that includes just
Speaker 1: dot dot dot. Okay, so this is, you know, the
Speaker 1: tweet as you get the idea, to get the gist
Speaker 1: of it. And then in the screencap that was sent
Speaker 1: to me, there's an article and the headline says how
Speaker 1: Ran Paul blocked the Immit till Anti lynching bill while
Speaker 1: the nation more on George Floyd. So this man talking
Speaker 1: about commemorating the life of doctor King, uniting the two
Speaker 1: Americas and so forth and so on. It feels like,
Speaker 1: you know, what it takes to unite the two Americas
Speaker 1: is to recognize that the two Americas have different views,
Speaker 1: have different concerns, and different realities. Right, this is something
Speaker 1: that I'm sure every politician can understand. But when you
Speaker 1: fail to account for one of those facets, one of
Speaker 1: those elements, halps, it seems less like I want to
Speaker 1: work together and more like I want to seize more
Speaker 1: power and subject you to my reality. Who in the
Speaker 1: world and I need you to be okay with that? Right?
Speaker 1: Thank you? Who in the world would block the Immit
Speaker 1: till Anti lynching bill while the nation was mourning George Floyd?
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't even need the second part. Who
Speaker 1: would block an anti lynching bill period. And see it's
Speaker 1: it's these things that feel so hurtful, and it's like
Speaker 1: everybody's just ignores this and keeps voting for these guys.
Speaker 1: And that's I don't go ahead. I think you are
Speaker 1: providing too much grace.
Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead, because I do not think that all
Speaker 2: the people that this men are ignoring that them that's
Speaker 2: why they're voting.
Speaker 1: For sure, I'll give you that. But so if that
Speaker 1: is true, then why pull a quote and post it
Speaker 1: on your social media, ran Paul?
Speaker 2: Because even racist, bigoted, despicable people don't want you to
Speaker 2: think that of them. Crazy racist people don't even like
Speaker 2: being called racist while doing racist things.
Speaker 1: Hey, when you're right, you're right man. But you know
Speaker 1: the craziest part about this is that it feels like
Speaker 1: there's like, to a person like me, why would you
Speaker 1: quote doctor King? Why why not quote you know, Roberty Lee,
Speaker 1: you know, or one of your like real heroes, you know,
Speaker 1: people that would also be opposed to the imit till
Speaker 1: anti lynching bill. Right, since this, you know, your voting
Speaker 1: record shows me where your values are. Why not, you know,
Speaker 1: quote a person like that? Why even celebrate doctor King's Day?
Speaker 1: And it feels like they want to get some of
Speaker 1: that Doctor King clout. Now that they've whitewashed the legacy,
Speaker 1: they want to cash in on it. Right, So I
Speaker 1: think that what you're saying is absolutely right, just adding
Speaker 1: a couple of layers are a little bit more seasoning
Speaker 1: to it. But yeah, man, this is this is the
Speaker 1: strangest thing. I've never seen anything like it. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go on, Ron DeSantis, there's another name. He's the
Speaker 1: guy from is that governor indeed Florida Governor rond de Santis.
Speaker 1: So suffice it to say, he just you know, copied
Speaker 1: a you know, a meme or screen, you know, a
Speaker 1: photo of doctor King standing next to a cutout of
Speaker 1: his I have a dream speech right, the text right,
Speaker 1: and then above the photo he put happy MLK Day
Speaker 1: with an exclamation point, and that, you know, the cutout
Speaker 1: is the you know, I have a dream that one
Speaker 1: day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and every mountain, shell,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Blah blah blah. Right, And the person that
Speaker 1: grabbed this entire scream, grab and send it over to me,
Speaker 1: responded to Ronda Santis, saying, pretty close to that horrible crt,
Speaker 1: like that that's that's Black history right there. You sure
Speaker 1: that's what you want to do. And for those that
Speaker 1: don't know, this guy, Rondasantis has been perhaps the biggest
Speaker 1: and most vocal opponent of CRT or in fact, American history,
Speaker 1: teaching American history in schools right based off of nothing,
Speaker 1: based off of some imaginary boogeyman, kids are going to
Speaker 1: be sad and not you know, love the country and
Speaker 1: feel bad about themselves or whatever, which in my estimation
Speaker 1: is complete and utter nonsense. It feels very unfair, and
Speaker 1: it feels like another whitewashing of history, and it's dangerous.
Speaker 1: But it's particularly hurtful when this person, who does not
Speaker 1: want us as a country to look back, certainly doesn't
Speaker 1: want our children to look back, will readily pool from
Speaker 1: black history when it keeps him slightly i mean, in
Speaker 1: terms of the optics, looking slightly less racist than he
Speaker 1: absolutely is, absolutely is right. And again, these are things
Speaker 1: that you need to know. Not everybody that you know
Speaker 1: quotes the Bible, is you know, going to heaven? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's some sort of even a believer. Sure
Speaker 1: there's some sort of anecdote that I've heard growing up.
Speaker 1: I come from a Christian tradition in my house, and
Speaker 1: so there are these little things that we passed around
Speaker 1: back and forth. But you know, the same seems to
Speaker 1: be true here with the in the political arena with
Speaker 1: respect to doctor King. Here's a funny one. The actual
Speaker 1: at GOP social media handle, which is I'm assuming the
Speaker 1: handle for the entirety of the political party known as
Speaker 1: Republicans in this country. They're just they just put a
Speaker 1: post that says happy Martin Luther King Day. And this
Speaker 1: is just sort of funny because the person also responded
Speaker 1: with a clip clippy the clip art and it says, hi,
Speaker 1: it looks like you're quoting doctor Martin Luther King Junior
Speaker 1: to try to hide the fact that you give comfort
Speaker 1: to racist Would you like some help logging out forever?
Speaker 1: That's awesome? Yeah, man, it's crazy, but you know that
Speaker 1: one doesn't have as much you know, teeth in it
Speaker 1: in it from a journalistic standpoint, but it's just sort
Speaker 1: of something that's a little bit funny. Let's go to
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz has has a post that and
Speaker 1: we know we realized this was from last weekend, but
Speaker 1: we had to talk about this because if we don't
Speaker 1: point out this these hypocrisies, then you may associate these
Speaker 1: backwards political leaders on the right with an actual American
Speaker 1: hero who probably would be more left than everybody that
Speaker 1: even I know, and I'm way over there on the
Speaker 1: left man, But you know, Ted Cruz, he put a
Speaker 1: post that says, today we honor the life and legacy
Speaker 1: of doctor Martin Luther King Junior. Pretty standard. And then
Speaker 1: there's like a photo of doctor King, you know, everything
Speaker 1: like that. And then there's a picture of him interrogating
Speaker 1: or interviewing whatever you want to call it, Judge Katanji
Speaker 1: Brown Jackson, and he's holding up the children's book. You
Speaker 1: remember that scene on the floor of the children's book
Speaker 1: was like basically an educational book for children about race
Speaker 1: and so forth. And so again, doctor King was certainly
Speaker 1: about educating, certainly about together in his fellowship. So forth,
Speaker 1: we need to understand each other, we need to support
Speaker 1: each other, help each other. And then Ted Cruz, almost
Speaker 1: everything that he's done in this space has been If
Speaker 1: doctor King were still alive, Ted Cruz would, based on
Speaker 1: his track record, would stand in opposition to almost everything
Speaker 1: Doctor King stood everything, And so again, just pulling a
Speaker 1: little bit of political. They reworked the image of Doctor
Speaker 1: King because he wasn't Malcolm X. It reworked him, made
Speaker 1: him a little bit more, you know, a friendly like
Speaker 1: you said, made him into basically Santa Claus, and then
Speaker 1: took him for themselves. And it feels like, wait, you know,
Speaker 1: and we've seen this happen with music we're rock and
Speaker 1: roll with, you know, We've seen it happen time and
Speaker 1: again with all bits and of our culture. It's taken
Speaker 1: from us, it's whitewashed and repackaged, you know, for a
Speaker 1: white audience. But to see this happen with Doctor King,
Speaker 1: someone who in many ways is a moral guidepost for
Speaker 1: not just black people, but for this entire country, to
Speaker 1: have his legacy and his story be co opted, his
Speaker 1: words be co opted and used in these circles where
Speaker 1: the source of the hatred that we're dealing with, the
Speaker 1: source of the conflicts. I mean, we can't figure this
Speaker 1: gun stuff out. We can't figure none of this stuff out.
Speaker 1: And often enough, it's those people on that side of
Speaker 1: the aisle that are standing in the way, and as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, very intentionally out loud, not hiding it. They
Speaker 1: wide open and then all of a sudden, Doctor King's
Speaker 1: Holiday comes around and everybody's like, oh yeah, Kumbaya, and
Speaker 1: then the day after they get right back to it.
Speaker 1: All right, let me let me continue. Here's another name,
Speaker 1: you know. Mitch McConnell, uh says, today we honor an
Speaker 1: American hero, the Reverend doctor Martin Luther King Junior. His
Speaker 1: dream of equal justice and the abundant opportunity inspired our
Speaker 1: nation to make historic progress and continue to make us
Speaker 1: better to this day. And this quote was superimposed this
Speaker 1: quote that he This tweet rather for Mitch McConnell is packaged,
Speaker 1: as it was sent to me, was packaged with a
Speaker 1: photo of Mitch McConnell receiving an award standing in front
Speaker 1: of a gigantic Confederate flag, and he's old as dirt,
Speaker 1: so these basically the same age as he is now.
Speaker 1: So clearly this person wants the image of Doctor King.
Speaker 1: But Doctor King was really about, you know, togetherness, and
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell just uses words, but you know, standing in
Speaker 1: front of that flag, you'd be hard and pressed to
Speaker 1: make a case that that's what you're really on.
Speaker 2: It's like they've gone out of their way to make
Speaker 2: Doctor King benign Yeah, toothless soft, a word that you
Speaker 2: often used to remind people that you aren't. So they
Speaker 2: want him to be perceived that way. So it's not
Speaker 2: just whitewashing but making him harmless. Right, in many ways,
Speaker 2: it can't be perceived that he was at one point
Speaker 2: opposed to and by the government.
Speaker 1: Yeah right.
Speaker 2: So now that his reproval rating is one hundred and
Speaker 2: the most romanticized parts of the dream sweech, because I
Speaker 2: have a dream speech in and of itself, it's not
Speaker 2: even all kumbaya, but patch that way very intentionally to
Speaker 2: take out this really really sweet, really really warm part,
Speaker 2: make it very very hallmark, make him very very animated,
Speaker 2: make him very very much a character. Right, And like
Speaker 2: I said, of a nine harmless, toothless, warm, soft character
Speaker 2: when he was at his core, the opposite of all
Speaker 2: of that, and more selflessly for us probably than anyone. Ever,
Speaker 2: how about that, like his his his rap sheet with
Speaker 2: regards to the causes that helped us, long and impenetrable,
Speaker 2: that that part of his legacy cannot be tarnished or
Speaker 2: questioned for real willing to sacrifice at all as he
Speaker 2: ultimately did for all of us and not just skinfolk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and this is another thing that we need
Speaker 1: to share with you. You know, for those who don't know,
Speaker 1: when doctor King was assassinated, it was because he had
Speaker 1: gone to Tennessee to work with poor people. You know,
Speaker 1: he was trying to get you know, workers rights, labor rights,
Speaker 1: you know, fair compensation, et cetera. Issues that were still
Speaker 1: dealing with in this country today. Issues that you know,
Speaker 1: the Republican Party would stand opposed to, as they have
Speaker 1: done for the past couple of years. And you know,
Speaker 1: once he turned that corner, you know, once it wasn't
Speaker 1: about hey, can we use the same bathroom or drink
Speaker 1: from the same water fountain or sit at the same
Speaker 1: lunch counter. Once it was like once it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're coming after you know, our war, coming after you know,
Speaker 1: our money, or you know, creating cohesion between poor people
Speaker 1: and poor whites and poor blacks. You know, then it
Speaker 1: became okay, well, this is this guy has got too
Speaker 1: much power. Once his approval ratings started to tick upward
Speaker 1: because he's now reaching into new communities and identifying commonalities,
Speaker 1: then it becomes more problematic. So you know, this list
Speaker 1: goes on Lauren Bobert and whoever else the rest of
Speaker 1: these people are more of the same. The details, but
Speaker 1: I do want to leave you with this. Here's a
Speaker 1: tweet from Bernice King, which is doctor King's daughter. She says,
Speaker 1: if you're going to quote and authentically honor my father
Speaker 1: on MLK Day, commit to embracing a world house perspective,
Speaker 1: determine how you'll disrupt unjust systems and thinking with non
Speaker 1: violent strategy, which that was doctor King. That was what
Speaker 1: he was about, nonviolence, and that's what they took. They
Speaker 1: preferred him to Stokelye and to you know, uh uh
Speaker 1: Malcolm Malcolm and James Baldwin everyone else. Doctor King was
Speaker 1: a minister and you know, anyway, I'll continue support policies
Speaker 1: that reflect higher consciousness and make no excuses for hate.
Speaker 1: So this comes directly from his daughter. This is what
Speaker 1: you need to do on doctor King's birthday, and unfortunately
Speaker 1: we have not seen that from our conservative branch.