Speaker 1: And now watching my mic back like that.
Speaker 2: Strike from headquarters behind in the if.
Speaker 3: You just turn in City Cipher, I'm your host, Ramses,
Speaker 3: John he is Ramseys, John, I am h Ward. You
Speaker 3: are still, I hope listening to civic Siety, and.
Speaker 1: We appreciate that we've got more to cover, a lot
Speaker 1: to sticking around for. We are going to be talking
Speaker 1: about an interesting pole that showed the Trump voters say
Speaker 1: racism against white people, white Americans is a bigger problem
Speaker 1: than racism against Black Americans, and we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: dissect that. There's some numbers, some massive data, so stick
Speaker 1: with us, but definitely something we have to talk about.
Speaker 1: We're also gonna spend a little time discussing a very
Speaker 1: very special woman, Freddie Washington. She's an actress, was long
Speaker 1: passed away, but she's one of the early black actresses
Speaker 1: and we're going to kind of detail her path in
Speaker 1: the film industry. But first and foremost, we are going
Speaker 1: to discuss b A b A becoming a better ally Abye.
Speaker 1: And we do have a little bit of audio video
Speaker 1: for you because this one is kind of cool. But
Speaker 1: I'll read and by the way, Today's Bye Bye sponsored
Speaker 1: by Unknown Union the fashion house situated at the intersection
Speaker 1: of meaning, innovation, and culture. For more info, check Unknown
Speaker 1: Union dot com. All right, what you're about to hear
Speaker 1: is Jesse Water's mother. She's a Democrat who called into
Speaker 1: his first show in Tucker Carlson's time slot on Fox
Speaker 1: News and tried to set him up with some guidance
Speaker 1: live on the air. Let's play the video. We have
Speaker 1: a very special guest on the line, a Democrat.
Speaker 4: My mom, Mom, Hello.
Speaker 3: Are you pullo there?
Speaker 4: Mom?
Speaker 1: How have you enjoyed the show so far?
Speaker 4: I have enjoyed the show. I want to say congratulation,
Speaker 4: Tunny Bunn. We are so proud of you and your accomplishments,
Speaker 4: and you've worked so hard. Now let's aim to have
Speaker 4: you keep your job and so that ends. I do
Speaker 4: have some suggestions. Do not tumble into any conspiracy rabbit holes.
Speaker 4: We do not want to lose you, and we want
Speaker 4: no lawsuits. Okay, In keeping I have a list here.
Speaker 4: In keeping with the hippocratic oath, do no harm. We
Speaker 4: need you to be kind and respectful. You yourself mentioned
Speaker 4: that humble is a stretch, so I guess that use
Speaker 4: your voice responsibly to promote conversations and that maintains a
Speaker 4: narrative thread. There really has been enough Biden bashing, and
Speaker 4: the laptop is old collapsed. You could suggest that your
Speaker 4: people take less interest, for example, in other people's bodies
Speaker 4: and talk about that.
Speaker 1: All right. So that was masterful mother's voice and words,
Speaker 1: and hopefully her son does better than Tuckle Carlson. Tucker
Speaker 1: Carlson did in that time slide really driving a wedge
Speaker 1: in between all of us in this country. Moving on,
Speaker 1: let's talk about this poll, all right. You know what's coming,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna read the headline and we'll get to it.
Speaker 1: Yahoo News is where this is coming from. The headline
Speaker 1: reads poll Trump voters say racism against white Americans is
Speaker 1: a bigger problem than racism against Black Americans. The polling
Speaker 1: follows the dismissal of a lawsuit put forth by the
Speaker 1: survivors of the Tulsa race massacre, which many saw as
Speaker 1: a potential blueprint for reparation efforts. As public support for
Speaker 1: reparation for African Americans remain stubbornly low, a New York
Speaker 1: News Slash YUGA poll reveals one major roadblock. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: voters believe that racism against white Americans has become a
Speaker 1: bigger problem than racism against black Americans. I'm want to
Speaker 1: read a little bit of these numbers just so we
Speaker 1: can get started. The survey of six hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: eight US adults, which was conducted from July thirteen through seventeen,
Speaker 1: shows that among twenty twenty Trump voters, sixty two percent
Speaker 1: say that racism against Black Americans is a problem today,
Speaker 1: while seventy three percent say that racism against white Americans
Speaker 1: is a problem. All right, there's more, but we got
Speaker 1: to take a pregnant pause right here. Let's break this
Speaker 1: down now. I need to be fair and I need
Speaker 1: to unfortunately approach this as though it may have I
Speaker 1: can't even say it. It's hard to say it.
Speaker 3: In case you were going to say, you have to
Speaker 3: approach it like it may have some merit. Let me
Speaker 3: do you one better approach it as if you were
Speaker 3: completely ignorant to either side.
Speaker 1: Of the argus.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm trying to say. That is a much
Speaker 3: better that's thank you, Q. That was to be as
Speaker 3: intelligent as you are and pretend that it has some merit,
Speaker 3: because I can't say that it's like, oh god, okay,
Speaker 3: and yes, that was me live reading Ramses's mind.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was perfect excellent.
Speaker 3: I just want you all to see you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. But it's because of y'all.
Speaker 1: All right, So if I don't know any better and
Speaker 1: I'm reading this, then I might say, oh no, what
Speaker 1: is the source of this problem? This is a new phenomenon.
Speaker 1: Where is this coming from? How do we fix it,
Speaker 1: how do we address it, etc. Right, you know, not
Speaker 1: strictly speaking of scientific method, but somewhat scientific in nature.
Speaker 1: Let's identify the root cause and determine what we can
Speaker 1: do about it. Okay, so let's start there. Now. If
Speaker 1: I have access to a decent amount of knowledge political, interpersonal, social,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Knowledge as a citizen in this country, what
Speaker 1: I would deduce is that white people, in particular white men,
Speaker 1: feel like they are under attack because a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that white men would typically do and no
Speaker 1: one would be deny, are now under attack. We learned
Speaker 1: this during the Me Too movement, when a lot of
Speaker 1: executives and heroes and this white and otherwise had to
Speaker 1: come to terms with the fact that our sisters were
Speaker 1: redefining what they would accept in a professional environment. And
Speaker 1: we all had to listen to that, and we all
Speaker 1: had to learn from that, and not even just men,
Speaker 1: women had to learn that too. We all had to learn.
Speaker 1: But in my estimation, the biggest pushback came from people
Speaker 1: who were thoroughly accustomed to moving and maneuvering in a
Speaker 1: space like that, unencumbered by external influence, regulations, public scrutiny,
Speaker 1: et cetera. So there's one way the fact that there
Speaker 1: are have been, at least historically offsets introduced into society
Speaker 1: to bring about some sort of balance to outcomes in
Speaker 1: hiring practices, in educational opportunities, et cetera, to make sure
Speaker 1: that we have enough women because women were the largest
Speaker 1: beneficiaries of affirmative action, and we have enough people from
Speaker 1: all races.
Speaker 3: Women. Women being the largest benefactor of affirmative action put
Speaker 3: a pin in that for me, please gotcha.
Speaker 1: But white men felt like it came at their expense.
Speaker 1: There was a sense of entitlement there. You're taking it
Speaker 1: from me specifically, or my type of person and giving
Speaker 1: it to whoever else. Right, it shows kind of how
Speaker 1: the thinking maybe for a white man who is straight, healthy, Christian,
Speaker 1: and American, Right, there's an assumption that your path is
Speaker 1: going to look a certain way and it will be
Speaker 1: unencumbered by those type of setbacks and roadblocks. Now, if
Speaker 1: you felt that way in the past and you're reconciling
Speaker 1: all of these movements black lives matter, you know, the
Speaker 1: police never bother me. If you just do what the
Speaker 1: police say, then they won't bother you. You know. Not
Speaker 1: all men are like that, you know. And then they
Speaker 1: don't seek to change the culture themselves. They're just like, well, listen,
Speaker 1: that's not my problem, you know the whole it's not
Speaker 1: my problem sort of the thing, right, And then when
Speaker 1: they look at when the solutions are coming about, hey hey, hey,
Speaker 1: those solutions might affect me, then they start to develop
Speaker 1: an alternative narrative which people like Tucker Carlson can feed
Speaker 1: into for profit, that suggests that they are now being
Speaker 1: discriminated against, when the truth is we've probably pushed a
Speaker 1: modicum of distance further toward a fairer society. But the
Speaker 1: backlash has manifested in poll numbers like these, which suggests
Speaker 1: that again, these Trump voters feel like discrimination and racism
Speaker 1: against white people is a bigger problem than it ever
Speaker 1: has been, an indeed, a bigger problem than the discrimination
Speaker 1: against black people. So if I'm looking at this as
Speaker 1: objectively as I possibly can, there is the shred of
Speaker 1: I gotta be careful how I say this. That is
Speaker 1: as much it's hard to dignify a statement like this,
Speaker 1: It's very hard to do it, but I have to
Speaker 1: because we are professionals, and you know, the version of
Speaker 1: me that goes home at night and lives at home
Speaker 1: and I realizes that this is nonsense. I don't mind
Speaker 1: saying that on the air, but the version of me
Speaker 1: that is here has to be willing to have a
Speaker 1: conversation and articulate his viewpoints.
Speaker 3: Issue with said conversations, however, is at some point in
Speaker 3: every conversation both parties have to agree on what facts are, yeah,
Speaker 3: and then if you can't, then there's no point in.
Speaker 1: Having the conversation. Well, what we do here, oftentimes for
Speaker 1: the benefit of all of you, our listeners, is we
Speaker 1: try to have conversations and assume what the other side
Speaker 1: is feeling, thinking, saying, and the source of their issue
Speaker 1: major malfunction, gripe, you know whatever. And we are not
Speaker 1: anything other than what we are. We are two black men,
Speaker 1: we are in our early forties, We started this show
Speaker 1: in our late thirties. We grew up in you know,
Speaker 1: he was from Detroit. I'm from Compton, California, and we
Speaker 1: both lived many years in Phoenix, Arizona, which is a
Speaker 1: very red state that happened to get their act together
Speaker 1: in the past election, but it's still very red. All
Speaker 1: the powers concentrated in the deeply read, deeply conservative facets
Speaker 1: of society out here, and so this is something that
Speaker 1: we deal with. So we have a pretty fair to
Speaker 1: form experience of what black life in America is. We
Speaker 1: do not profess to be white men or know what
Speaker 1: life is like for them, but we do talk with
Speaker 1: white men. We just don't have back and forth. We
Speaker 1: don't tongue wrestle with anybody in this space. We do
Speaker 1: our best to broadcast the balance. If you need all
Speaker 1: that nonsense, there's plenty of channels that will give it
Speaker 1: to you. We learned that in twenty twenty. But where
Speaker 1: we are now is again right here, I'm going to
Speaker 1: read a little bit more, just because we still have
Speaker 1: a little bit more to flesh out. Okay, ask how
Speaker 1: much of a problem racism currently is Just nineteen percent
Speaker 1: of Trump voters describe racism against Black Americans as a
Speaker 1: big problem twice as many say racism against white Americans
Speaker 1: is a big problem. So what you're having here is
Speaker 1: is like a paradigm shift, a mental paradigm shift for
Speaker 1: these Trump voters. And again, this isn't everybody, this is
Speaker 1: just Trump voters. But for them to say, or nineteen
Speaker 1: percent of them to say racism against Black Americans is
Speaker 1: a big problem, to me, that suggests that there's eighty
Speaker 1: one percent that don't feel that way. Okay, that's it's
Speaker 1: a huge number. Eighty one percent don't feel like racism
Speaker 1: against black Americans is a big problem, But thirty seven
Speaker 1: percent saying racism against white Americans is a big problem.
Speaker 1: That to me suggests that something we've talked about on
Speaker 1: the show. The media has managed to do the bidding
Speaker 1: of our political and corporate overlords, which, whilst lining their
Speaker 1: pockets using the fabric of the American dream, promised to
Speaker 1: what is very often these straight Christian, white, healthy males
Speaker 1: and stealing the opportunities to gain wealth and hoarding it
Speaker 1: for themselves, and on and on again, using the media
Speaker 1: to shift the narrative away from corporate greed to hey,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the black people. You know, it's them
Speaker 1: Mexican pekers, others, excuse me, others. It could be Jewish,
Speaker 1: it could be whoever. Anybody that's not us is taking
Speaker 1: your opportunities from you. Right, and mind that as you
Speaker 1: struggle to pay your mortgage. Last month, I got record profits.
Speaker 3: I not only did my company do record profits, but
Speaker 3: I also awarded myself a very healthy bonus. Ignore that completely.
Speaker 3: Your neighbor who lives next door to you, is really
Speaker 3: the reason why things have been so difficult for me.
Speaker 1: Listen, and this is the reason why we can't get
Speaker 1: these guns and these mass shootings to stop. There's so
Speaker 1: much power, there's so much money in politics. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know that this is kind of the same old song.
Speaker 1: It's always been long before we're born, and I hope
Speaker 1: it won't be this way after we're gone. But it
Speaker 1: is certainly the truth now. But the fact is is
Speaker 1: that how about this. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, right,
Speaker 1: we know this, and and and he's not the only one.
Speaker 1: There's there's you know, there's a lot of influence there.
Speaker 1: Rupert Murdock owns Fox News, you know, and these people
Speaker 1: are invested in more than just one thing. You can't
Speaker 1: be invested in just one thing and be a billionaire. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess you can, but most folks are not. They're
Speaker 1: very much diversified and they have a lot of interests.
Speaker 1: And in order to have that sort of runaway well,
Speaker 1: they also need political influence. You not only need an
Speaker 1: excellent business strategy, but you need political influence to pave
Speaker 1: the way for unfettered capitalism in your in your specific instance,
Speaker 1: and effectively, what you end up doing is robbing the
Speaker 1: middle class of America for that money and stomping on
Speaker 1: four people. Right. And trust me when I say there's
Speaker 1: a lot of poor white people in this country, and
Speaker 1: a lot of them are women. And it ain't that
Speaker 1: many black people in them trailers.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a lot of poor white Republicans. Oh,
Speaker 3: we that help uphold this uphold this system that continues
Speaker 3: to oppress them.
Speaker 1: So watch this, I'm want to read it again. Ask
Speaker 1: how much of a problem racism it currently is? Just
Speaker 1: nineteen percent of Trump voters describe racism against black Americans
Speaker 1: is a big problem, twice as many say racism against
Speaker 1: white people is a big problem. The media has successfully
Speaker 1: sold a narrative it's a hook line and sinker. Racism
Speaker 1: against me is a big problem, and what do you
Speaker 1: think that means? That's why I can't do this. That's
Speaker 1: why I can't do that. Nobody likes white people and
Speaker 1: all the opportunities are going to China. You're going and
Speaker 1: the Mexicans are coming across the border stealing our cherry
Speaker 1: picking jobs. And you know, you get it. And I
Speaker 1: don't mean to make a caricature out of this imaginary individual.
Speaker 1: You heard my voice just now. I realize that there
Speaker 1: are some people behind this, and there are some smart
Speaker 1: people who might be able to dress this up and
Speaker 1: make it sound a little bit more intellectual.
Speaker 3: Well it's not, Mike. We know that they can. They've
Speaker 3: convinced tens of millions of people. We don't think all
Speaker 3: of those people aren't dumb. And that's why I was saying,
Speaker 3: it's a human condition. It is a human People are
Speaker 3: susceptible to these things. And what I try to do
Speaker 3: and Q tries to do here on the show is
Speaker 3: remember that these are brothers and our sisters. They are
Speaker 3: just lost in the sauce.
Speaker 1: But the impact of how they feel, how they move
Speaker 1: throughout society and critically. How they vote is it affects
Speaker 1: the lives of us, our children, people that look like us,
Speaker 1: people that look adjacent to us, et cetera.
Speaker 3: You know, that's the thing that scares me the most
Speaker 3: Ramses is that they are politically engaged, very very political,
Speaker 3: and they somehow, even with all that they watch happen
Speaker 3: in front of them, do not feel that the political
Speaker 3: system has failed them, so they remain engaged. So many
Speaker 3: more people, I think acknowledge that the propaganda exist and
Speaker 3: that things are not the way that they are framed
Speaker 3: when delivered to us, but they are so disenfranchised and
Speaker 3: repeatedly let down by the political system that they've kind
Speaker 3: of just checked out. They don't participate. So these people
Speaker 3: who are not just intelligent, but more that care more
Speaker 3: about everyone than just themselves, are also so turned off
Speaker 3: by what has become of our political infrastructure that they
Speaker 3: just throw up their hands and don't participate anymore. They're
Speaker 3: tired of being lied to, they're tired of being taken
Speaker 3: advantage of, they're tired of not getting the results that
Speaker 3: are promised during these campaign trails, and they just check out.
Speaker 3: And that's what scares me the most, because the other side,
Speaker 3: they don't check out, not at all.
Speaker 1: They are they.
Speaker 3: Ready right now, They're organizing right now. They are prepared
Speaker 3: to go to the to the polls, and they are
Speaker 3: prepared to go and vote right now. Up keep even
Speaker 3: the systems that oppress them, even the systems that are
Speaker 3: in the direct conflict of their own personal best interest
Speaker 3: and those that they care about. They passionately, fervently and
Speaker 3: perpetually uphold these systems at every opportunity.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, there's a thing that I think helps
Speaker 1: make your point that I came across the other day.
Speaker 1: It was like a probably a post I saw on
Speaker 1: Tumbler or something like that, and it said I'm drawing
Speaker 1: from memory here. So effectually, what it communicated was that
Speaker 1: these Trump voters, certainly like the deeply conservative far right,
Speaker 1: the Trump Zealot movie, those individuals they have to believe
Speaker 1: in conspiracy theories because there's no other way to justify
Speaker 1: how they keep voting the same way and the reality
Speaker 1: doesn't change, so they have they need conspiracy theories to
Speaker 1: help them feel better. There's got to be something else
Speaker 1: going on. QAnon. John F. Kennedy Junior is coming back
Speaker 1: to life or whatever it is. That they believe, you know,
Speaker 1: just like really bizarre stuff. You know, Democrats are drinking
Speaker 1: baby blood and pizza parlors. You remember that thing was
Speaker 1: on there's lizard people.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, I do because people that I know of sound
Speaker 3: mine even brought into that the lizard people. Those conversations
Speaker 3: out loud, and I'm looking like, duh.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's interesting, and that's me putting in Clinton
Speaker 1: did what Wow? Okay, let me get back to it
Speaker 1: all right. So Trump voters and self identified Republicans overlapping
Speaker 1: but not identical cohorts are the only demographic groups identified
Speaker 1: by Yahunus and Yuga who are more likely to say
Speaker 1: that racism against white Americans is a problem than to
Speaker 1: say the same about racism against Black Americans. Majority fifty
Speaker 1: one percent of white Americans, for instance, think racism against
Speaker 1: people who look like them is a problem, but overall,
Speaker 1: far more white Americans seventy two say racism against black
Speaker 1: Americans is a problem.
Speaker 3: I think I said to you before, Rams, I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people say and think things like that
Speaker 3: out loud as a reflection of how they do and
Speaker 3: don't feel about themselves. To acknowledge that racism against black
Speaker 3: people is a problem in a system where you're doing
Speaker 3: nothing to actively combat it would be pointing a lens
Speaker 3: at yourself as a co conspirator to that. So no,
Speaker 3: that's not a problem. Yeah, because I don't want to
Speaker 3: self accuse myself of.
Speaker 1: Upholding a system that is subjugating another group of people.
Speaker 1: All right, let me read some more politics. In other words,
Speaker 1: is the dividing line here, and the political dynamics go
Speaker 1: a long way toward explaining why reparations for black Americans
Speaker 1: continue to be so unpopular in the US. If you've
Speaker 1: ever had that conversation, you know, we've had it a
Speaker 1: couple of times. It is tough, all right. The new
Speaker 1: Yahoo News UGU pull follows the dismissal earlier this month
Speaker 1: the lawsuit put forth by the three remaining survivors of
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenty one Tulsa race massacre seeking reparations for
Speaker 1: ongoing harm caused by the racist rampage that destroyed their
Speaker 1: once thriving, majority black community a century ago. The trio
Speaker 1: of survivors had sued under Oklahoma's public nuisance law, claiming
Speaker 1: that the ripple effects of the massacre continue to affect
Speaker 1: the Greenwood community today. I got to leave it right there.
Speaker 1: But that article goes on to say a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And obviously, if you don't know about the Tulsa race massacre,
Speaker 1: please check it out and then you'll see why. It
Speaker 1: just sucks for something like this to happen and it
Speaker 1: just go unanswered, you know, And you can see where
Speaker 1: the benefit of that went, and you can see where
Speaker 1: the negative consequences of it went. You know, you can
Speaker 1: bridge the gap. But then there's political opposition because you know,
Speaker 1: whatever statue of limited whatever it is that people try
Speaker 1: to throw in there, but wrong is wrong. All right,
Speaker 1: it's time for the Way Black History Fact. Today's Way
Speaker 1: Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground Beach Club From
Speaker 1: the Streets to the Beach, the finest in Beachware. Visit
Speaker 1: Underground Beach Club dot com. All right. She was one
Speaker 1: of the first light skinned African American actresses to break
Speaker 1: into Hollywood at a time when the movie industry's rules
Speaker 1: and sensitivities about race were at their most stringent. She
Speaker 1: found herself stuck in the groove between perceptions of white
Speaker 1: and black, which eventually cut short a promising career, but
Speaker 1: not before she made her mark in the nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: four classic imitation of life. Freddie Washington all Right. Actress
Speaker 1: Frederica Carolyn Washington was born on December twenty third, nineteen
Speaker 1: oh three, in Savannah, Georgia. Her father, Robert T. Washington,
Speaker 1: was a postal worker, and her mother, Harriet Walker Reward Washington,
Speaker 1: was a dancer. Both parents were of African American and
Speaker 1: European ethnicity. Freddie, born with fair skin, finely textured, wavy hair,
Speaker 1: and green eyes, was the eldest of five siblings. All
Speaker 1: five of us were fair skin with what would be
Speaker 1: considered Caucasian features, recalls her younger sister Isabelle in her
Speaker 1: biography Adam's Bell. The children were raised by the grandmother,
Speaker 1: Ella Brown aka Big Mama. Shout out to big Mama.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of big mamas out there.
Speaker 3: One tough big Mama.
Speaker 1: Freddie's real mother died when she was eleven, and her
Speaker 1: father later remarried, placing her and her sister Isabelle in
Speaker 1: a Catholic convent, Saint Elizabeth in Cornell Heights, Pennsylvania. The
Speaker 1: institution took in African American and Native American orphans. Washington
Speaker 1: left when she was sixteen and moved to Harlem, New
Speaker 1: York City, to live with her grandmother and aunt. She
Speaker 1: got a job as a bookkeeper at an African American
Speaker 1: record company, Black Swan, where her father worked as a packer.
Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty two, she got a part in the
Speaker 1: all Black Broadway musical Shuffle Along as a chorus dancer.
Speaker 1: She toured with the trope for years, working with Josephine
Speaker 1: Baker and Paul Robson. Along the way. She made thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars per week, a big wage back then and
Speaker 1: enough for Freddy to take care of her whole family
Speaker 1: single handedly. In nineteen twenty six, Frederika made her debut
Speaker 1: as an actress in a leading theater role opposite Robeson
Speaker 1: in Black Boy. But with a limited number of acting
Speaker 1: opportunities for black actresses, she decided to move to Europe,
Speaker 1: where she worked as part of a ballroom dance trope,
Speaker 1: touring France, Germany, and England. The young actress returned to
Speaker 1: the United States in nineteen twenty eight, securing small parts
Speaker 1: in various stage and screen productions. Nineteen thirty four, she
Speaker 1: appeared in her best known movie role in the Academy
Speaker 1: Award nominated adaptation of the Fanny Hurst novel Imitation of Life.
Speaker 1: She played the role of Piolo, a young African American
Speaker 1: woman whose fair complexion and naturally gre hair conceals her
Speaker 1: biracial ancestry. She attempts to escape society's discrimination by passing
Speaker 1: for white. Initially, the production ran into trouble with the
Speaker 1: American film sensors, who objected to its interracial theme. When
Speaker 1: the film finally opened on November twenty sixth, Washington was
Speaker 1: so convincing in the role that some accused her of
Speaker 1: denying her heritage in real life, a charge she was
Speaker 1: quick to refute in Imitation of Life, I was showing
Speaker 1: how a girl might feel under the circumstances, but I
Speaker 1: am not showing how I felt, she told The Chicago
Speaker 1: Defender in nineteen thirty five. Shout out to the Chicago
Speaker 1: Defender as well, that's a black publication that is very
Speaker 1: old and very important for folks that aren't familiar. As
Speaker 1: has been the case with many light skinned African American
Speaker 1: actresses throughout history, Washington was often considered too light for
Speaker 1: Hollywood's few black roles. Quote she couldn't play a colored
Speaker 1: woman because she was too light. Quote, said her sister Isabelle.
Speaker 1: She goes on to say people might mistake her for
Speaker 1: white as a result, like Lena Horn, after her Washington
Speaker 1: had to be dipped to her dark tone makeup for
Speaker 1: the few black roles that she did get, such as
Speaker 1: when she played the part of Undan in the nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three film Emperor Jones. In fact, throughout her career,
Speaker 1: Washington turned down a number of chances to pass for
Speaker 1: a white actress in movie roles and was always vocal
Speaker 1: about being a proud African American. Quote no matter how
Speaker 1: white I look on the inside, I feel black, unquote,
Speaker 1: she proclaimed nineteen forty five. The movie Celebrities. African Ancestry
Speaker 1: also classified her unequivocally as black within the traditions of Africa,
Speaker 1: sorry of America's notorious one Drop Rule, the series of
Speaker 1: laws passed by white racist in the early twentieth century
Speaker 1: which dictated that any person born with as little as
Speaker 1: one drop of black blood were legally to be classic
Speaker 1: as black, thereby restricting their rights as citizens.
Speaker 3: That being the only reason listen.
Speaker 1: After the Imitation of Life movie, Washington's career hit a
Speaker 1: wall with few opportunities for her in Hollywood, she decided
Speaker 1: to quit movies altogether. Politicized by her experiences, she became
Speaker 1: a writer and civil rights activists. She was a founding
Speaker 1: member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, working for
Speaker 1: better opportunities for African American actors. She was also an
Speaker 1: active member of the National Association for the Advancement of
Speaker 1: Colored People. Washington later contracted Alzheimer's and eventually died of
Speaker 1: a stroke on June twenty eighth, nineteen ninety four, in Stamford, Connecticut.
Speaker 1: She was ninety years old. So I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about her because we haven't, for the benefit of our listeners,
Speaker 1: often been able to articulate the different experiences that a
Speaker 1: black person might have in this country. And there is
Speaker 1: a type of black person. More often they are biracial,
Speaker 1: but in nearly every instance they are very very fair skinned,
Speaker 1: but black culturally and you know, otherwise black, and they
Speaker 1: find themselves trapped between two worlds. And it's those people
Speaker 1: that affirm who they are. You know, it might be
Speaker 1: possible for a person, you know, to use a metaphor
Speaker 1: play the game on easymode.
Speaker 3: She shows that she could have.
Speaker 1: She could have exactly and opted not to another person
Speaker 1: I want to mention right here for this one thing
Speaker 1: is Michael Jackson. When I was growing up, Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: Story that came to me was that Michael Jackson ended
Speaker 1: up with a skin disease that caused him to have
Speaker 1: patches on his skin, white patches, whereas melanin wasn't produced,
Speaker 1: and it's called vitaligo, and he had to in order
Speaker 1: to achieve it even skin tone, he had to bleach
Speaker 1: all of his skin to where it would all match.
Speaker 1: And the rest of his time in the limelight, he
Speaker 1: consistently affirmed that he was a proud black man. Prince
Speaker 1: is another one, very fair skinned black man who never
Speaker 1: walked the line, not one bit.
Speaker 3: And they were and they were so famous that racial
Speaker 3: ambiguity wouldn't have even been necessary, right, But neither was
Speaker 3: reaffirming that they were black.
Speaker 1: Right, But they made sure and they stood on it,
Speaker 1: and they fought for it and they showed up. And
Speaker 1: it is a beautiful thing. And you know, as we
Speaker 1: continue to, you know, do more shows, we'll be able
Speaker 1: to give you all insight into maybe more of what
Speaker 1: these other types of experiences are. But for now, you know,
Speaker 1: Freddie Wats Washington certainly serves as a as an excellent
Speaker 1: aperture into what life is like and how you can
Speaker 1: even be an example of ebony excellence. And so we'll
Speaker 1: leave that one right there. I'd like to thank everybody
Speaker 1: for once again tuning into Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Rams' job.
Speaker 3: He is Ramsy's job.
Speaker 1: I am q Ward.
Speaker 3: We are eternally grateful for everybody that listens, downloads, refers, likes, comments, shares.
Speaker 3: We appreciate you, guys, We need you, guys. We you
Speaker 3: know again. Rams has said this before. This is a
Speaker 3: nonprofit endeavor for us, so your support is the reason
Speaker 3: that we're able to continue to do the show.
Speaker 1: Indeed, do us a favor. Tap in with us on
Speaker 1: our social media and our website. It's all at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: You can also send over any topics you want us
Speaker 1: to cover, any questions you might have. You can also
Speaker 1: donate through the website and download this in any previous episode.
Speaker 1: They're all up for you if you want to catch up,
Speaker 1: if you need to show anything like that, we love
Speaker 1: for you to tack in and you can follow me
Speaker 1: at ramses joh I am q War And until next week,
Speaker 1: y'all pay.
Speaker 2: Y'all like Yo, we handled it. These brothers a fabulous
Speaker 2: our lady showing you where ROMB travel live, spik tones
Speaker 2: from sunlight to move, busting on stage like gonna fights
Speaker 2: and move rove my mic back. You're like that journalist
Speaker 2: with journalist too. We can strike back called borders with
Speaker 2: orders from headquarters behind in the beline sides up and
Speaker 2: the borders the press passing.
Speaker 3: We bring it to you as it habits the streets.
Speaker 2: Love popping from music, you're wrapping the street compand the
Speaker 2: slash peek expando. You're gonna fight the slander with the
Speaker 2: proper propaganda.
Speaker 1: What's happening?
Speaker 2: It's how You've got a question to ask if the
Speaker 2: news is just a TV show you're passing? And this
Speaker 2: from a white wartime journalist headlines wait got breads and
Speaker 2: resist like
Speaker 1: This like what like this like