Speaker 1: And now watching my mic back, you're like that.
Speaker 2: Strike waters from headquarters behind.
Speaker 1: And if you're just tuning in the civic cipher, I
Speaker 1: am your host, Ramses Josh, you are.
Speaker 3: Still working on my night. Well, I'll let you guys
Speaker 3: know I'm still working on it.
Speaker 1: Well from me, I'm joined by c Wood, the one
Speaker 1: and only, And be sure to stick around because we've
Speaker 1: got a lot more to talk about. We're still going
Speaker 1: to talk about how melanin is a threat somehow, and
Speaker 1: of course we're gonna get into our way black history
Speaker 1: fact uh about the African Dodger game that was and
Speaker 1: still a variation is found at carnivals. It's pretty interesting
Speaker 1: and pretty sad and barbaric, as many of our way
Speaker 1: Black history facts are. But first, let's discuss how to
Speaker 1: become a better ally, so one of the things. Normally
Speaker 1: I have these things a little bit more flesh out
Speaker 1: for you, our listener, but today we're going to keep
Speaker 1: it simple. You and I. We do a lot of
Speaker 1: show prep for the show. We take twenty to thirty
Speaker 1: percent of the happenings that come our way in a
Speaker 1: given week, and we try to make a program out
Speaker 1: of it and try to fit as much into it
Speaker 1: as we can. There's one person that has come up
Speaker 1: very consistently, and we can't share all of his brilliant
Speaker 1: thoughts and his brilliant takes on some of the goings
Speaker 1: on in the United States with respect to black people
Speaker 1: and other social issues. So I implore you to check
Speaker 1: out his TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. It's at Tizzy e
Speaker 1: n T. That's ti zz Y e n T. The
Speaker 1: guys name is Michael. He seems like a middle aged
Speaker 1: white man, which is a perspective that we feel is
Speaker 1: necessary for us to have a conversation, you know, to
Speaker 1: have a conversation. He obviously views life through that lens,
Speaker 1: but also it seems to be a very fair man.
Speaker 1: It's hard to pin whether or not he's a conservative
Speaker 1: or a liberal in his beliefs, but he does seem
Speaker 1: to be very measured and his thoughts are very well
Speaker 1: fleshed out. Most recently, he had a video about why
Speaker 1: you can't be proud of being white, and he explains
Speaker 1: it brilliantly. It's not that you can't be proud to
Speaker 1: be Scottish or Irish, journey that sort of stuff, but
Speaker 1: white is a color and black is a color as well,
Speaker 1: but black because of slavery. It's not like many black
Speaker 1: people know exactly where in Africa they hail from, and
Speaker 1: so black as a term is not necessarily the opt
Speaker 1: sit of white. And then he talks about the roots
Speaker 1: of you know, white power versus black power and so forth,
Speaker 1: and really makes it an interesting case where it. So
Speaker 1: once again, follow at Tizzy e n T on TikTok,
Speaker 1: Instagram or Twitter, get some additional perspective in your life
Speaker 1: and become a better ally. And of course we share
Speaker 1: a lot of his stuff as well, so follow us
Speaker 1: on our social media at Civic Cipher. If you can't
Speaker 1: remember at Tizzy e n T now Q is melan
Speaker 1: In a threat?
Speaker 4: Yes, I won't even elaborate, I won't even expound, Yes,
Speaker 4: clearly and absolutely according to our country tizsm.
Speaker 1: V Hannibal Burris. I watch a lot of stand up.
Speaker 1: Hannibal Burris has a stand up where he tells a
Speaker 1: story about jaywalking in Canada and the police tried to
Speaker 1: make a big deal out of it, and he's like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? Do you want me to give
Speaker 1: you some money or something? And then he says something
Speaker 1: I'll never face says jaywalking is a fantasy crime, and
Speaker 1: I thought that was the funniest thing in the world.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to start this segment off with that quote,
Speaker 1: jaywalking is a fantasy crime from Hannibal burs I'm gonna
Speaker 1: read this headline to you, and obviously there's a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a story here, but I just want
Speaker 1: to read the headline and let that sit for a minute.
Speaker 1: This is from the grioh Okay da clears deputy who
Speaker 1: killed black man after suspected jaywalking. Orange County prosecutors ruled
Speaker 1: that Deputy Eduardo Durand was justified in his shooting of
Speaker 1: a homeless black man. That is the headline that's heavy
Speaker 1: right now. A lot of people are going to say, well,
Speaker 1: what did he do? There's the justice system works most
Speaker 1: of the time, So how in the world did this
Speaker 1: officer get cleared if you know, the homeless man did
Speaker 1: nothing wrong, if it was only jaywalking, Well, we'll get
Speaker 1: into that. But the point I want to make now
Speaker 1: and then once we get into it, is that jaywalking
Speaker 1: is a fantasy crime. But is it a fantasy crime
Speaker 1: if you have melanin in your body, in your skin?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: I got a few points to make here, so hear
Speaker 1: me out, all right, So I'll read and give you
Speaker 1: the nuance in the context here. Because I don't want
Speaker 1: to be unfair to police the humans. The system needs reform.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be unfair to the human beings
Speaker 1: because I don't want those human beings to be unfair
Speaker 1: to me, or to my children, or to my friends
Speaker 1: or my family. So here we go. In Orange County,
Speaker 1: sheriff who fatally shot an unarmed, homeless black man in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty will not be facing criminal charges, according to
Speaker 1: the District Attorney's office and dash cam footage released to
Speaker 1: the public, Deputies Eduardo Duran and Jonathan Israel are seen
Speaker 1: following forty two year old Kurt Andreas Reinhold, who is
Speaker 1: now deceased, in their police cruiser before stopping him on
Speaker 1: suspicion of jaywalking in a San Clemente neighborhood. Now I
Speaker 1: want to stop there for a second, because that suspected
Speaker 1: jaywalking is a lot of us who have that melon
Speaker 1: and we call that harassment. We call that being black
Speaker 1: and nearby, black and nearby, that's the phrase. I was
Speaker 1: just black and nearby, and the police hit me up. Right,
Speaker 1: or the police were harassing me, they were bothering me, right,
Speaker 1: that's a fan that I didn't do it, that the
Speaker 1: world will still turn. You know, I've caused no harm
Speaker 1: to and I get that. You know, they have to
Speaker 1: enforce the laws, but how does someone end up dead? Okay,
Speaker 1: jump into.
Speaker 3: They couldn't even trump up the suspicion crazy right now.
Speaker 3: I couldn't stop him like y'all have, don't the police
Speaker 3: have scanners where there's like all the crimes that are
Speaker 3: happening are like being said out loud. You couldn't stop
Speaker 3: him on suspicion of something, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like the life doesn't even have enough word for them
Speaker 3: to feel like we would have had to have stopped
Speaker 3: him for something more. No, No, he's black. We stopped
Speaker 3: him on suspicion of jaywalking. Sure, and I if I
Speaker 3: hadn't stop him, forge are you understanding what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: We didn't stop him for jaywalking. We stopped him because
Speaker 3: he might be somebody that jaywalked.
Speaker 1: What so I suspect that maybe him being homeless in
Speaker 1: a nicer neighborhood. I don't know how nice neighborhood was,
Speaker 1: but you know sometimes this happens. You know, our unsheltered
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters a lot of times get picked on,
Speaker 1: not just by police, but by a lot of different people.
Speaker 1: It's very unfortunate. But certainly if you're a homeless person
Speaker 1: and a nicer part of town, you know, uh, city
Speaker 1: ordinances and police chiefs and you know all that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff, they want to quote unquote clean that up.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people as they're traveling.
Speaker 3: Trespassing, suspected jaywalking.
Speaker 1: Right right, but I'm painting the picture here. This is
Speaker 1: a thing that is possible. Right, So instead of dealing
Speaker 1: with the root of homelessness, instead of dealing with mental health,
Speaker 1: it's like.
Speaker 3: You know, we need more police.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of homeless people in this neighborhood. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. It's such a backwards way of
Speaker 1: looking at it, like, well, we should probably get a
Speaker 1: place for these homeless books to go and get the
Speaker 1: resources they need. No, let's get more police, you know,
Speaker 1: and give them guns. See what happens, right, So anyway,
Speaker 1: because now now one thing I did in.
Speaker 3: The way capitalism works. Oh man, we've talked about that
Speaker 3: people are homeless and it's their fault. It's the way
Speaker 3: capitalism works. They would just get off their butts and
Speaker 3: go to get a job. Then they wouldn't be homeless,
Speaker 3: and we wouldn't have to give them a place to
Speaker 3: live in resources.
Speaker 1: You know, for people that think that you might be
Speaker 1: listening to our voices today, you might really think that
Speaker 1: homeless people should just get a job and you know,
Speaker 1: pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. On this show, Q,
Speaker 1: we founded a nonprofit and we feed homeless people every
Speaker 1: month and we have a partnership with the shelter in
Speaker 1: our city, and we go and we use these hands
Speaker 1: and we make food and we feed homeless, our homeless
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, and we provide hygiene kids, and we
Speaker 1: hear their stories, and we've heard them for ten years now,
Speaker 1: right you So you can't say that to us because
Speaker 1: we know that it's not so easy. It's not there's
Speaker 1: crazy stories and everyone is unique, and then of course
Speaker 1: there's drugs and there's you know, but there's problems. And
Speaker 1: what you see is that there's a whole society that's
Speaker 1: giving up on these human beings. And we do our
Speaker 1: best to kind of continue to see the humanity and
Speaker 1: to understand that you know, you're never too far away
Speaker 1: from your lowest point, and that shouldn't define you as
Speaker 1: a human being anyway. So one thing I didn't mention
Speaker 1: is that a lot of time the police want to
Speaker 1: clean up the riff raft quote unquote in nice neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: so get the homeless folks out, so they'll pull them over,
Speaker 1: pull up on them for whatever reason. But if you're black,
Speaker 1: perhaps that melanin in your skin makes you look a
Speaker 1: little bit more sinister, a little bit more criminal, and
Speaker 1: perhaps they feel like they probably take more aggressive action
Speaker 1: if you're black. It's a speculation, but I'm in a
Speaker 1: position to do it because I have a few examples here,
Speaker 1: and these examples go back all the way to the
Speaker 1: beginning of this country, So I'll continue. This police duo
Speaker 1: then proceeded to detain Reinhold, at one point, wrestling him
Speaker 1: to the ground. Before Reinhold, they said, grabbed Israel's gun holster,
Speaker 1: prompting Duran to fire two shots at him. The two
Speaker 1: officers are part of the department's homeless outreach liaison, So
Speaker 1: a few things here. Those officers are supposed to work
Speaker 1: with the homeless people, right, I guess the guy was
Speaker 1: walking away and kind of ignoring their commands, and they
Speaker 1: ended up, you know, wrestling them, tackling them. And I'm
Speaker 1: just going to offer the benefit of the doubt to
Speaker 1: the deceased. If you have two trained men on you
Speaker 1: and you're afraid, and the full weight of their body
Speaker 1: is pressing you into the pavement and you're flailing about
Speaker 1: trying to find some sort of I don't know, position
Speaker 1: to where you can breathe or not break a limb
Speaker 1: or something, break a bone, and you know, your hand
Speaker 1: ends up near an officer's hip, you know, I just
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to imagine a person underneath the
Speaker 1: weight of two adult men thinking, oh, the gun.
Speaker 3: Is right here.
Speaker 1: I'm going to grab the gun, unholster it, cock it,
Speaker 1: aim it, and shoot it and be successful in getting
Speaker 1: both of these officers off of me. You know, to me,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of a happit. It just happens to
Speaker 1: be like I'm grabbing a shoe or a shoulder or whatever,
Speaker 1: trying to Hey, you guys are on me and I
Speaker 1: cannot continue to breathe if this is happening, and I'm panicking, right,
Speaker 1: this is just me, and I'm granted I'm speculating, but
Speaker 1: if other shows can do that, then so can we.
Speaker 1: And this man had a life, and it's not he
Speaker 1: doesn't have that life anymore. And he was black, and
Speaker 1: right now we have to be his voice, and so
Speaker 1: that is a possibility in the same way that you know,
Speaker 1: he could have grabbed my gun and tried to harm me.
Speaker 1: Right But the point that I was making initially was
Speaker 1: that he was jaywalking.
Speaker 3: Ramses, If you're as I'm trying to formulate this question,
Speaker 3: it sounds crazy to say, because I feel like the
Speaker 3: answer should be the same on either side of it.
Speaker 3: If I didn't commit a crime and cops jump me,
Speaker 3: beat me up, and shoot me, is that illegal? And
Speaker 3: it sounds silly that I put a question mark into
Speaker 3: that because it should be obvious. But I'm actually not sure.
Speaker 1: Now I would imagine it's illegal, yes, But if I'm
Speaker 1: just being a citizen, if it would be treated as
Speaker 1: though it's illegal, I don't know.
Speaker 3: So I mean, if I'm just being a citizen they
Speaker 3: jump me, beat me up and shoot me, that's illegal,
Speaker 3: I'm guessing unless I'm black and they say we think
Speaker 3: he may have jaywalked.
Speaker 1: Oh listen, listen, remember that I sound ridiculous. I told
Speaker 1: the story before about how they hurt me and my
Speaker 1: cousin when they pulled us out of the car because
Speaker 1: they thought that we fit the description of suspicious characters.
Speaker 1: And then they just took the handcuffs off and let
Speaker 1: me go to school, Right, so that happened to me.
Speaker 3: I can they always just insert some we thought he
Speaker 3: was bad because he's black thing, and then it just
Speaker 3: that changes it because the reason why I asked that,
Speaker 3: because we're giving the benefit of the doubt that he
Speaker 3: wasn't reaching for the gun. But if two men just
Speaker 3: jump you and there's a gun, why wouldn't you reach
Speaker 3: for it? Right? If he's justified for shooting you because
Speaker 3: he thought you might shoot him, then why wouldn't the
Speaker 3: same be true for you.
Speaker 1: That's a great point.
Speaker 3: That's the thing I'm trying to figure out, Like, I
Speaker 3: don't like, I don't know how that works, because it
Speaker 3: sounds to me like the police can just murder people
Speaker 3: because they feel like it and then that's it, and
Speaker 3: you're not allowed to defend yourself, so all you can
Speaker 3: do is just be murdered. If you defend yourself, that
Speaker 3: makes you the criminal, even if before the interaction started,
Speaker 3: you've done nothing. If they approach you and harm you,
Speaker 3: you have to just be harmed or killed. And if
Speaker 3: you try to defend yourself, that in and of itself
Speaker 3: is criminal, especially if you're black. Is that how this works?
Speaker 3: Because I saw a white guy hit a cop with
Speaker 3: a truck and then the cop just pointing his fingers
Speaker 3: thirnly at him and did nothing. So I'm just wondering
Speaker 3: how this law thing works if you're black and you
Speaker 3: live here, or is it just go back to your country?
Speaker 3: Like how does this work? People that are listening, that
Speaker 3: are hearing me get more angry as I talk about
Speaker 3: this man. It was hard to not curse right there,
Speaker 3: Like as our options be bullied, beat up and murdered
Speaker 3: and shut up about it, or die, and that's it.
Speaker 3: Because we're black, the nature of us resisting being beat
Speaker 3: up and murdered is criminal. Because we're black. We can't
Speaker 3: just be citizens and exist right up to the police decide. Today,
Speaker 3: I feel like messing with you, I feel like violating
Speaker 3: and disrespecting you. And because I feel like it, and
Speaker 3: because you're black, you kind of have to take it
Speaker 3: until I'm tired of doing it. To you right, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna deny you your civility, your dignity, and your self respect.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna treat you like crap, and I need you
Speaker 3: to take it. I need you to shut up, don't move,
Speaker 3: even if you can't breathe or it feels like I'm
Speaker 3: crushing you until I don't feel like messing with you anymore.
Speaker 3: And because you're black, you just have to take it.
Speaker 3: Even if you did nothing at all. And if you
Speaker 3: defend yourself, I'll say you did something, and by nature
Speaker 3: that's criminal and justifies everything I did to harm you.
Speaker 1: You know what. Let me offer this because I think
Speaker 1: that this is some it's another point, or it helps
Speaker 1: illustrate your point. It is in this country we have
Speaker 1: the right to bear arms. It's the Bill of Rights
Speaker 1: to Second Amendment that we are allowed as citizens of
Speaker 1: this country to have guns. Now, if you have melanin
Speaker 1: and you have a gun, the image in your mind,
Speaker 1: if you're listening, the image in your mind might have
Speaker 1: shifted a bit, you know, because if you're a patriot
Speaker 1: and you have a gun, it's like, well, that's his right,
Speaker 1: but Amrica. But if you're black and you have a gun, well,
Speaker 1: what was he doing with a gun. Obviously, the police
Speaker 1: couldn't shouldn't shoot him if he had a gun, you know,
Speaker 1: or they should shoot him if he had a gun.
Speaker 1: He was a black man with a gun. The cops
Speaker 1: need to worry about themselves. Let me paint this picture.
Speaker 1: We didn't get to talk about this yet, but this
Speaker 1: from CNN body camera video shows Minneapolis officers shooting black
Speaker 1: man during no knock warrant. Attorneys say he wasn't the target. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it took us so long to get to this story,
Speaker 1: but a lot of stuff to talk about. In the
Speaker 1: early morning hours of Wednesday, February second, Minneapolis police officers
Speaker 1: gently placed a key in a city apartment door before
Speaker 1: bursting through the doorway yelling police search weren't. And the
Speaker 1: seconds that followed, a black man named mer Locke, apparently
Speaker 1: asleep and shown to be holding a gun upon awakening,
Speaker 1: was shot and killed. The shooting by an officer on
Speaker 1: the swat team in a city that came to represent
Speaker 1: ground zero for the police reform movement, raised questions from
Speaker 1: Locke's family and others about the city's weren't policy. In total,
Speaker 1: the city released fourteen seconds of real time video. So
Speaker 1: what we have. There is a mere lock. Finally we're
Speaker 1: talking about him. This is a weekly show, so we
Speaker 1: can only do stuff. It's tough to stay on top
Speaker 1: of everything. But a mere lock. He was in his apartment.
Speaker 1: He wasn't on the search warrant, wasn't named, or was
Speaker 1: in an apartment. I'm not sure if it was his.
Speaker 1: People are banging on the door, kicking in the door.
Speaker 1: And if you don't see these people, the bad guys
Speaker 1: could kick in your door and say police. You know,
Speaker 1: all I know is somebody's kicking on, banging on your
Speaker 1: door or yelling, and as they move intough your house
Speaker 1: or whatever the case is. Because I guess they weren't
Speaker 1: banging on the doors a no knock, but you know
Speaker 1: they're in the house and yelling. That's enough to scare you.
Speaker 1: And if you're afraid, you might grab your gun. And
Speaker 1: because we know that it's you have the right to
Speaker 1: bear arms in this country. That he had done nothing
Speaker 1: criminal at that point. And and my understanding is that
Speaker 1: if you point the weapon at someone, that can be
Speaker 1: interpreted as you know, willingness to kill. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a gun, it's a business end of a murder weapon. Right.
Speaker 1: But if you have it sort of hanging in the
Speaker 1: general vicinity of where someone might be standing who is
Speaker 1: not you, you know, then at what point was this man
Speaker 1: denied his right to bear arms?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: And was he shot because he was black? Because if
Speaker 1: this had been a white person standing in the door
Speaker 1: of his householding the gun, sir, where need you put
Speaker 1: that weapon on the ground? You know what? You know?
Speaker 1: People just I don't think police panic, at least that
Speaker 1: hasn't been my interpretation of the videos that I've seen,
Speaker 1: and of course my real lived experience. And you and
Speaker 1: I have a few stories that we can tell because
Speaker 1: we were both there at the same time. Let me
Speaker 1: get this last one in and then the last word
Speaker 1: goes to UQ. This last one. Complex magazine investigation underway
Speaker 1: over racial bias as video shows police handcuffing black teen
Speaker 1: following fight at mall. A fight between two teenagers at
Speaker 1: a New Jersey mall is being investigated. Footage of the
Speaker 1: incident appears to show that police who handled the situation
Speaker 1: treated the teens differently based on their race. CBS New
Speaker 1: York reports the children got into a scuffle at the
Speaker 1: Bridgewater Commons mall when officers arrived, The black teen was
Speaker 1: aggressively handcuffed on the ground, while the other teen, who
Speaker 1: by different reputable outlets had been called white Latino and
Speaker 1: white passing Latino, remained untouched and was seen sitting on
Speaker 1: a couch. The clip shows officers kneeling on the back
Speaker 1: of a fourteen year old Kai for almost thirty seconds
Speaker 1: as they cuff him. Quote if they don't know how
Speaker 1: to treat the situation and deal with the situation equally unfairly,
Speaker 1: then they shouldn't be able to deal with the situation
Speaker 1: at all, Kai told the news outlet. He added, quote,
Speaker 1: I was confused, like why they saw me as a
Speaker 1: bad person, like me as an aggressor, explaining he got
Speaker 1: into a fight because the other boy was tormenting Kai's friend.
Speaker 1: Now two people fighting, two teenagers fighting, and it's just
Speaker 1: a scuffle. No one's like hurt, hurt, you know, police
Speaker 1: run run over, separate the two right, and then both
Speaker 1: pin the black child down, handcuff him while the white
Speaker 1: kid sits on the couch. And it's on video, you
Speaker 1: can watch it yourself. And now there's this whole thing.
Speaker 1: So to me, that's another example how Melanin has you know,
Speaker 1: played a role. How melanin is the threat? You know
Speaker 1: they're responding to this. The white kid was just as culpable,
Speaker 1: just as guilty. There were two people fighting, it wasn't
Speaker 1: no one got jumped, you know, and by his account,
Speaker 1: Kai was standing up for one of his friends, so
Speaker 1: got about thirty seconds left. What do you think.
Speaker 3: If the idea was that those as were there to
Speaker 3: serve and protect, then everything they did would have been
Speaker 3: the exact opposite. The white kid was much bigger than
Speaker 3: the black kid, sure, so he would have been the
Speaker 3: perceived threat and this one on one altercation between his kids.
Speaker 3: They would have made sure the little kid was okay
Speaker 3: and that the big kid was held down and arrested.
Speaker 3: Except the little kid was black, and he was wrestled
Speaker 3: to the ground, face down and arrested with both of
Speaker 3: those cops on his back, while the big bully kid
Speaker 3: sat and watched him and then stood up over him.
Speaker 3: It's like they made sure the white kid was okay
Speaker 3: and then made sure the black kid was in cuffs
Speaker 3: in that order. It's disgusting, and we don't have to
Speaker 3: ask why because it isn't speculation around. We have too
Speaker 3: much evidence for that we all went to science class.
Speaker 3: There's a control group here. Well, we did the research,
Speaker 3: we did the experiment, we have the results. Our hypothesis
Speaker 3: have been proven true for hundreds of years now. That
Speaker 3: kid's skin was darker, so he was clearly the problem.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the point we were trying to
Speaker 1: make there. So I appreciate those final thoughts. Now it's
Speaker 1: time for the Way Black History Fact. Today's Way Black
Speaker 1: History Fact comes from Farris State University. You can check
Speaker 1: it out on the website Ferris dot edu. Starts with
Speaker 1: a question, somebody told me that whites used to pay
Speaker 1: to throw balls at blacks at the circus? Is this true?
Speaker 1: Question comes from Stephanie s in Columbia, Missouri. The answer
Speaker 1: at the end thirty feet or so from the counter
Speaker 1: that closed the entrance. A grinning negro face bobbed and
Speaker 1: grimace to a hole in the back curtain, paying to
Speaker 1: rep present a jungle river the Negro's head game. Sorry,
Speaker 1: the negroes head came right out of the spread.
Speaker 3: Oh this is.
Speaker 1: Written funny, Okay, came right out of the spread. Terrific
Speaker 1: jaws of a crocodile hit the inward in the head.
Speaker 1: Get a good ten cent cegar. The barker said, three
Speaker 1: balls for a dime. Folks, try your skills and accuracy.
Speaker 1: Hit the inward baby on the head, get a handsome
Speaker 1: cane and pin it. Sorry, that was written kind of
Speaker 1: an old timey language, so I couldn't quite make out
Speaker 1: what it was trying to say, but I'll continue. This
Speaker 1: was a common chant at numerous carnivals, fairs, and circuses
Speaker 1: across the United States throughout the late nineteenth century until
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen forties as Americans took part and one
Speaker 1: of their favorite pastimes African Dodger. The African dodger, also
Speaker 1: known as hit the Inward Baby or hit the Coon,
Speaker 1: was as commonplace in local fairs, carnivals, and circuses as
Speaker 1: ferris wheels and roller coasters are today. The purpose of
Speaker 1: the game was to hit the target with a ball
Speaker 1: with one of your three throws and win a prize.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a common carnival target game, but there
Speaker 1: was one unsettling part of the game, namely, the game's
Speaker 1: target was a real, live human being, a Negro human being,
Speaker 1: and Saint Louis. In nineteen thirteen, it was reported that
Speaker 1: carnival organizers were unable for hours today to secure an
Speaker 1: African Dodger who would allow baseballs to be thrown at
Speaker 1: his cranium at the usual rate of three for five cents.
Speaker 1: The reason was that future Hall of Fame fastball pitcher
Speaker 1: Walter Dodger sorry Walter Johnson, was rumored to be at
Speaker 1: the fear. The game was so popular nationwide that newspapers
Speaker 1: mentioned the African Dodger game along with trained animals, illusionist
Speaker 1: penny arcades, merrygo rounds, and magic shows in the list
Speaker 1: of carnival attractions. Dodgers made headlines when they were seriously
Speaker 1: and horrifically injured. Otherwise they were nameless victims. In nineteen
Speaker 1: oh four, in New York, the Meridian Daily Journal reported
Speaker 1: how at Dodger was smashed in the nose by a
Speaker 1: professional baseball player. The General reported that Albert Johnson dodged
Speaker 1: fifty or sixty cents worth of ballstone by cannonball Gillon
Speaker 1: of the Clifton Athletic Club. Finally, Johnson exposed his head
Speaker 1: and face a little farther than usual and was caught
Speaker 1: by a curve ball that left him unconscious. The article,
Speaker 1: which was written as a play by play, commentary of
Speaker 1: the incident concluded with the report that it quote will
Speaker 1: probably be necessary to amputate the nose in order to
Speaker 1: save Johnson's life. But this was not the only report
Speaker 1: of serious injuriers injuries to the dodger. There were numerous
Speaker 1: reports of such incidents. For example, at the Sheridan Methodist
Speaker 1: Protestant Church Street Fair in Pittsburgh, John Jones failed to
Speaker 1: dodge and was hit squarely in the eye. In Ohio,
Speaker 1: Grady Williams was struck in the eye by a stone
Speaker 1: by someone who stood to one sign and threw a
Speaker 1: stone at the Negro at an Elks Lodge jubilee in Washington, DC,
Speaker 1: just seventeen miles from the White House. The quote visiting
Speaker 1: Elks were royally entertained as inward babies were hit with
Speaker 1: baseballs until they were unable to maintain their upright position
Speaker 1: end quote. The African Dodger game was widespread in American
Speaker 1: society in every part of the country. If you could
Speaker 1: not make it to the fair, you could purchase for
Speaker 1: sixty nine cents an African Dodger table game, which featured
Speaker 1: a caricature of black face poking through a canvas reading
Speaker 1: hit the dodger, knock him out. Every time you hit sambo,
Speaker 1: the bell rings. But how could this all be? How
Speaker 1: could such a barbaric practice be such an integral part
Speaker 1: of a quote civilized society? How could Americans justify this practice?
Speaker 1: Were there any objections? One response to objections to the
Speaker 1: brutality of the African dodger game was to some authorities
Speaker 1: to provide scientific quote unquote findings on the topic. A
Speaker 1: short article in the Wayne County Democrat cited authorities on
Speaker 1: anthropology that's also in quotes who state that the negro
Speaker 1: has a very heavy and massive cranium, constituting a bony
Speaker 1: arch of great resisting power. One scientist refer to the
Speaker 1: common habit of negroes of both sexes and budding like rams.
Speaker 1: Of course, while I'm reading this, you know this isn't true.
Speaker 1: This is bogus science that people use to help justify
Speaker 1: slavery and all kinds of gross atrocities that people did
Speaker 1: to black people back then, like saying black people don't
Speaker 1: feel pain, and all kinds of weird stuff. This is bogus,
Speaker 1: but I'll continue reading. Indicates that the negro's headbones have
Speaker 1: defensive strength unknown in the Caucasian race. The newspaper assures
Speaker 1: its readers that the dodger doesn't mind. He seems cheerful
Speaker 1: about it. The players of the game, the ones who
Speaker 1: throw the ball, are just men with a man's desire
Speaker 1: to display his powers, particularly in front of women friends.
Speaker 1: The article finally concludes that until there's evidence that shows
Speaker 1: fractured skulls and brain contusions, or until the dodger takes
Speaker 1: issue himself, the game will continue. Warning is provided to
Speaker 1: the dodger, who may be considering a new line of
Speaker 1: work that quote, he might regret to lose a daily
Speaker 1: wage that comes with less effort than manual labor. Last
Speaker 1: little bit here. In nineteen eleven, some carnivals ushered in
Speaker 1: a new game for the quote. Progressive era called the
Speaker 1: African Dip, the precursor to the dunk tank. So now
Speaker 1: if you ever play with a dunk tank, you know
Speaker 1: the origins, all right, I'll continue. The game was arranged
Speaker 1: that every time a baseball hits a target, a colored
Speaker 1: man seated upon a bar is thrown into a large
Speaker 1: bowl of water. It is said to be lots of fun.
Speaker 1: This new game didn't entirely replace the African Dodger. Versions
Speaker 1: of the original African Dodger were found still found. In
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, some carnivals and fairs decided to use
Speaker 1: targets that resembled African Americans instead of using real people.
Speaker 1: Promoters sold the entire family doll racks that were used
Speaker 1: as targets at amusement parks. The development of amusement parks
Speaker 1: in permanent locations increased the popularity of the African Dip
Speaker 1: game because it's hard to travel with the African Dip
Speaker 1: dunk tank. Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, Illinois was well know.
Speaker 1: Sorry in Illinois was well known for their popular African
Speaker 1: Dip attraction, which was a stable there until the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1: All right, twenty seconds Q anything. Okay, Well that was
Speaker 1: a lot to read. It is very heavy, but you
Speaker 1: know it's got to We gotta do this. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm still optimistic.
Speaker 3: We're gonna make it.
Speaker 1: Everyone. I know this was a heavy show. Please, you know,
Speaker 1: keep the faith. We know what it is. We're not
Speaker 1: new to this. You know, I've lived this life for
Speaker 1: long enough to know what it is. But I also
Speaker 1: know myself and I know my people, Black people and
Speaker 1: I know us allies of black people and Americans, I
Speaker 1: know that this is something that we can deal with,
Speaker 1: but we got to talk about it. We got to
Speaker 1: deal with it, and we can't pretend like it's not thing.
Speaker 1: So with that said, we do appreciate you listening this
Speaker 1: and every week to Civic Cipher. Once again, I'm your host,
Speaker 1: ramses Jah.
Speaker 3: I'm still working on it.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Qboard, who is an incredible human being
Speaker 1: and of course an emotional person with a beating heart.
Speaker 1: And you're you're well within your rights to feel what
Speaker 1: you feel. Hopefully I'm strong enough this week, and we'll
Speaker 1: do it again next week. We got a long way
Speaker 1: to go, but we'll get there. Cue. Be sure to
Speaker 1: check out the show this in any previous episodes at
Speaker 1: the website civiccipher dot com to download anything that you
Speaker 1: may have missed. Follow us on social media at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: Of course, you can make a donation. Those donations do
Speaker 1: help the show grow, and the show is growing once again.
Speaker 1: You can find that at Civic Cipher. Follow us on
Speaker 1: all social media at Civic Cipher. And until next week,
Speaker 1: y'all watch.
Speaker 5: N got nothing funny, I said, until next week you
Speaker 5: parec Yeah and yo we had the lad these presents
Speaker 5: A fabulous there lady, showing you were vom traveled this
Speaker 5: world spec.
Speaker 2: Tone from sunlight to mold, busting on stage like gonna
Speaker 2: fight supposed rove my mic back, get like that journalist
Speaker 2: with journalists too, and strikes back hard horb borders with
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Speaker 1: We bring it to you as it habits in the streets.
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