Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: walk me to another episode of Civic Cipher Iami host
Speaker 1: Ramsey's job.
Speaker 2: What I really don't understand is how Rams expects me
Speaker 2: to speak after like the polish and the professionalism that
Speaker 2: he just y'all know what I'm saying, Like he comes
Speaker 2: on the air with the silk smooth jazz tones and
Speaker 2: then I'm supposed to come with my regular with my
Speaker 2: regular human voice after that. It's really unfair and we're
Speaker 2: supposed to be brothers. So if y'all can write into
Speaker 2: the show and just you know, on my behalf, let
Speaker 2: Rams just know how y'all feel. I am, by the way,
Speaker 2: Qward and this is Civic Cipher. He laugh, and he
Speaker 2: made me laugh, but I was dead serious rather more
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 1: And I think that I think you sound like audible chocolate.
Speaker 1: That's what we used to say at station at my
Speaker 1: old radio station.
Speaker 2: So y'all don't listen to Round Well anyway, we appreciate
Speaker 2: you listen to them, but not right then, right right, well,
Speaker 2: we appreciate you tuning in the Civic cycle. We got
Speaker 2: a lot in store for you today.
Speaker 1: We are going to be talking about some of the
Speaker 1: things that have been going on in the news that
Speaker 1: we feel are very important to share with you in
Speaker 1: terms of the plight of black and brown people in
Speaker 1: this country and some of the developments and stories that
Speaker 1: are kind of shaping what will ultimately be the next
Speaker 1: election cycle. And I think in a more immediate sense,
Speaker 1: what are shaping our day to day lives here in
Speaker 1: this country. And I realized that a lot of this
Speaker 1: news may not make it make its way to you.
Speaker 1: So Q and I are going to go over a
Speaker 1: few stories and make some arguments for let's be honest
Speaker 1: CRT in police reform, but also we're going to be
Speaker 1: talking about the zoot suit riots, for our way Black
Speaker 1: History fact and for our babas segment becoming a better ally.
Speaker 1: We're actually going to shout out a couple of police departments,
Speaker 1: which is highly unusual for us. But first and foremost,
Speaker 1: like we always do it, this time, we are going
Speaker 1: to discuss some ebony excellence.
Speaker 2: Shall we we shall?
Speaker 1: So today's ABNY Excellence is sponsored by Major Threads for
Speaker 1: the finest in sportswear checkmajorthreads dot com. And today we
Speaker 1: are talking about one victim of recent police or a
Speaker 1: recent anti black violence Ralph Yarrel. Ralph Yarl was the
Speaker 1: young man who or the boy I should say, who
Speaker 1: knocked on the wrong door and was shot in the
Speaker 1: head and the arm. Well he and this comes from
Speaker 1: Lack Information Network. He is helping raise money for traumatic
Speaker 1: brain injuries in the aftermath of his own shooting. On
Speaker 1: May twenty ninth, Yarrel and his family participated in the
Speaker 1: Going the Distance for Brain Injury walk run event in
Speaker 1: Overland Park, Kansas. This comes for ABC News. The teenager
Speaker 1: who suffered from traumatic brain injury following the shooting that
Speaker 1: he was involved in didn't publicly speak during the event,
Speaker 1: but his mother, Cleo Nagbi, gave a speech before its participants,
Speaker 1: and she says, quote, when you get a traumatic brain injury,
Speaker 1: everybody expects you to look one way, feel one way,
Speaker 1: or act one way. But it's not that way, she said.
Speaker 1: And everyone's asking me, have you gone back to work yet?
Speaker 1: Has Ralph gone back to school yet? And that's not
Speaker 1: the case. A brain injury is a process, it's not
Speaker 1: an event. It takes time. Now the reason that we
Speaker 1: feel that this is Ebony excellence is because.
Speaker 2: Obviously he is recovering.
Speaker 1: You know that could have been much worse, but during
Speaker 1: his recovery process, he's doing his best to help others.
Speaker 1: And as a black person with the weight of the
Speaker 1: world on your shoulders and indeed being a victim of
Speaker 1: anti black violence and finding a way to use that
Speaker 1: and turn it into a positive and gift back, we
Speaker 1: think that that is ebony excellence of the highest order.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Ralph Yarl once again. Now we
Speaker 1: got some.
Speaker 2: Stuff to talk about. As is the case, our group
Speaker 2: chat was popping. The group chat was had some abundance
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed indeed, so, so to give you a little
Speaker 1: bit of background, we have a show group chat where
Speaker 1: we exchange ideas. We have an email that we forward
Speaker 1: articles that we come across too, and that people send
Speaker 1: articles too if they want us to review it. And
Speaker 1: then of course we pull from social media accounts and
Speaker 1: other things that you our listeners share with us as well,
Speaker 1: and we come up with what it is that we
Speaker 1: need to talk about. But there were some things that
Speaker 1: hit us in all of those different channels, and before
Speaker 1: we found out that they were coming at us from
Speaker 1: all angles, Q and I talked about them too, and
Speaker 1: one of the things that was really sad, and was
Speaker 1: sad is just not a strong enough word here. I'm
Speaker 1: really telling in terms of why we need police reform,
Speaker 1: what it means to be black and to have your
Speaker 1: skin be perceived as a threat, and indeed what the
Speaker 1: realities are.
Speaker 2: I know. Go ahead. I wish you guys could see me.
Speaker 2: Go ahead. Anybody who's listened to more than two do
Speaker 2: we call these episodes? What episodes works? You know, because
Speaker 2: we're on your radio, So I don't know if you
Speaker 2: consider our show an episode, But if you've heard us
Speaker 2: more than twice, you know that because you can't see me,
Speaker 2: so you see the kind of WinCE and cringe because
Speaker 2: Rams this is such a graceful, peaceful optimist, and he
Speaker 2: lends some of that grace to people so often. And
Speaker 2: our skin color, which points to what they call our race,
Speaker 2: but it's more directly related to our ethnicity. It's something
Speaker 2: that they don't like. It is not a weapon that
Speaker 2: they fear. It is not this thing that makes them afraid.
Speaker 2: It is something that helps them determine that we are
Speaker 2: less than they are, that we are beneath them, hence
Speaker 2: making it fair for them to treat us as such.
Speaker 2: And it is more linked to hate. It is more
Speaker 2: linked to gross marginalization. It is more linked to racism
Speaker 2: than it is to it being something that they fear
Speaker 2: or something that has been weaponized. And when we speak
Speaker 2: about it in those terms, like you know that they
Speaker 2: do these things to us because they're afraid of us,
Speaker 2: I always cringe and we as we kind of grow
Speaker 2: and move over to YouTube, you guys will probably be
Speaker 2: able to see me react because we're going to be
Speaker 2: doing some things live rams just kind of gives them
Speaker 2: that as a not to get out of jail free card.
Speaker 2: But someone can understand why someone would shoot you if
Speaker 2: they were afraid of you, except I know that that's
Speaker 2: not the case. That was not fear based, that was hate. Well,
Speaker 2: hang on right here, I want you to make your
Speaker 2: so read for our listeners. This CNN story that we
Speaker 2: have to cover. This is from CNN. Eleven year old
Speaker 2: Mississippi boy who was shot by responding police officers calling
Speaker 2: nine to one one has been released from the hospital.
Speaker 2: I think his name is a Darien Murray, shot in
Speaker 2: the chest by the Indianola Police Department officer on Saturday
Speaker 2: morning while the officer was responding to a domestic disturbance
Speaker 2: call at the child's home. So the responding officer at
Speaker 2: the home of this child shot this child. That is incredible.
Speaker 2: Nikola Murray and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation told CNN
Speaker 2: that the father of another one of her children arrived
Speaker 2: at the home at four am quote irate end quote,
Speaker 2: concerned about her safety. Murray asked a darien to all
Speaker 2: the police. Murray said, the officer who arrived at the
Speaker 2: home had his gun drawn at the front door. Can
Speaker 2: I pause there? Why? And I don't expect Ramses to answer.
Speaker 2: I don't expect you to answer, but ponder that he's
Speaker 2: responding to a domestic disturbance call, not a military infantry,
Speaker 2: not a armed robbery, not a breaking and entering, but
Speaker 2: a domestic disturbance.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to play Devil's advocate. But I
Speaker 1: want to say what some people who might be listening
Speaker 1: might say. They might say that, well, if the officer
Speaker 1: felt that danger was afoot, the officer has the right
Speaker 1: to protect himself, and the officers trained to use a weapon,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: So I want you to an officer who need to
Speaker 2: step his squabbles game up. Yeah, what about them hands.
Speaker 2: But listen, no, you need to see what's up with
Speaker 2: them paws. But here's hands. So here's what happened left
Speaker 2: and right shoulder blades.
Speaker 1: You're not wrong, okay, So we're saying the same thing, right,
Speaker 1: But people who have been subjected to copaganda for many years,
Speaker 1: who have been sold this narrative that the police are
Speaker 1: the good guys.
Speaker 2: And that.
Speaker 1: Police might get it wrong sometimes, but that's okay, that's
Speaker 1: the cost of doing business, which is an awful thing
Speaker 1: to say. You wouldn't say that about any other industry
Speaker 1: so often, and you wouldn't say that about any other industry.
Speaker 2: And the pilot gets wrong results in death. So so
Speaker 2: that's what I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: If pilots had the same error rate for every plane
Speaker 1: that took.
Speaker 2: Off, every airline would be on a business, right, And
Speaker 2: not because that would be charage from flying, but because
Speaker 2: they wouldn't be able to afford to operate from all
Speaker 2: the lawsuits. Right. So if it's something that most of
Speaker 2: our law enforcement is protected from, sure, sure, which is
Speaker 2: a reason why there's so little accountability. But here's the
Speaker 2: other part of this.
Speaker 1: We know one of the reasons in our communities black
Speaker 1: and brown communities, impoverished communities, marginalized communities throughout the country.
Speaker 1: We know that police misconduct shapes outcomes negatively for our
Speaker 1: families and our communities, right but this also happens in
Speaker 1: white communities too. But because we've as a country bought
Speaker 1: into this narrative that we need policing the way that
Speaker 1: it has been practiced, and it just needs slight nudges
Speaker 1: in the right direction here and there, rather than an
Speaker 1: entire rethinking of what public safety means in an overhaul
Speaker 1: of the criminal justice system. Because of that, we have
Speaker 1: blinded ourselves as a people, indeed black people too, because
Speaker 1: most black people were opposed to the idea of defunding
Speaker 1: the police, because again we've bought into this narrative that
Speaker 1: police reform is the way to do it better. Training,
Speaker 1: more funding soware than that's going to change.
Speaker 2: Weapons.
Speaker 1: Well, police have gotten more activity, Police have got more
Speaker 1: money and more training year after year, and these outcomes
Speaker 1: still persist, and it costs people their lives. Right now,
Speaker 1: I think, to your point, showing up to fix the
Speaker 1: problem while having a gun drawn is not the type
Speaker 1: of problem fixing that we call on police for. You
Speaker 1: know what, I mean, brant. You want someone who is strong,
Speaker 1: who can who knows how to throw hands if necessary,
Speaker 1: show but also you want someone who is trained in
Speaker 1: diffusing the situation, not necessarily someone who's trained in ending lives. Okay,
Speaker 1: people have kids. This is this is a thing. This
Speaker 1: is not a black thing. Okay, this is a human thing.
Speaker 1: People have kids with each other, and then when they
Speaker 1: have a kid, they fight with each other men and
Speaker 1: women in this example, and.
Speaker 2: Not a result of having had children.
Speaker 1: It's because you both love the child and you want
Speaker 1: to love the child in different ways. This has been
Speaker 1: my experience. Okay, I have children, so I know what
Speaker 1: it's like to deal with their mothers and sometimes it's tense. Okay,
Speaker 1: police showing up and killing somebody doesn't help, because now
Speaker 1: what do you have? You have a child growing up
Speaker 1: without one parent. So in terms of the.
Speaker 2: Parents growing up without the child in this.
Speaker 1: Case, or yeah potentially that too, right, But what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is that this officer showing up guns blazing add
Speaker 1: to your point.
Speaker 2: Rather, that was a solution to what I'll continue to read.
Speaker 2: So yeah, go ahead, Murray said. The officer arrived at
Speaker 2: the home, quote had his gun drawn at the front
Speaker 2: door and asked those inside of the home to come outside.
Speaker 2: End quote. Murray said her son was shot coming around
Speaker 2: the corner of a hallway into the living room. Quote.
Speaker 2: Once he became Once he came around the corner, he
Speaker 2: got shot. In quote, Murray said, I cannot grasp why.
Speaker 2: The same cop that told him to come out of
Speaker 2: the house and he did and he got shot. He
Speaker 2: kept asking why did he shoot me? What did I
Speaker 2: do wrong? Imagine that it's like put your hands up
Speaker 2: or howl and you do and they shoot you. Anyway,
Speaker 2: how old was he? A Darian? I believe was eleven
Speaker 2: years old. Now, I want to paint a picture.
Speaker 1: If you haven't seen this story, brown skin, black child,
Speaker 1: male child. People ask the question, why don't black people
Speaker 1: trust the police? Why don't black people talk to the police.
Speaker 1: Why don't black people interact with the police. This is
Speaker 1: a question that often comes from The Boondocks. For those
Speaker 1: that are familiar with the cartoon, The boon Docks. They did
Speaker 1: a whole episode on this and it showed, you know,
Speaker 1: white people's reaction to the police, and oh my god,
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 2: Talking the police.
Speaker 1: The police are amazing, you know, they get ask them
Speaker 1: how their day was, and you know, give them some
Speaker 1: support and show them some love. And black people are like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't even want to see the police. And you're
Speaker 1: starting to kind of get a sense.
Speaker 2: It's often terrifying.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, And the thing is, you know, we picked
Speaker 1: these stories and we share them. That's that's only because
Speaker 1: these are the stories that have made national headlines. These
Speaker 1: are stories you're most likely to know and resonate with,
Speaker 1: and you can easily and readily the information is readily
Speaker 1: available to you if you want to substantiate what indeed
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Okay, there are so many stories that
Speaker 1: don't make national headlines. There's so many stories that don't
Speaker 1: even get documented. Many black people, I know this, have
Speaker 1: learned to just let it go so you'll never.
Speaker 2: Even hear it. This is the peak. This is the
Speaker 2: tip of the icebergs, the peak of the mountain where
Speaker 2: there's all the stories. Sure.
Speaker 1: Sure, but these stories plentiful and they definitely shape the
Speaker 1: outcomes of day to day life in America. Imagine, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna paint that picture that you just painted for our listeners.
Speaker 1: Imagine you're at home and you get in an argument
Speaker 1: with your child's father. If you're a woman or child's
Speaker 1: mother if you're a male. I've gotten a child in
Speaker 1: an argument before, and I had to call the police,
Speaker 1: and then I had to meet the police somewhere else
Speaker 1: so they wouldn't mistake me for the wrong person. Right,
Speaker 1: and I own my house. Anyway, imagine this happens and
Speaker 1: you need to call the authorities, call the police, right,
Speaker 1: just to let them know. Hey, this is what happened.
Speaker 1: In case a neighbor calls or whatever. I'm on top
Speaker 1: of it. Okay, this is who was arguing with. Here's
Speaker 1: what it was. The police show up with their guns out,
Speaker 1: and then they shoot your baby after telling him to
Speaker 1: come out of the house.
Speaker 2: Come out. You're telling everybody to come out. He rounds
Speaker 2: the corner. So no one, and I want to make
Speaker 2: this clear, no one should have been in danger of
Speaker 2: getting shot. Sure from simply listening to the instructions of
Speaker 2: the officer. Absolutely, even the man who you know, I'm
Speaker 2: guessing was the aggressor here should not have been in
Speaker 2: danger of being shot when he complied, as you guys
Speaker 2: insist they should. Why don't they just comply? Well, this
Speaker 2: young man did exactly what he was told, and he
Speaker 2: was shot and could have been killed.
Speaker 1: So here's my solution. Showing up to a disturbance like
Speaker 1: this with a gun increases the likelihood that there will.
Speaker 2: Be gun violence.
Speaker 1: I recognize that lease and guns and this country and
Speaker 1: guns are joined.
Speaker 2: At the hip. So what I would like to see,
Speaker 2: what I would like to see, That's funny.
Speaker 1: They literally hear what I would like to see is
Speaker 1: probably not likely, at least in my lifetime. But I've
Speaker 1: said this before on the show in Australia, sorry in
Speaker 1: New Zealand. Been in New Zealand before, and the police
Speaker 1: there will have guns in case they need them, but
Speaker 1: they keep the guns in the trunk of the car, okay,
Speaker 1: and it's only for emergencies if it's absolutely necessary. They
Speaker 1: have the same respect from you know, the general public.
Speaker 1: People understand that you can't harm police officers because you know,
Speaker 1: there's the ultimate punishment or whatever that version of that
Speaker 1: is in their country, and people recognize, okay, I cannot
Speaker 1: interact with the police officers and just treat them any
Speaker 1: kind of way. So police don't have all the respect
Speaker 1: that they need. And people aren't getting shot, certainly not
Speaker 1: little boys for doing what they're told by the police.
Speaker 2: Right. So again, if you show up with a gun,
Speaker 2: the likelihood that gun violence is going to take place increases,
Speaker 2: especially once the gun is drawn.
Speaker 1: Sure, and remember, there's nothing in this story that suggested
Speaker 1: that anyone in the house had a gun, and not
Speaker 1: at least not that what I read now maybe more.
Speaker 2: And it also might lead you to believe that it
Speaker 2: didn't matter who turned that corner. Yeah, somebody was getting shot.
Speaker 2: Someone he had the gunt. Now know that because an
Speaker 2: eleven year old turned the corner, right, that's how we know.
Speaker 2: There's the proof. An eleven year old turned the corner
Speaker 2: and was shot after being told. So whoever, he didn't
Speaker 2: surprise anybody shot, He didn't surprise anybody.
Speaker 1: So if that were just the only story that we had,
Speaker 1: that would be more than enough to help tell this,
Speaker 1: to help establish this truth.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna read from the Independent this time. I'll
Speaker 2: take it please.
Speaker 1: A man who waited twelve years for a heart transplant
Speaker 1: has died after he was denied medication during a stint
Speaker 1: in jail following a dispute with a neighbor. Dexter Berry,
Speaker 1: fifty four met. Dozens of doctors underwent intricate procedures and
Speaker 1: even moved to different states and his efforts to improve
Speaker 1: his health. According to the Tribute, in twenty twenty, he
Speaker 1: received a new heart, allowing him to return to his
Speaker 1: normal life, but last year he was arrested on a
Speaker 1: misdemeanor charge, leading him to spending two days in jail
Speaker 1: without his medication. His body then appeared to reject his
Speaker 1: new heart. Mister Barry's neighbor called the emergency services in November,
Speaker 1: claiming that the fifty four year old had said he
Speaker 1: would beat him up following a dispute regarding Wi Fi access,
Speaker 1: which had lasted weeks. No fight ever took place, but
Speaker 1: mister Barry was arrested on a charge of simple assault.
Speaker 1: Mister Barry told Jacksonville, Florida officer as many as seven
Speaker 1: times that he needed his medication every day, according to
Speaker 1: the outlet, citing body cam footage.
Speaker 2: So we have.
Speaker 1: Another instance of I think I remember what you sent
Speaker 1: to the group text when you sent this article over
Speaker 1: from the Independent.
Speaker 2: I think there was from the office. Yeah, in the backseat,
Speaker 2: back seat, and him saying making them aware that he
Speaker 2: needed his medication. My medicine is in the house. Being
Speaker 2: arrested for a simple assault that he didn't commit and
Speaker 2: lieu of a fight actually happening is wild and another truth.
Speaker 2: When your skin looks like ours, it is you know
Speaker 2: how I come on here and just express that I'm tired.
Speaker 2: One of these days I want somebody to say how
Speaker 2: you doing and to say okay and mean it right.
Speaker 2: Ramses and I do this every day. We talk to
Speaker 2: you guys once a week, but we do this every day. Right.
Speaker 2: Think about all of the stuff that just happens in
Speaker 2: your normal day to day life, having nothing to do
Speaker 2: with your race, nothing to do with politics, nothing to
Speaker 2: do with the police, just life, bills, hardships, illnesses, you know, family, children, love, life, work,
Speaker 2: And then stack on top of that seven days worth
Speaker 2: of stories like this about people that look like you
Speaker 2: whose only crime was that they look like you.
Speaker 1: Imagine the people whose stories we can't tell, the people
Speaker 1: that know that reach out to us personally. Hey, something
Speaker 1: happened to my cousin, my son, can you help you know?
Speaker 1: And we have to wait to make sure that we have.
Speaker 2: This man went through all you have to go through
Speaker 2: just to get an organ transplant, heart transplants, so an
Speaker 2: even more difficult transplant to get had a successful transplant surgery,
Speaker 2: got arrested for a fight that didn't happen over Wi
Speaker 2: Fi and died because he was denied medication that he
Speaker 2: made them where he needed and the only reason that
Speaker 2: this wasn't take. So now I'm making proclamations that I
Speaker 2: don't know to be true, but I'm going to assume.
Speaker 2: It's not a word I like to use, but I'd
Speaker 2: like to think if this young man wasn't a black man,
Speaker 2: that he wouldn't have been left to die because he
Speaker 2: couldn't get access to medication that person who needed.
Speaker 1: But I think i'll take it a step further too,
Speaker 1: if he wasn't a black man. Here's what I would bet.
Speaker 1: I would bet the neighbor was not black. They're fighting
Speaker 1: over Wi Fi and he goes to jail or a
Speaker 1: threat you know the neighbor. You know, this country, a
Speaker 1: lot of especially people on the right, they talk about
Speaker 1: how much they espouse the free speech in the Second Amendment,
Speaker 1: first and the second Amendments.
Speaker 2: They don't know the rest of them. But you know,
Speaker 2: over Wi Fi.
Speaker 1: I don't imagine anybody's going to jail over an argument
Speaker 1: over Wi Fi if they don't look like you or me.
Speaker 1: But the fact that he goes to jail and he's
Speaker 1: not taken seriously, he's not treating humanely, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: It's a lot.
Speaker 1: Easier to deny someone their humanity if you've been taught
Speaker 1: or you've chosen to see the ass of human less
Speaker 1: than human, not.
Speaker 2: Worth equality.
Speaker 1: At a base level, equity at really what should be.
Speaker 2: The standard level that we all treat each other. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so it's unjust, but we know that it's unfair.
Speaker 2: But we know that it's heartbreaking. But we know that.
Speaker 2: And my question that I pose to Rams is because
Speaker 2: he's sitting here, but to society, really, is is there
Speaker 2: any hope of actual change? I say yes, and he
Speaker 2: always does that that I almost always want to flip
Speaker 2: the table over.
Speaker 1: Well, we got to talk about that, and so we'll
Speaker 1: come back with more. So we'll stick around.