Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
Speaker 1: mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I am
Speaker 1: your host, ramses Josh.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsay's joh I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 2: tuned into civic cycling, did you are?
Speaker 1: And stick around for this ride Because it's still Black
Speaker 1: history mok so, we thought we might share some things
Speaker 1: that typically come up around this time of year, most
Speaker 1: notably why is there not a white history money? Okay,
Speaker 1: This is a conversation that black people are forced to answer.
Speaker 1: Some people have the patients and the insight be fair
Speaker 1: to answer it, and some folks do not have the patience.
Speaker 1: And it's very frustrating because not everyone is a great
Speaker 1: orator and eloquent speaker, and trying to explain something like this,
Speaker 1: that is it requires a profound explanation for an enquiring mind.
Speaker 2: I think some people also feel that the questions are
Speaker 2: not asked in good faith.
Speaker 1: Sure that too, It's kind of like they're expecting, like
Speaker 1: I got your moment when they ask the question. And
Speaker 1: so we are going to help you with that and
Speaker 1: hopefully you'll be able to help other people with that
Speaker 1: question and many other questions like it, they'll stick around
Speaker 1: for that. We're also going to be talking about something
Speaker 1: that we have to start paying attention to, which is
Speaker 1: the erosion of black support from President Joe Biden's campaign.
Speaker 1: This is not something that we can pretend is not happening,
Speaker 1: and you know, we're going to do our best to
Speaker 1: make sense of it, and you know, share our thoughts
Speaker 1: of course, and then if there is any action steps
Speaker 1: that make themselves apparent to us in our conversation, of course,
Speaker 1: we're happy to share those with you. But for now,
Speaker 1: it's just something that we need to be mindful of
Speaker 1: as we move into the future. But before we cross
Speaker 1: those bridges, we are going to start off with some
Speaker 1: ebony accents, shall we? I think we shall.
Speaker 2: Today's Ebony Excellence sponsored by Actively Black. Visit actively black
Speaker 2: dot com. There is greatness in our DNA. The story
Speaker 2: comes from USA Today. When it comes to impressive resumes,
Speaker 2: look no further than Sandra Douglas Morgan. Her long list
Speaker 2: of career accomplishments explain why Greaters owner Mark Davis pursued
Speaker 2: her to run the business operations of his storied NFL franchise.
Speaker 2: When she was hired in July, she became the first
Speaker 2: black woman in NFL history to serve as president of
Speaker 2: an NFL franchise. She says, and I quote, I do
Speaker 2: think I underestimated how much attention my higher would receive
Speaker 2: because I was so focused on the raiders in making
Speaker 2: sure that the employees knew how I planned on implementing
Speaker 2: Mark's vision for the future here.
Speaker 1: In Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: And this was after the team relocated from the Bay Area,
Speaker 2: most notably Oakland, California, to Las Vegas. She continued, quote,
Speaker 2: but I am slowly sorry, realizing based on conversations with
Speaker 2: people throughout the league, that disappointment is historic and that
Speaker 2: impressive resume includes being in a house, council and litigation
Speaker 2: attorney at law firms big and small City attorney for
Speaker 2: nor North Las Vegas, director of external Affairs for ATNT,
Speaker 2: member of the Nevada Gaming Commission, chair of the Nevada
Speaker 2: Gaming Control Board, and member of the board of directors
Speaker 2: for corporations such as Caesars Entertainment, Family, National Financial, and
Speaker 2: Allegiance Travel. Now she is first black female president in
Speaker 2: an NFL. Credible trailblazer for Sisters all over the world.
Speaker 2: Absolutely keep going, all right, So.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, once upon a time, I remember we was
Speaker 1: reworking song lyrics so that we could get something off
Speaker 1: that we really wanted to say. And I remember they
Speaker 1: reworked the TI whatever you like song to say I
Speaker 1: want Joe Biden, need Joe Biden so or whatever t
Speaker 1: I said. So. Yeah, once upon a time, Joe Biden
Speaker 1: was I don't want to say he was black people's
Speaker 1: first choice.
Speaker 2: Oh no, you hear me use this term often That
Speaker 2: would be intellectually dishonest. You really have to go through
Speaker 2: some gymnastics mentally to make that inaccurate choice. It was,
Speaker 2: once again, which is far too often the case for
Speaker 2: black vote in this country, choosing the lesser of two evils.
Speaker 2: Joe Biden made famous to most young progressive black people
Speaker 2: in this country by his authoring, not just support of
Speaker 2: the crime Deal. So Joe Biden was not and is not,
Speaker 2: a very popular candidate, probably less so now than before.
Speaker 1: Now. What I will do is suggest that because Joe
Speaker 1: Biden was Obama's former VP, he did have some name
Speaker 1: recognition they gave him with us, and so there was that,
Speaker 1: But we saw something happen something interesting happened to Bernie
Speaker 1: Sanders both times, which is, Bernie Sanders effectively got cut
Speaker 1: out of the equation after being so successful that you
Speaker 1: could conceive of him as becoming the Democratic nominee. And
Speaker 1: those of us in the loop have theories that would
Speaker 1: make sense. We say, I'm out loud that music spell.
Speaker 1: People like Hillary Clinton, people like Joe Biden are not
Speaker 1: as far left as Bernie Sanders. And for folks that
Speaker 1: will not vote for another Trump presidency, they also will
Speaker 1: not vote for a Bernie Sanders presidency. So the best
Speaker 1: chance the Democrats have to win is getting a Democrat
Speaker 1: who won't scare Republicans so much that they won't vote
Speaker 1: for either candidate. And so despite what the Democratic electorate
Speaker 1: would have wanted, you know, Dave Chappelle said that Hillary
Speaker 1: Clinton karate kicked Bernie Sanders legs out from under him,
Speaker 1: and and you know, that's that's kind of what happens.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a there's more people than the folks
Speaker 1: that were seeing that that have a degree of influence
Speaker 1: on how these things shake out. And so that those
Speaker 1: of us in the loop feel like that is probably
Speaker 1: the decision making that took place, and that's why we
Speaker 1: never got a chance to vote for Bernie Sanders.
Speaker 2: Well, I'd argue that we'll never have a chance to
Speaker 2: vote for anyone similar to Bernie Sanders. And by that
Speaker 2: I just mean someone who tries to present themselves independent
Speaker 2: of the two party system that has governed us for
Speaker 2: the entirety of this nation. You know, you're not allowed
Speaker 2: to not be a part of.
Speaker 1: In someone who is people funded. You know, we're fortunate
Speaker 1: enough to speak with Kasum Rashid on the show that
Speaker 1: might have been last week, and he's a people funded politician,
Speaker 1: and he explained to us the benefits of being people funded.
Speaker 1: It makes you more accountable to you, to your voters,
Speaker 1: the people that are voting for you, and you don't
Speaker 1: have to balance the interest of the people on the
Speaker 1: ground with corporate interests. And it's twofold.
Speaker 2: It not only makes you more accountable, but it gives
Speaker 2: you more in the way of autonomy. You're bound to
Speaker 2: corporate interest of those who put you in off.
Speaker 1: So that's how we ended up with Joe Biden. But
Speaker 1: we got the old guy out of there, we got
Speaker 1: somebody in it. Well, he didn't make headlines the way
Speaker 1: that he did once upon a time, and he didn't
Speaker 1: have a nuclear football with him. But you know, here
Speaker 1: we are, here, we are again. He's still a very
Speaker 1: popular figure, the old president, but he's not He's not
Speaker 1: the person that's calling the shots as of the date
Speaker 1: of this recording. So in any event, Joe Biden wasn't
Speaker 1: the person that people were extremely excited about. Like you
Speaker 1: remember that Obama had people very excited. Bernie Sanders of course,
Speaker 1: had people very excited, particularly young people. Joe Biden was like,
Speaker 1: it's not Donald Trump, and that was good enough for
Speaker 1: most people. That's the extent of it, and that was
Speaker 1: good enough to get him a lot. And it's like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: these are all the things you're saying. You picked a
Speaker 1: black woman for your VP, you appointed a black woman
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court, you gave us Juneteenth. Okay, I
Speaker 1: see you trying to do a little something here and there,
Speaker 1: and the things that we really asked for. We're still
Speaker 1: waiting on those things. But before I get there, I
Speaker 1: want to shout out one person. He goes by the
Speaker 1: name of DJ Strider Lee out in Virginia, who brought
Speaker 1: this topic to us and asked us to cover it.
Speaker 1: So I want to shout him out and thanks for
Speaker 1: putting us on the radio out there, because we love
Speaker 1: Virginia and all the stations that were on in Virginia.
Speaker 1: But I'll share a bit from The Guardian. So no
Speaker 1: Republican presidential candidate has received more than thirteen percent of
Speaker 1: the votes of Black Americans since the Civil rights era.
Speaker 1: The series concerns for the Biden campaign began with a
Speaker 1: New York Times poll in November, which found the twenty
Speaker 1: two percent of black voters in six battleground states planned
Speaker 1: to back Trump. In twenty twenty four. Other polls brought
Speaker 1: similarly ominous news, twenty percent of black voters nationally backing
Speaker 1: Trump in an NBC News poll, twenty three percent according
Speaker 1: to CNN, and just sixty three percent backing Biden according
Speaker 1: to Jen Forward Slash University of Chicago. Among some black men,
Speaker 1: a sense that Biden has not made good on his
Speaker 1: promises has set alongside a perception that Trump's racist language
Speaker 1: matters less than his promise of greater economic opportunities. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we have to talk about that, and we will
Speaker 1: let me read this next one. Those are still big
Speaker 1: majorities for Biden, and white voters are far more likely
Speaker 1: to support Trump, but in a race that will be
Speaker 1: decided by the at the margins. In sorry, but in
Speaker 1: a race that will be decided at the margins. It
Speaker 1: is a significant shift. In twenty twenty, ninety two percent
Speaker 1: of black voter supported Biden for president, according to a
Speaker 1: study by p Research Center. Biden has also seen a
Speaker 1: sharp decline among Latino voters, with thirty four percent supporting
Speaker 1: him now compared to sixty five percent in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Quote it's a relatively small number of people, but it's
Speaker 1: a crucial part of the Democratic coalition unquote, David Smith said.
Speaker 1: He goes on to say, quote presidential elections are so
Speaker 1: absurdly close, and last time Biden won by seven million
Speaker 1: in the popular vote, but forty thousand votes in three
Speaker 1: states to put them over the top in the electoral college.
Speaker 1: He thanked black voters and his victory speech in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: which was a sign of how important they were to
Speaker 1: his victory. In that speech, Biden said, quote, you always
Speaker 1: had my back, and I'll have yours unquote. But not
Speaker 1: everyone is persuaded that he's made good on that bargain.
Speaker 1: So let's take a moment here and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: some of the things that we expected. There's still one
Speaker 1: more paragraph I want to share with you, so we
Speaker 1: might say this twice, but I want to say this
Speaker 1: now while we're here. Some of the things that were
Speaker 1: that we thought would come with a Biden presidency include
Speaker 1: police reform. You and I really were looking forward to
Speaker 1: some sort of meaningful change with respect to police.
Speaker 2: May I ask why we expected that from the author
Speaker 2: of the crime.
Speaker 1: You're right hoped, because of course that was sort of
Speaker 1: the language that went into his campaigns. You know, I
Speaker 1: hear you, I know that we need to fix this up.
Speaker 1: And then we got an executive order, which, for those
Speaker 1: in the know, I understand that that's really just a
Speaker 1: big nothing burger.
Speaker 2: Well a nothing burger. And this is the trouble of
Speaker 2: being a politician who is on the democratic side of
Speaker 2: politics for most of my life. Really, the thing that
Speaker 2: sticks in the craw of those who frown upon President
Speaker 2: Obama's two terms in office is that we are oftentimes
Speaker 2: not extremist, oftentimes not willing to break the law and
Speaker 2: undermine democracy and checks and balances to push forward our
Speaker 2: own agendas. I think what a lot of voters hoped
Speaker 2: for with Obama was a black version of Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Come in and do what you want and do it
Speaker 2: for black people, because for so long nobody has. And
Speaker 2: when he got there and was just a middle of
Speaker 2: the road politician, a decent human being and and well meaning,
Speaker 2: people were disappointed. And the reason why the other guy
Speaker 2: is so popular is because he shows up for those
Speaker 2: who consider themselves weak and like him in a way
Speaker 2: that is very macho and very aggressive and very I
Speaker 2: do what I want, and then he does, and then
Speaker 2: nothing happens, So nothing happens bad to him as a
Speaker 2: consequence of him just breaking all the exactly Okay, so
Speaker 2: let's go with that. So on the heels of a
Speaker 2: Trump presidency, the state of play with respect to American
Speaker 2: politics has changed entirely. That we saw how traditional courtesies
Speaker 2: that were observed once upon a time with respect to
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court is a great example,
Speaker 2: and others were not observed. By forty five, we're not
Speaker 2: even considered he just did what he wanted.
Speaker 1: To do, right. But since the state of play has changed,
Speaker 1: and we all saw it for four years straight, we
Speaker 1: knew that there's some rules in there that you can
Speaker 1: interpret how you so choose some rules you might even
Speaker 1: be able to bend a little bit, and others you
Speaker 1: can break. Others you can flat out break.
Speaker 3: So there were people who said, here's a way to
Speaker 3: bypass the conservative Supreme Court majority, elect more people to
Speaker 3: the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: There's no rule preventing that. Now, for Joe Biden to well,
Speaker 1: I don't know that he said this or not said this,
Speaker 1: but is in action suggests to me that this was
Speaker 1: not something that he was willing to do. For Joe
Speaker 1: Biden to not take that course of action by stacking
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court and giving it a decidedly progressive liberal
Speaker 1: majority again two and then that would have been a
Speaker 1: fair play, considering the way that Donald Trump was kind
Speaker 1: of not adhering to tradition with respect to his appointments,
Speaker 1: and for Joe Biden to not do that, we're just
Speaker 1: looking around like, okay, well, I mean we have a
Speaker 1: black woman. Cool, thank you. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But what we wanted was this. What we wanted was
Speaker 1: that what we want It was these other things we're
Speaker 1: still dealing with, you know, the philibuster And explain that
Speaker 1: to our listeners what filibustering is So the filibuster is
Speaker 1: a political maneuver that prevents a law from being considered
Speaker 1: on the floor of It might be the House of
Speaker 1: Representatives or the Senate, I'm not sure about which one
Speaker 1: it is. For those who are a little bit more
Speaker 1: politically connected, you certainly know I never took a civics Well,
Speaker 1: I did take a civics class, but that was in
Speaker 1: high school. But I know that it's a political maneuver
Speaker 1: that if there is a majority, you need a certain
Speaker 1: type of majority to overrule a filibuster or something like that,
Speaker 1: like a two thirds majority something like that. Otherwise a
Speaker 1: person can simply just run out the clock on a
Speaker 1: bill from being heard.
Speaker 2: Do you have something more that's pretty accurate? In plain language?
Speaker 2: That's pretty accurate. Philibuster is a tactic used in the
Speaker 2: United States Senate to delay or block a vote on
Speaker 2: a measure by preventing the debate from ending. The sentence
Speaker 2: rules place a few restrictions on debate in general. If
Speaker 2: no other senator you're speaking who seeks recognition is entitled
Speaker 2: to speak for as long as they wish. So it's
Speaker 2: a way of just delaying something so that it's never
Speaker 2: ruled on.
Speaker 1: One way or the other.
Speaker 2: It's just like if Ramsay said, let's just run the
Speaker 2: clock out.
Speaker 1: And so this political maneuver has stood in the way
Speaker 1: of black progress since Doctor King was one of the
Speaker 1: people that was originally suggesting that we need to end
Speaker 1: the filibuster because it prevents that sort of progress. But now,
Speaker 1: and make no mistake, the filibuster is not a tool
Speaker 1: that was written into the language of this country. It's
Speaker 1: a tool that developed sometime in the early part of
Speaker 1: last century as a as like a loophole, and then
Speaker 1: people just started using it. Right, So these are things,
Speaker 1: these are action items that we could have seen addressed
Speaker 1: in this presidency. I want to read a little bit
Speaker 1: more here because we're talking about the erosion of black support.
Speaker 1: So this also comes from the Guardian. This is just
Speaker 1: me reading more. Has fallen short on a range of
Speaker 1: campaign promises, from tepid action on voting rights and police
Speaker 1: reform to failing to decriminalize marijuana possession, an offense for
Speaker 1: which black people are far more likely to be arrested.
Speaker 1: There's also a suggestion that some black voters are weary
Speaker 1: of being taken for granted, for sorry, taken for granted
Speaker 1: by the Democrats and feel they should have more to
Speaker 1: show for decades of consistent support. The drop in Biden's
Speaker 1: support is concentrated among black men and younger voters. Younger
Speaker 1: black voters are much more likely than average to support
Speaker 1: a ceasefire in Gaza or say that the US should
Speaker 1: not be involved in the conflict there at all. Canceling
Speaker 1: all student debt is another thing that he failed a
Speaker 1: deliver new gun legislation. That's another thing that failed to
Speaker 1: deliver meaningful action. In so far as climate change is concerned.
Speaker 1: There's been some, but it's not the aggressive sort of
Speaker 1: type of energy that we would have seen had we
Speaker 1: gotten like a Donald Trump type of person character in
Speaker 1: there that says, look, this is what we need to do.
Speaker 1: So this is what we're doing now. This is not
Speaker 1: all bad. I do want to say a couple of
Speaker 1: good things that Biden has done. It's not really good
Speaker 1: at championing, singing his own praises, but these are things
Speaker 1: that have happened. Lowering the costs of families, everyday expenses
Speaker 1: are There are more people working than at any point
Speaker 1: in American history. The more is being made in America.
Speaker 1: He rescued the economy and changed the course of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Of course, he's rebuilding our infrastructure. And then, of course
Speaker 1: the historic expansion of benefits and services were toxic exposed veterans.
Speaker 1: So these are just a handful.
Speaker 2: There's others, the black unemployment rather than another space where
Speaker 2: he's shined a little bit.
Speaker 1: But now do me a favorite que talk about. Okay,
Speaker 1: you are a person who brought the October seventh attack
Speaker 1: to my attention, and you've studied it very closely. Now
Speaker 1: you would qualify as a younger or younger mentally at least,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure where where the cut off hits. But
Speaker 1: a younger black voter. Right, you don't have to say
Speaker 1: who you will vote for, But is it now more
Speaker 1: difficult for you to cast a vote for Joe Biden? Again,
Speaker 1: you're a younger voter knowing that he is complicit in
Speaker 1: the genocide of all of those Palestinian children that we've seen,
Speaker 1: whose body parts have been mangled and heads have been
Speaker 1: squished by rubble and so forth, has morally could you
Speaker 1: check a box next to that man's name, knowing that
Speaker 1: he funded that stood by it, and indeed encouraged them
Speaker 1: to take whatever action is necessary up to an including
Speaker 1: of course, all those children who will never get to grow.
Speaker 2: Up unless me and my posterity and my family make
Speaker 2: the decision to leave this country. I am left with
Speaker 2: no other choice.
Speaker 1: But does it make it does it make it more
Speaker 1: challenging now to do that?
Speaker 2: If I was trying to stoke the fire of emotion,
Speaker 2: I would say yes, But that's just not true. The
Speaker 2: alternative is a far worse outcome for me and my family, right,
Speaker 2: And that's that's it's important for me to expound. In
Speaker 2: the in the in the political theater, you know, there
Speaker 2: is no good choice here there.
Speaker 1: That's that's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2: But an actual real life this is almost this is
Speaker 2: almost as important to state the alternative is far worse.
Speaker 1: Still, yep, because of Project twenty twenty five and that
Speaker 1: that conservative beginning. I'm with you there. What I'm finding.
Speaker 2: Dictatorship of a racist bigot. That's a bad look. It's
Speaker 2: worse people. I have to say that plainly.
Speaker 1: So here's what I want to say. As far as
Speaker 1: people who.
Speaker 4: Wake up on election day motivated, excited to vote, I
Speaker 4: don't know that those people on our side, but see
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. But there's some people who without that excitement,
Speaker 4: they just they feel like disconnected. What it six to
Speaker 4: one half, it doesn't know the other.
Speaker 1: And I think that that points to the whys of
Speaker 1: the erosion of black support for Joe Biden. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about you and me personally, but I do
Speaker 1: know that, at least for me personally, it does make
Speaker 1: it feel like if I check the box next to
Speaker 1: his name, all of the Palestinian people that I've met
Speaker 1: since then, it's a slap in their face. And that's
Speaker 1: hard for me. But as you mentioned, the alternative is
Speaker 1: far worse and the effects last a lot longer. And
Speaker 1: so what are you going to do?