Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of civic Ciper. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsay's Jah, I am your not as capable co host
Speaker 1: q War. I highly disagree with that, but welcome back
Speaker 1: to the show. You have an excellent show to talk
Speaker 1: about and a lot to stick around for. We just
Speaker 1: celebrated June team legally, I mean officially, I guess for
Speaker 1: the what does that be the second time? And it
Speaker 1: was very exciting, but of course it brought with it
Speaker 1: its own type of controversy. You know, who should capitalize
Speaker 1: off of it, who should exploit it, you know who shouldn't,
Speaker 1: et cetera. So we're going to spend a good part
Speaker 1: of the show talking about how that looks and how
Speaker 1: that feels. So it's for us, it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a break from the norm of people getting shot by
Speaker 1: police or you know whatever, police or government and competence
Speaker 1: and that sort of stuff. We're just going to talk
Speaker 1: about individuals, companies, people who we interact with more or
Speaker 1: less on a day to day basis, and we do
Speaker 1: believe that's important too. You'd be surprised at exactly how
Speaker 1: we feel about it. So please stick around because we've
Speaker 1: been kind of kind of waiting to talk about this
Speaker 1: on the show here, and we've.
Speaker 2: Got to celebrate Juneteenth and Father's Day in concert.
Speaker 1: That was pretty cool. Yes, Indeed, we're also going to
Speaker 1: spend our way Black History fact talking about the origins
Speaker 1: of Juneteenth, and we're going to share some stuff with
Speaker 1: you of how to like kind of curate your news intake,
Speaker 1: your media intake, some expert advice for our Baba segment.
Speaker 1: So a lot to stick around for. But first and
Speaker 1: foremost true to form and in typical civics side for fashion,
Speaker 1: we like to start off with what we call ebony
Speaker 1: excellence because of y'all. It's because of y'all, And this
Speaker 1: is a very special ebony excellence for us because for
Speaker 1: this week it's not like us to normally do this,
Speaker 1: but for this week we are going to highlight us
Speaker 1: this show and that includes you, our listeners, that includes
Speaker 1: our producer Maggie Boan us this show. I want you
Speaker 1: to tell you a bit about the origins. If this
Speaker 1: is the first time you've got in here. But this
Speaker 1: show in recent months has achieved a couple of really
Speaker 1: special milestones, not the least of which is we now
Speaker 1: have thirty broadcast affiliates across the country. I know that
Speaker 1: doesn't matter to you if you're in San Diego, if
Speaker 1: you're in Vermont, if you're in Oregon. But for us,
Speaker 1: for this type of show, that's very very special. And
Speaker 1: it's because of listeners and because of supporters that we
Speaker 1: can get this sort of message out across the country.
Speaker 1: And then more recently, the podcast form of this show.
Speaker 1: If you catch us, you know, the end of the
Speaker 1: show every week, you'll realize that we have a podcast
Speaker 1: as wellasically the same audio just uploaded this podcast for
Speaker 1: folks who can't catch us, you know, in their cities.
Speaker 1: But the podcast form of the show, we just got
Speaker 1: some support from iHeartMedia, the biggest media company on Earth,
Speaker 1: and they have opted to highlight our show and put
Speaker 1: us among their news programs and among their black creators.
Speaker 1: And so it's magnificent. And you will share a bit
Speaker 1: about the origins of the show to give you some context.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's really interesting to call it the origins
Speaker 2: of the show, because that wasn't the idea, right that
Speaker 2: we walked away from having a pretty successful career in
Speaker 2: radio because our voices weren't being heard on the things
Speaker 2: that our people were dealing with.
Speaker 1: We never knew that it.
Speaker 2: Would turn into this, So that's why before the segment
Speaker 2: started us at it's because of y'all.
Speaker 1: It's because of y'all.
Speaker 2: You guys forced us to stand on our words, to
Speaker 2: stand on our principles, and because of that, it turned
Speaker 2: into something really beautiful and really powerful for us.
Speaker 1: So thank you, guys. So Ebony excellent This week goes
Speaker 1: to Civic Cipher Civic Cipher dot com, by the way,
Speaker 1: check it out. And of course that of course was
Speaker 1: brought to you by Armadelle Vodka, so shout out to them.
Speaker 1: Now juneteenth, I want to share what I did on juneteen.
Speaker 1: Go for it Father's Day. So I have two sons.
Speaker 1: My older son is sixteen, my little boy is seven
Speaker 1: years old. I had them both with me and we
Speaker 1: got Cane's chicken fingers. That's important for the culture. That
Speaker 1: was my Father's Day dinner. We don't get celebrated in
Speaker 1: the same way as moms do, but I think it's
Speaker 1: a little bit more special. I love it because it's
Speaker 1: like nobody cares what they care enough to show that
Speaker 1: they don't care. It's like a joke sort of. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we got Cane's chicken fingers. I think I got a
Speaker 1: thirty dollars gift card to Amazon, so that was cool
Speaker 1: because I didn't have that before. And so my Father's
Speaker 1: Day was that. Of course, I spend time with family
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing, but then I didn't want
Speaker 1: to lose sight of the fact that it was a
Speaker 1: shared holiday with Juneteenth. And of course I am a
Speaker 1: black man. My children are both black males. They will
Speaker 1: be men in due time. And my little boy seven
Speaker 1: years old, So in trying to explain to him, because
Speaker 1: he's about at that age now, trying to explain to
Speaker 1: him what June teenth is, I have to kind of
Speaker 1: break out some wild concepts. Okay, do you know what
Speaker 1: a slave is? No, for those of that's a good
Speaker 1: impression of my son. He's been on the show before.
Speaker 1: If if you're a new listener, But do you know
Speaker 1: what a slave is?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: You know, I have to explain, Okay, a slave is
Speaker 1: somebody who has to work for somebody else for free,
Speaker 1: and they don't get to make their own decisions. They
Speaker 1: don't get to wake up when they're done sleeping, they
Speaker 1: don't get to, you know whatever, They don't have any autonomy,
Speaker 1: which isn't a word, of course I used with a
Speaker 1: seven years old, but that's kind of the concept that
Speaker 1: I was attempting to convict. And then I had to
Speaker 1: explain to him that the reason that there are black people,
Speaker 1: certainly so many black people in this country is because
Speaker 1: of a period of time in this country where slavery
Speaker 1: was legal. And I did my best to convey many
Speaker 1: of the horrors of slavery to him so that he
Speaker 1: could appreciate why we now have a holiday to celebrate
Speaker 1: the fact that slavery is over. And I'm explaining to
Speaker 1: this child there's concepts like time, hundreds of years. These
Speaker 1: are inconceivable concepts for a child that young, and horrors
Speaker 1: that he can't imagine. He doesn't know what rape is
Speaker 1: because he's not old enough to understand even what right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like consent, the consensually, you know,
Speaker 1: like any of these sorts of things. And so I'm
Speaker 1: trying to paint these pictures for them. And my older
Speaker 1: son suggested that we should watch a movie together. We're
Speaker 1: here in the house together, it's the three of us,
Speaker 1: just watch a movie. So we break out Django Wow.
Speaker 1: And so we decided that this is going to be
Speaker 1: a tradition every year that we're going to honor where
Speaker 1: we came from on Juneteenth as a part of our
Speaker 1: family celebration is we're going to take some time and
Speaker 1: see what it was that our forefathers specifically are and
Speaker 1: our ancestors, our black forefathers, not the country forefathers, and
Speaker 1: our ancestors that's probably a better word, went through so
Speaker 1: that we understand the context and we don't forget the
Speaker 1: people who again were born into servitude, given a name
Speaker 1: that was not authentically theirs, lived very hard, painful and
Speaker 1: short lives, died without leaving a real story behind, and
Speaker 1: whose bodies are buried in the ground of this country.
Speaker 1: Wherever you live right now, they're buried there too. So
Speaker 1: this is going to be our family tradition, right And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest. My son asked me some heavy questions,
Speaker 1: you know, my little boy, does that make white people
Speaker 1: bad or something like that? Are the white people bad
Speaker 1: or the bad guys or something like that? Of course not,
Speaker 1: of course not. You know, there's good people and bad
Speaker 1: people of every color. You know. It's funny because as
Speaker 1: I mentioned to her as I was talking to him,
Speaker 1: I says, you know, there's white people that were certainly
Speaker 1: responsible for creating these, you know, conditions, and there were
Speaker 1: white people responsible for going away with these cos you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And so anybody of any color
Speaker 1: is capable of being good and bad, and sometimes that changes,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And they could be black, white,
Speaker 1: you know, any color, any race, any background, any nationality.
Speaker 1: The thing is, this is sort of what Juneteenth has
Speaker 1: become for me in the past couple of years, because
Speaker 1: if I'm honest, I've never been a big go out
Speaker 1: of my way to celebrate Juneteenth. Single de Mayo has
Speaker 1: always felt like a much more prevalent holiday in my
Speaker 1: life because I saw it being celebrated around me. Right
Speaker 1: June teenth was sort of celebrated in pockets. I get
Speaker 1: that it's a big deal in Texas. It's perhaps a
Speaker 1: much bigger deal in the South. But I grew up
Speaker 1: on the West Coast, and in my adult life I've
Speaker 1: lived in Arizona, so you can imagine there's not a
Speaker 1: lot in the way of Juneteenth festivities. It's just the
Speaker 1: kind of a thing to hear about once a year,
Speaker 1: and if I'm being one hundred percent honest, for many years.
Speaker 1: Certainly when I was younger, I didn't even know what
Speaker 1: it was. Just was the middle of June, I supposed.
Speaker 1: But now as a man with context and I've graduated college,
Speaker 1: I have children, I've grown up, you know, I get
Speaker 1: it now and I recognize, especially now that it's a
Speaker 1: federal holiday, that I have license to lean into that.
Speaker 1: So this is what I did. I want to ask,
Speaker 1: you know, I was along conversation, but did you do
Speaker 1: any celebrating for a Juneteenth? Because before we go into
Speaker 1: this own to make sure that everyone has context, I didn't.
Speaker 2: And the weekend was tough for me, and I hate
Speaker 2: to be the downer here. Not only did I spend
Speaker 2: Father's Day alone because my children and their mom were
Speaker 2: out of the country, but I lost a brother.
Speaker 1: On Father's Day. That's right, I remember that.
Speaker 2: You know, a long fight with colon cancer that you know,
Speaker 2: he finally wasn't able to keep fighting.
Speaker 1: So my celebratory energy was kind of taken away from
Speaker 1: me over the weekend.
Speaker 2: Not only were my children not there for you know,
Speaker 2: with me on Father's Day, but I just wasn't in
Speaker 2: the space to really celebrate anything. It's a tough day
Speaker 2: for my family and just trying to align and be
Speaker 2: there for my family the best that I can. Because
Speaker 2: there are thousands of miles away in Detroit. I'll be
Speaker 2: making my way back there over the next couple of days.
Speaker 2: So I didn't get to really lean into the day
Speaker 2: like I wish I would have, or I wish I
Speaker 2: could have, But I kind of understood it wasn't going
Speaker 2: to be that kind of day for me, just with
Speaker 2: the kids being gone. Yeah, that took a lot away
Speaker 2: from Father's Day, and then you know, I woke up
Speaker 2: to some tough news, so I didn't really have my
Speaker 2: celebration pans on.
Speaker 1: Well, here's what I do want to say, because maybe
Speaker 1: it wasn't on June team, but I know for a
Speaker 1: fact that you and me sort of had our own
Speaker 1: kind of mini celebration in our fashion like we do.
Speaker 1: So Q has a friend who has a big company,
Speaker 1: has hundreds of employees, and the person who has this
Speaker 1: company asked if we could speak to his employees about
Speaker 1: Juneteenth and how to celebrate it appropriately, And so Q
Speaker 1: and I gave a talk to this company, and we
Speaker 1: had to instruct people of all races how to celebrate
Speaker 1: June teenth with us, and the easiest way to kind
Speaker 1: of surmise what we said is just pretend like it's
Speaker 1: singled a mile. But for black people, you're more than
Speaker 1: welcome to celebrate with us. You know, nobody's gonna get
Speaker 1: mad at you. Let's have fun. If you overstep, we'll
Speaker 1: let you know. But don't be afraid. We love you.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the gist of what we were saying.
Speaker 1: So we did acknowledge that Juneteenth was happening, and we
Speaker 1: did kind of lean into at least the spirit of Juneteenth.
Speaker 1: It might have been the day before, but you know,
Speaker 1: we did honor our ancestors in our own way, in
Speaker 1: our fashion. Now we were able to provide some historical context.
Speaker 1: We got to teach. Yeah, that's what we do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I don't really call our teachers,
Speaker 1: but we share things that we know in hopes of
Speaker 1: with the spirit of love and forgiveness and hopes that
Speaker 1: we can kind of create a ripple effect out there
Speaker 1: in the world. Now, what we're talking about is the
Speaker 1: commercialization of June. Right, We're going to spend you know,
Speaker 1: most of the show talking about Juneteenth. And I think
Speaker 1: that you know, you're obviously listening to the show after Juneteenth,
Speaker 1: but I think that we needed to kind of live
Speaker 1: through it to then look back on it and see
Speaker 1: what it was, what it's become, and really to acknowledge
Speaker 1: it will more than likely continue to grow in in
Speaker 1: what it is. It's going to get bigger and bigger
Speaker 1: and bigger. So let's really get a sense of how
Speaker 1: do we approach it all of us. Now, I'm going
Speaker 1: to share something from NBC. So Juneteenth was finally recognized
Speaker 1: as a federal holiday. Then came commercialization. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: read a bit for black folks, there has been a
Speaker 1: long tradition of commemorating Juneteenth, but now the Juneteenth it's
Speaker 1: a federal holiday, complete with offices and schools closing and
Speaker 1: recognition of it. The inevitable has also taken shape commercialism.
Speaker 1: Commercialism sorry box stores from coast to coast are lining
Speaker 1: shelves of Juneteenth products. Walmart caught the most flack recently
Speaker 1: for stocking a Juneteenth Great Value Brand ice cream flavor,
Speaker 1: the labeled touting a trademark symbol. The move prompted questions
Speaker 1: about who can even own the idea of Juneteenth and
Speaker 1: the appropriateness of corporations cashing in on what could be
Speaker 1: considered a bittersweet holiday, commemorating the end of enslavement in
Speaker 1: the beginning of a generation's long struggle for civil rights.
Speaker 1: This year, some attempts to celebrate the day have gone
Speaker 1: sour very publicly. Many were angry to see the trademark
Speaker 1: Juneteenth ice cream on shelves developed with the help of
Speaker 1: a corporation that creates artificial flavor, and a children's museum
Speaker 1: apologized after its Juneteenth menu called for a watermelon salad.
Speaker 1: A June teen soul food celebration in Arkansas was canceled
Speaker 1: after a leak poster for the event revealed that none
Speaker 1: of its featured hosts were black. The impulse when it
Speaker 1: comes to many holidays is to focus on the bright side,
Speaker 1: in this case emancipation freedom, which lends itself to digestible
Speaker 1: celebrations and commemorative products doing cell brushes aside the thing
Speaker 1: black people were being emancipated from centuries of slavery. We
Speaker 1: cannot at this stage afford symbolism. And I want to
Speaker 1: take a moment with this because I saw this about
Speaker 1: the people who trademark the June teenth name. It came
Speaker 1: up under the United States Trademark Office PTO something like that,
Speaker 1: and then it had the name of the company and
Speaker 1: all the people who were listed on the trademark, and
Speaker 1: it might have been six people. They were all sort
Speaker 1: of older white men in suits. You know. It came up.
Speaker 1: I saw it on social media. But I caught wind
Speaker 1: of this, and I get that the optics don't look good, right.
Speaker 1: I get that these white men in Corporate America trademarking
Speaker 1: the name June teenth. Granted it was just for ice
Speaker 1: cream flavor, but trademarking June teenth, it feels hurtful. But
Speaker 1: then I also have to have some context, and I'd
Speaker 1: love for you to jump into that. That is perhaps
Speaker 1: the way that that works for every holiday people. With
Speaker 1: this capitalism, you have to protect your brand, you have
Speaker 1: to protect your interests, you have to protect your space
Speaker 1: to compete. Trademarking things is kind of the way we
Speaker 1: go about doing that in business, right, and business for
Speaker 1: the most part respects green, which has been a problem
Speaker 1: for black people because we haven't had enough green to
Speaker 1: really get the corporations to really look out for our
Speaker 1: interests historically, you know what I mean. And so we've
Speaker 1: kind of been at the tail end of their considerations
Speaker 1: historically speaking. So yes, that looked really bad. I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I would. I would go in as far as to
Speaker 1: say that it probably is really bad. Now. I don't
Speaker 1: know those men. I'm not going to speak to their
Speaker 1: motivations other than perhaps it was they were trying to
Speaker 1: make money. But I don't want that story to prevent
Speaker 1: people from feeling like Juneteenth isn't approachable, because it is approachable.
Speaker 1: If Saint Patrick's Day black as I am, I'll get
Speaker 1: out there and have fun with everybody. I live in Arizona.
Speaker 1: There's Hispanic people. To get out there, there's Asian people. Yet
Speaker 1: we all have fun. It's a holiday. We're all celebrating
Speaker 1: a holiday. I've never been to Ireland. I actually take
Speaker 1: that back. I have a grandmother this half Irish and
Speaker 1: half Cuban, so I guess I got some claim to that.
Speaker 1: But I don't live my life as an Irish man,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So if I'm out there,
Speaker 1: no one knows that, and I don't wear those I'm
Speaker 1: part Irish shirts to kind of fit in. Nope, I'm
Speaker 1: just me out there having fun with y'all. I do
Speaker 1: it on Mexican holidays. I do it in Mexico. I
Speaker 1: do it for American holiday whatever. Columbus Day. For a
Speaker 1: long time, I don't celebrate that anymore, obviously because I
Speaker 1: acknowledge that we are on unseated ancestral lands of the
Speaker 1: Akima and Odam peoples here in Arizona. But the long
Speaker 1: time I celebrated Columbus Day, which from what I understand,
Speaker 1: is widely celebrated among to Irish Americans, probably more Spanish
Speaker 1: and Italian than Irish. Maybe that's it, you know, But
Speaker 1: to get out and fellowship with folks for Chinese New Year,
Speaker 1: if there's a celebration going on there, pride. You know,
Speaker 1: I've gone out and hung out for pride. And I
Speaker 1: don't identify as lgbt Q, I A or plus. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm A. I believe it sis male cis gendered male.
Speaker 1: I think that's what I'm supposed to say there. I
Speaker 1: just want to be respectful, so I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: make light of that. I want to make sure I
Speaker 1: get the language right to honor my brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: from those communities. But celebrating alongside people who are themselves celebrating,
Speaker 1: you know, is I believe that's something that's very special.
Speaker 1: I'm not a Muslim Man, and I have observed the
Speaker 1: Ramadan Fast in my life, you know, and I've I've
Speaker 1: done my best to just kind of stand in solidarity
Speaker 1: and experience it. And obviously I haven't changed my religion
Speaker 1: or whatever, but I see the beauty in it, and
Speaker 1: I I've always found that there's a warm reception to
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of taking the time to partake
Speaker 1: in someone else's culture or holiday or whatever. So I
Speaker 1: want Juneteenth to remain approachable. But you know, we do
Speaker 1: see some things that don't really look that good. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I believe we also have to
Speaker 1: recognize that if we want this holiday to be a
Speaker 1: bona fide holiday alongside Martin Luther King Day and Kwanza
Speaker 1: and those sorts of things, or as big as as
Speaker 1: we mentioned a single de Mayo or you know, Saint
Speaker 1: Patrick's Day or whatever, that it's part and parcel to
Speaker 1: an immense amount of commercialization. And I don't see that
Speaker 1: as a bad thing, you know, because just like there
Speaker 1: are white folks that can cash in on that, black
Speaker 1: folks and anybody hispanic, but anybody can cash in on
Speaker 1: that provided that they're in those industries. That's kind of
Speaker 1: what capitalism is. So these are my thoughts just out
Speaker 1: the gate.
Speaker 2: Capitalism. We've talked about it before. It comes up a
Speaker 2: lot because I am not a passionate subscriber to the idea,
Speaker 2: because it requires that there are some that have nothing.
Speaker 1: So that few can have immense wealth.
Speaker 2: And the trademarking of Juneteenth in a capitalist society, there's no.
Speaker 1: Way for it to not feel exploitative. White men owning
Speaker 1: June teenth, juneteenth ice cream flavor, white.
Speaker 2: Men owning June teenth on a trademark, what they're using
Speaker 2: it for is kind of that's secondary, that's problematic. The
Speaker 2: commercialization of this holiday will present its own problems. But
Speaker 2: it's going to be very difficult for us to say
Speaker 2: to the world and to the country, Hey, come celebrate
Speaker 2: this thing with us, but don't.
Speaker 1: Touch it, right, That's what I'm trying to say. And
Speaker 1: the fourth of July, which you haven't mentioned. You've mentioned
Speaker 1: single to mile multiple times. I like single. The fourth
Speaker 1: of July is fastly approaching.
Speaker 2: Sure, and we're talking about our emancipation versus the country's independence.
Speaker 1: That holiday.
Speaker 2: Is almost bastardized with this commercial t shirts, American flags.
Speaker 2: I mean, go to walmartin now for Fourth of July
Speaker 2: and look at the displays for swimming pools and fireworks
Speaker 2: and grill tents and just every possible way that you
Speaker 2: can put Independence Day and fourth of July on something.
Speaker 1: All of that adds to why so many people celebrate it.
Speaker 2: So we can't continue to say, hey, everybody, get on
Speaker 2: board with this, but then again, nobody touch it.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a catch twenty two. It's going to be really,
Speaker 1: really difficult. So I think that our position, especially for
Speaker 1: those of you who might be on the fence, are like, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to celebrate it or whatever. Please
Speaker 1: celebrate with us. We are not slaves anymore. That's let's
Speaker 1: have a party about it. Let's celebrate it every years.
Speaker 1: Let's honor the lives of those people, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: that live very short, hard lives, and Diagmo's bodies are
Speaker 1: buried in the ground, as is typical of most holidays.
Speaker 1: You honor the folks who came before you.
Speaker 2: And for those of you that are angry about the holiday,
Speaker 2: please look into mirror and ask yourself why.
Speaker 1: Oh, let me add to that. If you're angry about
Speaker 1: the flag, because there's a Juneteenth flag that I've seen,
Speaker 1: and there's been people that some backlash on it. You're
Speaker 1: angry about that flag, of why you have not yet
Speaker 1: been angry about that Blue Lives flag or any of
Speaker 1: the other variations of colors. And then you're going to
Speaker 1: find in that conversation in your head, find your very
Speaker 1: own prejudice and your own bias.
Speaker 2: And to the insurance company in Maine that encouraged us
Speaker 2: to enjoy our fried chicken and watermelon on June teenth,
Speaker 2: we absolutely will, I promise. And burgers and hot dogs
Speaker 2: and ribs and grilled chicken and fried chicken and watermelon
Speaker 2: and colar greens and everything else that you think we're
Speaker 2: going to eat and enjoy we will, I promise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a part of all of that. That's a
Speaker 1: part of our story. I don't know what that's what
Speaker 1: we're here for. Listen. I know you were trying to
Speaker 1: be mean and angry and racist, but yes, we will
Speaker 1: absolutely enjoy our fried chicken, our watermelon, our collar greens,
Speaker 1: our ribs, our hot dogs. How about this, all of it?
Speaker 1: How about this if you're listening, celebrate with us next year.
Speaker 1: We love you, we want to celebrate with you. We
Speaker 1: want to celebrate your holidays with you, celebrate our holidays
Speaker 1: with us. If we make mistakes along the way, we'll
Speaker 1: fix it. We'll move together in the spirit of brotherhood.
Speaker 1: That's the best that we got