Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Moving my mic back, you're like that.
Speaker 3: We can strikes with waters from headquarters behind him and
Speaker 3: the line the border.
Speaker 1: If you're just tuning into Civic Cipher, I'm your houst.
Speaker 1: Ramsay's job he is.
Speaker 4: They call me q Ward.
Speaker 2: You are listening to so excited for.
Speaker 4: Listening to you.
Speaker 1: And we're two two years old, doing the show for
Speaker 1: two years, and we are celebrating that with some more
Speaker 1: positive stories, some more positive outcomes, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: more to stick around for. Of course, we were going
Speaker 1: to take it all the way back to the beginning
Speaker 1: our way black history factor. We're going to be talking
Speaker 1: about Freedom's Journal, which was the first black owned and
Speaker 1: operated newspaper in the United States. We here at Civic
Speaker 1: Cipher stand on the shoulder of giants, and those.
Speaker 2: Were the first to.
Speaker 1: Uh try to create a lane for a black voice,
Speaker 1: and so we're very grateful and excited to be able
Speaker 1: to share their story as well. We're also going to
Speaker 1: be talking about again some more positive things that have
Speaker 1: happened in the media and with respect to black people
Speaker 1: and I guess a general plight of black folks.
Speaker 2: So a lot to stick around for.
Speaker 1: But before we get to all that let's discuss becoming
Speaker 1: a better ally Baba. So today's Baba comes to you
Speaker 1: sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine and this comes by
Speaker 1: a JP Morgan Chase directly from their website. So what
Speaker 1: they're doing is building existing investments and helping drive inclusive
Speaker 1: growth growth by committing thirty billion that's billion with a
Speaker 1: B dollars by the end of twenty twenty five to
Speaker 1: advance economic growth and opportunity for Black, Hispanic and Latino communities.
Speaker 1: There's been much said about reparations, There's been much set about,
Speaker 1: you know, supporting black business. There's been much said about,
Speaker 1: you know, economic equality and equitable economic landscape for all
Speaker 1: people to engage in the in this capitalistic society. And
Speaker 1: some people have a little bit more in the way
Speaker 1: of various entry than other folks. So when people literally
Speaker 1: put their money where their mouth is, obviously we need
Speaker 1: to applaud that. So the purpose of this is to
Speaker 1: originate additional home purchase loans for Black, Hispanic and Latino households,
Speaker 1: finance and creation and preservation of affordable housing units and
Speaker 1: underserved communities, help Black Hispanic and Latino households achieve lower
Speaker 1: mortgage payments through refinance loans, provide additional loans to small
Speaker 1: business that's key in major majority Black, Hispanic and Latino communities.
Speaker 1: Help people open low cost checking and savings accounts, invest
Speaker 1: capital and deposits in Black, Hispanic and Latino o MBIs
Speaker 1: and CDFI's. And here's a quote from David Murray, Global
Speaker 1: head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at JP morgan Chase
Speaker 1: and co. Quote, aiming to be the bank of choice
Speaker 1: for all. We are breaking down barriers to lead with diversity,
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion and drive inclusive economic.
Speaker 2: Growth all over the world.
Speaker 1: So shout out to JP Morgan Chase for putting their
Speaker 1: money where their mouth is. Speaking of which, if you
Speaker 1: want to support some black causes, you can support Civic Cipher,
Speaker 1: the very one you're listening to right now. All of
Speaker 1: our apps where you can donate are at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: If you want to become a patron, if you want
Speaker 1: to send a cash app, if you want to do
Speaker 1: a venmo any of that stuff. It helps the show grow,
Speaker 1: and obviously we've experienced a tremendous amount of growth. A
Speaker 1: lot of that comes from donations and support. I want
Speaker 1: to take a moment to talk about our positioner. So
Speaker 1: this is going to take us back a bit. Our
Speaker 1: positioner is broadcasting the balance, defending the discourse. This is
Speaker 1: something that you might see in our press materials if
Speaker 1: you engage to that degree, you know, here and there,
Speaker 1: and a positioner is a term that basically in radio,
Speaker 1: at least in broadcasting, it's a term that kind of
Speaker 1: positioned you in the marketplace. Basically, a short brief passage
Speaker 1: usually sounds pretty catchy, and it helps people that have
Speaker 1: never heard of your show before kind of identify what
Speaker 1: you're about. So my first radio station was Power ninety
Speaker 1: two point three. Their positioner was where hip Hop Lives. Okay,
Speaker 1: you following, all right? So our positioner is broadcasting the balance,
Speaker 1: defending the discourse. And this has kind of been central
Speaker 1: to our focus since starting this show and for a
Speaker 1: long time, and I think for a long time into
Speaker 1: the future. What that means is we are broadcasting the
Speaker 1: balance of our stories, of our lives. You know, we
Speaker 1: do our best to partner with hip hop stations, but
Speaker 1: we don't refuse partnerships in radio or in any other
Speaker 1: media space because we recognize the importance we get in
Speaker 1: the word out. But we with hip hop stations in particular,
Speaker 1: we recognize that it very much paints a one sided
Speaker 1: or otherwise a limited view of what it means to
Speaker 1: be a black person in this country, and that can
Speaker 1: be very misleading to people who wish to be allies
Speaker 1: to black people. That can be also misleading to black
Speaker 1: people where they might tune in to, you know, celebrate
Speaker 1: their own culture, their own music, their own dances, their
Speaker 1: own fashion, their own language, you know, et cetera. And
Speaker 1: we are not just I say this all the time,
Speaker 1: we are not just rap or not just singers.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: That's like looking at, you know, like an Asian person
Speaker 1: and thinking that they do karate, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like it's that's one part of an exceptionally rich and
Speaker 1: beautiful culture, but that's the part that you see in
Speaker 1: the movies and so forth. Right.
Speaker 2: So, when we approached.
Speaker 1: This show and we came up with our positioner, the
Speaker 1: idea was that we were going to bring some balance
Speaker 1: to those airwaves. We were going to talk about what
Speaker 1: it really means to be black, and we were going
Speaker 1: to give instruction to our allies who tune into hip
Speaker 1: hop stations who may not themselves be black, but obviously
Speaker 1: are there are brothers and our sisters, and they celebrate
Speaker 1: our culture. We celebrate there as we're out, you know,
Speaker 1: celebrating on different holidays, you know, single Demio Columbus Day,
Speaker 1: you know, not Columbus Day, but you know what I mean, what's.
Speaker 2: The other one?
Speaker 1: I was thinking of Saint Patrick's Day, you know, things
Speaker 1: like this, and uh, you know, we just kind of
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, there's an opportunity to bring some
Speaker 1: again balance to what it is that people are exposed
Speaker 1: to in these spaces, you know, And I think that
Speaker 1: for today's show, while we're here, balance will mean something
Speaker 1: a little different. Balance will mean positive stories because I
Speaker 1: don't want to mislead anyone and I don't want to
Speaker 1: misrepresent my people.
Speaker 2: We are not.
Speaker 1: Just born to die, and we are not just born
Speaker 1: to suffer, and we are not just born to be sad.
Speaker 1: We deserve to be happy. You deserve to be happy,
Speaker 1: and I think it's important that we affirm that. And
Speaker 1: today we obviously have a tremendous opportunity. We can't divorce
Speaker 1: ourselves from the reality. Obviously, this show exists to deal
Speaker 1: with the real you know, there's lots of celebration of
Speaker 1: Black culture and American culture and you know, whatever it
Speaker 1: is that your culture is, even perhaps on the station
Speaker 1: that you're listening to us on. You know, but we
Speaker 1: do have to deal with the real because we feel
Speaker 1: like oftentimes we're the only ones doing that. But the
Speaker 1: people that set their clock to wake up sometimes early
Speaker 1: or stay up late or listen to this show. And
Speaker 1: you know, whichever city you're in, if you're in you know, Bellingham,
Speaker 1: if you're in Portland, if you're in New Orleans, if
Speaker 1: you're in Detroit, you know, wherever you are. Shout out
Speaker 1: to the motor for those of you who you know,
Speaker 1: tune into this show specifically. It's important that we share
Speaker 1: positive stories. It's important that you know that you listening,
Speaker 1: you fighting, you marching, you voting, you registering people to vote,
Speaker 1: you participating in the democratic process, that it does create
Speaker 1: a ripple effect, and that ripple effect ultimately creates change. Again,
Speaker 1: we're playing the long game, and black people historically have
Speaker 1: played the long game. We have we're just currently at
Speaker 1: the front lines of a battle that's been going on
Speaker 1: for hundreds of years. The names that we discuss on
Speaker 1: our way Black History fact each week. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of those people have passed away. A lot of
Speaker 1: those stories happened before our great grandparents were born. Even so,
Speaker 1: you know, we do recognize that, you know, this is
Speaker 1: a long game, but we also recognize that we've come
Speaker 1: a long way.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: I wanted to take a moment to make sure you
Speaker 1: kind of understood that broadcasting the balance and defending the
Speaker 1: discourse our positioner for the show, not only means bringing
Speaker 1: you know, balance to you know, whatever radio station you're
Speaker 1: listening to, but also that we try to have some
Speaker 1: balance here as well, so that you recognize that, you know,
Speaker 1: our efforts are not in vain. And of course, defending
Speaker 1: the discourse means defending our right to have these conversations,
Speaker 1: because obviously the show was very much born out of
Speaker 1: us getting choked out from having very necessary conversations. And
Speaker 1: the people that were choking us out were people that
Speaker 1: were they didn't look like us, They were using our
Speaker 1: culture to make money, and they didn't care enough to
Speaker 1: let us try to save our own lives.
Speaker 2: And that still hurts me.
Speaker 1: I don't know why it's, you know, it's obviously been
Speaker 1: a very long time, but it very much is because
Speaker 1: I knew those people.
Speaker 2: You knew those people.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's the thing, though, you spent so many
Speaker 4: years there, and I even talked to, you know, the
Speaker 4: people that work with me in the corporate space. Now
Speaker 4: about kind of fooling yourself into believing that this company
Speaker 4: cares more about you than its bottom line. Right, Ultimately,
Speaker 4: a lot of times corporate America will remind you, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: we like you and you're cool, right, but.
Speaker 1: We all we got you just work here. So that's
Speaker 1: that's what I was thinking. But so watch this. So
Speaker 1: to your point, Q, at the time when I quit
Speaker 1: my old radio station, I had worked there for twelve years.
Speaker 1: I was the most tenured employee. There was nobody that
Speaker 1: worked there longer than me. The only person who had
Speaker 1: been there longer was the person who owned the business.
Speaker 1: Everybody had, every position had turnover prior to, you know, resigning.
Speaker 1: I was told by the general manager something that confused
Speaker 1: me later on, but at the time felt like, kind
Speaker 1: of felt like it made sense because of course I
Speaker 1: had been there for a long time, and as you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier in the show, I do my best to
Speaker 1: try to deliver good content in this space. You know,
Speaker 1: I am a broadcaster. I'd leaned one hundred percent into it.
Speaker 1: This is what I know. The general manager pulled me
Speaker 1: into his office one day and he told me, he says,
Speaker 1: you know, we've never really took an inventory, if you will,
Speaker 1: of what we had here at the radio station. And
Speaker 1: you know, just so you know, in radio, the morning
Speaker 1: show is the big show and the afternoon show is
Speaker 1: the second big show, even though oftentimes in afternoon you
Speaker 1: get more listeners. All right, I wasn't on either show.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: I forgot what timeslot I was doing. It might have
Speaker 1: even just been a weekend time slot. But you know,
Speaker 1: I had a presence on the website and this was
Speaker 1: the way that the station could kind of gauge engagement, engagement.
Speaker 1: And the general manager of that radio station told me,
Speaker 1: he said that, you uh, the engagement for your page
Speaker 1: on our website is twice as high as the next link,
Speaker 1: and that's for the morning show. And he says, what
Speaker 1: I want to do is kind of pick your brain
Speaker 1: and get a sense of how it is that you're
Speaker 1: so popular among our listener base, and try to teach
Speaker 1: the other folks how to engage with our listeners. Oh way,
Speaker 1: you guys, hear this? Not hey, you're by far the
Speaker 1: most popular challeent we have here. We need to build
Speaker 1: a better show around you and give you more resources. No,
Speaker 1: we want to pick your brain on how you're so
Speaker 1: great at what you do and give that to our
Speaker 1: other people.
Speaker 2: God bless America.
Speaker 1: Well so because of because of that conversation, I felt
Speaker 1: like they and and the way that it was given
Speaker 1: to me was like, Yo, you know what's going on
Speaker 1: with the people, and you know to your point earlier.
Speaker 1: You know, when it came time to get out there
Speaker 1: and get busy, I wasn't, you know, sitting up on
Speaker 1: my high horse. I'm not getting out in the streets
Speaker 1: and protesting.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I got took this body that I was born into,
Speaker 1: and I took my babies and we went outside and
Speaker 1: we stood in our place among the ranks, and we
Speaker 1: held those signs with those names on it.
Speaker 2: Breonna Taylor. There's people that should be here right now.
Speaker 2: We weren't. We were all equal. I'll always be equal.
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those people that thinks anything crazy,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? I think I'm just a
Speaker 1: person and this is what I do for a living.
Speaker 1: You can see me at the grocery store. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look real bummy, because I ain't got to impress nobody
Speaker 1: anymore anyway. I thought that because they knew based on
Speaker 1: that conversation just two or three months prior, two or
Speaker 1: three months prior to COVID hitting, that they knew that
Speaker 1: I was kind of tapped into what the people wanted,
Speaker 1: and so asking for thirty minutes a week to be
Speaker 1: able to you know, share our you know, broadcast the
Speaker 1: balance and defend the discourse. Thirty minutes a week didn't
Speaker 1: feel like such a tall ask because I thought that
Speaker 1: they would be all over it.
Speaker 4: Also, speak to that specific thirty minutes, So I don't
Speaker 4: want people to just think thirty minutes on o'clock and
Speaker 4: all this stuff that radio has going on. Speak to
Speaker 4: them about the thirty minutes that we requested. So what
Speaker 4: we were trying to do was we wanted thirty minutes.
Speaker 4: I want them to hear how easy it would have been.
Speaker 1: For them to say yes. So we wanted to get
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. I'm glad you asked a question here. We
Speaker 1: wanted thirty minutes on the radio so that we could
Speaker 1: bring up folks to interview the people that were leading
Speaker 1: the march and so forth, and just have the conversations
Speaker 1: about what we wanted. We would have taken any time
Speaker 1: slot that meant that you could have put us on
Speaker 1: Sunday morning at four am. It would have been fine.
Speaker 1: The thing is the radio station provided a degree of
Speaker 1: credibility to the interview and to the movement, and it
Speaker 1: kind of fortified the media position. And I thought that
Speaker 1: could be used in a strategic way for those people
Speaker 1: on the streets. I didn't think my whole life was
Speaker 1: going to go in that direction. I was thinking it
Speaker 1: was the right thing to do. Now, thirty minutes in
Speaker 1: a weekend overnight time slot means that your commercial inventory
Speaker 1: is worth pennies.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Those commercials aren't worth a whole lot. Also, there is
Speaker 1: the potential to do so. The FCC, the government mandates
Speaker 1: that stations have some form of community service, not just radio,
Speaker 1: but anything that broadcasts the signal, so TV stations if
Speaker 1: it's in this country, The Federal Communications Commission says, you
Speaker 1: have to broadcast something to your community that helps the community.
Speaker 1: This is why you hear don't drink and drive commercials.
Speaker 1: This stuff right, there's no money involved with that. They
Speaker 1: have to do it, Okay, So we would have taken
Speaker 1: that time slide. It would have been totally fine. Wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been opposed to it. You know, we felt that
Speaker 1: this was in line with that sort of mission. So
Speaker 1: you're saying we didn't. We would have taken an unpaid.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but there was no money involved. We wouldn't
Speaker 2: even we wouldn't.
Speaker 4: Even free mandated space. Sure that should have been dedicated
Speaker 4: to community service. Anyway, we would have been creating this
Speaker 4: content for them for free and a space where nobody's advertising,
Speaker 4: and according to them, maybe nobody's listening.
Speaker 2: I'll take it a step further.
Speaker 1: That's interesting, because you're absolutely right, maybe nobody's even listening
Speaker 1: at that time shot.
Speaker 2: But I'll take it a step further.
Speaker 1: We weren't even necessarily the ones who were going to.
Speaker 4: To host this show because they could not necessarily because
Speaker 4: even after a yes, they had a person in mind,
Speaker 4: it wasn't Quentin or Ramses, right, we don't have to
Speaker 4: say who. Yeah, but this was not us trying to
Speaker 4: put ourselves on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were already on good.
Speaker 4: But we would have produced and created and curated the
Speaker 4: content and everything. All they would have had to do
Speaker 4: is turn a mic on record. It for thirty minutes
Speaker 4: and then broadcast. So this is the point I'm making.
Speaker 4: I was like, you guys can put you know, so
Speaker 4: bear in mind that you and I, we at the time,
Speaker 4: are doing rather more and we had more visible time slots,
Speaker 4: so we would have had to had we would have
Speaker 4: had to do extra work. We would have had to
Speaker 4: set up meetings, you know, create you know, the content
Speaker 4: as you as you mentioned, produce it, edit it, send
Speaker 4: it to air every week, right, And they could have
Speaker 4: taken one of the interns or someone in development and
Speaker 4: put them on that show. Because remember, it's it's just necessary.
Speaker 4: It's not like I don't need that to be the man.
Speaker 4: You know, I already I was on TV. I was
Speaker 4: billboards and magazine covers, everything like that for many years.
Speaker 4: That wasn't I wasn't going to be on Sunday morning
Speaker 4: at four am and like all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 4: hit my stride, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad that.
Speaker 1: You asked that question, because yeah, it was a very
Speaker 1: easy thing to say yes to. I know radio well
Speaker 1: enough to know how how to put together that proposal
Speaker 1: to where it wouldn't have impacted the bottom line at all.
Speaker 1: So anyone who's ever stood in the way of this progress,
Speaker 1: hold on, I got to cut you off. You say
Speaker 1: it would not have impacted the bottom line. There was
Speaker 1: no way for it to negatively impact the bottom line.
Speaker 1: We've learned in several meetings that we've had since launching
Speaker 1: this show that there are a bunch of ways it
Speaker 1: could have impacted the bottom line in a positive way. Sure, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because there are a bunch of advertisers who want to
Speaker 1: be on the right side of the topics that we reach.
Speaker 1: So there was a zero percent chance there would have
Speaker 1: been a negative impact to the station. Sure to air
Speaker 1: thirty minutes a night, overnight Sunday, three o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: four o'clock in the morning on this unrated, low advertisement
Speaker 1: necessary time slot. Sure, well, you know, the good news
Speaker 1: is that now we're on and rather you know, better
Speaker 1: time slots or all over the country, and we have
Speaker 1: a full hour a week, which again is not everything,
Speaker 1: but we'll take it. You know, everybody's got to start somewhere. Again,
Speaker 1: we're playing a long game, and having been on for
Speaker 1: two years, there's a few more things that I think
Speaker 1: that it's important to share. Things that we look back
Speaker 1: on and we say, well, look, I'm happy to see that.
Speaker 1: One of the things is that, you know, there's been
Speaker 1: black Barbies for very long time. There's been historical figures
Speaker 1: that have you know, they've paid homage to with you know,
Speaker 1: Barbie dolls. But uh, recently Mattel introduced a new historical
Speaker 1: Barbie in honor of Madam C. J. Walker and we
Speaker 1: think that that is something that is.
Speaker 2: Amazing. Obviously, again, black girl magic.
Speaker 1: We in twenty twenty, we saw in our city, we
Speaker 1: saw black women out there marching, Shout out to Tsara,
Speaker 1: shout out to Mimi. You know, we saw them out
Speaker 1: making it happen with bullhorns and they We saw these
Speaker 1: people crying. We saw these people, you know, we saw
Speaker 1: the passion, and we learned the strategy and we learned
Speaker 1: what was necessary and we were able to recognize that, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's we need to find a meaningful contribution, and you know,
Speaker 1: we're always going to be hopeful that this contribution is
Speaker 1: the right one. So black girl magic is something again
Speaker 1: that we always celebrate here. So the fact that Barbie
Speaker 1: has made Madam C. J. Walker doll recently, that's something
Speaker 1: that we feel is positive for those that followed the
Speaker 1: story about the children that were ignored at the Sesame
Speaker 1: Street parade. You know, we want to make sure that
Speaker 1: we call attention to the fact that I think it
Speaker 1: was at Disneyland that Jesse, the Woody's counterpart in the
Speaker 1: movie Toy Story. There was a video that came out
Speaker 1: afterwards where Jesse ran over to the little black children
Speaker 1: and gave them a big hug. And to me, that
Speaker 1: looks like, Okay, these things that we're bringing attention to
Speaker 1: are resonating with people. I'll take it a step further
Speaker 1: Snoop Dogg released the children's cartoon series Doggy Land with
Speaker 1: kids songs and nursery rhymes and things like that. So
Speaker 1: we're seeing black faces and black characters in these spaces increased.
Speaker 1: And I want to also talk about the there's the
Speaker 1: College Board that launched the first ever AP program in
Speaker 1: African American studies. So this there's a whole article from
Speaker 1: Education Week that I can't get into the whole thing,
Speaker 1: but you know, because we've had to deal with CRT
Speaker 1: and the war on really American history, the fact that
Speaker 1: you know, the College Board launched the AP program in
Speaker 1: African American Studies, that's something that we feel is very
Speaker 1: special as well, and something that again we've accomplished in
Speaker 1: the past couple of years by having these really important
Speaker 1: conversations and then moving forward, we're going to be talking
Speaker 1: more about reparations. We're gonna obviously continue growing in the
Speaker 1: more cities. Hopefully before the end of the year, will
Speaker 1: be able to make a major announcement. We're going to
Speaker 1: continue giving you resources to become a better ally, and
Speaker 1: we're just going to keep doing our best for you.
Speaker 1: So you know, again I can't say it enough. Thank
Speaker 1: you for your support these past two years. We'll see
Speaker 1: you on our third anniversary with a lot more to
Speaker 1: talk about, but you know, we'll leave that right there.
Speaker 1: And now it's time for the Way Black History Fact,
Speaker 1: and this one is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly magazine.
Speaker 1: The article comes from PBS, and again we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about really the origins of black media. Now we've
Speaker 1: shared a bit about our story and what it took
Speaker 1: to get this show off and to grow it to
Speaker 1: where it is now. But we've done this in a
Speaker 1: modern world, and we recognize every time I read a
Speaker 1: Way Black History in Fact, I recognize that the social
Speaker 1: conditions around the goings on in the story cannot be overlooked.
Speaker 1: The social climate of these people trying to accomplish something,
Speaker 1: do something, make some sort of change cannot be overlooked.
Speaker 1: And I try my best not to overlook that, but
Speaker 1: in this instance, because they do. You know, this is
Speaker 1: a media outlet, and we're talking about The Freedom's Journal,
Speaker 1: which again is a media outlet our story times ten.
Speaker 1: You know, in terms of the struggles, in terms of
Speaker 1: all the things that need to be overcome, you know,
Speaker 1: I can only imagine how difficult it must have been
Speaker 1: and the fight that it must have taken inside of
Speaker 1: all the people responsible. And so when I say we
Speaker 1: stand on the shoulders of giants, I recognize that. You know,
Speaker 1: you might have never heard of the Freedom's Journal, but
Speaker 1: you will hear about it today. They deserve every bit
Speaker 1: of this way Black history fact, and we are grateful
Speaker 1: to them. Hopefully in the future in thirty years and
Speaker 1: one hundred years, someone looks back on what we're doing
Speaker 1: right now, and it's grateful for what we're doing. And
Speaker 1: really we're here right now. We're not trying to think
Speaker 1: too far back, too far in the future.
Speaker 2: We have to.
Speaker 1: Obviously keep an eye on both of those things. But
Speaker 1: hopefully we're we're doing right by you, our listener right now.
Speaker 1: People that are engaging with us right now, we think
Speaker 1: that's more important than anything.
Speaker 2: But I'll read.
Speaker 1: Founded on March sixteenth, eighteen twenty seven, as a four page,
Speaker 1: four columns standard sized weekly, Freedom's Journal was the first
Speaker 1: black owned and operated newspaper in the United States and
Speaker 1: was established the same year that slavery was abolished in
Speaker 1: New York State be Gone by a group of free
Speaker 1: black men in New York City. The paper served to
Speaker 1: counter racist commentary published by the mainstream news.
Speaker 2: Samuel E. Cornish and John B.
Speaker 1: Russworm served respectively as its senior and junior editors. Freedom's
Speaker 1: Journal was similar to other Antebellum reform papers in that
Speaker 1: its pages consisted of news of current events, anecdotes, and editorials,
Speaker 1: and was used to address contemporary issues such as slavery
Speaker 1: and colonization, a concept which was conceived by members of
Speaker 1: the American Colonization Society, a mostly white pro immigration organization
Speaker 1: founded in eighteen sixteen to repatriate the free Black people
Speaker 1: to Africa. Initially opposed to colonization efforts, Freedom's Journal denounced
Speaker 1: slavery and advocated for black people's political rights, the right
Speaker 1: to vote, and spoke out against lynchings. Freedom's Journal provided
Speaker 1: its readers with regional, national, and international news, and with
Speaker 1: news that could serve to both entertain and educate. It
Speaker 1: sought to improve conditions for the over three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: newly freed black men and women living in the North.
Speaker 1: Newspaper broadened reader's knowledge of the world by featuring articles
Speaker 1: on such country as Haiti and Sierra Leone.
Speaker 2: As a paper of.
Speaker 1: Record, Freedom's Journal published birth, death and wedding announcements to
Speaker 1: encourage black achievement. It featured biographies of renowned black figures
Speaker 1: such as Paul Cuffey, a black Bostonian who owned a
Speaker 1: trading ship staffed by free black people, to Saunt Lowe Retour,
Speaker 1: and poet Phyllis Wheatley. The paper also printed school, job
Speaker 1: and housing listings various times. The newspaper employed between fourteen
Speaker 1: to forty four agents to collect and renew subscriptions, which
Speaker 1: cost three dollars per year. One of its agents, David
Speaker 1: Walker from Boston, eventually became the writer of David Walker's Appeal,
Speaker 1: which called for slaves to rebel against their masters. Freedom's
Speaker 1: Journal was soon circulated in eleven states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe,
Speaker 1: and Canada. A typical advertisement costs between twenty five to
Speaker 1: seventy five cents. Russworm became sole editor Freedom's Journal following
Speaker 1: the resignation of Cornish in September eighteen twenty seven, and
Speaker 1: began to promote the colonization movement. The majority of the
Speaker 1: newspaper's readers did not support the paper's radical shift in
Speaker 1: support of colonization, and in March eighteen twenty nine, Freedom's
Speaker 1: Journal ceased publication. Soon after, Russworm immigrated to the American
Speaker 1: Colonization Society of Liberia and became governor of the Maryland Colony.
Speaker 1: Cornish returned and attempted to revive the newspaper in May
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty nine under the new name The Rights of All,
Speaker 1: but the paper folded after less than a year. Freedom's
Speaker 1: Journal's two year existence, however, helped spawn other papers. By
Speaker 1: the start of the Civil War, over forty black owned
Speaker 1: and operated newspapers had been established throughout the United States.
Speaker 1: And you know this tradition continues today. In fact, I
Speaker 1: want to shout out Sheen magazine. I want to shout
Speaker 1: out the Kansas City Defender. These are black owned media publications.
Speaker 1: You know, earlier today h Q and myself and Maggie
Speaker 1: B knowing you do, we had to interview with you know,
Speaker 1: these black owned media outlets about what it is we're
Speaker 1: doing here, and you know, I cannot stress how important
Speaker 1: that is. And then hopefully you start to see that
Speaker 1: in this space. In a broadcast space, you know, there's
Speaker 1: lots of newspapers, there's lots of television shows, there's lots
Speaker 1: of podcasts. But on the radio, you know, on hip
Speaker 1: hop radio, you know, there's I'm not going to pretend
Speaker 1: like there's not a lot of radio shows that deal
Speaker 1: with black issues, but on hip hop radio, there's really
Speaker 1: not a lot of content like this. And again that's
Speaker 1: where we're going to find a good amount of our allies.
Speaker 1: And so this blueprint, this format obviously continues to this
Speaker 1: day and it's still very much in use for people
Speaker 1: who are very engaged, people who value stories that don't
Speaker 1: make their way to CNN, but are just as monumental
Speaker 1: or pivotal or necessary as some of those other stories.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is certainly an example of you
Speaker 1: know if we don't tell our stories, who will and
Speaker 1: how will they tell them? Will they be accurate? And
Speaker 1: if we don't celebrate our wins, then perhaps no one will.
Speaker 1: And so while we have the opportunity to do so
Speaker 1: on our second birthday, here again we want to salute
Speaker 1: Freedom's Journal for paving the way for all black media,
Speaker 1: true news media certainly, and we're grateful that we get
Speaker 1: to again stand on the shoulders of those giants.
Speaker 4: And I'm grateful I get to do it with you, man,
Speaker 4: like I asked, man, excessively proud of your vision and
Speaker 4: ingenuity and taking what felt like a failed space and
Speaker 4: turning it into something that might have some impact on
Speaker 4: bringing forth this change that you and our producer seem
Speaker 4: to be a little bit more hopeful about actually happening
Speaker 4: than me sometimes. But again, we talk about balance in
Speaker 4: our placement and that I think that's required. So grateful
Speaker 4: for you, Thankful for you, and appreciate the opportunity to
Speaker 4: sit in the second chair.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the opportunity as well, and that's going to
Speaker 1: do it for us for our second anniversary show. So
Speaker 1: once again I'm host Ramsay's job.
Speaker 4: Years Josh I am que board once again, you guys
Speaker 4: are you guys make us where we are?
Speaker 2: So thank you and until next with y'all peace.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like yo, we handle it. These brothers a fabulous
Speaker 3: our lady showing you where bomb travels who speak to
Speaker 3: from sunlight to move, busting on stage like gonna fights
Speaker 3: the b ro.
Speaker 1: My mic back.
Speaker 3: You're like that journalist with journalist too. We can strike
Speaker 3: back all borders with waters from head, borders behind in,
Speaker 3: the beline sides up, and the borders the press pass.
Speaker 2: We bring it to you as it happens the streets.
Speaker 3: Love popped him from music, Your rapping the street compared
Speaker 3: the slash we expando. You're to fight the slander with
Speaker 3: the proper propaganda. What's happening, it's hop You've got a
Speaker 3: questions to ask in deduce, it's just a TV show.
Speaker 3: You're past it. And this from a white wartime journalist
Speaker 3: headlines We're gonna
Speaker 2: Previews and res