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, Ramsy's Jah is Ramsey's Jah.
Speaker 2: I am qward Youth. I'll tuned into Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: And we appreciate that. We want you to stick around
Speaker 1: because today we are going to be discussing an interesting
Speaker 1: development here in Trump two point zero in the United
Speaker 1: States of America. In the history of our great land.
Speaker 1: The thing that has caused a lot of distress in
Speaker 1: communities around the world, the thing that we hear a
Speaker 1: lot from our listeners is it has to do with immigration,
Speaker 1: ice raids, things like this. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: people very afraid and don't know what power they have
Speaker 1: and how to wield that power to affirm their rights
Speaker 1: as human beings, to pursue legal means of maintaining their residences,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And it's just interesting because because recently under
Speaker 1: the Trump administration, the United States has welcomed some South
Speaker 1: African immigrants. Now, the notable difference between these immigrants and
Speaker 1: the immigrants that we see, you know, on the other end,
Speaker 1: of the ice raids is that these South African immigrants
Speaker 1: are white and exclusively white, and so we're going to
Speaker 1: be discussing that, and you know the implications of that
Speaker 1: and perhaps ways that you know, communities can use this
Speaker 1: moment to further fortify themselves against you know, what many
Speaker 1: people consider to be an oppressor ream. And we're also
Speaker 1: going to be spending some time discussing, you know, the
Speaker 1: future of women in politics. Jasmine Crockett recently gave a
Speaker 1: news interview where she stated that the Democrats are likely
Speaker 1: moving in the direction of the safest white boy and
Speaker 1: the conversation surrounding that has really caused us to think.
Speaker 1: And so we're going to talk about that and so
Speaker 1: much more. But before we get there, we are going
Speaker 1: to start off with some ebony excellence. Now we I
Speaker 1: think we shall. So today's ebony excellence comes from Men's
Speaker 1: Journal dot com and we are talking about Ryan Kugler.
Speaker 1: So Ryan Kugler Sinners continues its run as one of
Speaker 1: the year's biggest hits, and this weekend it hit a
Speaker 1: new box office milestone. On Saturday. According to The Rap
Speaker 1: Spinner's gross or caught frost Sorry, the two hundred million
Speaker 1: dollar market the box office in the United States and Canada,
Speaker 1: an achievement no original film has made since Pixar's Coco
Speaker 1: arrived in theaters just ahead of Thanksgiving twenty seventeen. Kugler's
Speaker 1: musical vampire Flick, which stars regular collaborator Michael B. Jordan
Speaker 1: Pulls Sorry, plus Delroy Lindo, Hailey Steinfeld, Miles Canton, and
Speaker 1: Jack O'Connell, has been a box office wonderkin right out
Speaker 1: of the gate. It's been breaking box office records for
Speaker 1: both original films and horror movies since it opened, and
Speaker 1: is preparing for a one week only IMAX released beginning Thursday,
Speaker 1: May fifteenth. It also has been replaced. Sorry also has
Speaker 1: been praised by audiences and critics alike, which has served
Speaker 1: as a much needed reminder to Hollywood of moviegoers' desire
Speaker 1: for original content. Of course, making cinematic history is nothing
Speaker 1: new to Kugler at this point. With the release of
Speaker 1: Marvel's Black Panther in twenty eighteen, the now thirty eight
Speaker 1: year old writer director became MCU's first black director. The
Speaker 1: movie itself became the first superhero film to receive Best
Speaker 1: Picture nominations from both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.
Speaker 1: Black Panther received seven OSCAR nominations total and won three
Speaker 1: of them, Best Costume Designed for Ruthie Carter, Best Production
Speaker 1: Design for Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart, and Best Original
Speaker 1: Score for Ludwig Gornson, making the Chadwick Boseman starring hit
Speaker 1: the first Marvel movie to win an OSCAR. So shout
Speaker 1: out to Ryan Coogler, and shout out to sinners, and
Speaker 1: shout out that everybody supporting that. That indeed is some
Speaker 1: ebony excellent. Okay, that's it.
Speaker 2: And that's an IMAX re release. That's important to point
Speaker 2: out because they only there's only like nine I mix
Speaker 2: theaters in the country have to make room for specific
Speaker 2: movies that are shot for that format. A new Marvel
Speaker 2: movie pushed it out of Imax. The movie is so dope,
Speaker 2: it pushed the Marvel movie back out.
Speaker 1: Okay, nice, all right, Well, like I said, any excellence,
Speaker 1: all right. So a little bit of background here and
Speaker 1: and Q, you stop me if this is just a
Speaker 1: little bit too personal. But I think one of the
Speaker 1: things that has troubled us collectively but more specifically Q,
Speaker 1: and by extension, it has troubled me is the divisive approach,
Speaker 1: the the the hate based approach to immigration and immigrants
Speaker 1: in this country by this current administration. Q has really
Speaker 1: felt that in his reality in a way that you know,
Speaker 1: I have not. We both live in the Southwest, we
Speaker 1: both live in border states. We both live in environments
Speaker 1: where a lot of the culture and the people and
Speaker 1: our friends and so forth are you know, people who
Speaker 1: are Mexican and either they moved here when they were little,
Speaker 1: or they were here the whole time they were and
Speaker 1: their family was here before this was ever the United States,
Speaker 1: because this where we live was once Mexico. But in
Speaker 1: Q's situation, this current administration's rhetoric and approach has been
Speaker 1: kind of scary. And that's a word that you've used.
Speaker 1: You've used that word before, so you would think that
Speaker 1: while we feel that a lot of it is just
Speaker 1: kind of fear mongering, a lot of it is like
Speaker 1: immigration policy great, you know, whatever we need that we
Speaker 1: need better immigration procedures, so great. And my understanding is
Speaker 1: that historically this has been something, you know, going all
Speaker 1: the way back fifty plus years, that has been a
Speaker 1: political issue that people have had to sort through, particularly
Speaker 1: presidents have had to sort through. And it depends on
Speaker 1: the conditions, the social conditions, the economic conditions of the country,
Speaker 1: what our border policy looks like, our southern border policy
Speaker 1: looks like. And Donald Trump specifically has been able to
Speaker 1: weaponize the border and use it to whip up fear
Speaker 1: in a way in the population, in a way that
Speaker 1: we haven't seen in our lifetimes. Right. And you know,
Speaker 1: the other side of fear is often hate in many instances,
Speaker 1: and so we've seen the country move in a direction
Speaker 1: that is decidedly more hateful under his leadership. And for
Speaker 1: those that have short memories, remember his first campaign. The
Speaker 1: biggest slogan from that first campaign was build the Wall, right,
Speaker 1: And the wall wasn't about Canada, it wasn't about China,
Speaker 1: it wasn't about Japan, it wasn't about South Korea or
Speaker 1: North Korea. Rather, it was about Mexico. And again, for us,
Speaker 1: we live on land that used to be Mexico. So
Speaker 1: the people here historically they're they're Mexican people, you know.
Speaker 1: Are The word I'm looking for is ethnically, They're they're Mexican. Culturally,
Speaker 1: they're Mexican. Uh in terms of their nationality, they're American, sure,
Speaker 1: but Mexican flags around where we live is a part
Speaker 1: of you know, the cultural tapestry of this part of
Speaker 1: the country. You know, our children, my children and qu'es
Speaker 1: children are half Mexican. This is just the people that
Speaker 1: live here. Right. So with all this hate and all
Speaker 1: this fear mongering and all this sort of stuff, you
Speaker 1: would expect that this immigration policy that got him into
Speaker 1: office twice, this divisive approach to immigration that saw him
Speaker 1: achieve the highest office in the land, he would have
Speaker 1: this kind of he would keep that energy across the board,
Speaker 1: you know, for people that have not been paying too
Speaker 1: close of attention. But it turns out that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is kind of picking and choosing. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we happen to know there are many people who would
Speaker 1: love legal status in this country. They submit paperwork, they
Speaker 1: do everything the right way, and the system that is
Speaker 1: in place for them to achieve you know, permanent residence
Speaker 1: status or citizenship status or whatever the case is is
Speaker 1: extremely complicated, challenging, and it's tedious process. Last years. There
Speaker 1: are people who've been waiting for decades plus. I know people.
Speaker 1: You and I both have a friend. I'll say her
Speaker 1: first name is Rachel. But yeah, she's still waiting on
Speaker 1: her papers to come back and has been for the
Speaker 1: whole time we've known her. Now she has two children,
Speaker 1: of course, since she feels a little safer with those
Speaker 1: two children. But under Donald Trump, of course, that her
Speaker 1: reality has changed quite a bit. So what am I
Speaker 1: talking about? Well, let's look at these white South African immigrants.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to share a bit. This comes from
Speaker 1: the Black Information Network and thenk you. I'll let you
Speaker 1: state your own brief. But I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: bring folks up to speed because I know there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people around the country who feel that tension
Speaker 1: and feel like it might be just about them, and
Speaker 1: I think this story kind of makes the case that
Speaker 1: it might actually be just about them. I'll let you
Speaker 1: double down on that, but for now, this is from
Speaker 1: the Black Information Network. A group of white South Africans
Speaker 1: is flying to the US after the Trump administration offered
Speaker 1: them refugee status and alleged race based persecution. On Sunday,
Speaker 1: May eleven, forty nine Afrikaaners, the white minority group in
Speaker 1: South Africa, departed their homeland on a privately chartered flight
Speaker 1: to Dole's International airport outside of Washington under Trump's refugee plan,
Speaker 1: per the Associated Press, The relocation comes after Trump issued
Speaker 1: an executive order in February that accused the South African
Speaker 1: government of discrimination against Afrikaaners and announced a refugee program
Speaker 1: offering to relocate them to the US. The Trump administration
Speaker 1: further claims the South African government is enacting racist, anti
Speaker 1: white policies through affirmative action laws and targeting Afrikaaners lands
Speaker 1: through a new land expropriation law. The US has also
Speaker 1: alleged that Afrikaaners are being targeted and racially motivated attacks
Speaker 1: in rural communities. The South African government said it was
Speaker 1: completely false that Afrikaaners are being persecuted, the claims are
Speaker 1: based on misinformation, and the Afrikaners' land isn't being expropriated,
Speaker 1: the government stated. The government also denied claims of racism
Speaker 1: and attacks against white South Africaners, noting that the group
Speaker 1: is among the most economically privileged in the country. Refugee
Speaker 1: groups have questioned the Trump administration's moved to fast track
Speaker 1: applications for white South Africaners while halting arrivals from Afghanistan, Iraq,
Speaker 1: Sub Saharan Africa and other areas wrecked by war and
Speaker 1: natural disasters. Vetting for refugee status in the US usually
Speaker 1: takes years. The first group of Afrikaners is expected to
Speaker 1: be welcomed at the Duel's airport by a US government delegation,
Speaker 1: including the Deputy Secretary of State and officials from the
Speaker 1: Department of Health and Human Services. The flight is a
Speaker 1: part of a much larger scale relocation effort. White House
Speaker 1: Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said in a statement,
Speaker 1: adding that what's happening to Afrikaaners in their homeland fits
Speaker 1: the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created.
Speaker 1: Quote this is persecutcution based on a protected characteristic, in
Speaker 1: this case race. This is race based persecution. Miller said,
Speaker 1: all right, two with Flora's yours.
Speaker 2: If it wasn't so infuriating, it would be funny race
Speaker 2: based prosecution or persecution. I'm sorry for white South Africans
Speaker 2: and flying into Washington Dulles Airport on a fast tracked
Speaker 2: refugee plan because this is why the refugee program was created.
Speaker 2: Persecution based on a protected characteristic. The same people who
Speaker 2: are the same people that are making affirmative action in
Speaker 2: DEI and the word black illegal want us to believe
Speaker 2: that they're bringing these people here because they're being persecuted
Speaker 2: based on their race. I first have to start with
Speaker 2: where I kind of always start when we talk about
Speaker 2: things like this, and it's pushing back on the idea
Speaker 2: of fear and the cape and the bail and the
Speaker 2: benefit of the doubt and the protection that it buys people.
Speaker 2: When you say they're scared is dangerous. I am scared
Speaker 2: that someone might snatch my children, or snatch me from
Speaker 2: my children, or snatch their mom from them. That's fear,
Speaker 2: and what I would do to protect them and myself
Speaker 2: in the mind of most just basically kind people with
Speaker 2: a modicum of empathy would be understood. So when you
Speaker 2: give them that same fear pass, then their montrosities that
Speaker 2: they do can also be met with some empathy. Well,
Speaker 2: if they were afraid, then they did what they had
Speaker 2: to do. And that's nonsense. It's not fear. I'm not
Speaker 2: afraid of anything. They hate us, and they hate people
Speaker 2: with brown skin, so they can take a privately chartered
Speaker 2: plane that taxpayers in this country are paying for. Some
Speaker 2: of those undocumented workers that have jobs and pay taxes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that tax money goes to these flights too, and fly
Speaker 2: them here based on their protected characteristic, which is their race.
Speaker 2: Even if we weren't talking about white people. That should
Speaker 2: raise an eyebrow when this is the same administration it
Speaker 2: says people should not have protected characteristics. So why they
Speaker 2: getting rid of history while they're closing museums and banding points,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like they don't even they
Speaker 2: pandered for two elections at a base that was easy
Speaker 2: to manipulate.
Speaker 1: They don't pander anymore.
Speaker 2: They wear their hypocrisy like a badge now because they know,
Speaker 2: and you know, the now new second term president has
Speaker 2: known for years that there's nothing he can do that
Speaker 2: would discourage or turn away his base. They're going to
Speaker 2: support him, show up for him, defend him, apologize for him,
Speaker 2: and fight you for him. A man they don't know
Speaker 2: that doesn't care about them. They'll fight you their friend
Speaker 2: or their coworker or their family member on his behalf.
Speaker 2: It's a really really strange thing and having to go
Speaker 2: through that people that I know raising their hand to
Speaker 2: tell me the silver lining and anything that he's doing.
Speaker 2: It's a really disturbing, really dangerous, and really scary place
Speaker 2: to be. So when we talk about fear, you're talking
Speaker 2: to someone who's actually dealing with the fear that one
Speaker 2: day while I'm at work, I might get a call
Speaker 2: that my kids don't know where their mom is, or
Speaker 2: they might get a call that no one knows where
Speaker 2: their dad is. Because that's the country we live in now,
Speaker 2: That's what fear looks and sounds like. And again, this
Speaker 2: is something that's very personal, that's already showed up at
Speaker 2: my door. I've already had to go get my kids
Speaker 2: from school to I don't want to talk about it,
Speaker 2: But to pretend that the other side is afraid and
Speaker 2: not just hateful and racist is almost intentionally dishonest, Like
Speaker 2: we're going out of our way to be empathetic to
Speaker 2: these people that would never do that for us. They're
Speaker 2: not making these decisions because they're afraid of us. They
Speaker 2: hate us, and they now have the power to take
Speaker 2: everything from us, and the idea of checks and balances
Speaker 2: no longer exist. So if you're white, there's a place
Speaker 2: for you here. If you've been persecuted and you're white
Speaker 2: and you're going through something difficult and you're white, even
Speaker 2: though you're the extreme minority of occupants, but the extreme
Speaker 2: majority of land owners, you're the persecuted class. What was
Speaker 2: the percentage, It's like five or six percent of the
Speaker 2: white people in South Africa own seventy or eighty percent
Speaker 2: of the land. They want us to believe they're the
Speaker 2: ones that are being persecuted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that there's something.
Speaker 2: That will never even ask the question, well, why that
Speaker 2: doesn't make any sense? Sounds about white, so it sounds
Speaker 2: about right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So wat's this I think that you know,
Speaker 1: for people that don't know the history of South Africa,
Speaker 1: people that don't know the history of apartheid, people that
Speaker 1: don't know what Nelson Mandela's fight was about in his story,
Speaker 1: and people who don't even know who that is. If
Speaker 1: all you hear is a government is taking land from
Speaker 1: a group of people based on their race, then you
Speaker 1: know there are people who could look at that and think, okay,
Speaker 1: well that just isn't fair. You know, these people are
Speaker 1: being persecuted, right if the headline just reads the way
Speaker 1: that it does, and no one goes any deeper, and
Speaker 1: no one has any context, no one has any history.
Speaker 1: But I think in brief what we can do and
Speaker 1: this helps support the numbers. We're going to share a clip.
Speaker 1: This is from Don Lemon and he kind of breaks
Speaker 1: down a little bit about South Africa and so you
Speaker 1: kind of get a little bit more context on the
Speaker 1: quote unquote persecution and why this is such a bizarre
Speaker 1: move to re locate these white South africaners to the
Speaker 1: United States during an administration that is that platform and
Speaker 1: is currently decidedly anti immigration and pretty much everything that
Speaker 1: it does. So let's listen to Dawn kind of break
Speaker 1: this down for us. Here we go.
Speaker 3: It is blatantly obvious the way that we treat white
Speaker 3: South Africans, who, by the way, for the most part,
Speaker 3: and I am generalizing here, some of the wealthiest people
Speaker 3: are well to do people in the country, to speak
Speaker 3: their language, they own most of the land and the property,
Speaker 3: and somehow they're being granted a fast track to become
Speaker 3: Americans while they're trying to cut down on immigration from
Speaker 3: other countries. You know, you get that from where from
Speaker 3: the brown people. On March seventh, Trump to truth social
Speaker 3: to announce ess is offering white South African farmers quote
Speaker 3: a rapid pathway to the US citizenship, pointing out that South
Speaker 3: Africa's new land reform push into law last year, which
Speaker 3: lets the government take land without compensation if the property
Speaker 3: is not being used and there's no intention to either
Speaker 3: develop or make money from it. Okay, now I'm going
Speaker 3: to give you some context here.
Speaker 1: They're not just.
Speaker 3: Taking a land away from white South African farmers. White
Speaker 3: South Africans, about nine percent of the population, owned eighty
Speaker 3: seven percent of the fertile land. Okay, today, Black South
Speaker 3: Africans make up more than ninety percent of the population
Speaker 3: and they only hold about four percent of all privately
Speaker 3: owned land. So what they're trying to do is say, hey,
Speaker 3: we need to fix an historical injustice and figure out
Speaker 3: if you're not using that land to farm, then we
Speaker 3: need to have some of that land, not taking all
Speaker 3: of your entire farm. That's not what's happening, and we
Speaker 3: need to what there needs to be equity. And now
Speaker 3: people are crying because the playing field is being leveled,
Speaker 3: and so therefore it is now discrimination.
Speaker 1: All right, So that kind of colors in the story
Speaker 1: a little bit better. This isn't you know, the government
Speaker 1: seizing all the land. It's only land where it's not
Speaker 1: being used. It hasn't been used, and there are no
Speaker 1: plans to use it in the future. White South Africaners
Speaker 1: who have land that they are using and making money
Speaker 1: off of, they can continue to keep that land. But
Speaker 1: because they hold eighty seven percent of the farmable land,
Speaker 1: this group, the group of white folks in that country
Speaker 1: that make up less than ten percent of the population,
Speaker 1: I think it's quite it's a lot less than ten
Speaker 1: percent of the population, but they own eighty seven percent
Speaker 1: of the land that you can use for agriculture, and
Speaker 1: a lot of that is not being used. The country
Speaker 1: has a law that says, okay, if you're not going
Speaker 1: to use the land, we can take it back and
Speaker 1: create equitable programs that allow other people access to you know,
Speaker 1: all that South Africa has to offer. And again, for
Speaker 1: folks that understand the history in South Africa, it was
Speaker 1: colonized by people who are not African, and so this
Speaker 1: is something that needs to be done otherwise, you know,
Speaker 1: if you don't do something, then you know, the people
Speaker 1: who live there continue to suffer under oppressive regimes. Now,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because the people who really inhabit the land
Speaker 1: that ninety percent of the population are black, can look
Speaker 1: at those handful of landowners, white landowners, and say, your
Speaker 1: possession of the land here is oppressive to us. And
Speaker 1: the Donald Trump administration gave those same folks a free
Speaker 1: pass to say, well, you're being oppressed, so come to
Speaker 1: the United States. These still don't have to give up
Speaker 1: your land over there, but here's here's a golden ticket
Speaker 1: to the land of opportunity. And it's interesting to note
Speaker 1: that that was always the card they could play, and
Speaker 1: they haven't. They've chosen not to play that card for
Speaker 1: people who again lived here since they were two, grew
Speaker 1: up here, all their friends, everything they know is is
Speaker 1: here in the United States. They pay taxes, they participate
Speaker 1: in the economy, they're not illegal. And yet and still
Speaker 1: these people are being deported along with you know, criminals
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff because there's no due process.
Speaker 1: And it's just interesting to note that it's if it's
Speaker 1: white folks got to say it the way it is,
Speaker 1: there's a decidedly different approach to it. And this flies
Speaker 1: in the face to everyone that says, well, you know,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's not racist. Name one thing that he's ever
Speaker 1: done that's racist. Listen, man, I think I just did
Speaker 1: so we'll leave that one right about there unless you
Speaker 1: got anything else. I know, we don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of time, but yeah, okay, all right, Well, well leave
Speaker 1: that one right there then