Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: rams Is Jah.
Speaker 2: I think I will be forever known as just q Bard.
Speaker 1: Hey that's enough for me, And you're not think so
Speaker 1: well Listen, Like I said that, that works man, because
Speaker 1: we've had we had some interesting changes around here and
Speaker 1: Q word floats floats every day, and uh yeah, glad
Speaker 1: to do another episode with you. A lot a lot
Speaker 1: to talk about this episode, and I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: fall on the sword this this one as well, so
Speaker 1: be prepared.
Speaker 2: I got your back, man. If you falling on the sword,
Speaker 2: then we falling on the sword. It's gonna be all
Speaker 2: three of us. It's a sword of swords. Sword is
Speaker 2: the sword sword?
Speaker 1: Listen, I can learn a lot, So how about you
Speaker 1: tell me and then we'll go with that.
Speaker 2: If I'm falling on the sword with the silent w
Speaker 2: then I'm falling on the sword with the silent w.
Speaker 1: Yes. Indeed, we'll stick around because we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about that with respect to video of an officer throwing
Speaker 1: a baggie into the back of a car and you know,
Speaker 1: planting evidence and it's it's on camera, so we have
Speaker 1: to talk about that. Like I said, fall on sword.
Speaker 1: But we also have to talk about another video, and
Speaker 1: it's going to be an interesting show talking about two
Speaker 1: videos and intas having to do with police, and you'll
Speaker 1: find out why in just a bit. But there's another
Speaker 1: video that came out t I actually posted it into
Speaker 1: a video of an officer in Atlanta kicking a handcuffed
Speaker 1: woman in the face, and so we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about that as well. We do want to talk about
Speaker 1: something that happened here locally where we live in Arizona.
Speaker 1: We got a visit from Jesse Jackson, and for our
Speaker 1: Way Black History Fact, we're going to talk about Bob
Speaker 1: Moses and I'll try to work some Jesse Jackson in
Speaker 1: there as well. The good Reverend. Yes indeed, and you
Speaker 1: know we have an interesting Boba this week as well.
Speaker 1: So Become a Better Ally segment is something that I'm
Speaker 1: very much looking forward to. But I won't dawdle too
Speaker 1: much because I want to talk about some ebony excellence
Speaker 1: that ways absolutely right. Well, all I do is win
Speaker 1: no matter what talk to me. There was a movie
Speaker 1: trailer for It's called King Richard. King Richard from Compton, Compton, California,
Speaker 1: One Time, One if you don't mark, shout out to Compton,
Speaker 1: place of my birth. Listen. But it basically details the
Speaker 1: life of the father of Serena and Venus Williams, the
Speaker 1: tennis stars, and how he was very motivated to, you know,
Speaker 1: have his children do better than he did and have
Speaker 1: opportunities he didn't have. And I wanted to highlight this
Speaker 1: for our Ebony excellence because I thought that it was
Speaker 1: really dope to see positive representation of black fatherhood in
Speaker 1: that space. Now I know that there was a recent
Speaker 1: movie about Kevin Hart taking care of his daughter. I
Speaker 1: think that in the story like the mother passed away
Speaker 1: or something like that. The movie is called Fatherhood there
Speaker 1: it is, Yeah, and so we want to see more
Speaker 1: of that. This movie trailer looks excellent. I'm imagining it's
Speaker 1: Will Smith that's playing King Richard, the title character. And
Speaker 1: so just want to put that on your radar, and
Speaker 1: obviously when it comes out, you know, we all need
Speaker 1: to go and support that.
Speaker 2: The trailer is very compelling. Sure, happened to see it.
Speaker 2: You're going to want to see the movie.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, And you know, we around here know that
Speaker 1: there's been a longstanding myth pervasive myth that black men
Speaker 1: are not good fathers and not present fathers, and we
Speaker 1: are not here for that. No, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about it soon. We're going to talk about that soon.
Speaker 1: But actually, if you don't know, the CDC did a
Speaker 1: study in twenty fourteen that found out that actually black
Speaker 1: fathers are doing best of everyone overall, the most present exactly.
Speaker 1: And so we'll talk about that in a later episode.
Speaker 1: But for now, that's our Ebony excellence for the week,
Speaker 1: and it's time for us to get to the falling
Speaker 1: on of the sword. So I'm gonna tell you a
Speaker 1: story now. Before the show, before we started taping, Swirl,
Speaker 1: our producer and Q and I were talking and I
Speaker 1: mentioned that I wanted to talk about a video where
Speaker 1: and normally I would point you to our social media
Speaker 1: and say, check out this video. But I've taken the
Speaker 1: video down, and I'll explain why I took it down,
Speaker 1: because normally, you know, you leave things up and you
Speaker 1: kind of own it out publicly. But in this show,
Speaker 1: in this space, we have been critical of a lot
Speaker 1: of systems that are in place in this country that
Speaker 1: we believe have white supremacist origins and that are perhaps
Speaker 1: more harmful to especially to black and brown folks. Then
Speaker 1: many people are aware of and we and so we
Speaker 1: have to be critical of those systems in order to
Speaker 1: bring attention to them. That's that's how we make it work.
Speaker 1: There's some people who protest, there's some people who you know,
Speaker 1: run for office, and then there's people like us who
Speaker 1: work in media who have to bring attention and we
Speaker 1: have to illuminate these disparities and these discrepancies, right. And
Speaker 1: fortunately we live in a modern world where we have
Speaker 1: social media, we're able to share videos and so forth,
Speaker 1: and it has really helped bring light to a lot
Speaker 1: of the injustices. But one of the things that comes
Speaker 1: along with working in media is that when you get
Speaker 1: it wrong, you have to own it. You have to
Speaker 1: eat crow, and you have to be you know, you
Speaker 1: have to make your you know, your recompense as substantial
Speaker 1: as your offense right. And that's this is my belief.
Speaker 1: I recognize it. Not everyone else does this. I recognize
Speaker 1: that if this was from the police coming to me,
Speaker 1: that it perhaps would not be the same. But I'm
Speaker 1: of the persuasion that two wrongs don't make a right.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write my story the right way, and whatever
Speaker 1: everyone else does is what they do. But early in
Speaker 1: the week again we saw this video. And the video
Speaker 1: is of a young black man. He's in the front
Speaker 1: seat of a car. He's recording a traffic stop. There's
Speaker 1: an officer behind him, and it's a really quick video.
Speaker 1: The officer is sort of approaching the car. The camera
Speaker 1: angle is out the back passenger side door. The officer
Speaker 1: approaches the open door and tosses a baggie that looks
Speaker 1: like there's white powder into the back seat. The young
Speaker 1: man who's in the car says, hey, that's not mine,
Speaker 1: and you just threw that in here something like that,
Speaker 1: And to those of us looking at the video, it
Speaker 1: looks like, okay, here's another example of an officer planting
Speaker 1: evidence to have an excuse to make a Right now,
Speaker 1: we know that these things have happened. We've done stories
Speaker 1: about We've done stories of people who've been convicted of
Speaker 1: doing this, you know, for many years. Right, so we're
Speaker 1: well aware, certainly in black and brown communities, of officers
Speaker 1: taking certain liberties or doing whatever it is that they
Speaker 1: can to arrest people. And you know, these people, these officers, rather,
Speaker 1: it is our belief that they're prejudiced that they're bad officers,
Speaker 1: and on and on and on the whole story. But
Speaker 1: in this instance where we had a video, Oh that's
Speaker 1: a slam dunk, right, we got it. It's on video.
Speaker 1: The guy clearly walks up to the car, throws a
Speaker 1: bag looks like powdery substance in the backseat of the car,
Speaker 1: and he did it like sort of like it almost
Speaker 1: looked like he was being sneaky and throwing the bag
Speaker 1: back there. Right, So naturally I think I might have
Speaker 1: hit swirl. Our show producer is like, hey, so make
Speaker 1: sure you post this on our timeline, on our social
Speaker 1: media on Instagram so that we can discuss this our
Speaker 1: next show. Because here's another example that we need to
Speaker 1: bring light to. There's a lot of folks, allies, people
Speaker 1: with support us. So maybe people in the fringes who
Speaker 1: want to support, but maybe they haven't found the way
Speaker 1: to really get in there. We need to let them
Speaker 1: know these things happen, and we have more video evidence
Speaker 1: of police misconduct and how it is affecting black and
Speaker 1: brown citizens.
Speaker 2: And it's something that we knew, something that we know happens,
Speaker 2: but like you said, having video confirmation of it goes
Speaker 2: along way.
Speaker 1: Sure. Sure, And a lot of the other episodes that
Speaker 1: we've done where we've talked about instances like this, The
Speaker 1: one that really stands out of my mind is where
Speaker 1: an officer got convicted finally of planting evidence and writing
Speaker 1: false police reports and doing all these sorts of things.
Speaker 1: And there was hundreds of arrests over a career, and
Speaker 1: the officer finally was convicted, and a lot of those
Speaker 1: arrests and convictions were overturned well after the fact, after
Speaker 1: many years of this guy being on the job. And
Speaker 1: that's just one we've talked about. And I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about lived experience yet. I could you know again, I'm
Speaker 1: from Compton, So that's the LAPD For those that don't know,
Speaker 1: the LAPD, especially in the eighties and the early nineties,
Speaker 1: was really known for being like lightweight, a criminal organization.
Speaker 1: Back to this video, so I really wanted this video
Speaker 1: to be posted on our timeline to share it with people.
Speaker 1: And then of course, once we posted it and it's
Speaker 1: already out in social media, we just shared the video
Speaker 1: the same as anyone else, and all of the people
Speaker 1: that support the show, that follow Civic Cipher immediately started commenting,
Speaker 1: like in the video like, oh my gosh, this is
Speaker 1: a disgusting you know, blah blah, you know, police this
Speaker 1: that and the third right, and that was that we
Speaker 1: let the video sit there for however long, and obviously
Speaker 1: you didn't know that it was sitting there. And I
Speaker 1: think that maybe Swirl posted or maybe I posted. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure, but just sat there did what it did,
Speaker 1: and then I'll call it a few days later, So
Speaker 1: this might have been Wednesday, Thursday some like that. I
Speaker 1: saw another video on another website. It was the same interaction,
Speaker 1: but it was from the officer's webcam. And that's the
Speaker 1: funny thing about bodycam. Bodycam. That was it webcam, sorry,
Speaker 1: his bodycam. So the funny thing in the original video,
Speaker 1: the man in the passenger seat, the young black man
Speaker 1: in the passengers seat that was filming the interaction. He says, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I got you on video throwing that in the car,
Speaker 1: and the officer responds says, oh, it's all good, man,
Speaker 1: I got you on video too. Is so we're all
Speaker 1: good here, right, And it was almost like the only thing,
Speaker 1: it looked like it was the only thing that he
Speaker 1: could say in response to being filmed. Right, He's playing and.
Speaker 2: Got caught and can't respond like he got caught, so
Speaker 2: he got to play.
Speaker 1: It cool, like he didn't get caught. You used to happen. Right,
Speaker 1: As it turned out when he released that bodycam footage,
Speaker 1: it shows what happened leading up to that. Now you
Speaker 1: don't know this, right, Q. You don't know what happens.
Speaker 1: I have no idea, Okay, Swell, you don't know, okay.
Speaker 1: So the longer video shows the driver of the car
Speaker 1: standing in front of the police car with the officer
Speaker 1: in question and another officer I believe, Right, the driver
Speaker 1: is searched, and there they pull a baggie out from
Speaker 1: the driver's pocket or something like that. Right, the baggie
Speaker 1: is empty. There's no because there were no arrests made. Right,
Speaker 1: the baggy is empty, but there is like a powdery
Speaker 1: subs right, and it's not enough quantity for them to test,
Speaker 1: so it's you know, but it was assumed that it
Speaker 1: could have been you know whatever. Right, So the officer
Speaker 1: takes it, examines it, and then walks it into the
Speaker 1: car to the backseat of the car, throws it in
Speaker 1: the backseat of the car. Right that the guy was
Speaker 1: just driving, And then of course the interaction, Hey bro,
Speaker 1: why are you throwing this in the car? That's that's
Speaker 1: not mine? You just threw that in here. I got
Speaker 1: you on camera. Hey man, I got you on camera,
Speaker 1: so it's all good. Right. So it says the same
Speaker 1: thing and then walks back or and then there's a
Speaker 1: little bit more to the dialogue and he's like, man,
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to carry that in my hands,
Speaker 1: you know, you know whatever, And that's why we're eating
Speaker 1: crow today, especially me because hey, let me now, I
Speaker 1: would love to get your thoughts right, because your immediate
Speaker 1: reaction I need, I need everyone listening to know what
Speaker 1: that is. But I want to say this, there is
Speaker 1: something to be said about waiting for the full story, right,
Speaker 1: you know, there are sometimes I don't like what I'm
Speaker 1: about to say. You're not gonna like what I'm about
Speaker 1: to say if you're listening to my voice. But there
Speaker 1: are some times when we do have to wait for
Speaker 1: there to be in the full story to be told.
Speaker 1: And I know that it's hard for us to trust
Speaker 1: that because typically what that means is they're doing, quote,
Speaker 1: an investigation, They're going to change a couple of pieces around,
Speaker 1: They're going to rewrite part of the story and then
Speaker 1: when it comes out, they've exonered, they've you know, they're
Speaker 1: not liable for anything, right. But I think that what
Speaker 1: this has taught me at least is, you know, your
Speaker 1: reactions are are well founded. Ramses, my name is Ramses.
Speaker 1: If you don't know, yes, so I'm talking to myself here.
Speaker 1: Your reactions are well founded. This is this is Maybe
Speaker 1: it's cognitive bias, but this certainly reinforces your worldview, you know,
Speaker 1: and if you get more and more of the same,
Speaker 1: you know, your immediate reaction is to be angry and
Speaker 1: upset and afraid and so forth, and to you know,
Speaker 1: be doubtful of you know, what the future holds. You know,
Speaker 1: why am I coming and doing shows like this every
Speaker 1: week if I don't believe that the world is going
Speaker 1: to change for the better by our efforts here.
Speaker 2: Right, That's a great question I have to ask myself
Speaker 2: from time to time, exactly.
Speaker 1: But it was very humbling to watch that video where
Speaker 1: I was like, ooh, because he the guy that was
Speaker 1: driving the car, he had a baggie on it. And
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna pretend like that bag was just flower.
Speaker 1: It looked exactly like what I think it was and
Speaker 1: what you would think it was. Right. Now, that's a
Speaker 1: whole separate conversation. Why are people forced to do these
Speaker 1: sorts of things to feed their families and to take
Speaker 1: care of themselves and have a decent living and make
Speaker 1: their rent. You know, this guy wasn't driving a huge
Speaker 1: escalator or anything like that. It was just a regular car,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So this guy probably is
Speaker 1: just a guy trying to make ends meet the best
Speaker 1: way he can, not making excuses for anybody. But you know,
Speaker 1: there's some context. But in terms of me being angry
Speaker 1: at this officer, I recognized, like oof, you know, it's
Speaker 1: you know, and then for all of us again waiting
Speaker 1: for that whole story and having to to get on
Speaker 1: a microphone on a show where we admittedly are very
Speaker 1: critical of policing practices policing in general, and say, h
Speaker 1: we got that one wrong. Is a part of I
Speaker 1: think our story, and it's going to keep us honest
Speaker 1: as we attempt to keep everyone else honest.
Speaker 2: Please cute falling on the sword eating crow. I think
Speaker 2: that is our responsibility. Okay, And you know, we have
Speaker 2: to hold ourselves and each other accountable to the young
Speaker 2: man in the passenger seat. However, I don't think he
Speaker 2: has to eat crow. I think to him it looked
Speaker 2: like exactly what we thought when we saw it.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Imagine yourself sitting there, the officer walks up towards you
Speaker 2: and tosses something in the back seat, and you legitimately
Speaker 2: don't know where that came from. Like he, I think
Speaker 2: in that space, I don't think he was like. I
Speaker 2: don't think he was playing dumb. I think he was like, Yo,
Speaker 2: what are you doing because I'm not trying to go
Speaker 2: to prison because you're tripping and you don't like black people.
Speaker 2: He was wrong, but I don't think in that moment,
Speaker 2: the way he responded was not authentic. Like, I think
Speaker 2: he thought he saw exactly what we thought we saw, right,
Speaker 2: So it's I think it's us eating crow and falling
Speaker 2: on the sword more than that, gentleman. I don't think
Speaker 2: he set us up for the okie duck with that video,
Speaker 2: is what I mean. Like, I don't think he had
Speaker 2: false pretensions like I'm about to pretend to be the
Speaker 2: victim here so people can feel sorry. I think in
Speaker 2: that moment, he legitimately thought, this dude is planning evidence
Speaker 2: and trying to take us to jail for something that
Speaker 2: we didn't do. Maybe maybe, And you know, I said
Speaker 2: that for what it's worth, like, I don't. I don't
Speaker 2: think that that video was posted by that young man
Speaker 2: to sell us a false narrative.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: The officer's body cam just had a more complete story
Speaker 2: than even that young man and had in his position.
Speaker 1: There's no way to not.
Speaker 2: Ecro You can't even go into all the reasons why
Speaker 2: we shouldn't have to and man, it's been done to
Speaker 2: it so many times. No, No, when you're wrong, you
Speaker 2: just are. You can't use other examples to make this.
Speaker 1: It's just like.
Speaker 2: You know, if you are a person in all of
Speaker 2: your interactions with black people have been bad, you don't
Speaker 2: get to treat me like I'm awful when you meet me.
Speaker 1: And you can't point.
Speaker 2: To all these other experiences and say this is the
Speaker 2: reason why and think that that's okay.
Speaker 1: So we can't do that either. We were wrong, and.
Speaker 2: Our hasteful reaction is based on some history, of course,
Speaker 2: but when you're wrong, you still.
Speaker 1: Have to say so. Now, first off, thank you, because
Speaker 1: I didn't know. That's a tough thing to deal with,
Speaker 1: and having a like as sort of a benevolent Well
Speaker 1: that's not the right word. What am I thinking of
Speaker 1: humbling myself? You know what I mean? And being the
Speaker 1: only one with that energy. That's a much more scary
Speaker 1: place to be in. But I appreciate you understanding, you
Speaker 1: know why I wanted to talk about this and not
Speaker 1: letting me spill the b and c before we did that.
Speaker 1: But I think there's another part of this too that
Speaker 1: it it somebody has to go first. Here's what I
Speaker 1: mean when I say that it could be you know,
Speaker 1: in modern history, we'll start with the Panthers, the Black Panthers, yes,
Speaker 1: and we'll start with and the Oakland Police Department, right,
Speaker 1: And these two groups were at war with each other
Speaker 1: for all intents and purposes because the Panthers felt that
Speaker 1: the police were overstepping brutalizing, terrorizing, robbing, killing in the
Speaker 1: black community. And the Panthers are organized, and they bought guns.
Speaker 1: And that's why there's a lot of gun laws now
Speaker 1: because people got real scared because you know that right
Speaker 1: to bear arms is tricky when you know, when it's
Speaker 1: a bunch of black people with afros and berets. Apparently,
Speaker 1: in the late sixties, so anyway, the panthers in the police, right,
Speaker 1: So you know, in terms of like a modern relationship
Speaker 1: with black folks in the police, having it being contentious
Speaker 1: and organized, I think that that's a great place to start.
Speaker 1: But I don't think that any of us on any side,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of police officers who are black.
Speaker 1: Granted back then there probably were way less. But we're
Speaker 1: talking about the system more than just the platonic ideal
Speaker 1: or the what pops in your mind the white male
Speaker 1: police officer, because then that makes it a race thing,
Speaker 1: and it's not necessarily that it certainly runs along that line.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of I know, and I hope
Speaker 1: that I can say his name, because I will, and
Speaker 1: I do want to give him credit. There's an officer
Speaker 1: that I know is his sergeant in Arizona. His name
Speaker 1: is Kevin Gilliland, and I've known this man for years.
Speaker 1: He's a kind man. He did a security gig for
Speaker 1: many years. When I would DJ at a jewelry store,
Speaker 1: they did a yearly party, paid me a ton of money,
Speaker 1: and he was a security guy there and he thought
Speaker 1: everything I did was cool. He listened to me on
Speaker 1: the radio, and you get to know the human being.
Speaker 1: And obviously, you know, there's many years of police killings,
Speaker 1: and you know, black people losing their lives at the
Speaker 1: hands of police, you know, needlessly. And granted we only
Speaker 1: have our powwows once a year, but he would stay
Speaker 1: in touch with me. Maybe that had to do with
Speaker 1: the fact that I was cool and I was on
Speaker 1: the radio and I could give him concert tickets and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But I like to think that
Speaker 1: he actually had a heart and I provided a way
Speaker 1: for him to express that. And because of the contentious
Speaker 1: nature between some black organizations and the police historically, you know,
Speaker 1: and because I know that we're not born to die.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna be my story. That's not gonna be
Speaker 1: your story. This whell is not gonna be yours. It's
Speaker 1: not gonna be our children's story. We're not born to
Speaker 1: go to war for our whole lives. We're not meant
Speaker 1: to born to fight. I believe that we're born to love.
Speaker 1: You know me, If you listen to the show, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it a million times. I don't care if
Speaker 1: you believe it or not. That's my belief and I'm
Speaker 1: entitled to it. Plus I'm on the radio and you're
Speaker 1: not so love each other right boom. But I think
Speaker 1: above all of that, somebody has to go first. Somebody
Speaker 1: has to to stop slinging mud. Somebody has to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I was wrong and start there. And if I'm in
Speaker 1: a position where there's a microphone in front of me
Speaker 1: and there's an audience listening, I don't mind doing that
Speaker 1: because once you take off that uniform, what my father
Speaker 1: taught me, Reverend Doctor Rudolph Wayne Taylor, is that all
Speaker 1: men are my brothers and all women are my sisters.
Speaker 1: I will not forget that lesson. I will not forget
Speaker 1: it now, and I will not forget it when I
Speaker 1: eat Crow for being hasty and posting my video. But
Speaker 1: that's on me more than it's on YouTube, you know.
Speaker 1: And you know if you're a person who quote backs
Speaker 1: the Blue or you know an officer yourself. I know
Speaker 1: that there's some officers that listen to the show, and
Speaker 1: in all the different states that we're in in cities,
Speaker 1: you reach out and I get your messages, and I
Speaker 1: appreciate the feedback, and I know that we're trying to
Speaker 1: find our way through this. Maybe I owe you an apology.
Speaker 1: I don't want to make an excuse, so I want
Speaker 1: that to stand on its own, but I do want
Speaker 1: to say that if that happens again, I want you
Speaker 1: to know that it's because of the nature I believe
Speaker 1: of social media, because of how easy it is to
Speaker 1: share things. You know, we talk about the vaccine, we
Speaker 1: talk about all this misinformation and fake news and how
Speaker 1: it gets spread, and you know, it doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: right you are, you're not immune or impervious or not
Speaker 1: susceptible to the algorithms, and just really the nature of
Speaker 1: social media and how easy it is to share things
Speaker 1: that you see. And so it might happen again, but
Speaker 1: if it does, I want you to remember this moment
Speaker 1: please and know that while I'm very critical of your
Speaker 1: profession and some of the practices of some of the
Speaker 1: people that you work with, that you reckon your brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters, that I am committed to establishing a path
Speaker 1: forward where we can all be better to each other.
Speaker 1: And I think that that should stand on its own.
Speaker 1: Very well said, I'll just agree, thank you. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was really on me. I had filming kind of stupid
Speaker 1: posting that video and then yes, of course, and the
Speaker 1: reason I took it down. Was because rather than leave
Speaker 1: it up and then post a follow up video again,
Speaker 1: because I know that it's so easy to share the
Speaker 1: sensational thing, and because I know that if I'm going
Speaker 1: to eat my cro I'm gonna do it in full
Speaker 1: display in front of everyone, that the right thing for
Speaker 1: me to do is delete that. And so it wasn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't delete it out of embarrassment or trying to
Speaker 1: hide it or anything. I'm here owning it. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and now.
Speaker 3: Watch with my mics from head borders behind in the.
Speaker 1: If you're just tuning into civic side around your host
Speaker 1: Ramsay's joh he calls me q ward and so does
Speaker 1: my mom. This indeed another one and owners formerly and
Speaker 1: soon to be again dj q woard my hope. We'll
Speaker 1: see how that goes. And uh, if you're just tuning in,
Speaker 1: you missed some real heavy stuff, Emil I did not enjoy,
Speaker 1: but you know it was very necessary for me to eat.
Speaker 1: But we're also going to talk about, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: some more video. We're gonna talk about what we'll get
Speaker 1: to that video, but basically policeman misconduct. So, like I
Speaker 1: said in the beginning, it's an interesting show we're going
Speaker 1: to have because you know, this is our lens into
Speaker 1: a lot of the practices that we're seeing that we
Speaker 1: don't agree with, that we know happened and so forth.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about a video out of
Speaker 1: Atlanta made it to us by way of Ti Tip
Speaker 1: Tip King of the South. Yeah, the kang my man.
Speaker 1: We're also gonna talk about Bob Moses recently passed away.
Speaker 1: We're gonna spend our way Black History fact talking about
Speaker 1: him and just shine a little bit of light on
Speaker 1: his life, but also want to share some stories about
Speaker 1: meeting Jesse Jackson that was pretty cool. And I also
Speaker 1: want to talk about our Native brothers and sisters. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna spend our bob Ba section kind of giving
Speaker 1: a little light to that. So what happened? I believe
Speaker 1: it was last episode we finally finally got around to
Speaker 1: talking about the bodies of the Native children that were
Speaker 1: buried and all at all of these schools, and we
Speaker 1: talked about how in Arizona, where we live, there is
Speaker 1: an actual street called Indian School Road. It's a major
Speaker 1: road if you haven't been Arizona, and there is in
Speaker 1: fact an Indian School there, and so it just made
Speaker 1: sense for us to talk about that. So, without further ado,
Speaker 1: let's get into the bah Bah section of the show.
Speaker 1: And this time we're gonna highlight someone on Instagram by
Speaker 1: the name of the Consciously at the conscious Lee if
Speaker 1: you want to check them out, And let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and listen to what he has to say.
Speaker 4: For what So they was telling us about Native Americans
Speaker 4: have a band? You think it was?
Speaker 1: It was worse.
Speaker 4: So people are from California, right, Did you know that
Speaker 4: in California it was legal to kill Native Americans. Not
Speaker 4: only was it legal, it was profitable. You literally can
Speaker 4: get paid per head of the Native you killed. Over
Speaker 4: sixteen thousand Native Americans was killed in cold blood during
Speaker 4: the whole Gold Rush thing. This happened from eighteen forty
Speaker 4: six to eighteen seven one. What was happening to the
Speaker 4: Natives was so bad it didn't even have a word
Speaker 4: to describe it.
Speaker 1: Oh, it ain't just California.
Speaker 4: Y'all Ever seen a map of the US with just
Speaker 4: the Native tribes? Y'all see them a little word right there?
Speaker 1: Those are tribes you've never heard of.
Speaker 4: When I was younger, I remember a Native American elder
Speaker 4: telling me something that threw me all over all. He said,
Speaker 4: I give thanks for your ancestors, because without your ancestors,
Speaker 4: I probably wouldn't be here today. That's when I realized
Speaker 4: whatever we'd be in told it nothing close to how
Speaker 4: bad it really was.
Speaker 1: All right, So if you didn't know that, now you know.
Speaker 1: But the reason I really wanted to illuminate that is
Speaker 1: because if you couldn't tell, and I know you couldn't
Speaker 1: see him, but he's black and he took the time
Speaker 1: to share space with his native brothers and sisters, which
Speaker 1: is the energy that we try to emanate on this
Speaker 1: show and the energy that we feel you should keep
Speaker 1: in your own life as well. And if you feel
Speaker 1: like kind of going down that rabbit hole and really
Speaker 1: educating yourself, I employ you to do so. Do me
Speaker 1: a favor and check out the hashtag land back and yeah,
Speaker 1: educate yourself. I'm sure all of our native brothers and
Speaker 1: sisters would appreciate you doing so. So that's our bah
Speaker 1: bah segment for the day and how to become a
Speaker 1: better ally. Now let's get to this next video. This
Speaker 1: one is tough, so why don't you describe the video?
Speaker 4: Cube?
Speaker 2: There is a young lady who has been apprehended for
Speaker 2: reasons I don't know. I did not read further into
Speaker 2: the story of the how or the why she was
Speaker 2: in the position that she was in. But even if
Speaker 2: she is absolutely guilty of whatever she's being charged with,
Speaker 2: or for whatever reason they have her subdued and laying
Speaker 2: on her belly on the ground, she did not deserve
Speaker 2: to be kicked in the face by the officer who
Speaker 2: she was not resisting, fighting, defending herself from, or anything else.
Speaker 2: Because a lot of times that people like to ask
Speaker 2: questions about, like you said, the part of the story
Speaker 2: that we didn't see, we did not need to see
Speaker 2: more footage of this to know that she didn't deserve
Speaker 2: to be kicked in the face with the toe of
Speaker 2: a hard bottom shoe. It's probably a still tee, yeah,
Speaker 2: while being subdued, apprehended, or arrested by the police officers.
Speaker 1: So this is this sort of video that we're going
Speaker 1: to have to describe. Fortunately, it's a very short video.
Speaker 1: If you like again, you can check out I think
Speaker 1: it's trouble Man at Troubleman if you're on Instagram and
Speaker 1: just trouble manreorty one. There you go and find the video.
Speaker 1: It doesn't it's kind of a graphic video. We don't
Speaker 1: really like to We don't want to normalize people brutalizing
Speaker 1: black bodies. We don't want to become numb to that,
Speaker 1: and so that we did not share that video. It's
Speaker 1: it's as disturbing as you can imagine. A couple of
Speaker 1: interesting things about this video is, as Q mentioned, it's
Speaker 1: really hard to imagine there being more to the story
Speaker 1: that would warrant this woman being handcuffed. She was handcuffed
Speaker 1: when she was kicked in the face, face down, not
Speaker 1: standing nothing. And of course, if you listen to the
Speaker 1: first half of the show, you recognize that. We understand
Speaker 1: that sometimes weird as it seems, videos don't tell the
Speaker 1: whole story. And so I tried to imagine, like did
Speaker 1: she spit on him or you know, and the truth is,
Speaker 1: even if she did, it doesn't her being kicked in
Speaker 1: the face is not a fair response. If someone is handcuffed,
Speaker 1: belly down on the ground and they're spitting, you can
Speaker 1: just walk away from that, you know. I happen to
Speaker 1: know that if you kick someone in a fight when
Speaker 1: they're on the ground, that actually is attempted murder. That
Speaker 1: you can be tried for attempted murder for kicking someone,
Speaker 1: and he kicked her in the face, so it's hard
Speaker 1: to argue that that's not what that is, and that
Speaker 1: plus spitting is not the same thing. Right, And here
Speaker 1: we see, you know, based on our initial reaction to
Speaker 1: the video, and I do believe the officer and the
Speaker 1: other officer that was standing next to him were both suspended.
Speaker 1: I do remember seeing something like that. Whether or not
Speaker 1: that's true, I don't know, but I do remember seeing
Speaker 1: something like that. Anyway, it's the most disturbing, disgusting abuse
Speaker 1: of power that you can imagine, you know. Just okay,
Speaker 1: let's take away for a second the police officer. Let's
Speaker 1: take away the protecting and serving and you know, the
Speaker 1: good guys, and you know all that the whatever, Let's
Speaker 1: take all that away. Let's just look at two human beings, right,
Speaker 1: that are on two different sides of an issue. Right.
Speaker 1: One of them is female. And I don't mean to
Speaker 1: ever in my life suggest that that means anything more
Speaker 1: than she simply has less testosterone in her body. Based
Speaker 1: on my understanding of females versus males, I do recognize
Speaker 1: there's a spectrum. I'm not trying to say anything about
Speaker 1: it of that, but my understanding is that females have
Speaker 1: less testosterone overall than men do, and testosterone makes you
Speaker 1: way stronger, and knowing that someone has less testosterone than
Speaker 1: you often makes them less of a threat, provided there
Speaker 1: are no weapons involved.
Speaker 2: Coupled with the idea that and this is something that
Speaker 2: you'll notice immediately if and when you see this video.
Speaker 2: This officer, the male officer is a very large male. Sure,
Speaker 2: so all of the and again, I know it's very
Speaker 2: difficult to articulate this, and I mean no offense to
Speaker 2: anyone who's you know, identifies how they identify.
Speaker 1: Promise I love you. This is a space for you,
Speaker 1: and I love you. But you know, I have to
Speaker 1: tell the story the best I know how and I'm
Speaker 1: still learning. So if it's not good there, it's not
Speaker 1: good enough, just help me. But I promise, I mean
Speaker 1: no offense to anyone. But yeah, like you said, the
Speaker 1: officer doesn't appear to be threatened, you know. And again,
Speaker 1: we're just talking about humans, so let me not call
Speaker 1: him an officer yet, just a human, a larger male
Speaker 1: who is fortified with this testosterone you know. You know,
Speaker 1: my understanding is that you know, typically if you're going
Speaker 1: to fear for your safety, that fear is going to
Speaker 1: come from interacting with another male, not from interacting with
Speaker 1: a female, unless there's a weapon involved or something like that.
Speaker 1: But the level of strength needed to take down a
Speaker 1: man of his size, you know, I don't imagine his mind,
Speaker 1: would you know, But even if it did, she was handcuffed,
Speaker 1: face down on the ground in the most docile of
Speaker 1: you know, or maybe docile is not the right word, but.
Speaker 2: Even if she was fuming angry, sure from that position
Speaker 2: there was nothing she could do to harm.
Speaker 1: There you go. And so I think that the reason
Speaker 1: what I saw in this video was entitlement was the
Speaker 1: knowledge that what I do will not have consequences. And
Speaker 1: that's something that goes almost hand in hand with every
Speaker 1: video that we see.
Speaker 2: And because of what I do, you're beneath me.
Speaker 1: Sure I'm right and you're wrong. That's it. We're not
Speaker 1: too humans. I'm a better type of human than you,
Speaker 1: and I can do what I want and you're just
Speaker 1: gonna have to take it. I'll take a few of
Speaker 1: your teeth out of your mouth. What are you going
Speaker 1: to do? Other than bleed in front of me, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's that attitude that has contributed to this deep
Speaker 1: mistrust of black and brown people, especially with the police,
Speaker 1: but also with people in general.
Speaker 2: And you know what stood out to me when I
Speaker 2: watched the video that the second time, because the first
Speaker 2: time he just kick turn the face, Oh my god, right,
Speaker 2: the second time was the lack of reaction from the
Speaker 2: other officers. That's why they weren't like shocked. They wasn't like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, what did you do? They were just
Speaker 2: chilling like that was a normal day at the office
Speaker 2: for them. Sure, and that was very disturbing.
Speaker 1: So it's this unusual behavior from the people that you're
Speaker 1: supposed to look up to, right this it's bully is
Speaker 1: not the right word, you know, bullies. You know, you
Speaker 1: can have a bully and live again, that's a tempted murder.
Speaker 2: And what are we not pointing out? We've highlighted this before,
Speaker 2: but we haven't mentioned it yet today. Tell me or
Speaker 2: did you already tell me? Mentioned that the officers were black. Oh,
Speaker 2: I was getting there. I was getting there, and I
Speaker 2: like that you brought it up. I wouldn't dare not
Speaker 2: bring that up. Oh, No, we're going to get there
Speaker 2: because that's super duper important to a point that we've
Speaker 2: made before. Go ahead, nick it It is far less about
Speaker 2: the color of the officer's skin, tell you more about
Speaker 2: the idea that they're a police officer.
Speaker 1: There. It is because you mentioned earlier that you having.
Speaker 2: A relationship with an officer and him seeing the human
Speaker 2: being in you, and that being really why that bridge
Speaker 2: was built. It'd be too much to ask for all
Speaker 2: of the officers to get to know the human being
Speaker 2: in every person they interact with. That also shouldn't be necessary.
Speaker 2: You shouldn't have to have spent intimate time with me
Speaker 2: to allow me dignity to allow me to be a
Speaker 2: person that's worth not kicking in the face. Sure, no
Speaker 2: matter what thing we agreed on, even if we just
Speaker 2: finish fighting, right, say they got in a fight. Maybe
Speaker 2: that's the part of the video. We don't see it, right,
Speaker 2: they had a fisticuffs and we didn't see it. Sure,
Speaker 2: she's still already laying on her belly, face down, subdued.
Speaker 2: So that kick in the face was. I feel like it,
Speaker 2: and I can not.
Speaker 1: I need to not.
Speaker 2: I'm afraid not. I'm defending myself not even you deserved it.
Speaker 2: I feel like it, and I can. And to his colleagues,
Speaker 2: he feels like it and he's can because none of
Speaker 2: them even like reached out like, oh man, what you're doing?
Speaker 2: Like no, he just got it off. Nobody moved any different.
Speaker 2: There was no reaction of any kind from the other
Speaker 2: officers that were there.
Speaker 1: With that said, you know, like if you if, I mean,
Speaker 1: I really recognize that. There's most for the most part,
Speaker 1: two pools, two schools of thought. Right. One is, there
Speaker 1: needs to be police reform. The police are they need
Speaker 1: to be defunded. We need to take those funds and
Speaker 1: create programs that actually prevent crime and not fortify this
Speaker 1: terrorist organization that lives with us, that has the right
Speaker 1: to operate with impunity and it's actively harming us and
Speaker 1: killing us. And then there's the other school of thought,
Speaker 1: which is perhaps largely folks who are not at the
Speaker 1: receiving end of the brutality. They have been able to
Speaker 1: look at the police like they're the good guys, and
Speaker 1: you know, the way the police move reflects their worldview,
Speaker 1: and if the police do something wrong, then it's just
Speaker 1: cognitive bias, you know, who knows. But if we assume
Speaker 1: for a second that there's large For the most part,
Speaker 1: there's two schools of thought. I recognize that a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are listening to this show might agree
Speaker 1: with us, you know, and that hey, this is clearly
Speaker 1: the problem. These people have too much authority, there's no accountability.
Speaker 1: And you know, these folks are you know, roided up,
Speaker 1: aggressive bullies with a badge and a gun. Right. And
Speaker 1: then again, I'm not talking this is not a black
Speaker 1: and white issue because again, the officer that kicked the
Speaker 1: woman in the face was black, right, But I do
Speaker 1: want to say this from where I sit. The woman
Speaker 1: on the ground, she looked black too, And that's what
Speaker 1: the conversation we're having, and that was a white woman,
Speaker 1: We're having a whole different conversation. We're not even having
Speaker 1: a convers because it wouldn't happen. Yeah, there it is.
Speaker 2: And that second school of thought, I wish it were
Speaker 2: more authentic, because even if I disagree with it, I
Speaker 2: could respect it. Right that the good guys as long
Speaker 2: as their ideology is in line with mine. If it's not,
Speaker 2: then they don't matter either, because we've learned that in
Speaker 2: recent times. Talk more about capital riot. Yeah, we'll talk
Speaker 2: more about that, but they've made that clear. As long
Speaker 2: as it's you know, as long as we're in this
Speaker 2: school of white supremacy, then yes, by all means. But
Speaker 2: if we try to get off our white supremacy and
Speaker 2: they're in the way, then I guess those blue lives
Speaker 2: don't matter as much as we said before.
Speaker 1: Isn't that weird? It's it's there's and you know, we
Speaker 1: haven't really gotten too deep into the political arena in
Speaker 1: recent episodes, but you know, I'll just say it because
Speaker 1: I have been observing it. The Republican Party. You know,
Speaker 1: if we're going to take this step, the Republican Party
Speaker 1: really looks like they're just doing things because they've committed
Speaker 1: to this direction and they can't abandon it now. I
Speaker 1: saw a video they refuse to yeah, And I saw
Speaker 1: a video that said it was in our group chat,
Speaker 1: I want to say. And it was a Trump rally,
Speaker 1: and all the people that were going into this Trump rally,
Speaker 1: this was a recent Trump rally, like in the past
Speaker 1: like week or so. All the people going into this
Speaker 1: Trump rally were saying no masks.
Speaker 2: Aggressively, yeah, like they were happy to be and speaking
Speaker 2: to someone that was wearing one.
Speaker 1: Isn't that funny. But here's the crazy part. That's a
Speaker 1: function of the Tucker Carlson's, the Fox News, the right wing,
Speaker 1: the Donald Trump, the Donald Trump of course, and the
Speaker 1: whole entire Republican Party's ideology. You know, they're just like, hey, look,
Speaker 1: this is who we are and this but it completely
Speaker 1: ignores the fact that if you look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: not even talking about the delta variant of the coronavirus,
Speaker 1: but if you look at the numbers, I believe it's
Speaker 1: sixty sixty percent of Republicans are not vaccinated and will
Speaker 1: not be vaccinated or something like that. Don't hold me
Speaker 1: to it, but there's some huge amount of folks. And
Speaker 1: then obviously on the Democratic side of things, it's the
Speaker 1: opposite of that. This is whay I remember seeing the
Speaker 1: study again. I'm just having the conversation here. Don't hold
Speaker 1: me to the exact numbers.
Speaker 3: But.
Speaker 1: The people that are dying from COVID, it's like ninety
Speaker 1: five or ninety seven percent, Yes, some regardulous high, it's
Speaker 1: a high number. All of the people that are dying
Speaker 1: from COVID are the people who are unvaccinated. So to me,
Speaker 1: that suggests that there is a problem. They're actively losing
Speaker 1: voters because they refuse to abandon this position the leadership.
Speaker 2: And the leadership pushing that agenda and preaching that ideology.
Speaker 2: Check their vaccination record, Yeah, and that was gonna say that,
Speaker 2: Tucker Carson, Donaldroll. People are vaccinated, so they're not going
Speaker 2: to die. But they recognize that it galvanizes their base.
Speaker 2: And so you know, back to our point here that
Speaker 2: you know, as long as people will I mean that
Speaker 2: this base will support you know, back the blue and
Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff, as long as it suits
Speaker 2: them in their immediate reality. And they're here now, right,
Speaker 2: And I feel.
Speaker 1: Like it looks like if I take a step back
Speaker 1: and I look at just the world from you know,
Speaker 1: the criminal justice system to you know, the whole political arena,
Speaker 1: to you know, their take on race relations, the whole
Speaker 1: right conservative, it looks like a flailing like uh, like
Speaker 1: a desperate child just throwing a temper tantrum for the
Speaker 1: sake of throwing a tantrum with no real desired outcome
Speaker 1: other than to make them hurt more.
Speaker 2: And you have a base that doesn't require there to
Speaker 2: be an actual political agenda. We've seen that it can
Speaker 2: just be hate and fear mongering. That's that, and that
Speaker 2: it works.
Speaker 1: That's enough their pep rallies.
Speaker 2: Let's just go out here and be excited and loud
Speaker 2: and mad and make jokes about them whoever they are,
Speaker 2: and have a different ideology or a different train of
Speaker 2: thought than they do.
Speaker 1: Listen. I went on vacation recently with someone who I
Speaker 1: wouldn't call her a fan of capitalism, but she is
Speaker 1: very good at articulating the merits of capitalism, right, And
Speaker 1: I don't read with all of them, and she doesn't
Speaker 1: agree with, you know, everything that I say. I'm more
Speaker 1: of a socialist type of guy, I believe, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know, I've benefited from capitalism, so I'm not
Speaker 1: mad at it for me, but you know, for the world,
Speaker 1: I recognize it's caused a lot of harm. Right. So
Speaker 1: it's we have conversations in a very weird space, and
Speaker 1: you know, we were on vacation together, so we spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time together fleshing out these ideas. And
Speaker 1: the one thing that I took from that is that
Speaker 1: if you're on a different of a different opinion, you're
Speaker 1: you think about things differently from me. As long as
Speaker 1: you can articulate them and you offer solutions or a
Speaker 1: path forward or there's this is why I think that,
Speaker 1: because I believe it leads to this outcome. Oh, it's
Speaker 1: so much more well received. I can learn so much
Speaker 1: from that. And you might even be right, I mean
Speaker 1: about some things and there. But there doesn't always have
Speaker 1: to be a right and wrong again, Yeah, it could
Speaker 1: just be different. Right.
Speaker 2: We can both believe different things that are not zero
Speaker 2: sum in ideology, right, like us both believing this thing.
Speaker 2: Neither one of us has to be objectively wrong, and
Speaker 2: we can keep going forward next to each other, loving
Speaker 2: each other, sharing exact ideas and life and laughter.
Speaker 1: And so with that said, I don't really get the
Speaker 1: sense that any of our friends on the right really
Speaker 1: have those things very often. If they do, they certainly
Speaker 1: don't take the time to articulate them. And it just
Speaker 1: feels like saying no for the sake of no. Saying
Speaker 1: no not because you have a better idea, like that's
Speaker 1: not going to work well.
Speaker 2: What we're saying no because you want yes specifically, or
Speaker 2: you want them to have a no, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like a kid saying you know, if you want
Speaker 1: to play with a kid's toy and they're like, no,
Speaker 1: it's mine. We're not even playing with it, I know,
Speaker 1: but it's mine. Well, I mean, listen that these are
Speaker 1: meant to be played with. Well this one is mine. Okay,
Speaker 1: well listen, you know, you know, and that's just it.
Speaker 1: That seems like that sort of mean.
Speaker 2: But you're three, so I can rock with that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if you're an adult three, it's different.
Speaker 1: Trying sixty three seventy three these guys anyway, you know,
Speaker 1: just our thoughts on another video of an officer kicking
Speaker 1: a woman in the head, handcuffed, and you know why
Speaker 1: we're able to be critical of policing not necessarily along
Speaker 1: the lines of race only, although we do.
Speaker 2: Know that, well, the victims all seem to be the
Speaker 2: same color, yeah, right, with the same racers.
Speaker 1: And I think that's more telling of even if the
Speaker 1: officers are different. And again, I think that's more telling
Speaker 1: of the system in place. It's a white supremacist system.
Speaker 1: It's founded in white supremacist roots. If you do want
Speaker 1: to find out the history of slave putre rolls in
Speaker 1: the word patrol where it comes from, you know, then
Speaker 1: you can, you know, find that we're telling the truth
Speaker 1: that does have its history there, and we will continue
Speaker 1: to bring attention to these things as long as it
Speaker 1: makes sense to do so. But that is enough of
Speaker 1: that for now. I think it's time to check in
Speaker 1: with DJ Swirlift.
Speaker 4: And pay trip Way Way.
Speaker 5: We are highlighting civil rights leader Bob Moses, who passed
Speaker 5: away recently at the age of eighty six. He's a
Speaker 5: soft spoken, self effacing grassroots organizer, the champion black voting rights.
Speaker 6: He was born and raised in Harlem, New York. He
Speaker 6: went to the South to join the nascent fight for
Speaker 6: civil rights in the early nineteen sixties, ultimately becoming a
Speaker 6: central figure in the movement. As a leader in the
Speaker 6: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and deeply segregated in Mississippi, Moses
Speaker 6: work to hand political power to black people voting education
Speaker 6: and voter registration drives. He continued to push education to
Speaker 6: the forefront of the civil rights agenda when in the
Speaker 6: eighties he founded the Algebra Project, a math training program
Speaker 6: focused on empowering students from underfunded public schools and poor communities.
Speaker 6: May his light continue to guide us as we face
Speaker 6: another way of Jim Crow Laws.
Speaker 1: This is coming from NPR dot Org incredible.
Speaker 2: The timing of his passing is impossible not to mention
Speaker 2: it as our country is trying once again to deny
Speaker 2: us the rightalien how you say, the wind alienable rights.
Speaker 2: They're going out of their way to deny us in
Speaker 2: that way once again. So the timing of his passing
Speaker 2: a giant in that space. He will be missed, he
Speaker 2: will be hopefully very respectfully remembered. We need more people
Speaker 2: like him.
Speaker 1: I want to take this time to mention that there's
Speaker 1: going to be a March for Voting Rights. It should
Speaker 1: be in all the cities, but it's going to take
Speaker 1: place on August twenty eighth, twenty twenty one. And if
Speaker 1: you want to find out what's going on in your city,
Speaker 1: you can check march on for Voting Rights dot org
Speaker 1: and register or organize or whatever it is you can do.
Speaker 1: So that's another Bob Bob become a better ally again.
Speaker 1: That's march on for Voting Rights dot org because we're
Speaker 1: all gonna get out in the streets and let our
Speaker 1: voices be heard so that we don't lose our right
Speaker 1: to vote. And you know that might sound alarming to you,
Speaker 1: but the truth is you personally might not lose your
Speaker 1: right to vote. But there are people in circumstance answers
Speaker 1: who feel the same way you do, would vote the
Speaker 1: same way as you, and their vote would help strengthen
Speaker 1: your voice because you know their strength in numbers. And
Speaker 1: they will be disenfranchised because either they can't get off
Speaker 1: of work and make it to the poll, or they
Speaker 1: you know, they have a condition they can't stand out
Speaker 1: in the sun, or they you know, whatever the case is.
Speaker 1: And these little weird laws that people are enacting are
Speaker 1: meant to disproportionately affect Democratic voters. Some Republican voters will
Speaker 1: be affected by it as well, but typically the way
Speaker 1: voting works in this country is the less people that
Speaker 1: turn up to vote, the more it favors Republican outcomes.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we have to say we want
Speaker 1: everybody to vote Republican or Democrat. But I think you
Speaker 1: kind of know what we're getting at on this show.
Speaker 2: I mean, I find it ironic when it's time to vote,
Speaker 2: the people who are on TV saying get out and vote,
Speaker 2: they're not saying get out and vote Democrat. They're not
Speaker 2: saying get out and vote for this agenda. They're just
Speaker 2: simply saying get out and vote. None of those people
Speaker 2: are Republican and everyone should find that alarming.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think it was I forget. His
Speaker 1: name is the filmmaker bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore. I
Speaker 1: want Michael Moore from the great state of Michigan. There
Speaker 1: it is shout out to the d One time he
Speaker 1: offered up a fun fact once upon a time, and
Speaker 1: he said that, you know, most of the people in
Speaker 1: this country, their beliefs are aligned with Democratic values more
Speaker 1: so than Republican values. By far most of the people
Speaker 1: in this country. Just the voting turnout doesn't reflect that,
Speaker 1: and so again when they are less Democratic voters. You know.
Speaker 1: But I do want to mention something about Bob Moses
Speaker 1: and really something that was a little bit more personal.
Speaker 1: So again, you know, uh, you know, he lived a
Speaker 1: long life full of service, and we're certainly grateful for that.
Speaker 1: You know, we obviously on this show are trying to
Speaker 1: follow in those types of footsteps, and we're very grateful
Speaker 1: to the people that have come before us and recognize
Speaker 1: that this is not a permanent position. We don't get
Speaker 1: to last in this space forever, and that there are
Speaker 1: folks who will come behind us, and hopefully we'll be
Speaker 1: able to you know, Blazer trail for them as well.
Speaker 1: And it's funny that I was able to have a
Speaker 1: conversation earlier in the week with you. Wouldn't believe me
Speaker 1: if I told you Reverend Jesse Jackson. Yeah, man, So
Speaker 1: you know, he flew out to Arizona and you know,
Speaker 1: was arrested at a sit in, and you know, don't
Speaker 1: worry everything, you know, because those who knows that he's
Speaker 1: aged might alarmed at that, but you know, it's more
Speaker 1: of a It was organized, and so while it was
Speaker 1: very real, it was no one was hurt. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of cameras there and so forth. But
Speaker 1: before and after his arrest, I got a chance to
Speaker 1: talk with him just a little bit and to listen
Speaker 1: to him talk. You know, he speaks very low his voice,
Speaker 1: but you know, I tried to catch every word, as
Speaker 1: you can imagine, because it's energizing to have someone who
Speaker 1: was standing next to Martin when he lost his life,
Speaker 1: you know, you know on the balcony, and who has
Speaker 1: such he ran for president twice, you know, almost one,
Speaker 1: you know, and just the name, I mean, you know
Speaker 1: who we're talking about Jesse Jackson, but you know, he
Speaker 1: certainly was very kind. You know, we did manage to
Speaker 1: get at least one halfway decent picture together, but you know,
Speaker 1: he was very kind. He was very proud of the
Speaker 1: fact that, you know, we're doing the show and trying
Speaker 1: to create more of a voice in spaces like this
Speaker 1: and spaces like the ones that you're listening to right
Speaker 1: now and whatever radio station or platform that you're consuming
Speaker 1: this audio on. And it was it was energizing. And
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if he would catch our
Speaker 1: show this time around, but you know, I'm certainly grateful
Speaker 1: to that. And it really did kind of because he
Speaker 1: talked about you know, passing the torch and then seeing
Speaker 1: him and seeing that he's aged and that you know,
Speaker 1: he was still out there marching and doing his thing,
Speaker 1: but you could tell that, you know, you know, father
Speaker 1: time comes for all of us, right, and that we
Speaker 1: need to be thinking about that and all the things
Speaker 1: that we do. And so if we're going to shout
Speaker 1: out Bob Moses, I certainly want to take the time
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that Reverend Jesse Jackson spent a little bit
Speaker 1: of time with me and encouraged us to keep going
Speaker 1: and keep doing what we're doing, and so I certainly
Speaker 1: plan to continue in that way. I also want to
Speaker 1: shout out doctor Camilla Westenberg, who's a contributor on the
Speaker 1: show from time to time, and the whole NAACP was
Speaker 1: out there that really helped put me into that position
Speaker 1: to be able to have that conversation. And I think
Speaker 1: that's about it. That's all we're gonna have for today's episode.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, once again, i'm your host,
Speaker 1: rams is job. You can call me q Ward. We
Speaker 1: do appreciate you tuning in every week and listening to us.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we're making the world a better place and if
Speaker 1: not that we're making your world a little bit better.
Speaker 1: We would love to continue to do this and we'd
Speaker 1: love for you to tap in and help us out.
Speaker 1: So if you can check out our social media, it's
Speaker 1: all at Civic Cipher. You can go to Civic cipher
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Speaker 1: also consider making a donation to the show. It really
Speaker 1: helps us grow. Show produced by DJ Swirl, and I
Speaker 1: think that's going to do it for us. So until
Speaker 1: next week, y'all. Peace,