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.
Speaker 2: I am your host, ramses.
Speaker 3: Jockey is ramses Jah. I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 3: tuned into Civic Ciphers.
Speaker 1: You are, and we have another interesting show in store
Speaker 1: for you today, so please stick around. We are going
Speaker 1: to be discussing something that bothered me quite a bit
Speaker 1: this week. You know, I'm not easily bothered. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess I'm always bothered, but this one really bothered me.
Speaker 3: You'd have to be a lot less aware to be
Speaker 3: less bothered.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but this one, this one really did rub
Speaker 2: me the wrong way.
Speaker 1: There is a student, a black student, that was suspended
Speaker 1: over his locks, his hairstyle in Texas and on this show.
Speaker 2: Famously, I've really been.
Speaker 1: On top of stories like this, national stories where you know,
Speaker 1: people come under scrutiny for their hairstyle because you know,
Speaker 1: our hair grows different and I famously have a ton
Speaker 1: of hair, and so I feel like I kind of
Speaker 1: got to, you know, protect those that end up in
Speaker 1: the cross hairs. There. Oh that's fun. Yeah, So we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about that story and the implications, and
Speaker 1: we're also going to talk about cultural appropriation, you know,
Speaker 1: and why that's a big deal and it's because of
Speaker 1: stories like this. I'll make the connection for you in
Speaker 1: just a bit. We're also going to be talking about
Speaker 1: the mister Ronnie Long conviction. He was convicted and he
Speaker 1: had his conviction overturned after being in prison for forty
Speaker 1: four years, and they tried to say sorry with seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which was insulting and insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because forty four years is not worth that.
Speaker 1: But you know, we have the whole story to tell,
Speaker 1: and I promise there it gets deep because we were
Speaker 1: talking about wrongful convictions and rates and everything.
Speaker 2: So stay tuned for all of that and more.
Speaker 1: The first and foremost, like we always do with this time,
Speaker 1: let's discuss some ebony excellence, shall we?
Speaker 2: We shall?
Speaker 1: You want to grab this one? This one's kind of fun.
Speaker 3: This week's ABNY Excellence sponsored by Actively Black. There's greatness
Speaker 3: in our DNA www dot actively black dot com. This
Speaker 3: story is from TMZ. George Clinton is forever exton Hollywood history.
Speaker 3: Now it's about time. He just got his star on
Speaker 3: the famous stretch of pavement with a lister's names up
Speaker 3: and down the boulevard known as the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Speaker 3: The pigpunk legend was just honored with a star on
Speaker 3: the Walk, and his Friday ceremony drew a huge crowd
Speaker 3: with an even bigger celebration. We're not kidding either, There
Speaker 3: was a massive swath of people lining the block to
Speaker 3: peek this. Of course, George commanded attention with his sparkling
Speaker 3: color form. You dazzled with outfit shining from his shoes
Speaker 3: to his pants, to his shirt, to his jacket all
Speaker 3: the way up to his headwear. This amazing icon is
Speaker 3: eighty two years old and does not look at trust me.
Speaker 3: As you know, George has been leaving his mark on.
Speaker 2: Music since the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 3: He was huge in the nineteen seventies and had a
Speaker 3: rebirth recently in the Trolls movie franchise. Now Home is
Speaker 3: finally getting his Now the homie, as they stated it,
Speaker 3: it's finally getting his dude from La La Land with
Speaker 3: a certified star on the ground. Just a quick list
Speaker 3: of his band's hits, Give Up the Funk, Flashlight, Aquaboogie,
Speaker 3: Tom mcdogg. Can you dig it? Can you get to
Speaker 3: that mothership connection?
Speaker 2: And we could go.
Speaker 3: On for hours talking about George Clinton and p funk hits.
Speaker 3: So it's good to see him finally getting his recognition.
Speaker 3: Check out TMZ's gallery for more pictures. Shout out to
Speaker 3: George Clinton, man, I could be timeless music.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got a chance to see him in concert
Speaker 2: once and.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Parliament.
Speaker 1: And if you're one of our younger listeners and you
Speaker 1: don't know who he is, he basically the guy everybody
Speaker 1: on the West Coast sampled in the nineties. Absolutely, all right,
Speaker 1: So first order of business, let's talk about this black
Speaker 1: student that was suspended over his hair locks. Well, the
Speaker 1: reason that this story stood out to me is because.
Speaker 2: The superintendent pushed back.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we hear stories like this all the time
Speaker 1: where there's a student that ends up in some kind
Speaker 1: of trouble because of a hairstyle whatever, and then you know,
Speaker 1: they work it out and then it's it's fine, or
Speaker 1: they don't work it out and the student has to
Speaker 1: leave the district because, as it turns out, there are
Speaker 1: just some places that don't want to bend. In this instance,
Speaker 1: the principle pushed back. So let me tell you a
Speaker 1: little bit more about the story before we break it
Speaker 1: down into pieces. So I'm gonna read a bit from
Speaker 1: the messenger. Right, Texas school district superintendent defends the continued
Speaker 1: suspension of a black student over his locks, hairstyle, and
Speaker 1: a full page newspaper ad paid for by an education foundation. Okay,
Speaker 1: real quick locks used to be known as dreadlocks, but
Speaker 1: the word dread wasn't a word that we used in
Speaker 1: describing him. There were always locks. We would lock our hair,
Speaker 1: and so if you're familiar with the term dreadlocks, that
Speaker 1: is now a bona fide offensive term.
Speaker 2: We just go with locks. Okay.
Speaker 1: Darryl George has been suspended repeatedly by the barber Hill
Speaker 1: Independent School District for his hair. The teen's family filed
Speaker 1: a federal civil rights lawsuit, saying the punishment violates the
Speaker 1: Crown Act, an acronym for a creator respectful an open
Speaker 1: world from natural hair, which became law in Texas in September.
Speaker 1: We have actually covered the past of the Crown Act
Speaker 1: on this show. It's a federal law, it's federal protection anyway.
Speaker 1: The law is intended to prohibit race based hair discrimination,
Speaker 1: but the school said the law does not address hair
Speaker 1: length and that is the reason for George's suspension. However,
Speaker 1: photos of George show him wearing his hair up in
Speaker 1: a way that does not reach below his ears. The
Speaker 1: ad that appeared Sunday in the Houston Chronicle was written
Speaker 1: by district Superintendent George Poole.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity,
Speaker 1: he stated, referencing strict codes at the military academies. The
Speaker 1: district's policy doesn't prohibit students like George from wearing locks
Speaker 1: or braids, but it does limit hairstyles for boys, banning
Speaker 1: anything quote that would allow the hair to extend below
Speaker 1: the top of a T shirt collar, below the eyebrows,
Speaker 1: or below the ear lobes when let down. Okay, So
Speaker 1: this is the position that the super intendent is taking,
Speaker 1: taking out a full page ad to basically say no,
Speaker 1: this is a violation of the rules.
Speaker 2: Okay, And where I how this hit me? Is so
Speaker 2: hard to say this? Okay. When something is racist, we
Speaker 2: will say it's racist. Okay.
Speaker 1: When there's an example of racism, we'll say it's an
Speaker 1: example of racism. But I often worry that when we're
Speaker 1: talking to particularly non black listeners on this show, that
Speaker 1: if they cannot see the overt racism, then they might
Speaker 1: push back and say, oh, these guys are just calling
Speaker 1: everything racism, and that's why we need to have today's conversation. Okay,
Speaker 1: it is possible for a person to be racist, for
Speaker 1: racism to exist, and the person doing it either not
Speaker 1: know not intend for it to be racism, or be
Speaker 1: you know, interpreted that way, or they might hide behind
Speaker 1: things like these these rules, these technicalities. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say rules, because rules of rules, that's fair, but
Speaker 1: these technicalities, right, and then you start having these back
Speaker 1: and forth as you know, Q, I've been kind of
Speaker 1: on our social media real heavy, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that will pick apart any facet of a
Speaker 1: conversation that they can sink their teeth into. And yet
Speaker 1: and still wrong is wrong and right is right right,
Speaker 1: So if they want to argue a little tiny point
Speaker 1: of an argument, it doesn't mean that the entire statement
Speaker 1: that I've made aid or that the right thing is
Speaker 1: not right anymore. Okay, the truth is the truth. It
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be perfect. It can just be the
Speaker 1: truth right and the right thing is the right thing.
Speaker 1: So here's where I have to just kind of lean
Speaker 1: into this.
Speaker 2: This is racism, okay.
Speaker 1: And I respect that you know, you may not see
Speaker 1: it that way, But racism requires a power dynamic. Okay,
Speaker 1: this superintendent has power in the equation. Okay, This isn't prejudice,
Speaker 1: prejudices just I don't like you, you don't like me. Racism
Speaker 1: means I have power and I can limit your reality,
Speaker 1: your life, your prospects, et cetera, using that power, and
Speaker 1: it will be used specifically based on your race.
Speaker 2: It would be used against you based on your race. Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, briefly, I want to share something with you. Okay,
Speaker 1: you might be looking for in your racism. You might
Speaker 1: be looking for the inWORD. You might be looking for
Speaker 1: again the overt racism. But there are blind.
Speaker 2: Spots that exist in a lot of people's realities.
Speaker 1: One blind spot that existed for me, even for a
Speaker 1: long time, is that locks are a part of Rastafari religion. Right,
Speaker 1: so it is an expression of their faith, not unlike
Speaker 1: seek people. Okay, if for those unfamiliar with Seek people,
Speaker 1: these are the people that will often wear their hair
Speaker 1: in turbans, and they don't believe in cutting their hair
Speaker 1: so they'll have long beards and long hair. The men
Speaker 1: and the women, they just do not cut their hair
Speaker 1: for their whole life, right, and they are protected as
Speaker 1: a result. That's freedom of religion, right. But blind spots
Speaker 1: to people like the superintendent who may not have delved
Speaker 1: ever into any facet of black culture beyond I saw
Speaker 1: rap music videos when I was in college, you know,
Speaker 1: because my friends watch them. May not be aware that
Speaker 1: the locking of your hair is a permanent commitment when
Speaker 1: you have hair like ours.
Speaker 2: If you have straight hair, you can unlock the hair.
Speaker 1: I've done it to Asian women, shout out to April,
Speaker 1: she's married to Andre three thousand and now. But for
Speaker 1: black hair will not unlock. It is permanent. It is
Speaker 1: a commitment. And for those people who are Rastafari, it
Speaker 1: is symbolic like the lion. It's just my hair will
Speaker 1: be here and I'll grow my dreads or my locks. Sorry,
Speaker 1: this is as long as nature will allow, right. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that I said that first. Next,
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that I established that this
Speaker 1: view of hair is a very Eurocentric view of hair.
Speaker 1: This is what our hair looks like. When it's when
Speaker 1: it's shaped a certain way. This is the styles that
Speaker 1: we like. So you conform to our hairstyles because he
Speaker 1: remember he said that, what does he say? Being an
Speaker 1: American requires conformity? I love that statement, because being an
Speaker 1: American requires conformity to what exactly.
Speaker 2: By?
Speaker 3: Who isn't even better?
Speaker 2: Bye? Who? Thank you? Thank you? And let's be factual here.
Speaker 1: If you get to decide what the conformity looks like,
Speaker 1: that limits me. If in fact, my hair grows differently,
Speaker 1: I cannot change the nature of my hair growth. It
Speaker 1: just grows that way, right, And so we start to
Speaker 1: understand what racism is, even if there is no intentionality
Speaker 1: behind it. It is an act that is in and
Speaker 1: of itself racist. Right, you have the power, and you
Speaker 1: get to decide, from your eurocentric viewpoint what hair styles
Speaker 1: are allowed. When my hair doesn't grow like yours, it
Speaker 1: cannot grow like yours. Your hair cannot grow like mine.
Speaker 1: We are two different people.
Speaker 3: Being able to dictate what conformity means, right right.
Speaker 1: Wow, that'd be like me saying your hair can only
Speaker 1: be brown or blonde. Me saying that, and then someone
Speaker 1: shows up with red hair and me saying, your hair
Speaker 1: can only be brown or blonde conformity. Well, if your
Speaker 1: hair grows out of your head red, then there's probably
Speaker 1: something wrong with the rule.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: And if I impose that on you still, then there's
Speaker 1: your example of racism, because I'm the one with the power, right,
Speaker 1: and there's no one listening that would say that's fair.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Well, if you decide that's the rules and
Speaker 1: redheads can't participate.
Speaker 2: No one would say that.
Speaker 1: Okay. Now, I know we're talking about hair length, and
Speaker 1: I talked about the hair length that people that lock
Speaker 1: their hair. The idea is for the hair to grow
Speaker 1: and locks is a protected style, the very idea of it.
Speaker 3: The more interesting thing is that the language in this
Speaker 3: conformity or this rule states that it's a certain length
Speaker 3: when worn down, an intentional stipulation. Yeah, so that you
Speaker 3: cannot pin up, tie up, right up, or lock up
Speaker 3: your hair. So to avoid this us enforcing this very
Speaker 3: very targeted rule.
Speaker 2: On you right now, flip this. Uh you know?
Speaker 1: I well, will you know, if you're able to get
Speaker 1: to our podcasting platforms, we'll have a picture of Daryl
Speaker 1: George up so that you can see this beautiful young
Speaker 1: man and his hair is hair is dope right now. Now,
Speaker 1: to me, you know, that's not offensive. It's it looks amazing,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you. But to someone with let's say,
Speaker 1: white supremacist values, let's be fair, and a eurocentric viewpoint,
Speaker 1: it might seem offensive. Okay, And we I recognize that
Speaker 1: these educators need to get students ready to go out
Speaker 1: into the real world, and they're trying to push whatever.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: But what we're saying, not just me and Q, what
Speaker 1: black people, brown people, marginalized people have been saying is
Speaker 1: that the world needs to conform to us because we
Speaker 1: were born like this. This is how we show up.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So this superintendent has the opportunity to move first and
Speaker 1: has chosen instead to double down by taking out an
Speaker 1: ad in the paper.
Speaker 2: He's getting sued by the.
Speaker 1: Way, all right, Oh, I wanted to make this point too,
Speaker 1: because when he says that we have to conform, being
Speaker 1: an American requires conformity with the effort going toward unity.
Speaker 1: Everybody has to conform except for one group.
Speaker 3: With the effort going towards unity. Of course.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So the funniest thing about this statement by far and
Speaker 1: away is that he says, being an American requires conformity, America,
Speaker 1: the land of the free. Being American requires conformity. I
Speaker 1: want to say that again, America, the land of deformity
Speaker 1: was the entire reason that they broke away from Great
Speaker 1: Britain in the first place.
Speaker 2: Listen, man, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So this is why I pray the way that they
Speaker 3: wanted to and live the way that they want to,
Speaker 3: not be taxed without representation, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. All these
Speaker 3: unalienable rights reserved only for them, which we have to
Speaker 3: continue to revisit all of these things. And listen, and
Speaker 3: the Bill and rights of the Constitution to all of
Speaker 3: these great freedoms that we are supposed to enjoy as
Speaker 3: citizens of this country, designed for buy and to the
Speaker 3: benefit of a singular group throughout the entire history of
Speaker 3: this country. And it remains.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now I mentioned that I was going to talk about
Speaker 1: cultural appropriation. Okay, let me see how I want to
Speaker 1: break this down for you. Okay, as you know are
Speaker 1: longtime listeners of the show. If if you've listened to
Speaker 1: the show for some time, you know that I belong
Speaker 1: to some really far right racist.
Speaker 2: Message boards on the Internet.
Speaker 1: The reason for that is that I need to know
Speaker 1: what racist plan people. These are openly racist people. They
Speaker 1: say the most vile things about everybody, even their own
Speaker 1: you know, people, other white people.
Speaker 2: It's a really hateful group.
Speaker 1: It's really sad that I have to be there, but
Speaker 1: I have to be there because I need to know
Speaker 1: what these folks are talking about.
Speaker 2: Well, they have to be there, well for the sake
Speaker 2: of the show.
Speaker 1: And I go there. I go there so you don't
Speaker 1: have to think I got you trapped. No no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, I go there this hate group. No no,
Speaker 1: I go there for the benefit of the show and
Speaker 1: our listeners. But well they send me the messages.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I remember a post being made about.
Speaker 1: Cultural appropriation in there, like why are black people always
Speaker 1: mad about cultural appropriation?
Speaker 2: And Native people?
Speaker 1: You can't wear Native this and Asian costumes for Halloween
Speaker 1: cultural appropriation And then it showed a black woman with
Speaker 1: blonde hair, and they're like trying to say that this
Speaker 1: is reverse cultural appropriation, right, Okay, don't.
Speaker 2: Make my point. Worst people ever to play Oh no
Speaker 2: with man.
Speaker 1: Listen, And I want to say that that's not the
Speaker 1: same as.
Speaker 2: Maybe white people with locks.
Speaker 1: Okay, Now, cultural appropriation is tricky because I do recognize
Speaker 1: and respect that there are some people who don't belong
Speaker 1: to a certain culture that want to celebrate that culture. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I mentioned there was an Asian woman who locked her
Speaker 1: hair and I helped her comb it out.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I don't think that she was a bad person, you
Speaker 1: know whatever, And of course that was in the nineties
Speaker 1: or whatever. But I recognize that cultural appropriation is tricky.
Speaker 1: But for folks to push back, I want to offer
Speaker 1: this The argument is that black sorry that white folks
Speaker 1: can copy black people hairstyles and ways of dressing and
Speaker 1: so forth without the risk, and often enough, if a
Speaker 1: black person is copying something from a white person, that
Speaker 1: is that sort of conformity that not as placed on us. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it's a necessity often enough for us to be able
Speaker 1: to survive in this country with its visible and invisible
Speaker 1: white supremacist racist influences. And so you know, there's country
Speaker 1: book in the countries around the world where people will
Speaker 1: lighten their skin, people will straighten their hair, people will
Speaker 1: do all kinds of stuff to look the part, to
Speaker 1: try to get more access whatever it is that everybody's
Speaker 1: playing the same game, and the game is unfair and
Speaker 1: rigged in favor of people who were born with that
Speaker 1: set of genetics, right, And what we're pushing back against
Speaker 1: is that that should not be the only way for
Speaker 1: a person to be viewed as acceptable. That should not
Speaker 1: be the only path to success. And indeed, the framework
Speaker 1: that exists right now limits artificially people from being who
Speaker 1: they were born to be, living the fullness of the
Speaker 1: life that they deserve to live in the body in
Speaker 1: which they were born. And when white people, often it's
Speaker 1: white people, but other people can culturally appropriate. When people
Speaker 1: do that, it feels like they're just taking a bit
Speaker 1: of it instead.
Speaker 2: Of living it.
Speaker 1: They don't live it, like where it's like you have
Speaker 1: to deal with getting kicked out of school because you
Speaker 1: decided to wear your hair locked, you know. And again,
Speaker 1: we don't talk about all the stories that come this way.
Speaker 1: It takes a national story for us to make a point,
Speaker 1: and in this case, in particular, a national story where
Speaker 1: the superintendent doubled down by taking out an ad in
Speaker 1: the paper. And so I hope that this gives you
Speaker 1: a little bit more of an idea of a how
Speaker 1: important hair is to me, but also how important hair
Speaker 1: is to black people. We've done the history of hair,
Speaker 1: how they used to braid, their different tribal signatures and
Speaker 1: the hair and all so forth. It's very important to
Speaker 1: black people historically speaking and still today. And we hope
Speaker 1: you're better for having this conversation with us.