Speaker 1: Keep on riding what it says. We continue to broadcast
Speaker 1: the balance and defend the discourse from the Hip hop
Speaker 1: Weekly Studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your house,
Speaker 1: Ramsey's job, he is Ramsy's jah, I am q Ward.
Speaker 1: You are tuned in the Civic Cipher, Yes you are,
Speaker 1: and we want you to stick around. We are going
Speaker 1: to be talking about the La wildfires. You know, for
Speaker 1: maybe if this is your first time coming to the Conversation.
Speaker 1: This is a weekly show, and we have an hour
Speaker 1: in some markets. Some markets it's less than that, and
Speaker 1: so we don't always get to get to all the
Speaker 1: stories in a timely manner. But we felt like these
Speaker 1: fires is something that's really important to discuss because we've
Speaker 1: seen obviously the coverage of the fires, which has subsided
Speaker 1: a bit now, but it's still very important for us
Speaker 1: to talk about it. But we also recognize that a
Speaker 1: lot of people think that it's just celebrity houses burning up,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people think it's coastal elites and
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. It's and and there's real
Speaker 1: people out there live human lives that are not celebrities,
Speaker 1: are not millionaires, And we're going to share a story
Speaker 1: of a black community, so stay tuned for that. But
Speaker 1: before we get there, it is time to be Aba.
Speaker 1: Become a Better Ally BABA and Today's BABA sponsored by
Speaker 1: Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for the
Speaker 1: freevoter wallet from fotmglobal dot com to support black businesses
Speaker 1: and allied businesses as well as make an impact with
Speaker 1: your spending again fotemglobal dot com. And this is something
Speaker 1: that we wanted to get to as well, but we're
Speaker 1: just getting to it now, so forgive me it's a
Speaker 1: little late. But this from People magazine, Caitlin Clark had
Speaker 1: a strong response to Megan Kelly's criticism about her recent
Speaker 1: comments regarding white privilege in the WNBA. After twenty two
Speaker 1: year old Clark, who was just named Times Athlete of
Speaker 1: the Year, said in her interview with the magazine that
Speaker 1: she's aware there's privilege as a white player in the league.
Speaker 1: Kelly fifty four called Clark's statements condescending and fake in
Speaker 1: a post on X A day later, Clark spoke at
Speaker 1: a Year in Time event in New York City where
Speaker 1: NBC Sports Maria Taylor asked her about Kelly's criticism and
Speaker 1: how she handles the pressure of heavy topics coming down
Speaker 1: on her shoulders. Quote. I feel like I've always had
Speaker 1: a really good perspective on everything happened in my life,
Speaker 1: Clark told Taylor. The Indiana FIEB Star went on to
Speaker 1: reiterator comments made in the Time article, telling Taylor, quote,
Speaker 1: I feel like I've earned every single thing that's happened
Speaker 1: to me over the course of my career. But I
Speaker 1: also grew up a fan of this league from a
Speaker 1: very young age, noting that her favorite player growing up
Speaker 1: was Minnesota Lynk's great Maya Moore, a black woman. Clark continued, quote,
Speaker 1: I know what this league is about, and like I said,
Speaker 1: it's only been around twenty five plus years, so I
Speaker 1: know that there's been so many amazing black women that
Speaker 1: have been in this league, and continuing to uplift them
Speaker 1: is very important and that's something I'm very aware of.
Speaker 1: And Caitlin Clark, for that, I say, you are this
Speaker 1: week's example of a better ally using those platforms to
Speaker 1: make sure that black women are lifted up. Especially at
Speaker 1: a time when these huge corporations are turning their backs
Speaker 1: on black women. That feels even more special, and you know,
Speaker 1: keep going.
Speaker 2: Important to point out before you move on the right,
Speaker 2: and MAGA tried to make her an avatar for their
Speaker 2: hate of black women. And when she made this statement,
Speaker 2: they all turned their back on her, and they all
Speaker 2: tried to eviscerate her on social media for standing up
Speaker 2: for black women. So they showed their true colors. They
Speaker 2: were not actually fans or supporters of her. They tried
Speaker 2: to make her the avatar or the mascot for their
Speaker 2: hate and when she did not share it with them,
Speaker 2: all of those people immediately turned their back on her.
Speaker 2: So shout out to Kaitlyn Clark for showing up when
Speaker 2: it wasn't easy to do.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, okay, yeah, So as far as these wildfires
Speaker 1: in LA, We've talked about this before on the Black
Speaker 1: Information Network. We've had a number of conversations with people
Speaker 1: who are on the ground, you know, making a difference
Speaker 1: out there, and for people that have taken a moment
Speaker 1: to try to imagine what it would be like to
Speaker 1: look around one day after waking up and everything that
Speaker 1: you have ever had is burned up, and there's no
Speaker 1: towel to dry off when you get out of the shower,
Speaker 1: and there's no toilet paper, there's no toilet, there's no house.
Speaker 1: Everything you ever earned, everything you ever purchased, everything that
Speaker 1: you held dear, every memory, every photo all gone. You know,
Speaker 1: for people that understood what it's like to flee in
Speaker 1: fear of your life, people that you know have not
Speaker 1: been in that position. I've been in that position. I've
Speaker 1: been in a house fire before. I lost all my
Speaker 1: baby pictures. That's what I have done, all my stuff
Speaker 1: when I was a little model, child model and child actor.
Speaker 1: I couldn't show you that it was true, the stuff
Speaker 1: I did for HBO and early that can't show you
Speaker 1: any of that because it's all burned up in the fire.
Speaker 1: Before the Internet, of course. But for people that took
Speaker 1: a moment to try to empathize, to try to understand
Speaker 1: what that might be like, we slute you. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the first step in, you know, trying and making
Speaker 1: a difference. But there is the truth of the matter,
Speaker 1: which is his country is as divided as it's ever been,
Speaker 1: and there's a number of people who are looking at
Speaker 1: the fires in la as though this should be happening,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, fire does not go to
Speaker 1: Democrat's house only. Fire does not go to Republican's house
Speaker 1: only you know what I mean. I think Mel Gibson
Speaker 1: was at Mar al Lago when he found out that
Speaker 1: his house was on fire. A lot of those wealthy
Speaker 1: people whose mansions got burned up, as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: a lot of those people, maybe not all of them,
Speaker 1: but a good number of them are people that stood
Speaker 1: to benefit from Trump's policies and were likely Trump voters,
Speaker 1: and they lost everything. We're not even talking about money.
Speaker 1: Just all your pictures. I grew up in a world
Speaker 1: with no baby pictures. I have two, and one of
Speaker 1: them I'm kind of blurry. That's it. And it's because
Speaker 1: they We're at my aunt's house and everybody else has
Speaker 1: so many pictures. They have videos. I don't have that.
Speaker 1: They know what clothes they had. Wasn't that so cute?
Speaker 1: They get to use it. I don't have any of that.
Speaker 1: I don't even know all the memories that I could
Speaker 1: have had access to to keep over the years gone.
Speaker 1: So it's not a matter of money, that's a matter
Speaker 1: of like a part of your person your personality, humanity.
Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to say, But I also want
Speaker 1: to talk about the fact that there are black neighborhoods
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles that you may not know about. Black
Speaker 1: neighborhoods in southern California you may not know about. Funnily enough,
Speaker 1: I'm from one of those neighborhoods. Well, I mean, my
Speaker 1: family has roots in one of thoseighborhoods is called Lafayette Park.
Speaker 1: For folks with short memories, Once upon a time black
Speaker 1: people could not buy real estate next to white people
Speaker 1: or in white communities. There was segregation. It was the
Speaker 1: law of the land. And so there are these historical
Speaker 1: black communities that still have largely black populations in southern
Speaker 1: California and many places around the country. And there the
Speaker 1: story that we're going to share today comes from one
Speaker 1: of the communities that was affected by the fires, known
Speaker 1: as Altadena, California. And we're going to share stories about
Speaker 1: people who are not celebrities, people who are not millionaires,
Speaker 1: people who lost everything, that lost their insurance and then
Speaker 1: they have to rebuild everything from scratch with no support.
Speaker 1: Our hope is that you know, by sharing this with you,
Speaker 1: this combined with a larger forgive me for saying this
Speaker 1: to partners that aren't you know, but there's a larger
Speaker 1: effort from iHeartMedia. Thanks, you might be fueled to try
Speaker 1: to make an impact in some meaningful way with respect
Speaker 1: to some of these families. We're going to share from
Speaker 1: Capital b News and this comes from the middle of
Speaker 1: the article, but you know, you can check out the
Speaker 1: full article at capitoalbeanews dot com. But I'll start Less
Speaker 1: than a week after two major fires tore through the
Speaker 1: mountains and into the neighborhoods. The death toll stands at
Speaker 1: twenty four. Two thirds of the lives lost were in Altadena,
Speaker 1: which again is the primarily and historically black suburb in
Speaker 1: southern California. In Altadena, where thousands of structures were destroyed.
Speaker 1: Economic losses around across Los Angeles are estimated at over
Speaker 1: two hundred bills billion dollars. But the wildfires are more
Speaker 1: than a test of California's economy, firefighting capabilities, or policies.
Speaker 1: They're a devastating reminder of how climate change and political
Speaker 1: inaction compound vulnerability in black communities. As weather whiplash worsens,
Speaker 1: the insurance market collapses, and the housing crisis deepens, the
Speaker 1: state and nation is failing to meet the demands of
Speaker 1: a changing planet. For Fred Daniels, The destruction of his
Speaker 1: home and neighborhood has brought a profound sense of loss
Speaker 1: that feels all too familiar. His grandmother, a New Orleans native,
Speaker 1: was displaced by Hurricane Katrina in two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: then Hurricane Harvey in twenty seventeen, and now this. I
Speaker 1: hope that we're able to rebuild, the US Navy veteran
Speaker 1: told Capital Be. Although everybody has the sense of it like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's stay put, let's rebuild, there's not going to be
Speaker 1: a cookie cutter approach to this. Since twenty twenty, major
Speaker 1: insurers have abandoned Altadena, leaving hundreds of black fams families
Speaker 1: like the Daniels without coverage, and like many other black
Speaker 1: families in the area, they're still expected to pay their
Speaker 1: mortgages while covering rent elsewhere. Three days after the fire,
Speaker 1: a real estate broker contacted Daniels's mother with a deal
Speaker 1: seven thousand dollars rent for a three bedroom apartment in
Speaker 1: neighboring Monrovia, double the average rent in the area. And
Speaker 1: while we're here, that's a real thing that you know,
Speaker 1: there's been these huge rent spikes for airbnbs and you
Speaker 1: know whatever, because there's so many families. Now, California already
Speaker 1: had a housing crisis. There were not enough homes for
Speaker 1: the people, and homes that they had were way too
Speaker 1: expensive for normal people to afford anyway. And then now
Speaker 1: with the fires and all these people displaced, there's now
Speaker 1: more families that need shelter, and so the rent shot up.
Speaker 1: Of course, all right, so it's clears back to the article,
Speaker 1: so it's clear half a dozen residents told Capital B
Speaker 1: that those who lost homes and jobs in the fire
Speaker 1: now face recovery with a fractured safety net and the
Speaker 1: mental toll watching their community burn and during displacement and
Speaker 1: living with the constant fear of more disaster has only
Speaker 1: magnified the instability. So you know, again, for those that
Speaker 1: may not have known that this crisis goes beyond the
Speaker 1: coastal elites. This crisis goes beyond the movie stars and
Speaker 1: the millionaires. This crisis affects people just like you. And
Speaker 1: you know, again, with that political divide, it's easy to
Speaker 1: point the finger and say, yeah, you know, that's that's
Speaker 1: what you get for being liberal. But I think that
Speaker 1: the simplest way to reframe this is using kind of
Speaker 1: that that golden rule the christ Golden rule, do unto
Speaker 1: your name as you would have them do unto you.
Speaker 1: And you know, kind of the step one for empathy,
Speaker 1: Like if you're a human being with the capability of
Speaker 1: being empathetic, imagine if it was you. And I think
Speaker 1: that at that point you might start to kind of
Speaker 1: understand that there are people in need, the people that lose,
Speaker 1: that've lost everything, and they didn't do anything to bring
Speaker 1: this upon them, just like when they talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey and any other natural disaster
Speaker 1: that happens. These aren't people that signed up to go
Speaker 1: into combat, and you know that's sometimes you win, sometimes
Speaker 1: you lose. No, these are people that went to work
Speaker 1: and when they came home the house was on fire.
Speaker 1: These are people that got up evacuation order and then
Speaker 1: they left and then the house got on fire. And
Speaker 1: I just never thought that we would live in this
Speaker 1: world with the Trump effect that you mentioned earlier in
Speaker 1: the show. The Trump effect, for those just coming to
Speaker 1: that conversation is the Effectively, it's the effect that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump has had on the population to be more like him.
Speaker 1: And I don't know that he is the best example
Speaker 1: of a human being. It's not our finest example of
Speaker 1: what humanity can be.
Speaker 2: I think might be our worst.
Speaker 1: Well, when we're talking about you know, we've mentioned doctor
Speaker 1: King a lot in the last episode. In this episode, naturally,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about people who are good people. We
Speaker 1: know them to be good people. Not perfect people, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to say that, but good people, right. They
Speaker 1: stood for something. They you know, wanted the world to
Speaker 1: be a better place, and they were not hacking their
Speaker 1: way through other people's realities to achieve that. They were
Speaker 1: not the type of people to grab people by their genitals.
Speaker 1: They were not the type of people to suggest that,
Speaker 1: you know, immigrants are eating dogs and cats and all
Speaker 1: kinds of you know what I mean, like that, They're
Speaker 1: not the type of people to get folks fired up
Speaker 1: off of baseless claims, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: Doctor King is a great example, but you know there
Speaker 1: are many others throughout history. If Doctor King is not
Speaker 1: the flavor you savor because he wasn't a perfect man,
Speaker 1: then you know, a good luck finding a perfect person,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But the thing is is
Speaker 1: that the Trump effect and our estimation is what has
Speaker 1: happened to the population, especially the MAGA voters who have
Speaker 1: moved more in terms of their humanity, not necessarily their politics,
Speaker 1: but their humanity more in the direction of Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: which again I don't believe is the best example of humanity.
Speaker 1: That's if the spirit of brotherhood, you know, the spirit
Speaker 1: of the aspirational spirit that we are supposed to have
Speaker 1: in terms of trying to build community with each other.
Speaker 1: We are social creatures. It is in our dmage. It's
Speaker 1: a part of who we are to form bonds and
Speaker 1: to build collectively. And the divisive nature of Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: of course, his politics and his policy, but his character
Speaker 1: should have been an alarm. But we're past that, of course.
Speaker 1: But not only is it that he was elected, it's
Speaker 1: that the human beings that have elected him are moving
Speaker 1: toward that personality type. And for those of you that
Speaker 1: might fall under that umbrella, or more likely for those
Speaker 1: of you that know people that have fallen under that
Speaker 1: umbrella and are moving away from what should be their
Speaker 1: humanity more towards something that is more based in hatred, fear,
Speaker 1: whatever divisiveness. I wanted to make sure that we took
Speaker 1: a moment to again interject some humanity into this. I
Speaker 1: can't believe I have to say this on the radio,
Speaker 1: but these are human beings just like you. These are
Speaker 1: people that have hopes and dreams, and they have children,
Speaker 1: and they want their children to be happy and do
Speaker 1: better than them, and they want to accomplish goals, and
Speaker 1: they want to laugh. It's not more complicated than that.
Speaker 1: And for me to appeal to you, more than likely
Speaker 1: I'm appealing to you so that you can appeal to
Speaker 1: the people in your world on our behalf as a people,
Speaker 1: on black people's behalf specifically, that's kind of the nature
Speaker 1: of this show. But make no mistake, I know how
Speaker 1: to find my brother, my sister, my sibling in any person.
Speaker 1: I know how to find that even my brother or
Speaker 1: my sister or whatever is lost. And a lot of
Speaker 1: people are losing the capacity to find their brother, to
Speaker 1: find their sister, to see themselves across the aisle. And
Speaker 1: I think that this was kind of necessary so that
Speaker 1: we can kind of make that plea so that we
Speaker 1: don't lose sight of the fact that, hey, we're supposed
Speaker 1: to help each other, not to kick each other when
Speaker 1: we're down. And again, with the efforts that we've seen
Speaker 1: not just from my heart but from a lot of
Speaker 1: other of our other partners, National Partners, Broadcast Partners, Radio
Speaker 1: Pacific has done a fantastic job and know OKKFR and
Speaker 1: Phoenix has done a fantastic job of organizing. I know
Speaker 1: there's there's stations around the country that have been really
Speaker 1: on top of this. We say that you can help
Speaker 1: us too, and the first step is reminding yourself of
Speaker 1: your humanity and their humanity, and then reminding the people
Speaker 1: that are up right now they got their guy in
Speaker 1: office and they're beating their chest and they're adopting that
Speaker 1: bully type of mentality and bully type of behavior. To
Speaker 1: remind them that that is not their natural state and
Speaker 1: the only way they get there is based off of hatred, fear,
Speaker 1: or both.
Speaker 2: Well said, it's an interesting trick that they pulled off.
Speaker 2: Billionaires can convince their followers that the millionaires are the elites.
Speaker 1: I didn't even think of that. That's funny.
Speaker 2: The millionaires, the people who they have one hundred times
Speaker 2: the wealth of are the bad people are the ones
Speaker 2: who sit up on the hill and look down at
Speaker 2: them while these billionaires stuff more money into their own
Speaker 2: pockets and make life harder and more expensive for you
Speaker 2: and yours. They convince you to be mad at the
Speaker 2: people who have a little bit more than you while
Speaker 2: they have a lot more than everyone. Again, there's not
Speaker 2: much that I can say, you know, following that, because
Speaker 2: you said everything that needed to be said. And the
Speaker 2: lack of humanity, the lack of empathy, is the biggest
Speaker 2: symptom of the Trump effect, the most pronounced, the most aggressive.
Speaker 2: That people not caring about each other, only about themselves.
Speaker 2: And when you put people in that space where all
Speaker 2: they can think about is what's best for just them,
Speaker 2: and you interject a little bit of money into that conversation,
Speaker 2: people will sell themselves, out, sell their souls, sell their families,
Speaker 2: out sell anyone who they might have had any solidarity with.
Speaker 2: Make people so desperate that you can simply offer them
Speaker 2: enough money to give up everything else that means something
Speaker 2: to them. So you see people of every ethnic background,
Speaker 2: you know, I see gay billionaires signing with the person
Speaker 2: or siding with the person that hates gay people, Black
Speaker 2: millionaires siding with the person that hates black people. Wealthy
Speaker 2: immigrants siding with person that hates immigrants. Is going to
Speaker 2: make laws to make sure their brothers, sisters, aunts, and
Speaker 2: uncles and children are not welcomed here, but they think
Speaker 2: they did it the right way, So go ahead, He'll
Speaker 2: only get the bad ones.
Speaker 1: You know, it's.
Speaker 2: Women to vote against their own their rights, poor people
Speaker 2: to vote against other poor people, to keep poor people down.
Speaker 2: You know that includes you too, So what as long
Speaker 2: as it includes you? You know, it's a really scary,
Speaker 2: really dark, really cynical place to be. And I wish
Speaker 2: we could be more hopeful and sound more celebratory and
Speaker 2: more excited, but here we are. So you know, I
Speaker 2: know there were some organizations that you wanted to talk
Speaker 2: about that are taking place in that are taking part
Speaker 2: rather and helping people try to get back on their feet.
Speaker 2: So I want to leave you enough time to shout
Speaker 2: them out.
Speaker 1: So for folks that feel like they want to maybe
Speaker 1: donate or learn more ways that you can support the
Speaker 1: California Fire Foundation, you can find out more at c
Speaker 1: A Firefoundation dot org. Again, California Fire Foundation, that's c
Speaker 1: A Firefoundation dot org. The La Food Bank that's La
Speaker 1: Foodbank dot org. That should be pretty self explanatory. Pasadena
Speaker 1: Humane is Pasadena Humane dot org. And don't forget that
Speaker 1: a lot of these people have pets, animals whatever, and
Speaker 1: so pet Colove is petcolove dot org. These have all
Speaker 1: been vetted by iHeart. This is kind of uh a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of folks have been putting time and
Speaker 1: resources into making your support translate on the ground out there.
Speaker 1: And so again c A Firefoundation dot org, la Foodbank
Speaker 1: dot org, Pasadena Humane dot org and petcolove dot org.
Speaker 1: Whichever you like, any or all of them, and uh,
Speaker 1: let's let's not forget who we are supposed to be
Speaker 1: to each other. With that said, we're gonna leave right here.
Speaker 1: As always, i'd like to thank you for tuning into
Speaker 1: another episode of Civic Cipher. I have been your host
Speaker 1: Rams's job. He is Ramsy's jah. I am qward. You
Speaker 1: have been once again tuned into Civic Cipher. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys once again for spending some time with us like comment, subscribe,
Speaker 1: follow share, and send us a good comment every now
Speaker 1: and then. And that goes a lot for the long way.
Speaker 2: Then you might know, because we get a lot of
Speaker 2: the opposite, you know, tap in with us Civiccipher dot com,
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app. Where else can they find us?
Speaker 1: Joh yeah, We're a civic cipher on all social media
Speaker 1: platforms as well. Be sure to hit us on YouTube.
Speaker 1: We are increasing our activity week to week. Over there,
Speaker 1: you can find me on all social media at rams' Jah.
Speaker 2: I am Qward on all social media as well.
Speaker 1: And I think that's about it, So until next week, y'all, peace, peace,