Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Moving my mic back, you're like that.
Speaker 3: Strike water head borders behind him.
Speaker 1: And then if you're just tuning in the civic scipher,
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ramsey's job.
Speaker 2: Okay, I said some things earlier, they weren't true. He
Speaker 2: is Ramsey's job. I am q ward. You are listening
Speaker 2: to civic sits.
Speaker 1: Indeed, we should have stick around. We've got a lot
Speaker 1: more show left for you. We will be talking about
Speaker 1: the reverse Freedom Rise. As it turns out, this whole
Speaker 1: Martha's Vineyard stunt isn't new that once upon a time
Speaker 1: they used to ship black people into these communities.
Speaker 2: Such a thing used to exist and clearly still does.
Speaker 2: How about that.
Speaker 1: And we're also going to talk about Bill Maher and
Speaker 1: some things that he had to say about slavery. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it takes some time with that one, definitely. But first
Speaker 1: and foremost, we like to teach you how to become
Speaker 1: a better allied BABA, so we will do that right now.
Speaker 1: This Week's Baba is sponsored by the Black Information Network
Speaker 1: Daily podcast on iHeartRadio, where you can hear discussions and
Speaker 1: interviews on topics and news stories important to the black community.
Speaker 1: Visit biinnews dot com.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: Today's BABA comes via United Against book Bands dot org.
Speaker 1: We want you to say no to book bands. From
Speaker 1: January first to August thirty first, twenty twenty two, there
Speaker 1: have been six hundred and eighty one attempts to ban
Speaker 1: or restrict library resources, and one six hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: one unique titles have been targeted. Access to a wide
Speaker 1: variety of reading materials is critical for student development and
Speaker 1: well being, and the right to read is on the
Speaker 1: ballots across the country. This November book challenges in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two set to exceed one record. Take a stand
Speaker 1: against book bands and visit United Unite against book Bands
Speaker 1: dot org to learn more access resources and help defend
Speaker 1: the right for us all to read freely across our nation.
Speaker 1: And here's another note from our producer, Ms. Maggie aka
Speaker 1: Maggie b No she do. There's a click going around
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks and he's he's uh, someone who's been very
Speaker 1: vocal about his lack of access to information, particularly black history,
Speaker 1: which is American history in his estimation and our estimation,
Speaker 1: of course. And he tells a story in brief about
Speaker 1: He's like YO, when I was in school, I learned
Speaker 1: about Custer's last stand, and I learned about you know,
Speaker 1: wounded me and I, but I never learned about the
Speaker 1: Tulsa uh the.
Speaker 2: Where's it's written here? The Tulsa massacre massacre.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought, Tella masacre in Blackwater.
Speaker 2: Relation, burning down of black Wall.
Speaker 1: Street, And this move against CRT or what they're calling
Speaker 1: CRT is attempting to sort of whitewash that. And so
Speaker 1: if you find that video online, check it out again.
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks talking about the American education system. All right, now,
Speaker 1: let's talk Bill Maher. You're familiar with Bill Maher very
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on him the person?
Speaker 2: Once upon a time, I would watch Bill Maher weekly,
Speaker 2: and I'm talking about every week for years, every Friday
Speaker 2: for years. My mom and I, both even in different cities,
Speaker 2: we watch record recap the show together. Bill presented himself
Speaker 2: as ally through probably the last five or six administrations
Speaker 2: or something like that, and most flamboyantly and most aggressively
Speaker 2: during Trump's presidency, and in his disdain for what he'd watched,
Speaker 2: the office become I'd formed a bit of a like
Speaker 2: symbiotic bond with tuning into his show, if even as
Speaker 2: a form of therapy listening to someone else remind me
Speaker 2: that I wasn't crazy. What was what I was watching
Speaker 2: watching happen to our country and to you know what
Speaker 2: used to be our highest office, but in the last
Speaker 2: few years, and really not just in the last few years,
Speaker 2: but every now and then he'll dip his toe into
Speaker 2: some really really strange waters. I remember an episode maybe
Speaker 2: four or five years ago, presented himself as a house
Speaker 2: in word or something to that, something similar to that.
Speaker 2: I remember that, and the following week, Ice Cube came
Speaker 2: on the show to kind of remind him, like, it's
Speaker 2: not really your place to you know, you're funny, and
Speaker 2: I know you've kind of presented yourself as ally and
Speaker 2: having endeared yourself with us, but that's not it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: More recently, after Civic Cipher began, he had a guest
Speaker 2: on that he kind of urged along some similar lines
Speaker 2: to this, like, essentially, stop complaining about racism, stop complaining
Speaker 2: about your history in this country, stop complaining about having
Speaker 2: gone through all these terrible things, right, you don't need
Speaker 2: affirmative action, you don't need to be anybody's victim kind
Speaker 2: of thing. And the guest on the show was a
Speaker 2: black man encouraging us to stop being victims and you know,
Speaker 2: essentially pretend all of these things didn't happen in the
Speaker 2: wake of you know, mister West saying that slavery was
Speaker 2: a choice, and just very very similar rhetoric to that.
Speaker 2: And after that episode we talked about it on Civic Cipher.
Speaker 2: That had to be well over a year ago. I
Speaker 2: haven't watched an episodes since. This is after watching every
Speaker 2: week for years, because I saw it right there in
Speaker 2: that space, even though he wasn't the one talking, he
Speaker 2: was far too pleased with what he was hearing, right Like,
Speaker 2: he didn't disagree, he didn't object, he didn't he didn't
Speaker 2: offer any context. He didn't he just not only accepted,
Speaker 2: but seemed to encourage, Like, Yeah, I know some black
Speaker 2: people and that is how they feel. And I'm like, WHOA,
Speaker 2: you're speaking on behalf of black people, even if based
Speaker 2: on the direct opinion of some black people that you know, you, sir,
Speaker 2: speaking on behalf of black people, the both of you,
Speaker 2: your guest and you, sir, the host. That's a bit
Speaker 2: far from me. And I could tell, like I said,
Speaker 2: in his comfort with listening to what this gentleman that
Speaker 2: was saying, and how ridiculous it was when there were
Speaker 2: no objections, and not not just no objections, but him
Speaker 2: seeming to be pleased with what he was hearing. I
Speaker 2: understood something had happened, that he'd either been performing all
Speaker 2: along and he got us, or that something in his
Speaker 2: ideology and his beliefs was starting to change. And so
Speaker 2: when this most recent thing came up, I had to
Speaker 2: hear about it like the rest of us, via social
Speaker 2: media instead of previously I would have heard it live.
Speaker 2: But I was not even this surprise as they're shocked,
Speaker 2: because I already saw it. I already saw him make
Speaker 2: that left turn or that right turn however you want
Speaker 2: to be however you want to see what you did there,
Speaker 2: And it was disappointing, but it wasn't shocking or surprising.
Speaker 2: It's it's not a corner that he occupies by himself.
Speaker 2: It's just one that once upon a time, it would
Speaker 2: have seemed he never would have stood on.
Speaker 1: So this is what uh, this is where I'm going
Speaker 1: to paint the picture for you, our listener. So he
Speaker 1: made a few points in this rant. We are going
Speaker 1: to spare you the rant, but if you want to
Speaker 1: figure it out, or figure out what he said. You
Speaker 1: can find it online. There's lots of folks that have
Speaker 1: lots of opinions on it. You may notice online that
Speaker 1: a lot of conservative voices have a lot to say
Speaker 1: about it because it paints a picture that they would
Speaker 1: like to call accurate. But for those of you hearing
Speaker 1: it here first, just bear this in mind if you
Speaker 1: come across those conservative voices I had. In fact, I
Speaker 1: talked about this on the Black Information Network Daily podcast.
Speaker 1: I had to dedicate a whole episode to it because
Speaker 1: there was so it was so hard for that because
Speaker 1: I think that's did you did you catch that? One?
Speaker 1: Of course I did. Man, all right, well, it was
Speaker 1: such a hurtful thing. Okay, So here's some of the
Speaker 1: main points that he made in his rant. He talked about, uh, slavery,
Speaker 1: when slavery was taking place, okay, says black people own slaves.
Speaker 1: He says, slavery is a human condition. It existed around
Speaker 1: the world for since the be any of human beings
Speaker 1: something like this. It's not necessarily a black or white thing.
Speaker 4: It's a human thing.
Speaker 1: And then he goes on to say, you know, Africans
Speaker 1: sold slaves into Africans sold Africans into slavery. Right, So
Speaker 1: these are the points that he's that he made right,
Speaker 1: And to anybody wanting to distance themselves from the legacy
Speaker 1: of slavery, in other words, what does what impact did
Speaker 1: slavery have that can still be felt today?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: And I don't care who you are. If you want
Speaker 1: to have that conversation with me, I'm ready, Doctor Westenberg
Speaker 1: is my teacher. I can do that. But yeah, the
Speaker 1: legacy of slavery. Anybody that wants to distance themselves from
Speaker 1: the legacy of the responsibility, the accountability, accountability, thank you
Speaker 1: of slavery. Anybody that looks a black people and says,
Speaker 1: you know, black people have less money, they're less healthy,
Speaker 1: they die younger, they're they're involved in the criminal justice
Speaker 1: system at disproportionate rates, informortality rate, infantmortality, you know, on
Speaker 1: and on.
Speaker 2: You know the list.
Speaker 1: They live in lower income communities, they pass on less wealth.
Speaker 2: You know, they're access to you know, less, less and
Speaker 2: less in the way of resources, education.
Speaker 1: On and on, you know the list. For anybody that
Speaker 1: knows that to be true and then says, well, it's
Speaker 1: just because black people are just bad people, bad at
Speaker 1: being people or whatever, it is that they say are
Speaker 1: good at being people.
Speaker 2: However, it is that they say it.
Speaker 1: Those people need what Bill Maher says to be true,
Speaker 1: because I think fundamentally, if you think about it, you
Speaker 1: know that that cannot be true. Black people are the
Speaker 1: people that created all the people, and some of these
Speaker 1: things are unique to America. So if you go to Africa,
Speaker 1: you'll find black people and you'll see that these things
Speaker 1: are not true in Africa. It's not to say that
Speaker 1: Africa does not have its own problems, but a point
Speaker 1: that does everywhere in the world. Right, But you know,
Speaker 1: Africa is known for being poor, hated. Africa becomes synonymous
Speaker 1: with poverty. Well, it might have something to do with,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, the use of gunpowder by Europeans. And
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 2: How eloquently and pleasantly you presented that it might have something.
Speaker 1: To do with Oh, it definitely has something to do
Speaker 1: with that. But let's take it a step further. Okay,
Speaker 1: we know gunpowder is invented by the Chinese, right procured
Speaker 1: by Europeans, and then that coupled with disease, was used
Speaker 1: to really change the way the world looked and remake
Speaker 1: the world in such a manner that it benefits to
Speaker 1: the white people of European descent the entire world. By
Speaker 1: the way, sure, I mean, you can go from India
Speaker 1: to anywhere, it doesn't matter. Now back to Africa. The
Speaker 1: point I made is that as we know, Africa is
Speaker 1: home to the wealth of the world, all the gold,
Speaker 1: the diamonds, all the oil, the minerals, the you know,
Speaker 1: the land it's fertile, you know, cradle of civilization, the
Speaker 1: most ancient of civilizations, the most advanced of ancient civilizations.
Speaker 1: How is it that at place that was home to
Speaker 1: Mansa Musa, to all the pharaohs. My my name, the
Speaker 1: person I'm named after, uh Ramses, one of the wealthiest
Speaker 1: people to ever have lived. That's my actual name too.
Speaker 1: Q said it wasn't that's my that's my person.
Speaker 2: I recant it, Yeah you did.
Speaker 1: How was it that Africa is so poor? And then
Speaker 1: when you go and you look at it, you know,
Speaker 1: the same thing is true with our native brothers and
Speaker 1: sisters here, same as true of you know, folks in
Speaker 1: India and you know other large British colonies or otherwise
Speaker 1: the European outposts around the world. These folks were doing
Speaker 1: fine until some new folks showed up and they brought
Speaker 1: disease and gunpowder with them, Right, who was the gun
Speaker 1: powder for?
Speaker 2: For the guns? And what were the guns for?
Speaker 1: To kill the people that didn't sign the deals or
Speaker 1: you know whatever.
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure we were explicit about that.
Speaker 2: So it was not for trade. I'm going to get
Speaker 2: back to Bill Maher, but hear me out.
Speaker 1: So, you know, you end up doing one bad deal,
Speaker 1: and it takes a lot of people to really what
Speaker 1: is the word I'm looking for. Colonize is not the
Speaker 1: right word, but occupy, that's the word. And so doing
Speaker 1: this these deals, doing you know, this paperwork sort of
Speaker 1: stuff where the country does a deal with another country
Speaker 1: with interest rates that can never be repaid, and you know,
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to sell finished goods. You can only
Speaker 1: sell text tiles and this sort of thing. These are
Speaker 1: the deals that have caused Africa to remain poor and
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future will be poor. It largely benefits,
Speaker 1: you know, white European countries obviously disproportionately benefits Africans who
Speaker 1: live where the resources are. And that's what we call
Speaker 1: white supremacist institutions. Right, So, now that you've had that
Speaker 1: history less and allow me to finish with Bill Maher.
Speaker 1: He talks about people who could afford slaves, affording slaves,
Speaker 1: including black people, as a way of again distancing himself
Speaker 1: or this narrative allows the right, or really the country,
Speaker 1: if I'm honest with the left, to let's be fair
Speaker 1: to distance themselves from the problems that black people still
Speaker 1: endure to this day. Again, the legacy of slavery. And again,
Speaker 1: if you don't know what I'm talking about in terms
Speaker 1: of the legacy of slavery, one great example that you
Speaker 1: can read that will take you. We'll call it twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: It's not even a full book. It's called How to
Speaker 1: Make a Slave. It's written by a guy named Willie Lynch.
Speaker 1: It's purported to be a work of fiction, but it
Speaker 1: is still very accurate to the mentality brilliance, if you will,
Speaker 1: and the economics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as a as a tool of societal socioeconomic warfare. Sure, sure,
Speaker 2: it's quite brilliant, absolutely and has stood the test.
Speaker 1: It worked on us, so it's still working. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: that was the point. So again, the legacy of slavery.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to develop that because unfortunately we don't
Speaker 1: have the time to do it, but please, please please
Speaker 1: give you If you love warfare, if you love me,
Speaker 1: if not, even if you love any if you've ever
Speaker 1: met a black person that you can say that you love,
Speaker 1: please read that to understand the legacy of slavery a
Speaker 1: little bit better again, twenty minutes of your life. It
Speaker 1: will change you for the better, and it'll change you forever. Okay, Now,
Speaker 1: black people owning slaves in this country. Let's redefine white
Speaker 1: supremacy for our listeners. So white supremacy isn't something that
Speaker 1: only benefits white people. White supremacy or white supremacist institutions
Speaker 1: or whatever, are institutions or societal frameworks that largely benefit
Speaker 1: white people and are often largely at the expense of
Speaker 1: non white people.
Speaker 2: Are always at the expenses non white people.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, Now, sometimes I'm gonna say I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: sometimes because sometimes there are poor white people that end
Speaker 1: up in that system. And you know, we make this
Speaker 1: argument sometimes on the show rich versus Poor, which is
Speaker 1: very very much.
Speaker 2: Ironically, I'm so glad you brought that point up, because
Speaker 2: it's more rich versus poor oftentimes, yeah, than black versus
Speaker 2: white oftentimes. Right, But they've and this is why it's
Speaker 2: so brilliant. It's been so at expert lee. I might
Speaker 2: have made that word up, but ride with expertly. It's
Speaker 2: so expertly executed as a play of black versus white
Speaker 2: that you convinced the poor white man that the even
Speaker 2: wealthy black man is beneath him or otherwise his enemy,
Speaker 2: and you keep him subjugated as ally to the rich
Speaker 2: white man whose thumb he's under. How about that?
Speaker 1: So let me finish. It is possible, now that we've
Speaker 1: defined what white supremacy looks like, as long as it
Speaker 1: largely benefits these groups, this group, and disproportionately affects this
Speaker 1: other group. That's that's the makings. We'll call it the
Speaker 1: makings because I can't say across the board, right, I
Speaker 1: can't say across the board. But those are the makings
Speaker 1: of a white supremacist institution.
Speaker 2: Right, So.
Speaker 1: It is possible for black people to participate in white
Speaker 1: supremacist institution. Yes, it is possible for black people to
Speaker 1: benefit I e.
Speaker 2: Jason Whitlock. If you ever have time to google someone
Speaker 2: black that benefits from and participates in the practice and
Speaker 2: institution of white supremacy, there you have it perfect. Now.
Speaker 1: He talks about slavery around the world. Now, slavery has
Speaker 1: existed since people, right, And he's not saying anything that
Speaker 1: no one doesn't that we don't know, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. This isn't some new revelation. It's not like
Speaker 1: we're like, oh my gosh, there was slavery before, you know,
Speaker 1: because he goes on to talk about the Bible, and
Speaker 1: anyone that grew up in this country knows that there
Speaker 1: were slaves in the Bible.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: The Bible obviously is a lot older than this country.
Speaker 1: So there you have it, right. But what he's trying
Speaker 1: to do is kind of dilute what the word slavery
Speaker 1: means in this country and conflate it with slavery historically speaking,
Speaker 1: where in this country the slavery was very, very different.
Speaker 1: It was pure economics. It was we're going to take
Speaker 1: you from your homeland, right, We're going to change your language,
Speaker 1: we're going to rape you, we're going to beat you.
Speaker 1: Slaves have been beaten, you know what I mean, But
Speaker 1: not all of these things together. We're going to chop
Speaker 1: your foot off if you try to escape. You know,
Speaker 1: this sort this this type of cruelty we're going to
Speaker 1: make you wear these chains, We're going to make you
Speaker 1: wear these masks. We're gonna you know, and we need
Speaker 1: sound economics were most unique to the Americas. We are
Speaker 1: going to perform medical experiences on you, perform medical experience
Speaker 1: on you.
Speaker 4: But the key above all else, above any other type
Speaker 4: of slavery that I've seen, And this is something that
Speaker 4: I've looked into obviously, doctor Westernberg, student, we.
Speaker 2: Were not human beings bought and SODA's property, not human
Speaker 2: beings owned into perpetuity and our children and considered non
Speaker 2: human beneath those who owned us. He goes on to
Speaker 2: tell us prisoners of war as property. Yeah, and we
Speaker 2: cannot work our way out of it. Nothing that was it,
Speaker 2: that was our permanent condition. Now he goes on to
Speaker 2: make a point about Slavic people. That's where the word
Speaker 2: slave comes from.
Speaker 1: Again, this is another point that I made in the
Speaker 1: Black Information Network Daily podcast. Slavic people were white people.
Speaker 1: That's where the term comes from. And you see how
Speaker 1: harmful his his rhetoric is intentionally in it.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, it's oh Jesus.
Speaker 1: But anyway, back to what I'm trying to say here,
Speaker 1: Slavic people white people. You could show me some white
Speaker 1: people that endured the type of slavery that was designed
Speaker 1: to operate in perpetuity for sound economics, so that the
Speaker 1: slaves won't come kill you in your house, right, the
Speaker 1: type of slavery in the Americas, in the Caribbean. Show
Speaker 1: me some white folks that endured that type of slavery.
Speaker 1: You won't find a such example my point exactly. And
Speaker 1: then of course you won't find another example of any
Speaker 1: other people in history. That's why it's so dangerous that
Speaker 1: he gives this to the right, even taking it away
Speaker 1: from black people. And it's almost like a black people,
Speaker 1: you're responsible for where your station in life. I was
Speaker 1: born in eighty two into this world and black people
Speaker 1: a never had no wealth in this country. And it's like, well,
Speaker 1: it's your own fault. We freed the slaves. What are
Speaker 1: you going to do with it? Well, no, there's no slaves.
Speaker 1: What's the problem. We got a lot more to address
Speaker 1: than just that. You know, there's some psycho loots, some
Speaker 1: deeper implications. There's a deeper legacy there. Read the Willie
Speaker 1: Lynch letter, as I mentioned, and then of course he
Speaker 1: talks about how Africans sold slaves. Again, we mentioned this before.
Speaker 1: We know that this is true. I've done the research
Speaker 1: on this, and the truth is the Africans that's sold
Speaker 1: the slaves did not know where they were going. They
Speaker 1: thought the same type of slavery that they were practicing
Speaker 1: in Africa would be the same type of slavery they
Speaker 1: sold their folks into. So not excusing that still an
Speaker 1: awful thing to do, but that's the extent of their
Speaker 1: crimes in Africa. What happened in the Americas is really
Speaker 1: what created the legacy that we have to deal with today.
Speaker 1: We so experienced it that it's time for The Way
Speaker 1: Black History Fact. Sorry I have to move on so quickly,
Speaker 1: but that's how it goes. When the clock is taken right.
Speaker 2: Do what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: So Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Hip
Speaker 1: Hop Weekly Media. You can check out more at hip
Speaker 1: hopwekly dot com. We're going to be talking about reverse
Speaker 1: freedom rides to call back to what we talked about
Speaker 1: earlier in the show, The Martha's Vineyard political stunt by
Speaker 1: rondas Antisana Company. This comes via Politico, So I will
Speaker 1: in the spring of nineteen sixty two, David Harris a
Speaker 1: short order cook from Little Rock, Arkansas, arrived in Hyannis, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: a small but tony vacation village located on Cape Cod
Speaker 1: best known then and now as the location of the
Speaker 1: Kennedy family summer compound. Harris was black, traveled to Hyannis
Speaker 1: in search of work with funding and encouragement from Little
Speaker 1: Rock's White Citizens Council, one of many local organizations comprised
Speaker 1: of middle class white professionals who, while dedicated to the
Speaker 1: preservation of segregation, styled themselves as the respectable moderate alternative
Speaker 1: to the ku Klux Klan. Earlier that year, council members
Speaker 1: in New Orleans and Little Rock dreamed up a public
Speaker 1: relations stunt. They would offer black Southerners bus, spare and
Speaker 1: relocation costs to undertake quote reverse freedom rides to northern cities,
Speaker 1: where they told their victims good jobs and housing awaited them.
Speaker 1: The idea was to embarrass and expose the hypocrisy of
Speaker 1: northern liberals who cheered the real freedom rides, but whom
Speaker 1: they suspected would blanch at receiving thousands of black transplants
Speaker 1: in their own communities. Harris was just the first of
Speaker 1: roughly one hundred black Southerners whom the Council's shipped to Hyennas.
Speaker 1: In this particular case, the Citizens' Council had a specific
Speaker 1: target in mind.
Speaker 2: Edward M.
Speaker 1: Kennedy, the President's younger brother, who was campaigning for a
Speaker 1: seat in the United States sent President Kennedy's brother assured
Speaker 1: you a grand reception to Massachusetts. The council's leadership assured
Speaker 1: them good jobs, housing, etc. Are promised Kennedy, a summer
Speaker 1: resident of Hyannis, called the segregationist bluff. The organized a
Speaker 1: reception for Harris's for Harris, comprised of local residents who
Speaker 1: extended a warm welcome. The story of reverse freedom rides
Speaker 1: assumed a new meaning this week when persons seemingly associated
Speaker 1: with Florida Governor Ron desant As promised a group of
Speaker 1: Venezuelan and asylum seekers the good jobs in housing, as
Speaker 1: well as expedited work permits awaited them in Boston. The
Speaker 1: migrants were transported instead, without their knowledge, to Martha's Vineyard.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned, in an attempt to surprise and expose
Speaker 1: the hypocrisy of liberals who oppose the Republican Party's hardline
Speaker 1: immigration stance, the ploy didn't work out exactly as they planned.
Speaker 1: Residents of the small island only embraced the asylum seekers,
Speaker 1: much of the citizens of Hyannis welcomed David Harris some
Speaker 1: sixty years earlier. The two stories share some similar characteristics.
Speaker 1: In both cases, elected officials attempted to pin their critics
Speaker 1: in a corner. In neither case did the deploy immediately succeed,
Speaker 1: though today's story has yet to play out. In mid
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, the Congress of Racial Equality organized a
Speaker 1: series of freedom rides in which interracial groups rode greyhound
Speaker 1: buses through Southern states in an effort to test the
Speaker 1: efficacy of the Supreme Court's ban on segregated families serving
Speaker 1: interstate travel. The freedom riders famously they encountered frequent brutal
Speaker 1: backlash from local residents and law enforcement officials, who deployed
Speaker 1: terrorism and illegal arrest and imprisonment. The freedom rides, still
Speaker 1: in force a year later, proved a costly embarrassment to
Speaker 1: Southern elected officials and business leaders, who saw the region's
Speaker 1: violent lawlessness splashed across papers around the world. The freedom
Speaker 1: Rides came in a moment when Southern violence generally threatened
Speaker 1: to become a drag on the region's economic prospects and
Speaker 1: posed a political conundrum for the administration in Washington, which
Speaker 1: completed which sorry competed with the Soviet Union for the
Speaker 1: loyalty of former colonial subjects in Asia and Africa, most
Speaker 1: of them non white. When an angry mob held a
Speaker 1: group of black worshippers hostage inside the First Baptist Church
Speaker 1: in Montgomery, Alabama, the columnist Murray Kempton captured popular opinion
Speaker 1: in the North and beyond when he caustically remarked, well,
Speaker 1: these are proud, brave, and faithful people, and some of
Speaker 1: them even found time to worry about the wives of
Speaker 1: pillars of white citizens who were in danger of having
Speaker 1: to cook their own breakfast in the morning. The white
Speaker 1: South had a pr problem entered George Singleman, a member
Speaker 1: of the Greater New Orleans Citizens Council and aid to
Speaker 1: Leander Perez, the city's leading segregationist, a man so extreme
Speaker 1: in his anti black and anti Semitic prejudices that the
Speaker 1: local Catholic bishop excommunicated him. Single Man's idea was simple.
Speaker 1: White liberals in the North, he maintained, were hypocrites, and
Speaker 1: their hypocrisies should be exposed safe in their urban and
Speaker 1: suburban enclaves. They could look down their noses that Southern
Speaker 1: segregationists because they didn't have to live, work, and go
Speaker 1: to school with African Americans. By busting thousands of black
Speaker 1: Southerners to northern community, the Citizens' Council could bring the
Speaker 1: civil rights movement home to the North. Northern whites, he surmised,
Speaker 1: were no more interested in sharing towns and suburbs with
Speaker 1: black people than were Southern whites. It was with this
Speaker 1: sentiment in mind that the Mississippi House of Representative passed
Speaker 1: a non binding resolution that proposed to redistribute dissatisfied Negro
Speaker 1: population to other areas where the political leadership constantly clamors
Speaker 1: for equal rights for all persons without regard to the Constitution,
Speaker 1: judicial precedent, and rights of the states.
Speaker 4: That was actually what.
Speaker 2: It said all right throughout the South.
Speaker 1: Citizens Councils as far and wide as Making Georgia and Selma,
Speaker 1: Alabama's report the Mississippi and Jackson, Mississippi lied with impunity,
Speaker 1: assuring black residents that jobs and housing awaited them in
Speaker 1: their new home states. This was never the case, particularly
Speaker 1: on Cape Cod, where the off season unemployment rate normally
Speaker 1: hovered near twenty percent. The iron of course, was that
Speaker 1: the White Citizens Council didn't really need to pull a
Speaker 1: cheap stunt. The North already had a large black population,
Speaker 1: one that had been growing at leaps and bounds since
Speaker 1: the start of World War Two. To be sure, in
Speaker 1: the North, black people could vote and build political power,
Speaker 1: but a complex thicket of discrimination in housing, jobs, credit,
Speaker 1: banking and policing, and in the provision of public services
Speaker 1: such as education and infrastructure render black people as second
Speaker 1: class citizens in most Northern localities. By the mid nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: urban unrest and contests over schools and housing and desegregation
Speaker 1: would lay bare these inequalities. Singleman wasn't wrong, per se
Speaker 1: when he observed a certain comfortable hypocrisy on the part
Speaker 1: of Northern liberals. He was just moronic in the way
Speaker 1: he went about trying.
Speaker 2: To expose it.
Speaker 1: As was the case sixty years ago last week, politicians
Speaker 1: use a group of vulnerable people to change the subject,
Speaker 1: to shift the political debate any more to more comfortable ground.
Speaker 1: And here we have it. Nothing new under the sun.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned, you know, immigration can reform could be
Speaker 1: something that might help us and help folks that want
Speaker 1: to you know make a life here in this country,
Speaker 1: but the way they're going about trying to expose it
Speaker 1: is cruel and human and it's political theater that does
Speaker 1: not deserve applause. And because they know how to work
Speaker 1: the system, they're getting all the applause. But that's going
Speaker 1: to do it for us this week on Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: So once again, I'm your host, Ramses job.
Speaker 2: He is Rams' job. I am q Ward. You have
Speaker 2: been listening to once again Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: Today's show is produced by our producer is Maggie aka
Speaker 1: Maggie be Knowing, and we want you to check us.
Speaker 2: Out, so subscribe, subscribe, like, comment, share, share all those things. Please,
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Speaker 1: And if you have any questions, any topics you want
Speaker 1: us to get to, hit Civiccipher dot com. We ask
Speaker 1: every week we'll ask again. Make a donation to the show.
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Speaker 1: the Civic Cipher And yeah, yeah, I think that's about it.
Speaker 1: Anything else, I think that's about it. All right, until
Speaker 1: next time, y'all pace.
Speaker 3: Y'all like yo, we handle lin. These brothers are fabulous.
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Speaker 2: We bring it to you as it happens.
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Speaker 1: What's happening? It's you got a question to ask.
Speaker 2: If Deduce is just a TV show? Get passing?
Speaker 3: And this from a white wartime jonalist headlines wait God
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