Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Rams's job.
Speaker 2: I go by the name q Ward. Rams just called
Speaker 2: me to and my mom, so I'm just kind of
Speaker 2: stuck with it.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, and we are back up in you one
Speaker 1: more game. A great show lined up for you today,
Speaker 1: so be sure to stick around. We are going to
Speaker 1: hopefully have a little fun this show. I wanted it
Speaker 1: to kind of settle, but there was a stand up
Speaker 1: comedian who had a special come to Netflix, and he
Speaker 1: brought up some really interesting points, some themes that we
Speaker 1: talk about here on the show, but to have someone
Speaker 1: else say them it was just kind of like reassuring
Speaker 1: to know that these things are being talked about outside of,
Speaker 1: you know, more serious platforms. And then also for folks
Speaker 1: who may have seen it, or even may not have
Speaker 1: seen it, it gives us an opportunity to just, you know,
Speaker 1: give you some perspective into what life might be like
Speaker 1: for your brother's and sisters of African descent. In addition
Speaker 1: to that, we are also going to be talking about
Speaker 1: Kim Potter and the trial that she's dealing with right now.
Speaker 1: She is the officer that you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: on the show before she was trying to apprehend the
Speaker 1: suspect to his fleeing, and she says that she meant
Speaker 1: to grab her taser and instead grabbed her gun and
Speaker 1: into the young man's life. And so now her trial
Speaker 1: is underway, and I have some thoughts on that that
Speaker 1: a lot of people might not like, but you know,
Speaker 1: we do have to talk about these things and hopefully
Speaker 1: we're going to get through them, and of course a
Speaker 1: lot of other things to stick around for as well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so just stay tuned. A lot coming your way.
Speaker 1: But first we're going to talk about this Michael Chay.
Speaker 1: So first off, have you seen at uh.
Speaker 3: Oh wait. First off, we're.
Speaker 1: Gonna do Abny Excellence. I'm getting ahead of myself here,
Speaker 1: so got excited. Yeah, man, so Ebny Excellence. I do
Speaker 1: want to shout out Meghan the Stallion because she graduated
Speaker 1: from college this week and she used the hashtag Meghan
Speaker 1: the Graduate. You know something funny, that's dope. Megan the
Speaker 1: Graduate is dope. Yeah, but I don't know why she
Speaker 1: doesn't call herself Megan the Mayor because Megan the Stallions
Speaker 1: are male horses and mayors are women horses.
Speaker 3: But you know, that's beyond what we're talking about here.
Speaker 2: All that from us, and by us, I mean men
Speaker 2: like men refer to women.
Speaker 3: As a stallion. Okay, that's fair, that is true.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Yeah, she graduated, She walked across the stage.
Speaker 1: I got a chance to see the video, loved it.
Speaker 1: And she graduated from Texas Southern University or Bachelor of
Speaker 1: Sciences Health in Health Administration. And she told People magazine
Speaker 1: last year that she wanted to complete her degree in
Speaker 1: part to honor the memory of her late mother, who
Speaker 1: died in twenty nineteen. She also discussed her goal of
Speaker 1: becoming a hospital administrator, So shout out to her for that.
Speaker 1: This also allowed me to bring up another point, and
Speaker 1: this is another part of ebony excellence, and that's that
Speaker 1: among African Americans, between two thousand and nine and twenty ten,
Speaker 1: statistics show that black women accounted for sixty eight percent
Speaker 1: of associates degrees, sixty six percent of bachelor's degrees, and
Speaker 1: seventy one percent of master's degrees, sixty five percent of
Speaker 1: doctorate degrees awarded to black students. So women are doing
Speaker 1: Black women are doing a lot better than black men.
Speaker 1: And then the other part of this is that by
Speaker 1: both race and gender. The study also shows that black
Speaker 1: women are enrolled in college at a higher percentage rate
Speaker 1: than any other group, including white women, Asian women, and
Speaker 1: white men. So shout out to MEGANE. Stallion, but also
Speaker 1: shout out to black women for really, you know, making
Speaker 1: their education a priority. Can't make this up, man, This
Speaker 1: is an also thing to see.
Speaker 2: So black women leading the world and everything positive.
Speaker 3: It seems he's that's what we need. We need more
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, and real quick, I do want to
Speaker 1: let you know I was using Huffington Post and Essence
Speaker 1: Magazine to source that material there, all right, So now,
Speaker 1: Michael ch Shame the Devil.
Speaker 3: Have you seen this at all? Q? I have.
Speaker 2: I've seen it twice. A bit more subdued than his
Speaker 2: last special, but I think it's because he was tackling
Speaker 2: some even more serious topics. His last special, Black Lives Matter,
Speaker 2: had just.
Speaker 3: Lit fire.
Speaker 2: And I remember watching that special because he said, and
Speaker 2: just you know, it's controversial for black lives to matter?
Speaker 3: Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 2: And he just kept saying it over and over again
Speaker 2: because it should have as ridiculous as you may have
Speaker 2: thought it was for him, to say it over and
Speaker 2: over again. It should have been ridiculous for it the
Speaker 2: need to be said in the first place.
Speaker 1: I remember him saying, He's like, really semantics, and it
Speaker 1: just shows just how juvenile that whole response, that all
Speaker 1: lives matter response is to that. But you know, as
Speaker 1: it turns out, like Dave Chappelle, this guy is willing
Speaker 1: to go in that direction, and you know, handle that
Speaker 1: dead on.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't want to tell his jokes, you know, for
Speaker 1: those who haven't seen it, I really want you to
Speaker 1: go and watch it, and if you haven't seen it.
Speaker 2: Watch Both Specialist if you have time, sure, sure, But if.
Speaker 1: You haven't seen it, I can't promise. I will just
Speaker 1: say spoiler alert. You know, I'm going to try not
Speaker 1: to tell the jokes, but I do want to kind
Speaker 1: of make the points. You know, this is, you know,
Speaker 1: a national, global platform, you know, and again with him
Speaker 1: bringing up some points that we talk about on the show,
Speaker 1: it just is meaningful for us to revisit them. So
Speaker 1: one of the things that he said, he says, I
Speaker 1: feel American until I'm around something very American, and I
Speaker 1: know that you know what that means, but you may
Speaker 1: not know how that feels right.
Speaker 3: So it's interesting.
Speaker 1: You know, there's something that I say all the time
Speaker 1: because you know, people approach me and a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, we're critical of a lot of institutions in
Speaker 1: this country, especially on the show. We're very critical of
Speaker 1: the way policing is done, the way voting is handled,
Speaker 1: especially in poor communities, black and brown communities, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And a lot of folks a convenient way of inconvenient
Speaker 1: for us, but a convenient way for them to attack
Speaker 1: our various positions is to call us anti American, like
Speaker 1: we don't love this country. If we don't love this country,
Speaker 1: we can just leave or something like that. It's it's
Speaker 1: very dismissive and it doesn't really engage, right, And you know,
Speaker 1: I always thought that that was a flaw. That's flawed logic.
Speaker 1: It's a flawed argument, and it never holds up when
Speaker 1: it's direct, like directly in my face. You know, on
Speaker 1: social media or whatever. Of course, people can get off
Speaker 1: whatever they want and you really have to rope someone
Speaker 1: into it, into a conversation that they're never prepared to have.
Speaker 1: I promise you that not with me at least. But
Speaker 1: you know, we do love this country. You know, I
Speaker 1: think I'll speak for most of us when I say that.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd probably even venture to say I speak
Speaker 1: for the vast majority. You know, I can't say all
Speaker 1: of anyone, you know, but you know, the country itself
Speaker 1: is not bad, you know, the country.
Speaker 3: This is a rich country.
Speaker 1: This is a country that has made some notable progress
Speaker 1: in a lot of areas. And of course, you know
Speaker 1: there's a lot long way to go. But for everyone
Speaker 1: to just be comfortable, Oh, we elected a black president,
Speaker 1: you know, that isn't the finish line. You know, there's
Speaker 1: some really measurable, tangible, statistical things that we are really
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish, you know, Barack Obama, we love that,
Speaker 1: But that was almost symbolic in.
Speaker 3: Nature, right, and it's still the exception to exactly the rule, exactly.
Speaker 2: Look at every other president in our history before and
Speaker 2: since more of the same.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. So I equate this to my child and my children.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll pick one. I have two boys, either
Speaker 1: one of them my child, right. I love my child,
Speaker 1: I love this country. I want my child to be better,
Speaker 1: no matter what he's doing, no matter how good you
Speaker 1: think my child is, I want my child to be
Speaker 1: better I want my child to always strive to be better,
Speaker 1: and even if he's the best that he can be,
Speaker 1: to still push himself to be even better than that. Right,
Speaker 1: I think that's something that can coexist with love.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: And granted I would not criticize my child because my
Speaker 1: child is not an adult. But when I think of
Speaker 1: the United States of America, I think of it as
Speaker 1: a mature enough country to withstand some criticism. Right, doesn't
Speaker 1: mean I don't love the country. So you know, when
Speaker 1: Michael Cha says this, I feel American until I'm around
Speaker 1: something very American. What he's talking about is, how about
Speaker 1: the flag? Right on holiday? When we see that flag,
Speaker 1: it matters, you know what I mean, Like especially like
Speaker 1: you know, uh national holidays, when we go to the
Speaker 1: post office, you.
Speaker 3: See the flag.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe a fire department or you know a school.
Speaker 1: You know, you see that flag waving. I pledge allegiance
Speaker 1: to the like this is a part of all of it.
Speaker 1: We all grew up here, right, we see these war movies.
Speaker 1: We want the USA to win still, the good guys
Speaker 1: and always will be. This is our country. We were
Speaker 1: born here, We'll die here.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: It's not until you find that almost seemingly out of
Speaker 1: place flag where it starts to feel like, uh, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm around something very American. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: If I'm driving down the road and I see a truck,
Speaker 1: it's a truck. It belongs on the road with me.
Speaker 1: If I'm driving down the road and I see a
Speaker 1: truck with a flag hanging out of the back of it,
Speaker 1: I feel like this person is racist. That might sound
Speaker 1: like an insane leap, you know. I know that if
Speaker 1: you're listening to my voice, you might feel like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is just somebody who's super patriotic, or obviously this
Speaker 1: is a Republican person.
Speaker 3: That's that's their deal or whatever.
Speaker 1: But for me, it's almost like my mind goes to
Speaker 1: the worst possible place, like this person would rather me
Speaker 1: not live here, because if I wave the flag, I
Speaker 1: know that I'm being patriotic. This is my country. This
Speaker 1: is our country. We love it, we celebrate.
Speaker 2: It's you know, I think it's semantic that you just
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get to it. I didn't even do on purpose.
Speaker 2: This is our country. It's different than this.
Speaker 1: This is my country right and over there it's only
Speaker 1: this is my country, right or when they say this
Speaker 1: is our country. It's they're our exclusive anyone else not right,
Speaker 1: It's not we, it's we. Yeah, yeah, I can't see me.
Speaker 1: But there was a difference in those weeks. In those weeks, yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: so an interesting way of saying that I feel American
Speaker 1: until I'm around something very American. But I think it's
Speaker 1: very true. It it just feels different. And I do
Speaker 1: want to share this. Dr Westernberg, who's a sometimes contributor
Speaker 1: to the show. Here, uh, doctor Camilla Westernburg, who works
Speaker 1: with the NAACP, comes up all the time. She took
Speaker 1: me to meet Jesse Jackson a few months ago. And
Speaker 1: you know, this was a very democratic, very blue organization
Speaker 1: putting on this event, and you know all the people
Speaker 1: that obviously subscribed to similar political ideologies and beliefs. But
Speaker 1: they were passing out flags and I'm wondering, like, why
Speaker 1: is everyone passing out these flags? And then doctor Westernburg
Speaker 1: told me some Then she said, this is our country too,
Speaker 1: and we cannot let them take the flag. We cannot
Speaker 1: let them give the flag a different meaning from what
Speaker 1: it actually means. This flag represents us too. And so
Speaker 1: ever since then, the same flag she gave me, it
Speaker 1: hangs out in front of my house along with everyone
Speaker 1: is welcome no matter what language you speak. Sign I
Speaker 1: have like a yard sign that says that, and then
Speaker 1: I have a huge Black Lives banner Black Lives Matter
Speaker 1: banner in my garage. So all those things can coexist.
Speaker 1: But I just to his point, I feel American until
Speaker 1: I'm around something very American. I thought that was such
Speaker 1: a potent bar that I wanted to address that. So
Speaker 1: moving on, there's something else he says, you know, in
Speaker 1: this special he asks, you know, the way it comes
Speaker 1: up is like when you're talking to a non black person,
Speaker 1: perhaps most notably a white person, and you say to them,
Speaker 1: do you love America? Very easily they can say yes,
Speaker 1: I love America, right, But you know, and the joke was,
Speaker 1: when you ask the same question to a black person,
Speaker 1: do you love America? The black person's response will be like, well,
Speaker 1: I love Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, like Carlem is dope.
Speaker 3: So that's another thing that's very telling. Right.
Speaker 1: So Q and I have been very fortunate. We've traveled
Speaker 1: to all the states. In fact, my fiftieth state, I'm
Speaker 1: going to Alaska in January, so I'll knock them all out.
Speaker 1: But there's no one who's been to more states than me,
Speaker 1: because I've been to all of them, and I know
Speaker 1: that feeling because I've driven through Bucks, North Tennessee. You know,
Speaker 1: I had to stop at the waffle house. I've shared
Speaker 1: the story. You know, we've been pulled over in Mississippi.
Speaker 1: That's a story we've shared many times.
Speaker 3: Yes, And.
Speaker 1: If you look back on it, the craziest thing is,
Speaker 1: I mean we both know this. We drove through Alabama,
Speaker 1: we drove through Mississippi. There's no way to see all
Speaker 1: of them, all of them, but those two in particular.
Speaker 3: You know this because we talked about it.
Speaker 1: There's no way to say that those places weren't absolutely gorgeous,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, just the majesty of the lay of
Speaker 1: the land.
Speaker 3: Just a beautiful place. But if you were to ask
Speaker 3: do I like them Alabama? Are you? You know what
Speaker 3: I mean?
Speaker 1: And it's because you know, I think, to Michael Chase point,
Speaker 1: certain parts of this country.
Speaker 3: Don't feel very welcoming.
Speaker 1: It feels like you're going to have a tougher time,
Speaker 1: you know, like those sundown towns. You know that's still
Speaker 1: a real thing, you know, in a lot of places,
Speaker 1: and if you don't know where to go. It's just
Speaker 1: like any any place for folks who do do any traveling.
Speaker 1: If you don't know where to go, or or that
Speaker 1: more specifically, where not to go, things can be very scary. Well,
Speaker 1: it's not just a someone might rob me if you're
Speaker 1: black and in the wrong part of town. You know,
Speaker 1: it's more like the good old boys might pull up
Speaker 1: in their trucks and lynch me and everyone will have
Speaker 1: a good laugh about it. And then that that fear
Speaker 1: is very real. So when he says, well, I like Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: you know, I think he's pointing out that very thing.
Speaker 1: And for those that maybe that joke didn't really land,
Speaker 1: maybe that gives a bit more context. Now to add
Speaker 1: to that, I thought this is funny. He said, if
Speaker 1: there was a black American flag, there'd be like eleven stars,
Speaker 1: and they'd be.
Speaker 3: For certain cities. They wouldn't even be for states. I
Speaker 3: thought that was so cool.
Speaker 1: But the uh, you know, back to this flag thing,
Speaker 1: there was a bar that he that he dropped in
Speaker 1: this in this stand up special, he says that you know,
Speaker 1: you you might find more Puerto Rican flags in a
Speaker 1: black neighborhood than American flags, and the like, I know,
Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans shout out at the ogo.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I was raised by Puerto Ricans, and I'm part of
Speaker 1: my ancestry is Cuba. My grandmother's from the island of Cuba.
Speaker 1: So that pride is a very different type of pride
Speaker 1: than what we now know to be that American pride.
Speaker 1: Like I grew up with that flag, never had any
Speaker 1: part of my life did that flag intimidate me until
Speaker 1: about maybe we'll call it twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. Then
Speaker 1: it started to mean something a little different, right, No,
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, right and there where it started to take
Speaker 1: on a whole new meeting where it didn't represent me
Speaker 1: or US, or it didn't feel like a happy symbol
Speaker 1: or something that everyone could be on board with. It
Speaker 1: felt like it was being co opted away from the
Speaker 1: US that lives here. To them, that really feels like
Speaker 1: they have claim to the actual land and no one
Speaker 1: else does. And so to his point that there's more
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican flags in a black neighborhood than American flags,
Speaker 1: I don't think that that really is indicative of anti
Speaker 1: American sentiment as much as it is indicative of you know,
Speaker 1: that flag with its history and the current way it's
Speaker 1: being deployed almost in an it almost feels like an attack,
Speaker 1: you know, on anyone whose skin is not you know,
Speaker 1: anyone who doesn't trace their ancestry through the Caucasus Mountain range,
Speaker 1: i e. Caucasian folks. It feels like there's perhaps a
Speaker 1: bit of a disconnect there, and not because we want that,
Speaker 1: but because that has been what has been imposed.
Speaker 3: There's the Puerto Rican flag. It's all love.
Speaker 2: The context is far more intimidating now, and that's intentional, right,
Speaker 2: and that inclusive verse exclusive. It's very pronoun you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like it's meant to feel that way,
Speaker 2: and we and it. They get their point across exactly
Speaker 2: very well without even having to say anything. It makes
Speaker 2: it strange. Like you said, a pickup truck with a
Speaker 2: massive American flag flying from it says something to us
Speaker 2: loud and clear.
Speaker 3: That's very different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know, to his point, he says that,
Speaker 1: you know, the flag reminds white folks of American history,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and it should, but the
Speaker 1: same flag also reminds black folks of American history. And
Speaker 1: the way he says it was like, oh, you got it.
Speaker 1: You know, so another point he makes, uh, just kind
Speaker 1: of connected. But he says that, you know, listening to
Speaker 1: the National Anthem feels kind of like listening to R.
Speaker 3: Kelly.
Speaker 1: Now forgive me that hilarious. I gotta tell this joke.
Speaker 1: He said, it feels like listening to R.
Speaker 3: Kelly.
Speaker 1: Now it still feels good. It's just hard to not
Speaker 1: think about that other thing, right, and what bar?
Speaker 3: What a bar? You know.
Speaker 1: Obviously, twenty twenty grew a lot of us up, you know, educated,
Speaker 1: a lot of us, brought a lot of history out,
Speaker 1: let a lot of us know where we stood, you know.
Speaker 1: And we can trace this back to Kaepernick. And even
Speaker 1: the reason that Kaepernick decided to kneel was because there
Speaker 1: was a string of police shootings and no accountability. These
Speaker 1: lives are just expendable. And you can trace that trend
Speaker 1: back to before Trayvon Martin, because remember Trayvon Martin was
Speaker 1: when people said enough is enough, and that was in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve. Yeah, well that's when Black Lives Matter as
Speaker 1: a movement began and the hashtag first appeared. So you
Speaker 1: were talking ten years strong since it since it got
Speaker 1: to the point where enough was enough and Trayvon Martin
Speaker 1: was murdered in Florida by what's that guy's name? It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, and so oh yeah, you know, and then
Speaker 1: all the context and all the you know, everything that
Speaker 1: has come up over over the past decade. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of children have grown up with this as
Speaker 1: the backdrop for their childhood. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: adults now feel like, oh my gosh, this is something
Speaker 1: I really have to deal with, And a lot of
Speaker 1: other people are like, hey, man, you know what, I've
Speaker 1: ducked it for my whole life. I can duck it
Speaker 1: the rest of my life, you know. But the fact
Speaker 1: is is that the national anthem being divisive.
Speaker 3: It's not like.
Speaker 1: I don't feel you know, I have conversation black conversations.
Speaker 1: I live a black life, I have a black family,
Speaker 1: you know these sorts of things. I'm definitely plugged into
Speaker 1: the black we'll call it collective consciousness.
Speaker 3: I have to be in order to do this show.
Speaker 3: We both do.
Speaker 1: There is no strong feeling against the national anthem. The
Speaker 1: strongest feeling has been, hey, look, this is something that occurs,
Speaker 1: this is something that is visible.
Speaker 3: If we're going to protest.
Speaker 1: This is something that we can do because this is
Speaker 1: our way of charging the country to do better.
Speaker 2: And that was so gracious. Right, there's actual anti US
Speaker 2: lyrics still and we still stand with our hands in
Speaker 2: our hearts, like it's really there's a lot of credit
Speaker 2: that we don't get that we should.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, absolutely, And this isn't really in the same vein,
Speaker 1: but I thought it was really potent and I did
Speaker 1: want to share this as well. There's a bar that
Speaker 1: he gives in this special and he says he's talking
Speaker 1: about depression, and he says that, you know, depression implies
Speaker 1: that your life is so good that you shouldn't feel sad,
Speaker 1: Like sadness is not a thing that you should experience, right,
Speaker 1: And he's making it for anybody that battles depression. This
Speaker 1: is this is made in jest, and he's trying to
Speaker 1: make a different point, not trying to pick on anyone,
Speaker 1: nor am I. I would never do that, But his point
Speaker 1: was I think illustrated when he said, imagine a slave
Speaker 1: picking cotton, you know, because that's a pretty depressing, pretty
Speaker 1: grim reality. But you know, if you feel like your
Speaker 1: life is so good that you should never be sad,
Speaker 1: then you have the space to be depressed.
Speaker 2: You have the space to consider it any.
Speaker 3: Illness, right exactly, it's a.
Speaker 2: Point that something must be wrong, that you're sad because
Speaker 2: your life is so incredible.
Speaker 3: Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: So you know, there's there's a lot of things these
Speaker 1: and other things. Obviously we didn't touch on everything, but
Speaker 1: I highly recommend watching it. The show is called Michael
Speaker 1: Chay Shame the Devil's on Netflix. It didn't come out recently,
Speaker 1: you know, it came out a while ago. We waited
Speaker 1: to do this. We've been wanting to do this.
Speaker 2: For a while. Let them know what you mean by
Speaker 2: a while, because it did come out.
Speaker 1: Rather recently, but we didn't get it the first weekend
Speaker 1: about this. It was maybe like a month and month
Speaker 1: and a half ago something like that. It came out,
Speaker 1: but plenty of time for it to you know, for
Speaker 1: us not to take his material and then you know,
Speaker 1: spoil it for you. So and plus despite us having
Speaker 1: gone through these it's still very watchable. It's very entertaining,
Speaker 1: very funny, by the way last month, okay, But also
Speaker 1: I think that it's something that might give you a
Speaker 1: little bit more in the way of perspective. I think
Speaker 1: that the more we know how each other's lives is
Speaker 1: the more we can empathize and you know, the more
Speaker 1: right ultimately that we can do by each other. And
Speaker 1: that's the point of this show, and that's.
Speaker 3: Hopefully what we will leave you with.
Speaker 1: So stick around your radios. We're coming back with more
Speaker 1: a big cipher right after this