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. I am
Speaker 1: your host, Rams'.
Speaker 2: Ja, he is Ramsey's jaw. I am q Ward. You
Speaker 2: are tuned into Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: Indeed you are, and we have a problem.
Speaker 2: Just one.
Speaker 1: No, Okay, we're clear, But today we are going to
Speaker 1: be dealing with a problem that has become sort of
Speaker 1: a cancer in terms of how this country moves and
Speaker 1: how decisions are made, and how aggressive thinking has been compromised.
Speaker 1: You know, for those that know and for those that
Speaker 1: listen to the show, you understand, this basic truth is
Speaker 1: that the tendency of humanity over the course of time
Speaker 1: has been more progressive. We are kinder to each other,
Speaker 1: We do things that will make our lives better and
Speaker 1: make the lives of those around us better, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And certainly in the history of this country on a
Speaker 1: much smaller timeline, our tendency has been a little bit
Speaker 1: more progressive.
Speaker 2: I have an interesting viewpoint on what you just said.
Speaker 2: Twenty four hours ago. I wouldn't have agreed with you,
Speaker 2: but as I'm listening to you say it now, something's hitman.
Speaker 2: I think you're right being manipulated a bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, let's get to it. But today we're going
Speaker 1: to spend a good amount of the show talking about
Speaker 1: Christian white men. This is something that has come up
Speaker 1: a lot in recent weeks and months, and how these
Speaker 1: people there's a concerted effort to shape the country around
Speaker 1: some of the principles of the Bible that they choose
Speaker 1: to espouse and live their lives by, or at least
Speaker 1: want everyone else to live their lives by. And it
Speaker 1: causes a great deal of harm, a lot of which
Speaker 1: we will discuss in today's episode. But before we get there,
Speaker 1: let's start, as always with some ebony excellence, shall we?
Speaker 1: I think we shall? And why don't you take this
Speaker 1: one because it's a little bit in the sports lane
Speaker 1: and I know you love those.
Speaker 2: Rams is hilarious with regards to sports. Somehow, I'm the
Speaker 2: czar and he has no idea, which neither are true.
Speaker 2: But today's that be excellence sponsored by Actively Black? Is
Speaker 2: it actively black dot com? There is greatness in our
Speaker 2: DNA story comes from essence. Rajah Caruth became just the
Speaker 2: third black driver to win a NASCAR National Series race
Speaker 2: when he drove to victory at the Las Vegas Motor
Speaker 2: Speedway on March first. The twenty one year old Winston
Speaker 2: Salem State University senior and NASCAR Driver for Diversity Program
Speaker 2: graduate also earned pole position. It's the best starting position
Speaker 2: in a race for the first time in his career.
Speaker 2: During the qualifying session ahead of the race, he said
Speaker 2: not quote I'm pretty speechless. It's been a tough journey
Speaker 2: so far, and quote, Caruth told NASCAR, quote, a lot
Speaker 2: of people have helped me get to this point. Thank
Speaker 2: you to every single one of y'all. Definitely ups and downs,
Speaker 2: but this journey has been fruitful at times and testing
Speaker 2: at others. This winter was a lot of uncertainty about
Speaker 2: where I'd be driving, not having a bunch of funding
Speaker 2: behind me. Just stayed true to my faith in my family. Fortunately,
Speaker 2: a lot of people put a lot of stuff together
Speaker 2: for me in this spot, Caru said, CBS Sports reports
Speaker 2: Caruth is one of the most promising talents to emerge
Speaker 2: from NASCAR's diversity program in recent years. With his win,
Speaker 2: Caruf joins Wendell Scott, who became the first black driver
Speaker 2: to win a NASCAR National Series in nineteen sixty three,
Speaker 2: Bubba Wallace, who won in twenty twenty one, becoming the
Speaker 2: second black driver to achieve this feat in the seventy
Speaker 2: six year history of the sport. After the Big Big Race,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Caruth thanked his parents for supporting his love
Speaker 2: for the sport. He said, I quote, I'm really glad
Speaker 2: my parents are here, especially my dad, and shout out
Speaker 2: to this young champion. Absolutely well.
Speaker 1: I like starting off with some ebony excellence because it
Speaker 1: helps us to know that we are more than just
Speaker 1: these grim stories that we share, and hopefully you get
Speaker 1: that from a starting off on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting that we had to build ebny excellence
Speaker 2: into the show because so often the tone and the
Speaker 2: feel of our show is kind of the opposite of that.
Speaker 1: Sure, and just a.
Speaker 2: Way to keep us and our listeners in good spirits
Speaker 2: and in a good headspace, we had to make sure
Speaker 2: that every show included some great, triumphant news about you know,
Speaker 2: our brothers and sisters around the country and around the world.
Speaker 1: Now, there was something that you said before we get
Speaker 1: into kind of the meat and potatoes here. I was
Speaker 1: mentioning how our tendency certainly in this country has been
Speaker 1: toward a more progressive agen the lifestyle, et cetera. And
Speaker 1: it inspired a thought, and I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that we discuss that before we get into what we're
Speaker 1: getting into, because it's going to be cut heavy.
Speaker 2: It'd be easy to feel that the opposite is true.
Speaker 2: How can we be more progressive, more united, more like
Speaker 2: brothers and sisters now than before, when everything that we
Speaker 2: see happening in our legislation, in our courts and by
Speaker 2: our lawmakers and in our country seems to spit in
Speaker 2: the face of that idea, seems to be trying to
Speaker 2: drag us backward. But when you stop and pay attention
Speaker 2: to it, you realize that there is a masterful level
Speaker 2: of manipulation happening to the citizens of the entire world,
Speaker 2: not just of this country. And what brought that to
Speaker 2: my attention was thinking about the way the world responded,
Speaker 2: first to George Floyd and second to COVID. Even though
Speaker 2: there were conspiracy theorists, even though there were large segments
Speaker 2: of every population that push that pushed back. For the
Speaker 2: most part, the governments and populations of every country in
Speaker 2: this world kind of beat the same drum for a
Speaker 2: few months at least, Hey, this thing could get rid
Speaker 2: of all of us, so all of us need to
Speaker 2: collectively do something to take care of each other. Most
Speaker 2: people got the vaccine not because they believed in the
Speaker 2: efficacy of the of the vaccine, not.
Speaker 1: Because because perfect perfect, because.
Speaker 2: They even believed that it was the best option for them,
Speaker 2: but for their parents, for their grandparents, for their children,
Speaker 2: for those who were who had autoimmune deficiencies, for those
Speaker 2: who could not make sure they took care of themselves.
Speaker 2: So our humanity as a world global population was put
Speaker 2: on stage in that moment, and a very large portion
Speaker 2: of that population said, you know what, for everybodybody else,
Speaker 2: I'm going to do this thing, even as they're still
Speaker 2: trying to figure out if that's the best version of it,
Speaker 2: even while they're still testing, and while they're still we
Speaker 2: are now a part of the trials for this right.
Speaker 2: So that's when you think about that, that's very encouraging
Speaker 2: that most of the world, for the rest of the world,
Speaker 2: made that decision based on not just keeping themselves in
Speaker 2: their own posterity alive, but the people around them that
Speaker 2: you know, some aren't as strong as they were. I'm
Speaker 2: glad that you you brought that up because I think
Speaker 2: that that.
Speaker 1: Really does help explain what it is that we're here
Speaker 1: to talk about today, because you know, when we all
Speaker 1: need to come together and we recognize and respect the
Speaker 1: fact that we are a part of a tapestry. This
Speaker 1: is a human family that you're a part of. I
Speaker 1: think that we're at our best selves, right, But as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, there is a fact I said, certainly in
Speaker 1: this country that feels like they should be the deciders,
Speaker 1: and this is their country, and this is their government,
Speaker 1: and they should be at the top. And I don't
Speaker 1: want to beat up on because obviously I'm talking about
Speaker 1: straight Christian white men, healthy, straight Christian white men, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to be unkind because I realized that
Speaker 1: the world around them is changing and they feel very
Speaker 1: threatened by that. When you've been in first book this
Speaker 1: is me, you can push back. You guys should see
Speaker 1: c But you know, these are our brothers. I would
Speaker 1: not call the rest of us brothers and sisters and
Speaker 1: leave them out right, And I have to respect the
Speaker 1: fact that when you've been in that position for such
Speaker 1: a long time and the world around you starts changing
Speaker 1: and you've never been in a different position a lower position,
Speaker 1: if you will. It can be very scary. I'm saying
Speaker 1: it's right. I'm just respecting the humanity behind the reaction. Right.
Speaker 1: In other words, I can see people succumbing to fear
Speaker 1: and taking all these drastic steps and pushing back harder
Speaker 1: than ever right against a decidedly overall progressive agenda. Okay,
Speaker 1: in the scale of countries, over the scale of hundreds
Speaker 1: of years, of course, there has been a tendency toward
Speaker 1: a more progressive societal framework. Okay, in the span of
Speaker 1: one lifetime even, but in the span of twenty years,
Speaker 1: thirty years, that could go back and forth, maybe a
Speaker 1: couple of times. Now, because we're talking about straight Christian
Speaker 1: white men, our brothers, we have to explain what is
Speaker 1: going on with this group of folks some of the
Speaker 1: people in this cause. You know, sometimes people will say,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not all people, and there are people
Speaker 1: who push back against that. Right, Well, don't say not
Speaker 1: all of them, because like side steps the problem I
Speaker 1: push back against that. I think it's important to say
Speaker 1: not all people. You know. Indeed, we're going to show
Speaker 1: one such individual who qualifies as a straight Christian white
Speaker 1: man who's a state representative from Texas. He goes by
Speaker 1: the name of James Talerico, and he is one of
Speaker 1: our brothers, but he's one of the people who's identifying
Speaker 1: this white Christian nationalist agenda that has infiltrated our politics,
Speaker 1: that has served to ultimately dismantle abortion protections, affirmative action.
Speaker 1: There's a concerted effort to elect officials that espouse this
Speaker 1: very old school way of thinking. And you know, on
Speaker 1: the second half of the show, we're actually going to
Speaker 1: talk about one such individual who had a lot to say.
Speaker 1: He's a minister himself, but he had a lot to
Speaker 1: say from a pullpit of a megachurch, a mega megachurch,
Speaker 1: about doctor king, about black people, about women, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And these aren't isolated incidents, but we're going to use
Speaker 1: a handful of these to explain to you this movement
Speaker 1: and kind of the nature of the movement. So before
Speaker 1: we get there, let's play this video from James Talerico
Speaker 1: so you get an understanding of how he explains this
Speaker 1: white Christian nationalist movement.
Speaker 3: Christian nationalism is on the rise. Three years ago, Christian
Speaker 3: nationalists stormed the US capital, killing police officers while carrying
Speaker 3: crosses and signs reading Jesus Saves. Two years ago, Christian
Speaker 3: nationalists on the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade,
Speaker 3: allowing states like ours to outlaw abortion even in cases
Speaker 3: of rape and incest. And as we speak, Christian nationalists
Speaker 3: billionaires are attempting to dismantle public education in the state
Speaker 3: of Texas and therefore dismantle democracy. Let me be very clear,
Speaker 3: there is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism. It is the
Speaker 3: worship of power, political power, social power, economic power in
Speaker 3: the name of Christ. And it is a betrayal of
Speaker 3: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus never asked us to kill police officers.
Speaker 3: Jesus never asked us to ban books, silence teachers, or
Speaker 3: defund schools. Jesus never asked us to control women's bodies.
Speaker 3: Jesus never asked us to establish a Christian theocracy. All
Speaker 3: he asked was that we love thy neighbor.
Speaker 1: So again, this is a Christian white man who is
Speaker 1: explaining this white Christian nationalist movement. And I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that we shout out that came from dal
Speaker 1: Hughley's Instagram page where we got that, so you can
Speaker 1: go and check that out for yourself and you can
Speaker 1: see for yourself exactly who's talking. Now, for the first
Speaker 1: part of the show, I'm going to share a couple
Speaker 1: of examples of how this looks and you need to
Speaker 1: know this. And I wanted to speak to the fears
Speaker 1: that are kind of prevalent in these groups, so that
Speaker 1: if you're having conversations with people like this, you kind
Speaker 1: of know where they're coming from. You know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if their fears are well founded in your mind.
Speaker 1: All that matters is that their fears are well founded
Speaker 1: in their minds, and speaking to those fears, I think
Speaker 1: that's where you begin to have conversations that can be constructive. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll admit, before I give you both of these examples,
Speaker 1: I'm about to give you that some of these folks
Speaker 1: are in the deep end. But the fact remains is
Speaker 1: that they are our brothers on this show, they are
Speaker 1: our brothers. Right. That's if you're on this planet with
Speaker 1: us and we were both created by the same maker,
Speaker 1: whoever you decide that that is, then you are our
Speaker 1: brother and we will hold out even when it's tough,
Speaker 1: we will still hold out a modicum of grace for
Speaker 1: some forgiveness for you got unless job. We have to
Speaker 1: otherwise what's the point of all this? Right, So, first thing,
Speaker 1: I want to share this with you. I don't have
Speaker 1: it to share like in terms of the clip because
Speaker 1: it's a little vulgar, but you're welcome to go check
Speaker 1: this out on TMZ. The long and the short of
Speaker 1: it is that there is a gentleman by the name
Speaker 1: of Emmitt Martin I believe this is his last name.
Speaker 1: He was being interviewed by an NBC journalist named sha
Speaker 1: Quill Brewster. Okay, and Emmitt is a white man, older
Speaker 1: i'd guess somewhere in his fifties, maybe early sixties, somewhere
Speaker 1: in there. And then she kill Brewster is a young
Speaker 1: black man, not that that matters, but just so that
Speaker 1: you can find the video if you choose to search
Speaker 1: it out, and he's Shaquille is interviewing him, trying to
Speaker 1: get a sense of who's going to vote for and
Speaker 1: if he's interested in voting for Nikki Haley, which we
Speaker 1: know she's dropped out of the race. But at the
Speaker 1: time when this video came out, it gave session especially Yeah,
Speaker 1: but at the time when this video came out, it
Speaker 1: really shows how some of this thinking has really come
Speaker 1: back and retaken kind of a center stage. You know,
Speaker 1: back when men were men and women were happier for it. Right,
Speaker 1: this sort of again old school way of thinking, this
Speaker 1: non progressive mindset.
Speaker 2: There, unfortunately, are women who do still subscribe to that
Speaker 2: ideology because they do see the benefits and having sure
Speaker 2: the patriarchy and all that comes with it.
Speaker 1: Sure, I recognize and respect that there's people of all
Speaker 1: walks of life and all colors who can see benefits
Speaker 1: and all sorts of things. But the overwhelming numbers suggest
Speaker 1: that this is a very conservative, very Christian, very white,
Speaker 1: very male way of thinking. That's where you're going to
Speaker 1: find the strongest cohort of individuals who support this way
Speaker 1: of thinking. So one of the things that he said
Speaker 1: is that he's not going to vote for Nikki Haley
Speaker 1: because she lacks the anatomy necessary to scratch herself. It
Speaker 1: was really just such a why it was, It was
Speaker 1: really weird, and it was Vulder And I understand that
Speaker 1: these are though these are isolated examples, sure, and I
Speaker 1: know I know, but let me say this, these are
Speaker 1: these are individuals that are saying this, right.
Speaker 2: That is not honest that's fair.
Speaker 1: Okay, these are individuals, and I don't love it when
Speaker 1: people take a couple of individual examples in string together
Speaker 1: and narrative. But the fact is that these examples do support, uh,
Speaker 1: something that has been journalistically documented from credible sources, and
Speaker 1: that the white Christian nationalist movement has become more radicalized,
Speaker 1: has moved further to the right, has moved further away
Speaker 1: from the Gospel of Jesus Christ than ever before, and
Speaker 1: on and on, and all of these things have resulted
Speaker 1: in power grabs and a pushback against again more progressive
Speaker 1: reforms that have allowed for more advancement for other people
Speaker 1: in society. The thing about what Emmitt said that really
Speaker 1: stood out to a lot of people and why he
Speaker 1: was making headlines on TMZ and elsewhere, is he said
Speaker 1: women again, He's talking about Nicki Haley, but he says
Speaker 1: women are only good for having babies and taking care
Speaker 1: of the house. Okay, so this kind of gives you
Speaker 1: another aperture into that way of thinking. Right now, I
Speaker 1: want to move to another example.
Speaker 2: Before you move on. Important to point out that you'd
Speaker 2: think something like that as an opinion would be an
Speaker 2: auto disqualifier for him and people that think like right,
Speaker 2: like you think of a politician was running for office
Speaker 2: and came out and shared that type of rhetoric that
Speaker 2: at least to the women voters in the country, that
Speaker 2: they would be automatically disqualified and have no support from
Speaker 2: women voters. That is sadly untrue.
Speaker 1: You know that. I'm glad you mentioned that too, because
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think is that stems
Speaker 1: from a lot of the fear in this country, fear
Speaker 1: of mass shooters, fear of immigration invasion, fear of the
Speaker 1: great replacement. For those that don't know, there's this theory
Speaker 1: on the far right that suggests that white people are
Speaker 1: being systematically replaced by Jewish people, and it's a very
Speaker 1: bizarre thing, and it's really old school theory, and so
Speaker 1: far nothing like that is even gotten close to happening.
Speaker 1: But in the right circles, this is a very real
Speaker 1: fear for these people. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: we've learned recently is that people who have attendancy to
Speaker 1: be more fearful of the unknown tend to be more
Speaker 1: conservative in their voting, and so fear is particularly susceptible
Speaker 1: to or rather people who are conservative are how am
Speaker 1: I saying this, people who have a tendency to be
Speaker 1: more fearful tend to be more conservative with the vote, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll just say it that way. And people who are
Speaker 1: less afraid tend to be more willing to take chances
Speaker 1: and to lean into their more empathetic feelings even if
Speaker 1: it presents a small risk to themselves personally. Right. And
Speaker 1: so we have to understand that a lot of times
Speaker 1: these people are dealing with a great deal of fear,
Speaker 1: and so the Great Replacement and these other elements that
Speaker 1: have become kind of conspiracy theories in these circles are
Speaker 1: very real. They're very vivid to these folks. Now I
Speaker 1: want to share another story. This one comes from NBC.
Speaker 1: You mentioned elected officials, So this one comes from Missouri.
Speaker 1: The Missouri Republican Party said Thursday was working to remove
Speaker 1: a Republican candidate for governor from the primary ballot after
Speaker 1: a picture of him appearing to do a Nazi salute
Speaker 1: while standing in front of a burning cross resurfaced online.
Speaker 1: In the picture of the candidate, Daryl Leon McClanahan, the
Speaker 1: third is seen apparently saluting alongside a hooded man in
Speaker 1: clan robes. Quote the Missouri Republican Party has been made
Speaker 1: aware that Daryl Leon McClanahan, the third filed for governor
Speaker 1: as Republicans despite his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan,
Speaker 1: which fundamentally contradicts our party's values at and platform. Quote
Speaker 1: that's what the party said in a post on x Thursday.
Speaker 1: Goes on to say, we have begun the process of
Speaker 1: having mister McClanahan removed from the ballot as a Republican candidate. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to finish this and then we'll touch on this.
Speaker 1: McClanahan responded in a post, saying, in part, quote the
Speaker 1: GOP knew exactly who I am. What a bunch of
Speaker 1: anti white hypocrites. In a statement to NBC News, McClanahan
Speaker 1: indicated he fight the move. Quote I filed legally and lawfully.
Speaker 1: He said, they will need to file a civil complaint
Speaker 1: to remove me. Mcclanahan's campaign website describes him as quote
Speaker 1: the Conservative Voice for Governor of Missouri. Missouri en lists
Speaker 1: one of his campaign promises as opposing the woke agenda.
Speaker 1: So what we What I want to mention here is
Speaker 1: that I do believe that he's right that they knew
Speaker 1: exactly who he was. They had to distance himself when
Speaker 1: the pictures resurfaced, and rather than him saying, oh, no,
Speaker 1: that wasn't me, or you know that's photoshop or ai,
Speaker 1: He's like, no, no, you knew who I was. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to sue you to continue to run all.
Speaker 2: Of them anti white the irony. Sure, it's almost laughable.
Speaker 1: Sure, and you see you see how that rhetoric he
Speaker 1: he It almost suggested he has a decidedly white agenda.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned something before we started recording today that
Speaker 1: I thought was really dope, and I think that you
Speaker 1: kind of got inspired by Dave Chappel. But effectually, what
Speaker 1: you communicated was that everybody in China is Chinese. And
Speaker 1: I want you to expound upon that for our listeners. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: I've been trying to figure out a way to articulate
Speaker 2: what he was trying to say, and when he said
Speaker 2: it, it just made so much sense. Everyone in China is Chinese.
Speaker 2: Everyone in Australia is Australian. Only here do our leaders
Speaker 2: and our government see us as other. So when they
Speaker 2: make policy and when they make decisions, it is not
Speaker 2: with us in mind. It is only with a certain
Speaker 2: segment of the population in mind, and it's fully intentional
Speaker 2: that way. So, even if we don't agree with the
Speaker 2: way that other countries govern, when they do something that
Speaker 2: is for the benefit of China, it is for the
Speaker 2: benefit of all people that are Chinese, at least in theory. Here,
Speaker 2: that's not even the truth. In theory, it's very very
Speaker 2: open and very very straightforwardly not to benefit minorities and
Speaker 2: poor people.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately,