WEBVTT - 081223 Solidarity and The Alabama Riverboat Brawl (Part 1) 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.200 Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:05.920 welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.440 your host Rams' job. He is Ram Joh. 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:13.039 I am fighting off a very very aggravating cough right now. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.160 I just had a very very soothing cup of tea 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.520 and had a little halls meant to lift. 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.640 This before that. Hopefully we can make it through this thing. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:25.400 But if y'all hear me struggling and just pray for 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.000 your boy and it's a civic side. 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.400 Yes, the one and only you word on the mic 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.080 with us, And we got a lot to talk about today. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:39.159 If you've been paying attention to the internets, you know 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:45.920 that we had to cover the Alabama river Front brawl. 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:50.279 Oh yeah, I read and seen and heard a couple 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:51.040 of things about that. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.000 Yeah, that's that's a big deal. So we're going to 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:58.760 talk about that and why it's perhaps significant. We're also 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:03.200 going to be talking about the country singer Jason al 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.920 Dean with his song Try That in a Small Town. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:11.920 We unfortunately couldn't get to that last weekend just because 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:13.560 of the way things time out, but we felt it 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:18.119 was certainly appropriate for this week, considering there was an 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.720 act of solidarity to try to get that song to 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.200 number one. We'll talk about the data and the numbers 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.880 prior to that song coming under fire and under public scrutiny, 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.320 and then the conservative push to make it number one 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.240 to like kind of double down on the messaging and 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.400 the coded dog whistle kind of messaging of that song. 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:41.720 So we're going to be talking about kind of what 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:47.680 solidarity looks like and what to think about, what to 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:52.640 consider and as always, we're trying to create better allies here. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.280 But these are some scary truths that we're gonna have 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.920 to talk about, so bear with us, y'all. But first 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.600 and foremost, we are going to start to show off, 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.960 as we do with some Ebony Excellence. Showy we show. 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:10.280 So today's Ebony Excellence is sponsored by Major Threads for 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.839 innovative fashionable sportswear. Check major threads dot com. Today we're 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:19.600 talking about Romeo Miller aka Masterpiece Son, and we're reading 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:24.720 from that black enterprise. Romeo Miller partners with Tesla engineer 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.080 to start electric car slash tech venture. All Right, Romeo 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.720 Miller is making his name in the entrepreneurial space with 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.280 his new tech venture, partnering with Richard Pattison, a former 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.480 Tesla engineer who helped create its famed model s Sadan 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.800 Miller will lend his business expertise and resources to the 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:46.280 new business Tryon and Shango, described by Afrotech as a 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.240 quote automotive and tech powerhouse that is committed to a 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.320 green future. Quote. Tryan and Shango extends beyond the car 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.920 industry to focus on environmental sustainability and advancement through technology. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.280 Will extend to electric homes so that every fast of 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.200 life is greener while simultaneously being more efficient. Miller sung 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:10.480 Patterson's praises as a groundbreaking automotive engineer and an Instagram post, 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:14.240 adding that he is black history and there's a quote here. 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.360 I always envisioned a future with one hundred percent green energy, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.000 and Richard has the innovations and I have the connections 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.000 to make that possible. Detailed the father of two, He 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.839 goes on to say, let's go to work, and I'm 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:27.720 glad to be a part of the Tryon and Shango 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:29.960 tech team. It's official. Y'all going to have to call 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.839 me tech Bay now. Loll I'm assuming that was from 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.960 a post somewhere, because normally people don't say, loll out 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:41.440 loud but crowded, Romeo Miller, I think that's an Instagram capture. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:46.600 we'll take it. And Yeah, anybody that's breaking new ground, 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:52.000 anybody with an entrepreneurial spirit, anybody that is innovating and 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.160 allowing for there to be a black seat at the table, 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:58.400 We're going to applaud them. And so today it goes 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:05.119 to Romeo Miller and Richard Patterson. All Right, we won't 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:12.720 keep you waiting, so let's talk about this Montgomery river 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:24.279 Boat riverboat brawl. I'm assuming that if you are to 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.840 any degree tapped into the culture, that you've seen the videos. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.400 I myself, I don't like to watch videos of people fighting. Ever. 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.560 The most I'll do is probably a boxing match because 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:37.640 they have the gloves on and typically the people are 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.440 okay at the end of it. But I don't enjoy 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:42.800 seeing people get hurt. It never moved me at all. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.880 So I don't watch like the Ultimate Fights and the 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.280 street fight videos. And when World Star Hip Hop was 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:51.240 putting all those people fighting videos up, I just was 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.760 It makes my stomach turn. It's like seeing people be 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:55.680 mean to animals or something. It just doesn't do it 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.320 for me. It's sick to me. If that's your thing, 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.040 I'm not mad at you, but to me it I 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:05.000 can't get jiggy with it. But this fight was everywhere, 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.920 and once it started to go everywhere. Bear in mind too, 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:13.719 that you're hearing this episode. We record the episode before 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:15.560 you hear it, so we're going to give you as 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.560 up to date information as we have in our thoughts 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.560 on it. But you might be hearing this a few 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.520 days after we record it, and so forgive us if 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.360 it sounds a little dated, but this is kind of 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:29.960 still happening right now, so we're going to do our 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:36.640 best anyway. This video, or rather these several videos from 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:41.080 different vantage points, were everywhere on social media, and so 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:46.520 I don't want to describe the fighting, but I do 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:52.160 want to try to understand why it's important. And Q 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.359 and I we decided that we would have our first 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.240 conversation about trying to figure out what was going on 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.200 on the air for the benefit of you our list. 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.480 So we haven't had this conversation yet, right you. We 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.120 haven't exactly, So this is our first time kind of 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.840 taking a stab at this of kind of what's going on. 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.920 But I will kind of paint a small picture, very 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.520 very small picture for you. Along. The short of it is, 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:22.320 there was a boat of a big boat, I don't 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.000 know what they're called, riverboat maybe riverboat, Yeah, that was 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.760 trying to dock at its docking space. And there was 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.920 a group of people who happened to be white. They 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.320 were occupying the riverboat's docking space. The riverboat had a 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.480 full crew, and on and on and on. A security 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.719 guard jumps off of the riverboat or maybe you worked 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:45.679 at the dock, I'm not sure, worked for the riverboat company. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.200 Who knows. But the security guard went and tried to 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.119 get these folks to move their boat, the white folks 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.000 to move their boat. This is very black and white brawl, 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.040 which is kind of why it probably got so much attention. 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.640 The security guard goes to the riverboat folks and says, hey, 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.200 can you move your boat? They I guess, I guess 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.160 they were like taking their time or just not moving 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:06.719 it or not moving it fast enough. So the security guard, 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:08.880 after having already told them that they need to move 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.640 their boat, can't continue to keep the river boat waiting 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.640 in the river. So he goes back and then just 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:16.680 starts unhooking the boat to move it out of the way. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.040 That's when the people come that own the boat. There's 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.800 a group of them again all white, and then they 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.080 attacked the security guard and they jumped them. There's four 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:30.800 or five people just beating up this this man. And 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:36.240 then you know, afterwards, there was a lot of people 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.440 witnessing him getting beat up for doing his job. A 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.400 lot of these folks were black and they didn't like 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.240 how that played out, so then they came to his 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.720 defense and then hence the brawl, and it was very 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:53.360 divided along racial lines. I want to so that's that's 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:54.760 the long and short of the story. But I want 0:07:54.760 --> 0:08:00.080 to remind you that here on this show, we push 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:06.040 and we'll always push for solidarity, fellowship, brotherhood, sisterhood, community 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.520 and respecting and honoring each other across our cultural tribal 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.920 lines and whatever. It doesn't matter what color you are. 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:15.840 We think that you're our sisters and our brothers because 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.800 the same consciousness that was given to you was given 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.280 to me by the same source. Right, so we see 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.760 that there's a lot more commonality than our differences, and 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.680 we choose to produce this show from that space in 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:34.199 our mind and hearts. Okay, now that we got a 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.439 little bit of a picture painted your early thoughts. Q. 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.480 I just want to first give our listeners some more context, 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:45.560 because the video tells a story. It tells a pretty 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:50.920 clear story by itself. Dennis Pickett, I think the brother's. 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:56.120 Name was was the co captain of the riverboat, and 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.040 because the riverboat could not dock, he had to get 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:02.320 from the riverboat to the doc to ask these gentlemen 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:03.840 to move their boat out of the way. 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:12.559 They refused. The reasons why they refused are comically obvious. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.400 Yeah, I know what you're going to say. I'm not 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:22.120 going to say it. Then I'll say it. There's a 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.240 first off, I think that this is a cultural moment 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:29.440 for black people. So I was talking to a lady 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:33.480 friend of mine. She's white. Okay, we asked our good 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.520 friend of the show, Tessa Ferrell, to come up on 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:36.880 the show, but she couldn't make it this week. But 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.240 we wanted someone who was white to sit in on 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.960 us while we have this conversation. But I did have 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.880 this conversation. I asked a lady friend of mine, she's white, 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:48.720 or she asked me, rather, why is this so special? 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.319 Why is this so important? Why are people sharing this video. 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.440 It's a fight I mean, never seen a fight video 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.400 get this big before. And there's a couple of reasons. 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:02.120 Obviously the scale, so there's all break bro whatever, and 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:06.880 it's racial, right, But I think that the biggest reason 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.640 that this fight video is so it's a cultural moment 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:18.480 is because it shows solidarity, Black solidarity in the face 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:26.560 of white Maybe oppression is not the best word, but 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.480 white entitlement. That's the word I wanted to use when 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.839 you were saying, you know exactly why they didn't want 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.360 to move the boat is there's a sense of entitlement. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.920 This is something that black people brush up against with 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.520 some frequency. This is why there's such a big pushback 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.679 against Karen's quote unquote and then Kevin's. The male version 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:51.480 of Karen's is that there's this sense of entitlement that 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.520 you get to do whatever you want to do. I 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.560 am a second class citizen and I'm relegated to the 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.880 margins of society having to wait for you. You're hind 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.920 is to finish whatever it is that you're doing, take 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:07.560 your lion's share, or occupy whatever. You know what I'm saying. 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.160 You can waste my time, you can smoke where there's 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:17.440 no smoking whatever, whatever you don't like, you feel entitled 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.040 to or whatever you do like, you feel entitled to 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.040 be able to do it, even if the rules are 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.720 firmly established. Right, this is a I thought this was America. 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.120 That's something that typically that's a phrase typically associated with 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.920 that sort of forgive me how this sounds, but that 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.120 the white sort of entitlement that we've brushed up against 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:43.400 in our lives. Now, nobody's blameless. Nobody gets through life blameless. 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.120 Black people we do things. Hispanic people do things. We 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.359 all do things, But that is something that's almost singularly 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:56.360 a white male phenomenon. I thought this was America thing. 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.680 And then with the Karens it's often something where it's like, 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.960 you know, like let me speak to the manager, like 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:06.840 there's some kind of flipped on its head. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.680 It's not the white entitlement position of I can do 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.160 whatever I want to do. It's you're doing something I 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.160 don't think you should be able to that. Yeh, So 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.160 I'm going to call the authority or ask for the manager, 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.520 even if that's something is sitting and having a couple 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.800 of coffee. Sure, sure, and it's that that type of energy. 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:31.520 So maybe sometimes it's entitlement. Maybe sometimes it's like an overreach. 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.920 I'm going to involve myself in some business that doesn't 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.880 even concern me because I see somebody doing something that 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.200 I don't agree with. In this case, was very, very 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.440 flagrantly the entitlement. Yeah, I don't. First of all, I 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.880 can do what I want because I fit the description right. Secondly, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:48.760 you're not going to be the person to tell me 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.079 I can't do it anyway, even if there are signs 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:53.560 that say I can't be here. I don't have to 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.160 listen to you black man. Yeah, because I'm me white 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.000 man and this is America. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.280 That's what Kramer said on Stay American South in Alabama. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.760 So yeah, my thoughts on it because I see a 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.280 lot of people that are angry that people are celebrating this, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.360 and I think it's an intentional way of missing the 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.640 point and completely ignoring how this thing started. 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:17.320 Right. 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:22.400 I don't know the proper phrasing, but it's something along 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:27.920 the lines of if I punch you, I don't get 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.160 to dictate how you respond to that. It's crazy, right 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.640 if I hit you, but I didn't. I only hit 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.960 you once, so you can't hit me back. Ten times. Well, sir, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.640 neither of us were bothering each other. Once you strike me, 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.640 how I respond, it's your problem. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:49.840 Not mine. Right. 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.520 This man was not attacked by a single person. This 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.960 man was attacked and jumped or did not attack a 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.360 single person. He was attacked, did not. He's not the 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:02.840 aggressor or the attacker. He was simply doing his job 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:07.280 and he was asking these men for forty five minutest. 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:08.880 Let me tell you that part too, because the video 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:10.640 might seem like he just walked up and said move 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:12.200 and then they didn't move, so that he just started 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:12.679 doing stuff. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:13.440 No, no, no, no. 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:17.079 That was a forty five minute interaction of these gentlemen 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.840 deciding we're not moving because we don't feel like it, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.160 and who are you to tell us to move? 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.040 Yeah, that part's important. I didn't know that. 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.960 Yeah, forty five minutes of them saying, we don't care 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:28.720 what the rules are, and we don't care who you are, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.120 and we don't care about that boat, and we don't 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:31.880 care about none of this because we're us and we 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:33.400 could do what we want here in America. 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:38.920 Yeah, and I want to continue down this line of thinking. 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.640 So you got to think there's a white man who 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.080 owns a boat, So that suggests there's some degree of mobility, 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:52.640 which kind of exacerbates that entitlement condition being told by 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.400 a black man that he has to dock a boat 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.760 where there's a black I guess it was a party 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:04.520 or something on the boat, the riverboat. So the it 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.400 does exist, it's not as prominent, so you might not 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.640 be able to draw from personal examples in your own 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.240 life because it's not prominent enough for you to maybe 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.160 have seen it with any real frequency. But being black, 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:19.040 you definitely know that it's a thing because I'm Black 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:20.920 every day of my life, so I brush up against 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:27.680 black stuff the time. I'm the person often prompting the blackstone, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.600 And if you're not black, you might not have these 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:36.080 apertures or these opportunities to see this type of subtle 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:42.600 aggression that does happen with some frequency in black life. 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.400 We are made to understand who we are and where 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.480 we stand with a degree of frequency. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.280 I've also seen a lot of people upset that race 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.960 was interjected into this story, right, But as if it's 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.280 not obvious, So I'll tell that they don't see they 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.160 told a story like this, right, because what you just 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.640 said is important We've acknowledged before that there are some 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.480 people by nature of not being black, that especially if 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:12.800 they're a fluent and living in the neighborhoods or areas 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:14.920 where they don't have neighbors or friends that are black, 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.680 that are well to do, decent kind people that aren't racist, 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:23.640 but that also never have any experience whatsoever what we're 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.920 talking about, and they don't see it, so it doesn't exist, 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.360 and or it doesn't affect them, so they don't have 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.200 to acknowledge it and they don't see it every day, 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:33.880 or they don't see it ever, even if they are 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.400 aware that it exists. So I try to paint a 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:41.960 different picture. Everybody's white. It's school kids. One of them 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.160 is getting jumped by the school bullies. If all the 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.480 other kids jumped in to help, everyone would understand why 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.800 that's a win everyone except if the kid is black 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.240 and the everyone that jumps into help is also black, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.920 then somehow they're the bad guys, and now that should 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.320 not be celebrated. Then, so the idea that race doesn't 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.200 belong here, like, what are we talking about? It's the 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.480 only reason that there's a controversial position to have here. 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:12.560 Right, you're either. 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:28.280 Racist drastically ignorant, unattached, and unaware. If your position is 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:32.080 opposite of a round of applause. For the bystanders who 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.480 jumped in. These weren't this guy's friends. He wasn't in 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.320 a gang. He didn't bring people with him to assault 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:39.680 these people because he knew they were going to jump him. 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:40.800 No, he worked there. 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.080 A gentleman doing his job was jumped by a group 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:48.359 of people. The bystanders saw this and helped him. The 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:49.800 story is that sense. 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:56.199 So let me help for the benefit of our listeners again. 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:03.200 I'm Ramses. I live in Phoenix. I don't live in Alabama. 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.240 I don't know anybody who does. But if I saw 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:11.399 those white men and women jump that black man, after 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.159 seeing them stall for forty five minutes, I would know 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.080 exactly what was happening there. I don't need to know 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.080 that man in order to defend him, because I've been 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:22.240 in that position, my family's been in that position, We've 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.760 all been in that position. I know exactly what they're doing. 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:26.840 They're hurting that man because they feel like they can 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:29.320 do it and they can get away with it. That's it, 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.879 and I can't make that live in your head. You 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.040 have to take my word for it, as your brother, 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.240 it is a real thing, except in this case, they 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:40.720 don't have to take your word for it. It's on visa. Yeah, 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:42.440 they saw it. That was the response. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:44.760 And that's the singular reason why I can hurt this 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:46.800 name because I feel like it and nothing's gonna happen 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:51.320 to right right right if the brilliant thing about it 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.160 taking forty five minutes, those people that showed up were there. 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.520 They just couldn't get to the guy. So they witnessed 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.880 him get beat up. Not just get beat up, but 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:07.480 but just before it was physically jumping. He was being bullied, 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.440 even before they touched him. Right, listen, you guys, I'm 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.320 the captain of this ship that's trying to dock here, 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:16.320 or this boat that's trying to dock here, and I 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.159 just need you guys to move. You don't have to 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:19.800 go home, you don't you know what I mean. You 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.159 don't have to get out, you don't have to. I 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:23.400 just need you guys to move. 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.439 Because this is this is our parking spot. This is 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:26.840 where we se a big boat out there. This is 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:27.480 where we need to do. 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.239 This boat with all these people on it who now 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.119 need to get off that's all. They didn't feel like it. 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:37.359 They didn't want to. And once again, you have to 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.400 go there to know that we don't have to move 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.119 specifically because you're the one asking. I believe if the 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:50.680 white captain of the Harriet two riverboat asked those white 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.800 men to move, understanding that they were in the wrong 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:55.880 because you're in the wrong, they would have. 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.679 There's less of that, there's less of that power dynamic 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.480 when white is not a factor or the race is 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:06.800 not a factor. Now I do want to I want 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.080 to add this. They were in the Deep South. They 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:14.520 were in Alabama, so historically that frames this this conversation. 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.439 And before you go rams if you feel like what 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.959 I just said was wrong, right, even if the captain 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:23.560 was white and got off an ask and they still 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.439 would have said no, Now you're actually doubling down on 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.720 why these men were so far out of pockets so 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.040 just blatantly and flagrantly wrong. Well, you know what, what 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:34.800 every decision that they made that day. 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:36.760 One of the things I've had to learn in just 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.760 dealing with people that I know personally in the conversations 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:41.320 that I have because I have a lot of friends 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:43.879 now after doing the show that come to me for stuff, 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:45.919 and they're like, hey man, so this thing happened. How 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:47.000 do I make sense of it? How do I make 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.080 heads or tails of it? Some things you just have 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.760 to Believe me. I'm not lying to you. Who would 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:56.680 want to be born like this and have to fight 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:00.440 for stuff their whole life? Who wants that? I want 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:02.399 to happy. I want to be on a beach. I 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.080 want to have fun. I don't want to What kind 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:07.800 of life is that to be born to fight? Well, 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:08.719 you think I enjoy this. 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:10.879 We have to be careful even when we're having fun. 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.119 Thank you just being alive. 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.200 So believe me when I say that some things you're 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:18.840 just going to have to You're gonna have to take 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.040 my word for you to have to trust me. I'm 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.080 not making it up right now. Another thing I do 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:27.120 want to point out here is that there's another thing 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:39.000 that kind of underscores this brawl, and that is we've 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:47.560 seen videos for years. Remember Trayvon Martin was killed in 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.840 twenty twelve. That was the beginning of the Black Lives 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:56.399 Matter hashtag and movement. Twenty twenty was when George Floyd happens. 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:58.560 There was an eight year gap there and in between 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.760 that a lot of people forget it wasn't just uh 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.080 tray Von and then George Floyd. Police were killing everybody 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.480 all the time on video all the time. I work 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.560 in radio and I was doing hip hop radio. So 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:17.080 I did my best to talk about every single one 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.800 of those people who died, and they couldn't tell their 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:21.479 own stories right. 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:23.359 Likewise, we got a lot of pushback about that. 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:28.280 Exactly. I remember how me and you worked together, George 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:33.080 fo Right. So so anyway, something that kind of underscores 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:37.920 this brawl here is that you have now a group 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:44.440 of people who are sensitive in a brand new way 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:51.080 to anti black violence. We've witnessed it on video over 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:55.920 and over and over and over in filando and uh, 0:22:56.000 --> 0:23:02.760 you know, I mentioned Treymon, and before twenty twenty, we 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:07.240 had why do all these names always escape me? Tony, 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:11.480 I can't help you too many? Well, okay, I can't 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:12.879 sit here No I'm not joking. 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:16.400 I can't sit here and recall all of those names, 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.200 even if they seem synonymous with what we're talking about, 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.639