Speaker 1: And now.
Speaker 2: Watch moving my mic back.
Speaker 1: You're like that.
Speaker 2: You can strike waters from headquarters behind him.
Speaker 1: And then if you're just tuning in the civic cipher,
Speaker 1: I am your host Rams's job.
Speaker 3: He is, I am Q board you are listening to again.
Speaker 1: But thank you for this civic cer. Yeah, we do
Speaker 1: appreciate your tuning in every week. Man, we're trying to
Speaker 1: do something for you, and it seems like you're trying
Speaker 1: to do something for yourself and for your community and
Speaker 1: for your brothers and sisters who may or may not
Speaker 1: look like you. That goes a long way in my book.
Speaker 1: I will see you in Heaven. Stick around because we've
Speaker 1: got a lot more show coming up for you, including
Speaker 1: code switching. That is uh what I'm what I said
Speaker 1: earlier basically kind of covered it. Black people are in
Speaker 1: this country are bilingual and you may not anew it
Speaker 1: and that and you might know it if you've been
Speaker 1: around a black person long enough for in different circumstances,
Speaker 1: but were going to spend some time talking about that.
Speaker 1: We're also gonna discuss our Way Black History Fact today.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about a white man named Benjamin
Speaker 1: Lay for our Way Black History Fact and if you
Speaker 1: think that sounds interesting, wait until you hear the story.
Speaker 1: But first and foremost, we're going to show you, or
Speaker 1: rather tell you, how to become a better ally. It's
Speaker 1: time for ba ba ba ba, and today's Babba is
Speaker 1: brought to you by Major Threads Sportswear. Check out Major
Speaker 1: threads dot com for the finest in men's sportswear. Today.
Speaker 1: To become a better ally, we want you to read
Speaker 1: a book. The book is called How White Folks Got
Speaker 1: So Rich? The Untold Story of American White Supremacy, And
Speaker 1: basically it kind of dispels the myth of kind of
Speaker 1: the pioneer, you know, westward expansion or you know, the
Speaker 1: colonists crossing the Atlanta Tick to the New World and
Speaker 1: making a life for themselves and making a go at it.
Speaker 1: It largely dispels a lot of myths associated with that
Speaker 1: way of thinking, because that way of thinking kind of
Speaker 1: suggests that everyone else is lazier, doesn't work hard, or
Speaker 1: something like that, right, And the truth is, there were
Speaker 1: lots of deliberate, intentional levels in society that you know,
Speaker 1: encouraged people to do things, to pioneer, to take over lands,
Speaker 1: and you were given things and you were able to
Speaker 1: grow and you know, transfer wealth from one generation to
Speaker 1: the next. I'll quickly read a review. How White Folks
Speaker 1: Got So Rich is a critical and essential information that
Speaker 1: non whites need to understand it be able to make
Speaker 1: sense of how we ended up in the situation we
Speaker 1: find ourselves in today. Specifically, information people classified as black
Speaker 1: need to know and overstand. Black adults, and even more importantly,
Speaker 1: young black people need to understand how the system of
Speaker 1: racism and white supremacy has played a major role in
Speaker 1: how people who classify themselves as white maintain dominance in
Speaker 1: control through a system of cleverly crafted laws and rules
Speaker 1: designed to undermine black progress every step of the way
Speaker 1: and privilege white people every step of the way. So yeah,
Speaker 1: check that book out, How White Folks Got So Rich?
Speaker 1: It is interesting. And again we're not knocking anybody, We're
Speaker 1: just trying to tell the truth so that everybody understands
Speaker 1: why we are where we are. Once we understand that,
Speaker 1: then we know how to move forward as brothers and sisters. Now,
Speaker 1: code switching, que you ever had the code switch? Probably
Speaker 1: not even aware of the all just happened without second thought.
Speaker 1: And I don't think this is I think most people
Speaker 1: hear that and they immediately connect it to corporate America
Speaker 1: or the difference in cultures. But it's the difference between
Speaker 1: the way you talk at school versus the way you
Speaker 1: talk at church. It's not just about your black friends
Speaker 1: and your white friends from corporate America versus home. It's
Speaker 1: your friends versus your mom, your pastor versus your teacher,
Speaker 1: your football coach versus your you know, the deacon at
Speaker 1: your church. It's just all these different forms of not
Speaker 1: just language but behavior growing up in this skin, in
Speaker 1: this country. Absolutely, there's it's interesting because you know, you're right,
Speaker 1: at church, you wouldn't talk the same way you would,
Speaker 1: let's say, after school with your friends, you know, growing up,
Speaker 1: or if you're I don't know, hanging out with your buddies.
Speaker 1: That's not a word I would normally use. But your
Speaker 1: buddies at a night club, you know what I mean. Now,
Speaker 1: everybody can kind of say, well, yeah, I'm gonna like
Speaker 1: push my tongue out a little further if I'm hanging
Speaker 1: with my friends versus if I'm in church. That's not
Speaker 1: what code switching is. Code switching is an entirely different
Speaker 1: hash sharing different tone you know, you got to make
Speaker 1: sure you don't sound too angry, too aggressive. It's it's
Speaker 1: basically you're putting on your whitest display. I'll challenge that
Speaker 1: in in in the right settings, you know, and the
Speaker 1: other ones. It's kind of like, well, uh, I think
Speaker 1: what you're calling well articulated speech is white. So that
Speaker 1: you're you're right, You're right putting on your whitest as
Speaker 1: if to substitute white for professional welfare. I have to
Speaker 1: push back on that. Please, please push back on it.
Speaker 1: So let me before you push back, let me finish
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, and then what you're about to say
Speaker 1: is very necessary. So we are often taught to be
Speaker 1: like them, be better than them, to be good enough. Right,
Speaker 1: they hold the opportunities. They're the ones that hire fire,
Speaker 1: advance grade. Uh, you know, whatever it is that you're
Speaker 1: doing in life. And by day I mean white people.
Speaker 1: This is the world that we live in, right, And
Speaker 1: so this is a skill that I believe that black
Speaker 1: people develop at a young age because we recognize that
Speaker 1: we are or I guess I should speak for myself.
Speaker 1: I recognize that if I sound like them and I
Speaker 1: move like them, then I might be able to fly
Speaker 1: under the radar. I might get a passing mark. I
Speaker 1: might you know, I might not be challenged. I might
Speaker 1: have an easier go at things. You have no idea
Speaker 1: the amount of code switching that happens. If the police
Speaker 1: are behind me and they're like, sir, can you step
Speaker 1: out of the car? Yes or no? Certain Absolutely, I
Speaker 1: don't talk like that right, And to call it whitening
Speaker 1: making yourself as white as you possibly can is absolutely
Speaker 1: the wrong way to describe it. But when you boil
Speaker 1: it down to it, I think that it's very easy
Speaker 1: for black folks to make a connection with that code
Speaker 1: switch and whiteness in a vast majority of the instances,
Speaker 1: like there is a white presence that is that is
Speaker 1: telling me or that that makes this switch preferable if
Speaker 1: I want certain outcomes here right. In other words, I
Speaker 1: may not lean on as as my friend Cheryl would
Speaker 1: call it jive talk, interacting with an employer, a person
Speaker 1: that holds the keys to opportunity, any anybody that I
Speaker 1: need to take me seriously. I could be talking to,
Speaker 1: you know, someone who's given me bad service at a restaurant.
Speaker 1: I could be talking to a manager. I could be
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, the situation is you put on you're
Speaker 1: provided that it's a person that looks white. I could
Speaker 1: be at the doctor's office, you put on that language,
Speaker 1: that faced that posture, and try to have that conversation.
Speaker 1: Now in contrast, and I do want to hear from me,
Speaker 1: but let me just wrap this up. In contrast, if
Speaker 1: I go to a doctor and the doctor is black,
Speaker 1: it's not strictly speaking necessary. In fact, it might feel
Speaker 1: a little awkward because you also know, doctor that I
Speaker 1: don't talk like this, right, and so there's the potential
Speaker 1: to have a much more comfortable conversation. This is the
Speaker 1: experience I had recently. I took my little sister to
Speaker 1: get her blood drawn for a something that she had
Speaker 1: to take care of medically. And the doctor came in
Speaker 1: and she was a black woman braids, you know, just
Speaker 1: and she was like, oh, look at you. And my
Speaker 1: little sister's name is Princess, right, that's her given name.
Speaker 1: My dad is a g anyway, So the doctor comes
Speaker 1: in and she's like, your name is princess. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: we're about to have some fun today, girl, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's you can't imagine a different It's hard to
Speaker 1: explain the rhythm of we bout that has some fun
Speaker 1: today girl from a black woman to another black woman.
Speaker 1: And how important and comforting that is. How the doctor
Speaker 1: didn't have to code switch. The doctor can just kind
Speaker 1: of stay where she is and get on my sister's level.
Speaker 1: My sister received that information. She's terrified in needles. She's
Speaker 1: got that blood drawn off, blood draw off, no problem,
Speaker 1: no tears this time. My sister is an adult woman,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a really traumatic thing for her. That's
Speaker 1: why I go with her wonderful experience, right, So pushback
Speaker 1: against the whiteness. The thing I've said about why so I.
Speaker 3: Think the reason why my variance of examples was so
Speaker 3: different is I'm from Detroit, Okay, So yeah, everybody, I
Speaker 3: mean everybody to hear that I'm from Detroit, born in
Speaker 3: the eighties. Yeah, and not eighty nine, eighty one eighties,
Speaker 3: born in the eighties.
Speaker 1: I lived my whole eighties childhood in Detroit.
Speaker 3: Teachers, friends, neighbors, pastor, doctor, police officers, dentists all black.
Speaker 3: So even the word codes which means something different to me,
Speaker 3: because my change in vernacular, attitude, behavior, and language had
Speaker 3: nothing to do with your skin color. I spoke different
Speaker 3: to Pastor William Revelee, doctor.
Speaker 1: Right doctor.
Speaker 3: First of all, that my pastor was doctor William Revelee.
Speaker 3: My associate pastor was Reverend Estella Seacrest, who for people
Speaker 3: who listened to the show a lot, no, that's my mother.
Speaker 3: The way I spoke to them was much different than
Speaker 3: the way I spoke to everybody else. So that change
Speaker 3: was more about respective position and respective place than skin color.
Speaker 3: I spoke different to my doctor, my pastor, my teachers
Speaker 3: than I did, like I said, my football coach, my classmates,
Speaker 3: and my friends.
Speaker 1: So it was never about being more white. It's a
Speaker 1: respect thing. It was in a lot of where am
Speaker 1: I and what type of impression do I need to
Speaker 1: make care of. I'm trying to get a job.
Speaker 3: I'm going to let these people know that I'm learned,
Speaker 3: that I'm a scholar, that I'm educated, and that particulating thoughts. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So that didn't mean I'm going to talk like my
Speaker 3: white friend because I didn't have any.
Speaker 1: There was no white example.
Speaker 3: Mister Wardale who taught me math, and Miss Moy was
Speaker 3: Asi and mister Wardale was black. They were just smart.
Speaker 3: My brain didn't think that means they're more like white people, right,
Speaker 3: And fortunately the white people in my life at that
Speaker 3: age were also teachers, so they just were people that
Speaker 3: cared about me. There was not even that I mean
Speaker 3: these teachers they didn't just work in Detroit, they lived
Speaker 3: in the city too. So the experience was very, very
Speaker 3: much about the students in the classroom, not like the
Speaker 3: idea of the white savior didn't even play a part,
Speaker 3: because the teaching staff was diverse but predominantly black as well.
Speaker 3: Because again Detroit, Michigan. My first white classmate was at
Speaker 3: cast Technical High School my freshman year, but that was
Speaker 3: almost singular. I didn't have class rooms full of white
Speaker 3: students until Bowling Green State University. And I think I've
Speaker 3: told the story of my first actual intery encounter with
Speaker 3: flagrant overt racism. Sure, and then of course that turned
Speaker 3: into a snowball and you start to experience it more
Speaker 3: as an adult. But there was a kind of sheltering
Speaker 3: of growing up in Detroit with a best friend in
Speaker 3: high school who moved to Detroit from Gary, Indiana.
Speaker 1: Yes, Jackson five, Gary, Indiana, right, So the hood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so all of our.
Speaker 3: Experiences, the lawyers, the doctors and every type of doctor,
Speaker 3: your PhD, your MD, your sociologists, your psychologists, your dentist.
Speaker 3: Everybody was all black, your pastors, your principles, your assistant principles,
Speaker 3: the people who ran the Jesuit High School that you
Speaker 3: had to test to get into, from Castech to Martin
Speaker 3: Luther King to Renaissance black people. So that's my pushback
Speaker 3: on the idea that this behavior was about being more
Speaker 3: like white people, not for not. Yeah, it had nothing
Speaker 3: to do so so absolutely nothing. It was about, Okay,
Speaker 3: you're about to go talk to.
Speaker 1: Doctor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got a reverend, mister whatever name came after that.
Speaker 3: You need to straighten up your pants up, tuck your
Speaker 3: shirt in. It's about the use proper language, be respectful.
Speaker 3: If you want to receive respect, you have to give it,
Speaker 3: and you have to present yourself as respectable, not as white.
Speaker 1: You sound like an athlete, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Much different experience for me than maybe some people who
Speaker 3: grew up in the space were what articulate and educated,
Speaker 3: looked and sounded like was white.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, but I think that I think that your
Speaker 1: example what it does is it suggests what our initial
Speaker 1: statement was, is that we're when you grow up black
Speaker 1: in America, you grow up bilingual. Because I know you've
Speaker 1: heard this. Man, you guys talk so cool. Man, can
Speaker 1: you explain what the lyrics of that rap song means?
Speaker 1: What is it? You know, like, what is a bando?
Speaker 1: You know, like that sort of stuff. Right, you talk
Speaker 1: so cool? Right, So again having to like, I know
Speaker 1: for a fact that if you were to take the
Speaker 1: type of conversation that you would have with your friends
Speaker 1: in high school and try to have that conversation in
Speaker 1: front of your mom, she might get lost it maybe
Speaker 1: three or four points of the conversation, like, well, okay,
Speaker 1: I missed that. You know, through context clues, you can
Speaker 1: get still a majority of it, but there are certain
Speaker 1: parts where they get lost. This happened with my father
Speaker 1: because we would often leave here, go to Last Angeles,
Speaker 1: me and my friends from high school, we go to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, hang out with my father, and he would
Speaker 1: get lost in our conversations. He'd be like, man, the
Speaker 1: way you guys talk is so different. My father is
Speaker 1: as black as me. Right. But again, that illustrates illuminates
Speaker 1: the fact that, yes, there is sort of a bilingual
Speaker 1: component to being black that is not readily found in
Speaker 1: every other culture. Right with that said for places where
Speaker 1: it's not as monocultural, like a place like Detroit, an
Speaker 1: environment where it's kind of mixed up a bit. I
Speaker 1: think California, you know, which is where I'm from, and
Speaker 1: where you think of a lot of the people who
Speaker 1: are in positions of authority. How do they move, how
Speaker 1: do they sit? How do they talk? You know, your
Speaker 1: examples come from classrooms often enough and the news. When
Speaker 1: you see these people and they all look white and
Speaker 1: they all talk like this, they say the whole word
Speaker 1: like this, to quote Riley from The Boondocks, and you
Speaker 1: realize that you're playing a game in their world where
Speaker 1: they make the rules and they are the deciders at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. And so this code switching
Speaker 1: becomes more important as you mature. But I think from
Speaker 1: a young age a lot of us recognize that having
Speaker 1: those two languages and knowing when to deploy them in
Speaker 1: conversations can make a significant impact on outcomes in your life. Now,
Speaker 1: I do want to read something here. So the question
Speaker 1: was why do black people switch the sound of their
Speaker 1: voice to say white when speaking to white people? Okay,
Speaker 1: this is the question that was asked, and the answer was,
Speaker 1: it's an example of outstanding soft skills as masters of
Speaker 1: customer service within an assimilated integrationist token environment. The technique
Speaker 1: of mimicking the customer's cadence, tone, and accent is used
Speaker 1: to help alleviate the stereotype based terror white people feel
Speaker 1: when they speak to black people. In other words, we
Speaker 1: don't want you to feel intimidated, afraid, We don't want
Speaker 1: you to feel like we're going to mess things up
Speaker 1: for you, and that sort of stuff. Right, So this
Speaker 1: response is speaking to those parts of it, right, which
Speaker 1: may not be true one percent of the time for
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of the people, but it kind of
Speaker 1: gives you some insight into the necessity of being bilingual
Speaker 1: while being black in this country. Right, I'm talking to
Speaker 1: you on the radio right now, I realize that I
Speaker 1: have to have an intellectual conversation on the radio every week.
Speaker 1: I talk like this, Man, I am the coolest due
Speaker 1: in the world. Man, if you just listen to me
Speaker 1: on the show, you think I'm a square as that
Speaker 1: CD cover in the corner. But I also recognize that
Speaker 1: this is something that has come very natural for me.
Speaker 1: You know, I might code switch six or eight times
Speaker 1: in the day, depending on how many people I'm around.
Speaker 3: I actually gotta tell our audience I need to work
Speaker 3: with Rams' on his code switch, though, mean, because sometimes
Speaker 3: there's very very necessary code switch and I don't do it,
Speaker 3: and then I don't do it forgive my language be tripping. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I've been having to retext Rams. It's like, Bro, did
Speaker 3: you really just mean to say that to that person again?
Speaker 3: And He's like, yeah, man, you know they're cool, And
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't know if she's that cool. I
Speaker 3: don't know if that's how we want to address.
Speaker 1: Any important people.
Speaker 3: Off track, but Rams be tripping, you know again. Rams
Speaker 3: is from Compton, So let me let me remind Q
Speaker 3: is from Detroit right seven mile Road. To be specific,
Speaker 3: Ramsey's job is from Compton. I'll let you guys do
Speaker 3: your own mental math on culturally what these conversations sound
Speaker 3: like when the microphones are not here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think to piggyback off of the first
Speaker 1: part of the show. You know, Q and I are
Speaker 1: both people that we're in classes for smart kids, and
Speaker 1: you know, we took tests well and we can articulate
Speaker 1: our thoughts better than most people. I hope that doesn't
Speaker 1: sound like we're bragging but this is something that we
Speaker 1: found to be true, and we try to use this
Speaker 1: these what we what we consider gifts to kind of
Speaker 1: give people insight into what it's like to us, to
Speaker 1: give you a little bit more firsthand knowledge of something
Speaker 1: you may not otherwise be made aware of, and having
Speaker 1: the ability to articulate these things we feel like in
Speaker 1: my translate and so yeah, sometimes the that switching is
Speaker 1: is definitely necessary. And then sometimes you're right, I just
Speaker 1: don't do it MS. But you know there's another part
Speaker 1: of it too, and I think that this is something
Speaker 1: that now that we're here, is worth mentioning. Code switching.
Speaker 2: Is it is?
Speaker 1: I know in my heart of hearts, it's not a
Speaker 1: betrayal of who I am. It's not a betrayal of
Speaker 1: my people, my culture, my ancestors. That's not it. Community
Speaker 1: kating takes place in a lot of ways. Just because
Speaker 1: someone else says, you know, the King James version of
Speaker 1: English is the way to get an idea out of
Speaker 1: your head into someone else's head. Doesn't make them right,
Speaker 1: doesn't make you right, doesn't make anyone right. Communication is
Speaker 1: can I get a thought from my head into your head?
Speaker 1: And if I can do that, then we are communicating.
Speaker 1: I'm not the best Spanish speaker, although it was the
Speaker 1: first language I spoke. I have a grandmother, my grandmother
Speaker 1: from Cuba. She raised me the first few years of
Speaker 1: my life. If you were to drop me off in
Speaker 1: the middle of Mexico, I'd sound like a three year
Speaker 1: old talking to anybody. But am I communicating? Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I could get myself to a phone booth, I can
Speaker 1: get myself to a station where the people that can
Speaker 1: help me. I can get myself a ticket and get
Speaker 1: back to the US right, or get myself a translator.
Speaker 1: That's communicating. If someone has an accent that you don't love,
Speaker 1: it's an accent in no way is a reflection of
Speaker 1: their cognitive abilities. Some people have brilliant minds and they're
Speaker 1: not the best speakers. Or some people have minds and
Speaker 1: they are the best speakers. They just don't speak in
Speaker 1: a way that you're accustomed to listening. And these are
Speaker 1: things that we all have to challenge because for a
Speaker 1: long time I had stereotypes about people that came from
Speaker 1: the South, and I thought that people from the South
Speaker 1: were just slow, and that's not true. They're just Southern.
Speaker 1: They have a different way of talking. They're not in
Speaker 1: a rush to get the thoughts out of their brain.
Speaker 1: They can sort of take their time a bit and
Speaker 1: let the words lean on top of each other. Once
Speaker 1: I learned that, I felt like, oh, maybe I'm misjudging.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm being prejudiced, you know, And this is something
Speaker 1: that we all may be guilty of at different points
Speaker 1: in our life. So if you happen to come across
Speaker 1: a black person that hasn't code switched in your presence,
Speaker 1: maybe they're trying to let you know who they really are.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're trying to bring you over to their side
Speaker 1: of things. Maybe they're trying to make you feel comfortable
Speaker 1: with their authentic self. And sometimes I be tripping, and
Speaker 1: sometimes I'd be trying to make time trying to make
Speaker 1: people feel a little bit more comfortable. Let me finish
Speaker 1: reading this. Okay, the alleviate the stereotyped based terror white
Speaker 1: people feel when they speak to black people. Okay, many times, however,
Speaker 1: despite our best efforts, the customer will still attack and
Speaker 1: kill the customer service tech during due to self inflicted
Speaker 1: anti black racism being stronger than civility. In other words,
Speaker 1: if you hear this example, forgive me for not providing
Speaker 1: the proper context here. But this example came from obviously
Speaker 1: a customer service example of a black person at work
Speaker 1: having to communicate.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: This could be in a store, this could be over
Speaker 1: the phone, whatever. It's kind of like the same thing
Speaker 1: when you hit a call center and you can tell
Speaker 1: that the person based on their accent is from India,
Speaker 1: you might think they don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker 1: It's a very natural thing to think if you were
Speaker 1: raised to think that people off of the news speak
Speaker 1: the right way. The question you should be asking yourself, however,
Speaker 1: now and in the future, is can I understand what
Speaker 1: they are saying to me? And if the answer is yes,
Speaker 1: that means they are communicating And at that point you
Speaker 1: need to check your prejudices. All right, So it's time
Speaker 1: for the Way Black History Fact. Today's Way Black History
Speaker 1: Fact is sponsored by the Black Information Network Daily Podcast
Speaker 1: And as I mentioned, we're going to be talking about
Speaker 1: a gentleman named Benjamin Lay. So let's get started. January
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, sixteen eighty two through February eighth, seventeen fifty nine.
Speaker 1: Well that was a while ago. Benjamin Lay was an
Speaker 1: Anglo American Quaker, humanitarian and abolitionist that means he was white.
Speaker 1: He worked as a sailor. Sorry he was best known
Speaker 1: for his early and strident anti slavery activities, which would
Speaker 1: culminate in dramatic protest. He was also an author, farmer, vegetarian,
Speaker 1: and distinguished by his early concern that the ethical treatment
Speaker 1: of animals. Born in England into a farming family, his
Speaker 1: early trade was as a shepherd and a glove maker.
Speaker 1: After becoming a Quaker, he worked as a sailor and
Speaker 1: in seventeen eighteen moved to Barbados. Here he witnessed the
Speaker 1: poor treatment of African slaves that instilled in him his
Speaker 1: lifelong abolitionist principles. Lay later settled in Philadelphia and was
Speaker 1: made unpopular among his fellow Quakers by his confrontational anti
Speaker 1: slavery stance. He published several pamphlets on social causes during
Speaker 1: his lifetime, and one book, All slave Keepers That Keep
Speaker 1: the Innocent in Bondage Apostates, one of the earliest North
Speaker 1: American works against slavery. While man Ley stood barely four
Speaker 1: feet tall, referring to himself as Little Benjamin, he was
Speaker 1: a hunchback with a protruding chest, and his arms were
Speaker 1: as long as his legs. He was a vegetarian. He
Speaker 1: only ate fruits, vegetables, and honey, and drank only milk
Speaker 1: and water. He did not believe that humans were superior
Speaker 1: to non human animals, and created his own clothes to
Speaker 1: boycott the slave labor industry. He would not wear anything
Speaker 1: nor eat anything made from the loss of animal life
Speaker 1: or provided by any degree of slave labor, refusing to
Speaker 1: participate in what he described as his tracks as a degraded, hypocritical, tyrannical,
Speaker 1: and even demonic society. Lay was committed to a lifestyle
Speaker 1: of almost complete self sustenance after his beloved wife died
Speaker 1: a man.
Speaker 3: I hope people realize how difficult it was to live
Speaker 3: that lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Back then time. Yeah, I bet he sounds like an
Speaker 1: amazing person.
Speaker 4: Though.
Speaker 1: That's why we're talking about him there. It's the way
Speaker 1: black history fact. Mind, you go ahead, Benjamin Lay, all right.
Speaker 1: He first began advocating for the abolition of slavery when
Speaker 1: in Barbados, he saw an enslaved man commit suicide rather
Speaker 1: than be hit again by his owner. His passionate enmity
Speaker 1: of slavery was partially fueled by his Quaker beliefs. They
Speaker 1: made several dramatic demonstrations against the practice. He once stood
Speaker 1: outside a Quicker meeting in winter with no coat and
Speaker 1: at least one foot bear and in the snow. When
Speaker 1: passer by passers by express concern for his health, he
Speaker 1: said that slaves were made to work outdoors in winter,
Speaker 1: dressed as he was. On another occasion, he kidnapped the
Speaker 1: child of slaveholders temporarily to show them how Africans felt
Speaker 1: when their relatives were sold overseas. That is a gangster move. Indeed,
Speaker 1: the most notable act occurred in Burlington, New Jersey, at
Speaker 1: the seventeen thirty eight Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Quakers. Dressed
Speaker 1: as a soldier, he concluded a diatribe against slavery, quoting
Speaker 1: the Bible saying that all men should be equal under
Speaker 1: God by plunging a sword into the Bible containing a
Speaker 1: bladder of a blood red pokeberry juice, which splattered over
Speaker 1: those nearby. So he had a flare for the dramatic
Speaker 1: as well. Okay, his next part comes from this. I
Speaker 1: pull some of this from Wikipedia, just so you know
Speaker 1: my source. This next part comes from a Smithsonian Magazine
Speaker 1: article which regarded the Burlington Quaker meeting incident. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you might hear some stuff again because two different sources,
Speaker 1: all right. He finally rose to address this gathering of
Speaker 1: weighty Quakers and many friends in Pennsylvania and in New
Speaker 1: Jersey had grown rich on Atlantic commerce, and many bought
Speaker 1: human property to them. Lay announced in a booming voice
Speaker 1: that God Almighty respects all people, equally, rich and poor,
Speaker 1: men and women, white and black alike. He said that
Speaker 1: slave keeping was the greatest sin in the world, and asked,
Speaker 1: how can a people who profess the Golden rule keep slaves?
Speaker 1: He then threw off his great coat, revealing the military garb,
Speaker 1: the book, and the blade. A murmur filled the hall
Speaker 1: as the prophet thundered his judgment. Thus shall God shed
Speaker 1: the blood of those persons who enslaved their fellow creatures.
Speaker 1: He pulled out sword, raised the book above his head,
Speaker 1: and plunged the sword through it. People gasped as the
Speaker 1: red liquid gushed down his arm. Women swooned with the
Speaker 1: shock of all he splattered blood on the slave keepers.
Speaker 1: He prophesied a dark, violent future. Quakers who failed to
Speaker 1: heed the prophets called must expect physical, moral and spiritual death.
Speaker 1: The room exploded into chaos, but Lay stood quiet and still,
Speaker 1: like a statue. A witness remarked. Several Quakers quickly surrounded
Speaker 1: the armed soldier of God and carried him from the building.
Speaker 1: He did not resist. He had made his point. The
Speaker 1: article also describes Lay throwing tobacco pipes at fellow Quakers
Speaker 1: at meetings in Philadelphia, while loudly protesting the slave labor
Speaker 1: upon which the tobacco growing relied. At other Quaker meetings,
Speaker 1: whenever anyone who owned slaves stood up to talk, which
Speaker 1: is how Quaker meetings work, he jump up and yelled
Speaker 1: things like there's another inward master to shame them. He
Speaker 1: regularly said slave owners bore the mark of the beasts
Speaker 1: and were basically Satan incarnate. It came as no surprise
Speaker 1: to Lay or anyone else that ministers and elders had
Speaker 1: him removed from one gathering after another. Indeed, they appointed
Speaker 1: a constablary to keep him out of meetings all around Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and even that wasn't enough. After he was tossed into
Speaker 1: the street one rainy day, he returned to the main
Speaker 1: door of the meetinghouse and lay down in the mud.
Speaker 1: Requiring every person leaving the meeting to step over his body.
Speaker 1: Lay was disowned by the Quaker Society in seventeen thirty
Speaker 1: eight because he just wouldn't stop calling out elders as
Speaker 1: rich members for their hypocrisy on the issue of slavery.
Speaker 1: Also that year, Benjamin Franklin published one of Lai's anti
Speaker 1: slavery pamphlets, All Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage
Speaker 1: Apple States. But Franklin owned a slave and later bought
Speaker 1: two more. Lay called him out Ley refused to eat
Speaker 1: or wear anything produced in anyway from slavery. He was
Speaker 1: a vegetarian and his wife died. He lived in a cave,
Speaker 1: kept goats and bees, farm vegetables and fruit trees, and
Speaker 1: grew flax so he could spin it to make his
Speaker 1: own clothes. And he had a library of about two
Speaker 1: hundred books. So I think that's kind of partially some
Speaker 1: way black history for you and Boba as well, becoming
Speaker 1: a better ally becas that guy was risking it all,
Speaker 1: all four feet of him.
Speaker 3: And not just risking it, but going to astronomical lengths. Yeah,
Speaker 3: sure to minimize his impact on is to be the example.
Speaker 3: The entire industry of the country at that time, was
Speaker 3: your backs of black people. Yes, that's what I said
Speaker 3: at that time, to be semi vegan or to not
Speaker 3: wear cotton.
Speaker 1: Take that stance. Yet there was no.
Speaker 3: Artificial There wasn't the store you can go to where
Speaker 3: you could buy clothes that weren't either animal or slave work. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So to eat and dress and live in that manner
Speaker 3: at that time far more difficult than it sounds. Lot
Speaker 3: of people in the it's in vogue to live like
Speaker 3: that now because we have so many options. They didn't
Speaker 3: exist then fair point.
Speaker 1: Well, if no one else remembers Benjamin Lay, we're definitely
Speaker 1: going to do it today one time, and uh, that'll
Speaker 1: be it for us today here on Civic Cipher. So
Speaker 1: once again i'm your host. Rams' job is Rams and Cube.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you want me to say.
Speaker 1: You word man net word okay, cue word indeed, Uh,
Speaker 1: the man, the myth, the legend, Okay, don't let ramses
Speaker 1: cash a no man, this big facts over here. Anyway,
Speaker 1: We want to thank you for listening to the show.
Speaker 1: Do us a favor. Hit the website Civiccipher dot com.
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Speaker 1: best ally that we can out of you. And we
Speaker 1: promise you that we are going to be your brothers
Speaker 1: on the other side of that into well into the future.
Speaker 1: So until next week, y'all peace.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like yo, we had to live these brothers a
Speaker 4: fabulous our lady showing you where ROMB travel is speak
Speaker 4: tone from sunlight to move, busting on stage like gonna
Speaker 4: fights and move rove my mic back.
Speaker 2: You're like that journalist with journalist too.
Speaker 4: We can strike back all borders with waters from headquarters
Speaker 4: behind in the beline sides up and the borders, the
Speaker 4: press passing.
Speaker 2: We bring it to you as it happens. The streets.
Speaker 4: Love popped in from music You're wrapping the street compand
Speaker 4: the slash expando.
Speaker 2: You're going to fight the slander with the proper propaganda.
Speaker 4: What's happening, It's how You've got a questions to ask
Speaker 4: if the grease is just a TV show you're passing.
Speaker 4: And this from a white wartime journalist, headlines wait got
Speaker 4: preas and resist like this like like this likened its