WEBVTT - Civic Cipher 030621 ft. Ramses Ja and Q. Ward 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Rams' John. 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.200 And they call me q Ward I think because that's 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:09.080 my name, though I think that's why they why they 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:09.600 called me that. 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:14.040 I think so too some time. And we're here to 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:20.560 talk about all of the good things and some of 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:26.840 the more challenging things about black life in America and 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.639 you know, to a lesser degree, brown native, you know, 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:36.159 minority life, colored people life. Such a funny word, colored, 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.959 isn't it. I've been the same one color my whole 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:48.000 life anyway. Yeah, and we have, you know, uh what, 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.520 what I believe is a shared and at the same 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:57.280 time unique experience living in this country that's not shared 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:02.480 by you know, the majority, and felt like, you know, 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.280 we should create a space and talk about it. And 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:11.120 that's what we're doing today. How's your life? How's the 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.280 prospects of this country? How's my life? That is such 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.440 a broad question, wow questions, you know what I mean? 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:24.360 Because I was saying to my mom this morning, she said, 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:29.160 I look like I was running on fumes, and I'm like, yeah, 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:35.120 but those fumes are my babies. And I think she 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.000 was just trying to point out that I looked tired, okay, 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:40.399 But the fumes that it look like I'm running on 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:42.960 a little bit of energy that I have are those 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.720 two beautiful children that I spend all of my days with. 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:52.400 So how are things or how's life is always a 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:59.120 complicated question for black people unless you unless you're doing 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:03.360 so well that you remove yourself from the spectrum of 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.640 the very very real issues that we have to deal 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.560 with by simply existing in this skin, most specifically in 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:15.160 this country. And I actually heard somebody say something about 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:21.360 the experience of racism abroad, and I'm absolutely certain that 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.840 it exists. Like the type of people that are racist, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:30.480 I'm sure make home every part of this world, but 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:39.240 the slave trade, the very very holistic system of slavery 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:45.840 for black people, African people, mostly Western Africa, existed here. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.000 So our experience with racism is always going to be 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.040 different than even black people in other parts of the 0:02:53.040 --> 0:03:01.720 world because they're not living on land, cultivated, built upon, 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.520 fortified at its foundation by the literal blood, sweating tears 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.880 of our ancestors who were brought here for that sole purpose, 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:18.079 and you know, subjugated to a view that was I 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.399 think I touched on this before that was widely held 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:28.120 by the majority of even decent people that we were 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:29.919 less than human. 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.960 Not just less than them because the cattle that worked 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.480 their land was less than them too, and their dogs 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:44.800 and their pets or whatever, but we specifically less than human. 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.720 And I think that's the whole basis for race in America, 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:53.000 not just racism, but race in and of itself. 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:54.120 Right. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:56.160 I think I told you this story before, and forgive 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.200 me if I'm rambling, but that question just lit all 0:03:59.200 --> 0:03:59.680 my light. 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:00.920 Bulbs up as it should. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.320 I was living in Barcelona, Spain. I think this just 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:09.240 two thousand and ten eleven. Don't quote me, but somewhere 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:17.080 around there, sure, And at dinner the question was, hey, 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:18.960 where are you from? 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.000 Someone asked you that, yes, not what race are you? 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:26.600 Where are you from? Right? 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.000 The only question, the only place in the world where 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.200 someone's going to ask you your race is here? 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:35.000 Oh wow? 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.480 And even more complicated was my answer on from Detroit 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.120 from the motor You know what I'm saying, motown Let 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:47.839 him know seven mile to be specific. And the gentleman 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.160 that asked me looked confused, like no, no, no, no, where 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.039 your where's your family from? 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:56.440 I said, oh, macing, Georgia Bibb County. Talk to them. 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:58.640 You know what I'm saying, the pre state h and Ah, 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.000 forsythe downtown, come see us, get you a nice plate, 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:08.840 fried chicken, Kyla Greens, cornbread, kool Aid. And he's thinking Georgia. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:15.240 So he's thinking like Eastern European USSR Russia, Georgia. No, no, no, no, no, 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.320 like Atlanta, but like a little souther Did I. 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.360 Just make up? I like it? Did I just make 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:22.680 that up? 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:29.039 A little souther A little souther than Atlanta, small town, 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:34.640 Bibb County making He said, no, where are you from? 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.919 And y'all can't see me on the radio, but he 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:42.760 started rubbing his dark brown arm, like where is this from? 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:48.279 And I was stumped because, like most Black Americans, I 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:53.520 had zero clue on the where he was talking about. 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:58.479 Four or five, six generations removed hundreds of years, and 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.520 a very intentional and purpose for disconnection from our ancestry 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.159 has resulted in us. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.719 Being the only black people in the world where it's 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:13.240 just black, not you know, Ethiopian or yeah, even where 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:13.920 it's black at all. 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:15.919 There's no one at that table would have answered that 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.400 question by saying black, because that question. 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:19.880 Wouldn't be asked. 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.960 There's no what is your race doesn't exist anywhere else, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.200 so no one would have asked or answered that question. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:27.440 Black. 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.080 Right, there was a gentleman there from Nigeria, a young 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.960 lady from Germany. So a couple of people from Jamaica, 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.240 some other people from Ghana, some other people right from Spain, 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:44.640 some people from Portugal. And here I am an American, right, 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.880 but that's not where I'm from. And then there's that 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.480 because I'm on my face as soon as they hear 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:56.120 me speak, oh, he's American. Except that's not the case 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.320 here where I was born, where me and my. 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:02.440 Mother and her mother and her mother and her mother 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:03.920 and her mother and her mother. 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.080 Are from, that's not the case. We have to be 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.840 Afro American, Negro African American colored, the other word they 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.800 use that is just the most hateful and harmful and 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:18.360 ugly word, ugly, you know, term possible. But going through 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:23.760 this conversation, I was ashamed, you know, almost embarrassed that 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:29.800 I wasn't able to answer that question. And I'm starting 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:36.640 to reconcile that there's no utopia for us, you know, 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.800 I mean, there is no version of this where the 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:47.080 unalienable rights, the birth rights of just being human beings, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.320 will be afforded to us just on its face, without 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.280 us having to fight for it, and that we will 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.680 not be made to be the villain for fighting for it. 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.440 And that is such a harsh, dark, sad thing to 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.760 say out loud, especially as I'm talking about my beautiful babies. 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:10.280 But I can't shake the idea that as much progress 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:15.400 as as we've seemed to make, we're still so close to. 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:20.000 Where we started, relatively relative to where, you. 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.360 Know, like, if there's a such thing as a finish line, 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.560 we're far closer to where we started. 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.120 See what you're saying. Do you think that that's because 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:35.160 there are forces that benefit from things being the way 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:35.560 they are? 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:40.760 I think that's the singular soul reason. Okay, well, very 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:46.080 very very very powerful people, it might add, very very 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:52.720 intelligent people. They scheme this thing pretty brilliantly, you know, 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:59.960 from the American dream to you know, capitalism. The Mark 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:05.679 Greeting Department over there at USA, inc. Is incredible, right, 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:14.400 the same the reasons why those who left Europe and 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.360 came here came here and settled and colonized, The reasons why, 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:26.560 they say are the same things they deny us life, liberty, 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:28.600 pursuit of happening. It is all those beautiful words that 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.800 they use when founding this country. Sure, and they use 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:39.800 their God, their Bible, guns, their guns of sometimes diseases 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.240 and work in their favor, but more specifically their God 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.200 and their Bible to justify the guns and everything else. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.640 The ideology that led to the guns and the war 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:53.400 and the colonization and the enslavement. It's in doctrine, you 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.600 know what I mean, Like, is it in doctrine or indoctrinated? 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.480 And I think indoctrinated sounds. 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:06.320 Good to me, and it's deeply embedded in some I 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.480 pointed to the pictures that we saw of a picnic, 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:16.200 you know, back when, and the pleasant, proud normalcy on 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.640 the faces of the families and even the children in 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:24.079 those pictures with murdered slaves behind them as they posed 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.920 for this photo. And I suggested to you that there 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.320 may have been, as crazy as this sounds, decent people 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:35.640 in that picture that absolutely did not understand that they 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:42.560 were doing something wrong. That sounds crazy. But again, when 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.240 you're taught something from birth by the people that you 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.160 trust the most, right, if somebody came and told us 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.760 that God wasn't real, the Christianity wasn't real, or whatever 0:10:53.800 --> 0:11:00.000 the case. They couldn't present enough evidence for us to 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.599 fold on what we've been taught since we've been in existence. 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:10.600 Black people more specifically so some of those people, it's 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.760 it's involuntary. They're not actively trying to be racist or suppressive. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.440 It's just what they've always known. Some of those people 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.480 are very aware that what they're doing is wrong. 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:27.120 Can I want to add something if I'm in please, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:36.240 you know, I don't know that there's I don't know 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.720 if I agree, And maybe it's good that I don't 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:45.960 agree that they're I hope I'm not pulling you over 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.040 to the dark side. No no, no, no, no, listen, listen 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.960 what I'm saying that we are. I don't agree that 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:57.479 we're like stuck in the woods and in the mucky 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.600 we can't get out of it. That I know, ladies 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:01.079 and gentlemen, I thought I'll pulled him over to the 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.040 dark side. No no, no, no, no no. But I'm glad 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.000 that you say that, because you know, I think that 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.560 I often see the best in people, and I you know, 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.920 my brain always tries to figure out Okay, well, if 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.400 we did this, or if this happened, or if this 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.120 shifted a bit, then you know, things will move forward. 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:23.320 I believe in the greater good of humanity. Right. A 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:29.920 lot of people pursue money because money is an excellent 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:31.920 placeholder for happiness. But at the end of the day, 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.720 everybody wants to be happy. And one thing that science 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:37.960 has proven true time and again is that you're happiest 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:41.520 when you're in service to other people, voluntarily being in 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.840 service to people. And to me, from that, I deduce 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.160 that we're at our best as humans. We're at our happiest, 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.280 our highest of highs, when we are kind to each other, 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.640 when we love each other, and so forth. Right, But 0:12:54.840 --> 0:13:01.320 for now, the prevailing philosophy, ideology, et cetera is, let's 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.120 get this money right, Well, which comes first, the chicken 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.280 or the egg? Well, we are not as a species, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:08.960 are not there yet? No, we believe that that. 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.400 But my question being, are we most happy? So then 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:16.839 we serve others? Or do we serve that cause the 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:17.600 happiness is? 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.120 That's what? So the second to answer your question, that's 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.760 what my understanding is if people who are looking for 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.199 happiness like they're just they have all the money in 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.880 the world, they've accomplished everything, they've traveled, done everything, and 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:32.560 they still feel empty inside. Will ultimately find that when 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.120 they care for a child that has been abandoned, or 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.640 when they feed someone who cannot feed themselves, or when 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:39.840 they you know, like what you and I do with 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.080 hashtag lunchback for those who don't know, Q and I. 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.199 We have a nonprofit and we feed people and we 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.400 provide a forum for volunteers to come and have that 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.360 experience but also to you know, make a small difference. 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:56.640 But you know, these sorts of things, you know, we 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.440 do sock drives and water drives, and you know, you 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:00.920 know all the people they would say thank you, They 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:02.679 would come up to you and say they had ten 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.000 years worth of pictures of that, you know, and video. 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.880 That's when, more often than not, human beings are at 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.319 their happiest. You know. That's not to say that money 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:15.480 doesn't make people happy, but there's a certain point where 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:18.720 it doesn't make you any happier. And that point is 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.200 eighty thousand dollars per year. So once you get to 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.960 eighty thousand dollars, your eighty thousand and first dollar will 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:29.120 not make you relatively, it won't make you that much happier, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.640 you know. It kind of flattens out right around there. 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.080 So you can make eighty million dollars a year, and 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.080 you won't be any happier than the guy who or 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.360 a girl who makes a woman sorry, who makes eighty 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.440 thousand dollars a year, and so money as the pursuit. 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.240 Like you said, it's been very much indoctrinated into our 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.200 culture and into our minds. But I wanted to say 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.920 something because you did. You spoke about these people at 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:57.320 this picnic, and I remember that picture. I'll never forget it. 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.080 You know, there's two pictures that I remember the rest 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.960 of my life. One is the picture of the slave 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:08.920 with his back all whipped up, and it's it's a 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:14.360 thick scab of a back, his whole back. Those of 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.840 you listening to me who are black, you might relate 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.080 to that. And to know that that's what you came from, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.880 that's a very sad thing to know that that's your legacy. 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.120 You know. We look at movies and you see like 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.200 all these you know, kings and all of this like 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.480 great these great you know whatever on the movies, and 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.240 they're all white. And then that's your history, and then 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.880 ours is these photographs of these slaves, and it's like, man, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:42.480 you guys got so much to be proud of. Now. 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.600 Of course we know that we did come from you know, 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.600 full well fleshed out societies, you know, with kings and queens, 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:53.280 and also with folks who maybe did not they weren't, 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:59.320 they were just common folks. But you know when when 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:01.640 when you look at those photos and you realize that, 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.440 you know, at least this chapter of our history as 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.680 a people was born out of that, out of a 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:13.440 whipped up back and a charred body that's kind of 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.040 folded in to try to escape the flame, and then 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.160 it's cooked to a crisp and you can see the panic, 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.760 and you can see the human form has seized in 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.960 a defensive position to try to get away from the fire. 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:27.880 They burn this man alive, and there's a photograph of 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.760 it and children standing there. It's a lot to stomach. 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.400 And again, if you're listening, this is part of the 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:40.720 reason why you might see black people celebrate blackness in 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.240 a way where maybe you think black people are doing 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.960 the most. You know, it's because it's necessary for me. 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.560 Every time I see someone black who's a black male. 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:54.720 You could be your birthday, it could just be you thinking, 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.560 you little fly. You could be shirtless, you could be whatever. 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.600 I'll put a crown on the picture because I think 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.120 that it's important to uplift people in that way. And 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.720 that's something that you know, my friends come in all colors, 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:10.160 you know, it's something that largely is relocated to Black people. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.600 And I do use it for my Hispanic brothers and 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:14.760 sisters because there's such thing as Latin King's I know 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:20.760 that too. But that's where I believe humanity. If we 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:22.960 if we all take each other and put our put 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.440 each other in the same group, that's where there's the 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.240 greatest need for, you know, the reminder that you're special, 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.159 that you come from special things. Anyway, So this photo 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.720 and this picnic, when you said that there were decent 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:42.400 folks out there, you know, I agree. You know, one 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.560 of the things that one of the experiences that we're 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.520 able to have. Before we started the show Civic Cipher, 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:50.119 which by the way, if you're just tuning in, I'm 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:53.000 your host Rams' job. They called me q Ward and uh, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.280 you know, we're talking about black life in America, as 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.840 we do. But fortunately One of the things we were 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.760 able to do was get out and see a good 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.040 part of the country. Now you had already been around 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.840 the country, but you know, in twenty twenty, I was 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.080 able to go to every state, and I spent a 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:13.720 lot of time in the Midwest because there's a lot 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.040 of Midwest and interactive with a lot of trump boats. 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:18.760 I knew they were trump boats. They were not shy 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.560 about it. They're very proud of it in fact, and yeah, 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.800 same thing, man, they're decent folks, you know, they just 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:34.960 it almost is like you feel bad, like, man, you guys, 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.400 you've been lied to. You're not this person, you know, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:41.520 but you think that you need to be in order 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.159 because it serves your you know whatever. But that's not 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:54.080 even the point I wanted to make. There's this, it's 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.040 kind of hard to say it, but you know, if 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.680 you're white, I would imagine I'm not white. But if 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:05.120 you are, and you look at history the way it's 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.440 been given to you, then you look like you are 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:13.199 the great conquerors. You come from a long line of 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.240 conquerors and folks that have created this modern world with 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:21.720 skyscrapers and television sets and everything. Right, and then you 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.280 look at everyone else, like all these people are so ungrateful, 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.399 they're always complaining. All these women want rights, and all 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.600 these gay people and all black blacks, all the blacks. 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.760 You know, why don't they just not do crimes and 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.200 they won't get shot by the police. You know, if 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:38.800 only right and this is you know why, and if 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:40.399 and if they really want to go back to it, 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:42.960 then you know, well we'll take all the white inventions 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:44.600 and leave them with their peanut butter and we can 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.439 just call it square. Right, Sure, these are these are real, 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.480 These are real thoughts that really I've seen it expressed 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.679 out loud. I've heard it expressed out loud. But the 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.639 thing is, if you've been sold a lie or a 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.960 half truth or whatever, then that have to be what 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.000 it is. But the funny thing about it is the 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.600 way the human brain works is there's a such thing 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.600 as cognitive dissonance. It's very difficult to take in new 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:15.640 information when you have already built your reality in its 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:20.160 entirety around whatever you've built it around, doesn't matter how 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.000 true or false or right or wrong it is, it's 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.480 just very difficult to let that go. And so you're right, 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.680 there are some folks who probably were standing in those 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.040 pictures of that man who was burned alive at that 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.159 picnic back in nineteen thirty or whenever that photo was taken, 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:40.280 who thought that they were They're fine. You know, this 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.560 man that we burned probably shouldn't have been whistling at 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:46.560 a white woman. No, that's immatil. But you know what 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.199 I'm saying, like, just yeah, how dare he? You know, whatever, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:52.879 he was out passed sundown or whatever reason that they 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.639 came up with. We call it, for those listening, we 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.480 call it being black and nearby. So you know, I 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.359 would say probably like half the crimes or whatever, it's 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:04.280 just a result of being black and nearby. If you're 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.119 the close enough person who looks black, you know, they 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:12.280 can get you on some trumped up charges anyway, pun intended. Wow, 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:17.399 very good. So you know, and another thing, you know, 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:26.480 this idea of white supremacy has its origins in I 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:33.919 believe it might be like Greek philosophy or something like 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:36.960 that Roman Greek, something like that. I want to say Plato, 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.320 but it could have been Aristotle or one of those 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:47.800 guys you know, encountered once upon a time, folks from Africa, 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.960 you know, and he just didn't think highly of these 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.520 African people. He didn't think highly of their African features, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:00.000 he didn't think highly of their whatever. He considered himself 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.640 to be like super enlightened, not recognizing that a lot 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:09.680 of the knowledge that he was taught came from those 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:14.080 same Africans. So the respect wasn't there. There's this disconnect 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:18.119 of as I mentioned, white folks, they'll take stuff historically. 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:20.280 I'm not talking to you if you're white and listening, 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:22.840 but historically there's a pattern. It's well established. Google is 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:30.920 free of white folks taking things from Africa, really black folks, 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:33.560 you know, in a much larger sense. But Africa is 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.600 the source of all of this and making it their own. 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:39.840 You know, if you worship Jesus, guess where Jesus comes from. 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:46.120 I'm not lying to you. I'm not the whole Bible. 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:50.000 In fact, all them stories you know, Old Testament, you know, 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:52.439 shout out to my Jewish brothers and sisters. But you know, 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:54.320 for those who know, you know the truth. Those stories 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:56.679 are just stories that were based on the oral tradition 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.320 of human beings. We're just retold and retold and repackaged 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:07.399 and so forth. But you know, there's a I'm just 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:09.480 gonna go with Plato, don't hold me to it. But 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:13.359 you know, he says he didn't like Africans, he didn't 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:15.280 like their features, he didn't you know whatever. And this 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:18.320 was in one of his like writings or something like that, 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.040 and somehow made it a point to just kind of whatever. 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:23.679 And then and then, you know, people listen to this 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:28.760 guy so because he's the enlightened one, because he's this 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:31.600 great philosopher of his time. And then you know, when 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:33.240 he passes away, his books are going to be, you 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:37.840 know whatever, his writings, his teachings and so forth. That's 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:43.160 really the earliest recorded instance of there being oh there's 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:46.000 a different group of people, and we are better than them, 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:50.080 or they are worse than us, right, less than us, 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:54.240 less than us. Right. So you know, if you take 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:58.520 that and you you know, multiply it times infinity and 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:00.640 take it to the depths of forever, and you end 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:03.239 up with sort of what we have now. Because you know, 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:05.800 there's been a lot of folks, as you mentioned, I've 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:07.639 taken that ball and run with it and marketed it 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:10.360 very well, you know, and you know, here we are. 0:24:11.280 --> 0:24:18.800 But fortunately, you know, again, I believe that because there's 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:21.040 a drive for us to all be happy. There's I 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:23.840 think a natural tendency for us to be brothers and sisters. Granted, 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:25.959 there are outliers. Some of them are brilliant. You know, 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:29.280 whoever this person was, Plato, Aristotle, or whoever he was, 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:31.480 he clearly was a brilliant man because there's so much 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:37.679 that he contributed to, you know, history, right. It just 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:40.560 also happened to be very racist, not unlike Hitler. You 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:42.200 know R. Kelly sang a bunch of dope songs, but 0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:44.239 he's a child molester, you know what I'm like. So, 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:46.680 you know most of the first presidents of this great 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:48.959 country who owned slaves. Yeah, you know, there you go. 0:24:49.160 --> 0:24:56.439 So the thing is understanding, recognizing, and you know, you know, 0:24:56.520 --> 0:24:59.960 once upon a time there was no division. Once upon 0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:03.399 time everybody went to Africa to get you know, books, 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:05.600 and you know, if you've ever heard of tim Book two, 0:25:05.600 --> 0:25:07.840 you've heard of the Library of Alexandria, You've heard of 0:25:08.119 --> 0:25:11.280 in all these places this you know, the the oldest 0:25:11.320 --> 0:25:15.520