Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
Speaker 1: mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: ramses job.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsey's job. I am q Ward. It is
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five and you are still tuned into Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: And we appreciate that it is going to be an
Speaker 1: interesting year. It's going to be an interesting few years,
Speaker 1: and we are going to have our therapy together today.
Speaker 1: We are going to be discussing a very sad story.
Speaker 1: There is a nick you nurse that is facing charges
Speaker 1: for allegedly breaking the bones of black infants. This is
Speaker 1: something that's been widely circulated online, something that obviously is
Speaker 1: deeply disturbing to those of us who are parents of children.
Speaker 1: This is something that is cancerous and pervasive, and it
Speaker 1: does exist in this country. For people that think that
Speaker 1: we imagine things that happen to us, that we are paranoid,
Speaker 1: for people that think that we are perpetual victims, etc.
Speaker 1: Stories like this really breathe life into the stories that
Speaker 1: we live. So we're going to talk about that. We're
Speaker 1: also going to be spending some time talking about y'all's
Speaker 1: new president. He is wild'n out already. He wants to
Speaker 1: rename the Gulf of Mexico, he wants to seize the
Speaker 1: Panama Canal, he wants Canada to be the fifty first state,
Speaker 1: who wants Greenland to be a part of this country,
Speaker 1: and so much more. And we are going to unpack
Speaker 1: all of this, and I'm sure much more in the
Speaker 1: fourth coming episode. But before we get there, let's do
Speaker 1: like we always do and start off with some ebony excellence,
Speaker 1: shall we? Yes?
Speaker 3: I think we shall.
Speaker 1: Today's any Excellence is sponsored by Actively Black. There's greatness
Speaker 1: in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com And for
Speaker 1: this one, we're just gonna give a general shout out
Speaker 1: to black women for being excellent, you know, President Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: The story, by the way, comes from the Black Information
Speaker 1: Network bion news dot Com. President Joe Biden has appointed
Speaker 1: more black women as federal judges than any other president
Speaker 1: in history. As of last month, the US Senate confirmed
Speaker 1: Judge Tiffany Renee Johnson to serve in the Northern District
Speaker 1: of Georgia, marking the fortieth black women Biden had appointed
Speaker 1: to the federal bench. Per the grioh, Biden broke former
Speaker 1: President Barack Obama's previous record of appointing twenty six black
Speaker 1: female judges. Johnson's historic appointment also marked the sixty second
Speaker 1: black judge confirmed during Biden's presidency. This ties the record
Speaker 1: for the most black federal judges confirmed during a presidency.
Speaker 1: His first term, President elect Donald Trump only appointed two
Speaker 1: black women to the federal bench, making up less than
Speaker 1: one percent of his appointees. Trump declined to nominate any
Speaker 1: black judges to federal courts. Biden appears to be making
Speaker 1: good on his promise to reshape the federal judiciary to
Speaker 1: reflect America's diversity as his presidency comes to a close.
Speaker 1: His most notable appointment came in April of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: when Justice Katanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as the first
Speaker 1: black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice. So,
Speaker 1: you know, these are the final days of his presidency
Speaker 1: and he's taking this time to highlight some ebony excellence.
Speaker 1: So you know, that's something we'll take it. We're gonna
Speaker 1: need all the help we can get. And while he's
Speaker 1: still in a position to do something, you know, if
Speaker 1: that's what he's doing, then I at least can say
Speaker 1: that I salute that because it may not feel balanced
Speaker 1: in this country ever again, and he's stacking what he
Speaker 1: can in our favor. So all right, first step, this
Speaker 1: is a this is an interesting story here, Uh, before
Speaker 1: we before we even get to this article, que talk
Speaker 1: to us about why this stood out in your mind
Speaker 1: and why you wanted to talk about this one today,
Speaker 1: because you know, you and I talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about it beforehand. But I think that the why in
Speaker 1: terms of this one is important for our listeners to know.
Speaker 2: About being black is something that we very very probably celebrate.
Speaker 2: I hear people say all the time they'd rather not
Speaker 2: they wouldn't rather be anything else. And though it is
Speaker 2: a incredibly sweet and nice to say, I don't understand
Speaker 2: how or why it's true. Our entire lives on this
Speaker 2: continent throughout the entire history of this continent.
Speaker 3: It's not a happy story.
Speaker 2: It's an awful, difficult, painful story with very bright moments,
Speaker 2: but an enduring truth, which is the country and those
Speaker 2: that inhabited and those that are in power have perpetually
Speaker 2: worked tirelessly against our happiness. Right, Because you might immediately
Speaker 2: think that they've worked against our ability to make money,
Speaker 2: our ability to be successful, our ability to thrive, our
Speaker 2: ability to do whatever. But they've actively worked against anything
Speaker 2: that makes us happy because we've at times removed ourselves
Speaker 2: from their capitalist system, created our own communities, our own businesses,
Speaker 2: our own neighborhoods. Nope, we're going to come there and
Speaker 2: destroy those two. We don't want you to be anywhere
Speaker 2: and be okay. And the most frustrating thing is something
Speaker 2: that you mentioned before, this idea that we are race baters,
Speaker 2: that we're playing the victim, that we're imagining these invisible
Speaker 2: circumstances that constantly work against us. I've heard black quote
Speaker 2: unquote leaders, which in too many cases just means black
Speaker 2: celebrities say things like, you know, Black History Month perpetuates racism,
Speaker 2: and I don't believe in black and white. And the
Speaker 2: reason why racism still exists is because we say these things.
Speaker 2: And if we want racism to go away, stop talking
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: That's that Morgan Freeman line.
Speaker 2: Placing the blame back on us for the circumstances that
Speaker 2: we were kidnapped into and then every generation after that
Speaker 2: born into. If we would just leave the idea of
Speaker 2: racism alone, then it would leave us alone. We're giving
Speaker 2: it the power. It's not something that we're actively experiencing.
Speaker 2: It's not something that we're actually even going through. We
Speaker 2: are giving the oxygen and the gasoline to the fire
Speaker 2: which is racism as it continues to burn and devour us, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: with no sign of it ever being distinguished ever at
Speaker 2: a revelation yesterday or an epiphany or an AHA moment.
Speaker 2: Shout out to black people born in the sixties, as
Speaker 2: the civil rights movement built its muscle all the way
Speaker 2: up and people sacrificed everything they could for life to
Speaker 2: be this much better for us, reminding everyone that can
Speaker 2: hear me that our fight has never been to have
Speaker 2: more than anyone else. We've never sought revenge. We've never
Speaker 2: sought to get our lick back. We've never wanted to
Speaker 2: conquer or overcome you. We wanted to overcome our circumstances.
Speaker 2: We shall overcome. Was about us not being under the
Speaker 2: foot of oppression and racism anymore, not overcoming and then
Speaker 2: flipping that on its head and doing the same thing
Speaker 2: to anyone else. We've only ever wanted to live unimpeded.
Speaker 2: We don't want to take anything from you. We don't
Speaker 2: want your life to be any harder so that ours
Speaker 2: can be better. As a matter of fact, we absolutely
Speaker 2: don't want your life to be harder so that ours
Speaker 2: can be better. Would it be okay with you if
Speaker 2: we were okay? So our black brothers and sisters that
Speaker 2: were born in the sixties as civil rights as that
Speaker 2: movement flexed its muscle and we got a little bit
Speaker 2: more freedom, a little bit more rights. Our music got
Speaker 2: to turn up a little bit louder. Our melodies got
Speaker 2: a little bit more beautiful. We got to come outside.
Speaker 2: We got to grow up and dance and thrive. We
Speaker 2: got to entertain the country. We got to break race
Speaker 2: barriers going into the seventies and into the eighties, and
Speaker 2: professional sports and entertainment where our talents made way for
Speaker 2: us in rooms where there was a colored only entrance
Speaker 2: and a colored only water fountain, a colored only bathroom,
Speaker 2: and in restaurants we had to enter through the kitchen,
Speaker 2: asked to not make the white patrons in the main
Speaker 2: dining room uncomfortable. We got to watch those things change.
Speaker 2: We got to be welcomed on your favorite TV show.
Speaker 2: We got to start winning awards as the eighties go
Speaker 2: into the nineties, and we were welcome at the Grammys
Speaker 2: as hip hop has become a mainstream genre of music.
Speaker 2: As the nineties go into the two thousands, we get
Speaker 2: to see a black man become president. And as those
Speaker 2: worn into the sixties get into their sixties, they get
Speaker 2: to watch their children and their grandchildren go up and
Speaker 2: go to college and have all these accomplishments. We still
Speaker 2: get to see the first Black laundry list of things,
Speaker 2: which is sad but also exciting watching those first black
Speaker 2: people conquer and thrive and survive and break records and
Speaker 2: have these moments and measures of success that we never
Speaker 2: thought possible. They got to watch that happen. They got
Speaker 2: to live most of their life in the most progressive
Speaker 2: window of time for black people in the history of
Speaker 2: this country. And unfortunately they now have to watch those
Speaker 2: children raise children as the country, I'm sorry, tumbles back
Speaker 2: down that hill into what we thought we escaped from,
Speaker 2: as billionaires and the oligarchs and wealth wrapped in the
Speaker 2: American flag take back over and strip away rights from
Speaker 2: women and get rid of affirmative action and get rid
Speaker 2: of DEI. And while all of this is happening to us.
Speaker 2: People will point to us and tell us to stop
Speaker 2: playing the victim, stop race baiting, stop inserting race where
Speaker 2: it doesn't belong, and to try to blow some snow
Speaker 2: on her fresh tracks. The lady who this story is about,
Speaker 2: because her cruelty sees no limit, let me get this
Speaker 2: sent off of me and break the bones of some
Speaker 2: white babies too, so they don't catch on to the
Speaker 2: fact that I've only been doing this to newborn black babies.
Speaker 2: This is America, all right, I'll read.
Speaker 3: This is from Revolt.
Speaker 1: White nick U nurse faces charges for allegedly breaking the
Speaker 1: bones of black infants. On Sunday, January fifth, the Washington
Speaker 1: Post reported that registered nurse Aaron Elizabeth Ann Stratman was
Speaker 1: arrested in connection with the abuse of several black babies
Speaker 1: at a Virginia medical center. Beginning in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: officials at Henrico Doctor's Hospital began noticing unexplained injuries among
Speaker 1: newborns in its neonatal intensive care unit. More recently, three
Speaker 1: babies suffered unexplainable fractures, which prompted the temporary halting of
Speaker 1: NICKU admissions. In an official statement, Henrico County Police announced
Speaker 1: that Strautman's arrest stemmed from the incident in November twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, and other cases of mysterious incidents have since
Speaker 1: been reopened. Now hundreds of hours of surveillance footage are
Speaker 1: being reviewed regarding at least seven infants. Quote. We are
Speaker 1: committed to protecting our residents, particularly our youngest and most vulnerable,
Speaker 1: the statement read. Strapman has since been charged with malicious
Speaker 1: wounding and felony child abuse. The Washington Post spoke to
Speaker 1: affected family members, including Dominique Hacki, whose twin boys were
Speaker 1: born prematurely at twenty eight weeks old. While one recovered well,
Speaker 1: the father was shocked on the other had a fractured leg.
Speaker 1: Despite initial theories that the injury might have been caused
Speaker 1: by an injection, Hakki's mother, former nick U nurse, reported
Speaker 1: the incident to Child Protective Services. Despite had a year
Speaker 1: long inquiry, authorities failed to identify a suspect. Quote. Finding
Speaker 1: out there were seven total was gut wrenching, Hackie said
Speaker 1: after learning about the arrest. A statement goes on to say,
Speaker 1: before my son knew joy, he experienced pain and I
Speaker 1: wasn't there to protect him. He, along with other families,
Speaker 1: attended Stratmann's Friday, January third arraignment, where it was revealed
Speaker 1: that one baby suffered twelve fractures. The suspect's next court
Speaker 1: date is scheduled for March twenty fourth. Henrico Doctor's Hospital
Speaker 1: released its own statement expressing shock and sadness over the development. Quote,
Speaker 1: we are focused on continuing to care for our patients
Speaker 1: and providing support to our colleagues who have been deeply
Speaker 1: impersonally impacted by this investigation, it said. We are grateful
Speaker 1: to those colleagues who have dedicated their professional lives to
Speaker 1: the care and safety of our patients, as well as
Speaker 1: to law enforcement and other agencies who have worked aggressively
Speaker 1: and tirelessly with.
Speaker 3: Us on this investigation.
Speaker 1: All right, hatred exists in this world.
Speaker 3: You know that.
Speaker 1: Ignorance exists in this world. You know that, and often enough,
Speaker 1: those two are different sides of the same coin. The
Speaker 1: problem is that when people are in a position to
Speaker 1: do something with their ignorance and with their hatred that
Speaker 1: affects the lives of other people, you begin to see
Speaker 1: the early makings of systems, and you begin to see
Speaker 1: how far reaching racism can go if you imbue it.
Speaker 1: With a bit of power. Now, this is a story
Speaker 1: about a nurse who's breaking the bones of news at
Speaker 1: a hospital or black and obviously this isn't something that
Speaker 1: happens across the board. But there are things that we
Speaker 1: learn doing this show that ring true in this story.
Speaker 3: Especially.
Speaker 1: The thing that comes to mind in this instance and
Speaker 1: in many of the instances, especially when dealing with police corruption,
Speaker 1: is that we only share the stories of the people
Speaker 1: who get caught, meaning that when you look at data,
Speaker 1: when you look at in this instance, we're talking about
Speaker 1: health care, so let's talk about health care outcomes. The
Speaker 1: data can illuminate injustices that are hard to.
Speaker 3: Pinpoint the source of.
Speaker 1: In this very tiny example here, you have a neonatal
Speaker 1: unit where there is a high concentration of black children
Speaker 1: with injuries. And if this woman, if this nurse had
Speaker 1: gotten away with it, it would have just been data
Speaker 1: and the rest of us would have been able to
Speaker 1: would have been left rather to look at the data
Speaker 1: and try to figure out why is it that everything
Speaker 1: bad happens to black people all the time. Now, if
Speaker 1: you scale this up to wealth, if you scale this
Speaker 1: up to influence, political influence, if you scale this up
Speaker 1: to you know, environmental factors. If you scale this up
Speaker 1: to economic factors, if you scale this up to employment,
Speaker 1: if you scale us up to housing, and you look
Speaker 1: at the data, the data often suggests that something is
Speaker 1: going on, and for far too long people have accepted that, well,
Speaker 1: it's just you know, black people need to stop listening
Speaker 1: to rap music and then they won't have these this
Speaker 1: strange anomalies in the data when it comes to their housing,
Speaker 1: or when it comes to their healthcare, when it comes
Speaker 1: to whatever, right, And that's just been a very.
Speaker 3: Convenient excuse across the board.
Speaker 1: But I think that this story shows that there are
Speaker 1: monsters who sometimes slip up and then we're able to see, ah, there,
Speaker 1: it is right there, and enough of these informs us
Speaker 1: that walks this path to say, okay, we see what
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 3: It's racism.
Speaker 1: But I think that the general population is still uncomfortable
Speaker 1: with that as an excuse quote unquote, and then they
Speaker 1: pin it on us as though we're using an excuse,
Speaker 1: like we're imagining it, like we said, And it is
Speaker 1: important that we share stories like this and stories of
Speaker 1: police injustice, and stories of again all of these other factors,
Speaker 1: all of these elements that shape Black life in America,
Speaker 1: particularly environmental factors, economic factors, so that we can push
Speaker 1: back against the narrative that we're all all black people
Speaker 1: are crazy and victims and imagining we have like a
Speaker 1: collective delusion. It's not fair, it's hurtful. It denies us
Speaker 1: our humanity, it denies us our experience. And how arrogant
Speaker 1: of you to suggest that you know my experience better
Speaker 1: than me and you can articulate it better than I can.
Speaker 1: This is disgusting. And this is one person who got
Speaker 1: caught and for pole will have a tough time processing
Speaker 1: it because it's a woman, because it's a white woman.
Speaker 1: If you get a chance to see her picture, she
Speaker 1: looks innocent enough.
Speaker 3: Because it's whatever.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is that you know allows this to be
Speaker 1: easily dismissed from your reality. All poor babies, poor black folks,
Speaker 1: just know that this is where we live.
Speaker 2: We are not unintelligent. We are not naturally more prone
Speaker 2: to poverty and crime. We are not naturally more likely
Speaker 2: to commit crimes and be arrested. We are not naturally
Speaker 2: more likely to be addicted to drugs. We are not
Speaker 2: naturally more likely to be poor. We are not naturally
Speaker 2: less capable than everyone else. The answer is almost always
Speaker 2: racism and capitalism used as a way been by white
Speaker 2: supremacist racists, specifically to make sure that all minorities and
Speaker 2: all poor people spend time looking left and right at
Speaker 2: one another as the problem, instead of up and down
Speaker 2: at the class system that was created and that we
Speaker 2: were placed in. Those who hoard all the money and
Speaker 2: all the power. Make us each other's enemies, make us
Speaker 2: each other's problems, and tell you the reason why you
Speaker 2: don't have more and haven't had more success is because
Speaker 2: of your lazy black or Hispanic immigrant neighbor. We have
Speaker 2: been made the fooll love once again, and this powerful,
Speaker 2: forever enduring system is getting stronger. And they used to
Speaker 2: for a period of time. That's why I talked about
Speaker 2: those born in the sixties.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: They would hide this stuff from us because they couldn't
Speaker 2: get it off. We were outside, we were in the streets.
Speaker 2: We would not let it happen. And now we've been
Speaker 2: co opted. They point us at each other and we
Speaker 2: flex how much more we know and how much more woke,
Speaker 2: and how we are not sheep and we're individual free thinkers,
Speaker 2: and we parrot their politics and their ideals to each
Speaker 2: other as they continue to thrive and keep us pressed
Speaker 2: under their thumbs. I would say wake up, but they
Speaker 2: co opt it woke, So I just have to be
Speaker 2: frustrated as I read a story about a woman, a nurse,
Speaker 2: someone whose job it is to take care of people,
Speaker 2: singling out black babies and breaking their bones, as this
Speaker 2: father says, so before they experience any joy, they can
Speaker 2: experience infuriating pain and agony. And this was her intent.
Speaker 2: Because they looked like Qan Ramses. I hope that made
Speaker 2: you as sick hearing it as it made Rams reading it,
Speaker 2: because my brother almost couldn't finish reading the story.
Speaker 3: We are fathers, we're humans. We are human isus