Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsey's Jah.
Speaker 2: He is ram Jah, I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 2: listening to Civic Cipher. Back to do it one more
Speaker 2: time for you.
Speaker 1: Uh, We've got some interesting things to talk about, a
Speaker 1: lot to stick around for, so do just that. Today
Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about black women, specifically the
Speaker 1: mistreatment of black women and how there are some things
Speaker 1: that you may not know, some consistencies with respect to
Speaker 1: that specific experience that you may not have insight into.
Speaker 1: And it's not just complaining, it's not you know, there's
Speaker 1: stories there, and we also have some examples as well,
Speaker 1: And we also want you to know that it's not
Speaker 1: just me and Q rattling this stuff off. Our producer
Speaker 1: is Maggie aka Maggie B. Knowen has given us this
Speaker 1: script and so her input will be felt throughout today's discussions. Also,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about I want to spend some
Speaker 1: time talking about voting in midterm elections. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of crazy stuff going on in the world right now
Speaker 1: that you may not know about as well, and so
Speaker 1: we want to kind of tell you some things, some deep,
Speaker 1: dark secrets you may not be aware of so that
Speaker 1: you can remain motivated and hopefully motivate other people to
Speaker 1: take action, people in your circle, people that you work with, whatever,
Speaker 1: people that care about people, so that we don't let
Speaker 1: this moment pass us by, because in my belief, we're
Speaker 1: on the cusp of things going really one or two ways.
Speaker 1: So again, a lot to stick around for. And oh,
Speaker 1: before I forget, we're also going to be talking about
Speaker 1: the roots of house music. You know, it's the release
Speaker 1: of Beyonce's new album and Drake's new album. Well, house
Speaker 1: music started with black folks. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: that as well. But first and foremost, let's talk about
Speaker 1: some abny excellence. How does that sound? Shall we shall? So?
Speaker 1: Today's abny Excellence is brought to you by Hip Hop
Speaker 1: Weekly Media. The story comes via Black Enterprise. So meet
Speaker 1: Lilian Lincoln Lambert, the first black woman to receive a
Speaker 1: Harvard NBA. Lincoln Lambert received a Master of Business Administration
Speaker 1: for Harvard from Harvard in nineteen sixty nine, used it
Speaker 1: to carve a career path for other black women to excel.
Speaker 1: Forbes reports, the author, public speaker, and entrepreneur in the
Speaker 1: building maintenance industry grew her business to more than twelve
Speaker 1: hundred employees in six states and twenty million dollars in
Speaker 1: revenue before selling it. Today, Lambert is a public speaker
Speaker 1: focusing on the power of persistence, resilience, courage, and morality,
Speaker 1: and the hurdles that prevent people from reaching their full potential.
Speaker 1: Using the power of storytelling, Lambert inspires her audiences to
Speaker 1: dream big, act bold, and pave their paths and pave
Speaker 1: their paths sure. One of the things Lambert tells her
Speaker 1: audience is that she focuses on three important steps. So
Speaker 1: if you got your pens, phones, whatever, make some notes,
Speaker 1: because this is an amazing person with an amazing story
Speaker 1: that we can all learn from. Number One, learn as
Speaker 1: much as you can. The better prepared you are, the
Speaker 1: more leverage you'll have in negotiations to create a blueprint
Speaker 1: of your goal. This will help you focus and create
Speaker 1: a manageable strategy. Three, don't let fear paralyze you from
Speaker 1: going after what you want. The world teaches us in
Speaker 1: subtle ways, in particular black women oftentimes that are not
Speaker 1: capable or doesn't show many examples of black women excelling,
Speaker 1: So that's very important. In a final note here women
Speaker 1: don't need to be afraid to step out and allow
Speaker 1: themselves to make mistakes. Lambert said, don't be intimidated by
Speaker 1: men or people that think they're smarter than you. Most
Speaker 1: of the time they're not as smart as they think
Speaker 1: they are. Well said and true in my experience, certainly so,
Speaker 1: once again, shout out to Lillian Lincoln Lambert, today's have
Speaker 1: any excellence now black women. Mistreatment of black women, who
Speaker 1: I think you know, if you're listening to this show,
Speaker 1: I think you know that black women kind of have
Speaker 1: it the hardest. You know, imagine being born a woman,
Speaker 1: which in a lot of people's you certainly socially progressive
Speaker 1: intellectuals estimations, a lot of those folks consider women to
Speaker 1: be regarded as second class citizens in even advanced modern
Speaker 1: you know, societies, progressive societies, if you will, Women make
Speaker 1: less money, women have less opportunities, et cetera. Right, But
Speaker 1: the same holds true in this country and globally for
Speaker 1: black people. And so if you're born a woman and black,
Speaker 1: I've heard it stated that you are born with two
Speaker 1: strikes against you, and then you're expected to get out
Speaker 1: there and make a go of it. Now, this isn't
Speaker 1: all doom and gloom because on this show we celebrate
Speaker 1: black girl magic as often as we can, and we
Speaker 1: recognize that black women have overcome a tremendous amount. Right,
Speaker 1: black women are more educated than ever, more educated than
Speaker 1: black men, I think, the most.
Speaker 2: Educated, more educated than every Yeah.
Speaker 1: The most educated group. Yeah, I remember we did that show.
Speaker 1: I don't want to requote the statistics, but I know
Speaker 1: that Black women are excelling in terms of education. And
Speaker 1: then lots of areas, but the reality is still that
Speaker 1: there's a long road to travel before there is a
Speaker 1: real sense of equity and equality. There are just some
Speaker 1: areas that you know, black women have managed to make
Speaker 1: some strides. And it's interesting because you know, before we
Speaker 1: get into today's stories, I want you to know how
Speaker 1: we think about this topic. And I'm gonna speak for Q.
Speaker 1: I don't like to do that, but hopefully it's okay.
Speaker 1: In this one instance, we love everyone. We recognize that
Speaker 1: everyone is valuable. We are all. We all exist as
Speaker 1: a result of the same creator, regardless of who you
Speaker 1: consider that creator to be. We are all expressions of
Speaker 1: a similar consciousness, and we have a finite amount of
Speaker 1: time in our relatively insignificant place in the universe. Right,
Speaker 1: we make a big deal out of ourselves because our
Speaker 1: biology compels us to do so. But the fact is
Speaker 1: is that we really need each other. So in this
Speaker 1: celebration of black women, we need to make sure that
Speaker 1: the people who have the hardest time recognize a that
Speaker 1: that shouldn't be happening to them. But I think I
Speaker 1: take it a step further and say that in this time,
Speaker 1: I'll speak for me, and if you disagree to you, you
Speaker 1: can certainly jump in there. But my belief is that
Speaker 1: the black woman is as close to God as any
Speaker 1: of us will ever see on this planet, in this realm,
Speaker 1: and in this time. So the reason I say that
Speaker 1: is because the first one was black. For those familiar
Speaker 1: with science and that go down those rabbit holes like
Speaker 1: I do you know, look up mitochondrial Eve, the mother
Speaker 1: to us all, we're all related to this one woman
Speaker 1: who lived in Africa many years ago, and this was
Speaker 1: a black woman, human woman, and we all have her
Speaker 1: encoding in us. And so when I say the black
Speaker 1: woman is the closest expression to God that we'll ever see,
Speaker 1: that is based on science meeting what we know to
Speaker 1: be well established in Christian religion as close to fact
Speaker 1: as we're going to be able to say. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm paying a compliment of course, but you know, there's
Speaker 1: also an element of truth there, and it's very unfortunate
Speaker 1: that black women have to endure such a challenging reality
Speaker 1: when this is the mother of all of us, the
Speaker 1: mother of civilization. You know, I've said it before on
Speaker 1: the show that my belief is that black women are
Speaker 1: the most beautiful expression of human beings, older black women.
Speaker 1: That's the most beautiful expression of a human being that
Speaker 1: I've seen in my life. And funnily enough, the second
Speaker 1: most beautiful expression of a human being I've found is
Speaker 1: an Asian man who is also older. I just think
Speaker 1: that's a beautiful thing to look at. You know. So
Speaker 1: while I am very much an advocate for black people,
Speaker 1: I'm black myself, I have black children, you know, and
Speaker 1: I live a very black life. I will be fair.
Speaker 1: You know, what I see is what I see, and
Speaker 1: what I know is what I know, And so hopefully
Speaker 1: that lends a bit more credibility and you can see
Speaker 1: that there's a bit of an unbiased approach to the
Speaker 1: things that I say about black women than being beautiful certainly,
Speaker 1: and later in life that's gorgeous to me. And again
Speaker 1: back to black women being the closest that we'll ever
Speaker 1: see to God. Now wait before I before I move on,
Speaker 1: I kind of spoke for you. I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't want to leave you. There is there anything
Speaker 1: you got to add or you want to adjust anything?
Speaker 1: I said? You know, now's the time to do it.
Speaker 2: No, no, proceed, Okay, all right, very good.
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about black women and how black women
Speaker 1: are treated. So the topic given to us by H.
Speaker 1: Maggie b. Knowan is the mistreatment of black women. Charges
Speaker 1: finally filed against some officers in the murder of Brionna Taylor.
Speaker 1: And you know, the foremost question there is what took
Speaker 1: so long? And why really was this not pursued initially
Speaker 1: and immediately? So I'll read a bit. This comes from time.
Speaker 1: So for Bonna Taylor's supporters, justice finally came in the
Speaker 1: form of a federal civil rights case. Four officers involved
Speaker 1: in the March twenty twenty police raid they killed Brionna
Speaker 1: Taylor were arrested by the FBI Thursday. Three of them
Speaker 1: are charged with violating Taylor's civil rights which carries a
Speaker 1: maximum of life in prison if convicted. The raid on
Speaker 1: Taylor's Louisville apartment was the result of lies. The federal
Speaker 1: indictment alleged a warrant for the no knock warrant raid
Speaker 1: that led to Taylor's death should never have been granted,
Speaker 1: and Breonna Taylor should be alive today, said US Attorney
Speaker 1: General Merrick Garland. For Taylor's family and her supporters in Louisville,
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice announcement was the beginning of justice
Speaker 1: that they believe had been denied to them. Only one
Speaker 1: officer involved in a twenty six year old black woman's
Speaker 1: killing was charged under Kentucky law, and he was acquitted
Speaker 1: at trial. Quote. I've waited eight hundred and seventy four
Speaker 1: days for today, Tamika Palmer, Brianna's mother said, and her
Speaker 1: quote continues. Today's overdue, but it still hurts. They shouldn't
Speaker 1: have been there, and Brianna didn't deserve that. Now. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to hash out who Breonna Taylor was because
Speaker 1: my assumption is that you wouldn't know. We talk about
Speaker 1: her a lot on the show, and of course, if
Speaker 1: you were alive and breathing, in twenty twenty. That is,
Speaker 1: perhaps right after George Floyd, perhaps the most shouted name
Speaker 1: on the streets during all the protests. So, if you
Speaker 1: don't know, and on.
Speaker 2: Television and television and radio and social media and.
Speaker 1: Social media arrest the cops that murdered Breonna Taylor, I
Speaker 1: think that was a popular meme sort of thing that
Speaker 1: took place at that time as well. Now, if you
Speaker 1: don't know the whole story, please look it up. It's
Speaker 1: worth looking up and then you'll find out exactly how
Speaker 1: she was treated. And we did an episode on this
Speaker 1: as well as almost collateral damage. You know, the police
Speaker 1: have to get the bad guy, which we're in the
Speaker 1: wrong place and there was no bad guy there, but
Speaker 1: their approach to it was like, well, well, it's just
Speaker 1: kind of the cost of doing business. Sometimes you get them,
Speaker 1: sometimes other people die. And that cavalier attitude toward a
Speaker 1: woman's life, we believe only happens when the woman is
Speaker 1: black and does not have a high profile, you know,
Speaker 1: not a celebrity, you know, those sorts of things. Have
Speaker 1: this been Gabby Potito and the police raided the wrong
Speaker 1: house and killed Gabby Patito, you know, blond haired, blue
Speaker 1: eyed white woman. There wouldn't have even been the need
Speaker 1: for an outcry because they would have owned it the family.
Speaker 1: You know, this would have been handled privately, quietly, and
Speaker 1: there wouldn't have you know, they would have acknowledged, hey,
Speaker 1: this is a mistake, rather than that's just kind of
Speaker 1: the cost of doing business. Right, So that shows you
Speaker 1: the value of black life. And today we're talking about
Speaker 1: black women's lives. So obviously people were very upset by that.
Speaker 1: National protest erupted and the rest is history now as
Speaker 1: far as those protests are concerned. We were out on
Speaker 1: the streets right and we had a chance to see
Speaker 1: the amount of signage, the amount of support. You know,
Speaker 1: this was a national moment and movement. And then as
Speaker 1: we mentioned the social media that followed that, you know,
Speaker 1: you remember the the videos that used to come up
Speaker 1: on social media where people would start by telling this
Speaker 1: the beginnings of like a prolific story or profound sort
Speaker 1: of whatever, and then right in the middle they'd switch
Speaker 1: gears and be like, arrest the cops.
Speaker 2: Conclusion, right, like the moral of the of every story,
Speaker 2: no matter what he had started so, was to arrest
Speaker 2: the cops that murdered Brehonna tangle.
Speaker 1: Right, So I think it's important to mention that that
Speaker 1: for the those people that were in that moment standing
Speaker 1: in solidarity with black people, that were doing their best
Speaker 1: to feel the pain that black people were feeling and
Speaker 1: to help us to deal with the amount of hopelessness
Speaker 1: and the amount of frustration and the amount of you know,
Speaker 1: all those feelings that black people were feeling in that time,
Speaker 1: not just by you know, acknowledging it, but no coming
Speaker 1: out on the streets, standing with us, sharing on social media,
Speaker 1: bringing attention to the fact that these injustices are unfortunately frequent.
Speaker 1: These just happened to time out in such a way
Speaker 1: to where it was sort of a perfect storm. George
Speaker 1: Floyd was already hot, but an issue COVID happened, people
Speaker 1: weren't at work, everybody could get outside, you know, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But for those people that acknowledged this
Speaker 1: with us, I think it's important for us to say
Speaker 1: that we commend you, and we're still working to bring
Speaker 1: attention to these stories and to make the world a
Speaker 1: better place. This is the purpose of this show. But
Speaker 1: today we're talking about the fact that it took where's
Speaker 1: that number eight hundred and seventy four days or charges
Speaker 1: to be brought. And I think again the comparison to
Speaker 1: another popular name of a white woman who had no
Speaker 1: status or no profile before something bad happened to her,
Speaker 1: Gabby Patito. I think if you were just to think
Speaker 1: about that yourself, you could see how the media would
Speaker 1: approach that differently, how police would approach that differently, how
Speaker 1: accountability would look different in those situations. The thing is,
Speaker 1: we don't want to harp. I know that we have
Speaker 1: to as part of the reason why Q kind of
Speaker 1: keeps me from floating off into the clouds. We have
Speaker 1: to bear in mind that the eight hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: four days of waiting is an injustice in and of itself.
Speaker 1: But because I'm mean, because I always have a tendency
Speaker 1: to get this stuff off, I do want to say
Speaker 1: that some justice, late justice. Partial justice is better than
Speaker 1: no justice, is better than a complete failure to acknowledge
Speaker 1: or take responsibility for what happened.
Speaker 2: If there is any then I'd agree with you, right
Speaker 2: because we know that officers being arrested and or charged
Speaker 2: means nothing. Right I'm guessing will stand trial. And then
Speaker 2: there's the topic of sentencing, which far too often seems
Speaker 2: to be very very very light or acquitted with regards
Speaker 2: to law enforcement being charged with murder, especially when those
Speaker 2: victims look like us, more so, as we can see
Speaker 2: with the Kuittles, when the victim looks like us, and
Speaker 2: as a woman. So I'm hesitant to celebrate anyway. It
Speaker 2: got no rise out of me. Excuse me, when I
Speaker 2: saw that charges were brought, I had no emotional response whatsoever.
Speaker 2: I'd love to see accountability actually happen, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: I'll feel a lot different than it, But I just
Speaker 2: I have no evidence, and there's no data that gives
Speaker 2: me any reason to have any faith in this system
Speaker 2: that has failed us so monumentally and so often and
Speaker 2: so consistently. There is still no reason to celebrate yet,
Speaker 2: right that, kudos to them for doing the job that
Speaker 2: they shouldn't have. No one should have had to insist
Speaker 2: they do, and it definitely shouldn't have taken two and
Speaker 2: a half years for something to happen. But we'll see.
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. I think that's more than fair.
Speaker 1: You know, there's that's fair, you know. And then obviously
Speaker 1: we've seen that sometimes these things are the result of pressure,
Speaker 1: like if the country hadn't gotten into the streets. This
Speaker 1: may have never happened even after eight hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: four days, right, But my hope is that even having
Speaker 1: charges brought against these officers more frequently, the attention being
Speaker 1: brought to it, us, having this conversation here and now,
Speaker 1: maybe the ripple effect of these combined actions and hopefully
Speaker 1: the results of this trial and the results of these
Speaker 1: actions will create off us who think twice. It will
Speaker 1: implore the people behind the systems that really frame our
Speaker 1: society to understand that there at least maybe some consequences
Speaker 1: feels like a strong word, but inconveniences if you take
Speaker 1: the life of a black woman and that might be
Speaker 1: something enough for some people to at least pause before
Speaker 1: they continue through. Or you know, I'm trying to find
Speaker 1: a shred of something positive here, you know, beyond the
Speaker 1: fact that, of course there are charges now finally brought.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find, you know, how about this. We
Speaker 1: have come a long way. This is not the world
Speaker 1: that our fathers, our grandfathers, our great grandfathers lived in,
Speaker 1: but this hopefully will not be the world that our
Speaker 1: children and grandchildren and great grandchildren live in. And my
Speaker 1: hope is that, yes, the here and now that today
Speaker 1: might look bleak, it might look like we are a
Speaker 1: long way from you know, where we have to be,
Speaker 1: and those things are true. But if we look at
Speaker 1: these things in the scale of a human lifetime, then
Speaker 1: it looks impossible. But if we look at this in
Speaker 1: terms of the scale of a country and how long
Speaker 1: countries last, then in my more optimistic view, when I
Speaker 1: have them from time to time more often than you do,
Speaker 1: I see a trajectory that hopefully will continue, and we'll
Speaker 1: move this whole country along toward a more perfect union.
Speaker 1: To borrow from the language of this country's forefathers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that the incline of a graph that would
Speaker 1: be showing the trend of progress for said country, it'd
Speaker 1: be far less steep than you might hope. I think
Speaker 1: we're trending in a direction that we've always hoped, just
Speaker 1: very very slowly, and there's far less progress from the
Speaker 1: years of our great grandparents than you would hope. But
Speaker 1: then you would imagine we're not having dogs sicked on
Speaker 1: us in the streets anymore, right, But a lot of
Speaker 1: the outcomes are the same. So I saw that, remember
Speaker 1: that video we did, though I reserve, I reserve. I'll
Speaker 1: reserve my.
Speaker 2: Response for actual progress instead of you know, what might
Speaker 2: appear to be so to some, because I know these
Speaker 2: outcomes are sadly and typically the same. Yeah, so we'll
Speaker 2: see hopefully we have something not to cheer, but just
Speaker 2: to be able to nod our heads and say, okay,
Speaker 2: at least some form of accountability has started to show
Speaker 2: its face. Right.
Speaker 1: Well, I do want to say this. You mentioned dog
Speaker 1: sicked on us, and that's still a thing. Remember that
Speaker 1: video that we had to talk about where the police
Speaker 1: sick the dog on the man who was just standing there.
Speaker 1: He was a black man and the dog like bit
Speaker 1: him up and he had to go to the hospital
Speaker 1: and they ripped him apart kind of, So that still
Speaker 1: kind of happens. I know you probably.
Speaker 2: Maybe not as frequent. I'll say that then, sure.
Speaker 1: And I know that today's topic is about black women.
Speaker 1: But I do want to also mention while we have
Speaker 1: a few minutes or a few seconds left, that ah
Speaker 1: Moud Aubrey's killer was sentenced to a federal hate crime
Speaker 1: to a term of life in prison plus ten years
Speaker 1: amid his fears that someone would hurt him in jail,
Speaker 1: and so that's another thing. My hope is that will
Speaker 1: the ripple effect will be that society will certainly society
Speaker 1: that harbors the sentiment that black bodies can be damaged
Speaker 1: with no consequences. You can harm black people and no
Speaker 1: one's going to come out. Those groups will see that
Speaker 1: verdict and realize even more that we probably should take
Speaker 1: it easy, because.
Speaker 2: When we get when we get to a point where
Speaker 2: this man is not an outlier or an exception once again,
Speaker 2: I'll feel a lot better. You give me one case
Speaker 2: of accountability and then you give me thousands of cases
Speaker 2: of impunity, it's hard to really feel away about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, and far be it for me to
Speaker 1: be a part of the media that influences the world
Speaker 1: to think that just because there's one instance that everything's changing.
Speaker 1: So you're right, there are lots of cases that don't
Speaker 1: go on reported, so they go on reporting