Speaker 1: If you're just tuning in Civic scipher, I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Rams's Jack, he is Ram's Jah, I am q Ward
Speaker 1: and you are tuned into Civic e sciphe, indeed you are.
Speaker 1: This our three year anniversary episode.
Speaker 2: Three year anniversary sounds crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, We've been doing it for a while and
Speaker 1: we still have a lot more in store for you,
Speaker 1: So be sure to stick around because we are going
Speaker 1: to be discussing the most important thing we want people
Speaker 1: to know after three years. Things things. Okay, we'll do things.
Speaker 1: We haven't had this conversation before and so we're going
Speaker 1: to have it organically for your benefit. This is kind
Speaker 1: of the spirit that the show was born and for
Speaker 1: us to have honest conversations, black conversations in front of
Speaker 1: an audience of non black allies and potential supporters. So
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to do today, and we have
Speaker 1: a whole lot more in store as well. We're really
Speaker 1: excited about a brand new Baba and so we're going
Speaker 1: to be working this into the show moving forward. So
Speaker 1: let's get to that right now. Today's Baba is sponsored
Speaker 1: by Unknown Union. The fashion now situated at the intersection
Speaker 1: of meaning, innovation and culture. For more info, check Unknown
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Speaker 1: we must be the change you want to see in
Speaker 1: the world. Okay, so three years, three years, I know
Speaker 1: where I want to start. Please, it's kind of where
Speaker 1: we left off. We had a conversation during the last election,
Speaker 1: the last election cycle with Charlotmagne to God, and he
Speaker 1: pointed out this sort of disenfranchisement of voters tired of
Speaker 1: being left out, tired of being lied to, tired of
Speaker 1: being let down. A lot of black people have just
Speaker 1: stopped caring.
Speaker 3: They've completely you know, unplugged, disconnected and thrown their hands up.
Speaker 2: My voice doesn't matter. My vote doesn't count.
Speaker 3: Even when the people I want elected get elected, they
Speaker 3: don't carry through on the promises that they made, and
Speaker 3: I don't see.
Speaker 2: The benefit of my vote.
Speaker 3: And because we are not, you know, as black people,
Speaker 3: a part of a monolith, we do have varied opinions
Speaker 3: and varied positions on things. And because of that, when
Speaker 3: it comes time to elect officials, both you know, state, local,
Speaker 3: and federal, we are at a disadvantage because the other
Speaker 3: side has a tempole that they all subscribe to. It's
Speaker 3: upholding white supremacy and all the stuff they disagree about,
Speaker 3: all the little stuff that's after that, they don't care.
Speaker 2: They will march together and run to the polls.
Speaker 3: The least educated of us, the most hateful of us,
Speaker 3: the least informed of us, scream the loudness and vote
Speaker 3: the most and us, as educated as we are, spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time debating each other, adopting contrarian platforms
Speaker 3: so that we can flex our intellectual muscle and show
Speaker 3: that we don't subscribe to group think, while the other
Speaker 3: side collectively goes out and votes against our best interests,
Speaker 3: sometimes even against their own best interests. Just as long
Speaker 3: as they're also against ours and they get results to
Speaker 3: the tune of tens of millions of people showing up
Speaker 3: to the polls. So the number one thing that I
Speaker 3: like people to react to with regards to civic sipher,
Speaker 3: our listeners and our message is somehow finding something that
Speaker 3: we can unite on and finding someone who can carry
Speaker 3: that message for us, because another problem that we have
Speaker 3: is a lack of followable dates.
Speaker 1: Can I jump in here please? Okay. So in the
Speaker 1: first half of the show, we were talking about how
Speaker 1: having a new president makes it a little easier to
Speaker 1: be black and I work with We live in Arizona,
Speaker 1: so a lot of the people this used to be Mexico. Literally,
Speaker 1: so a lot of the people that live here are
Speaker 1: Mexican of Mexican descent, recimply moved to the US. It's
Speaker 1: not like they've lived in the US because their family
Speaker 1: was here when this became the US. They first generation.
Speaker 1: That's the word I'm looking for, thank you. So all
Speaker 1: types of Hispanic people, and I know that for a
Speaker 1: lot of them it feels very different too. And that's
Speaker 1: the reality that in which I live, where human beings
Speaker 1: are affected negatively by the hate and the divisiveness of
Speaker 1: one man who has been elected, and that I feel that.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you listen to the show for any
Speaker 1: length of time, you know I'll be feeling some stuff. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm crying all the time.
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 1: Man, I wish I was different, but this is who
Speaker 1: I was supposed to be, So this is what I
Speaker 1: can be. Right, So a different president changing how things
Speaker 1: feel and that mattering and that going a long way.
Speaker 1: That's definitely something that I'm proud that we all have accomplished,
Speaker 1: those of us who want to see a world that
Speaker 1: is more equitable, where people are treated a little bit
Speaker 1: more fairly. But as you talk about candidates, I again,
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those people that looks at the
Speaker 1: current president Joe Biden is like, oh Biden, is this Biden? Hey,
Speaker 1: Look he's doing the job better than the last guy.
Speaker 1: That's all I really needed right now. Okay, But the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter bar the low bar. But the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is that what I the person
Speaker 1: I wanted was Bernie Sanders. I'm that I'm a good
Speaker 1: friend of our sinbatt. He calls me a bleeding heart liberal, right,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know it. I still really don't know
Speaker 1: what it means, but it sounds cool because it has
Speaker 1: the word heart, you know what I mean, And I
Speaker 1: know that that's that's who I was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: I tried to be tough guy or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: not man, come on, seriously, I mean, if I need
Speaker 1: to be those things, sure, But for the most part,
Speaker 1: I know that I was meant to feel what it
Speaker 1: is that I feel and to try to bring kindness, happiness, love,
Speaker 1: fellowship into this planet. So that's what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to be any different. Bernie Sanders
Speaker 1: was a little bit closer to what I would envision
Speaker 1: the best of us, what it would be. With that
Speaker 1: in mind, I understand that feeling that a lot of
Speaker 1: people have, which is, you know, what does my vote
Speaker 1: count for?
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 1: You know? But where I came back to and where
Speaker 1: I had to kind of where I got disappointed when
Speaker 1: it was Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and Bernie was
Speaker 1: looking like he was that dude, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden there was some behind the scenes stuff. I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell you about it right now, but I remember
Speaker 1: at the time I was like, wait a minute, what
Speaker 1: happened because Bernie had this whole swell and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Hillary Clinton emerged as the nominee. This
Speaker 1: was back when Donald Trump was first running. I felt
Speaker 1: like that was very unfair, and I was kind of
Speaker 1: disappointed in Democrats and obviously disappointed and everything that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was talking about at the time. So I felt like, well,
Speaker 1: what what is this for? This long before Saivic Cipher,
Speaker 1: by the way, So yeah, in that moment, I felt
Speaker 1: kind of deflated. But what I what reoriented me was
Speaker 1: that I don't think it's just the lesser of two
Speaker 1: evils argument that we use a lot, and and sometimes
Speaker 1: it's that, and that's not accurate, but that's how it's
Speaker 1: that's how it's funn yeah, and and and we have
Speaker 1: this conversation sometimes. But what I think it is is
Speaker 1: it's more like, which one of these two options more
Speaker 1: closely aligns with the type of world that I would
Speaker 1: like to see for all of us? And one side
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make any pronouncements here,
Speaker 1: because there's a side that effectively says eat or be
Speaker 1: eaten and another side that says live and let live.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean or I know those aren't exact,
Speaker 1: but you get what I'm trying to say. There's two philosophies,
Speaker 1: neither which is wrong or right, but one of them
Speaker 1: is a little bit more in line with This is
Speaker 1: what I'm saying right now. I'm trying to be fair.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you have it, but one of them
Speaker 1: is more in line with what I believe the best
Speaker 1: of us is. I don't believe the best of us
Speaker 1: is eat or be eaten. I believe the best of
Speaker 1: us is live and let live. Of those two philosophies, right,
Speaker 1: And so, while not being necessarily a fan of any candidate,
Speaker 1: I know that in terms of a political party, in
Speaker 1: a political affiliation, there is one side that feels more
Speaker 1: in tune with what the best of us can be. Now,
Speaker 1: the other side might say, Okay, they're not realistic, this
Speaker 1: is impossible. You're always gonna have these problems. Sure, sure,
Speaker 1: But in terms of where are we going, what are
Speaker 1: we trying to pursue, what are we trying to engineer
Speaker 1: into our society, these people seem like they got the vision,
Speaker 1: and these people are trying to batten down the hatches
Speaker 1: and whether whatever storm we're dealing with right now. And
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit more of an optimist, and so
Speaker 1: that's where my political allegiances lie. So it compels me
Speaker 1: to continue to engage in the democratic process. And I
Speaker 1: hope that you've learned something from that because cues about
Speaker 1: the Hypney part.
Speaker 3: No, I'm not going to rip you apart. I'm just
Speaker 3: gonna say something that I feel to be true. Okay,
Speaker 3: But neither party has an ideal position. Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2: Neither party is really looking to deliver much for us
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 1: Sure, that's fair.
Speaker 3: That's the problem. One of them is quite flagrantly and
Speaker 3: demonstrably worse than the other. But what has gotten so
Speaker 3: many people to unplug and disconnect and just check out
Speaker 3: altogether is that neither of them is really doing anything
Speaker 3: for us. There's a lot of you use the word.
Speaker 3: I use the word socialism not as a pejorative, right.
Speaker 3: One of our parties does because the idea of the
Speaker 3: government helping everybody has to be an awful concept, and
Speaker 3: they sell it that way, except they do a lot
Speaker 3: to help themselves, and they do a lot to use
Speaker 3: our systems and our tax dollars to help themselves. So
Speaker 3: they get people to take to the streets marching and
Speaker 3: raising their fist against socialism. But if your house catches
Speaker 3: on fire, you call nine to one one and your
Speaker 3: neighbour's tax dollars pay for those people who come to
Speaker 3: put the fire out. So they don't even believe in
Speaker 3: the things they claim to right, that's socialism when they
Speaker 3: feel like it, And especially for those who already have
Speaker 3: they're rich and wealthy, practice socialism with and for each
Speaker 3: other constantly. So when you have two parties neither of
Speaker 3: which seem to be serving its people, a lot of
Speaker 3: the people just throw their hands up and say, forget this.
Speaker 3: The problem is that one of those parties is actively
Speaker 3: trying to destroy us. So having that lesser of two
Speaker 3: evils concept, that's really where that discussion comes from. It
Speaker 3: is not really a lesser of two evils. One of
Speaker 3: them is very much status quo, the other one is
Speaker 3: actually evil. And I think in order to continue to
Speaker 3: stir up their supporters in the way that our former
Speaker 3: president did, a lot of these things that are happening now,
Speaker 3: I think started as pr campaigns. I don't think they
Speaker 3: ever really intended to get rid of Roe v Wade.
Speaker 3: I think they just knew if they talked about it
Speaker 3: that the Evangelical and Roman Catholic supporters would support someone
Speaker 3: who was trying to do away with abortion. It just
Speaker 3: got so much of a swell and so much support
Speaker 3: that they saw it through. But I think initially it
Speaker 3: was just a talking point. Right, we don't we are
Speaker 3: not christian like at all, but we have a hot
Speaker 3: button topic that if we say we're against it, the
Speaker 3: Evangelicals and the Christians and the Catholics will support us.
Speaker 3: And that's if we come out here and say we're
Speaker 3: against abortion. And they're right. Some of the worst people
Speaker 3: to ever exist campaign on the Bible belt on that
Speaker 3: single topic, and as long as they're on the right
Speaker 3: side of that topic to get that base, they get it,
Speaker 3: no matter what their actual politics are like, no matter
Speaker 3: how they actually feel about that topic. So it's just
Speaker 3: become such a game that our politicians play with the
Speaker 3: less informed of us, and unfortunately the more informed of us.
Speaker 1: It rather it begins to us and check out. They
Speaker 1: see this rigged against.
Speaker 3: Us, and in order to flex again that intellectual muscle,
Speaker 3: they turn contrarian and try to talk everyone else out
Speaker 3: of engaging too.
Speaker 2: So while we're being divided and arguing amongst ourselves.
Speaker 3: They are united and they're pushed to keep us under
Speaker 3: their boot, and they take to the polls and they
Speaker 3: vote every time.
Speaker 1: I want to end mass. I want to say this.
Speaker 1: I think that this is something that is worth saying.
Speaker 1: Everything that you said I agree with. But follow me
Speaker 1: for a second. We mentioned a dear friend of ours,
Speaker 1: Steve Earnhardt. Steve Earnhardt is a white man. He's older
Speaker 1: than we are.
Speaker 2: Whole lot.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't guess his age, you know, but I know
Speaker 1: that he's older than we are. He's in a position
Speaker 1: of power, and he based on his values or his
Speaker 1: tax bracket, if it's your values, I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: more okay with that. But based on his values, feels
Speaker 1: more aligned with the Republican Party, the Republican Party of
Speaker 1: our childhood, not today. But this is what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say. I'm trying to separate the party from the people. Okay. So,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of people we have, believe it
Speaker 1: or not. I learn this, and we haven't had this
Speaker 1: conversation before, but I learned this. We have a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are conservative in their views that listen
Speaker 1: to our show and every so often they'll engage, and
Speaker 1: you know, a letter will make its way to me,
Speaker 1: and you know, I just we just haven't had these conversations.
Speaker 1: But I've I've thought, once upon a time we should
Speaker 1: have like a conversation about this on the air. But anyway,
Speaker 1: Steve is a person that doesn't feel politically the way
Speaker 1: that we feel about a lot of things. I'm me
Speaker 1: being a bleeding heart liberal. I couldn't even hide it
Speaker 1: if I wanted to, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: don't think that I'm capable of that. He had to
Speaker 1: know that the moment he talked to me, and then
Speaker 1: obviously over all the meetings. He knows exactly who I am,
Speaker 1: where I stand for. But I believe that the reason
Speaker 1: he gave us the keys to the kingdom in a
Speaker 1: manner of speaking, and gave us the framework to grow
Speaker 1: this show is because he believed than the human element,
Speaker 1: he believed that it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: And despite us having conversations that we believe are based
Speaker 1: in truth, we know we're based in truth, we have video,
Speaker 1: and the fact of the matter is that the truth
Speaker 1: has a very very strong liberal bias to it. He's
Speaker 1: been one of our biggest cheerleaders and supporters, and so
Speaker 1: I wanted to add that to what you were saying,
Speaker 1: so that we don't conflate Republicans with the Republican Party
Speaker 1: too much, because there are a a significant conservatives with
Speaker 1: the republic That's okay, That's what I'm trying to say,
Speaker 1: is it's more conservative the very party.
Speaker 2: The party is kind of not kind of the party
Speaker 2: is out of control.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, yeah, So that's that's that's and that's the
Speaker 1: reason this show was born. That's the that you know,
Speaker 1: and we've and and it's it's it's sad that we
Speaker 1: have to refer to it by name as the Republican
Speaker 1: Party because it's just that thing where I've lived in
Speaker 1: this country and have had to deal with conservativism my
Speaker 1: whole entire adult life, even before I became an adult,
Speaker 1: because I'm black and you have to grow up a
Speaker 1: lot faster if you're black. And this is true. If
Speaker 1: you don't know that for yourself, take our word for it.
Speaker 1: We would not lie to you about something like that.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't until this show, around the time when
Speaker 1: the show was born, when we just kind of reached
Speaker 1: its boiling point, like what is this. Why are these
Speaker 1: people so hateful? Why are they so supportive of this
Speaker 1: man who is so clearly hateful. His whole platform is
Speaker 1: based on hate and device literally divisiveness. Build that wall, like, yo,
Speaker 1: what is going on? Why does everybody love this? And
Speaker 1: why are so many of us standing up for him?
Speaker 1: That was the moment, And that's another part that I
Speaker 1: no one.
Speaker 3: Care about standing up on this idea that I'm pretending
Speaker 3: I don't know I do. He was not a regular politician,
Speaker 3: and for a lot of people that was enough. He
Speaker 3: was not the status quo. So again on that contrarian
Speaker 3: mindset where there's no real backbone to it, right, contrary
Speaker 3: and for the sake of being so, I'm just thinking
Speaker 3: outside the box. And like I said, I don't subscribe
Speaker 3: to group thinking. Yeah, you say the sky is blue,
Speaker 3: but how do we know that?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 3: It was just crazy talk. Yeah, but he did not
Speaker 3: fit the cookie cutter politician and a lot of people
Speaker 3: were here for it, even though it was grossly hateful.
Speaker 1: Device Yeah, and it really harmed a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and it really was hurtful, and he showed the worst
Speaker 1: of us, true of ours, true colors.
Speaker 2: I had some relationships that didn't survive his presidence.
Speaker 1: Oh me too. For like former friends of mine, if
Speaker 1: that name would have never came up, we'll still be
Speaker 1: fine today. As soon as it came up. I'm like, man, Listen,
Speaker 1: we had a whole episode, remember early on, where we
Speaker 1: had to discuss whether or not we should use the
Speaker 1: black button. I'm personally a big fan of the black button.
Speaker 1: It works, keeps you peace of mind, keeps your brain
Speaker 1: from being cluttered. Black button is an amazing tool. Listen, man,
Speaker 1: But not to harp on that. There's another couple of
Speaker 1: things that I do want to shout out because these
Speaker 1: have been topics that have been very important that we've
Speaker 1: been able to cover over the past few years. The first,
Speaker 1: we've discussed that black on black crime is a myth
Speaker 1: right and and and not a myth. Obviously, there's a
Speaker 1: black person that can commit a crime against another black person,
Speaker 1: but it's it's a marketing ploy is a myth right,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to say. So we've talked about
Speaker 1: that at length. We have actually some content up on
Speaker 1: our social media again. Follow us at Civic Cipher you'll
Speaker 1: be able to see some stuff there. A lot of
Speaker 1: people are talking about that. We were able to have
Speaker 1: conversations dispelling the myth that black fathers are absentee and
Speaker 1: not involved in their children's lives. So when the fact
Speaker 1: is is that the data shows from the CDC, there's
Speaker 1: articles written even this year. The study came out about
Speaker 1: ten years ago, but there's still articles being written that
Speaker 1: are documenting this. The black fathers actually are the best
Speaker 1: fathers of all, most involved and so forth. And what
Speaker 1: gaps you see has to do with incarceration rates and
Speaker 1: things like this, But in terms of like unmarried black
Speaker 1: all that stuff is just a fabrication. And I want
Speaker 1: to read this before we go. What do we want.
Speaker 1: We want to in qualified immunity. We want to end
Speaker 1: for profit prisons. We want to overhaul police unions, demilitarize
Speaker 1: the police. We want to end cash bail. We want
Speaker 1: citizens oversight of police. We want cameras on all the
Speaker 1: time and to be monitored by the community. We want
Speaker 1: to remove racist police officers, retrain and de escalation, no
Speaker 1: needs to chest, no chokeholds, and we need to affirm
Speaker 1: the black lives matter and.
Speaker 2: Over and over again.
Speaker 1: And that's it for us.
Speaker 2: So three years, three years, man proud.
Speaker 1: To have done it with you, I wouldn't have chosen
Speaker 1: to do it with anyone else. I'm grateful that well.
Speaker 1: Q and I we've known each other long for this show,
Speaker 1: and we're going to know each other long after this
Speaker 1: show is passed on to whatever next generation comes.
Speaker 3: And I know there's been some moments along the way
Speaker 3: where we may not have been certain that we would
Speaker 3: have made it this far, last years long, but here
Speaker 3: we are. Here we are, man, hopefully we got three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen.
Speaker 1: Whatever it takes twenty more years of this to go.
Speaker 1: We appreciate y'all checking us out for the past three years.
Speaker 1: Do us a favor. Hit the website Civiccipher dot com,
Speaker 1: h subscribe. All our social media is at Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: I am ramses Jah, I am q Ward. Yeah. Lock
Speaker 1: in with us, man. Let's keep it going until next week, y'all.
Speaker 2: Peace.
Speaker 1: Peace,