Speaker 1: Keep on riding with us as we continue to broadcast, balance,
Speaker 1: and defend the discourse from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Rams's job.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsy's John. I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 2: tuned into Civic Cipher, Yes.
Speaker 1: You are, and we want you to stay tuned because
Speaker 1: we are going to be sharing, in his own words,
Speaker 1: doctor King's thoughts on concepts that were around when he
Speaker 1: was around. But later we're named affirmative Action. Later they
Speaker 1: were named critical race theory. Later they were named uh,
Speaker 1: you know, equity versus equality. And we think that this
Speaker 1: is critically important because again, oftentimes we see doctor King's
Speaker 1: legacy co opted and whitewashed and sanitized to fit a
Speaker 1: narrative that he did not stand for. And we're here
Speaker 1: to set the record straight. Yeah, a lot to stay
Speaker 1: tuned for. But before we get there, let's discuss the
Speaker 1: ABA becoming a better Allied BABA and Today's BOBA. Sponsored
Speaker 1: by Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for
Speaker 1: the free voter wallet from fotmglobal dot com to support
Speaker 1: black businesses and allied businesses as well as make an
Speaker 1: impact with your spending Again that's Fotmglobal dot com. And
Speaker 1: today we want you to check out the Kingcenter dot org.
Speaker 1: That's fitting and I'm going to share a bit from
Speaker 1: their website. Our mission is to empower people to create
Speaker 1: a just, humane, equitable, and peaceful world world by applying
Speaker 1: doctor King's nonviolent philosophy and methodology nonviolence through sixty five.
Speaker 1: As our nation faces unprecedented turmoil in economic instability and uncertainty,
Speaker 1: and the ongoing struggle for global freedom and equality, we
Speaker 1: at the King Center remain committed to proactively educating and
Speaker 1: training individuals and leaders across all sectors in nonviolence three
Speaker 1: sixty five to influence equitable change in our national and
Speaker 1: global infrastructure. I'll join us in creating a more just, humane, peaceful,
Speaker 1: and equitable society where opportunity isn't limited by race, income, gender, age,
Speaker 1: orientation or zip code. Again, i want you to check
Speaker 1: out the Kingcenter dot org. Uh, if you want to
Speaker 1: contact them directly, you can do so, and it's contact
Speaker 1: at the Kingcenter dot org. So that's the email address again,
Speaker 1: that's contact at the Kingcenter dot org. And of course
Speaker 1: I'm gona leave you phone number here four oh four
Speaker 1: five two six eighty nine hundred one more time four
Speaker 1: oh four five two six eighty nine hundred the Kingcenter
Speaker 1: dot org. If you feel so inclined to make a donation,
Speaker 1: if you feel so inclined, to find out some of
Speaker 1: the other ways that you can support this effort. My
Speaker 1: understanding is that doctor King's daughter runs this organization, if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, so that would be Ernice King that
Speaker 1: is at the helm here. But it is affiliated with
Speaker 1: doctor King's family, and so this is about as close
Speaker 1: as you're going to get to, you know, what Doctor
Speaker 1: King would would have wanted so all right in his
Speaker 1: own words, you know, the first part of today's episode,
Speaker 1: we were talking about how doctor King's image is. It
Speaker 1: is used almost like it's used against us.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I will never accuse far
Speaker 1: right conservatives of being, at least in terms of their leadership,
Speaker 1: is stupid. They're brilliant. It's just a brilliance mix with
Speaker 1: like what I believe to be like a sort of evil.
Speaker 2: I thought y were never accused him of being honest,
Speaker 2: but never never accusing them of being stupid.
Speaker 1: Also, yeah, they're not, they're not. They do this quite well.
Speaker 1: But in the same way that. You know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there are people that will make an argument that Adolf
Speaker 1: Hitler was brilliant and also evil. Right to use doctor
Speaker 1: King's words against the very people that doctor King was
Speaker 1: advocating for is a particularly sinister maneuver, and do it
Speaker 1: with a smile on their faces, right, And this is
Speaker 1: something that we see year after year, evoking God in
Speaker 1: the church while doing so. And it's it's very hurtful
Speaker 1: to see. But you know, fortunately there are some people
Speaker 1: that know better. There's some people that had to read
Speaker 1: the books, some people that you know, we're very passionate
Speaker 1: about our history. Some people that ask questions like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, this is I'm talking about myself now, Well,
Speaker 1: why is it that black people are always in the
Speaker 1: poor neighborhoods everywhere we go? This is a question I
Speaker 1: asked myself when I was younger, like are we just
Speaker 1: born to be poor? Are we just born to be
Speaker 1: in jail? Are we? Why are we the ones that
Speaker 1: the police are always mad at? What? You know, these
Speaker 1: are question like questions you might ask about about yourself.
Speaker 1: Why is it all as black people? And I'm black,
Speaker 1: it's just what I have to look forward to. And
Speaker 1: then because you're asking those questions, it might lead you
Speaker 1: to some answers, and if you do enough research, you
Speaker 1: might see, Okay, there are systems. That's a that's a
Speaker 1: word that a lot of these far right conservatives don't like,
Speaker 1: but they exist.
Speaker 2: They'd rather pretend that these invisible things we are imagining.
Speaker 1: Them, oh, and that have a victim complex. In that
Speaker 1: space of victim, yes, but no, it's very very easy
Speaker 1: to research and very easy to look up. And once
Speaker 1: you get to that point, you start to realize, oh wow.
Speaker 1: And then when you look at a person like doctor
Speaker 1: King and what he stood for, you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: I understand that this is something that has been happening
Speaker 1: for a long time. And you know, for for those
Speaker 1: of us on this side of history, we'll say doctor
Speaker 1: King is definitely a hero for them to take our hero,
Speaker 1: rewrite his story, and use the rewritten version of our
Speaker 1: hero to justify their plight when their plight flies in
Speaker 1: the face of Indeed, what the heroes did for and
Speaker 1: what we stand for is again that's a particularly sinister
Speaker 1: form of evil. So I would like to kind of
Speaker 1: set the record strate one of the things that we
Speaker 1: talked about quite a bit last. Well, we've been talking
Speaker 1: about this forever. Is affirmative action, right, And the same
Speaker 1: people that will invoke doctor King's you know, I have
Speaker 1: a dream speech that also stand in opposition to affirmative action,
Speaker 1: that feel like affirmative action is reverse racism or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's like, you can't you can't get both. You can't
Speaker 1: you could get both.
Speaker 2: If you honestly didn't know better. Oh no, they know better,
Speaker 2: And that's my point. Yeah, but they were making the
Speaker 2: mistake of thinking that they were. If they read something
Speaker 2: and thought, oh, this is what he meant, and then
Speaker 2: did what they did because that's what they thought he
Speaker 2: actually meant, maybe they could, yeah, but it wouldn't feel
Speaker 2: as terrible.
Speaker 1: They don't know for certain that.
Speaker 2: That's not what he meant, and still evoke him and
Speaker 2: his language and his words to fight against what he
Speaker 2: thought fight. That's the thing that makes it especially sinister
Speaker 2: and diabolical.
Speaker 1: And the thing is like, it's almost like the erosion
Speaker 1: of affirmative action was based on a technicality. It was
Speaker 1: based on the word equality and not the word equity.
Speaker 1: But you have to bear in mind at the time,
Speaker 1: during the Civil rights movement, equality was the next logical
Speaker 1: step toward equity. Right, because again, the civil rights movement
Speaker 1: is the transition period between Jim Crow and let's call
Speaker 1: it the era that we live in now, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, So that the civil rights movement to
Speaker 1: look at Jim Crow and say, okay, if white people
Speaker 1: can eat at this restaurant, then black people can't, that
Speaker 1: is unequal. If white people can go to the school
Speaker 1: and black people can't, that is unequal. And so the
Speaker 1: only language that really fit in that moment was equality.
Speaker 1: And now that word is being used to erode things
Speaker 1: like affirmative action.
Speaker 2: And then by the time we collectively got to the
Speaker 2: word equity, the oppressor put themselves in position of oppressed.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, and are now currently fighting against equity, Yes,
Speaker 2: because they somehow feel.
Speaker 1: Like and that's why I say they're not stupid unfair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's why I say they're not stupid because as
Speaker 1: a strategy, it's you know, it's it's given us a
Speaker 1: tough you know, we got a tough, uphill battle. But again,
Speaker 1: in doctor King's own words, this comes from the La Times.
Speaker 1: William J. Bennett's August twelfth commentary is the latest example
Speaker 1: of a trend in conservative public relations. Opponents of affirmative
Speaker 1: action excuse me, claiming to be the heirs of Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Junior, They invoked the sentence from King's nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty three speech looking forward to the day his children
Speaker 1: would be judged by the content of their character, not
Speaker 1: the color of their skin. Okay, so that's the cherry picking, right,
Speaker 1: Doctor King said, You're not supposed to judge someone by
Speaker 1: the color of their skin, but by the content of
Speaker 1: their character, which again in a vacuum, without any other context,
Speaker 1: you know. And again if they were if that was
Speaker 1: an honest like, if they just didn't read the rest
Speaker 1: of it, or they didn't know better, or there was
Speaker 1: no Ronald Reagan to try to push a sanitized version
Speaker 1: of doctor King onto the United States of America to
Speaker 1: appeal to white moderates that was needed at that time,
Speaker 1: to ensure victory in the election cycle and appease you know,
Speaker 1: the whatever his political affiliates or whatever at the time.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't end up here, but I'll continue reading.
Speaker 1: Bennett conveniently ignores one fact. King was a strong supporter
Speaker 1: of affirmative action. And Why We Can't Wait, published in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, he argued that given the long history
Speaker 1: of American racism, blacks fully deserved special compensatory measures in jobs, education,
Speaker 1: and other realms. Four years later, and where do we
Speaker 1: go from here? He wrote, quote, a society that has
Speaker 1: done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years
Speaker 1: must now do something special for him. Doctor King's own words,
Speaker 1: the same Doctor King, that they cherry picked this color
Speaker 1: of their skin, content of their character bar from okay.
Speaker 1: Bennett's Peace not only misrepresents King, but reduces the civil
Speaker 1: rights movement's complex outlook to the quest of a colorblind society.
Speaker 1: In fact, as King wrote, the movement's goal was far
Speaker 1: broader to quote make freedom real and substantial, substantive for
Speaker 1: blacks by overcoming pervasive racial inequality and absorbing them into
Speaker 1: the mainstream of American life. King saw, affirmative action is
Speaker 1: one of the many measures, some colorblind, some not needed
Speaker 1: to counteract the legacy of centuries of discrimination. Now, for
Speaker 1: many people that may not know, I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you a quick laundry list of things that you can
Speaker 1: look up in terms of the legacy of discrimination. These
Speaker 1: things include redlining. That's something that you can look up
Speaker 1: in later years, the war on drugs. That was a
Speaker 1: discriminatory practice. We already discussed Jim Crow and the legacy
Speaker 1: of that. There are many tragedies and atrocities that have
Speaker 1: taken place that have resulted in effectively land theft from
Speaker 1: black people. It could have been through legal means, it
Speaker 1: could have been through just marching in and taking it whatever.
Speaker 1: But all of these things have had some impact on
Speaker 1: economic impact on black people. Black people were left out
Speaker 1: of the GI Bill, Black people were left out of
Speaker 1: during the what is the word I'm looking for, great depression?
Speaker 1: The stimulus package. I forget the name of it, but
Speaker 1: I think it might have been FDR whatever designed a
Speaker 1: welfare program to benefit white people and not black people.
Speaker 2: Black people were freed from slavery and not given property.
Speaker 1: For that money, no economic basis upon which to build sure,
Speaker 1: and we haven't gotten to like environmental racism. We haven't
Speaker 1: gotten to healthcare, we haven't gotten education, we haven't gotten
Speaker 1: to employment and all that other sort of stuff. But
Speaker 1: those are the systems, and there are legal things that
Speaker 1: have been in place, some still on the books. We
Speaker 1: just don't practice them the same way.
Speaker 2: And to our color blind brothers and sisters, that is
Speaker 2: a very cowardice and intentionally non conflict position to take
Speaker 2: non confrontational, non confrontational a better way to say that
Speaker 2: you're not color blind. Yeah, not literally or figuratively. And
Speaker 2: that's not what we're requesting. That's not what we want.
Speaker 2: That's not what doctor King was asking for. He wasn't
Speaker 2: asking you to be color blind. He was asking you
Speaker 2: to not treat us worse because you see our color.
Speaker 2: Pretending that these injustices don't exist, don't make you a
Speaker 2: better or more enlightened person or a more decent.
Speaker 1: Person, and pretending that they don't have lasting implications and
Speaker 1: lasting effects on not individuals, data data, if you look
Speaker 1: at outcomes for black families, outcomes for white families, Pretending
Speaker 1: that these injustices did not exist, prevents you from seeing
Speaker 1: the root cause of the problem and coming up with
Speaker 1: a solution that will actually address it. And you will
Speaker 1: be born, live in, and die in a society that
Speaker 1: treats certain people unfairly because you have chosen the reality
Speaker 1: that makes you the most comfortable, not the reality that
Speaker 1: actually exists.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's statistical outcomes that would be impossible to happen randomly. Right,
Speaker 2: The thousand wealthiest white people in America have more collective
Speaker 2: money than all of the black people in America. I
Speaker 2: think they're forty million black people in America something like that.
Speaker 2: Just under one thousand. The top thousand richest white people
Speaker 2: have more money collectively than all of the black people
Speaker 2: that live in America. That is statistically impossible to happen randomly.
Speaker 2: There have to be systems in place for those type
Speaker 2: of outcomes to be true.
Speaker 1: So let's move on. Because CRT the actual teaching of
Speaker 1: this history and not in school what the GOP is
Speaker 1: talking about when they say it. Yeah, we're talking CRT
Speaker 1: is American history full stop. Right, We said that many
Speaker 1: times on the show.
Speaker 2: But what they say, I want I want us to
Speaker 2: not say this incorrectly. What the GOP is trying to
Speaker 2: have outlawed in schools that they call CRT is American
Speaker 2: history critical race theory as a scholastic endeavor is some
Speaker 2: collegiate completely different than what they're talking about. It sounded
Speaker 2: like we just said was that CRT is American history.
Speaker 2: They are not the same. Yeah, Okay, they're been conflated
Speaker 2: in that way. That thank you because you said that
Speaker 2: the right way. Okay, So where we are is we
Speaker 2: have to and we have an hour in some cases
Speaker 2: half hour to try to explain so much and it
Speaker 2: just defies, like logistically it doesn't work right.
Speaker 1: But hopefully we've given you the tools to do a
Speaker 1: little bit more research this stuff. We don't make up
Speaker 1: none of this stuff. This stuff is all. We have
Speaker 1: to like research all of this before it comes into
Speaker 1: the show. So when we share things with you, it's
Speaker 1: so that you have insight into forms of oppression systems.
Speaker 1: The legacy of oppression is so that you understand the
Speaker 1: economic basis upon which all of the privileges and advantages
Speaker 1: and advantages in a society rest, and all of the
Speaker 1: shortcomings and pitfalls in a society rest.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: History provides a framework so that you understand, you have context.
Speaker 1: You don't think, well, black people are just this way
Speaker 1: and white people are just this way, and that's the
Speaker 1: way it goes, because that's not true. You know, everybody
Speaker 1: is born a clean slate. If you accept that as
Speaker 1: your reality, then the data ought to suggest that there's
Speaker 1: something systemically wrong because the data is reflect correct. So
Speaker 1: let's talk about why teaching the history is important. Okay,
Speaker 1: So this comes from the King Institute via Stanford dot Edu. Okay,
Speaker 1: it seems to me that education has a two fold function.
Speaker 1: This is Doctor King's words to perform in the life
Speaker 1: of man and in society. One is utility, the other
Speaker 1: is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient,
Speaker 1: to achieve, with increasing facility, the legitimate goals in his life.
Speaker 1: Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking.
Speaker 1: To think incisively and to think for oneself is very difficult.
Speaker 1: We are prone to let our mental life become invaded
Speaker 1: by legions of half truth, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point,
Speaker 1: I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose.
Speaker 1: A great majority of the so called educated people do
Speaker 1: not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom,
Speaker 1: the platform, and in the pulpit in many instances do
Speaker 1: not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man
Speaker 1: from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one
Speaker 1: of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one
Speaker 1: to sift and weigh evidence, to descern true from false,
Speaker 1: the real from the unreal, the facts from the fiction.
Speaker 1: Sounds to me based on that that Doctor King would
Speaker 1: have been in support of teaching the fullness of American
Speaker 1: history and providing context, age appropriate context for people so
Speaker 1: that at five years old they could understand concepts that
Speaker 1: a five year old could.
Speaker 2: Understand and then at eighteen and have the desire to
Speaker 2: actually learn about that. There it is, and you, what
Speaker 2: you've done is created more empathy. Now, more empathy means
Speaker 2: that black people are going to benefit, and it might
Speaker 2: cost white people a little bit of some of their
Speaker 2: status or whatever, and that is a hard no on
Speaker 2: its face for a lot of far right It would
Speaker 2: have a larger collective benefit even as white people, absolutely
Speaker 2: oppressors and very greedy, selfish people would have something taken
Speaker 2: from them. Everyone else would benefit.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, And when we have more time,
Speaker 1: will make that case, because I feel like that needs
Speaker 1: to be made again. And so we're about due for
Speaker 1: another one. But this last one equity versus equality. I
Speaker 1: got these words from the Atlantic, but again they're they're
Speaker 1: doctor King's words. Why is equality so assiduously avoided? Why
Speaker 1: does White America delude itself? And how does it rationalize
Speaker 1: the evil it retains? The majority of white Americans consider
Speaker 1: themselves committed to justice for the Negro They believe that
Speaker 1: American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to
Speaker 1: steady growth toward a middle class utopia embodying racial harmony.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately this is a fantasy of self deception and
Speaker 1: comfortable vanity. Now again, at the time of the Civil
Speaker 1: Rights movement, the order of the day was equality. Treat
Speaker 1: us equal, we want equal rights. Right. But if you
Speaker 1: and I are playing monopoly, because everything goes back to economics,
Speaker 1: that's economics shapes outcomes across the board, full stop. But
Speaker 1: if you and IQ we're playing monopoly, okay, Let's say
Speaker 1: you're the white piece and I'm the black piece. Okay,
Speaker 1: and you get to play Monopoly and go around the
Speaker 1: board for two hundred years, three hundred years. Sure, and
Speaker 1: then you get to collect all the money, buy up
Speaker 1: all the properties, whatever. Then you get to let me play.
Speaker 1: But I'm hampered by let's call it the Jim Crow
Speaker 1: era where I can only throw one dice and can't
Speaker 1: I only collect one hundred dollars when I pass.
Speaker 2: Go. Okay, you're also starting the game with no money.
Speaker 1: Right exactly. I didn't even get nothing. I got no
Speaker 1: forty acres, no mule. You started with nothing. Then after
Speaker 1: that period of Jim crow. Let's say a gentleman comes
Speaker 1: and introduces a new rule. Let's call him doctor Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King, right, and he says equality, everybody gets to
Speaker 1: get two hundred dollars. Everybody gets to roll both dice.
Speaker 1: Do I even have a modicum of a chance of
Speaker 1: catching up to you?
Speaker 2: Absolutely not?
Speaker 1: Okay, Now, equity equality is one thing. Equality is not nothing.
Speaker 1: But equity seeks to restore the injustice. And what's happening
Speaker 1: is because doctor King's words were about equality, those words
Speaker 1: have been co opted and used against us to attack
Speaker 1: us on affirmative action, critical race theory, and pretty much
Speaker 1: everything else. And that leaves us where we are. So
Speaker 1: we need to know this. And unfortunately, in this society,
Speaker 1: the only way that we can engage is to vote.
Speaker 1: Got to wait to do it, but that's what we do.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, we'll leave it right there.
Speaker 1: As always, thank you very much for tuning in to
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher, especially our first time listeners. Welcome. We like
Speaker 1: to have fun as often as we can, but you
Speaker 1: know we deal with heavy stuff. I have been your host,
Speaker 1: Rams this Ja, he is.
Speaker 2: Rams this Jah. I am q Ward and we are
Speaker 2: forever grateful for our listeners, both those who are joining
Speaker 2: us for the first time and those who have been
Speaker 2: riding with us for years. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. If you like, head over to our website,
Speaker 1: civiciper dot com. You can download this episode in its
Speaker 1: entirety or any previous episodes. You can also submit any
Speaker 1: questions any topics you want us to cover. You can
Speaker 1: make a donation. The show exists with your support. We
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Speaker 2: I am Qward on all social media as well.
Speaker 1: Until next week, y'all, peace,