Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Rams'
Speaker 1: job job I mq ward. You are tuned into Civic Cipher, Yes,
Speaker 1: and we got a lot for you to stick around for.
Speaker 1: We had an interesting Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior
Speaker 1: holiday and we realized that.
Speaker 2: A lot of people really.
Speaker 1: Don't know the man that we, to be fair, had
Speaker 1: to had to come to know and study. And this
Speaker 1: version of him that has been whitewashed and romanticized is
Speaker 1: in some ways a far cry from the actual man
Speaker 1: that lived. This guy was prolific, and you know, he's
Speaker 1: almost it's almost like he's reduced every holiday to just
Speaker 1: his I have a dream speech and a couple the choice.
Speaker 3: Quotes that believe they've kind of put him in the
Speaker 3: category with Santa Claus right right, and that's not really fair.
Speaker 1: So we're going to take some time and really flesh
Speaker 1: out a little bit more of Doctor King what he
Speaker 1: stood for.
Speaker 2: And we're going to do that a little later in
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: By reading five lesser known facts about Doctor Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King Junior for our Way Black History fact there's a
Speaker 1: lot that we feel you need to know about, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot that doesn't really make its way too
Speaker 1: popular conversations and educational curriculum. Also, we're going to take
Speaker 1: some time and point out the hypocrisy found most prominently
Speaker 1: in the GOP in this country when it comes to
Speaker 1: Doctor King's holiday, where again they take little bits and
Speaker 1: pieces of his life and kind of throw a quote
Speaker 1: up here and there for clout. But they in no
Speaker 1: way stand for anything that Doctor King stood for. So
Speaker 1: it's up to us to point that out and to
Speaker 1: teach what we know. Right now, it's time for some
Speaker 1: ebony excellence. Today's ABNY Excellence is sponsored by Major Threads
Speaker 1: for Innovative fashionable sportswear checkmajorthreads dot com. Uh, and we
Speaker 1: are pulling parts of this story from Radioinsight dot com.
Speaker 1: Today's example of EBNY excellence, we're gonna shout out the
Speaker 1: one and only mister Tony Coles, who is one of
Speaker 1: the people who is responsible for the success of this show.
Speaker 1: Right here will He is growing in the media's space
Speaker 1: and it has made trade news and so we thought
Speaker 1: we'd share with you today. I'll read Tony Coles promoted
Speaker 1: from President of the Black Information Network to President of
Speaker 1: Multicultural Business and Development at iHeartMedia. Sometimes there are people
Speaker 1: you know like me and Q, and sometimes there's people
Speaker 1: you don't know behind the scenes making things like this
Speaker 1: and other things that happened. Tony Cole's effectively discovered civic
Speaker 1: side from the early days of our syndication, and now
Speaker 1: that we are on over seventy stations across the country,
Speaker 1: we can point to a handful of folks, most notably
Speaker 1: Tony Coles, for making that happen. So with this new move,
Speaker 1: he's adding the additional responsibility President of Multicultural Business and
Speaker 1: Development to his title, effectively expanding his influence on behalf
Speaker 1: of the largest media company in the United States. He
Speaker 1: will now lead all multicultural efforts as the President of
Speaker 1: Multicultural Business and Development. Multicultural advertising is projected to reach
Speaker 1: sixteen point five billion dollars in the next three years,
Speaker 1: and we are certainly happy to see someone who is
Speaker 1: tapped in, someone who understands what it is that we
Speaker 1: are trying to do. I think as a people collectively,
Speaker 1: and we're just grateful someone has the temperament and the
Speaker 1: resolve and is measured and calculated who's in that position.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Tony Coles for making it happen
Speaker 1: for us, and shout out to him for growing and
Speaker 1: developing and taking on all the Spanish stations and everything
Speaker 1: that comes with this new title.
Speaker 2: Keep going. You got our support now.
Speaker 1: One of the things that we did, you know, with
Speaker 1: the time off, you know whatever, you get a chance
Speaker 1: to kind of check in with social media. You get
Speaker 1: a chance to tap in with people you haven't heard
Speaker 1: from in a while. And of course, you know, with
Speaker 1: you and I working in this space, you know, folks
Speaker 1: think of us, you know, being in the space where
Speaker 1: we're trying to kind of create a more equitable world
Speaker 1: along racial lines. And you know, for some of our
Speaker 1: friends and people that were connected with we're top of mind, and.
Speaker 2: So things get sent our way.
Speaker 1: I want to take a moment and shout out and
Speaker 1: Instagram handle Live Love Liberate. She's a good friend of
Speaker 1: mine and a good friend of the show, and she
Speaker 1: managed to compile a blond of stuff that really illustrates
Speaker 1: the delusion that has found its way in recent years
Speaker 1: to right wing social media of platforms, certainly right wing
Speaker 1: political platforms, and in no way represent the reality of
Speaker 1: what Doctor King stood for. And it feels a little
Speaker 1: bit insulting that they would take Doctor King's words stand
Speaker 1: on them, at least in a digital space, saying that
Speaker 1: this was a great man and these things that he
Speaker 1: said were so profound, and we're glad that the country
Speaker 1: has reached this level, and so forth and so on,
Speaker 1: and then the other three hundred and sixty four days
Speaker 1: of the year actively work against what not only what
Speaker 1: he would wrote in.
Speaker 2: His letters and has gave.
Speaker 1: In his sermons, but even in the I have a
Speaker 1: dream speech which is in and of itself picked apart
Speaker 1: and used oftentimes out of context by these folks. And
Speaker 1: it's up to us to kind of set the record straight.
Speaker 1: You know, the hypocrisy. We we do blatant thank you hypocrisy.
Speaker 1: We point out a lot of hypocrisy and in all
Speaker 1: you know, political arenas, but not enough can be said
Speaker 1: about the extreme hypocrisy that we find in you know,
Speaker 1: conservative circles.
Speaker 2: It's it's the strangest thing.
Speaker 1: It's they're so it's like it's like watching crazy people,
Speaker 1: but there's so many crazy people sharing the delusion that
Speaker 1: you can't.
Speaker 2: Convince them that they're crazy.
Speaker 1: Right, But I will read to you exactly what made
Speaker 1: its way to us, and we'll discuss and you can see,
Speaker 1: you know, and decide for yourself if in fact this
Speaker 1: is crazy, this is a delusion.
Speaker 2: So let's start one of the things.
Speaker 1: And this was just a meme that was sent along
Speaker 1: that I thought was kind of important, uh, for us,
Speaker 1: you know, getting into this subject better right now. The
Speaker 1: meme was a child holding a poster and the poster says,
Speaker 1: stop using MLK as an example of a peaceful protest.
Speaker 2: You shot him too, I was heavy.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, right, Nothing you can do's good enough, right,
Speaker 1: you know, Doctor King was certainly one of those people
Speaker 1: that had to push back against folks of the cloth,
Speaker 1: ministers and pastors and preachers pushing back on him, telling
Speaker 1: him that he should not protest in a non violent way. Right,
Speaker 1: And bear in mind that his approval rating again was
Speaker 1: twenty percent when he was alive. Twenty percent. Now everybody
Speaker 1: looks back and go doctor King, you know, but when
Speaker 1: he was alive, eighty percent of the people disapproved of him,
Speaker 1: his methods, what he stood for, his face, whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: people just didn't like him. And that's something that this
Speaker 1: country loves to forget. I don't forget that though, all right,
Speaker 1: First up, full disclosure. Some of these are from this year,
Speaker 1: and some of these are from previous years. Rand Paul. Okay,
Speaker 1: so Ran Paul is you know again, conservative politician Rand
Speaker 1: Paul quoting doctor King when anything is laughable? Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: So here's a a It looks like a tweet from
Speaker 1: Rand Paul. It says, as we honor MLK today, may
Speaker 1: his courage inspire us to redouble our commitment to working
Speaker 1: together for change. Let's commemorate the life of doctor Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King, Jr. While uniting the two Americas into one
Speaker 1: in America that includes just.
Speaker 2: Dot dot dot.
Speaker 1: Okay, So this is, you know, the tweet as you
Speaker 1: get the idea, to get the gist of it. And
Speaker 1: then in the screencap that was sent to me, there's
Speaker 1: an article and the headline says how Rand Paul blocked
Speaker 1: the Immit till Anti lynching bill while the nation more
Speaker 1: George Floyd. So this man talking about commemorating the life
Speaker 1: of doctor King, uniting the two Americas and so forth
Speaker 1: and so on. It feels like, you know, what it
Speaker 1: takes to unite the two Americas is to recognize that
Speaker 1: the two Americas have different views, have different concerns, and
Speaker 1: different realities.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: This is something that I'm sure every politician can understand.
Speaker 1: But when you fail to account for one of those facets,
Speaker 1: one of those elements, Alps, it seems less like I
Speaker 1: want to work together and more like I want to
Speaker 1: seize more power and subject you to my reality.
Speaker 2: Who in the world and I need you to be
Speaker 2: okay with that? Right? Thank you?
Speaker 1: Who in the world would block the init till anti
Speaker 1: lynching bill while the nation was mourning? George Floyd? I mean,
Speaker 1: we don't even need the second part. Who would block
Speaker 1: an anti lynching bill a period?
Speaker 2: And see it's these things that feel so hurtful, and
Speaker 2: it's like everybody's just ignores this and keeps voting for
Speaker 2: these guys.
Speaker 3: I think you are providing too much grace because I
Speaker 3: do not think that all the people that this men
Speaker 3: are ignoring that like them.
Speaker 2: That's why they're voting. For sure, I'll give you that.
Speaker 1: But so if that is true, then why a quote
Speaker 1: and post it on your social media?
Speaker 2: Ran Paul?
Speaker 3: Because even racist, bigoted, despicable people don't want you to
Speaker 3: think that of them. Crazy racist people don't even like
Speaker 3: being called racist while doing racist things.
Speaker 2: Hey, when you're right, you're right. Man. But you know
Speaker 2: the craziest part about this is that it feels like.
Speaker 1: There's like, to a person like me, why would you
Speaker 1: quote doctor King? Why don't why not quote you know,
Speaker 1: Robberty Lee, you know, or one of your like real heroes,
Speaker 1: you know, people that would also be opposed to the
Speaker 1: imit till anti lynching bill. Right, Since this, you know,
Speaker 1: your voting record shows me where your values are, why not,
Speaker 1: you know, quote a person like that? Why even celebrate
Speaker 1: Doctor King's Day? And it feels like they want to
Speaker 1: get some of that Doctor King clout now that they've
Speaker 1: whitewashed the legacy, they want to cash in on it. Right,
Speaker 1: So I think that what you're saying is absolutely right,
Speaker 1: just adding a couple of layers are a little bit
Speaker 1: more seasoning to it. But yeah, man, this is this
Speaker 1: is the strangest thing. I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: All Right, let's go on, Ron DeSantis. So suffice it
Speaker 1: to say, you just, you know, copied a meme or screen,
Speaker 1: you know, a photo of doctor King standing next to
Speaker 1: a cutout of his I have a dream speech right
Speaker 1: the text right, and then above the photo he put
Speaker 1: Happy MLK Day with an exclamation point and that you know,
Speaker 1: the cutout is the you know, I have a dream
Speaker 1: that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill
Speaker 1: and every mountain shell, etcetera.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: The person that grabbed this entire screen grab and send
Speaker 1: it over to me responded to Ron de Santis saying
Speaker 1: pretty close to that horrible CRT, like, that's that's Black
Speaker 1: history right there.
Speaker 2: You sure that's what you want to do.
Speaker 1: And for those that don't know this guy, Rondasantis has
Speaker 1: been perhaps the biggest and most vocal opponent of CRT
Speaker 1: or in fact, American history, Teaching American history in schools
Speaker 1: based off of nothing, based off of some imaginary boogeyman,
Speaker 1: kids are going to be sad and not you know,
Speaker 1: love the country and feel bad about themselves or whatever,
Speaker 1: which in my estimation is complete not or nonsense. It
Speaker 1: feels very unfair and it feels like another whitewashing of history,
Speaker 1: and it's dangerous. But it's particularly hurtful when this person,
Speaker 1: who does not want us as a country to look back,
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't want our children to look back, will readily
Speaker 1: pull from Black history when it keeps him slightly. I
Speaker 1: mean in terms of the optics looking slightly less racist
Speaker 1: than he absolutely is. And again, these are things that
Speaker 1: you need to know. Not everybody that you know quotes
Speaker 1: the Bible, is, you know, going to heaven. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's some sort of even a believer you're quoting.
Speaker 1: There's some sort of anecdote that I've heard growing up.
Speaker 1: I come from a Christian tradition in my house, and
Speaker 1: so there are these little things that we pass around
Speaker 1: back and forth. But you know, the same seems to
Speaker 1: be true here with the in the political arena with
Speaker 1: respect to doctor King.
Speaker 2: Here's a funny one. The actual at gops.
Speaker 1: Social media handle, which is I'm assuming the handle for
Speaker 1: the entirety of the political party known as Republicans in
Speaker 1: this country. They're just they just put a post that
Speaker 1: says happy Martin Luther King Day. And this is just
Speaker 1: sort of funny because the person also responded with a
Speaker 1: clip clippy the clip art and it says, Hi, it
Speaker 1: looks like you're quoting doctor Martin Luther King Jr. To
Speaker 1: try to hide the fact that you give comfort to
Speaker 1: racist Would you like some help logging out forever?
Speaker 2: That's awesome?
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, it's crazy, but you know, that one doesn't
Speaker 1: have as much you know, teeth in it in it
Speaker 1: from a journalistic standpoint, but it's just sort of something that's.
Speaker 2: A little bit funny. Let's go to Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz.
Speaker 1: Has has a post that and we know, we realized
Speaker 1: this was from last weekend, but we had to talk
Speaker 1: about this because if we don't point out this, these hypocrisies,
Speaker 1: then you may associate these backwards political leaders on the
Speaker 1: right with an actual American hero who probably would be
Speaker 1: more left than everybody that even I know, and I'm
Speaker 1: way over there on the left, man, but you know,
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz, he put a post that says, today we
Speaker 1: honor the life and legacy of doctor Martin Luther King,
Speaker 1: Junior Priest Standard and then there's like a photo of
Speaker 1: doctor King and everything like that.
Speaker 2: And then there's a picture.
Speaker 1: Of him interrogating or interviewing whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: Judge Katanji Brown Jackson, and he's.
Speaker 2: Holding up the children's book.
Speaker 1: You remember that scene on the floor of the children's
Speaker 1: book was like basically an educational book for children about
Speaker 1: race and so forth. And so again, doctor King was
Speaker 1: certainly about educating, certainly about together in this fellowship.
Speaker 2: So forth, we need to understand each other, we need.
Speaker 1: To support each other, help each other. And then Ted Cruz,
Speaker 1: almost everything that he's done in this space has been.
Speaker 2: If Doctor King.
Speaker 1: Were still alive, Ted Cruz would, based on his track record,
Speaker 1: would stand in opposition to almost.
Speaker 2: Everything Doctor King stood everything.
Speaker 1: And so again, just pulling a little bit of political
Speaker 1: they reworked the image of Doctor King because he wasn't
Speaker 1: Malcolm X. It reworked him, made him a little bit
Speaker 1: more you know, friendly, like you said, made him into
Speaker 1: basically Santa Claus, and then took him for themselves.
Speaker 2: And it feels like.
Speaker 1: Wait, you know, and we've seen this happen with music,
Speaker 1: with rock and roll, with you know, we've seen it
Speaker 1: happen time and again with all bits and pieces of
Speaker 1: our culture. It's taken from us. It's white washed and repackaged,
Speaker 1: you know, for a white audience. But to see this
Speaker 1: happen with Doctor King, someone who in many ways is
Speaker 1: a moral guidepost for not just black people, but for
Speaker 1: this entire country, to have his legacy and his story
Speaker 1: be co opted, his words be co opted and used
Speaker 1: in these circles where the source of the hatred that
Speaker 1: we're dealing with the source of the conflicts. I mean,
Speaker 1: we can't figure this gun stuff out. We can't figure
Speaker 1: it noun of this stuff out. And often enough it's
Speaker 1: those people on that side of the aisle that are
Speaker 1: standing in the way, and as you mentioned, very intentionally
Speaker 1: out loud, not hiding it. They wide open. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Doctor King's Holiday comes around, everybody's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, comebaya, and then the day after they get
Speaker 1: right back to it. All right, let me let me continue.
Speaker 1: Here's another name, you know, Mitch McConnell. Uh says, today
Speaker 1: we honor an American hero, the Reverend doctor Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King Jr. His dream of equal justice an abundant opportunity
Speaker 1: inspired our nation to make historic progress and continue to
Speaker 1: make us better to this day.
Speaker 2: And this quote was superimposed.
Speaker 1: This quote that this tweet rather for Mitch McConnell is packaged,
Speaker 1: as it was sent to me, was packaged with a
Speaker 1: photo of Mitch McConnell receiving an award standing in front
Speaker 1: of a gigantic Confederate flag and he's old as dirt,
Speaker 1: so these basically the same age as he is now.
Speaker 2: So clearly this person wants the image of Doctor King.
Speaker 1: But Doctor King was really about you know, togetherness, and
Speaker 1: Mitch mcconnald just used his words, but you know, staying
Speaker 1: in front of that flag, it'd be hard press to
Speaker 1: make a case that that's what you're really on.
Speaker 3: It's like they've gone out of their way to make
Speaker 3: Doctor King benign.
Speaker 2: Yeah, toothless.
Speaker 3: Soft a word that you often use to remind people
Speaker 3: that you aren't, so.
Speaker 2: They want him to be perceived that way.
Speaker 3: So it's not just whitewashing, but making him harmless. Right
Speaker 3: in many ways, it can't be perceived that he was
Speaker 3: at one point opposed to and by the government.
Speaker 2: Right. So now that his reproval rating is one hundred
Speaker 2: and the.
Speaker 3: Most romanticized parts of the dream sweech, because I have
Speaker 3: a dream speech in of itself, it's not even all kumbaya,
Speaker 3: but patch that way very intentionally to take out this
Speaker 3: really really sweet, really really warm part, make it very
Speaker 3: very hallmark, make him very very animated, make him very
Speaker 3: very much a character, right, And like I said, of
Speaker 3: a nine harmless, toothless, warm, soft character when he was
Speaker 3: at his core, the opposite of all of that, and
Speaker 3: more selflessly for us probably than anyone ever, how about
Speaker 3: that like his his his rap sheet with regards to
Speaker 3: the causes that helped us long and impenetrable, that that
Speaker 3: part of his legacy cannot be tarnished or questioned for
Speaker 3: real willing to sacrifice at all as it ultimately did
Speaker 3: for all of us and not just skin folk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and this is another thing that we need
Speaker 1: to share with you. You know, for those who don't know,
Speaker 1: when doctor King was assassinated, it was because he had
Speaker 1: gone to Tennessee to work with.
Speaker 2: Poor people.
Speaker 1: You know, he was trying to get you know, workers' rights,
Speaker 1: labor rights, you know, fair compensation, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Issues that were still dealing with.
Speaker 1: In this country today, issues that you know, the Republican
Speaker 1: Party would.
Speaker 2: Stand opposed to, as they have done for the past
Speaker 2: couple of years.
Speaker 1: You know, once he turned that corner, you know, once
Speaker 1: it wasn't about hey can we use the same bathroom
Speaker 1: or drink from the same water fountain or sit at
Speaker 1: the same lunch counter. Once it was like once it
Speaker 1: was like, hey, you're coming after you know, our war,
Speaker 1: coming after our money, or you know, creating cohesion between
Speaker 1: poor people and or whites and poor blacks. You know.
Speaker 1: Then it became okay, well this is this guy has
Speaker 1: got too much power. Once his approval ratings started to
Speaker 1: tick upward because he's now reaching in the new communities
Speaker 1: and identifying commonalities, then it becomes more problematic. So you know,
Speaker 1: this list goes on Lauren Bobert and whoever else. The
Speaker 1: rest of these people are more of the same. I'll
Speaker 1: spare you the details, but I do want to leave
Speaker 1: you with this. Here's a tweet from Bernie King, which
Speaker 1: is doctor King's daughter.
Speaker 2: She says, if.
Speaker 1: You're going to quote and authentically honor my father on
Speaker 1: MLK Day, commit to embracing a world house perspective, determine
Speaker 1: how you'll disrupt unjust systems and thinking with non violent strategy,
Speaker 1: which that was doctor King. That was what he was about,
Speaker 1: non violence, and that's what they took. They preferred him
Speaker 1: to Stoke Lee and to you know, uh uh Malcolm
Speaker 1: Malcolm and James Baldwin everyone else. Doctor King was a
Speaker 1: minister and you know, anyway, I'll continue support policies that
Speaker 1: reflect higher consciousness and make no excuses for hate.
Speaker 2: So this comes directly from his daughter.
Speaker 1: This is what you need to do on doctor King's
Speaker 1: birthday and unfortunately we have not seen that from our
Speaker 1: conservative branch