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January 14, 2025 • 20 mins

Host Ramses Ja and Q Ward offer their reflections on the ongoing fires in California.

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast, and I'm
your host, Ramsey's Jah And sometimes the amount of stories
that make their way to us means that we simply
can't cover everything that comes our way. But from time
to time, a story just stays with me, and Bill
compelled to share it with you, can give you my thoughts.
And now one more thing.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
If you're like us, you have a modicum of empathy,
it's easy for your heart to break when you see
the devastation that many of the residents in southern California
are facing with the wildfires. Today, we're going to take

(00:47):
a moment to have a conversation about those fires and
the devastation and how that's affecting the most marginalized of
the people that live out there, people that are often overlooked,
people that you wouldn't associate with these fires, and how

(01:09):
this is playing out on the national stage as well. So,
without further ado, to get you caught up to speed,
we're going to share a bit from Capital B Generational
Black homes in LA reduced to ash amid growing wildfires,
as multimillion dollar mansions and celebrity enclaves dominate headlines. Black
communities in Altadena face an uphill battle to rebuild their lives.

(01:33):
Throughout Los Angeles, ash, smoke, wind, and flames are re
riding the landscape, and although less publicized Black history, as
of nine am on January tenth, the fires ravaging neighborhoods
across the western and northeastern parts of the city have
swelled to become the most destructive ever to hit Los Angeles.
The convergence of more than four large fires spreading across

(01:54):
the country's largest metro area has created a mega catastrophe
for Southern Californians. At least ten people have been killed,
but many of the burn neighborhoods haven't been searched yet,
in part because the two largest fires, the Palisades and
the Eden Fires, were both under ten percent contained. Social
media has been flooded with gofundmes for black families who've

(02:15):
lost their generational homes, some dating back to the nineteen thirties,
when the first wave of black Southerners reached Los Angeles.
Some of the region's oldest black institutions, like churches and
restaurants have been reduced to rubble. Recovery will present unique
challenges for Altadena. Over the past four years, most major
property insurance companies have stopped offering coverage in the city,

(02:36):
and older home owners have faced difficulties of fording rising
property taxes. The situation has left residents turning to California's
basic state run insurance plan with funding challenges. The agency
said last year that a major disaster like this would
threaten to run the agency dry.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
This is the Black Information Network Daily podcast. I am
host Ramses Jow.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
And I am your host's Q Ward. This has been
a difficult thing to take in for a multitude of reasons.
First and foremost, the sheer volume of destruction, the sheer
volume of loss, Ramses being from southern southern California, Compton

(03:26):
and myself having friends and family that currently live and
work there, and getting messages every day about people who
have lost everything at worst and that have had to
evacuate under the fear of losing everything at best. This

(03:46):
specific community that we're speaking about here, I have like
an industry aunt and an industry uncle who are both
from that community and still own property their their family
houses were still there and they are now both gone.

(04:08):
And we talk about the disparity and wealth in this country,
generational wealth especially and property, land and homes is typically
the first step toward generational wealth. So to lose your
family's home, like the home where everyone started in that

(04:30):
has been yeah, mama's house that has been passed down.
I couldn't even offer words of comfort. All I could
do is express that I'm here, like you tell me
what you need, and I'll be that because I don't.
I don't have the right thing to say to someone
that just lost everything that their family has ever had.
And that's the story for people all across southern California.

(04:52):
I think, as you mentioned before, Rams, the headlines are
about these rich and affluent neighborhoods and celebrities who lost
the and people being really callous and lacking empathy, expressing
the notion that well, you're rich, just by another one,
as if losing everything still doesn't hurt, as if losing
memories and things that you just can't replace still doesn't hurt.

(05:16):
I said this last week, but we really have started
to lose a lot of our humanity and empathy and
just caring for each other in a way that's alarming.
Man like Ramses is someone who has sat on the
show before, and I've echoed this. I don't know if
I've ever echoed it on the microphone. I know Ramsys
has stated there's nothing to celebrate about loss, like even

(05:40):
when bad people pass away, that's not celebratory. When famously,
when Osama bin Laden was killed, I saw people like cheering,
and I never could really get down with that, like
even people that I think are despicable. Once this thing is,

(06:00):
it's over, and that's a hard thing to celebrate. There's
no coming back, there's no second chance, there's no reset button.
You don't get multiple lives like a video game, like
we get to do this thing once. We get to
purchase and acquire things, especially things like a home for
most of us once and to lose everything and be

(06:23):
expected to just pick up and keep going is a
lot to expect of someone, a lot to wish on someone,
and a really strange thing to celebrate. So a historic
black neighborhood in one of the suburbs where black people
were allowed to live, because you have to remember, once
upon a time, and not a very long time ago,

(06:46):
black people could not just move into any neighborhood that
we wanted to, and even neighborhoods that we were in
that were established as ours had to make way for
highways and freeways and parks. So I don't know, rams
Like we're sorry, isn't enough, you know what I mean?
Like we we're going to collect some items. I just

(07:09):
know my brother's heart, I know how he moves. So
we're gonna end up collecting some items, you know, food, clothes, toiletries,
and maybe packaging them up and driving them out there,
or finding a way to ship them out, or maybe
we just collect some money instant it out. So we're
going to do our part to try to help. But
there are people who won't ever be whole after this,
and that's just a lot to try to reconcile.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, I I spent you know, the first handful of
years of my life in California and the rest of
my years straddling the line between California and Los Angeles.

(07:52):
I had moved back a couple of times. Of course,
my family's still there. I've had family like sisters and
brothers meet my actual sisters and brothers who had to
evacuate their homes. Everybody's okay, But just having that relationship
with California means that I've had a very close relationship

(08:20):
with loss. California is a very special place, but it's
it gives and it takes away. I've you know, for
people that have short memories, fires are part and parcel
to life in California. Fires burn homes in California all

(08:41):
the time. I remember being there watching the ash fall
in my hair, fall on the car and we have
to use the windshill wipers because those wildfires. I remember
the sky being dark in the daytime. I remember living
through earthquakes. People's houses get cracked in pieces and they

(09:05):
can't go in their house because it's gonna fall. They
can't park their car because the sidewalk came up too high,
can't go to school. You know, That's how it is.
But you know the people, they are resilient. And again

(09:29):
it's a beautiful place. There's there's a lot that makes
California very special, but in moments like these, it's it's
like you said, Cuban people. People have somehow had a
narrative chronicled in their minds that coastal elites deserve these

(09:57):
awful things that happened to them. They could be people
in Miami when they suffer. You know, a hurricane can
be you know, people in California when their wildfires or
the El Nino mud slides or earthquakes or whatever. You know,
there's any number of things happen, and there's a lot

(10:18):
of folks in the middle of the country who feel
like almost like good good, you deserve that. And I'm
just going to say it, because we're here now. I
think that that division falls along, you know, your traditional

(10:42):
political lines. And the craziest part about it is that
the people that are dominating the headlines, the wealthy people,
the people that have money and resources, are often people
that are politically aligned with those people in the middle
of the country. Sure you hear about celebrity, and a
lot of times celebrities tend to be a little bit

(11:03):
more liberal in their leanings. But you have titans of industry,
you have wealthy people up and down the coast. These
people are not celebrities. These people are just successful people,
and you know they stand to benefit under Republican administration.
And you're just grouping all of these people in together

(11:25):
and again denying them their humanity, denying them a human moment.
You know what, Like I have pictures of my sons
that I now that I'm thinking about, I can never
get them back. I have awards that I've been given,
I have things that have kind of helped punctuate my life,
the things that make my story my journey mean something.

(11:49):
And to lose them in a fire, not a flood
where it could dry off you can kind of preserve
some of it. No a fire, it's like you said,
ash Is, there's nothing left, there's no coming back from it.
It is the it's almost like the the worst way
to lose something. And the truth is is that I

(12:11):
actually was in a house fire in Compton. And all
of my baby pictures, so I don't have any baby pictures,
all of my acting reels because I used to do.
I was a child actor, so I was in TV
commercials and I was in like I was the kid
that wore the suits and the JC Penny catalogs back
in the day, all my cassettes that you know, the

(12:36):
stuff I did for HBO and like all that stuff
that I can't find on the internet because it doesn't exist.
But that was me. I was the kid that was
the child of the woman actress and you know all
that stuff. It's gone. My pictures of just being forget
the acting stuff, just being a little kid. I think

(12:56):
I have two pictures that survived because my aunt had them,
you know, and not to see that this happens, this
is happening for other people. I I know that, you know,
money doesn't fix it all, but understanding and empathy goes

(13:17):
a long way. And whatever you can have because imagine
not having toilet paper, Imagine not being able to dry
off when you're able to get a shower. Imagine this
is the only pair of shoes I have, And you know,
that might be enough to walk away from this with
my life, But how do I go to work? How
do I rebuild with this pair of sneakers? I need

(13:40):
dress shoes. I need to You know, whatever, whatever everyone's
individual stories are, it's tough.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
You said the word empathy, and you were pointing out that,
you know, these people might share some things in the
political arena, and that should absolutely not matter.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
It shouldn't.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
There's a bunch of people who voted in this last
election against the best interest of me and everyone I
care about. I do not want those people's homes to
burn down. I mean, we shouldn't have to share the
exact same ideology. We shouldn't have to love, vote, think
or pray the same, to care about each other, and

(14:26):
what has shown true flatly, this is not my opinion
people on the other side of the aisle right wing
quote unquote conservative, because I think that word has been
co opted by a group that doesn't really believe in
traditional conservative values. The Republican Party, you know, they took

(14:47):
this as a moment to slam dunk on their political opponents.
I have not seen a single Republican politician say how
sorry they are, start some type of relief effort, give
people some type of instruction, some type of encouragement. Nope,
They've just pointed out all the things they think their
political opponents did wrong while they collectively California Republicans leave

(15:10):
La to go to mur Lago to hang out with
Donald Trump, while their constituents are losing everything that they have.
So it's a really it didn't take long, and I
won't even say it didn't take long, because this is constant.
The other side will continue to show you that they
don't care about you. And it's just so troubling that

(15:31):
we went through so much to try to tell people like, hey,
wake up, you're voting and organizing and helping people legislate
against your own best interests, and you're doing it proudly
and aggressively, and just something to think about. I'm not
prone to conspiracy theory, and I think the news has
kind of supported how I feel as they are starting

(15:52):
to arrest arsonists in southern California. Wildfires are typically born
of a very unique set of circumstances, very very dry,
very very hot weather. It's been in the sixties and
seventies in LA over the last month. That's not typical
wildfire weather. Now, the winds that they've had have helped

(16:15):
spread these fires like nothing we've ever seen before. I
think winds I think up to one hundred miles an
hour rams, so the winds kind of make it feel
more natural. But I can't be certain. I'm not an investigator,
but this seems like and again they've started to arrest
people setting fires that these fires were set by people,

(16:37):
So imagine people burning up their fellow man for whatever reason,
and politicians on the other side almost celebrating it as
a way to point out the failures of their political opponents,
as if anything could be done about the size and

(16:59):
volume of these fires happening, And and a lot of
the misinformation being put out about the governor, the mayor,
the fire department's budget, which actually saw a fifty million
dollar increase. Right, there's there, there's facts that you can
find to kind of dispel any of these intentional myths

(17:21):
that are being put out by the other side. You know,
I mean, it's it's it's a sad state.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Man.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
They can't even stop for a second, and their quest
to just rub our face in the dirt and say, hey,
what's going out on out there is sad and we're sorry.
It's it's it's I want to say, it's heartbreaking, but
it's so much worse than that.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, but again, California is a magical place. Californians are
a resilient people. And you know, this country has seen
Californifornia go through its fair share more than its fair

(18:03):
share of natural disasters, and it always comes back bigger
and better and stronger than ever. In this moment, there
are a number of relief efforts taking place. One off
the top of my head is, uh, there's a place
called what updough and in southern California that is collecting

(18:28):
you know, supplies and donations and you know, all those
sorts of things. I know that Real ninety two three
in la Is. They also have an effort that you know,
Big Boy and all the staff there is behind in
terms of trying to provide relief and you know, organize

(18:50):
you know, relief efforts. I suppose.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
If I made rams. There's also a place in Pasadena,
neighbors and friends. I think it's called eighty eight East
Union Street, Pasadena, California. They want us to spread the
word that they have free supplies, free food, free water,
free clothes, and free hygiene products. They want as many
people as possible. If you are in need to come

(19:19):
to eighty eight East Union Street, Pasadena, California. It can
be delivered to you, they can come out to your car.
Just there's a lot of people who care, who are
trying to share the best that they can to help out.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, and those people are the best of us right now,
and they remind us of what we should be and
what we could be. And your support would definitely add
to kind of the momentum that we need in this

(19:53):
country right now. So we're gonna stay on top of this.
We're gonna hopefully report back with better news in the
coming days. But for now, we all have our marching papers,
so of course let's get to it. If you have

(20:14):
anything that you feel we need to share, of course
you can do so using the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app, or you can hit me on
all social media at Ramsey's Job.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
I am Qward on all social media as well.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
And until we talk again, y'all peace.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
This has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribing down. With all of our episodes, I'm your
host Ramsey's Job on all social media. Join us tomorrow
as we share our news with our voice from our
perspective right here on the Black Information Network Daily Podcast
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