November 6, 2023 • 29 mins
Civic Cipher Co-Host Q Ward joins Ramses Ja on today's podcast to discuss some of the biggest trending news stories for the past weekend.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Here at the Black Information Network, we know how important
it is for you to start your week off energized, engaged,
and enlightened. There are always major stories that break over
the weekend, and we feel you should know about the
ones we are talking about today, So stay tuned for
our weekend recap featuring bi in correspondent and the host
of Civic Cipher q Ward. This is the Black Information
(00:26):
Network Daily Podcast and I'm your host, ramses Jah. All right,
que man, how is it going. Where in the world
are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I am in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oh wow, okay, unusually
cold here.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh all right, well I might have to turn the
heat on tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well I'm hoping you'll feel comfortable soon enough. But first
and foremost, we got to get to the news. So
let's share what happened over the weekend. First up, this
one is from the Black Information at Work. White Christians
are more likely to deny that racism exists, according to
a new survey so or new survey sorry so Briefly
(01:10):
in April, the Pew Research Center asked which issue poses
a more significant challenge to the country regarding race the
tendency to overlook racism when it's present, or the inclination
to perceive racism where it doesn't exist. Well, as it
turns out, fifty three percent of Americans said the issue
is people denying discrimination when it's present, while roughly forty
(01:31):
five percent the bigger concern is individuals saying racism exists
in situations where it doesn't. According to the data, white
Christians were more inclined to believe that individuals are perceiving
non non existent racism. Seventy two percent of white Evangelicals,
sixty percent of white Catholics, and fifty four percent of
white Protestants said seeing discrimination where it doesn't exist is
(01:53):
the more significant challenge the country regarding race. So when
you first heard about this, how did it hit you?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, I think something that I pointed out before with
regard to the way, you know, Christians or white Christians
specifically responded to our last president. When you see something
in yourself that you don't want to acknowledge is bad,
it's better to just pretend that it doesn't exist.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So I started to have people.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Defend the idea that racism, that we were in a
post racist America, and you know, try to make our
last president out to be a good person, and even
reading this story where the idea that the perception of
racism where it doesn't exist is a bigger problem, the
reason is to acknowledge the former, which is that you
(02:43):
know racism is a problem, you have to acknowledge some
things in yourself that you don't want to sure, you
have to acknowledge that you are either a part of
the problem or allowing the problem to exist without resistance,
and I think that makes people feel ashamed.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So rather than feel and guilt, they'd.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Rather just pretend it doesn't exist, especially when it's not
something that impacts them on a daily.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Basis, right, right, Or they have to come to terms
with and I think that you're effectively saying this, they
have to come to terms with the fact that they
are benefiting from the problem, and that's difficult to reconcile
or a lot of people. So yeah, I can absolutely
see that. The funny thing is that you would imagine
that Christians and Evangelicals would be the more empathetic type
(03:30):
of individuals, but for some reason in this country, the
Evangelicals and the Christians have a tendency to be aligned
with the conservative political facet of this country, and as
a result of that, there are other elements of that
(03:50):
way of thinking that work their way into the lives
of Christians that I believe run counter to the beliefs
enshrine in the Christian textbook, the Bible.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And so it's kind of funny.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
A lot of conservative politicians have found a bit of
a loophole with how they campaign. A lot of you know,
the reason why a disproportionate amount of white Evangelicals support
a party that does not seem to be aligned with
their beliefs is that they found the single issue that
(04:30):
swings voters, and that is the pro life position or
anti abortion rather, and they have used things like pro life,
anti abortion, or a resistance or you know, opposition to
same sex marriage as ways to swing you know, not
every Christian you know person individually, but the church.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
As a body.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, you know, vote and support you know, their position,
or they're against their own best interest in most cases
because they figured out that bit of a loophole.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Right, and that specific issue is so powerful and it
can be an all consuming sort of an issue that
if you can get someone to agree on this one
issue that your party stands on, then you can get
this person over time and with the right amount of
convincing to agree with pretty much everything that your party
(05:30):
stands for, and rarely would they push back. And they
can turn a blind eye to the specific elements that
run contrary to their own best interest. And it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Even when they don't agree with everything else, right, they
make those issues kind of singular and polarizing. Right, if
the opposition is pro abortion and pro same sex marriage,
then I'm a Christian. I can't support that, so I
have to then support you know, racist white supremacists.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Everything else that that stands.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
For everything that the opposite party stands for.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yes, it's it's so strange because I think that you know,
we've been hearing this for pretty much the entirety of
our lives. But a two party system in this country
doesn't really allow us to reach our full potential as
a country. I can see the flaws in this system,
(06:33):
and then us being able to only cast one vote
for one candidate means that we're stuck with that sort
of two party system. We can't like list our first, second,
and third choice and you know, have a vote count
for some independent or some person that maybe represents more
(06:54):
closely is more closely aligned with our belief system, and
so we have this binary black and white system that
ensures that we're always opposing each other on every issue,
and that we're trapped in these political parties that may
or may not represent all of what we feel is
(07:15):
appropriate for our country. So it's a strange position to
find ourselves in and to see that many people write
that you.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Bring up someone like Bernie Sanders, very progressive and had
ideas and you know, the potential to bring about to
bring about policy that would have helped tens of millions
of Americans.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Sure never stood a shot.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Because he was running essentially as a as a third
political party. And it doesn't matter how awesome a Cannan
that you are. In this country, the two party system
reigns supreme, And like you said that, it removes any
nuance in how you actually feel about the policies of
(08:01):
the country. Can you put in a position where you
have to do this or that the lesser up to
evils in a lot of cases.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny that you mentioned that because
you know, I'm a Democrat. I vote Democrat and every
election down ballot for the most part, and I had
to sit back and watch Democrats. Dave Chappelle said it
best karate kick Hillary Clinton and the Democrats ate karate
(08:29):
KickSweep or something. He said, Bernie Sanders' legs out from
under him when he had all that momentum back in
twenty sixteen. And it's just a kind of a strange
thing to have to then continue to vote Democrat because
I don't want to live in a society where the
sum total of Republican values define my reality, my day
(08:54):
to day existence. And so I'm stuck voting for these
people that I know are clearly the lesser of two evils.
They're they're just they're they're that's they're not a you know,
I'll leave it right there, because it's.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Like they don't care about us either. They aren't working
as aggressive as.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Actively against us, and so we have to vote for
the people, as you said, that don't care about us either.
And so it's again, it's it's kind of interesting to
find ourselves in this position, and you know, leave it
to you know, white Christian event and evangelicals to help
us point out the flaws in our system. So but
(09:33):
you know, speaking of white Christian evangelicals, there's another story
coming out of I suppose Florida or New York. I'm
not entirely sure how to how to assign a location
to it, but apparently Newsweek reported a conservative rapper named
Jimmy Levi who said that his backpack started exploding on
(09:54):
a plane before takeoff, adding that it was a spiritual attack.
This in his own words, so he's quoted as saying,
right after falling asleep pre takeoff on my flight back
home to South Florida from New York, I was jolted
awake by a sudden and terrifying wave of heat, seemingly
shooting toward my face. He goes on to say, I
immediately opened my eyes and noticed my backpack, which was
(10:17):
initially tucked underneath my seat, now in an exploding and
floating ball of fire. And then the rapper went on
to add that the explosion was quote a spiritual attack
from the pits of Hell, and I rebuke it in
the name of Jesus. So a lot to take in
and believe here. If don't let me speak for you,
(10:40):
but you know, I can imagine that might be most
people's reaction. But what were your thoughts when you first
heard about this?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It's hard to have a position on things like that, right,
because you have to understand what most Christians in this
country study and learn from, is the Bibles Bible not
the original text, because you know, the Bibles and that
sort of text have been around long before. That version
of the Bible was written by several different men for
(11:12):
the purposes of King James or King John.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I'm sorry, James, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And there are stories in that book that would sound similar,
you know, the burning bush, you know, walking on water,
living inside the belly of a whale.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Of people in our country believe these stories as literal
So saying something like the ball of fire on my
airplane as a spiritual attack, a floating ball of fire
does not seem like something out of you know, out
of the realm of normal or reality for people who
read and believe the Bible as literal texts from God.
(11:53):
You know, so the stories and parables in the Bible
that were written hundreds of years ago. Right, the idea
of horses spitting fire might be what a tank would look.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Like to someone who's never seen one.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Sure, you know the idea that heaven is above the
clouds well before there were airplanes that might be the idea,
but we've all been up there now and realize that
it's just more sky and more clouds. Yeah, so you
have to understand that because we are taught these things
as children by adults, mostly our parents, teachers, pastors, and
spiritual leaders, we grow up believing these things without question
(12:28):
because we are also taught that we're supposed to have
faith and questioning the book is questioning God.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And you believe these.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Things without critical thinking, without research, and without really questioning
them because you're kind of taught that you're not supposed to, right.
So God bless this kid for actually believing what he said,
or maybe not being as put together as one might assume.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So what I wanted to say was because you said
something about you know how this is hard to believe.
What the part about this that's even harder to believe
is that there's a conservative rapper. I looked him up.
I saw his picture.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Hard to believe? You remember the mega hut?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, well, I mean I guess I guess that's not
hard to believe, but.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
He's hard to have upon a time.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, well, you know, I googled this guy and some
stuff came up. So I'm like, okay, well, I mean
he's not like like a rapper that we would know
or you know, we're both DJs, so we would probably not.
I don't think his music bangs in the club or
anything like that. But I'm like, really conservative rapper enough
to make a newsweek headline, you know, with an exploding
backpack story.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So well, I think the exploding backpack story is one thing.
And then you find out he's a rapper. You got
to put that in the headline, right, Yeah, sure, conservative
rapper backpack explodes and starts floating. No, yeah, especially pro
Trump backpack rapper. Like that's a headline nobody would turn
down exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Sure, sure, but you know, I'd be interested in finding
out what the f A has to say or the
airline or you know whatever, because I've found that a
lot of times when people have these experiences, you know,
far be it for me to question anyone's faith. I
certainly come from a faith tradition. I know that you
(14:17):
do too, But I find that the vast majority of
these things are explained using a scientific method, and so
you know, when as soon as people if the first
place a person goes is it's a spiritual attack from
the pits of Hell, and I rebuke it in the
name of Jesus Again, I feel like, Okay, you know
(14:42):
we we I like to think that we live in
a shared reality here and you know.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Except now you know that we don't.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, and I think that a floating.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Back years ago, we did not live in the same
reality as a lot of our countrymen, countrymen.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Black Information Network corresponded, and the host of Civic Cipher,
q Ward is here with us discussing the weekends major stories.
All right, I don't know if you heard about the
story from Black Enterprise, but apparently an African pastor has
gotten into trouble on social media and riled everyone up
with her advice to young women trying to find husbands.
(15:25):
There's a video being shared on Twitter that was on
October thirtieth showing the preacher explaining how to help women
get noticed by being packaged. Well, okay, packaged is her work,
and she's condemning women who wore their natural hair as
opposed to spending their money on human hair and wigs
(15:45):
because she says that natural hair is not selling market.
So let me read a little bit from what she says.
She says the Bible says that you will have friends
must or sorry, I'm assuming that what she was trying
to say is the Bible says he who will have
(16:07):
friends must first show himself friendly. And then she says,
you're squeezing your face. Nobody's calling me, but this is
how your face is, she said, and that's kind of
when she was making a face. She continued, Friday night,
you're at home. Monday, you're at home. Tuesday, you're at home.
And then she goes on and a little later she says,
(16:28):
all of you will be carrying natural hair. About who
does natural hair help? Okay, better wear your wig and
be doing like this, and then she kind of like
does the little hair flip. She goes on to say,
and be flipping it. Go and spend that money on hair,
draw your brows, buy lip gloss, and look good. Natural
hair is not a selling market. When you marry, you
(16:50):
off your wig because you have entered. There's nothing they
can do about it. But before you enter, don't be
caught unfresh. Never package yourself. Well, all right, so yeah,
your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
First thing, The first thing, the first thing that comes
to my mind is we need to pray for her congregation. Yeah,
because my god.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I mean and the sad part, even though you know
it's it's something that we chuckle about. But the sad
part is that many of the people who are in
this person's congregation, even if her congregation is small, she's
their pastor, so her word ways so heavy, and she's
sending these women, I'm sure some of them young women
out into the world thinking that they are not enough,
and that and even the idea that you know, hide
(17:41):
yourself from your men until you have interests.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Once he's intered, there's nothing that could be done. Has
she seen the divorce rates?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, pretending I'm somebody else until I'm married and then
now I can be myself, Like in what world?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
It's everything's wrong with that story. She's lying to these women.
Most men that I know, and I can not speak
on behalf of all men, just the ones close to me.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
We prefer natural everything.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, be you, yeah, listen. One of the things that
is really interesting about this is, you know, you made
a point about her congregation, but I kind of checked
out some of the back and forth on Twitter, you know,
the comments surrounding the video, and maybe it's because she's
(18:28):
a pastor, maybe because she's in a position of authority.
But you know, there's not just people in her congregation
kind of cheering her on. There, there's not a there's
a not insignificant amount of comments suggesting that she's absolutely right, Yes,
we should be doing this. Yeah, yeah, and it's it's
(18:49):
just kind of you know, on our civic side. For
social media page, I put a post up just this
past week about the doll experiments, the famous doll experiments
where they asked black children which was the good doll
(19:10):
and which was the bad doll? And they had two options.
One was a white doll and one was a black doll.
And these were little little kids, right, and the children
were compelled to answer these questions, who's the good one,
who's the pretty one, who's the ugly one, who's the
bad one? Who? You know, those sorts of questions, and
invariably and the results of the study showed that black
(19:30):
children picked the black doll as being bad, ugly, everything negative,
and the white doll is being everything positive. And then
at the end of the study, they'd asked themselves, which
one looks like you, and of course they would point
toward the black doll, right, and so it's interesting to
see sort of a grown up version of that study
(19:50):
play out with this African pastor. And I know that,
you know, we've as we grow, we learn that we've
been in doctrine, we learned to love ourselves. And so
I'm sure that the results are there's certainly from what
I saw, more people saying that this this African pastor
was wrong and she was out of pocket. But there
(20:11):
are still some people that look at themselves and say
I'm not pretty enough, or I'm not marriable enough, or
you know, whatever the case is. And I don't want
to ignore the fact that Black women are the least
married women in the United States, but to start the
conversation or even have any part of the conversation border
(20:35):
on by a wig, it just kind of feels like
we're not really dealing with the right.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Beauty supply store has nothing to do.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
With that, right, That's that's I mean, And who am
I to say anything, But that's just that just feels
very very wrong to.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I honestly think it's more generational, you know what I mean,
Like this generation married, there are more children being born,
are more people get married, you know, there are there
are less people. I mean less people, less children being born,
less people getting married, and even less people attending church.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Like this generation just different, man.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It is a we are in a different time and
it is not because women are wearing their hair natural.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That's an excellent point. I'm glad you made that point.
So I don't know whoever you are, if you're listening
to this show, you're beautiful. You're a perfect just the
way that you are. All right, last story and then
we'll let you get to the heat out there in
Las Vegas. This one comes from the Hill. Civil rights
attorney Ben Crump is calling on the Department of Justice
to investigate the handling of Dexter Wade's death in Mississippi.
(21:39):
So a little bit about this. Wade, a thirty seven
year old black man, died after being run over by
a police officer in March, Okay March. He was buried
without his mother's knowledge. She was not informed of his
death until six months later, despite the coroner having identified
Wade and his next of kin at the time of
his autopsy. Crump was represent any Wade family in a
(22:00):
press conference on Monday, described the case as a cop
killing cover up. He says We're never going to let
Dexter Wade be swept under the rug, and we're going
to keep fighting until we get justice for Dexter Wade.
He goes on to say, we're asking for the Department
of Justice to investigate this matter because the family does
not have trust in the Mississippi officials. Would you after
(22:24):
this happened to your brother and child. Wade's mother, betterstein
Wade reported her son missing to the Jackson Police Department
the week after he died March fifth, and again she
found out August twenty fourth, which is right around six
months later. The county buried him on July fourteenth in
a paupers field of the Hinz County Pinal Farm. His
(22:48):
body is still there and a grave marked is number
six seventy two. And let's add to that that in
twenty nineteen, betterstein Wade's brother died after he was slammed
to the ground by a Jackson police off officer who
was later convicted of manslaughter by a jury and is
now appealing the conviction. So this family has gone through
a lot, and it certainly looks like in Jackson, Mississippi,
(23:13):
they are doing you know that that's among the best
racism that we got in this country. So I know
that we talked about this story early last week before
it started making headlines and made its way into our
weekend episode. But you know, I guess talk us through
a little bit about kind of when you first started
hearing about you know this, this mother having to go
(23:35):
through all that uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
And yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
A lot of the things that we talk about on
a weekly basis, A lot of the things that we
are charged with covering, a lot of things that we
care deeply about, are so incredibly difficult to try to
process and reconcile. I cannot imagine the pain that this
mother went through long before she knew the truth. And
(24:06):
finding out the truth does not bring her justice or
peace or calm, but probably exacerbates and pours gasoline on
everything she felt prior, you know what I mean. So
and finding out in how you know, like we have
in so many cases that this is a cover up,
(24:26):
you know, police, you know, covering their own backsides.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And I'm not exaggerating.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I'm getting a headache talking about this because this is
not a rare occasion, This is not a singular story,
This is not a bad apple, This is a festering system,
and I honestly feel bad. And for the first time
this thought hit my mind. There is not this idea
that there are not good officers. It's that they cannot
(24:55):
thrive and they cannot multiply and they cannot plant seeds
that bear any fruit because the system that they are
a part of roots them out and crushes them. So
they either have to be quiet, right, like quiet non participants,
or they speak up and decide I'm no longer going
to do this job. And when that's how you provide
(25:16):
for your family and that's how you make your living,
that is not an easy decision to have to make. So,
you know, it is a really, really difficult position to
be in if you are one of the good guys,
because you have to either participate right stand opposed to
and lose your job, or silently disagree and live with
(25:42):
whatever that emotional and mental toil is. It is really
really a difficult thing. And there are so many of
these stories. Again, these are not singular, These are not
one of us. We don't have to go searching, you know,
with any effort to find stories like.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
This, Oh, especially in Jackson.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, parents and children and husbands and wives, and you know, brothers, sisters, cousins,
aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews have to lose the
people that they love, you know, whether these people have
committed crimes or not. Because we often get into that
conversation where we're going to try to justify it by saying, well,
they did commit a crime, as if that makes it
(26:22):
okay for them to die. It is a really, really
difficult thing to have to cover with the frequency that
we do. And I just feel incredibly sad for his
mother because learning the truth in most cases, right in
unsolved cases where there's justice to be brought, that truth
brings some sort of peace, where in this case it
(26:43):
won't do that.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
It'll add frustration.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
In a very very low amount of accountability for the
people who are guilty for this, like just losing your job.
You lose your job when you show up late to
work at target too many times. There should not be
the same punishment for taking someone life.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Right, stakes should be in theory should be a lot higher.
But because of all of the corruption, the cover ups,
the blue wall of silence, and of course qualified immunity,
and on and on and on, and really, as you mentioned,
just kind of the culture of policing, bad actors get
(27:21):
to thrive and those people who would be kind of
the the last line of defense in a manner of speaking,
you know, And this is another thing that we've talked
about on our social media. We've put up posts and
examples of good cops that have been fired, They've been
pressured into doing crazy stuff, they've taken their own lives
(27:42):
because of you know, their their friends and family turning
against them, and on and on and on. So a
lot of times those those good apples, Yeah, it's it's
it's it's tragic. And the result of that is that
we end up with stories like this. The police just
feel like, Okay, well I killed the sky, let me
just bury him in a pauper's grave marked I don't
(28:03):
even remember the number, but six seventy two graves six
seventy two. And when and if his mom finds out,
you know, this will be long gone. But I don't
suspect that they ever really intended for the mom to
find out he was going to.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Be just thought she wouldn't and hoped she wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, because now Ben Crump is on it, and you know,
this lawsuit is probably going to be wildly expensive for
the taxpayers and not for the individual police, the departments,
the chief, the mayor, none of those taxpayers. So I guess,
I guess that's just how it goes.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
But uh, and those same taxpayers will continue to elect
the same people, really dangerously vicious cycle ever, and we
have to just watch it perpetuate as we do nothing
about it.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Sure, Sure, I feel like we should probably, uh maybe
get into this story a little deeper on Civic Cipress.
So we'll sit with it. We'll see how it continues
to deve. But for now, let's get you out of
the cold and into some heat. I'd like to thank
you as always for your insight once again. Today's guest
is Vin Correspondent, the host of Civic Cipher, and my
right hand man Qward. And also remember these and more
(29:15):
stories can be found at bnnews dot com. This has
been a production of the Black Information Network. Today's show
was 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 subscribe and
download all of our episodes. I am your host, Rams's
jaw on all social media and join us tomorrow as
(29:36):
we share our news with our voice from our perspective
right here on the Black Information Network Daily podcast
Here at the Black Information Network, we know how important
it is for you to start your week off energized, engaged,
and enlightened. There are always major stories that break over
the weekend, and we feel you should know about the
ones we are talking about today, So stay tuned for
our weekend recap featuring bi in correspondent and the host
of Civic Cipher q Ward. This is the Black Information
(00:26):
Network Daily Podcast and I'm your host, ramses Jah. All right,
que man, how is it going. Where in the world
are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I am in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oh wow, okay, unusually
cold here.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh all right, well I might have to turn the
heat on tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well I'm hoping you'll feel comfortable soon enough. But first
and foremost, we got to get to the news. So
let's share what happened over the weekend. First up, this
one is from the Black Information at Work. White Christians
are more likely to deny that racism exists, according to
a new survey so or new survey sorry so Briefly
(01:10):
in April, the Pew Research Center asked which issue poses
a more significant challenge to the country regarding race the
tendency to overlook racism when it's present, or the inclination
to perceive racism where it doesn't exist. Well, as it
turns out, fifty three percent of Americans said the issue
is people denying discrimination when it's present, while roughly forty
(01:31):
five percent the bigger concern is individuals saying racism exists
in situations where it doesn't. According to the data, white
Christians were more inclined to believe that individuals are perceiving
non non existent racism. Seventy two percent of white Evangelicals,
sixty percent of white Catholics, and fifty four percent of
white Protestants said seeing discrimination where it doesn't exist is
(01:53):
the more significant challenge the country regarding race. So when
you first heard about this, how did it hit you?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, I think something that I pointed out before with
regard to the way, you know, Christians or white Christians
specifically responded to our last president. When you see something
in yourself that you don't want to acknowledge is bad,
it's better to just pretend that it doesn't exist.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So I started to have people.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Defend the idea that racism, that we were in a
post racist America, and you know, try to make our
last president out to be a good person, and even
reading this story where the idea that the perception of
racism where it doesn't exist is a bigger problem, the
reason is to acknowledge the former, which is that you
(02:43):
know racism is a problem, you have to acknowledge some
things in yourself that you don't want to sure, you
have to acknowledge that you are either a part of
the problem or allowing the problem to exist without resistance,
and I think that makes people feel ashamed.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So rather than feel and guilt, they'd.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Rather just pretend it doesn't exist, especially when it's not
something that impacts them on a daily.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Basis, right, right, Or they have to come to terms
with and I think that you're effectively saying this, they
have to come to terms with the fact that they
are benefiting from the problem, and that's difficult to reconcile
or a lot of people. So yeah, I can absolutely
see that. The funny thing is that you would imagine
that Christians and Evangelicals would be the more empathetic type
(03:30):
of individuals, but for some reason in this country, the
Evangelicals and the Christians have a tendency to be aligned
with the conservative political facet of this country, and as
a result of that, there are other elements of that
(03:50):
way of thinking that work their way into the lives
of Christians that I believe run counter to the beliefs
enshrine in the Christian textbook, the Bible.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And so it's kind of funny.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
A lot of conservative politicians have found a bit of
a loophole with how they campaign. A lot of you know,
the reason why a disproportionate amount of white Evangelicals support
a party that does not seem to be aligned with
their beliefs is that they found the single issue that
(04:30):
swings voters, and that is the pro life position or
anti abortion rather, and they have used things like pro life,
anti abortion, or a resistance or you know, opposition to
same sex marriage as ways to swing you know, not
every Christian you know person individually, but the church.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
As a body.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, you know, vote and support you know, their position,
or they're against their own best interest in most cases
because they figured out that bit of a loophole.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Right, and that specific issue is so powerful and it
can be an all consuming sort of an issue that
if you can get someone to agree on this one
issue that your party stands on, then you can get
this person over time and with the right amount of
convincing to agree with pretty much everything that your party
(05:30):
stands for, and rarely would they push back. And they
can turn a blind eye to the specific elements that
run contrary to their own best interest. And it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Even when they don't agree with everything else, right, they
make those issues kind of singular and polarizing. Right, if
the opposition is pro abortion and pro same sex marriage,
then I'm a Christian. I can't support that, so I
have to then support you know, racist white supremacists.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Everything else that that stands.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
For everything that the opposite party stands for.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yes, it's it's so strange because I think that you know,
we've been hearing this for pretty much the entirety of
our lives. But a two party system in this country
doesn't really allow us to reach our full potential as
a country. I can see the flaws in this system,
(06:33):
and then us being able to only cast one vote
for one candidate means that we're stuck with that sort
of two party system. We can't like list our first, second,
and third choice and you know, have a vote count
for some independent or some person that maybe represents more
(06:54):
closely is more closely aligned with our belief system, and
so we have this binary black and white system that
ensures that we're always opposing each other on every issue,
and that we're trapped in these political parties that may
or may not represent all of what we feel is
(07:15):
appropriate for our country. So it's a strange position to
find ourselves in and to see that many people write
that you.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Bring up someone like Bernie Sanders, very progressive and had
ideas and you know, the potential to bring about to
bring about policy that would have helped tens of millions
of Americans.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Sure never stood a shot.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Because he was running essentially as a as a third
political party. And it doesn't matter how awesome a Cannan
that you are. In this country, the two party system
reigns supreme, And like you said that, it removes any
nuance in how you actually feel about the policies of
(08:01):
the country. Can you put in a position where you
have to do this or that the lesser up to
evils in a lot of cases.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny that you mentioned that because
you know, I'm a Democrat. I vote Democrat and every
election down ballot for the most part, and I had
to sit back and watch Democrats. Dave Chappelle said it
best karate kick Hillary Clinton and the Democrats ate karate
(08:29):
KickSweep or something. He said, Bernie Sanders' legs out from
under him when he had all that momentum back in
twenty sixteen. And it's just a kind of a strange
thing to have to then continue to vote Democrat because
I don't want to live in a society where the
sum total of Republican values define my reality, my day
(08:54):
to day existence. And so I'm stuck voting for these
people that I know are clearly the lesser of two evils.
They're they're just they're they're that's they're not a you know,
I'll leave it right there, because it's.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Like they don't care about us either. They aren't working
as aggressive as.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Actively against us, and so we have to vote for
the people, as you said, that don't care about us either.
And so it's again, it's it's kind of interesting to
find ourselves in this position, and you know, leave it
to you know, white Christian event and evangelicals to help
us point out the flaws in our system. So but
(09:33):
you know, speaking of white Christian evangelicals, there's another story
coming out of I suppose Florida or New York. I'm
not entirely sure how to how to assign a location
to it, but apparently Newsweek reported a conservative rapper named
Jimmy Levi who said that his backpack started exploding on
(09:54):
a plane before takeoff, adding that it was a spiritual attack.
This in his own words, so he's quoted as saying,
right after falling asleep pre takeoff on my flight back
home to South Florida from New York, I was jolted
awake by a sudden and terrifying wave of heat, seemingly
shooting toward my face. He goes on to say, I
immediately opened my eyes and noticed my backpack, which was
(10:17):
initially tucked underneath my seat, now in an exploding and
floating ball of fire. And then the rapper went on
to add that the explosion was quote a spiritual attack
from the pits of Hell, and I rebuke it in
the name of Jesus. So a lot to take in
and believe here. If don't let me speak for you,
(10:40):
but you know, I can imagine that might be most
people's reaction. But what were your thoughts when you first
heard about this?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It's hard to have a position on things like that, right,
because you have to understand what most Christians in this
country study and learn from, is the Bibles Bible not
the original text, because you know, the Bibles and that
sort of text have been around long before. That version
of the Bible was written by several different men for
(11:12):
the purposes of King James or King John.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I'm sorry, James, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And there are stories in that book that would sound similar,
you know, the burning bush, you know, walking on water,
living inside the belly of a whale.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Of people in our country believe these stories as literal
So saying something like the ball of fire on my
airplane as a spiritual attack, a floating ball of fire
does not seem like something out of you know, out
of the realm of normal or reality for people who
read and believe the Bible as literal texts from God.
(11:53):
You know, so the stories and parables in the Bible
that were written hundreds of years ago. Right, the idea
of horses spitting fire might be what a tank would look.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Like to someone who's never seen one.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Sure, you know the idea that heaven is above the
clouds well before there were airplanes that might be the idea,
but we've all been up there now and realize that
it's just more sky and more clouds. Yeah, so you
have to understand that because we are taught these things
as children by adults, mostly our parents, teachers, pastors, and
spiritual leaders, we grow up believing these things without question
(12:28):
because we are also taught that we're supposed to have
faith and questioning the book is questioning God.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
And you believe these.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Things without critical thinking, without research, and without really questioning
them because you're kind of taught that you're not supposed to, right.
So God bless this kid for actually believing what he said,
or maybe not being as put together as one might assume.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So what I wanted to say was because you said
something about you know how this is hard to believe.
What the part about this that's even harder to believe
is that there's a conservative rapper. I looked him up.
I saw his picture.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Hard to believe? You remember the mega hut?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, well, I mean I guess I guess that's not
hard to believe, but.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
He's hard to have upon a time.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, well, you know, I googled this guy and some
stuff came up. So I'm like, okay, well, I mean
he's not like like a rapper that we would know
or you know, we're both DJs, so we would probably not.
I don't think his music bangs in the club or
anything like that. But I'm like, really conservative rapper enough
to make a newsweek headline, you know, with an exploding
backpack story.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So well, I think the exploding backpack story is one thing.
And then you find out he's a rapper. You got
to put that in the headline, right, Yeah, sure, conservative
rapper backpack explodes and starts floating. No, yeah, especially pro
Trump backpack rapper. Like that's a headline nobody would turn
down exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Sure, sure, but you know, I'd be interested in finding
out what the f A has to say or the
airline or you know whatever, because I've found that a
lot of times when people have these experiences, you know,
far be it for me to question anyone's faith. I
certainly come from a faith tradition. I know that you
(14:17):
do too, But I find that the vast majority of
these things are explained using a scientific method, and so
you know, when as soon as people if the first
place a person goes is it's a spiritual attack from
the pits of Hell, and I rebuke it in the
name of Jesus Again, I feel like, Okay, you know
(14:42):
we we I like to think that we live in
a shared reality here and you know.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Except now you know that we don't.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, and I think that a floating.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Back years ago, we did not live in the same
reality as a lot of our countrymen, countrymen.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Black Information Network corresponded, and the host of Civic Cipher,
q Ward is here with us discussing the weekends major stories.
All right, I don't know if you heard about the
story from Black Enterprise, but apparently an African pastor has
gotten into trouble on social media and riled everyone up
with her advice to young women trying to find husbands.
(15:25):
There's a video being shared on Twitter that was on
October thirtieth showing the preacher explaining how to help women
get noticed by being packaged. Well, okay, packaged is her work,
and she's condemning women who wore their natural hair as
opposed to spending their money on human hair and wigs
(15:45):
because she says that natural hair is not selling market.
So let me read a little bit from what she says.
She says the Bible says that you will have friends
must or sorry, I'm assuming that what she was trying
to say is the Bible says he who will have
(16:07):
friends must first show himself friendly. And then she says,
you're squeezing your face. Nobody's calling me, but this is
how your face is, she said, and that's kind of
when she was making a face. She continued, Friday night,
you're at home. Monday, you're at home. Tuesday, you're at home.
And then she goes on and a little later she says,
(16:28):
all of you will be carrying natural hair. About who
does natural hair help? Okay, better wear your wig and
be doing like this, and then she kind of like
does the little hair flip. She goes on to say,
and be flipping it. Go and spend that money on hair,
draw your brows, buy lip gloss, and look good. Natural
hair is not a selling market. When you marry, you
(16:50):
off your wig because you have entered. There's nothing they
can do about it. But before you enter, don't be
caught unfresh. Never package yourself. Well, all right, so yeah,
your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
First thing, The first thing, the first thing that comes
to my mind is we need to pray for her congregation. Yeah,
because my god.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I mean and the sad part, even though you know
it's it's something that we chuckle about. But the sad
part is that many of the people who are in
this person's congregation, even if her congregation is small, she's
their pastor, so her word ways so heavy, and she's
sending these women, I'm sure some of them young women
out into the world thinking that they are not enough,
and that and even the idea that you know, hide
(17:41):
yourself from your men until you have interests.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Once he's intered, there's nothing that could be done. Has
she seen the divorce rates?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, pretending I'm somebody else until I'm married and then
now I can be myself, Like in what world?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
It's everything's wrong with that story. She's lying to these women.
Most men that I know, and I can not speak
on behalf of all men, just the ones close to me.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
We prefer natural everything.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, be you, yeah, listen. One of the things that
is really interesting about this is, you know, you made
a point about her congregation, but I kind of checked
out some of the back and forth on Twitter, you know,
the comments surrounding the video, and maybe it's because she's
(18:28):
a pastor, maybe because she's in a position of authority.
But you know, there's not just people in her congregation
kind of cheering her on. There, there's not a there's
a not insignificant amount of comments suggesting that she's absolutely right, Yes,
we should be doing this. Yeah, yeah, and it's it's
(18:49):
just kind of you know, on our civic side. For
social media page, I put a post up just this
past week about the doll experiments, the famous doll experiments
where they asked black children which was the good doll
(19:10):
and which was the bad doll? And they had two options.
One was a white doll and one was a black doll.
And these were little little kids, right, and the children
were compelled to answer these questions, who's the good one,
who's the pretty one, who's the ugly one, who's the
bad one? Who? You know, those sorts of questions, and
invariably and the results of the study showed that black
(19:30):
children picked the black doll as being bad, ugly, everything negative,
and the white doll is being everything positive. And then
at the end of the study, they'd asked themselves, which
one looks like you, and of course they would point
toward the black doll, right, and so it's interesting to
see sort of a grown up version of that study
(19:50):
play out with this African pastor. And I know that,
you know, we've as we grow, we learn that we've
been in doctrine, we learned to love ourselves. And so
I'm sure that the results are there's certainly from what
I saw, more people saying that this this African pastor
was wrong and she was out of pocket. But there
(20:11):
are still some people that look at themselves and say
I'm not pretty enough, or I'm not marriable enough, or
you know, whatever the case is. And I don't want
to ignore the fact that Black women are the least
married women in the United States, but to start the
conversation or even have any part of the conversation border
(20:35):
on by a wig, it just kind of feels like
we're not really dealing with the right.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Beauty supply store has nothing to do.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
With that, right, That's that's I mean, And who am
I to say anything, But that's just that just feels
very very wrong to.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I honestly think it's more generational, you know what I mean,
Like this generation married, there are more children being born,
are more people get married, you know, there are there
are less people. I mean less people, less children being born,
less people getting married, and even less people attending church.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Like this generation just different, man.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It is a we are in a different time and
it is not because women are wearing their hair natural.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That's an excellent point. I'm glad you made that point.
So I don't know whoever you are, if you're listening
to this show, you're beautiful. You're a perfect just the
way that you are. All right, last story and then
we'll let you get to the heat out there in
Las Vegas. This one comes from the Hill. Civil rights
attorney Ben Crump is calling on the Department of Justice
to investigate the handling of Dexter Wade's death in Mississippi.
(21:39):
So a little bit about this. Wade, a thirty seven
year old black man, died after being run over by
a police officer in March, Okay March. He was buried
without his mother's knowledge. She was not informed of his
death until six months later, despite the coroner having identified
Wade and his next of kin at the time of
his autopsy. Crump was represent any Wade family in a
(22:00):
press conference on Monday, described the case as a cop
killing cover up. He says We're never going to let
Dexter Wade be swept under the rug, and we're going
to keep fighting until we get justice for Dexter Wade.
He goes on to say, we're asking for the Department
of Justice to investigate this matter because the family does
not have trust in the Mississippi officials. Would you after
(22:24):
this happened to your brother and child. Wade's mother, betterstein
Wade reported her son missing to the Jackson Police Department
the week after he died March fifth, and again she
found out August twenty fourth, which is right around six
months later. The county buried him on July fourteenth in
a paupers field of the Hinz County Pinal Farm. His
(22:48):
body is still there and a grave marked is number
six seventy two. And let's add to that that in
twenty nineteen, betterstein Wade's brother died after he was slammed
to the ground by a Jackson police off officer who
was later convicted of manslaughter by a jury and is
now appealing the conviction. So this family has gone through
a lot, and it certainly looks like in Jackson, Mississippi,
(23:13):
they are doing you know that that's among the best
racism that we got in this country. So I know
that we talked about this story early last week before
it started making headlines and made its way into our
weekend episode. But you know, I guess talk us through
a little bit about kind of when you first started
hearing about you know this, this mother having to go
(23:35):
through all that uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
And yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
A lot of the things that we talk about on
a weekly basis, A lot of the things that we
are charged with covering, a lot of things that we
care deeply about, are so incredibly difficult to try to
process and reconcile. I cannot imagine the pain that this
mother went through long before she knew the truth. And
(24:06):
finding out the truth does not bring her justice or
peace or calm, but probably exacerbates and pours gasoline on
everything she felt prior, you know what I mean. So
and finding out in how you know, like we have
in so many cases that this is a cover up,
(24:26):
you know, police, you know, covering their own backsides.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And I'm not exaggerating.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I'm getting a headache talking about this because this is
not a rare occasion, This is not a singular story,
This is not a bad apple, This is a festering system,
and I honestly feel bad. And for the first time
this thought hit my mind. There is not this idea
that there are not good officers. It's that they cannot
(24:55):
thrive and they cannot multiply and they cannot plant seeds
that bear any fruit because the system that they are
a part of roots them out and crushes them. So
they either have to be quiet, right, like quiet non participants,
or they speak up and decide I'm no longer going
to do this job. And when that's how you provide
(25:16):
for your family and that's how you make your living,
that is not an easy decision to have to make. So,
you know, it is a really, really difficult position to
be in if you are one of the good guys,
because you have to either participate right stand opposed to
and lose your job, or silently disagree and live with
(25:42):
whatever that emotional and mental toil is. It is really
really a difficult thing. And there are so many of
these stories. Again, these are not singular, These are not
one of us. We don't have to go searching, you know,
with any effort to find stories like.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
This, Oh, especially in Jackson.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, parents and children and husbands and wives, and you know, brothers, sisters, cousins,
aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews have to lose the
people that they love, you know, whether these people have
committed crimes or not. Because we often get into that
conversation where we're going to try to justify it by saying, well,
they did commit a crime, as if that makes it
(26:22):
okay for them to die. It is a really, really
difficult thing to have to cover with the frequency that
we do. And I just feel incredibly sad for his
mother because learning the truth in most cases, right in
unsolved cases where there's justice to be brought, that truth
brings some sort of peace, where in this case it
(26:43):
won't do that.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
It'll add frustration.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
In a very very low amount of accountability for the
people who are guilty for this, like just losing your job.
You lose your job when you show up late to
work at target too many times. There should not be
the same punishment for taking someone life.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Right, stakes should be in theory should be a lot higher.
But because of all of the corruption, the cover ups,
the blue wall of silence, and of course qualified immunity,
and on and on and on, and really, as you mentioned,
just kind of the culture of policing, bad actors get
(27:21):
to thrive and those people who would be kind of
the the last line of defense in a manner of speaking,
you know, And this is another thing that we've talked
about on our social media. We've put up posts and
examples of good cops that have been fired, They've been
pressured into doing crazy stuff, they've taken their own lives
(27:42):
because of you know, their their friends and family turning
against them, and on and on and on. So a
lot of times those those good apples, Yeah, it's it's
it's it's tragic. And the result of that is that
we end up with stories like this. The police just
feel like, Okay, well I killed the sky, let me
just bury him in a pauper's grave marked I don't
(28:03):
even remember the number, but six seventy two graves six
seventy two. And when and if his mom finds out,
you know, this will be long gone. But I don't
suspect that they ever really intended for the mom to
find out he was going to.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Be just thought she wouldn't and hoped she wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, because now Ben Crump is on it, and you know,
this lawsuit is probably going to be wildly expensive for
the taxpayers and not for the individual police, the departments,
the chief, the mayor, none of those taxpayers. So I guess,
I guess that's just how it goes.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
But uh, and those same taxpayers will continue to elect
the same people, really dangerously vicious cycle ever, and we
have to just watch it perpetuate as we do nothing
about it.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Sure, Sure, I feel like we should probably, uh maybe
get into this story a little deeper on Civic Cipress.
So we'll sit with it. We'll see how it continues
to deve. But for now, let's get you out of
the cold and into some heat. I'd like to thank
you as always for your insight once again. Today's guest
is Vin Correspondent, the host of Civic Cipher, and my
right hand man Qward. And also remember these and more
(29:15):
stories can be found at bnnews dot com. This has
been a production of the Black Information Network. Today's show
was 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 subscribe and
download all of our episodes. I am your host, Rams's
jaw on all social media and join us tomorrow as
(29:36):
we share our news with our voice from our perspective
right here on the Black Information Network Daily podcast
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