July 29, 2025 • 24 mins
On part 1 of today's podcast, Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward discuss Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's decision to sue the Trump administration over denied FEMA relief.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspectives, seek understanding, and shape outcomes the
voice you are about to hear. He is the Q
in the QR code. He is a gentleman. He is
a scholar. He's a person who smile brightens my day
every single day. He goes by the name of Q word.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The lovely boy you just heard who typically tells you
great things about himself and then goes to my name
is the R in the QR code. He goes by
the name ramses Jah.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And we did just stick around today because we have
a I think an informative show in store for you.
You know, we deal with heavy topics on this show,
and today's no exception, but I think we're going to
be able to provide some context for some things instead
of just sensationalizing some stuff in the news. So a
little later on the show, we're going to talk about
a story where an officer was caught holding a bat
(00:54):
with the word in word beater written on the bat right,
and we're going to use that story to kind of
examine systemic racism in policing and in law enforcement and
how it has a safe haven behind that, you know,
(01:15):
blue wall of silence. Russ gonna spend some time talking about,
you know, the people in Maryland not receiving their just
due from FEMA and the fact that Governor Wes Moore
is now suing the Trump administration for denying FEMA relief
for Maryland when initially he supported the relief efforts for
(01:41):
the folks on the ground in Texas and people suspect
it's because Texas went red and Maryland went blue. And
then at the beginning of the show, we're going to
talk about a popular streamer named Neon who was grilled
over some racist comments that he made, and we're going
to examine kind of age and racism and how you know,
people can be influenced by that. But we always start
off with a feel good feature and today is no exception.
(02:03):
So today we're going to share from Fox Fox News.
It's a rarity we get to cite them, but when
we do, we try to have fun with it. So
today we're going to share that Bubble Wallace crossed the
finish line first at the Brickyard four hundred and he
made NASCAR history in the process. Wallace became the first
black driver to ever win at Indianapolis Major sorry Indianapolis
Motor Speedway's historic oval course. It wasn't an easy race
(02:26):
for Wallace either, as he battled through a rain delay,
two overtimes, and the major concern of possibly running out
of fuel toward the end with Kyle Larson right on
his tail. However, Wallace came out triumphant, winning his first
race since twenty twenty two. Quote unbelievable, Wallace said to
his team over their radio waves after passing the checkered
flag with six laps ago. Larson had cut down his
(02:50):
gap from Wallace to just three seconds when a yellow
caution flag came out due to rain. Then a crash
occurred once the drivers got back on the track, which
for USD the second overtime period. Wallace this team was
worried he might run out of gas due to the
extra laps, but the risk was ran and paid off
for Wallace, who was able to survive the surge by Lawson.
The checkered flag was taken by Wallace by a point
(03:12):
two to two second margin to snap his one and
ten race winless streak. Larson was searching to be just
the fourth driver to be a back to back winner
of the Brickyard. Instead, Wallace won for the first time
at one of the four Crown Jewels in NASCAR. The
win also secures Wallace's spot in the Cup Series playoffs,
with four events remaining until the sixteen driver field is
(03:34):
locked in for the ten race postseason. So, you know,
a bubble Wallace is somebody we've talked about on We've
certainly talked about him on Civic Cipher, most notably about
the incident where he found sort of a noose in
his in his garage and you know, had people investigating that.
But it's good to know that he has persevered and
(03:55):
he is indeed a champion and not a DEI champion
because the numbers don't lie here. All right, let's talk
about what's going on in the culture. Okay, Q, do
you know anything about neon the streamer.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I do not, but before you move on, I want
to make sure that there's something that you and I
don't do that a lot of people in media have
started to do, and that's used DEI hire or DEI
dot dot dot as a pejorative that they've kind of
co opted that and they're causing everybody to do that,
(04:31):
and we're treating DEI like it means what they say
it means instead of what we know it means. So
I don't want to say he's not a DEI higher.
I don't want to say he's not a DEI champion,
because he very well might be. That's not a space
that were typically welcome to. Somebody gave him an opportunity,
and once given that opportunity, he's shown to be as
good or not better than some other people in that field.
(04:53):
But success and greatness does not disqualified DEI because it
was never a pejorative in the first place.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah. Yeah, you know what's funny is you actually said
that when we talked about Jackie Robinson. So I'm glad
you pointed that out because you made this point and
you did a fantastic job of it. Jackie Robinson was
a DEI hire and now his jersey is retired across
all of baseball, So you know, it's a great point.
I'm glad you pointed that out. But yeah, so back
(05:20):
to this guy Neon. Are you familiar with him at all,
because I'm just now learning who this is.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, I feel old. Apparently this Neon person is very,
very popular but no, I don't have much familiarity with
Neon at all.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Okay, well, I'm going to paint a backstory because I'll
presume that our listeners may not know who Neon is.
But suffice to say, he's a very popular streamer and
we might just have a couple of minutes to you know,
share our thoughts. But I'll try to get through this
as quickly as I can. Okay, this is from the
Atlanta Black Star. The breakfast club host and comedian Jess
Hilarious is not letting up on streamer Neon, who was
apologizing and feeling regretful about his past after her latest video.
(06:00):
The streamer went on the popular radio show after reaching
out to its other host, charlemagnem God and claiming had
a big announcement, but instead, the twenty year old was
confronted on the show over racial remarks that he had
made in the past, and not only was he upset
over it, but so was some of his fan base.
Some requested that Jess apologize to Neon, and according to her,
it ain't gonna happen. On Thursday, July twenty fourth, she
(06:21):
shared a video explaining that she did research on Neon
and discovered some disturbing comments he made targeting black people.
In the video, she added evidence from past years with
Neon saying disparaging things, followed by clips from the original
July fifteenth Breakfast Club interview with him. He followed up
with his own post explaining his behavior and assuring the
public that he's turning a new leaf. One of the
(06:42):
receipts Jess shared in her video was of Neon in
twenty twenty three screaming quote, I E fing hate you
black people unquote while on stream. She added another video
from that same year where he yells at a black woman,
saying he will whip her and proceeds to call her
a quote, dumb, a word, black monkey unquote. Additionally, Neon
(07:04):
was on Raw Talk podcast with host Bradley Martin in
twenty twenty three, where he shared a story about how
a black man tased his father and robbed him of
fifty thousand dollars. He also talked about a time where
his father fired a black woman quote because they're effing
lazy and just stupid. So basically what happened was she
came late for work, he fired her, and then she
(07:25):
came with her boyfriend and robbed the entire place. Years ago,
Neon also had a back and forth with popular streamer
Kai Sanat, and in one of his responses, he called
Sanat's mother a quote fat Harriet Tubman b word unquote
and also stated he would perform sexual acts on her.
There were also videos of Neon making jokes calling different
(07:45):
monkeys Kai, and all of these moments of Neon saying
these things were included in Jess's video. What led to
her posting the video was Neon's response to his interview
with The Breakfast Club, where he blasted the show for
interrogating him. The host pressed Neon about his racist pat
and he reflected on those behaviors while giving some explanation.
He revealed that he is battling Crone's disease, which prevented
(08:07):
him from going to school even up to his last
two years of high school, thus causing him to be
sheltered and on the internet so much. Giving context to
his actions, he said, quote, I never said anything in
anyone's face, like I barely even went to school, So
it was just a thing where I was just in
my basement in a secluded area with the desktop set
up there, just thinking I could say with whatever without
understanding the meaning of anything. Quote. But at some point
(08:29):
he got visibly frustrated in the interview over being confronted
about his past. He said, quote, there's no reason for
coming for someone for something they apologized for five times,
and it was not the person I am now, and
it was years ago. He also clarified that since he
and Sunnat's disagreement, he has apologized to him five different times,
even confirmed to the radio host, but he currently does
(08:49):
not have a least favorite race. That was unquotes as well.
But at the end of the interview, not only did
he complain on his stream that the host didn't shake
his hand, which Endy and Charlemagne did get them to
pound and Lauren Losa hugged him, but he also made
follow up videos criticizing the interview, and one he told
Charlemaine by claiming he wanted to make peace and to
do that he offered to buy him a ticket to
(09:10):
Turkey and get hair transplants to fix Charlemagne's balding head.
In another video, he said, and with that breakfast club thing,
I want to say I appreciate them for getting me on,
but that was literally an interrogation room unquote. He said
it wasn't a problem that they brought up his past,
but the issue was more so when they keep repeating
the same stuff, they're obviously trying to get something out
of it. Quote and then he read the inter quote
(09:33):
first and foremost, I just want to take accountability for
everything I've said or done in the past. To anyone
I've talked s word two, to anyone that I've said
something insane, to anyone that I've made a remark to,
I'm genuinely sorry deep inside, that's not the person I am,
and I want to apologize and take accountability unquote. He
explained that he initially started a YouTube page at age
twelve or thirteen and didn't blow up until seventeen or eighteen,
(09:54):
when he started adding shock value to his content. Right
before he turned twenty, he had a realization he should
be more of himself elf on his page. And it's
your viewers that this platform has changed in the last
ten months since having that awareness. Okay, sorry, I knew
that was a long story. But again for folks that
don't know, now you're up to speed. Que I just
so you have enough time, I want you to go first.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Here, so yeah, not familiar with this particular streamer, but
very familiar with this approach to accountability. Okay, yeah I
was wrong, but yeah, I'm going to own up to it.
But and then not just a butt with excuses that
(10:35):
kind of drown out the accountability, but kind of reverting
back to those insults, like how dare they question me
about this thing that I did do? I was gonna
send Charlottagne to Turkey to get in plants like let
me you know what I mean, Let me divert to
an insult or put myself in the position of the
(10:57):
one being harmed here. Yeah, hum, let me let me
put myself in the position of the one being wronged here.
If you're really accountable, you're embarrassed by the things they
brought up, maybe even upset they brought them up. If
there was a conversation beforehand that you weren't going to
go there. If there was no conversation beforehand that it
wasn't going to go there, then don't be surprised that
(11:19):
these awful things that you said in your past about
black people was going to come up when you do
the interview with the black people and to somehow be
offended and assaulted yourself, that they would bring up the
offensive insults that you spewed kind of misses the mark
for me. So don't even say the word accountability while
then turning yourself into the victim that was wronged in
(11:40):
this instance. And I haven't seen the interview, so I
don't want to pile on. But yeah, if I go
on record saying these awful things about anybody, especially an
entire ethnic group, an entire you know, probably a lot
of the people who now follow your streams and treating
these things like they're outdated, you know, saying you were young,
(12:02):
like this was twenty years ago or ten years ago,
when it was you know, two years ago when you
said a couple of these things, Then yeah, those things
are gonna come up when you go on the largest
black lead media platform in the United States.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, well, you're absolutely right. First off, I'm not going
to give this person the benefit of the doubt, nor
am I going to excuse it. But I don't want
to be the pot that points the finger. I know
(12:38):
that in my youth, I said some things because I
thought they were okay, because I thought they were funny,
because the people around me said them, and they were
racially based and racially motivated sayings. I didn't feel that
way in my heart, but I know that I said them.
And now that I'm older, I can look back and
I can say sort of what this child has said, well,
(13:00):
I guess he's a man now he's twenty, but I
can look back and say, I'm not that person. I
wasn't even that person then. I was just kind of
lost in the sauce. I was trying to do what
I thought was was appropriate.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Go ahead, you see the thing is I know you,
so when you start saying things like this in a
moment of empathy, I have to interrupt. Good because I've
seen you be called out for being wrong before, so
I know what owning something and accountability looks and sounds like,
and with you, it sounds like listen, man, I'm sorry,
and I was, and I shouldn't have not. I mean,
(13:37):
I said that a couple of years ago. Y'all really
need to get off of it and stop never say that. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying. So I don't even want
you to draw that line like you kind of get
where he's coming from because I've seen you be wrong
on the air and apologize and own it on the
air in front of hundreds of thousands of people. So
it's not really the same.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, no, that's fair. I think that My hope is that,
but with a little bit of context, I recognize that
the manisphere exists online for someone who to get sucked
up into that end up saying some stuff that really
doesn't come from their heart. And as you well know, Q,
I try to build a path back into everything and
(14:16):
not just write the whole human off, because that ultimately
ends up fortifying our collective opposition. They people will seek
to find community, and if they cannot return to the
broader human family because of their mistake that they made
in their youth, they might find a sense of community
in one of those fringe groups on the internet, and
double and triple down in a person with his level
(14:39):
of influence, that could be more problematic than just one
individual who we weren't unable to reconcile with. So I again,
I don't want to excuse it. I don't want to
you know, you know, I don't want to apologize for him.
He needs to do that himself. He's an adult, he's twenty,
as I mentioned. But I'm just trying to provide I
(15:00):
guess a little bit of humanizing of this situation because
he didn't have to even do that. His apology is weak,
limp wristed. It's missus, the mark and all those other things.
But he does say I take accountability and I apologize,
And if we want to work on that apology, I
(15:21):
think that we can get him a little bit further along,
you know, helping him tap into empathy. Again. He spent
a lot of time alone. There's some pieces here. Maybe
I'm just having a moment where I'm trying to find
the humanity in this, but there's some pieces here that
you know, he's Pakistani and I think Hindu mixed, so
he's probably culturally found himself in a weird place between
(15:43):
white and black. I'd imagine. Who knows, But that's where
I was going with that. In any event, we have
to move on, and I'm excited to get your opinions here.
Governor Wes Moore sues Trump for denying FEMA relief from Maryland.
So what I want to do is actually play a
(16:04):
video so that you can hear in his own words,
exactly what he was talking about. So let's grab that video.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
But Trump Van's administration just denied my request for disaster
assistance for Western Maryland. Our communities need help recovering from
a massive storm that destroyed homes and businesses. And I
was on the ground right after the storm. I saw
the devastation up close. But when we repeatedly asked the
federal government for help rebuilding, they just said no. Now,
(16:41):
I want to be clear, FEMA has a long standing
set of criteria for making these decisions, and we met
the criteria. But in their letter denying our request, FEMA
called emergency assistance not warranted. It's an insult to Marylanders
and the community still suffering in the aftermath of this storm.
And this isn't about politics. This is about standing with
(17:04):
our people. The state of Maryland is mobilized, We've had
people on the ground, and our state Disaster Recovery Fund
is helping with rebuilding efforts. But Western Maryland still needs
more help. I will be appealing this decision and to
our neighbors in Western Maryland. While the federal government is
saying you're on your own here in Maryland, we're saying
(17:28):
we're leaving no one behind.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I'll keep you posted. So that was, in his own words,
a message to Marylanders from the governor Wesmore and to
give you a little bit more context, I'll share from
the Black Information Network. Maryland Governor Wes Moore says he's
taking legal action against Donald Trump after the President denied
federal disaster assistance to a state following devastating May floods. Quote.
(17:53):
It's an insult to Marylanders and the community still suffering
in the aftermath of this storm, More said in a
video response, unting to the Trump administration's decision to block
aid from the Federal Emergency Madgement Agency FEMA despite Maryland
meeting FEMA's long standing set of criteria. More said, the
Trump administration claimed the request for aid was not warranted.
(18:13):
The Trump administration's move drew backlash as it has approved
disaster aid for Republican states like Texas and Kentucky while
rejecting requests from Democratic states including Maryland, California, North Carolina,
and Washington. Quote. When floods devastated Texas, the President jumped
into action, crediting his good relationship with the governor for
his swift response, and earlier this week, the president bragged
about approving disaster declarations for states where he won elections unquote.
(18:37):
Jeremy Edward's former FEMA Deputy Director of Public Affairs set
in a statement quote absent a clear explanation from the administration,
it's hard to imagine that his decision to deny Maryland's
request for assistance was not a political one unquote. And
he goes on to say, the bottom line is this,
disasters don't discriminate, and neither should the President. Moore expressed
(18:58):
his plans to appeal the denial, but noted that state
officials will continue rebuilding efforts in western Maryland using the
state's disaster Recovery Fund. Quote. This isn't about politics. This
is about standing with our people unquote. More said, it
goes on to say, while the federal government is saying
you're on your own here in Maryland, we're saying we're
leaving no one behind unquote. So that's kind of sad
(19:20):
to me. You know, Maryland. Maryland is kind of a
special place. Now we go to Maryland quite a bit,
and Maryland is on an upward swing and they're doing
better than they've ever done before in terms of crime
rates and stuff like that under black leadership. And of course,
(19:41):
like the article says, you know, weather doesn't discriminate, and
neither should the president. I think that's a fantastic quote.
So it doesn't matter how good they're doing. They can
experience flooding and natural disasters the same as any other
place in this country. And the President simply is withholding
aid while providing it to these red states. What say,
(20:02):
ye q Ward, This.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Has become par for the course for this administration and
specifically for this president, playing favorites and playing crony politics
with people's lives and well beings of the citizens he
claims to that. He claimed to want to govern and
you know, make America great for again, which there was
(20:28):
a strong pivot once he was the president. Now I
hate Democrats and I hate blue states. And if you
want supporter, you want money, parrot my views, kiss up
to me, don't criticize me, and become a loyalist, or
I will allow you and your constituents to suffer. I
will allow you and your constituents to perish, to die,
(20:50):
to rot, to be sick, to be hurt, to be
abused and oppressed, and whatever the case. That's his version
of leadership, that's his basis version of leadership. They applaud it,
They cheer it on. They get worked into a frenzy
behind this type of governance, and they don't mind if
(21:14):
they get caught up in it. They don't mind if
it makes their lives less safe. They don't mind if
it makes their children's lives less safe. They don't mind
if it makes their parents' lives less safe. They don't
care if to give them less access to resources like healthcare,
like childcare. It doesn't bother them that it makes it
(21:39):
harder for them to get relief when things like this happen.
They don't mind that it makes every aspect of most
of their lives more difficult, as long as they get
to own the libs as long as it also hurts
marginalized people than people of color, as long as they
also can cheer on their bully as he hurls insults
(22:03):
towards those that are disabled, as he ushers in policy
that specifically attacks people who are already under the boot,
people who already lack, people who are already poor, already disenfranchised,
they cheer that on. Like I said, with a fever pitch.
It's like a pastor who's getting to the meat of
(22:26):
his sermon, and you see the congregation, very very emotional.
This is how his base responds to the way that
he leads, in the way that he governs. They excuse
all of his all of his shortcomings, all of his flaws,
his criminal passed, the way he's treated women and people
(22:48):
of color for his entire public life. They excuse all
of it so they can continue to support someone that
reminds them somehow somewhere of themselves. To support and defend
someone with that much passion, who you've never met in
(23:09):
your life, comes from a very personal place. So he
hates and displaces and insults the same people that I hate,
the same people I don't care for. So he can't
be that bad of a person because I'm not that
bad of a person, and I feel the same way.
(23:30):
You end up in arguments with people who are defending
and explaining away themselves. They've never met Donald Trump. He
does not care about them, and he shows it. But
there's something that they share and he taps into that
every time.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You know, another thing I think he's missing is that
there were well over a million people that voted for
him in Maryland, and they're all going to suffer just
same
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspectives, seek understanding, and shape outcomes the
voice you are about to hear. He is the Q
in the QR code. He is a gentleman. He is
a scholar. He's a person who smile brightens my day
every single day. He goes by the name of Q word.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The lovely boy you just heard who typically tells you
great things about himself and then goes to my name
is the R in the QR code. He goes by
the name ramses Jah.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And we did just stick around today because we have
a I think an informative show in store for you.
You know, we deal with heavy topics on this show,
and today's no exception, but I think we're going to
be able to provide some context for some things instead
of just sensationalizing some stuff in the news. So a
little later on the show, we're going to talk about
a story where an officer was caught holding a bat
(00:54):
with the word in word beater written on the bat right,
and we're going to use that story to kind of
examine systemic racism in policing and in law enforcement and
how it has a safe haven behind that, you know,
(01:15):
blue wall of silence. Russ gonna spend some time talking about,
you know, the people in Maryland not receiving their just
due from FEMA and the fact that Governor Wes Moore
is now suing the Trump administration for denying FEMA relief
for Maryland when initially he supported the relief efforts for
(01:41):
the folks on the ground in Texas and people suspect
it's because Texas went red and Maryland went blue. And
then at the beginning of the show, we're going to
talk about a popular streamer named Neon who was grilled
over some racist comments that he made, and we're going
to examine kind of age and racism and how you know,
people can be influenced by that. But we always start
off with a feel good feature and today is no exception.
(02:03):
So today we're going to share from Fox Fox News.
It's a rarity we get to cite them, but when
we do, we try to have fun with it. So
today we're going to share that Bubble Wallace crossed the
finish line first at the Brickyard four hundred and he
made NASCAR history in the process. Wallace became the first
black driver to ever win at Indianapolis Major sorry Indianapolis
Motor Speedway's historic oval course. It wasn't an easy race
(02:26):
for Wallace either, as he battled through a rain delay,
two overtimes, and the major concern of possibly running out
of fuel toward the end with Kyle Larson right on
his tail. However, Wallace came out triumphant, winning his first
race since twenty twenty two. Quote unbelievable, Wallace said to
his team over their radio waves after passing the checkered
flag with six laps ago. Larson had cut down his
(02:50):
gap from Wallace to just three seconds when a yellow
caution flag came out due to rain. Then a crash
occurred once the drivers got back on the track, which
for USD the second overtime period. Wallace this team was
worried he might run out of gas due to the
extra laps, but the risk was ran and paid off
for Wallace, who was able to survive the surge by Lawson.
The checkered flag was taken by Wallace by a point
(03:12):
two to two second margin to snap his one and
ten race winless streak. Larson was searching to be just
the fourth driver to be a back to back winner
of the Brickyard. Instead, Wallace won for the first time
at one of the four Crown Jewels in NASCAR. The
win also secures Wallace's spot in the Cup Series playoffs,
with four events remaining until the sixteen driver field is
(03:34):
locked in for the ten race postseason. So, you know,
a bubble Wallace is somebody we've talked about on We've
certainly talked about him on Civic Cipher, most notably about
the incident where he found sort of a noose in
his in his garage and you know, had people investigating that.
But it's good to know that he has persevered and
(03:55):
he is indeed a champion and not a DEI champion
because the numbers don't lie here. All right, let's talk
about what's going on in the culture. Okay, Q, do
you know anything about neon the streamer.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I do not, but before you move on, I want
to make sure that there's something that you and I
don't do that a lot of people in media have
started to do, and that's used DEI hire or DEI
dot dot dot as a pejorative that they've kind of
co opted that and they're causing everybody to do that,
(04:31):
and we're treating DEI like it means what they say
it means instead of what we know it means. So
I don't want to say he's not a DEI higher.
I don't want to say he's not a DEI champion,
because he very well might be. That's not a space
that were typically welcome to. Somebody gave him an opportunity,
and once given that opportunity, he's shown to be as
good or not better than some other people in that field.
(04:53):
But success and greatness does not disqualified DEI because it
was never a pejorative in the first place.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah. Yeah, you know what's funny is you actually said
that when we talked about Jackie Robinson. So I'm glad
you pointed that out because you made this point and
you did a fantastic job of it. Jackie Robinson was
a DEI hire and now his jersey is retired across
all of baseball, So you know, it's a great point.
I'm glad you pointed that out. But yeah, so back
(05:20):
to this guy Neon. Are you familiar with him at all,
because I'm just now learning who this is.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, I feel old. Apparently this Neon person is very,
very popular but no, I don't have much familiarity with
Neon at all.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Okay, well, I'm going to paint a backstory because I'll
presume that our listeners may not know who Neon is.
But suffice to say, he's a very popular streamer and
we might just have a couple of minutes to you know,
share our thoughts. But I'll try to get through this
as quickly as I can. Okay, this is from the
Atlanta Black Star. The breakfast club host and comedian Jess
Hilarious is not letting up on streamer Neon, who was
apologizing and feeling regretful about his past after her latest video.
(06:00):
The streamer went on the popular radio show after reaching
out to its other host, charlemagnem God and claiming had
a big announcement, but instead, the twenty year old was
confronted on the show over racial remarks that he had
made in the past, and not only was he upset
over it, but so was some of his fan base.
Some requested that Jess apologize to Neon, and according to her,
it ain't gonna happen. On Thursday, July twenty fourth, she
(06:21):
shared a video explaining that she did research on Neon
and discovered some disturbing comments he made targeting black people.
In the video, she added evidence from past years with
Neon saying disparaging things, followed by clips from the original
July fifteenth Breakfast Club interview with him. He followed up
with his own post explaining his behavior and assuring the
public that he's turning a new leaf. One of the
(06:42):
receipts Jess shared in her video was of Neon in
twenty twenty three screaming quote, I E fing hate you
black people unquote while on stream. She added another video
from that same year where he yells at a black woman,
saying he will whip her and proceeds to call her
a quote, dumb, a word, black monkey unquote. Additionally, Neon
(07:04):
was on Raw Talk podcast with host Bradley Martin in
twenty twenty three, where he shared a story about how
a black man tased his father and robbed him of
fifty thousand dollars. He also talked about a time where
his father fired a black woman quote because they're effing
lazy and just stupid. So basically what happened was she
came late for work, he fired her, and then she
(07:25):
came with her boyfriend and robbed the entire place. Years ago,
Neon also had a back and forth with popular streamer
Kai Sanat, and in one of his responses, he called
Sanat's mother a quote fat Harriet Tubman b word unquote
and also stated he would perform sexual acts on her.
There were also videos of Neon making jokes calling different
(07:45):
monkeys Kai, and all of these moments of Neon saying
these things were included in Jess's video. What led to
her posting the video was Neon's response to his interview
with The Breakfast Club, where he blasted the show for
interrogating him. The host pressed Neon about his racist pat
and he reflected on those behaviors while giving some explanation.
He revealed that he is battling Crone's disease, which prevented
(08:07):
him from going to school even up to his last
two years of high school, thus causing him to be
sheltered and on the internet so much. Giving context to
his actions, he said, quote, I never said anything in
anyone's face, like I barely even went to school, So
it was just a thing where I was just in
my basement in a secluded area with the desktop set
up there, just thinking I could say with whatever without
understanding the meaning of anything. Quote. But at some point
(08:29):
he got visibly frustrated in the interview over being confronted
about his past. He said, quote, there's no reason for
coming for someone for something they apologized for five times,
and it was not the person I am now, and
it was years ago. He also clarified that since he
and Sunnat's disagreement, he has apologized to him five different times,
even confirmed to the radio host, but he currently does
(08:49):
not have a least favorite race. That was unquotes as well.
But at the end of the interview, not only did
he complain on his stream that the host didn't shake
his hand, which Endy and Charlemagne did get them to
pound and Lauren Losa hugged him, but he also made
follow up videos criticizing the interview, and one he told
Charlemaine by claiming he wanted to make peace and to
do that he offered to buy him a ticket to
(09:10):
Turkey and get hair transplants to fix Charlemagne's balding head.
In another video, he said, and with that breakfast club thing,
I want to say I appreciate them for getting me on,
but that was literally an interrogation room unquote. He said
it wasn't a problem that they brought up his past,
but the issue was more so when they keep repeating
the same stuff, they're obviously trying to get something out
of it. Quote and then he read the inter quote
(09:33):
first and foremost, I just want to take accountability for
everything I've said or done in the past. To anyone
I've talked s word two, to anyone that I've said
something insane, to anyone that I've made a remark to,
I'm genuinely sorry deep inside, that's not the person I am,
and I want to apologize and take accountability unquote. He
explained that he initially started a YouTube page at age
twelve or thirteen and didn't blow up until seventeen or eighteen,
(09:54):
when he started adding shock value to his content. Right
before he turned twenty, he had a realization he should
be more of himself elf on his page. And it's
your viewers that this platform has changed in the last
ten months since having that awareness. Okay, sorry, I knew
that was a long story. But again for folks that
don't know, now you're up to speed. Que I just
so you have enough time, I want you to go first.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Here, so yeah, not familiar with this particular streamer, but
very familiar with this approach to accountability. Okay, yeah I
was wrong, but yeah, I'm going to own up to it.
But and then not just a butt with excuses that
(10:35):
kind of drown out the accountability, but kind of reverting
back to those insults, like how dare they question me
about this thing that I did do? I was gonna
send Charlottagne to Turkey to get in plants like let
me you know what I mean, Let me divert to
an insult or put myself in the position of the
(10:57):
one being harmed here. Yeah, hum, let me let me
put myself in the position of the one being wronged here.
If you're really accountable, you're embarrassed by the things they
brought up, maybe even upset they brought them up. If
there was a conversation beforehand that you weren't going to
go there. If there was no conversation beforehand that it
wasn't going to go there, then don't be surprised that
(11:19):
these awful things that you said in your past about
black people was going to come up when you do
the interview with the black people and to somehow be
offended and assaulted yourself, that they would bring up the
offensive insults that you spewed kind of misses the mark
for me. So don't even say the word accountability while
then turning yourself into the victim that was wronged in
(11:40):
this instance. And I haven't seen the interview, so I
don't want to pile on. But yeah, if I go
on record saying these awful things about anybody, especially an
entire ethnic group, an entire you know, probably a lot
of the people who now follow your streams and treating
these things like they're outdated, you know, saying you were young,
(12:02):
like this was twenty years ago or ten years ago,
when it was you know, two years ago when you
said a couple of these things, Then yeah, those things
are gonna come up when you go on the largest
black lead media platform in the United States.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, well, you're absolutely right. First off, I'm not going
to give this person the benefit of the doubt, nor
am I going to excuse it. But I don't want
to be the pot that points the finger. I know
(12:38):
that in my youth, I said some things because I
thought they were okay, because I thought they were funny,
because the people around me said them, and they were
racially based and racially motivated sayings. I didn't feel that
way in my heart, but I know that I said them.
And now that I'm older, I can look back and
I can say sort of what this child has said, well,
(13:00):
I guess he's a man now he's twenty, but I
can look back and say, I'm not that person. I
wasn't even that person then. I was just kind of
lost in the sauce. I was trying to do what
I thought was was appropriate.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Go ahead, you see the thing is I know you,
so when you start saying things like this in a
moment of empathy, I have to interrupt. Good because I've
seen you be called out for being wrong before, so
I know what owning something and accountability looks and sounds like,
and with you, it sounds like listen, man, I'm sorry,
and I was, and I shouldn't have not. I mean,
(13:37):
I said that a couple of years ago. Y'all really
need to get off of it and stop never say that. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying. So I don't even want
you to draw that line like you kind of get
where he's coming from because I've seen you be wrong
on the air and apologize and own it on the
air in front of hundreds of thousands of people. So
it's not really the same.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, no, that's fair. I think that My hope is that,
but with a little bit of context, I recognize that
the manisphere exists online for someone who to get sucked
up into that end up saying some stuff that really
doesn't come from their heart. And as you well know, Q,
I try to build a path back into everything and
(14:16):
not just write the whole human off, because that ultimately
ends up fortifying our collective opposition. They people will seek
to find community, and if they cannot return to the
broader human family because of their mistake that they made
in their youth, they might find a sense of community
in one of those fringe groups on the internet, and
double and triple down in a person with his level
(14:39):
of influence, that could be more problematic than just one
individual who we weren't unable to reconcile with. So I again,
I don't want to excuse it. I don't want to
you know, you know, I don't want to apologize for him.
He needs to do that himself. He's an adult, he's twenty,
as I mentioned. But I'm just trying to provide I
(15:00):
guess a little bit of humanizing of this situation because
he didn't have to even do that. His apology is weak,
limp wristed. It's missus, the mark and all those other things.
But he does say I take accountability and I apologize,
And if we want to work on that apology, I
(15:21):
think that we can get him a little bit further along,
you know, helping him tap into empathy. Again. He spent
a lot of time alone. There's some pieces here. Maybe
I'm just having a moment where I'm trying to find
the humanity in this, but there's some pieces here that
you know, he's Pakistani and I think Hindu mixed, so
he's probably culturally found himself in a weird place between
(15:43):
white and black. I'd imagine. Who knows, But that's where
I was going with that. In any event, we have
to move on, and I'm excited to get your opinions here.
Governor Wes Moore sues Trump for denying FEMA relief from Maryland.
So what I want to do is actually play a
(16:04):
video so that you can hear in his own words,
exactly what he was talking about. So let's grab that video.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
But Trump Van's administration just denied my request for disaster
assistance for Western Maryland. Our communities need help recovering from
a massive storm that destroyed homes and businesses. And I
was on the ground right after the storm. I saw
the devastation up close. But when we repeatedly asked the
federal government for help rebuilding, they just said no. Now,
(16:41):
I want to be clear, FEMA has a long standing
set of criteria for making these decisions, and we met
the criteria. But in their letter denying our request, FEMA
called emergency assistance not warranted. It's an insult to Marylanders
and the community still suffering in the aftermath of this storm.
And this isn't about politics. This is about standing with
(17:04):
our people. The state of Maryland is mobilized, We've had
people on the ground, and our state Disaster Recovery Fund
is helping with rebuilding efforts. But Western Maryland still needs
more help. I will be appealing this decision and to
our neighbors in Western Maryland. While the federal government is
saying you're on your own here in Maryland, we're saying
(17:28):
we're leaving no one behind.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I'll keep you posted. So that was, in his own words,
a message to Marylanders from the governor Wesmore and to
give you a little bit more context, I'll share from
the Black Information Network. Maryland Governor Wes Moore says he's
taking legal action against Donald Trump after the President denied
federal disaster assistance to a state following devastating May floods. Quote.
(17:53):
It's an insult to Marylanders and the community still suffering
in the aftermath of this storm, More said in a
video response, unting to the Trump administration's decision to block
aid from the Federal Emergency Madgement Agency FEMA despite Maryland
meeting FEMA's long standing set of criteria. More said, the
Trump administration claimed the request for aid was not warranted.
(18:13):
The Trump administration's move drew backlash as it has approved
disaster aid for Republican states like Texas and Kentucky while
rejecting requests from Democratic states including Maryland, California, North Carolina,
and Washington. Quote. When floods devastated Texas, the President jumped
into action, crediting his good relationship with the governor for
his swift response, and earlier this week, the president bragged
about approving disaster declarations for states where he won elections unquote.
(18:37):
Jeremy Edward's former FEMA Deputy Director of Public Affairs set
in a statement quote absent a clear explanation from the administration,
it's hard to imagine that his decision to deny Maryland's
request for assistance was not a political one unquote. And
he goes on to say, the bottom line is this,
disasters don't discriminate, and neither should the President. Moore expressed
(18:58):
his plans to appeal the denial, but noted that state
officials will continue rebuilding efforts in western Maryland using the
state's disaster Recovery Fund. Quote. This isn't about politics. This
is about standing with our people unquote. More said, it
goes on to say, while the federal government is saying
you're on your own here in Maryland, we're saying we're
leaving no one behind unquote. So that's kind of sad
(19:20):
to me. You know, Maryland. Maryland is kind of a
special place. Now we go to Maryland quite a bit,
and Maryland is on an upward swing and they're doing
better than they've ever done before in terms of crime
rates and stuff like that under black leadership. And of course,
(19:41):
like the article says, you know, weather doesn't discriminate, and
neither should the president. I think that's a fantastic quote.
So it doesn't matter how good they're doing. They can
experience flooding and natural disasters the same as any other
place in this country. And the President simply is withholding
aid while providing it to these red states. What say,
(20:02):
ye q Ward, This.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Has become par for the course for this administration and
specifically for this president, playing favorites and playing crony politics
with people's lives and well beings of the citizens he
claims to that. He claimed to want to govern and
you know, make America great for again, which there was
(20:28):
a strong pivot once he was the president. Now I
hate Democrats and I hate blue states. And if you
want supporter, you want money, parrot my views, kiss up
to me, don't criticize me, and become a loyalist, or
I will allow you and your constituents to suffer. I
will allow you and your constituents to perish, to die,
(20:50):
to rot, to be sick, to be hurt, to be
abused and oppressed, and whatever the case. That's his version
of leadership, that's his basis version of leadership. They applaud it,
They cheer it on. They get worked into a frenzy
behind this type of governance, and they don't mind if
(21:14):
they get caught up in it. They don't mind if
it makes their lives less safe. They don't mind if
it makes their children's lives less safe. They don't mind
if it makes their parents' lives less safe. They don't
care if to give them less access to resources like healthcare,
like childcare. It doesn't bother them that it makes it
(21:39):
harder for them to get relief when things like this happen.
They don't mind that it makes every aspect of most
of their lives more difficult, as long as they get
to own the libs as long as it also hurts
marginalized people than people of color, as long as they
also can cheer on their bully as he hurls insults
(22:03):
towards those that are disabled, as he ushers in policy
that specifically attacks people who are already under the boot,
people who already lack, people who are already poor, already disenfranchised,
they cheer that on. Like I said, with a fever pitch.
It's like a pastor who's getting to the meat of
(22:26):
his sermon, and you see the congregation, very very emotional.
This is how his base responds to the way that
he leads, in the way that he governs. They excuse
all of his all of his shortcomings, all of his flaws,
his criminal passed, the way he's treated women and people
(22:48):
of color for his entire public life. They excuse all
of it so they can continue to support someone that
reminds them somehow somewhere of themselves. To support and defend
someone with that much passion, who you've never met in
(23:09):
your life, comes from a very personal place. So he
hates and displaces and insults the same people that I hate,
the same people I don't care for. So he can't
be that bad of a person because I'm not that
bad of a person, and I feel the same way.
(23:30):
You end up in arguments with people who are defending
and explaining away themselves. They've never met Donald Trump. He
does not care about them, and he shows it. But
there's something that they share and he taps into that
every time.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You know, another thing I think he's missing is that
there were well over a million people that voted for
him in Maryland, and they're all going to suffer just
same
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