Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Still broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. This is the
QR code where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape
outcomes the man you are about to hear from. He
is the man who is currently helping me make sense
of the world, to praise the world out there, but
helps me remember which way is up.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
He is a Q in the QR code.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
He goes by the name of.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Q War, the voice that you just heard waxing poetic
about his brother embellishing a lot because I am having
a very hard time making sense of the world myself,
so there's no way I'm helping you do so. But
that wonderful voice, from that wonderful human being is the
voice of the R. In the QR code, he goes
by the name Rams This Jah, be sure.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
To stick around.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We're still going to be talking about how Trump's DEI
hate caused an actual fistfight in the DCA Control tower
out there in d C. And we're also going to
be talking about why one creator left MAGA and his
journey through trump Ism.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
And back to normalcy.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Before we get there, we're gonna hear from Q word
for his clap back. He's gonna talk to us about
why Targets should have just kept their word. Q, talk
to me.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
You know, there should be I always hoped there would be,
and it seems like there now is a cost of
cowardice and being you know, compliant and being cowards and
being weak and without principle has cost Target a lot
(01:33):
of money. And you know, we have to be kind
of level minded about this. Target did not lose billions
of dollars because they stood strong for DEI.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And let me resay that Target.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Didn't lose billions of dollars because they stood up for diversity,
equity and inclusion. They lost billions because they backed down.
What Rams and I have been talking about a lot
in recent times is the idea of pre compliance folding
before the fight even starts. In this instance, it had
(02:12):
a cost, and Target had to get very, very familiar
with paying that price. In twenty twenty one, in the
wake of one of the most historically gloomy years twenty
twenty for black Americans and just a stunning public loss
(02:34):
of life to law enforcement, as there seemed to be
a racial reckoning and awakening all across the world for
the plight of black Americans in particular, Target raised its
hand and pledged to invest two billion dollars into black
owned businesses over the next four years. Fast forward to
(02:55):
twenty twenty five. After wavering on LGBTQ prike collections because
of pressure from the right and dialing back DEI efforts
under pressure from the right or maga, let me be specific,
Target has now as of this spring twenty twenty five,
(03:18):
lost between twelve point four and fifteen point seven billion
dollars in market value. Trying to appease the loud and
angry backfired. The irony, however, rams is is thick. They
thought silencing their commitments would silence critics. But the crazy
(03:43):
thing about bullies is you don't stop them by giving
them what they want. You stop them by standing ten
toes down. Stand firm. Target could have kept their promise
and honored their pledge of two billion dollars to black
businesses and just kept quiet. They didn't have to raise
(04:05):
their hand and jump them down and you know, hey,
look at what you doing.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Instead, they exposed themselves as weak, unprincipled and cost themselves
not just market value, but in recent news we spoke
about We spoke about this recently. Their CEO is no
longer with them. Yeah, DEI became a scapegoat for MAGA
(04:32):
in general. For every corporate failure, everything that was wrong,
you blame it on Dei. The truth is that black business,
LGBTQ consumers and socially conscious buyers are growth markets. By
shrinking back, Target alienated both communities. They promised to serve
(05:00):
in a very loyal consumer base who just wanted them
to stand up. But Rams and I pointed this out
before when dealing with a radio station that we once
did business with. They didn't even have to stand up
and do the most. Just either show up in a
small way by honoring the pledge you made, or just
(05:22):
shut up, done and don't say nothing. Shout out to
the roots. So here's the boardroom lesson appeasement does not
pay standing ten toes down. However, does have some principles
have a backbone. Target's fall wasn't because they were too woke,
(05:46):
as Maggie would saying, it was because they were too scared.
They weren't even pressured, really, they weren't even forced really
to change and about face. They wanted to please everybody
and ended up pleasing nobody, in particular Wall Street betraying
(06:11):
DEI commitments sends a message to marginalized communities that they
are disposable. The problem is, sometimes those very communities take notice,
and so do investors. Consumer trust is fragile, and once broken,
(06:32):
the market punishes cowardice faster than even the boycott could.
And as Ramses has pointed out multiple times on multiple platforms,
most businesses, even profitable ones, operate in very very thin
margins between what's a great year and what's a huge loss.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
So once again we reach the clapback.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Important to point out that Target did not lose billions
of dollars because they were too oke or too progressive.
They lost billions because they were too cowardly. Pre Compliance
is bad business. I'm hoping. I'm not hopeful, but I'm
hoping this is a wake up call. Standing up for
people is not only right, but it's profitable. Black people
(07:22):
in this country represent in ups of two trillion dollars
in spending power, and in the end, doing the right thing,
standing up for people, standing up for justice, it just
pays better than fear.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's all I got, rams Man.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Look, I think you hit the nail on the head,
because that was some real soft energy from Target for
them to pledge two billion dollars and then back off
of it, and I for one am happy that they
lost fifteen billion as a result of there's soft energy
that's super limbristic and they deserve it, and I don't
(08:05):
need Target anyway, So good riddance, all right? Why I
left Maga? You know, so I came across this, and
I mentioned this to Q earlier, but I'll finish the
conversation that we kind of started when we had our
production meeting. I came across this creator. His name is
Danny F. Collins if you want to find him on
(08:28):
I think it was the Instagram, and you know, the
algorithm just serves up what it serves up. I come
across this video and he's talking about what the appeal
was for MAGA, for him, what Trump's appeal was, and
he kind of talks about his journey kind of through
(08:50):
trump Ism and his way back. And I happen to
know Q that you have some friends who are at
probably all three of the stages that this creator is
talking about. So when I came across this, that's why
I sent it to our group chat for production notes
(09:14):
in case we wanted to talk about it. Today because
I thought you might have something interesting insight into this
way of thinking, because I honestly I don't know many
folks who are. Of course I know some people who
are maga all the way maga, but I don't know
them in the way that you do. These are all
(09:36):
people that I've met recently in my life or what are.
Most of the people I know are very kind people.
Kind hearted people, so it would be unconscionable for them
to be maga. Just not saying mega people are awful people,
but they're not really known for that. They're really known
for being afraid of what could go wrong and trying
to protect themselves and us first. And the people that
(09:57):
I tend to have in my friends circle are people
that are really active in trying to support and care
for others, right, And that's just not something I would
associate with maga folks.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
So the maga folks I meet are kind of the
you know what comes to mind when you think of maga,
you know, very Murrica types, you know. So I thought
you might have some more insight and I wanted to
get your thoughts. So for everyone listening, I haven't gotten
Q's thoughts on this indeed, Q hasn't even heard this
content yet, but let's get to it, and I'd be
(10:31):
interested to hear what it is that you have to
say about this creator's content.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Here we go.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
My name is Danny, and I left MAGA. I left
MEGA in about twenty twenty one. But the reason why
I gravitated towards Trump and MAGA was because I was uneducated.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I was misinformed. But at the time, it was the
height of.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
The Black Lives Matters movement and Trump campaigning for his
first presidency, and Trump convinced me, like many other white
men in this country, that we were under attack, our
way day of life, our values were under attack, that
we were tolerant of every group. Unless you were a white, straight, Christian,
conservative male, then you were the cause of all the
(11:09):
problems in this nation. And ultimately it made me the victim.
And the truth is Trump made me feel safe in
my mediocrity. When I was part of MAGA. I never
had to learn anything new. And Trump didn't make me
or other MAGA folks racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, or homophobic.
He just allowed us to be the people that we
(11:31):
already were the United States of America. Was founded on racism,
it was founded on misogyny, it was founded on homophobia
and transphobia.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And when all of the isms and.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Phobias were under attack and people were now forced to
be held accountable, rather than taking it as an opportunity
to grow, many white folks doubled down on their ignorance,
dug in their heels, and fought back into the privileged. Diversity,
equity and inclusion begins to feel like discrimination and oppression.
(12:01):
And it wasn't until I decentered myself, deconstructed that I
found real peace.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Okay, real quick. I want to make sure that I
say this again. That creator's name is Danny F. Collins.
If you want to find him. That was Instagram, and
it's important to the story. He is white. Okay, So two?
Does that sound at all like maybe he's talked about
some of the stages that some of the folks that
you know are kind of dealing with or going through
(12:29):
at all.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I don't know a lot of people who have reached
his point of Oops, I made a mistake.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Sure, sure, okay, that's fair. And you.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Giving so much more bail and grace and benefit of
the doubts to Magga than even this gentleman who had
enough sense.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I knew that was going to come up.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Your darn right is gonna come up? Why are we
soft shoeing? And I don't want to say they're evil?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Why let's circle back to that, but go ahead, please
circle back, because I want an actual answer.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Okay, Okay, I don't know how you could reach they're
not okay either the very unintelligent And the only reason
I say very unintelligent is to keep from saying very
evil evil. Yes, okay, so let me let me let
me give you what you're looking you know, well to
do folks that are just looking out for the for
the concept.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
What are you talking, well, let me let me give you.
Let me give you your answer.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
That gentleman that we just heard from was indeed Maga.
He was in the thick of it, and he he's
like an actual content creator. All of his stuff is
about the reflections of his time in Maga and what
the appeal was is. And you know, you and I
work in the space of trying to kind of decode
some folks like that, or give our listeners the tools
(13:50):
that they need to go to their thanksgiving tables and
their water coolers at work and decode the people around them.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
So if I were to look at that man, I
would say, oh, he's a decent he's a decent man
now that he's deprogrammed.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
But that decentness from where I said, had to be
in him all along. He had to have that moral
compass in there somehow, and it just needed a reset.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And so when I do talk about maga folks, I
can say, hey, they're on some wild stuff. I can say,
you know whatever. But I try my best in moments
that because we only have our words. You know, we
work in radio, so it's not like we have visuals
and stuff. I mean, well, folks that check us out
on YouTube can, but we don't have visuals. We don't
only have our words. So I try to use my
(14:41):
words carefully because I know that maga folks listen, and
I try, as often as I cannot to just write
off the entire human being, even though I know they
just listen to troll us. Maybe there's the off chance
that somebody might be listening. I want them to hear
a brother, I want them to hear a path back.
And I know sometimes I get in trouble because I
(15:01):
do end up You're absolutely right, I end up soft
shoeing around real important, heavy issues that we do need
to take these people on head on.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
But that's why I keep you around.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
You're like my anger translator. So so where I fall short,
you know, I kind of need you to kind of
keep me honest, and you know where there is the
opportunity to kind of reach out and bring somebody back
over to like a shared reality. You know, I'm sure
you appreciate the fact that I have kind of leave
at least a little bit of grace, a little bit
(15:33):
of a backdoor back into Hey, look, we're all on
this journey together. So that's really kind of why I
saw shoes. Sometimes I don't get the language right, but
it's that's the intentionality. So anyway back to this guy,
I know that that journal and the mental gymnastics it
takes to get there and then to get out is
got to be very complicated. And you always share stories
(15:54):
with me about people that you know that are kind
of at different stages that not always at the end.
But you know, I just I thought that this would
be something that would resonate with you, particularly because of
your friends that you always tell me.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
About Well, most of those conversations I have with you
are about friends in the past, tense. You can't be
my friend currently and be a MAGA supporter. Yeah, there's
no space for you here and the intentionality and how
you might feel later.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Well, it's like with anybody else.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
If you wrong me and you say, hey, my bad,
then now we can have a conversation. Yeah. But if
you're still wronging me, what are we talking about? Like,
you're actively harming me now still Okay, I pointed it
out and you're still doing it. Okay, I pointed it
out again and you're still doing it. Yeah, and telling
me why it makes sense for you to do so.
(16:48):
You understand that you're harming me, but you now have
convinced yourself that it's okay to do so. Like, no,
I don't have to give you bail and give you
this exit ramp where you get to still feel like
a decent person. You cannot be complicit in what's happening
with MAGA right now and be decent. You're either evil
or completely ignorant. And I think that ignorance is willful
(17:08):
because we're talking about adults that can read and write
and comprehend and still make that choice. So the most
recent conversation I had with someone that used to be
a friend that reached out to me after years of
knowing that that was a bad idea, came because finally
that person found themselves in their specific particular.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Family in the crosshairs.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yes, when it was just their people and just their
neighbors and just their friends, they were fine. When they
want to get to their door when they were a
targeted was like, oh my god, I can't believe that
I did that. And even then they couldn't just admit
they were wrong. They start sending me pictures of trans
people like this is the reason why I did it, Like, Oh,
you're still over there, You still over there the way
(17:51):
that you felt you just in this moment feel bad
for yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, No, it's tough, man. It's we got our work
cut out for us man. That much is true. But
this man has done some significant damage to the country
that we knew and the country we were working toward.
(18:17):
And I think that this next story kind of illustrates
that better than most anything. So now we're talking about entertainment,
but this it's not really entertainment news, but it does
come from TMZ. That's where we source some entertainment news sometimes.
But Trump's de I hate, in other words, his hate
for DEI actually caused a real fight in the DCA
(18:40):
control tower in d C where they're controlling the airplane's landing.
So I'll just get to the article because the rest
of it you can fill in yourself. Remember the plane
collision in d C where everyone died and Trump said
it must be because of DEI and turned out it wasn't,
but he blamed THEI. We first got in there, all right,
(19:01):
So TMZ. A couple air traffic controllers came to blows
on the job at Reagan National Airport, and one of
the guys's lawyers tells TMZ the fight boiled down to
President Trump's disdain for DEI hiring policies. Damon Gaines is
facing misdemeanor assault and battery charges for the March twenty
twenty five fight inside the air traffic control tower at DCA,
(19:23):
and he's going in front of a judge tomorrow to
learn his fate. Gaines's lawyer, Robert Jenkins, tells TMZ the
co worker his client brawled with was commenting on Trump's
anti DEI crusade, and Gaines took offence to some of
the comments, leading to a dust up on the tower
floor right in front of the control screens. We're told
Gaines was upset because the coworker suggested Gaines was less
(19:46):
competent and his hiring was connected to DEI policies. Through
his lawyer, Gaines told TMZ the fight was unfortunate and
regrettable and if he had to do it all over again,
he would have looked for a different way to resolve
the disagreement. Means, his attorney says, both employees threw punches
and both acted as aggressors. Scops were called and Gaines
was issued a summons for assault and battery, and TMZ
(20:09):
is told the FAA suspended him for forty five days
without pay. Gaines's lawyer said he's back on the job
after an FAA probe, said he had a superb track
record with the agency and this was the first time
in fifteen years on the job he got in trouble.
TMZ's also told things are back to normal in the
(20:30):
DCA control tower and everyone's getting along, but it will
be interesting to see what happens in court with Gaines.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Okay, so you want to go first, Q?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Or should I jump off this ledge?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Listen?
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Man hunks jump up to get beat down and catch
nothing but a beat down. I just that needed to
be staged.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, I'm glad you said that too, because it's really
interesting thing going on.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Their leader has embodened the worst of them to pump
their chest out and think that they could just say
and do whatever they want without consequence. I shared a
story with Ramses and with some of our listeners about
an unprovoked man walking up to me on the streets
in Los Angeles, yeah and calling me a stupid effing
(21:24):
in word, unprovoked. Never met this man, never done in
any harm, never disrespected him, nothing, And God bless my
heart for the restraint that I had to practice on
that day because in this man's path, just beyond his
interaction with me was a black woman and her two
(21:44):
black daughters. This was a couple months ago, right, yeah,
and my mind immediately went to, Okay, I need to
place myself in between him and those little girls, because
that's his disdain for black people that he's screaming at me,
not about me. He's never met me, so this is
how he feels about black people in general, and this
(22:05):
new administration, this president has emboldened the worst parts of
these types of people to in public act in ways
that a decade ago would have been shameful, even if
it's how they really felt. Which is why I've always
pushed back against this idea that we're glad that they're
saying it out loud now, because I'm not. We do
(22:29):
not live with these people. We are not required to
be loved by these people. We don't spend our private
time with these people. But once upon a time, in
order to keep their jobs, in order to keep going
to their churches, in order to look like decent people
to their neighbors, these people had to pretend to be
polite and decent to us in public.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And that was the only time we were interacting with them.
So that was enough.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
That they were calling us to any word at their
own house and their own basement with their own friends
did not matter. It's when we made it unshameful and
beyond this scope of personal restraint to start treating us
and communicating to us this way out loud, because the
leader of the free world showed them that not only
was that okay, but that you could behave that way
(23:12):
and become the president twice. So yeah, everything he points
to us bad. So do the tens of millions of
people that support him. So now these people, because they
don't they lack critical thinking abilities, have been taught by
him what's bad.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Not that diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Is bad, but that DEI is bad because DEI is
its whole, its own word.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
That's a bad word to them.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
In their mind, it means black person that got an
opportunity over me that they didn't deserve. They feel that
same way about affirmative action. They don't understand what either
means in real practice. So an idiot gets to work
and expresses his disdain for DEI and attributes that probably
(24:02):
to the reason why his colleague and coworker got an
opportunity in the first place. And for that, I'm guessing, yes,
slapped in the face or punched in the face or
something similar. I guess it's something we can kind of
laugh about until I just say everything I just said,
(24:24):
and then it's not funny because we know that we're
now living in a reality where people are giving license
to feel this way and to behave this way, and
for them it's a slap on the wrists for us,
it could be prison, it could be being unalived, it
could be being deported, it could be being kidnapped, disappeared.
(24:47):
Like the stakes are so much higher for us now,
and the entire movement, the entirety of people that feel
this way, are being given license and assault rifles and
mask and money and being rewarded the world. And here
I go again, spiraling into the idea of what is
(25:09):
happening right now and how much we are underreacting to it.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
The dystopian future that we've seen in.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
All these movies in all of our lives and always
understood that they were bad, We're living in it now
and more than half of the country is cheering for
it and voting for it and organizing to uphold it,
and it is extending beyond our country. The richest and
most powerful white supremacist men in the world are now
running the most powerful countries in the world. Are the
(25:39):
heads of the most powerful militaries in the world. So
the idea that this thing kind of fades away or
goes away, or that we going to be all right,
or that everything is okay day by day starts to
feel more and more ridiculous. And here we are hypernormalizing
just getting up and going to work every day, end
(26:00):
up taking this kids to school every day, not running
through the streets, losing our minds because maybe we don't
have a choice, but here we are.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Man.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
It all leads back to this.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You know, capitalism is indeed that great ball and chain.
A lot of folks that are like really fans of capitalism.
I think they're shortsighted. You know, I don't think anybody
should be a fan of capital I don't think anybody
should be a fan of any economic framework for any society.
I think it should be a relationship and it should evolve,
(26:35):
but in any event has no virtues. Well yeah, but
it's a great ball and chain. You're like kind of
married to it.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
And so.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
It took COVID in order for people to not have
to go to work, in order for people to be
able to get outside to protest what was going on
during you know, twenty twenty. Outside of that, we might
not have seen what we saw, you know, uh, certainly
not the numbers and the you know, participation. And then, uh,
(27:08):
you know, to bring a full circle here, you're right,
Donald Trump's words have real world implications. Uh, And this
control tower is the one that was at the center
of that, those two planes colliding, Like what how did
that happen? Blah blah blah whatever. And the FCC, the
Federal Communications Commission or sorry, the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
You know, that's under government control, you know.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And so.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, man, this is uh, this is this has nothing
to do with d I. This is It's just interesting
how people will always use that to try to diminish
the value or the thequality of work, or the right
to function in a capacity for black folks by weaponizing
(28:07):
that term. And I, for one, I'm grateful of that.
This guy got punched in the face. All Right, that's
it for us here today on the QR CODE. Today's show,
as always, produced by Chris Thompson.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
If you have some.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Thoughts you'd like to share, as always, you can use
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us out on all social media at Civic Cipher. I
also mentioned that you can find us on YouTube and
you can see our glowing smiles. You can find us
at Civic ccher on YouTube as well. I've been your host.
(28:41):
I'm Rams's job on all social media.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
He is your host. I'll just work here, but you
can find me on social media too. I am qward
on all social platforms
Speaker 1 (28:49):
And join us next time as we share our news
with our voice from our perspective right here on the
QR code piece