00:00:00
Speaker 1: Still broadcasting from the Civic Cypress Studios, welcome back to the QR Code, where we share perspectives, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The man you are about to hear from is a man who has a funny way of predicting the future. He is the Q in the QR Code. He goes by the name of Q-Ward.
00:00:15
Speaker 2: And the man you just heard from wants to continue to remind you that there was no water found in the airways of Nolan Wells. He is the R in the QR Code. He goes by the name Ramses Jha.
00:00:26
Speaker 1: That is indeed my name. Today's episode includes a conversation... about what single story best sums up who we are. Spike Lee being restrained at an MLB game over his support of Palestine. QWarsClapback, not all and much more. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com. That's C-I-V-I-C-C-I-P-H-E-R.com or BINews.com. Right now, it is time for QWarsClapback here on the QR code. And today's clapback is not all. Q Ward, what you got for us?
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Speaker 2: You know, there are two sentences, Rams, in this country. And every time I hear them both, I think the exact same thing. I even actually hear the exact same thing. The first one is not all white people. You talk about racism out loud. You describe it. You describe the system built on purpose by people who wrote it down. And somebody who never did anything to anybody raises his hand to say, He or she is not like them. The second one is not all men. Same reflex, same timing, same hand waving in the air. And I've said a version of one of those in my life, I'm sure. So this is not me pointing the finger from the outside. This is me pointing at myself and everyone else. There's a difference between not being racist and being anti-racist. And the whole argument lives in that gap. Not racist is a claim about your personal character. Anti-racist is a description of your behavior. One is a thing that you say you are. The other is a thing someone watches you do. Not all men, same claim, wearing different clothes. A statement about your inner life offered as evidence in a conversation that was never about your inner life. Something real underneath it. Legal part first. Last month, as Ramses pointed out, a woman filed a civil lawsuit against seven members of a fraternity at Cornell. She was 20. The complaint alleged she was drugged with ketamine and raped by multiple men for more than four hours, from around 11 at night until almost six in the morning. Nobody has been criminally charged. The men deny it. The district attorney who declined to charge says her 2024 statement did not describe what the lawsuit describes. Her lawyers say it did. A special prosecutor has it now and the state attorney general is reviewing the university. Allegations. I'm going to keep saying that word and you should hold it too. Here's the part of the complaint I can't put down. It alleges that while it was going on, one of them went to the fraternity's group chat at almost two in the morning and told everyone there was a girl upstairs. That chat had about 50 men in it. Not one of the 50 called the police. Sit with that for a second. Because that's the entire argument seated in a room. Those 50 men. Most of them did nothing. No, they did not touch her. But every standard that not all men is reaching for, they qualify. They are the not all that we're talking about. And the not all is what this room was made of. The lawyers will tell you correctly that those 50 cannot be charged. No legal duty to intervene. Sitting in a group chat is not a crime. Now hear that in the other language. No law has ever required a white person to do one thing about racism. Not one. You can know and say nothing and be in perfect standing with every court in the country. Non-racism is legally sufficient. That is, of course, not by accident. That is the design... In both houses. And when the institution finally does respond, watch what it cost. According to the lawsuit, some of the students involved settled it with the university by writing an essay. An essay. You've seen this bill before. Rams and I talk about officers that have to get training or people at corporations that have to go to a seminar. A statement posted on the company website in June, that's approximately what it cost. That proximity cost them homework. Listen to what the sentence gives away. When you say not all men, you have admitted that there's a category of men who do this. You just told me they exist. Then you took your turn to talk and the only one you were going to get and spend it getting yourself out of that category. You had the floor and you used it on you. Same as the man who hears about redlining and tells you his grandfather was poor too. Nobody asked about his grandfather. You changed the subject to your own innocence. And now the person who was harmed is responsible for managing how you feel about it. Her attorney says she is getting threats right now telling her to drop the lawsuit. Somebody is sending those. Somebody's sending them and saying nothing. Someone's reading them and saying nothing. Someone knows that they're being sent and they're doing nothing. Nobody asked if you were one of them. We know you are not. That was never the question. The question is what you did in that chat or that locker room or that car, the table when it got quiet and you had one second to say something and you let it go. Not racist is a sentence. Anti-racist is a Tuesday. Not all men is a sentence too. But the one who types something. Ramses.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's heavy. You know, you mentioned earlier that we had a lot to learn during the Me Too movement. This was among those those things that i i don't want to say we didn't know but had not looked at it with as a responsibility i think our at least for me my first impulse would be you know that's what she wants to do that's her business that sort of thing as opposed to does she need help and that little bit of a change was me growing up um and i i once was and still am to a large extent the not all men, and I'm learning every day how to be one of the good ones, I suppose. If you're just tuning in to the QR code, I'm your host, Rams, joined by the great Q Ward. Let's have some dialogue. What single story best sums up who you are? I'll just float it out there if you want to go first. It's been a while since we've done one of these. If not, I'll go first.
00:08:14
Speaker 2: Go for it.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: All right. So I'll say this. What is life if not an exercise in learning who you are and becoming him or her? I think of myself as a person who has a heart that is oriented in the right direction. I tend to push back on praise. It happens where people think I'm this great person and I do this great work and I often say, I'm trying. I often say, I'm guessing. But in any case, I'm learning. But when you have adopted a posture like that, after a long time, you get to look back and say, okay, this pattern might be emerging in the data that might give a picture, might paint a picture of who I might be. And I'm going to I'm gonna paint a little bit of Q into this picture too. But in no way do I wanna appear as though I got it all figured out because I don't. I think that I have a heart that's fueled by some conviction. I think I have a pretty decent sense of what's right and what's wrong. I know that the world is not a binary in that way, but we do the best we can. And I've been in a position to share My thoughts and my idea of a moral compass with people because this is the work that I have always done. And so I just a regular guy that ended up in this position for following his heart every day and hoping that I'm making the world a better place for all of us, not just for black people. I think that we all have a seat at this table. We're all here. So, but the story that stands out in my mind, that best sums up who I am and who we are. I get the feeling that you're just going to jump on the tail end of this story. It's a story we tell quite a bit. Um, but don't let me hold you. Uh, Q and I, we've, you know, you, you might know us from this, this show. Uh, we do, uh, two shows. Um, we, Q, uh, Runs Hip Hop Weekly. And I support him in that way. And we support each other in everything. I don't think there's a thing that we have or do where the other one is not heavily involved. And this has been true for decades now. For a long time, we ran a nonprofit where we fed homeless people. We talk about that on the show quite a bit. We provided hygiene kits and haircuts and shoes and tents and hoodies and, of course, water bottles and everything like that. About 10 years, solid back to back. COVID took that off the set. So that's the reason why we don't do that anymore. And then, of course, this show emerged right around that same time and required a lot more of our bandwidth. Worked in entertainment spaces, but always had an eye toward, you know, giving back. I believe Ramses, this is my personal opinion, I believe Q, Quentin Jerome Ward to be a good man. Quentin Jerome Ward can and would take care of my children if something happened to me and I know that they would grow up and they would be good men themselves. I don't know how to give any higher praise than that to Q. So once upon a time we were in the middle of a Uh, protest season, all of us were 2020 George Floyd. And, uh, you know, we were out protesting as you do. Um, we didn't feel it was appropriate to simply just sit in the studio, uh, giving away tickets to Migos shows. And, uh, you know, we're men that are fueled by conviction. We know what's right and we know what's wrong. And we went out not to be the star of the show, no, to be in the crowd. We are black men. And this was a moment where black people were hurting. We were hurting. And we took our place in the ranks. We wrote signs. We brought our kids. We showed up and we protested. We wanted police accountability. We wanted answers and everything that came with that moment. That turned into us meeting a lot of people on the ground, heads of organizations that had been toiling quietly in the background for many years. And now we're being called upon to give the larger community insight into data, insight into what people can do about it, insight into stories like these, so forth and so on. And again, we are fortunate enough to work in radio. To some people that might not sound like a lot or a big deal, but that's always been a big deal around here because, you know, I'm from a place where not everybody gets to do something cool with their life. A lot of people go to jail or they don't get to grow up. Q is from a very similar place. And that's not to say that people don't grow up and do a lot with their lives, but it's not guaranteed. It's not a foregone conclusion across the board. So we have this position along with it comes a responsibility. And we thought that it would be appropriate to platform some of these great speakers, great leaders, great activists, people at the homes of these organizations, and let them speak to the audience that had gathered to listen to music from our culture. The problem is that we weren't the deciders in that equation. The deciders did not look like us and could not, they could not know what it meant to be black in that moment. And they took it from us. And they were fair weather friends. And we saw them do that. And we would not stand for that. I was the person in the driver's seat in the moment. So I decided for the both of us that if you will not let us platform these people who are saying these good messages about how people can show up and be allies and support this moment and how people can learn more about the true plight of black people. If you are the decider at the helm of this hip hop station, which is my culture, It belongs to me and you're making money from it and you cannot know what this moment means. If you won't give me 30 minutes to put these people on the radio to tell their stories, then you are being a fair weather friend. You are eating from our table and you haven't even saved us a seat. That is not fair. I still feel that way clearly. But um, this was the moment that I had to meet And q wasn't With me in that moment and I had to decide for the both of us what we were going to do moving forward And uh, I decided that we don't work there anymore And q wasn't involved in that decision. He could not make that decision, but he would tell you himself I'll make sure I give you the rest of the time that he trusted the decision that I made in that moment Once he found out that I had already made it and uh you know, this path was born. And I think that that story is good as any kind of sums up who, at least who we've become at this point. I think that we're still growing and trying to be better men every day. Q, what do you think?
00:16:18
Speaker 2: No, you made the right decision for not just Q and Ramses, but for all of us. You get to know us and spend some time with us and you come into this ecosystem and you realize it's not just the.
00:16:31
Speaker 1: Two of us.
00:16:32
Speaker 2: There's a bunch of people here, a bunch of people who have been on this journey, who made those lunch bags, who listened to that radio station, who came to those club nights, who have supported everything that we've done. And that decision was made for everybody without talking to anybody. And everyone honored the decision that we made. Everyone applaud when they figured out what it was that we had done and everyone stood with us. And there was some fear. There was not knowing what was next. We get a lot of credit for what we did, but we figured it out on the fly. We didn't lay out some elaborate plan and everything went the way that we wanted it to. So the version of us that you meet today, that story is, if we could tell the longer version, but it'd be the same story just with more details, would give you the most confidence background into how we got to where we are today. There's a lot of stories about the men that we were when we were 18, when we were 25, when we were 30 even. But the men that you would meet today were born of that story. And it will have more to do with the rest of our lives than anything that happened before that.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:17:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: So, you know, I'm glad we get to share these little peeks behind the curtain from time to time. They feel good. Thank you. All right. Just locking in with us here at the QR code. Q Ward, that is the man on the other microphone. I go by the name Ramses Jha, collectively. QR. QR code. Let's talk about Spike Lee getting restrained at an MLB game over his support for Palestine entertainment. Let's go. This is from the BIN. The article is written by Maya Bode. Spike Lee was restrained by staff at Yankee Stadium Wednesday, September 30th, after a confrontation with a fan who reportedly filmed him while he was eating and and questioned him about Palestine. Fox Sports reporter Andy Slater shared video of the incident on social media, writing, Lee had to be held back from going after a fan while dining before the Yankees hosted the Boston Red Sox in game two of their wildcard series. Quote, the fan was filming Spike eating and asked him how he felt about Palestine, according to people closer to them at that table. Unquote, Slater wrote. The video shows Lee in a red Yankees outfit being held back by people near his table. Lee can be heard asking, Why'd you come over to me? A man in a blue checkered jacket is also seen telling someone, you've got to go, you've got to go. According to Complex, the interaction escalated when a person who approached Lee for a selfie allegedly asked him to say, F Palestine. Complex recorded that Lee then got up and looked for security. Security reportedly removed the person from the area. Before the confrontation, Lee had reportedly been posing for photos and interacting with fans in the dining area. The incident comes months after Lee publicly addressed his support for Palestinians during NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. The New Arab reported that Lee wore clothing featuring Kafaya-inspired designs and carried a bag with a Palestinian flag and flag imagery during the February event. In an Instagram post on February 17th, Lee said the clothing represented his concern for Palestinian children and civilians and his belief in human dignity for all humankind. He also clarified that his clothing was not intended to be hostile toward Jewish people or to support violence against anyone. Okay, this is timely. I promise I don't think that what I have to say is more important than what Q has to say or anyone else for that matter, but just because I got back from there. I'm Palestine recently. Got a chance to spend some time on the ground. I get it. I get it. You know, one of the things about going to Palestine. Well, I'm not mad at Spike Lee. I'm not mad at anybody who stands up for Palestinian folks or people that don't really have as loud of a voice as they deserve. And Palestine is kind of the issue of the day that is creating the divide. And fortunately, it seems to be most people are on the morally just side of this divide. Those people being pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli government. Again, most of the people that are pro-Palestinian are pro-Jewish people. Trust me, I went there and talked to them myself and I asked everyone that question. And 100% of them said, Jewish people are our brothers and our sisters. Indeed, they come here and support us too. It's that government that is hostile toward us Palestinians. 100% of the people, I saw it myself. I went there and I witnessed it and I asked that question specifically. But I've been very fortunate. I have a phone full of graffiti. to quote the crown city rockers, I hope it's a deep cut. I hope some, some of y'all get it, but to quote the crown city rockers, I love being a B boy. No, I'm not, I'm not the best B boy dancer, but you know, um, I'm a, a child, a product of hip hop. You know, the, the people that I looked up to my literal big brother is West coast hip hop royalty for those that know dilated peoples. Um, I got it all honestly. And I love it. So when I go around the world, graffiti is always going to be like, Ooh, let's check it out. And, you know, I went to Italy, this might've been a couple of years ago now. And I saw a lot of the graffiti. There was a pro-Palestinian graffiti on the ground. I went all over Italy. I was in Venice. I was in Rome. I was in Tuscany. I was all over that mug. And, you know, you jump a train and you, I have a thing where I put my phone against the window if I'm driving in a car or in a train or something like that and I'll just catch the graffiti. I got videos all over the world. Went to France. Same thing. Graffiti. Beautiful graffiti. The most emotional graffiti that I've ever seen and it is by a long way the most was in The West Bank. I shared that I didn't get to go into Gaza. There were a lot of people that were really concerned. They're shooting journalists over there. So they're like, Rams, that Afro is not going to help you over there. The Israeli occupation force is what they call it, is indiscriminate if they think that there's someone over here who might further blow up their spot, further expose them for folks that are uninitiated. with the lingo we use around here. So I didn't get to go to Gaza, but I did spend a good amount of time in the West Bank. And I got to see the wall and everything like that, but I couldn't go inside of Gaza. The graffiti of a resilient people, the graffiti of a people who had the full range of emotions from hopelessness to anger and frustration to as I mentioned, resilience. They still harbor the belief that one day they will be free in their own land. They harbor the belief that they will be able to return home. The key is symbolic over there. I forget the character's name. I might say it wrong, but Abdullah comes to mind. Maybe that's it, maybe not. But there's a character they that is a popular graffiti character over there. I think Calvin and Hobbes, but the Palestinian version, and it actually means something. It's like super duper emotional. And again, I forget the name of him, but he's always facing away from you. So he's drawn with his back toward the observer and he's got his hands behind his back, kind of folded into his hands. And he's, you know, it seems like he's walking. He's got little spiked hair. And this character, um, represents kind of the, uh, exodus of Palestinian people. And, uh, the, the artist who had come up with this character never drew the character facing the observer. And he planned on creating that version of that character. Once Palestinians were able to actually head back home, but the character as written is walking away from his home. Uh, this is again, my understanding of it, you know, and a lot of people could correct me if I'm wrong. Um, There's a woman I know, I don't want to say her name just because I don't want to get her in trouble, but because they're heavily surveilled over there. And this show, we live in America, so it's very different. But it's a brilliant, beautiful woman who is not free to be herself yet. But I want that for her. She told me the story of, again, I hope I'm getting it right, Abdullah. And she broke down crying telling me the story. She cried when she got to the part saying that he never got to go home. He was assassinated, the artist that was behind that character. And so all this graffiti, all this resilience, it's hard as a human being with a beating heart to not feel like you should be doing something to help these people. Again, there's a military force occupying their land and the military force and the government has empowered settlers on their land. People from all over the world, hey, come to Israel. We'll put you in the West Bank. That's not our land. We'll just take land from them. They're defenseless to fight back against it. The whole world calls these settlements illegal because that's what they are. But there's no external military intervention. And indeed, the Palestinians cannot have guns in the West Bank, at least. And they are defenseless. And they get taken advantage of and they get beaten and they get shot and they get killed and they get over and over again every day by settlers and the military. And all they have is their graffiti and the international community and their spirit, their unbroken spirit. And I'm sorry I took up all the time, Q, and I wanted to make sure that you had some time here, but I just want to finish this if I can. If you understand a little bit I think it would move you. But if you understand the way that I now understand, perhaps the way that Spike Lee understands, you might get up and fight somebody if they step to you on what's right, because you realize I'm in a position to fight and I'm locked up enough to actually get busy with it. So shout out to Spike Lee. I like that energy. We like that energy around here, you know, put some action behind it, you know, direct action. Let's go. Alright, that's going to do it for us here at the QR Code. Thank you, Q. Thank you for that, man. Yeah, that's going to do it for us here at the QR Code. Today's show was produced by Chris Thompson. If you have some thoughts you'd like to share, visit CivicCypher.com to ask a question, share some encouragement, or buy us a cup of coffee. While you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. Don't forget, today's episode includes a conversation about Spike Lee getting in a confrontation at an MLB game. We share it What single story best sums up who we are? We talked about a pastor stealing over half a million dollars from churchgoers. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com or BINews.com. For our editorial content covering hip-hop culture, visit HipHopWeeklyMagazine.com. Also, be sure to check us out on all social media at CivicCypher. That's C-I-V-I-C-C-I-P-H-E-R. Ramses Ja on all platforms. Q Ward on all platforms. And join us next time as we share our news with our voice from our perspective right here on the QR Code.
Speaker 1: Still broadcasting from the Civic Cypress Studios, welcome back to the QR Code, where we share perspectives, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The man you are about to hear from is a man who has a funny way of predicting the future. He is the Q in the QR Code. He goes by the name of Q-Ward.
00:00:15
Speaker 2: And the man you just heard from wants to continue to remind you that there was no water found in the airways of Nolan Wells. He is the R in the QR Code. He goes by the name Ramses Jha.
00:00:26
Speaker 1: That is indeed my name. Today's episode includes a conversation... about what single story best sums up who we are. Spike Lee being restrained at an MLB game over his support of Palestine. QWarsClapback, not all and much more. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com. That's C-I-V-I-C-C-I-P-H-E-R.com or BINews.com. Right now, it is time for QWarsClapback here on the QR code. And today's clapback is not all. Q Ward, what you got for us?
00:01:03
Speaker 2: You know, there are two sentences, Rams, in this country. And every time I hear them both, I think the exact same thing. I even actually hear the exact same thing. The first one is not all white people. You talk about racism out loud. You describe it. You describe the system built on purpose by people who wrote it down. And somebody who never did anything to anybody raises his hand to say, He or she is not like them. The second one is not all men. Same reflex, same timing, same hand waving in the air. And I've said a version of one of those in my life, I'm sure. So this is not me pointing the finger from the outside. This is me pointing at myself and everyone else. There's a difference between not being racist and being anti-racist. And the whole argument lives in that gap. Not racist is a claim about your personal character. Anti-racist is a description of your behavior. One is a thing that you say you are. The other is a thing someone watches you do. Not all men, same claim, wearing different clothes. A statement about your inner life offered as evidence in a conversation that was never about your inner life. Something real underneath it. Legal part first. Last month, as Ramses pointed out, a woman filed a civil lawsuit against seven members of a fraternity at Cornell. She was 20. The complaint alleged she was drugged with ketamine and raped by multiple men for more than four hours, from around 11 at night until almost six in the morning. Nobody has been criminally charged. The men deny it. The district attorney who declined to charge says her 2024 statement did not describe what the lawsuit describes. Her lawyers say it did. A special prosecutor has it now and the state attorney general is reviewing the university. Allegations. I'm going to keep saying that word and you should hold it too. Here's the part of the complaint I can't put down. It alleges that while it was going on, one of them went to the fraternity's group chat at almost two in the morning and told everyone there was a girl upstairs. That chat had about 50 men in it. Not one of the 50 called the police. Sit with that for a second. Because that's the entire argument seated in a room. Those 50 men. Most of them did nothing. No, they did not touch her. But every standard that not all men is reaching for, they qualify. They are the not all that we're talking about. And the not all is what this room was made of. The lawyers will tell you correctly that those 50 cannot be charged. No legal duty to intervene. Sitting in a group chat is not a crime. Now hear that in the other language. No law has ever required a white person to do one thing about racism. Not one. You can know and say nothing and be in perfect standing with every court in the country. Non-racism is legally sufficient. That is, of course, not by accident. That is the design... In both houses. And when the institution finally does respond, watch what it cost. According to the lawsuit, some of the students involved settled it with the university by writing an essay. An essay. You've seen this bill before. Rams and I talk about officers that have to get training or people at corporations that have to go to a seminar. A statement posted on the company website in June, that's approximately what it cost. That proximity cost them homework. Listen to what the sentence gives away. When you say not all men, you have admitted that there's a category of men who do this. You just told me they exist. Then you took your turn to talk and the only one you were going to get and spend it getting yourself out of that category. You had the floor and you used it on you. Same as the man who hears about redlining and tells you his grandfather was poor too. Nobody asked about his grandfather. You changed the subject to your own innocence. And now the person who was harmed is responsible for managing how you feel about it. Her attorney says she is getting threats right now telling her to drop the lawsuit. Somebody is sending those. Somebody's sending them and saying nothing. Someone's reading them and saying nothing. Someone knows that they're being sent and they're doing nothing. Nobody asked if you were one of them. We know you are not. That was never the question. The question is what you did in that chat or that locker room or that car, the table when it got quiet and you had one second to say something and you let it go. Not racist is a sentence. Anti-racist is a Tuesday. Not all men is a sentence too. But the one who types something. Ramses.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's heavy. You know, you mentioned earlier that we had a lot to learn during the Me Too movement. This was among those those things that i i don't want to say we didn't know but had not looked at it with as a responsibility i think our at least for me my first impulse would be you know that's what she wants to do that's her business that sort of thing as opposed to does she need help and that little bit of a change was me growing up um and i i once was and still am to a large extent the not all men, and I'm learning every day how to be one of the good ones, I suppose. If you're just tuning in to the QR code, I'm your host, Rams, joined by the great Q Ward. Let's have some dialogue. What single story best sums up who you are? I'll just float it out there if you want to go first. It's been a while since we've done one of these. If not, I'll go first.
00:08:14
Speaker 2: Go for it.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: All right. So I'll say this. What is life if not an exercise in learning who you are and becoming him or her? I think of myself as a person who has a heart that is oriented in the right direction. I tend to push back on praise. It happens where people think I'm this great person and I do this great work and I often say, I'm trying. I often say, I'm guessing. But in any case, I'm learning. But when you have adopted a posture like that, after a long time, you get to look back and say, okay, this pattern might be emerging in the data that might give a picture, might paint a picture of who I might be. And I'm going to I'm gonna paint a little bit of Q into this picture too. But in no way do I wanna appear as though I got it all figured out because I don't. I think that I have a heart that's fueled by some conviction. I think I have a pretty decent sense of what's right and what's wrong. I know that the world is not a binary in that way, but we do the best we can. And I've been in a position to share My thoughts and my idea of a moral compass with people because this is the work that I have always done. And so I just a regular guy that ended up in this position for following his heart every day and hoping that I'm making the world a better place for all of us, not just for black people. I think that we all have a seat at this table. We're all here. So, but the story that stands out in my mind, that best sums up who I am and who we are. I get the feeling that you're just going to jump on the tail end of this story. It's a story we tell quite a bit. Um, but don't let me hold you. Uh, Q and I, we've, you know, you, you might know us from this, this show. Uh, we do, uh, two shows. Um, we, Q, uh, Runs Hip Hop Weekly. And I support him in that way. And we support each other in everything. I don't think there's a thing that we have or do where the other one is not heavily involved. And this has been true for decades now. For a long time, we ran a nonprofit where we fed homeless people. We talk about that on the show quite a bit. We provided hygiene kits and haircuts and shoes and tents and hoodies and, of course, water bottles and everything like that. About 10 years, solid back to back. COVID took that off the set. So that's the reason why we don't do that anymore. And then, of course, this show emerged right around that same time and required a lot more of our bandwidth. Worked in entertainment spaces, but always had an eye toward, you know, giving back. I believe Ramses, this is my personal opinion, I believe Q, Quentin Jerome Ward to be a good man. Quentin Jerome Ward can and would take care of my children if something happened to me and I know that they would grow up and they would be good men themselves. I don't know how to give any higher praise than that to Q. So once upon a time we were in the middle of a Uh, protest season, all of us were 2020 George Floyd. And, uh, you know, we were out protesting as you do. Um, we didn't feel it was appropriate to simply just sit in the studio, uh, giving away tickets to Migos shows. And, uh, you know, we're men that are fueled by conviction. We know what's right and we know what's wrong. And we went out not to be the star of the show, no, to be in the crowd. We are black men. And this was a moment where black people were hurting. We were hurting. And we took our place in the ranks. We wrote signs. We brought our kids. We showed up and we protested. We wanted police accountability. We wanted answers and everything that came with that moment. That turned into us meeting a lot of people on the ground, heads of organizations that had been toiling quietly in the background for many years. And now we're being called upon to give the larger community insight into data, insight into what people can do about it, insight into stories like these, so forth and so on. And again, we are fortunate enough to work in radio. To some people that might not sound like a lot or a big deal, but that's always been a big deal around here because, you know, I'm from a place where not everybody gets to do something cool with their life. A lot of people go to jail or they don't get to grow up. Q is from a very similar place. And that's not to say that people don't grow up and do a lot with their lives, but it's not guaranteed. It's not a foregone conclusion across the board. So we have this position along with it comes a responsibility. And we thought that it would be appropriate to platform some of these great speakers, great leaders, great activists, people at the homes of these organizations, and let them speak to the audience that had gathered to listen to music from our culture. The problem is that we weren't the deciders in that equation. The deciders did not look like us and could not, they could not know what it meant to be black in that moment. And they took it from us. And they were fair weather friends. And we saw them do that. And we would not stand for that. I was the person in the driver's seat in the moment. So I decided for the both of us that if you will not let us platform these people who are saying these good messages about how people can show up and be allies and support this moment and how people can learn more about the true plight of black people. If you are the decider at the helm of this hip hop station, which is my culture, It belongs to me and you're making money from it and you cannot know what this moment means. If you won't give me 30 minutes to put these people on the radio to tell their stories, then you are being a fair weather friend. You are eating from our table and you haven't even saved us a seat. That is not fair. I still feel that way clearly. But um, this was the moment that I had to meet And q wasn't With me in that moment and I had to decide for the both of us what we were going to do moving forward And uh, I decided that we don't work there anymore And q wasn't involved in that decision. He could not make that decision, but he would tell you himself I'll make sure I give you the rest of the time that he trusted the decision that I made in that moment Once he found out that I had already made it and uh you know, this path was born. And I think that that story is good as any kind of sums up who, at least who we've become at this point. I think that we're still growing and trying to be better men every day. Q, what do you think?
00:16:18
Speaker 2: No, you made the right decision for not just Q and Ramses, but for all of us. You get to know us and spend some time with us and you come into this ecosystem and you realize it's not just the.
00:16:31
Speaker 1: Two of us.
00:16:32
Speaker 2: There's a bunch of people here, a bunch of people who have been on this journey, who made those lunch bags, who listened to that radio station, who came to those club nights, who have supported everything that we've done. And that decision was made for everybody without talking to anybody. And everyone honored the decision that we made. Everyone applaud when they figured out what it was that we had done and everyone stood with us. And there was some fear. There was not knowing what was next. We get a lot of credit for what we did, but we figured it out on the fly. We didn't lay out some elaborate plan and everything went the way that we wanted it to. So the version of us that you meet today, that story is, if we could tell the longer version, but it'd be the same story just with more details, would give you the most confidence background into how we got to where we are today. There's a lot of stories about the men that we were when we were 18, when we were 25, when we were 30 even. But the men that you would meet today were born of that story. And it will have more to do with the rest of our lives than anything that happened before that.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:17:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: So, you know, I'm glad we get to share these little peeks behind the curtain from time to time. They feel good. Thank you. All right. Just locking in with us here at the QR code. Q Ward, that is the man on the other microphone. I go by the name Ramses Jha, collectively. QR. QR code. Let's talk about Spike Lee getting restrained at an MLB game over his support for Palestine entertainment. Let's go. This is from the BIN. The article is written by Maya Bode. Spike Lee was restrained by staff at Yankee Stadium Wednesday, September 30th, after a confrontation with a fan who reportedly filmed him while he was eating and and questioned him about Palestine. Fox Sports reporter Andy Slater shared video of the incident on social media, writing, Lee had to be held back from going after a fan while dining before the Yankees hosted the Boston Red Sox in game two of their wildcard series. Quote, the fan was filming Spike eating and asked him how he felt about Palestine, according to people closer to them at that table. Unquote, Slater wrote. The video shows Lee in a red Yankees outfit being held back by people near his table. Lee can be heard asking, Why'd you come over to me? A man in a blue checkered jacket is also seen telling someone, you've got to go, you've got to go. According to Complex, the interaction escalated when a person who approached Lee for a selfie allegedly asked him to say, F Palestine. Complex recorded that Lee then got up and looked for security. Security reportedly removed the person from the area. Before the confrontation, Lee had reportedly been posing for photos and interacting with fans in the dining area. The incident comes months after Lee publicly addressed his support for Palestinians during NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. The New Arab reported that Lee wore clothing featuring Kafaya-inspired designs and carried a bag with a Palestinian flag and flag imagery during the February event. In an Instagram post on February 17th, Lee said the clothing represented his concern for Palestinian children and civilians and his belief in human dignity for all humankind. He also clarified that his clothing was not intended to be hostile toward Jewish people or to support violence against anyone. Okay, this is timely. I promise I don't think that what I have to say is more important than what Q has to say or anyone else for that matter, but just because I got back from there. I'm Palestine recently. Got a chance to spend some time on the ground. I get it. I get it. You know, one of the things about going to Palestine. Well, I'm not mad at Spike Lee. I'm not mad at anybody who stands up for Palestinian folks or people that don't really have as loud of a voice as they deserve. And Palestine is kind of the issue of the day that is creating the divide. And fortunately, it seems to be most people are on the morally just side of this divide. Those people being pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli government. Again, most of the people that are pro-Palestinian are pro-Jewish people. Trust me, I went there and talked to them myself and I asked everyone that question. And 100% of them said, Jewish people are our brothers and our sisters. Indeed, they come here and support us too. It's that government that is hostile toward us Palestinians. 100% of the people, I saw it myself. I went there and I witnessed it and I asked that question specifically. But I've been very fortunate. I have a phone full of graffiti. to quote the crown city rockers, I hope it's a deep cut. I hope some, some of y'all get it, but to quote the crown city rockers, I love being a B boy. No, I'm not, I'm not the best B boy dancer, but you know, um, I'm a, a child, a product of hip hop. You know, the, the people that I looked up to my literal big brother is West coast hip hop royalty for those that know dilated peoples. Um, I got it all honestly. And I love it. So when I go around the world, graffiti is always going to be like, Ooh, let's check it out. And, you know, I went to Italy, this might've been a couple of years ago now. And I saw a lot of the graffiti. There was a pro-Palestinian graffiti on the ground. I went all over Italy. I was in Venice. I was in Rome. I was in Tuscany. I was all over that mug. And, you know, you jump a train and you, I have a thing where I put my phone against the window if I'm driving in a car or in a train or something like that and I'll just catch the graffiti. I got videos all over the world. Went to France. Same thing. Graffiti. Beautiful graffiti. The most emotional graffiti that I've ever seen and it is by a long way the most was in The West Bank. I shared that I didn't get to go into Gaza. There were a lot of people that were really concerned. They're shooting journalists over there. So they're like, Rams, that Afro is not going to help you over there. The Israeli occupation force is what they call it, is indiscriminate if they think that there's someone over here who might further blow up their spot, further expose them for folks that are uninitiated. with the lingo we use around here. So I didn't get to go to Gaza, but I did spend a good amount of time in the West Bank. And I got to see the wall and everything like that, but I couldn't go inside of Gaza. The graffiti of a resilient people, the graffiti of a people who had the full range of emotions from hopelessness to anger and frustration to as I mentioned, resilience. They still harbor the belief that one day they will be free in their own land. They harbor the belief that they will be able to return home. The key is symbolic over there. I forget the character's name. I might say it wrong, but Abdullah comes to mind. Maybe that's it, maybe not. But there's a character they that is a popular graffiti character over there. I think Calvin and Hobbes, but the Palestinian version, and it actually means something. It's like super duper emotional. And again, I forget the name of him, but he's always facing away from you. So he's drawn with his back toward the observer and he's got his hands behind his back, kind of folded into his hands. And he's, you know, it seems like he's walking. He's got little spiked hair. And this character, um, represents kind of the, uh, exodus of Palestinian people. And, uh, the, the artist who had come up with this character never drew the character facing the observer. And he planned on creating that version of that character. Once Palestinians were able to actually head back home, but the character as written is walking away from his home. Uh, this is again, my understanding of it, you know, and a lot of people could correct me if I'm wrong. Um, There's a woman I know, I don't want to say her name just because I don't want to get her in trouble, but because they're heavily surveilled over there. And this show, we live in America, so it's very different. But it's a brilliant, beautiful woman who is not free to be herself yet. But I want that for her. She told me the story of, again, I hope I'm getting it right, Abdullah. And she broke down crying telling me the story. She cried when she got to the part saying that he never got to go home. He was assassinated, the artist that was behind that character. And so all this graffiti, all this resilience, it's hard as a human being with a beating heart to not feel like you should be doing something to help these people. Again, there's a military force occupying their land and the military force and the government has empowered settlers on their land. People from all over the world, hey, come to Israel. We'll put you in the West Bank. That's not our land. We'll just take land from them. They're defenseless to fight back against it. The whole world calls these settlements illegal because that's what they are. But there's no external military intervention. And indeed, the Palestinians cannot have guns in the West Bank, at least. And they are defenseless. And they get taken advantage of and they get beaten and they get shot and they get killed and they get over and over again every day by settlers and the military. And all they have is their graffiti and the international community and their spirit, their unbroken spirit. And I'm sorry I took up all the time, Q, and I wanted to make sure that you had some time here, but I just want to finish this if I can. If you understand a little bit I think it would move you. But if you understand the way that I now understand, perhaps the way that Spike Lee understands, you might get up and fight somebody if they step to you on what's right, because you realize I'm in a position to fight and I'm locked up enough to actually get busy with it. So shout out to Spike Lee. I like that energy. We like that energy around here, you know, put some action behind it, you know, direct action. Let's go. Alright, that's going to do it for us here at the QR Code. Thank you, Q. Thank you for that, man. Yeah, that's going to do it for us here at the QR Code. Today's show was produced by Chris Thompson. If you have some thoughts you'd like to share, visit CivicCypher.com to ask a question, share some encouragement, or buy us a cup of coffee. While you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. Don't forget, today's episode includes a conversation about Spike Lee getting in a confrontation at an MLB game. We share it What single story best sums up who we are? We talked about a pastor stealing over half a million dollars from churchgoers. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com or BINews.com. For our editorial content covering hip-hop culture, visit HipHopWeeklyMagazine.com. Also, be sure to check us out on all social media at CivicCypher. That's C-I-V-I-C-C-I-P-H-E-R. Ramses Ja on all platforms. Q Ward on all platforms. And join us next time as we share our news with our voice from our perspective right here on the QR Code.
