0:00

A man who needs no

0:02

introduction. The Black Information

0:04

Network is committed to bringing you up to the date

0:06

news stories that are relevant, informative,

0:08

and inspiring. And while news stories

0:11

are always being updated and others are breaking,

0:13

we understand that you need to be in

0:15

the know all week long. Welcome

0:18

to your midweek memo on the Black Information

0:21

Network Daily Podcast with me your

0:23

host Rams's job. You

0:27

know it is a strange and

0:30

ever changing world in which

0:32

we live, and I think that today's stories

0:36

reflect one or both of those truths. This

0:38

first one certainly does so. This comes

0:40

from the Black Information Network. Meta,

0:42

the parent company on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads,

0:45

has recently started limiting political and

0:47

social content on these massive platforms.

0:50

The company defines political content as

0:52

likely to mention governments, elections,

0:54

or social topics that affect a group

0:56

of people and or society at large.

0:59

Per Mashable, suggested

1:01

posts will be automatically limited for

1:03

explorer reels, ad recommendations,

1:06

and suggested users, but it won't

1:08

affect accounts users already follow.

1:10

The brand stated that also means

1:12

that users will have to adjust their settings if

1:14

they wish to see that content pop up on their

1:16

feeds again. Indeed, posts

1:18

from the Black Information Network fall under this category.

1:21

So to provide you some tips on

1:23

how you can keep seeing this content, what

1:26

you'll do is you'll click on your profile in

1:29

the bottom right corner and click

1:31

on your settings the three bar symbol and

1:33

the top right corner, scroll down to tap

1:36

content preferences, and then tap

1:38

political content and select

1:40

don't limit political content from people

1:42

you don't follow. Experts

1:45

suspect it's part of metas strategy of moving

1:47

away from news related and political content

1:49

while tackling rampant misinformation.

1:52

Past elections saw misinformation fueled

1:54

by social media campaigns wreaking

1:57

havoc on American democracy. The

1:59

advent of aid I generated content

2:01

has also complicated efforts to combat

2:03

such problems. So, indeed,

2:07

a new world in a strange

2:10

world, and

2:13

it's kind of like, you

2:16

know, if you can't play nice, I'm taking

2:18

my ball and going home. And

2:21

truth told, I am not

2:23

even mad at it. Of course

2:25

I make political content, but I

2:28

long to live in a world where I

2:31

can make content about things that I'm

2:33

passionate about. You know, I'm passionate

2:35

about music. That's my background. I wish I didn't

2:37

have to make political content, but it feels

2:39

necessary. So

2:42

with meta saying, listen, if you guys can't get your

2:44

information right with this AI stuff,

2:46

and you know where the platform that is

2:48

causing this divide in the country,

2:50

So we're going to limit this type of content

2:53

so as to delimit the ever

2:55

deepening divide. I say,

2:58

I mean, if it's executed the way that I think that

3:00

it should be executed, I say,

3:02

you know, that's fine by me. So I'm

3:06

obviously going to still keep fighting this fight. The Black

3:09

Information Network is still going to keep fighting this fight.

3:11

And if you wish to walk

3:14

with us on this path again,

3:16

there are instructions here where you can make sure that

3:19

our content still makes its way to you. If

3:22

you're already following the Black Information Network or

3:24

ME or Civic Cyper or

3:26

Qward, then you

3:29

got nothing to worry about. But looks

3:33

like a change is coming.

3:36

Moving on, Obviously,

3:38

the big story in the news is

3:43

Diddy's two

3:45

houses getting raided. You

3:48

know, people trying to track his jet

3:50

and pacing back and forth at

3:53

the airport in Miami, and

3:56

you know all of the rumors

3:58

surrounding that situation. So

4:02

I don't think that I'll be the first person to give

4:04

you this news, but

4:10

I feel it's important to share at least did he statement,

4:12

since you already know likely

4:15

that all of this has happened, So

4:17

in case you missed it, did He released a statement

4:19

through his lawyers saying, quote, yesterday,

4:22

there was a gross overuse of military

4:24

level force as search warrants

4:26

were executed at mister Combs's residences.

4:29

There is no excuse for the excessive show of force

4:31

and hostility exhibited by authorities,

4:33

or the way his children and employees were treated.

4:36

Mister Combs was never detained, but

4:39

spoke to and cooperated with authorities.

4:41

Despite media speculation, neither mister

4:43

Combs nor any of his family members have

4:45

been arrested, nor has their ability to travel

4:48

been restricted in any way. This

4:50

unprecedented ambush, paired

4:52

with an advanced, coordinated media presence,

4:55

leads to a premature rush to judgment

4:57

of mister Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt

4:59

based on meritless accusations made

5:02

in civil lawsuits. There

5:04

has been no finding of criminal or civil

5:06

liability with any of these allegations.

5:08

Mister Combs is innocent and will continue

5:10

to fight every single day to clear

5:12

his name. So

5:18

there's there's a lot here, you know, the media

5:20

presence and all that stuff. You know, this, that's

5:22

just how the media works, as we all know. And of course

5:24

his neighbors were, you

5:27

know, trying to go viral by saying did

5:29

he had all kinds

5:31

of stuff going on there? And then that of course

5:34

ended up not being true.

5:36

So you know, everyone's having their field day,

5:39

getting their their moment. But

5:44

one thing that I will say is that typically

5:50

when the FEDS are involved, it's

5:53

serious. Ironically,

5:56

I learned from Biggie Small's a bad

5:58

boy artist. In

6:00

one of his songs,

6:01

he says, only the Feds

6:04

I fear. And

6:07

there's a good reason for that, because if the Feds are

6:10

coming for you, they they

6:13

are likely

6:16

going to be successful. And so

6:19

we're just going to have to see how it plays out.

6:21

But at present, that is Diddy's statement,

6:25

and you

6:27

know, we'll see why they needed to have

6:29

such an aggressive show of force. I

6:33

don't imagine this happens based

6:36

off of nothing, but you know, so

6:38

far, I have nothing else to report. This

6:43

is your midweek memo on the Black Information

6:45

Network Daily podcast with me your

6:48

host ramses Ja. All

6:52

Right, the other big story in the news so

6:55

far this week from CNN. Six people are

6:57

presumed dead after a major

6:59

bridge collapsed overnight Tuesday.

7:02

According to the Coastguard, the

7:04

Francis Scott Key Bridge came down

7:06

around eleven thirty am Eastern Time after

7:08

a after a cargo ship collided

7:11

with it in Maryland. The

7:13

Coastguard said it has ended its

7:15

active search and rescue operation for the

7:17

missing construction workers who were on

7:20

the bridge when it collapsed, more

7:22

than eighteen hours after the collapse of the Baltimore

7:24

Bridge. Maryland Governor Wes Morris said

7:26

it was a heartbreaking conclusion after the Coast Guard

7:28

ended the search and rescue operation for the six

7:31

people who were on the bridge when it collapsed. It's

7:34

a quote, really heartbreaking conclusion

7:36

to a challenging day unquote. Goes

7:40

on to say, we put every single asset

7:43

possible, AirLand and sea to finding

7:45

missing people. This he told reporters

7:47

as of Tuesday evening. Goes

7:50

on to say, while even though we're moving

7:52

on now to a recovery mission, we're still

7:55

fully committed to making sure that we're going to use every

7:57

single asset now to bring a sense

7:59

of closure to the families. This

8:01

added by the Governor, and

8:04

I want to make

8:08

an additional point here, because

8:11

I pick up bits and pieces

8:14

of news through various sources

8:16

before deciding where I want

8:18

to deciding the vantage

8:20

point from which I will

8:22

share this content with you, And

8:25

as you know, sometimes it's from the

8:27

Black Information Network's website and

8:30

sometimes it's from other sources that I feel are

8:32

a little bit more appropriate. As

8:36

a result of that, I

8:38

follow a lot of social media

8:40

accounts that share bits and pieces

8:43

of information that I

8:45

think will either enhance

8:47

certain stories. Of course, I

8:50

follow reputable sources and

8:53

sources that may or may not

8:55

be reputable. I do my best to verify

8:57

the content before I share it with you. Well, one

9:00

person that I follow I'm a big fan of is DL

9:02

Hughgley, and

9:05

he had a post talking about the

9:08

mayor of Baltimore who

9:10

also had to respond to this catastrophe.

9:14

The mayor's name is Brandon M. Scott, someone that

9:17

I'm familiar with. It's just a

9:20

young black man who's

9:22

the mayor of Baltimore. Was not to love there.

9:26

Well, I happen to know that he officially

9:28

declared a state of emergency on Tuesday,

9:31

and also

9:33

Tuesday night invited the community

9:36

to a prayer of vigil after the

9:38

conclusion of the search and rescue

9:40

operations and the commencement

9:43

of the recovery operations. Well

9:46

on dial Hugley's page, he was sharing some

9:48

content from some

9:51

conservative pundons, and

9:55

I remember seeing at least one

9:57

Republican pundon referring

10:00

to Brandon M. Scott as the

10:02

DEI mayor or a DEI

10:04

mayor. And not

10:10

only is that a cheap shot,

10:14

it is inaccurate,

10:17

and I think that it speaks to a lot

10:19

of the prejudice that

10:23

people are pretending it's not there on

10:28

both sides of the aisle. And I don't

10:30

think that that's fair. I think that we need to acknowledge

10:33

where we are as a country. We need to acknowledge

10:35

these cheap shots. This wasn't a mass shooting with thoughts

10:37

and prayers. This was a person attacking a

10:40

mayor simply

10:42

by referring to him as the DEI mayor, responding

10:46

as he should to a catastrophe,

10:50

a tragedy that happened in his city. Wasn't

10:52

his fault. We

10:55

might not ever determine whose fault it was. A

10:58

ship collap Christian to a

11:01

but far

11:03

be it for me to pick

11:06

out solitary incidents and

11:08

make a big deal out of it and paint with broad strokes

11:10

based on that. But I've seen this sort of thing quite

11:15

a bit in recent

11:17

months, especially with people

11:22

talking about black folks being Affirmative

11:24

Action hires, you

11:27

know, in other words, somehow

11:29

suggesting that black people are not qualified to

11:32

do the things that they're doing. And

11:35

obviously, when you're a mayor, the

11:38

people elect you, it

11:40

doesn't your qualifications don't really matter. If

11:42

the people like you, then they'll elect you.

11:44

We saw Donald Trump make it to the office. So

11:47

but again, it just shows kind of how

11:52

far some folks will go to attack

11:55

the

11:58

political opponents that they see here, people

12:00

that they feel should not be in

12:02

a position of power, or black

12:05

people. And

12:08

again, this is not an isolated incident. It's

12:10

just the incident that came up today that really stuck

12:13

with me. And I feel like we're going to talk a

12:15

little bit more about this because

12:18

our next story comes

12:20

from the Associated Press. Members

12:23

of the Utah women's basketball team were subjected

12:25

to racism near their hotel in

12:27

Idaho last week when a pickup truck with

12:29

a Confederate flag drove near them and

12:31

the driver began using offensive language, including

12:33

the n word. Authorities said Tuesday,

12:36

the team was left shaken and wound up

12:38

moving to a different hotel the next day. Utah

12:41

coach Lynn Roberts said her team experienced

12:43

a series of hate crimes after arriving

12:46

at its first NCAA tournament hotel

12:48

and Core Dalen, Idaho.

12:52

She revealed what happened after Utah

12:55

lost to Gonzaga

12:57

in the second round of the tournament Monday night, and

12:59

authorities can firmed some of the details the following

13:01

day. Roberts said

13:04

the incidents happened last Thursday

13:06

night after the team arrived, and they were disturbing

13:08

to the traveling party to the point where there

13:10

were concerns about safety. Utah

13:13

and other teams played their games in Spokane,

13:15

but the Utes were staying about thirty miles

13:17

away in Court dalleeen before

13:20

they were relocated to a different hotel Friday.

13:22

Quote, we had several instances

13:24

of some kind of racial hate crimes toward our program

13:27

and was incredibly upsetting for all of us. Unquote

13:30

should go. Roberts goes on to say, quote,

13:33

in our world, in athletics and

13:35

in a university setting, it's shocking. There's

13:38

so much diversity onto college campus, so

13:40

you're just not exposed to it very

13:42

often it being racism.

13:47

Tony Stewart, an official with the

13:49

Countenai County Task Force

13:52

on Human Relations, set at a news conference. The

13:54

utes were walking from the hotel to a

13:56

restaurant when the truck drove up and the driver

13:58

began using racist language. After the

14:00

team left the restaurant, the same driver returned,

14:03

reinforced by others, and they

14:05

read their engines and again yelled at the players.

14:08

Quote. We all

14:10

just were in shock, and we looked at each

14:12

other, like did we just hear that everyone

14:14

was in shock? Our cheerleaders are students that

14:16

were in that area, heard it clearly, and

14:19

we're just frozen. This is

14:21

from Utah's Deputy athletic

14:23

Director, Schamel Green, who is black,

14:26

and this was told to KSL dot

14:29

com. Okay, so

14:33

Idaho Confederate

14:36

flag up

14:38

in Idaho. Now,

14:41

I'm not sure if you can picture Idaho

14:44

on the map. I certainly

14:46

can because I've been there, But

14:48

it's about as far from the South as you're

14:50

gonna get, and I've been to

14:52

the South. So unless

14:55

you're in Washington State again,

14:58

or Alaska or Hawaii, you're

15:00

about as far away from the South as you're gonna get. And

15:04

you know, I've been to all these places. I've been all fifty

15:06

states, and it's

15:11

interesting how far that racist symbol

15:13

will travel and indeed the

15:16

racist thinking and

15:19

in fact, as we're seeing racist behavior.

15:24

Just when I felt like we were rounding a corner

15:26

when we elected our first black president, Donald

15:33

Trump stoked the flames of white

15:37

supremacy and empowered

15:39

a group of people to attack

15:42

all things black and pro black. You

15:45

know that they felt was going

15:48

to erode their sense

15:51

of superiority, their advantages,

15:53

you name it. And

15:56

a lot of people say that, you know, everyone should

15:58

be equal, but you know, when you've had

16:01

hundreds of years worth of a head start

16:03

and then you try to play the game equal, it's

16:06

not equal. As you know, head

16:08

starts by definition are

16:10

not equal. And

16:17

this reeks of

16:20

an incident that I

16:22

remember in my first years in radio,

16:25

so this might have been two thousand and five ish,

16:30

a guy named don Imus, old radio

16:32

guy, referred

16:35

to some basketball

16:38

players, some female basketball players

16:40

who were black, as nappy

16:43

headed hoes. And

16:45

I remember having a conversation with my program

16:47

director at the time, who felt

16:50

like, you know, advertisers

16:52

should stop advertising on

16:54

his show, and the free market should decide

16:57

what happens to this man. And

17:01

I had a conversation with him, saying, you

17:03

know, the free market likely

17:06

represents the interest of the people with the

17:08

money, and the people with the money are often

17:12

white men, and

17:14

so for something like this, I

17:16

would suggest at him being fired

17:18

is the right thing morally. Throwing

17:21

your hands up and saying that the free market should decide

17:24

is, in my estimation,

17:26

an act of cowardice. I wasn't saying

17:28

this to my PD, of course, but I

17:30

was saying that whoever was responsible for

17:33

that decision, if they did not make it the way that I

17:35

felt it should be made, then that would be an act of cowardice.

17:39

And you

17:42

know, here we are almost twenty years later, and

17:45

rather than that getting

17:50

snuffed out, that energy getting snuffed out

17:53

during and after the Obama administration, I

17:55

believe that it's been stoked on

17:57

the heels of Donald Trump's election,

18:00

and indeed there's some excitement

18:03

by his base to re elect him.

18:06

And so a bus full of black

18:08

women pulling

18:11

up to a hotel in Idaho

18:15

getting confronted by a Southern flag,

18:17

I think that goes to show how far we

18:21

have regressed and

18:24

how much ground we need to make up. So

18:27

between that story and of course,

18:29

as I mentioned the quote unquote d I

18:31

mayor story you

18:34

know, food for thoughts, keep it in mind and

18:36

for those that can

18:39

find a way to do so morally, I'm

18:41

going to ask you as often as I can

18:44

to vote where you can, for who you can,

18:46

for who you feel comfortable

18:49

voting for. And let's

18:52

put a stop to all this, all right, don't

18:55

forget. These and other stories can be found at bi in news dot

18:57

com. Put

19:00

me up if you want to talk about anything else, all right. Peace.

19:05

This has been a production of the Black Information

19:08

Network. Today's show is produced by

19:10

Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts you'd

19:12

like to share, use the red microphone talkback

19:14

feature on the iHeartRadio app. While

19:16

you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download

19:18

all of our episodes. I am your

19:20

host, Rams's Jaw on all social

19:22

media and join us tomorrow as

19:24

we share our news with our voice from

19:27

our perspective right here on the Black

19:29

Information Network Daily Podcast