The first half of today’s episode covers a story about a Virginia nurse accused of breaking the bones of several Black infants in the care of the NICU at which she was employed. This vile story sheds light on the very racism many folks say doesn’t exist and also explains how pervasive it can be when it goes unpunished.
Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host, ramses job.
He is Ramsey's job. I am q Ward. It is twenty twenty five and you are still tuned into Civic Cipher.
And we appreciate that it is going to be an interesting year. It's going to be an interesting few years, and we are going to have our therapy together today. We are going to be discussing a very sad story. There is a nick you nurse that is facing charges for allegedly breaking the bones of black infants. This is something that's been widely circulated online, something that obviously is deeply disturbing to those of us who are parents of children. This is something that is cancerous and pervasive, and it does exist in this country. For people that think that we imagine things that happen to us, that we are paranoid, for people that think that we are perpetual victims, etc. Stories like this really breathe life into the stories that we live. So we're going to talk about that. We're also going to be spending some time talking about y'all's new president. He is wild'n out already. He wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico, he wants to seize the Panama Canal, he wants Canada to be the fifty first state, who wants Greenland to be a part of this country, and so much more. And we are going to unpack all of this, and I'm sure much more in the fourth coming episode. But before we get there, let's do like we always do and start off with some ebony excellence, shall we? Yes?
I think we shall.
Today's any Excellence is sponsored by Actively Black. There's greatness in our DNA. Visit actively black dot com And for this one, we're just gonna give a general shout out to black women for being excellent, you know, President Joe Biden. The story, by the way, comes from the Black Information Network bion news dot Com. President Joe Biden has appointed more black women as federal judges than any other president in history. As of last month, the US Senate confirmed Judge Tiffany Renee Johnson to serve in the Northern District of Georgia, marking the fortieth black women Biden had appointed to the federal bench. Per the grioh, Biden broke former President Barack Obama's previous record of appointing twenty six black female judges. Johnson's historic appointment also marked the sixty second black judge confirmed during Biden's presidency. This ties the record for the most black federal judges confirmed during a presidency. His first term, President elect Donald Trump only appointed two black women to the federal bench, making up less than one percent of his appointees. Trump declined to nominate any black judges to federal courts. Biden appears to be making good on his promise to reshape the federal judiciary to reflect America's diversity as his presidency comes to a close. His most notable appointment came in April of twenty twenty two, when Justice Katanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as the first black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice. So, you know, these are the final days of his presidency and he's taking this time to highlight some ebony excellence. So you know, that's something we'll take it. We're gonna need all the help we can get. And while he's still in a position to do something, you know, if that's what he's doing, then I at least can say that I salute that because it may not feel balanced in this country ever again, and he's stacking what he can in our favor. So all right, first step, this is a this is an interesting story here, Uh, before we before we even get to this article, que talk to us about why this stood out in your mind and why you wanted to talk about this one today, because you know, you and I talked a little bit about it beforehand. But I think that the why in terms of this one is important for our listeners to know.
About being black is something that we very very probably celebrate. I hear people say all the time they'd rather not they wouldn't rather be anything else. And though it is a incredibly sweet and nice to say, I don't understand how or why it's true. Our entire lives on this continent throughout the entire history of this continent.
It's not a happy story.
It's an awful, difficult, painful story with very bright moments, but an enduring truth, which is the country and those that inhabited and those that are in power have perpetually worked tirelessly against our happiness. Right, Because you might immediately think that they've worked against our ability to make money, our ability to be successful, our ability to thrive, our ability to do whatever. But they've actively worked against anything that makes us happy because we've at times removed ourselves from their capitalist system, created our own communities, our own businesses, our own neighborhoods. Nope, we're going to come there and destroy those two. We don't want you to be anywhere and be okay. And the most frustrating thing is something that you mentioned before, this idea that we are race baters, that we're playing the victim, that we're imagining these invisible circumstances that constantly work against us. I've heard black quote unquote leaders, which in too many cases just means black celebrities say things like, you know, Black History Month perpetuates racism, and I don't believe in black and white. And the reason why racism still exists is because we say these things. And if we want racism to go away, stop talking about it.
That's that Morgan Freeman line.
Placing the blame back on us for the circumstances that we were kidnapped into and then every generation after that born into. If we would just leave the idea of racism alone, then it would leave us alone. We're giving it the power. It's not something that we're actively experiencing. It's not something that we're actually even going through. We are giving the oxygen and the gasoline to the fire which is racism as it continues to burn and devour us, unfortunately, with no sign of it ever being distinguished ever at a revelation yesterday or an epiphany or an AHA moment. Shout out to black people born in the sixties, as the civil rights movement built its muscle all the way up and people sacrificed everything they could for life to be this much better for us, reminding everyone that can hear me that our fight has never been to have more than anyone else. We've never sought revenge. We've never sought to get our lick back. We've never wanted to conquer or overcome you. We wanted to overcome our circumstances. We shall overcome. Was about us not being under the foot of oppression and racism anymore, not overcoming and then flipping that on its head and doing the same thing to anyone else. We've only ever wanted to live unimpeded. We don't want to take anything from you. We don't want your life to be any harder so that ours can be better. As a matter of fact, we absolutely don't want your life to be harder so that ours can be better. Would it be okay with you if we were okay? So our black brothers and sisters that were born in the sixties as civil rights as that movement flexed its muscle and we got a little bit more freedom, a little bit more rights. Our music got to turn up a little bit louder. Our melodies got a little bit more beautiful. We got to come outside. We got to grow up and dance and thrive. We got to entertain the country. We got to break race barriers going into the seventies and into the eighties, and professional sports and entertainment where our talents made way for us in rooms where there was a colored only entrance and a colored only water fountain, a colored only bathroom, and in restaurants we had to enter through the kitchen, asked to not make the white patrons in the main dining room uncomfortable. We got to watch those things change. We got to be welcomed on your favorite TV show. We got to start winning awards as the eighties go into the nineties, and we were welcome at the Grammys as hip hop has become a mainstream genre of music. As the nineties go into the two thousands, we get to see a black man become president. And as those worn into the sixties get into their sixties, they get to watch their children and their grandchildren go up and go to college and have all these accomplishments. We still get to see the first Black laundry list of things, which is sad but also exciting watching those first black people conquer and thrive and survive and break records and have these moments and measures of success that we never thought possible. They got to watch that happen. They got to live most of their life in the most progressive window of time for black people in the history of this country. And unfortunately they now have to watch those children raise children as the country, I'm sorry, tumbles back down that hill into what we thought we escaped from, as billionaires and the oligarchs and wealth wrapped in the American flag take back over and strip away rights from women and get rid of affirmative action and get rid of DEI. And while all of this is happening to us. People will point to us and tell us to stop playing the victim, stop race baiting, stop inserting race where it doesn't belong, and to try to blow some snow on her fresh tracks. The lady who this story is about, because her cruelty sees no limit, let me get this sent off of me and break the bones of some white babies too, so they don't catch on to the fact that I've only been doing this to newborn black babies. This is America, all right, I'll read.
This is from Revolt.
White nick U nurse faces charges for allegedly breaking the bones of black infants. On Sunday, January fifth, the Washington Post reported that registered nurse Aaron Elizabeth Ann Stratman was arrested in connection with the abuse of several black babies at a Virginia medical center. Beginning in twenty twenty three, officials at Henrico Doctor's Hospital began noticing unexplained injuries among newborns in its neonatal intensive care unit. More recently, three babies suffered unexplainable fractures, which prompted the temporary halting of NICKU admissions. In an official statement, Henrico County Police announced that Strautman's arrest stemmed from the incident in November twenty twenty four, and other cases of mysterious incidents have since been reopened. Now hundreds of hours of surveillance footage are being reviewed regarding at least seven infants. Quote. We are committed to protecting our residents, particularly our youngest and most vulnerable, the statement read. Strapman has since been charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse. The Washington Post spoke to affected family members, including Dominique Hacki, whose twin boys were born prematurely at twenty eight weeks old. While one recovered well, the father was shocked on the other had a fractured leg. Despite initial theories that the injury might have been caused by an injection, Hakki's mother, former nick U nurse, reported the incident to Child Protective Services. Despite had a year long inquiry, authorities failed to identify a suspect. Quote. Finding out there were seven total was gut wrenching, Hackie said after learning about the arrest. A statement goes on to say, before my son knew joy, he experienced pain and I wasn't there to protect him. He, along with other families, attended Stratmann's Friday, January third arraignment, where it was revealed that one baby suffered twelve fractures. The suspect's next court date is scheduled for March twenty fourth. Henrico Doctor's Hospital released its own statement expressing shock and sadness over the development. Quote, we are focused on continuing to care for our patients and providing support to our colleagues who have been deeply impersonally impacted by this investigation, it said. We are grateful to those colleagues who have dedicated their professional lives to the care and safety of our patients, as well as to law enforcement and other agencies who have worked aggressively and tirelessly with.
Us on this investigation.
All right, hatred exists in this world.
You know that.
Ignorance exists in this world. You know that, and often enough, those two are different sides of the same coin. The problem is that when people are in a position to do something with their ignorance and with their hatred that affects the lives of other people, you begin to see the early makings of systems, and you begin to see how far reaching racism can go if you imbue it. With a bit of power. Now, this is a story about a nurse who's breaking the bones of news at a hospital or black and obviously this isn't something that happens across the board. But there are things that we learn doing this show that ring true in this story.
Especially.
The thing that comes to mind in this instance and in many of the instances, especially when dealing with police corruption, is that we only share the stories of the people who get caught, meaning that when you look at data, when you look at in this instance, we're talking about health care, so let's talk about health care outcomes. The data can illuminate injustices that are hard to.
Pinpoint the source of.
In this very tiny example here, you have a neonatal unit where there is a high concentration of black children with injuries. And if this woman, if this nurse had gotten away with it, it would have just been data and the rest of us would have been able to would have been left rather to look at the data and try to figure out why is it that everything bad happens to black people all the time. Now, if you scale this up to wealth, if you scale this up to influence, political influence, if you scale this up to you know, environmental factors. If you scale this up to economic factors, if you scale this up to employment, if you scale us up to housing, and you look at the data, the data often suggests that something is going on, and for far too long people have accepted that, well, it's just you know, black people need to stop listening to rap music and then they won't have these this strange anomalies in the data when it comes to their housing, or when it comes to their healthcare, when it comes to whatever, right, And that's just been a very.
Convenient excuse across the board.
But I think that this story shows that there are monsters who sometimes slip up and then we're able to see, ah, there, it is right there, and enough of these informs us that walks this path to say, okay, we see what it is.
It's racism.
But I think that the general population is still uncomfortable with that as an excuse quote unquote, and then they pin it on us as though we're using an excuse, like we're imagining it, like we said, And it is important that we share stories like this and stories of police injustice, and stories of again all of these other factors, all of these elements that shape Black life in America, particularly environmental factors, economic factors, so that we can push back against the narrative that we're all all black people are crazy and victims and imagining we have like a collective delusion. It's not fair, it's hurtful. It denies us our humanity, it denies us our experience. And how arrogant of you to suggest that you know my experience better than me and you can articulate it better than I can. This is disgusting. And this is one person who got caught and for pole will have a tough time processing it because it's a woman, because it's a white woman. If you get a chance to see her picture, she looks innocent enough.
Because it's whatever.
Whatever it is that you know allows this to be easily dismissed from your reality. All poor babies, poor black folks, just know that this is where we live.
We are not unintelligent. We are not naturally more prone to poverty and crime. We are not naturally more likely to commit crimes and be arrested. We are not naturally more likely to be addicted to drugs. We are not naturally more likely to be poor. We are not naturally less capable than everyone else. The answer is almost always racism and capitalism used as a way been by white supremacist racists, specifically to make sure that all minorities and all poor people spend time looking left and right at one another as the problem, instead of up and down at the class system that was created and that we were placed in. Those who hoard all the money and all the power. Make us each other's enemies, make us each other's problems, and tell you the reason why you don't have more and haven't had more success is because of your lazy black or Hispanic immigrant neighbor. We have been made the fooll love once again, and this powerful, forever enduring system is getting stronger. And they used to for a period of time. That's why I talked about those born in the sixties.
Man.
They would hide this stuff from us because they couldn't get it off. We were outside, we were in the streets. We would not let it happen. And now we've been co opted. They point us at each other and we flex how much more we know and how much more woke, and how we are not sheep and we're individual free thinkers, and we parrot their politics and their ideals to each other as they continue to thrive and keep us pressed under their thumbs. I would say wake up, but they co opt it woke, So I just have to be frustrated as I read a story about a woman, a nurse, someone whose job it is to take care of people, singling out black babies and breaking their bones, as this father says, so before they experience any joy, they can experience infuriating pain and agony. And this was her intent. Because they looked like Qan Ramses. I hope that made you as sick hearing it as it made Rams reading it, because my brother almost couldn't finish reading the story.
We are fathers, we're humans. We are human isus