Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsey's job. Big shout out to my man c Ward,
Speaker 1: who is indisposed this evening but very much with us
Speaker 1: in spirit. And yeah, a lot of stuff to talk
Speaker 1: about this week. But one of the best things that
Speaker 1: has happened to us is that we were able to
Speaker 1: book a guest, my favorite guest who has been on
Speaker 1: the show before, but you know she's she's she's in
Speaker 1: high demand these days. Her name is doctor Camilla Westenberg
Speaker 1: and she is joining us in the studio again for
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher. So once again, welcome, thank you, of course,
Speaker 1: and today we're going to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: a lot or if it's meaningful, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: a lot about some specific things. But I've been trying
Speaker 1: to really put this show off until I get to
Speaker 1: a point where I have the support or the the
Speaker 1: knowledge and the and the language necessary to articulate what's
Speaker 1: going on fully. The issue, of course I'm talking about
Speaker 1: is the voter suppression initiatives that have been taking place
Speaker 1: across the country.
Speaker 2: Now. Most folks refer to them as.
Speaker 1: Initiatives to protect the integrity of voting, or you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: there's this pretty language around all of them, and so
Speaker 1: it doesn't cause many people's ears to perk up. But
Speaker 1: my understanding is that historically black folks have been able
Speaker 1: to really see what's underneath those that language, really what
Speaker 1: it is, you know, going back to Jim Crown even
Speaker 1: further back in in some instances, and what's happening now
Speaker 1: in mass across the country is exactly the same. It's
Speaker 1: it's perhaps the climate also kind of lends itself to
Speaker 1: some of this stuff actually making some progress in us
Speaker 1: really losing our capacity to vote or otherwise it's becoming diminished.
Speaker 1: And in the past few episodes that we've you know,
Speaker 1: mentioned these voter suppression initiatives, you know, I have not.
Speaker 2: Been able to peel away many layers there.
Speaker 1: But I want to take this show, the next show,
Speaker 1: perhaps even the show after that, to really dive into that,
Speaker 1: really rout out the source of this and and really
Speaker 1: examine what it is and really explore what it is
Speaker 1: that we can do about it, because I think, at
Speaker 1: least for me, you know, I haven't been the most
Speaker 1: most active politically speaking.
Speaker 2: Person my whole life.
Speaker 1: You know, more recently I've been made aware of exactly
Speaker 1: how much is you know, working against me? You know,
Speaker 1: and these systemic issues that I refer to, how ingrained
Speaker 1: they are in life, and things that I take for
Speaker 1: granted actually can be challenged, but I would never think
Speaker 1: to challenge them. So I have to imagine that there
Speaker 1: are lots of folks out there who have a more
Speaker 1: passive type of attitude when it comes to oh, well,
Speaker 1: that's just the way it is. And what I want
Speaker 1: to do is empower them while I'm being empowered to
Speaker 1: actually take action against these initiatives, these campaigns to really
Speaker 1: further disenfranchise us, and to keep the systems in power
Speaker 1: and in place that are currently in power and in
Speaker 1: place above and beyond you know, what we're able to
Speaker 1: see and feel in our day to day lives to
Speaker 1: any significant degree. I know this, a lot of us
Speaker 1: encounter a lot of surface level stuff. But the systems
Speaker 1: in place to keep us in the communities and keep
Speaker 1: us in the and the existing framework and limit our
Speaker 1: mobility and our options, those are the things I'm referring
Speaker 1: to specifically. So one thing that we were able to
Speaker 1: talk about is, well, before I go any further, I
Speaker 1: don't think I give you a proper introduction, and I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that I do this the right way,
Speaker 1: So I will do my best to introduce you to
Speaker 1: to folks that haven't heard you on the show before.
Speaker 1: And then I want you to come in behind me
Speaker 1: and make sure that you fill in the gaps. So
Speaker 1: doctor Camilla Westenberg, when I met her, she was a professor,
Speaker 1: an English professor at Phoenix College and she was the.
Speaker 2: Chair person or what's the word I'm looking for.
Speaker 3: I coordinated developmental English during that time, and I was.
Speaker 1: Advisor advisor, that's the word I'm looking for for the
Speaker 1: Black Student Union. And the reason that that's of particular
Speaker 1: importance to me is, well, you know, I don't use
Speaker 1: words like advisors because she was my teacher. She still
Speaker 1: is my teacher. You still are my teacher. But doctor
Speaker 1: Westenberg caught me at a time in my life when
Speaker 1: things weren't so pretty, and she found that I was
Speaker 1: just kind of blown in the wind. I'll spare you
Speaker 1: a long story, but she discovered me around campus and
Speaker 1: had no real direction, and she asked me to do
Speaker 1: some things. And for those of you who are aware
Speaker 1: of the dynamic that exists with.
Speaker 2: Black women who are older.
Speaker 1: Than you you understand that usually when someone tells you
Speaker 1: to do something, you do it. So I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go against the grain there. She she asked me
Speaker 1: to enroll in her African American literature class class, which
Speaker 1: I did because I didn't want to see her again
Speaker 1: and not have.
Speaker 2: Enrolled in the class.
Speaker 4: But this is all out of love.
Speaker 1: And it's it's a time in my life I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: It's it's the it's really the basis of who I
Speaker 1: am as an adult and as a professional. And then
Speaker 1: further along in the story, of course, she asked me
Speaker 1: to attend.
Speaker 2: The Black Student Union meetings.
Speaker 1: Later, we had some conversations about leadership potential and.
Speaker 2: She asked if I'd be interested in stepping into a
Speaker 2: leadership role.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, I became the president of the Black Student Union,
Speaker 1: and you know, on and on.
Speaker 2: The rest is history.
Speaker 1: So her functioning in those capacities really was very significant
Speaker 1: to me. She's also a member of the Alpha Kappa
Speaker 1: Alpha sorority. She serves as the vice chair of. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get this wrong, but it's the Maricopa County
Speaker 1: Chapter of the naa C second vice president. Sorry, the
Speaker 1: America County and she is affiliated with the Lynks, and.
Speaker 3: I have to say, top Ladies of Distinction, Top Ladies
Speaker 3: of Distinction, the National Council of Negro Women.
Speaker 1: I have to give them love, Okay, I need I
Speaker 1: need people to understand who they're talking.
Speaker 2: To and who are listening to.
Speaker 3: That's just involved in community service, very stations, okay, okay,
Speaker 3: but very much a person who's visible out in the streets,
Speaker 3: out in the real world, someone who has.
Speaker 1: Created a path for people like me to go from
Speaker 1: not really having a clear purse purpose or a real
Speaker 1: defined sense of you know, self and my identity. There's
Speaker 1: reasons for that. You know, I had some some issues
Speaker 1: that I was dealing with at that age, but just
Speaker 1: kind of keeping me straight and true and and some
Speaker 1: of those had had to do with you know, MLK
Speaker 1: Youth celebrations, HBCU college fairs, hip hop to Vote, summits,
Speaker 1: you know, all things that that you put on.
Speaker 2: Over the years, and that well we all put on.
Speaker 1: Really you were you were you were the advisory and
Speaker 1: so at least in the community where I live here
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, Arizona, an extremely influential person, woman who commands
Speaker 1: respect in every room she walks in if I'm able
Speaker 1: to go to a place, whether it's like the best
Speaker 1: time because everyone stops and you know they part like
Speaker 1: you know, it's a let her walk in and so forth,
Speaker 1: and so again, an honor for you to be on
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 4: A pleasure to be here, it really.
Speaker 2: Is, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: The last time you were on the show, we talked
Speaker 1: a lot about your longstanding relationship with white supremacy, with segregation,
Speaker 1: with you know, these are things that you actually live
Speaker 1: through in your lifetime.
Speaker 2: I remember you mentioned.
Speaker 1: Something on the last episode about not being able to
Speaker 1: try on shoes in a store because you were black
Speaker 1: when you were a little girl. I remember you saying
Speaker 1: something about you your mother, I believe, having to take
Speaker 1: a portable bathroom with you in the car on road
Speaker 1: trips because you would not have been allowed to use.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And so this was during your lifetime, and since then,
Speaker 1: you know, let laws have been passed and things like
Speaker 1: that to prevent that, but you you experienced it firsthand.
Speaker 2: And then of course when you were born, that was normal.
Speaker 1: It was normal to be second class citizen and not
Speaker 1: be afforded the same opportunities, rights and privileges as.
Speaker 2: White folks in this country.
Speaker 1: So in my belief, you have a unique perspective of
Speaker 1: the goings on today, and again, it's very meaningful that
Speaker 1: you would show up today and we'd be able to
Speaker 1: talk about.
Speaker 2: Some of the things that are happening.
Speaker 1: So again, one of the things that we were able
Speaker 1: to talk about on the show so far is the
Speaker 1: success that was achieved in Georgia with respect to electing
Speaker 1: Joe Biden President of the United States. And one such
Speaker 1: initiative that took place that helped fuel his election in
Speaker 1: Georgia Turning Blue, was a campaign called Souls to the Polls.
Speaker 1: And I want you to talk about what Souls to
Speaker 1: the Polls was.
Speaker 2: And you know what has happened as a result of that.
Speaker 3: Well. Souls to the Polls was an initiative by Stacy
Speaker 3: Abrams and it was an effort and an energy of
Speaker 3: pulling African Americans together collectively at a time when it
Speaker 3: was convenient for them to go to the polls and vote.
Speaker 3: So Sunday worked well for them. Black folks go to
Speaker 3: church and to save their souls, and they just moved
Speaker 3: right onto the polls to continue to save their souls
Speaker 3: and their lives. And that is what that initiative was
Speaker 3: and there were there were many other ways in which
Speaker 3: individuals would into the community to try to get people
Speaker 3: first registered and then to mobilize it. So there was
Speaker 3: and this is across the country. This is across the country.
Speaker 3: There was a considerable effort to get individuals registered to vote.
Speaker 3: That was the major thing, and then after that deadline
Speaker 3: to continue and go to the next level and encourage
Speaker 3: them to go to the polls and to actually vote.
Speaker 3: So it was a matter of getting into places where
Speaker 3: you know people are, whether it's a barber shop, whether
Speaker 3: it's a beauty shop, whether it's a restaurant, whether it's
Speaker 3: soul food, whether it's at the park. It was a
Speaker 3: matter of going to places where you could find, in
Speaker 3: this instance, African Americans who would vote. Because we were
Speaker 3: really working to get Barack Obama to become president. That
Speaker 3: concept of having an African American as a president is
Speaker 3: something that was always articulated, but you never really really
Speaker 3: really thought that it would happen. You know, you would
Speaker 3: say to a little boy, oh, you could be president
Speaker 3: one day.
Speaker 4: You need to do that.
Speaker 3: You can be president. But for it to really happen,
Speaker 3: to reach that plateau wasn't something that we thought along
Speaker 3: the way that could actually be achieved necessarily. And when
Speaker 3: Barack Obama came along and we had advanced along the
Speaker 3: way and progressed in politics, we saw that the opportunity
Speaker 3: was there, and the community came together to make it happen.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that we have to remember, too,
Speaker 3: is that many of the movements that we have had
Speaker 3: as it relates to the black experience in America, has
Speaker 3: been led by a religious leader of some sort, whether
Speaker 3: it was the Reverend doctor Martin Luther King, whether it
Speaker 3: was Reverend l.
Speaker 4: Sharpton.
Speaker 3: You know, there were ministers there, the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Speaker 3: They were also always ministers. When you think of the
Speaker 3: Muslim faith, that was right, Yeah, there was always someone
Speaker 3: there of the faith who had faith. I'm not a
Speaker 3: very religious person, but there was a faith there that
Speaker 3: allowed those individuals to come to the forefront and to
Speaker 3: speak to the people and to motivate the people to
Speaker 3: do what they needed to do to assure that we
Speaker 3: got where we were going to get. And you know,
Speaker 3: it was a progression. From segregation to integration was a progression.
Speaker 4: And when it.
Speaker 3: Finally reached that point, the president. My goodness, we really
Speaker 3: came out in force to make sure that that could happen,
Speaker 3: and it did. It did, and you have so many
Speaker 3: people who were elated. We have some people who left
Speaker 3: this earth who saw it happen and they were in tears.
Speaker 3: My mother who lost it ninety six years old when
Speaker 3: I called her that evening when it was announced. Can
Speaker 3: you imagine? Can you just imagine to have a black president?
Speaker 3: And he did a marvelous job in the midst of
Speaker 3: being restricted in a number of ways by Congress. There
Speaker 3: were so many that we were still held back. We
Speaker 3: should have had a person of the Supreme Court. He
Speaker 3: was to do that, he was do that, but Congress
Speaker 3: saw to it that he did not have that opportunity
Speaker 3: and will not even interview his recommendation.
Speaker 4: And so we still have a long ways to go.
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, at this particular juncture, I
Speaker 3: won't say that we've stepped back, you would say, but
Speaker 3: I think what has happened is, as someone said, those
Speaker 3: individual and I'm trying to decide which had am I
Speaker 3: wearing right now, because all of the organizations with which
Speaker 3: I'm affiliated they are none partisan, and so I'm speaking
Speaker 3: from a policy perspective. Okay, from a policy perspective, when
Speaker 3: you look at the Constitution and the rights of individuals,
Speaker 3: we have a population of individuals who do not leave
Speaker 3: in the Constitution or the equality of all people. And
Speaker 3: they have taken off their sheets, yes, and so we
Speaker 3: know who they are are now, Yeah, we know who
Speaker 3: they are. When I drive around and I see the
Speaker 3: flags or I see big trucks passing me with flags,
Speaker 3: that to me, that equates the it's a.
Speaker 4: Sign, it's a symbol.
Speaker 3: I know, I know who I am looking at, and
Speaker 3: I know it is someone that does not want me
Speaker 3: to be here, at least holding myself in a certain position. Absolutely, okay,
Speaker 3: they would like for me to be subjected to them. Yes,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, the signs are there, and we know.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you brought that up because we've actually
Speaker 1: talked about that before on the show.
Speaker 2: With respect to the flags, and you know, the way
Speaker 2: that what I always say is.
Speaker 1: People having a flag in the country, especially we're not
Speaker 1: on the coast when I'm born ring, you know, people
Speaker 1: having a flag in a place like where I live
Speaker 1: in Phoenix. It's like wearing a shirt with your address
Speaker 1: on it in your own house, you know, Like, who
Speaker 1: are you really trying to show that to?
Speaker 2: What? Why is it that? Why are you going so hard?
Speaker 2: Who needs to see that? Like, we know where we are.
Speaker 2: This is clearly as America. We're not. We didn't just
Speaker 2: get here.
Speaker 1: We're deep in the middle of the country where the
Speaker 1: state is landlocked.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but when they began that, I wanted to flip
Speaker 3: the switch on them with that. I really think we
Speaker 3: all should have gotten flags and started I mean, we
Speaker 3: really took.
Speaker 1: It away or owned it ourselves. Yeah, it belongs to
Speaker 1: all of us. That's that's the us, absolutely.
Speaker 4: But so.
Speaker 1: Not to get too far away from it, the.
Speaker 2: Souls to the poles. So I think it's worth mentioning that.
Speaker 1: Historically, So once upon a time, when when black people
Speaker 1: first got the right to vote, my understanding is that
Speaker 1: black people exercised that right to the degree that they
Speaker 1: were able. There was of course tremendous aggressive voter suppression initially,
Speaker 1: but you know, if, if and when and where they could,
Speaker 1: black folks got out and voted right, that was the
Speaker 1: primary means of making sure that your voice was heard.
Speaker 1: Once upon a time, there was no Instagram to share photos,
Speaker 1: there was none of that stuff back in you know,
Speaker 1: the nineteen early nineteen hundreds, late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: Over the years, my understanding is that black folks have become,
Speaker 1: or the feelings has been, that that system does not
Speaker 1: work for black people, It does not accurately reflect their voice.
Speaker 1: They feel further disenfranchised. In fact, and I shared this
Speaker 1: on the show before, but I saw something on Netflix
Speaker 1: once upon a time, this might have been three four
Speaker 1: months ago, where it quantified the value of a vote
Speaker 1: from a white male in Wisconsin and compared the value
Speaker 1: of that vote to a person just anybody living in
Speaker 1: southern California. As it turns out, that vote from Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: a place where there's not a lot of population, actually
Speaker 1: carries about one point seventy five percent voting weight, and
Speaker 1: then the person in California it's like a fraction of
Speaker 1: a percent. And so historically, my understanding is that black
Speaker 1: folks have really felt that their vote doesn't really count
Speaker 1: for as much, and so the engagement, the drop off
Speaker 1: in terms of the engagement over the years, it certainly
Speaker 1: is based on something, right, So these initiatives, these souls
Speaker 1: to the polls, and of course, obviously with Obama becoming
Speaker 1: president that I believe is something that can speak uniquely
Speaker 1: to the black experience and let folks know, hey, look,
Speaker 1: if we do this all together, we can get out
Speaker 1: there and make it happen. And it's interesting that there
Speaker 1: are these forces that attack that. One fact, no one's
Speaker 1: canceling Instagram accounts, because the Instagram accounts don't change elections.
Speaker 1: No one's canceling, no one's coming to your job, and
Speaker 1: you know, none of that.
Speaker 2: Sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But they will do their best to keep you from voting.
Speaker 1: And my understanding is that there was a bill that
Speaker 1: was introduced in Georgia that no voting would be able
Speaker 1: to take place on Sundays. And you know and I
Speaker 1: know as black people, that that bill exists solely to
Speaker 1: counteract the effects of the polls campaign and to and
Speaker 1: to decrease the amount of overall votes in the next
Speaker 1: election in Georgia. And as it turns out that past
Speaker 1: or that my understanding is that that that passed. It
Speaker 1: was close, but it did pass, and it's heartbreaking, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to dwell on that. It shows the
Speaker 1: motivation and.
Speaker 4: The intention.
Speaker 3: That's happening across the country. Okay, since the loss of
Speaker 3: the presidential election. There has been a movement in states
Speaker 3: and basically read states across the country to change the
Speaker 3: laws as relates to voting.
Speaker 4: And I firmly believe that when.
Speaker 3: And soulds to the polls and that that is one
Speaker 3: of them. Another is having to if you've missed so
Speaker 3: many opportunities to vote, then your record, your name is
Speaker 3: taken away from the permanent.
Speaker 4: Registry for voting.
Speaker 1: Actually, hang on one second. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: that one, but real quick, I got to do this.
Speaker 1: If you're just tuning in the civic cipher, I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsy's Jah. Our guest today is doctor Kimille Westenberg, and
Speaker 1: we're discussing some of the voter suppression initiatives that have
Speaker 1: been campaigned and are now coming to vote around the country.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned the the removal of the early.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, it's under certain conditions. If you have missed voting
Speaker 3: X number of times, then your name will be removed
Speaker 3: and you may not be notified of that.
Speaker 4: You will not be and.
Speaker 3: So if you're expecting to get your ballot, you will
Speaker 3: not get it because they've removed your name. And so
Speaker 3: that's another way to suppress the vote simply because you
Speaker 3: have missed voting two times it's two or three. And
Speaker 3: then another one is that if you don't have identification,
Speaker 3: then you have to get a notarized document. Well, the
Speaker 3: fact is everyone isn't capable of doing that. You have
Speaker 3: some people who live in the country, they are long
Speaker 3: distance away from a notary they may not have some
Speaker 3: people may have never had anything notarized. Just the process
Speaker 3: of going through to get that done can be problematic
Speaker 3: for a number of African Americans and other minorities as well.
Speaker 3: And so that's another way to suppress the vote.
Speaker 1: I think it's key to mention here that for those
Speaker 1: that don't know that are listening to this conversation, historically,
Speaker 1: when less people vote, it favors Republican outcomes.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 1: Another thing is that these type of practices, coupled with jerrymandering,
Speaker 1: helps further ensure favorable outcomes for Republicans. Black people in
Speaker 1: it by and large tend to vote Democratic Democrats. And
Speaker 1: I will add to that that in terms of the
Speaker 1: ideological landscape of this country, most of the people that
Speaker 1: live in this country tend to have a more liberal
Speaker 1: philosophy or belief system, and that is reflected in the
Speaker 1: way that they vote. And so the Republican establishment or
Speaker 1: the establishment, if you will, that we trace a lot
Speaker 1: of what we call white supremacy back. It looks like
Speaker 1: what the Republican Party looks like today. That's just what
Speaker 1: it looks like and to largerie what it is, you know.
Speaker 1: And obviously as of late, they're not really too concerned
Speaker 1: with hiding that, but it behooves them to suppress as
Speaker 1: many votes as possible because historically folks that do vote
Speaker 1: Democrat have all their ducks in the row. Their whole
Speaker 1: life is built around voting. They have the for the
Speaker 1: most part, have the financial freedom to take time to
Speaker 1: do you know, jump through a couple of extra hoops,
Speaker 1: and for the most part they don't have to because
Speaker 1: the laws.
Speaker 2: Are not written to suppress their vote.
Speaker 1: There is no canceling Sunday voting is designed to affect
Speaker 1: one group of people, right, And I think it's important
Speaker 1: to mention that so that we know why they're doing
Speaker 1: And again I have to I have to put this
Speaker 1: in the context of.
Speaker 3: It is in fact a red and blue concept, but
Speaker 3: I have to extract it and take it out and
Speaker 3: put it into the context of what is a democracy.
Speaker 3: And with the democracy, everyone should have the opportunity to vote,
Speaker 3: and that there should be no restrictions placed on you
Speaker 3: as far as voting. As much as possible, you should
Speaker 3: have the opportunity to vote, so no restrictions should be
Speaker 3: placed there. It so happens that those individuals who are
Speaker 3: of a Republican persuasion tend to want to sway things.
Speaker 3: So Jerry Manderin is done. When they draw the lines
Speaker 3: and you get your electoral college and how many how
Speaker 3: many votes you get out of a particular area, and
Speaker 3: that comes out of the census. That's why the census
Speaker 3: is so important because and we're waiting for the data
Speaker 3: on that of the twenty twenty census to see how
Speaker 3: many people they are where they are. But then the
Speaker 3: thing is, how do you draw those lines so you
Speaker 3: can set from this particular area, this is how many
Speaker 3: individ jewels or votes that you have from the electoral college.
Speaker 3: And that's why in some instances they'll take a historically
Speaker 3: black college and split it in half because to diminish
Speaker 3: the value of it. And it's it's all a matter
Speaker 3: of strategy, and it should not be and I would
Speaker 3: say that to a Democrat, and I would.
Speaker 4: Say that to a Republican.
Speaker 3: It's a matter of being fair, right, and so it's
Speaker 3: just like the postal system. There were so many things
Speaker 3: that were being done. I firmly believe now, and I
Speaker 3: would say this to Donald Trump if he was standing
Speaker 3: here in front of me, that there were so many
Speaker 3: things that were done to cheat in this election. Then yes,
Speaker 3: it probably is thinking he won. He probably is, and
Speaker 3: Juliana and all of them, they probably are thinking. But
Speaker 3: people came out, people came out, and it didn't end.
Speaker 3: It was like whoa, what happened here? And so now
Speaker 3: there is this big effort. Wow, if we couldn't make
Speaker 3: it happen that way, we couldn't get a second term.
Speaker 4: So let's change the laws. Change You don't think about
Speaker 4: a parent.
Speaker 3: All of those parents and their kids are out playing
Speaker 3: baseball or soccer or whatever it is. Would they encourage
Speaker 3: their child to change the rules? No, they would tell them, Okay,
Speaker 3: those are the rules of the game. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is what's building care character in your child. Okay, we
Speaker 3: went into this, these are what the rules are. We
Speaker 3: played by the rules. You lost this time. That's why
Speaker 3: you line up and you shake hands at the end
Speaker 3: and whatever it is, you know, a high five or
Speaker 3: whatever it is, and you take it. You take it
Speaker 3: realizing you did the best.
Speaker 4: That you could.
Speaker 3: Cheating here though, I mean with the postal system there
Speaker 3: was cheating. Since do you have mailboxes? Who do you
Speaker 3: have mailboxes taken out? And sort has taken out? So yeah,
Speaker 3: they're the system. We have some players that are not
Speaker 3: their players. This is what it comes down to, who
Speaker 3: do not believe in democracy and they are not adhering
Speaker 3: to democracy and they are about the business right now
Speaker 3: of trying to change the rules. And with that being said,
Speaker 3: the only thing I can say to people who are listening,
Speaker 3: you better get in the game.
Speaker 2: There it is, you better get them.
Speaker 4: In the game.
Speaker 3: Okay, look at what's going down on the sixth.
Speaker 4: We all most lost our.
Speaker 3: Democracy January sixth, Yes, if some can you imagine if
Speaker 3: someone had gotten all of those electoral if someone had
Speaker 3: gotten their hands on it, we would be in complete
Speaker 3: disarray now because that was an attempt to take over
Speaker 3: this country. And so we've got to play the game well,
Speaker 3: and we've got to play the game hard. I mean,
Speaker 3: you cannot be complacent. And the other thing I want
Speaker 3: to say is this notion of fakeness. Things mean fake,
Speaker 3: fake news fake. I believe, I believe in the free press.
Speaker 3: I believe in that. You know, some countries where it's authoritative,
Speaker 3: you don't, you don't have the free press. I believe
Speaker 3: in the free press. I believe that there are conservative
Speaker 3: stations and that they should be there. Okay, I have
Speaker 3: no problem with that, But that does not mean that
Speaker 3: some of your more liberal stations are fake. And people
Speaker 3: are going to have to be able to look at
Speaker 3: things digested and make decisions for themselves. It's an interesting
Speaker 3: it's an it's an interesting dumbing dumbing up of society
Speaker 3: right now, where there are things and you can see
Speaker 3: it right in front of you, but you don't believe
Speaker 3: it because someone has told you it isn't so. Because
Speaker 3: someone has told you it isn't so. So, that means
Speaker 3: that you have lost your mental capacity to think.
Speaker 1: The reason for yourself your self. I want to I
Speaker 1: want to give some life to this. So there was
Speaker 1: something you said earlier and I wanted to restate it
Speaker 1: because again, folks need to know, you know, yes, we
Speaker 1: did accomplish something major by voting Donald Trump out and
Speaker 1: now I think we did that more than elect Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: We voted Trump out right took all of us.
Speaker 1: We all came together, we all voted, and as you stated,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump absolutely stacked the deck in his favor. He
Speaker 1: stuffed the box, you know, like you said there was
Speaker 1: and the post office was just one thing. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: had a number of things that he enacted to insure
Speaker 1: a victory. And just the overwhelming amount of folks that
Speaker 1: came out and voted, appointed so many judges and then
Speaker 1: just ran headfirst into it, confident and cocky as ever.
Speaker 1: But when we made our voices heard through voting. So
Speaker 1: everyone that did vote, thank you for listening. But everyone
Speaker 1: who did were going to We're going to need you
Speaker 1: the next time around. We need the midterm elections, We
Speaker 1: need we need everything. We need your voice and your
Speaker 1: and and even for those who are on the fence,
Speaker 1: we need you to like do some soul searching and
Speaker 1: really take take inventory of who you are and who
Speaker 1: you want to be and how you want Do you
Speaker 1: want this to be a world based in divisiveness and
Speaker 1: fear or one that's based in you know, love and
Speaker 1: kind And I'm not saying which is which I'm saying
Speaker 1: aside for yourself.
Speaker 2: But I will say this.
Speaker 1: If if Jesus Christ were alive, because a lot of
Speaker 1: folks try to vote like Jesus.
Speaker 2: I can't make a case for Jesus being a Republican.
Speaker 2: That's all I'm gona say about that.
Speaker 1: And you can't either, And you can find me on
Speaker 1: the street if we want to out of that conversation.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, so this guy, you know, stacks a
Speaker 1: deck in his favor, loses the election and then says
Speaker 1: to everyone that it was stolen from solen and.
Speaker 3: And has lost every.
Speaker 1: But because he said it, like you said, you just
Speaker 1: said this, because he'll say it right. And you know,
Speaker 1: I read something recently that like fifty percent of white
Speaker 1: male Trump supporters will not take.
Speaker 2: The vaccine because uh you know.
Speaker 1: And then Trump, until I wanted to say yesterday, would
Speaker 1: not say that he had actually seen the vaccine, you know,
Speaker 1: but he wanted credit in the vaccine that you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's.
Speaker 4: Just fact is he did not. He was not the
Speaker 4: scientist that.
Speaker 1: Of course, But I and I don't want to give
Speaker 1: too much credit to this guy. That's okay, okay, there
Speaker 1: is something to be said about him losing that election
Speaker 1: and creating this narrative that the election was rigged, that
Speaker 1: dead people voted, that immigrants voted, that all this all
Speaker 1: this stuff, you know, and all that is is it
Speaker 1: serves as a narrative for these Republicans because they're all
Speaker 1: Republican bills that are being introduced to, you know, change
Speaker 1: the way voting works.
Speaker 2: And all these red states, as you mentioned.
Speaker 1: Are what they're going to do is try to take
Speaker 1: your vote, our vote away from us or otherwise make
Speaker 1: it more difficult. And so we have to be more vigilant,
Speaker 1: more diligent. Of course, we can speak more intelligently to
Speaker 1: you know, the ones that we're aware of. But in
Speaker 1: the state in which you live, you know, there are
Speaker 1: some initiatives, especially if you live in a red state,
Speaker 1: historically red state, you know, some flip this time. But
Speaker 1: you know, even battleground states, you know, those things.
Speaker 2: Are things that you need to be on top of.
Speaker 1: And I know that the NAACP is doing a lot
Speaker 1: to bring attention to these things, Am I right?
Speaker 4: You're right?
Speaker 2: Okay, So let's talk about that first. What can people do?
Speaker 3: Let me tell you where we are during the last
Speaker 3: during the election, we had an initiative, the Political Action
Speaker 3: Committee had a countdown to twenty twenty and we did
Speaker 3: vote registration and mobilization focusing exclusively on Legislative District twenty
Speaker 3: seven in South Phoenix, young people eighteen through thirty, unregistered voters.
Speaker 3: That was our target audience, and there were something like
Speaker 3: twenty two hundred and some unregistered voters eighteen through thirty
Speaker 3: in that legislative district and we chose that because it
Speaker 3: had a lower performance rating, and we contacted all of
Speaker 3: those individuals and then did a second call for anyone
Speaker 3: who was not at home when we.
Speaker 4: Called.
Speaker 3: Initially, after we completed that, we went into after the
Speaker 3: last day to vote, we went into mobilization. So I
Speaker 3: went into the NAACP band system and got the list
Speaker 3: of all of the registered voters there, non partisan, nonpartisan,
Speaker 3: and we started calling to tell them go to the polls,
Speaker 3: you need to go, you need to go. We would
Speaker 3: always talk about democracy and humanity and equality. Again we're
Speaker 3: non partisan, but we certainly can talk about the rights
Speaker 3: of everyone, immigrants, our whites, Chinese, Asian, it's Asian, because
Speaker 3: we have a problem with that right now, hispanic for everyone. Well,
Speaker 3: now that and from that. Then we called the NAACP
Speaker 3: president in Atlanta and started doing some calling there and
Speaker 3: we hope we helped a little bit with those two
Speaker 3: Senate seats going over, but who knows, but we did
Speaker 3: do some calling there in Atlanta. So where we are
Speaker 3: right now looking at what we are facing, we are
Speaker 3: getting ready to focus on voter suppression. And the initiative
Speaker 3: is voting never going to give it up, never, never, never, never,
Speaker 3: never going to give it up. And so we're going
Speaker 3: to begin engaging in countering pieces of legislation as they
Speaker 3: hit committee. And what I'd like to do is invite
Speaker 3: the audience to attend one of our events that's coming up,
Speaker 3: and I want to pull it up so that I
Speaker 3: can and somehow if you can get the information out.
Speaker 4: But it's protect the vote.
Speaker 3: It is a.
Speaker 4: Forum, mind you.
Speaker 3: This is a forum, but it is going to be
Speaker 3: more than that because we are going to be talking
Speaker 3: about strategies that we can use. And we will have
Speaker 3: as a special guest speaker Emily Kirkland, and she's the
Speaker 3: executive director for Progress Arizona. They monitor the legislation and
Speaker 3: the bills and they know as they move through the
Speaker 3: pipeline from the House to the Senate to committee, and
Speaker 3: when it reaches committee, they will be filtering into us
Speaker 3: the date and the time, and then we can begin
Speaker 3: calling the legislators and letting them know they need some pressure.
Speaker 3: They need pressure placed on them because they want to
Speaker 3: stay in their positions and if they feel that the
Speaker 3: masses are feeling one way, that's that's one way you
Speaker 3: can persuade them to vote in the affirmative the way
Speaker 3: that you would like for them to vote sure. And
Speaker 3: so we will also have talking points, we will have
Speaker 3: the day, we will have the time. Now, when I
Speaker 3: did the last initiative, I had a team of ninety
Speaker 3: individuals and we were diligent. I mean we we just
Speaker 3: we did the calling hard. We just did we did
Speaker 3: the calling. I mean we completed the whole batch. And
Speaker 3: so we want to do the same thing with these
Speaker 3: bills as they come up. And so on Saturday we
Speaker 3: will have Miss Kirkland who will be giving us an
Speaker 3: overview of voter suppression, and then we will start actually
Speaker 3: the strategic part of having individuals getting the information. This
Speaker 3: is it, this is the time, this is what you
Speaker 3: need to say, and individuals are going to need to
Speaker 3: be dedicated to do that, sure, okay, and that is
Speaker 3: going to be on Saturday, March the twenty seventh at
Speaker 3: eleven point thirty a m.
Speaker 4: And I don't know.
Speaker 3: The link they'll need to register for to lism And
Speaker 3: so if you can get that Infols.
Speaker 2: With your information I'll make on our social media.
Speaker 3: You can get it out of them. But with the
Speaker 3: initiative voting never going to give it up. We will
Speaker 3: be looking at voter suppression. We will be looking at
Speaker 3: Jerry manderin because that is taking place now. We don't
Speaker 3: know where those lines are going to be drawn, but
Speaker 3: they're waiting on the data from the census to come in.
Speaker 3: That's going to help them in making some of that determination.
Speaker 3: And from there they will do the redistricting that's going
Speaker 3: to determine how many individuals electoral votes will exist for
Speaker 3: a particular area. In the midst of that, we're going
Speaker 3: to continue to do voter registration and mobilization. Sure, So
Speaker 3: for anyone who is turning eighteen, we're going to hit
Speaker 3: them up right now. There's no reason to wait until
Speaker 3: it's election time to say, okay, let's start engaging in
Speaker 3: voter registration. So we're going to continue with the voter
Speaker 3: I'll do a batch of unregistered voters eighteen through thirty
Speaker 3: and start doing voter registration.
Speaker 4: Immediately with them.
Speaker 3: And then we want to also foster a community partnership.
Speaker 3: We want to get partnerships with the community. The other
Speaker 3: thing that under this initiative is a pop up call
Speaker 3: to action. An example of that will be Greenwood Cemetery,
Speaker 3: which is over on where the freeways intersect, where you
Speaker 3: have I ten coming in from California and I seventeen
Speaker 3: heading toward Tucson, and you have all of those freeways
Speaker 3: coming over each other.
Speaker 4: If you look just.
Speaker 3: West and south, you have Greenwood Cemetery. It's one of
Speaker 3: the oldest cemeteries, has trees, large monuments. There are a
Speaker 3: number of our stately African American and minority individuals who
Speaker 3: are buried there. It is a historical cemetery in Phoenix.
Speaker 3: And there has been a company who wants to put
Speaker 3: up a huge sign that will I guess people can
Speaker 3: pay to advertise in it and it will change and
Speaker 3: flash and everything. And the community has decided that this
Speaker 3: is a solemn place, a place of rest for our people,
Speaker 3: many from back in the day, many who are there now,
Speaker 3: my late husband is there, my mother and aunt is there.
Speaker 3: There's so many people there, and it is not just
Speaker 3: African American. One of the Jewish synagogues has a portion
Speaker 3: of that cemetery as well, and so we have been
Speaker 3: calling in when it went into zoning to share our
Speaker 3: distaste with that being there. And they changed the date
Speaker 3: on it. There was a variance, and they moved the date,
Speaker 3: and we called it again and there was another variance.
Speaker 3: I think it's a twenty verse. So we're going to
Speaker 3: be ready to hit it again and start calling. I
Speaker 3: don't know, it's sort of interesting that these variants are
Speaker 3: coming up, but that's the pop up call to action
Speaker 3: when we know that there are things and we just
Speaker 3: need to jump on it right away.
Speaker 1: Now let me let me, let me add this. So basically,
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing is that you're on top of it.
Speaker 4: I'm not.
Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you, I have some young people
Speaker 3: who are who you know who? Really, I'm an educator,
Speaker 3: I'm not in politics. I'm retired and I'm just moving
Speaker 3: into this. There's a sensibility about it.
Speaker 4: Let me shut it that way.
Speaker 2: Sure, but there's there's.
Speaker 1: You know, for for folks that do live in Phoenix
Speaker 1: or in Arizona, And again I'll put that information up
Speaker 1: on our social media cifix Cipher.
Speaker 2: It's really easy to find those things.
Speaker 1: But there are some national initiatives as well that the
Speaker 1: NAACP is taking on, so our folks that listen beyond
Speaker 1: the state of Arizona can engage as well. And I
Speaker 1: think that's just a matter of you know, finding finding
Speaker 1: out about your local branch and whatever city you're in
Speaker 1: and finding out what action they're taking with respect to
Speaker 1: voter suppression or if it's something that like we're talking
Speaker 1: about here in Arizona with you know, the cemetery things
Speaker 1: like this. But to one degree or another, in any
Speaker 1: way that you can, it's important to become engaged and
Speaker 1: become active. This is what happens for the Republicans. They
Speaker 1: get active and they shape the world that they want
Speaker 1: to see for themselves and their posterity. But the language
Speaker 1: that that ourselves and our posterity, that language exists for
Speaker 1: the whole country. The things we have to you know,
Speaker 1: actually step up and take advantage of that. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, before we get out to hear I do
Speaker 1: want to take some time and if you're just tuning in,
Speaker 1: by the way, the specific sipher. I'm your host, Ramsy's Jah.
Speaker 1: My guest today is doctor Camilla Westernberg, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to take a moment to discuss something that happened this
Speaker 1: week in Atlanta, and it was there were eight people
Speaker 1: killed by a shooter. So you know, it was a
Speaker 1: mass shooting, and six of those people were Asian. Now
Speaker 1: a lot of folks may not know this, but before I,
Speaker 1: before I sat down to do this show, I spoke
Speaker 1: with my older brother. For those who are fans of
Speaker 1: boombab hip hop, my older brother, his name is Raka
Speaker 1: or Iris, Science of the Dilated Peoples and just big brother,
Speaker 1: the little brother. He told me something that was very profound.
Speaker 1: He said, make sure that you know that you're not
Speaker 1: the only one. You might have to go first, but
Speaker 1: you're not the only one. There are other people who
Speaker 1: might not be able to have a voice, a platform,
Speaker 1: a stage, and you have to be able to look
Speaker 1: out for those people too. And that's something that was
Speaker 1: echoed to an incredible degree last year with respect to this.
Speaker 1: We rise in solidarity language that I heard so much
Speaker 1: when we were protesting, and then of course out on
Speaker 1: the streets we saw again, approximately from guessing ten percent
Speaker 1: black folks out there, ninety of humanity showed them. All colors,
Speaker 1: all languages, all faith, religion, everything human being showed up
Speaker 1: for their African American brothers and sisters. And so it
Speaker 1: is a privilege and an honor to be able to
Speaker 1: bring attention once again on this show, because this is
Speaker 1: not the first time that we're doing this, but to
Speaker 1: bring attention to the issues that are affecting our Asian
Speaker 1: American brothers and sisters, and it's it's it feels like
Speaker 1: I'm fulfilling my promise to my brother to be able
Speaker 1: to use a black space to lend some time to
Speaker 1: what my Asian brothers and our Asian brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: are going through. Now, for those of you who don't
Speaker 1: know much about the story, somebody walked into some massage parlors.
Speaker 1: Six Asian women lost their lives and there were two
Speaker 1: other people that lost their lives that were not Asian.
Speaker 1: It's my understanding, but it feels very targeted, and that's
Speaker 1: what that's what I want to say. And you know,
Speaker 1: the mayor of Atlanta, So what happened is the police
Speaker 1: came out and says that you know.
Speaker 2: It's it's not racially motivated.
Speaker 1: I guess the shooter himself said that it's not racially motivated,
Speaker 1: for whatever that's worth. And you know, the way that
Speaker 1: they're trying to chronicle the story is that somehow this
Speaker 1: is a result of this guy's sexual frustration or something
Speaker 1: like that, right, massage parlor and so forth. But really
Speaker 1: what it is is these are people low wage workers,
Speaker 1: and you know whatever, But and and and the mayor,
Speaker 1: kudos to her for standing up for these people, saying
Speaker 1: that we're not going to let any victim blaming take
Speaker 1: place or victim shaming take place.
Speaker 2: There's no reason to think that these weren'ts.
Speaker 1: Establishments for legitimate businesses exactly, And so kudos to her
Speaker 1: for saying that. But h, regardless of what this person's
Speaker 1: intentions were, I want to use this time to say
Speaker 1: that this past year, the previous administration put a target
Speaker 1: on the back of our Asian brothers and sisters by
Speaker 1: calling it the China virus.
Speaker 4: He did.
Speaker 1: And the truth is that there's a lot of uneducated
Speaker 1: people that live in this country, a lot of people
Speaker 1: who have not traveled. I've traveled, I've been to China
Speaker 1: and Thailand and Indonesia and Vietnam and Singapore and Malaysia
Speaker 1: and ant I was out there. These are different groups
Speaker 1: of people, but if you say China, Chinese anything, there's
Speaker 1: people that think it's all one group of people, right,
Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter because even if it is, even
Speaker 1: if everyone's Chinese, the way that man described it.
Speaker 2: Made seem like it was these people.
Speaker 4: And so.
Speaker 2: I can use this moment to.
Speaker 1: Speak to the pain perhaps that's being endured by my
Speaker 1: Asian brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2: Being having to read this.
Speaker 1: These are people that wept with me when we saw
Speaker 1: George Floyd lose his life. They marched and they yelled
Speaker 1: Breonna Taylor's name, and so for me, I think it's
Speaker 1: important to bring attention to that, to say that we
Speaker 1: do stand with you, we condemn that on every level,
Speaker 1: and that we are always going to uh champion a fair.
Speaker 2: Narrative for.
Speaker 3: You know, before prior to this happening, to the shooting
Speaker 3: that took place at the three Establishments, there had been
Speaker 3: a series of instances where people were going up and
Speaker 3: knocking down and shoving down Asian elderly individuals. Was the
Speaker 3: saddest thing men and women. The elderly just going and
Speaker 3: just shoving them back hurts me think about it. And
Speaker 3: then you had this to happen and recently I understood.
Speaker 3: My understanding is statistically there have been more complaints as
Speaker 3: it relates to women. Now think about it as African Americans,
Speaker 3: we've been a target all along.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, okay.
Speaker 3: We know that where we've been a target.
Speaker 4: But you have.
Speaker 3: A female who is vice president, a female, okay, and
Speaker 3: she is of Asian descent, and then you have him
Speaker 3: talking about the China virus.
Speaker 4: How about that?
Speaker 3: And you have this huge cohort of people who will
Speaker 3: believe absolutely anything that is said. Okay, then that that
Speaker 3: to me is half of the story there. And I
Speaker 3: just wanted to very quickly say this business of not
Speaker 3: believing in science, for anyone who does not believe in science,
Speaker 3: you don't get in a helicopter that science was used
Speaker 3: to decide and determine that that that device, that machinery
Speaker 3: it's going to work, and go into a hospital that
Speaker 3: is grounded on scientific discovery, and then come back out
Speaker 3: to the world and say I don't believe in science.
Speaker 3: Then I say to any people you need to start thinking.
Speaker 1: Well, well, we'll leave it right there. You need to
Speaker 1: start thinking once again. Thank you for checking out Civic
Speaker 1: Cipher Once again, my name is Rams's jah Qward'd be
Speaker 1: back with us next week, my guest. It's always a
Speaker 1: pleasure to have you up, Doctor Kamilla Westenberg, thank you
Speaker 1: for coming. Be sure to check the website Civiccipher dot
Speaker 1: com to download this and previous episodes you may have
Speaker 1: missed if you're tuning in later or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Of course, you can also follow our social media it's
Speaker 1: always at Civic Cipher, and please consider donating. It really
Speaker 1: helps to show out and all our donation links are
Speaker 1: on the website.
Speaker 2: So until next week, y'all take care in peace.