WEBVTT - 021724 Qasim Rashid—Author, Activist, and Attorney Running for Illinois 11th Congressional District (Part 2) 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.000 Keep on riding with us as we continue to broadcast 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.880 the balance and defend the discourse from these hip hop 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.680 weekly studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher once again. I 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:10.880 am your host, Ramsey's job. A big shout out to 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.119 my manqu Ward, who could not be here today and 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:15.720 I know he is kicking himself because we have a 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.880 very special guest with us today on Civic Cipher. The 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.960 man goes by the name of Kassim Rashid and he 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.680 is an actor, an author, activist, and attorney who is 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:29.960 running for Illinois eleventh Congressional District and a social media 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.800 constantly viral social media presence who uses his social media 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.920 platforms for activism the kind that you would know and love. 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.720 Welcome back with us. We certainly have a lot more 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.159 to talk about, and again it is an honor to 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:44.519 have you on the show today, Sir. 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:46.560 Brother Sabia Ramsey, It's great to be with your brother. 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:47.360 Thank you, mam. 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.800 So please be sure to stick around for that. We 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:54.480 are going to be discussing his campaign specifically in the 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.440 state of Illinois, and there's a whole lot of questions 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:59.280 we haven't gotten too yet, so a lot to stay tuned. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.320 For But before we get there, we are going to 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:05.399 discuss as always be a b A, becoming a better 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.000 ally BABA. And today's BABA is sponsored by Friends of 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:10.680 the Movement. You can sign up for the free voter 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.960 wallet from fotmglobal dot com to support black businesses and 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.160 allied businesses as well as make an impact with your spending. Again, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.440 that's Fotmglobal dot com. And today we're going to talk 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.480 about Erica Gaines, who is the president and CEO of 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:25.680 a company called TAC. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:27.720 Mobility, and you're going to want to hear about this. 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.679 Controlling the Mind and the Machine, a training program whose 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.120 vision is to heal the racial divide between people of 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.600 color and police officers through law enforcement wellness and community dialogue. 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.080 While an unlikely candidate to advocate for police, this dark skinned, 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.480 multiracial woman from Phoenix, Arizona continues to use her voice 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.800 to talk about trauma, recovery, self awareness, and suicide. The 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:54.280 number one cop killer in America. With inadequate clinical research 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.680 to pull from, in twenty nineteen, Erica created the world's 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:01.040 most extensive ongoing study of law enforcement officers and cumulative 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.840 stress arm with data in twenty twenty Erica created a 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.960 four hour Peace Officers Standards and Training post training course 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:12.680 accredited through the National Certification Program developed by the International 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.320 Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training. The 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:21.280 training program and fiscally sponsored nonprofit tax Mobility, Controlling the 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.680 Mind and the Machine offers stress and trauma awareness, rehabilitative stretching, 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.760 and self awareness to police officers in the United States. 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:30.079 With a straightforward approach. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.000 Erica uses tax Mobility to heal traumatized officers in an 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.920 effort to bring communities closer. She believes that supporting the 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.560 mental and physical health of officers ultimately brings support back 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.560 to the community, enabling them to balance compassion, courage, and empathy. 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.680 And we are very critical of police on this show, 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.240 but we do recognize and respect that police are human 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.840 beings and as a result, they are our brothers and sisters. 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.520 So again, check out tax Mobility if you wish to 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.639 become a better ally and give her some support. All right, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.680 seem it has been a pleasure to get to know you, sir. 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:09.800 You were everything that I was expecting. And now let's 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:14.639 shift gears here and let's talk about your campaign. What 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.000 makes you different from your opponent Bill Foster. 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.600 Well, I think just about everything that Democrats and Americans 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.079 care about. You know, he grew up quite wealthy. I 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.920 grew up low income. I know the struggle of economic 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.880 injustice of housing and food insecurity of working since I 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:38.480 was fifteen. In Congress, the running joke is that the 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.320 one thing that's the similar about us is that he 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.480 and I have both passed the same number of bills 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.720 in Congress, which is zero. He hasn't passed piece of 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.640 legislation as lead sponsor if you exclude post offices, which 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.960 that's your thing, okay. But on policy we see a 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:56.320 massive contrast. I'm fighting for guaranteed universal healthcare. He is 0:03:56.360 --> 0:04:00.360 heavily funded by the health insurance companies and refuses universal healthcare. 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:05.040 He's a pro for profit kind of guy. I'm taking 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.800 the climate crisis seriously and calling for twenty to thirty 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.200 carbon neutrality. He's shooting for twenty fifty, which scientists tallis 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.080 is too late. He's pro fracking, pro drilling, pro Exxon, 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.400 pro carbon capture, which is a debunk technology. On civil rights, 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.880 I think civil rights are sacred. I strongly support HR forty, 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.120 the bill to study reparations. I strongly support ending the 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.520 George W. Bush Patriot Act, which has been used to 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.680 conduct wantless searches on US citizens over the last twenty years, 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:39.760 disproportionately black and brown people. I strongly support protecting disability rights. 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.960 He voted a strip down disability rights. I strongly support 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.560 ending AID that has been used by the Israeli government 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.880 to detain Palestinian children. He refuses to co sponsor that bill. 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.599 Let's talk bank regulations. While I'm a human rights lawyer, 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.680 I did spend four years working on bank regulatory compliance. 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.000 It is as boring as it sounds, but it's also 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.479 so critical to protect consumers. I gave him credit for 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.640 voting for dot Frank in two thousand and eight, but 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:09.320 then he decided to vote Donald Trump to deregulate banks, 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:10.920 and I think that was a terrible vote. It also 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.159 helped enable the bank collapse we saw last year. I 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:16.640 take the opiate crisis seriously. I've lost love ones to 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.560 the opiate crisis. He is funded to the two of 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.320 a half million dollars in the same companies like Walgreens 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.320 who are causing the opiate crisis. You can google the 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.840 article right now. Walgreens just settled a two hundred and 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.920 thirty million dollar lawsuit for enabling mass deaf via illegal 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.520 opiate prescriptions. The list just goes on and on, but fundamentally, 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.000 the difference between Bill Foster and I comes down to 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:43.479 this principle. Every vote and policy decision I make is 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:45.560 based on what the facts tell us and what will 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.200 benefit working families. Every vote and policy he takes depends 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.040 on whether a corporation is funding him for that vote 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.400 or not. And I gave some examples earlier where you 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.200 can see him vote the right way, take corporate money, 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.520 and then vote the wrong way. You know, in law 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:02.240 school teach you that you recuse yourself if there's a 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.320 conflict of interest, and you recuse yourself when there's even 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:07.839 a perception of a conflict of interest. And so I 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.840 want voters to know that by supporting my campaign and 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:13.440 by electing me, they will know that every vote I 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.919 make will be one hundred percent and exclusively accountable to 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:21.240 what working people need us to do as elected officials. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.479 This is why I think he has been hesitant is 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.320 probably too generous of a word even to show up 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.760 to debate. He committed to three canceled all three, showed 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:35.040 up last minute to a fourth one, and then midway through, 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.120 just thirty minutes into it, gets up that says I 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.239 have to be somewhere else and just left the debate 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.000 midway through. It was extremely shocking for me, But this 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.640 is what I mean. We are ready to not only 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.280 defend our record, but make the argument on facts and 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.880 science as to why our platform is better aligned with 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.839 the needs of working people. Bill Foster wants voters to 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.560 vote for a record that even he isn't willing to defend. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:00.760 So it's no wonder to me that that's showing up, 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:02.920 because if I had a record like his, I wouldn't 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:03.480 show up either. 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:10.440 Yeah, well, I think that it's you know, I don't 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:17.440 want to get dirty here, but at a point, caution 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:24.880 orders on cowardice, and at a time like this where 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:31.280 the country is so politically divided and we really do 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.800 need to get on the same page about listening to 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.920 real human beings, real American citizens who go to work 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.520 and then they go home and they have a repair 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.680 in the kitchen, and they have to go shopping for 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.000 their kids over the weekend, and then they have a 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.200 birthday party to get to on Saturday. Those people that 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.200 live day to day lives for those people who make 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.080 up the fabric of this country to not be heard, 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.720 and to then have a candidate come up and say, hey, listen, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:04.600 I'm listening to you, and the incumbent will not debate 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.440 me again, that word cowardice comes into play, and I 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.680 know you mentioned the reasons for that, as did I. 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:17.760 You know, there's there's money in politics, and there's. 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:17.480 A lot at stake. 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.480 But the one thing that I've come to appreciate about 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.080 certain politicians is the ones that say, listen, I don't 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.920 need to do this job forever. I just need to 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.040 do this job until the job is fixed. And then 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.040 there's a different set of politicians who are career politicians, 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:34.720 who say I need to do this forever. So I 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:36.800 need to make sure that I keep the money moving 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:41.800 and I keep you know, enough support from enough people 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.880 to where it doesn't look like I'm as corrupt or 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.880 as morally compromised or indeed morally bankrupt as I truthfully am. 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:55.000 And this is true not just for Republicans, but this 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.680 is true in all of politics. And so that's one 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.120 of the things that at least I found frustrating with 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:06.320 respect to your back and forth with Bill Foster because 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.160 that was something that I was hoping to see. And 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.160 the truth is, I don't even live in Illinois. It 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.559 just is something that was necessary. So you know your 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:14.720 response and then we'll move on. 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.959 Well, I think it's in the nature of Americans to 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.120 want to be able to compare. In contrast, we like choices. 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:24.720 We want to know what the options are. It's it's 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:26.880 why you go to the grocery store and there's two 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.439 hundred kinds of cereal. Right. We like having our options 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.560 and we don't like being told this is the only 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.680 option and everything else is off limits. So you know, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:40.920 I will say this about Bill Foster that at the 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.560 end of the day, he is accountable to the American people. 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.360 I mean, I think he knows that. And you know, 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.600 we made a commitment at the start of this campaign 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.960 that we are going to be unassailable, meaning every critique 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.120 we make will be on policy. I'm not gonna mustling, 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.920 I'm not going to name call. At an event a 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.959 couple of nights ago, he flat out called me a liar. 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.559 And what's unfortunate about that is is one I think 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.360 is beneath the dignity of politics, because he didn't give 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.480 any examples of what I'm misrepresented because he can't. But 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.760 more importantly, it's one thing to not show up to 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.480 defend your record. It's another thing to then just say, well, 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.040 he's lying without any explanation or excuse. I don't think 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.560 the American people appreciate that. And I'm not going to 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.080 respond in kind. I'm not going to call him names. 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:29.880 I just I think people are sick and tired of 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.080 the divisiveness. I think they want adults in the room 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.640 making these decisions. And I will say this. You know 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.080 I'm not running for money or power, or fame or prestige. 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:43.680 There's a reason why our campaign slogans justice can't wait. 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.320 When you think about the you know, the person who's 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.920 suffering from asthma under the climate crisis, we can't tell 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.160 them to wait till twenty fifty. When you talk about 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:55.040 the fact that Black Americans are arrested seven times the 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:59.240 rate of white Americans despite having lower crime rates, you 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.480 can't tell them wait a little bit longer. You talk 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.920 about the woman who has breast cancer and can't get treatment, 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:08.000 or the woman who needs reproductive healthcare but doesn't have access, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.320 you can't tell them to wait we need to act now. 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.440 And you earlier you asked me, what's the difference between 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.680 me and Bill Foster. You know, he admits that he 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.200 didn't even get involved into politics until well into his fifties, 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:22.760 when he had already made tens of millions of dollars. 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.560 It must be nice to have that kind of privilege. 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:27.800 I grew up wondering where my next meal was going 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:29.959 to come from. I knew from an early age that 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.840 I needed to be actively engaged in the community here 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.439 and now, and I consider it by distinct privilege that 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:38.640 from a low income background, I'm at a place where 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:40.920 my wife Eishin and I are doing well enough for ourselves. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.040 But we see these issues of wealth and income inequality 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.720 worse now than the word thirty years ago. The climate 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.319 crisis worse now, the opiate crisis is worse now, race 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.360 relations worse now, and that's not going to be fixed 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.760 by delaying and saying it will come in due time. 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.679 We need to be active and deliberate now to make 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:00.280 it happen now. 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.920 I want to get a couple more things fleshed out here, 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:08.200 because you did a very good job of covering many 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.560 of the things that you're campaigning on many of the 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:15.760 things that you want to affect once you're elected. On 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.760 this show, we have conversations about lots of different things, 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.440 and some of these things we haven't been able to 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.199 touch on yet. So I want to get your thoughts 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:31.160 on It's called American history in our estimation, but it's 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:35.440 been rebranded as critical race theory. What are your thoughts 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:39.240 on the recent attacks on critical race theory and would 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.440 you do what would you do if you could do 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:47.600 anything to impact what's going on with respect to CRT 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.400 in this country, well at least in Illinois. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.480 Yeah, this is right wing outrage on a solution to 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.680 a problem that doesn't exist, and it just kind of 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.040 manufactured outrage in this space. This is a college of 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.360 a law school level course that looks at the role 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.280 that race has in how our legislation has been passed 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.360 in the systemic injustice that exist as a result of that. 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.240 To put in a simpler term, this is about how 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:17.160 systems of oppression have been built and sustained for racial oppression. 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.480 It's not about saying, hey, you white person individually, you're racist. 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.839 That's a nonsensical way of looking at it. But I 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.880 go even a step further and say, if you think 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:32.719 teaching children about America's history of racism will shame white kids, 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.320 then you need to answer a question, because yes, white 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.400 people were enslavers, but there are also white people who 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.560 are abolitionists like John Brown. If you think teaching about 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.640 America's history of racism will shame white children, you need 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:47.880 to answer why you think those kids will associate more 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.520 with the enslavers that with John Brown, you're projecting, you're 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.920 telling on yourself at that stage of the game. And 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:59.240 so for me, this is about understanding history in a 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.480 way that is constructive, that doesn't beat anyone down. That's 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.280 never been the point of history is to understand why 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.680 things happen the way they happen, and how we prevent 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.679 them from happening again in the future. And I've long 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.040 said one of the reasons why we're here today in 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.559 the country is because unlike South Africa, for example, or 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.720 unlike even Germany, which I'm not going to hold either 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:26.080 country as some beacon of tolerance and prosperity, however, both 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:31.240 those countries had a history lesson to reconcile the history 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.880 of aart conversation about it exactly, and it's actively taught 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:37.960 in their schools. We've never had a reckoning for the 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.360 genericide of Native Americans, or for the enslavement and mass 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.120 murder and trafficking of Africans and non African Americans, or 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.440 the interment and concentration camps of Japanese and Jactans, reckoning 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.440 for the outright ban on Asian immigration, or the lynching 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.760 that black and Latino Americans went through. None of that. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.840 Actually there was no reparations paid. I mean, for God's sake, 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.400 Tulsa survivors are still with us in a court role 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.680 that they are not qualified for reparations. So until and 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.640 unless we can have some kind of reckoning in that 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:14.400 space with actual monetary value transferred to those who've been marginalized, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:16.200 I don't know if we're going to be able to 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.960 truly heal race relations in this country. However, that doesn't 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.160 mean we shouldn't continue to work towards that space and 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:27.360 build capacity so that this younger generation knows that they 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:29.880 control the reins into the future and they can bring 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.480 about those changes. You know, justice delayed is justice denied, 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.400 But that doesn't mean that we prevent justice from being 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.840 implemented in the future. It can still happen if we 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:38.880 go after it aggressively. 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.720 You know, there's a post that I came across, might 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.600 have been earlier today, in fact, and it says, the 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:50.480 people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:54.440 go to school are now upset their grandchildren might have 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.320 to learn about them throwing rocks at Ruby Bridges for 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.760 trying to go to school. It's so interesting because this 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:04.480 year she's sixty nine years old. And so for the 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.960 folks that really push back against again, we're going to 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.200 call it what it is, American history, the teaching of 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.080 American history in the you know, K through twelve grades 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.640 that has been rebranded as CRT. For those folks that 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.400 push back against that, there's often a sense of shame 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.800 is that they associated with it that, as you mentioned, 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.200 may not necessarily translate to their children. They may not 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.120 identify as the rock throwers in the story. They might 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.640 identify as an entirely separate group of people. And this 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.320 is the way that my youth, you know, because I 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:40.240 learned all this stuff, that's the way I thought about it, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:44.080 and I saw, you know, my non black classmates responding 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.840 to it. So that's a very interesting perspective. I'm also 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:52.280 appreciative of how you connected that with the conversation about reparations, 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:57.880 because again by not having that racial reckoning. We covered 0:16:57.880 --> 0:16:59.960 something recently on the show here it might have been 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.240 two or three weeks ago, where we talked about the 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:09.159 different reparations that were paid in this country to Native Americans, 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.320 to in slavers or loss of property, to you know, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:19.960 Japanese Americans, to reparations paid to the descendants of the 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.480 people in the Holocaust and the people who were in 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.879 the Holocaust, and you know, and they had the total, 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.840 we had the total of the amount paid by the government, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.879 you know, and adjusted for you know, inflation and you 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.399 know how money works. And then it got down to 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.560 the bottom the reparations paid to Black Americans, and that 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:41.560 was zero dollars. And when you look at it in 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:46.000 terms of the actual harm done just by the act 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.159 of slavery by itself, it's it's immeasurable. But even if 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.040 we take slavery out of the equation, on this show, 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.600 we discuss everything that followed that. We discuss everything from 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.480 you know, the black Codes and Jim Crow and the 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.159 civil rights movement to redlining to the War on drugs too, 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.280 as you mentioned, you know, over policing, disproportionate arrest rates, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.280 judicial sentencing, you know, on and on and on and 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.120 and and then you know, more recently we're finding out 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.680 the impacts of environmental racism, how that factors into healthcare 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.800 outcomes for black and brown people in this country. And 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.600 so it's just a very interesting segue to go from 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.159 why folks are banning CRTA and why we need to 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.840 push back against that to the conversation about economic restorative 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.400 justice or you know, in truth. 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:32.600 Reparations. 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:34.959 And so one last thing I want to ask you, 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.280 and that's about affirmative action. 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:39.800 You know, the Supreme Court recently. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:46.879 Overturned you know, a very and it's kind of a 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.480 sad day for a lot of us, you know who. 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.600 We're happy to have that built into the equation to 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.960 kind of offset some of the historic injustices. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:58.080 That we've endured. 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.399 I'm not trying to bait the question for you, but 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.280 give us your thoughts on that, and you know what, 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.560 if anything, you would do if elected? 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:09.320 You know about that? 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.360 Well, I will start again with the contrast when affirmative 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.840 action was repealed by the Supreme Court, my opponent didn't 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.000 think it was important enough to talk about or condemned 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.240 that rule, which says a lot about his view of 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.800 reparations of justice for black people in general. And I 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.879 spoke extensively about this issue. You mean, the first, the 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:33.679 irony of it, all right, that affirmative action has actually 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:38.400 benefited white women more than black and brown and Asian 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.280 people combined. I mean, just statistically speaking, because it's not 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.639 just about education. It's also in the workforce as well. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.879 And women. You know, until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.640 of nineteen seventy four, women didn't have basic economic access 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:54.560 in this country, white or black. Two. Affirmative action was 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.119 never about admitting unqualified black people. It was about ensuring 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.879 that qualified black people also got access considered. Yeah, I 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:06.880 mean and basic consideration. People talking about unqualified people getting admission. 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.520 That's not affirm redaction, that's legacy admissions. A recent study 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:15.200 benefits white folks exactly because legacy admissions is if your 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.280 grandfather went into Harvard and during Jim Crow and black 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.679 people weren't allowed, you get automatic admission or you get 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:24.359 preferential treatment of a reason. Study showed that forty three 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:31.240 percent of white admittance to Harvard university were legacy admissions, 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.800 and three quarters of them would not have qualified on 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.600 their own merit, and so to the comparison, it's like 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:40.679 a ten x factor. So even if you go with 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:45.359 the incredulous argument that affirmative action admitted unqualified people, even 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.760 with that ridiculous argument, the number of white people getting 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.959 admission through legacy is ten x that. But you never 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.159 heard anybody complain about that. That's a non issue. The 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.879 issue is this misperception that a black person got admission. 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.439 And then look, I think fundamentally it also speaks to 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.680 just this the systemic racism that we're facing here. 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:07.520 Fantastic, Well, do us a favor. 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:12.920 Let everyone know how they can connect with you, how 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.360 they can support you, how they can support your campaign 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:19.080 on the ground and around the country, and let's make 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.040 sure that we have everybody tapped in. 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:23.840 Thank you. It was BEAUTA hill about our campaign is 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.879 we are building a coalition black, white, brown people of 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.600 all based and backgrounds were working together. And that's the 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.280 key element I want to focus on that we solve 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:39.920 these issues by working together across faith, race, gender, socioeconomic status. 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:41.840 That's how we build a more perfect union. You can 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:46.439 visit us at my website www dot Cossumrashid dot com. 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.359 I'm on social media at Cossim Rashid q A s 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:51.880 I M R A s H I D and reach 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.200 out to us. Let's get involved. And if you're in 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.720 the district in Illinois or in the northern Illinois area 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:00.000 and you're looking for some extra work, we're starting camus 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.080 like twenty dollars an hour, paying a decent way to 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:07.320 get folks engaged. So get get involved, get engaged. Let's 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:11.120 let's win this election because why because justice can't wait. 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.000 Well, best wishes to you on your campaign. 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.040