Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your
Speaker 1: host Ramsay's job. Big shout out to my co host
Speaker 1: q Ward, who has the day off to be incredible.
Speaker 2: But that is okay, have no fear. We have a special.
Speaker 1: Guest in the building and sometimes contributor to this national
Speaker 1: dialogue that we've been having here. She goes by the
Speaker 1: name of Liza Sun.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, Thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad to be back, and.
Speaker 2: We're glad to have you.
Speaker 1: And I know that that is not the introduction that
Speaker 1: you deserve, but I.
Speaker 2: Never do your introduction justice.
Speaker 1: So how about you let the folks know exactly who
Speaker 1: you are and what you do.
Speaker 3: I am a community activist here in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm
Speaker 3: also a politician. I did run for the State House
Speaker 3: of Representative in the twenty twenty cycle with very powerful incumbents,
Speaker 3: and you know, as a result, I've really learn about
Speaker 3: the political process within the Democrat Party. So moving forward,
Speaker 3: I've decided to run again. So as of today, I
Speaker 3: am officially announcing my candidacy for our new lines of
Speaker 3: districts here in Arizona, as well as across the United
Speaker 3: States of America. Is now the LD twenty two and
Speaker 3: again I'll be running for the State House of Representative.
Speaker 2: Excellent, very good.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you made the announcement here on Zivic
Speaker 1: Cipher and I look forward to having today's conversation with you.
Speaker 1: In addition to that conversation, be sure to stick around
Speaker 1: because we will be checking in for our Ebony Excellent segment,
Speaker 1: which is coming up next also to become a better ally,
Speaker 1: We're going to take a look at Judge Timothy Walmsey
Speaker 1: who presided over the Amad Aubrey case. And we're going
Speaker 1: to hear something from doctor Martin Luther King Junior for
Speaker 1: our way Black History facts.
Speaker 2: So a lot to stick around for.
Speaker 1: But as I mentioned, first and foremost, let's celebrate a
Speaker 1: little bit of Ebony excellence. So today's story comes from
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Black Star. That is a favorite around here
Speaker 1: because they cover a lot of stuff that we'd like
Speaker 1: to talk about, and so we'll just share it with you.
Speaker 1: In the midst of the pandemic, an entrepreneur by the
Speaker 1: name of Robert Thomas made a serious one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty degree turn In early twenty twenty. Thomas was operating
Speaker 1: District nineteen sixty nightclub. But when COVID nineteen hit, it's
Speaker 1: shut down his business. He knew the end of his
Speaker 1: five year run as the club owner was over. It's
Speaker 1: a quote from him. He says, this was a club
Speaker 1: before I renovated it. They shut me down when there
Speaker 1: was a pandemic. And now Thomas, who was passionate about
Speaker 1: food and wellness, decided to do something different. He shut
Speaker 1: down the club, renovated the inside, and then opened a
Speaker 1: grocery store.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read this to you.
Speaker 1: An estimated forty one percent in a black owned businesses
Speaker 1: shut their doors between February and April of twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: according to New York Federal Reserve. A New York Federal
Speaker 1: Reserve study that looked at COVID nineteen's impact on entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: across the US and the CULPRA was a lack of
Speaker 1: savings and access to capital. But Thomas came out of
Speaker 1: the shutdown with a vision not only to save his business,
Speaker 1: but also to help the black community maintain its health.
Speaker 1: On November twenty six, Thomas opened the District Market Green Grocer,
Speaker 1: which he claims is Houston's first black owned grocery store
Speaker 1: and juice bar in the space that had previously been
Speaker 1: his nightclub. Customers come to the store and are able
Speaker 1: to find fresh fruit, vegetables and other products from black
Speaker 1: owned vendors. Another quote, right now, I have over thirty
Speaker 1: black vendors and quote said Thomas, fruit vegetables, eggs, vegan
Speaker 1: mills for the vegan community. Thomas told Fox twenty six Houston, quote,
Speaker 1: we have a black owned washing powder, herbs and spices
Speaker 1: as well as sauces. I want to be in the
Speaker 1: running with the Whole Foods and the Trader Joe's. I
Speaker 1: want to get to that level and making the black
Speaker 1: vendors with me. As a fellow nightclub owner, I salute you.
Speaker 1: You are an example of ebony excellence. Once again, shout
Speaker 1: out to Robert Thomas of Houston, Texas. Moving on the
Speaker 1: topic of the day, my good friend Liza's son. Now,
Speaker 1: before you came up here today, you mentioned that there
Speaker 1: were a lot of goings on within the Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: Our might not have been our last episode, but a
Speaker 1: couple episodes ago, Q and I discussed this question that
Speaker 1: is posed by the right very often, which is why
Speaker 1: do black people overwhelmingly vote Democratic? It's like a lot
Speaker 1: of these folks can't see what the reality is for
Speaker 1: many black people, because not all black people vote Democrat.
Speaker 1: But we understand the point, most of us do, and
Speaker 1: in that discussion we had to be very critical of
Speaker 1: both parties. But you know, there's this point that you
Speaker 1: hear time and again that it's effectively the lesser of
Speaker 1: two evils, you know, and if you have to choose something, yeah,
Speaker 1: I do want the lesser of two evils.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But this conversation took on a whole new meaning off
Speaker 1: air when you and I had a discussion because there
Speaker 1: were some goings on within the Democratic Party itself that
Speaker 1: even I was not made aware of until that conversation
Speaker 1: with you. I am not a politician myself. I'm a
Speaker 1: broadcaster and a person who's very passionate about making sure
Speaker 1: that black voices and black thoughts are shared with the country,
Speaker 1: and you are someone who works in that arena.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about it. First question.
Speaker 1: Is okay, So let me ask you this, because I
Speaker 1: realized that we didn't give a proper background for you.
Speaker 1: We had We initially met at the vigil for.
Speaker 3: The Atlantic shooting back in March at the State Capitol, right,
Speaker 3: and then we did a march rally at the Margaret
Speaker 3: Hens Park and that's where you participated in was one
Speaker 3: of our speakers. And then moving forward, I think we
Speaker 3: did a show here on Civic Cyper on race relations,
Speaker 3: which I believe was the very first time that our
Speaker 3: audience here in Arizona is hearing anything along that line.
Speaker 3: We've definitely took that from the national level and brought
Speaker 3: here at the state level with you. So I was
Speaker 3: really excited about that, And moving forward, I think there's
Speaker 3: a lot of work that we can, you know, work
Speaker 3: on as far as race relations, because that's actually a
Speaker 3: taboo subject matter, to be honest with you, and I
Speaker 3: know a lot of people are not comfortable talking about it,
Speaker 3: So kudos to you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we're reading that.
Speaker 1: Actually, we have an upcoming episode where we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about the instances of violence we have seen on
Speaker 1: this show where it's black people attacking Asian people and
Speaker 1: we have to use this space to publicly and nationally
Speaker 1: condemn those acts and stand in solidarity with our brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters of Asian descent and you know from the
Speaker 1: Asian community, which you are one, correct, yes, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: And so that I believe was approximately the time when
Speaker 1: you were starting to really engage in the political process.
Speaker 1: If I'm wrong, you can correct me.
Speaker 3: Well, by then I already ran in the twenty twenty
Speaker 3: Okay election cycle, and after I ran for public office,
Speaker 3: I realize that there's a huge void within our community
Speaker 3: of information that is skewed by the Democrat Party from
Speaker 3: certain elected officials, my incumbents, and you know, not too label.
Speaker 3: I don't really like to call it the moderate Democrats
Speaker 3: versus the Progressive Democrats, which is the two side within
Speaker 3: the Democrat Party. The way I'm currently seeing it, and
Speaker 3: I'm just calling it out just based on my anecdotal
Speaker 3: experiences and viewpoint. These are my views only, is that
Speaker 3: the moderate Democrats I usually call them corporate Democrats, and
Speaker 3: then the progressive Democrats I would say they lean more
Speaker 3: towards the we the people Democrats because they are the
Speaker 3: lesser of too evil. Unfortunately, even within the Progressive Democrats,
Speaker 3: we've seen and experience them running on that title label,
Speaker 3: but then after a cycle or two, once they are elected,
Speaker 3: they convert to the corporate Democrats.
Speaker 2: I could see that.
Speaker 1: We're gonna definitely talk about how that happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, there are so many issues that we
Speaker 3: can segue from the statements I just made, but obviously
Speaker 3: I just want to move forward by sharing my anecdotal
Speaker 3: experiences being a politician within the Democrat Party. We've heard
Speaker 3: these statements time and time again that the Republicans are racist, right,
Speaker 3: but we also know that the Democrat Party have time
Speaker 3: at times shown that they are also racist, but with politeness,
Speaker 3: and that evils.
Speaker 1: I know it, but it doesn't make it right, So
Speaker 1: please continue to minute throw you off.
Speaker 3: No, that's fine. I mean what you just said is correct,
Speaker 3: is that we know this, we know this, and then
Speaker 3: we're not addressing it. We're not attacking it, We're not
Speaker 3: holding our elected officials feet to the fire. And why
Speaker 3: is that not occurring? So when I was running for
Speaker 3: public office, I was running against incumbents. Encompass mean that
Speaker 3: you're on the ballot with the same party members, meaning
Speaker 3: that this can happen with the Republicans, this can happen
Speaker 3: with the Independence, it can happen with the Democrats. So
Speaker 3: happens the district that I will run again is predominantly
Speaker 3: Democratic voters. Their constituents are largely Democrats, so the chance
Speaker 3: of a Republican. Ever win our district is zero, it
Speaker 3: will always be a Democrat. It's a safe blue zone.
Speaker 3: And when that happens, a lot of the officials elected
Speaker 3: officials get into public office and they're not being checked,
Speaker 3: their feet are not held to the fire. They're going
Speaker 3: to look at the lobbyists and the packs and their
Speaker 3: influence to favor laws for corporations, where corporations hands are untied,
Speaker 3: so they can tie our hands and strip our civil rights.
Speaker 2: So you kind of alluded to it.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we took the time to do a
Speaker 1: proper introduction because the question that I was originally going
Speaker 1: to ask is why is it important for people to
Speaker 1: engage in the political process? But I think you alluded
Speaker 1: to some of those points just now by illustrating the
Speaker 1: fact that if you're not as engaged, it can really
Speaker 1: get away from me, if you're not holding your elected
Speaker 1: representatives feet to the fire, so to speak, that other
Speaker 1: interests can creep in when you're not paying attention to it.
Speaker 2: Is that about right?
Speaker 3: Oh? No, that's absolutely right. The question now is that
Speaker 3: how does that look like? How do we get engaged?
Speaker 3: And a lot of people feel like, well, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not political savvy, and I'm registered to vote for
Speaker 3: the very first time twenty and eighteen. Was I political then?
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I didn't even know that there was a state capital
Speaker 3: that has a Senate and a House versus one at
Speaker 3: the federal level. So these are the things that I
Speaker 3: was not aware of. But I did grow up being
Speaker 3: very philosophical and a deep thinker for humanities. If you
Speaker 3: have a heart, and you care about your family, and
Speaker 3: you care about your communities and your neighbors, then you
Speaker 3: are the right person to run for public office, believe
Speaker 3: it or not, because you can learn on your way there.
Speaker 3: And that's what happened to me. In twenty eighteen. I
Speaker 3: registered to vote for the very first time and voted,
Speaker 3: and then in twenty nineteen, I threw my hat in
Speaker 3: the ring and ran for public office. Going through that
Speaker 3: process was a whirlwind. There was great sacrifices personally, and
Speaker 3: I don't regret every minute of it because at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, that's how I was woked. We
Speaker 3: hear that a lot be woked. You can't be woked
Speaker 3: if you don't know what's going on. So the process
Speaker 3: I'm still learning, and what I found out is that
Speaker 3: there were so many gatekeeping and this happens on both
Speaker 3: sides of the aisle, for the Republicans and for the Democrats.
Speaker 3: The only difference I see from my perspective is that
Speaker 3: the Republicans tend to have more candidates in every race
Speaker 3: at every level. It's like almost like they have a
Speaker 3: free for all, Like they just sign up and they
Speaker 3: start running. And what I've noticed is the gap in
Speaker 3: their funding. They tend to come from more of a
Speaker 3: middle class and up, and then we don't have that
Speaker 3: selection as much, so the money isn't as large. Therefore,
Speaker 3: the money doesn't stretch as much to support a candidate
Speaker 3: that is at the state or the federal level. If
Speaker 3: that makes sense, sure, sure, And then what that creates
Speaker 3: is a scarcity. And whenever there's a sense of scarcity,
Speaker 3: it gives us a false sense of accountability to do
Speaker 3: the right thing because it becomes competitive. Where we eat
Speaker 3: our own now, we eat our own young almost.
Speaker 1: So I can see from where I'm sitting right now
Speaker 1: how corporate interests can creep into that equation, because if
Speaker 1: a Democratic is less funded than a Republican candidate, the
Speaker 1: Democrat has to seek some funding in order to create
Speaker 1: awareness for his or her campaign and might need corporate
Speaker 1: donors to do so. But corporations don't tend to donate
Speaker 1: money unless they feel as though this candidate will protect them,
Speaker 1: and a candidate seeking re election may need to lean
Speaker 1: on that corporate donor again and therefore perhaps might vow
Speaker 1: to that corporation's entrance in interests.
Speaker 3: Right, it's not just bowing to that interest. I mean
Speaker 3: we hear about backdoor dealings, and that backdoor dealings. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's where things are occurring behind the scenes. It doesn't
Speaker 3: necessarily have to be with a bill. You know, you
Speaker 3: could just staying quiet. So if you have elected officials
Speaker 3: that ran on a campaign against vouchers, you know that
Speaker 3: siphons money out of our public district schools that is
Speaker 3: tax funded to a privatized institution like a private school
Speaker 3: or a charter school. Even that is you know, privatized.
Speaker 3: They don't need to have a bill to be bought out.
Speaker 3: They can be bought out just by staying quiet or
Speaker 3: not even standing up at the floor of their chamber
Speaker 3: to speak up against Oh wow. So those are the
Speaker 3: things that I've noticed, and that goes across all levels
Speaker 3: of our elected officials. That's at the municipal level, state level,
Speaker 3: and federal level.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that I commend Republican voters
Speaker 1: on is the level of engagement that they have. They
Speaker 1: really really work to create the communities in which they.
Speaker 2: Want to live.
Speaker 1: The reason why my understanding based on the numbers, the
Speaker 1: reason why elections, it's certainly the presidential election is even competitive,
Speaker 1: is because of the turnout rate of Republican voters. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: democratic ideals within human beings overwhelmingly outnumber those of conservative
Speaker 1: people with conservative values. But there are more people in
Speaker 1: this country with values that align with what we would
Speaker 1: consider to be democratic democratic, but the engagement on that
Speaker 1: side is so heavy. As you stated, there are lots
Speaker 1: of people interested in engaging in the political process on
Speaker 1: that side of the aisle. But hopefully this conversation and
Speaker 1: by kind of demystifying the political process and the ways
Speaker 1: that folks can use to get involved, hopefully we can
Speaker 1: do our part at least to turn that tide.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean you just mentioned the visual level of
Speaker 3: that noise and creating and generating people to come out
Speaker 3: and speak on behalf of their party. We also have
Speaker 3: to be very careful that that sound doesn't drown out
Speaker 3: the state level's interests, because at the state level, that's
Speaker 3: where our livelihood is being affected directly by like the officials.
Speaker 3: We have predatory hias here in Arizona. I know, other
Speaker 3: states they haven't been touched by that. Arizona as a
Speaker 3: state has been used as a petri dish for so
Speaker 3: many private tizes, you know, dark money, including vouchers, mass incarceration,
Speaker 3: predatory hias. I mean, we are run under those systems
Speaker 3: and it's not democracy is authoritarian, you know, society. And
Speaker 3: when we just focus on federal initiatives when it comes
Speaker 3: to election, that puts a blindfold for the state levels issues,
Speaker 3: and that in itself is also another form of gatekeeping
Speaker 3: to hold our communities, particularly people of color or those
Speaker 3: that are marginalized or disenfranchised. I mean, we have huge, huge,
Speaker 3: white communities out in the rule that are being marginalized
Speaker 3: just as badly as those that live in the suburb
Speaker 3: or the rural. The urban you know mostly usually yeah
Speaker 3: they are, but they're also out in the rural area
Speaker 3: where there's agriculture. They are are farmers, and these farmers
Speaker 3: are kept in debt on purpose by corporate laws. You know,
Speaker 3: you saw the documentary Big Chicken. It also happens for
Speaker 3: the beef poor anything even now, the hemp, the yes,
Speaker 3: their agriculture is already being course into a large pack
Speaker 3: that we're going to support a corporation and then the
Speaker 3: farmers are be the ones, just like it was for
Speaker 3: the for the poultry industry, where they're literally being kept
Speaker 3: in debt to produce the outcome.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you're aware of that is just
Speaker 3: a system that's been in place for decades.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that what it does is again, it
Speaker 1: illuminates the fact that voting at the state level, voting
Speaker 1: for change in your immediate community as opposed to change
Speaker 1: at the national level, which, to be honest, lots of
Speaker 1: working folks and pretty much all poor folks don't really
Speaker 1: feel doesn't matter who sits in the chair, and this
Speaker 1: is part of the reason why a lot of those
Speaker 1: folks don't really involve themselves into the political process in
Speaker 1: the first place, because it doesn't make a difference in
Speaker 1: their day to day. But voting at the state level,
Speaker 1: you know, voting for who's going to represent your district
Speaker 1: and how your schools are going to be run and
Speaker 1: you know how many fire stations are in proximity to
Speaker 1: your house, and that sort of thing where your neighborshoods
Speaker 1: are policed even.
Speaker 3: Right preparatory lending practices from the banks. The ability for
Speaker 3: communities to rise, you know, for their neighbors and their
Speaker 3: own families by not having too many corporations, businesses franchise,
Speaker 3: you know, stores in a community that are marginalized, because
Speaker 3: that doesn't stay in our communities, it leaves. And then
Speaker 3: if you go to a more well off communities, you
Speaker 3: won't see a fast food chain restaurant within a mile radius.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are walmarts there either.
Speaker 3: Because their resources is being protected and everywhere else is
Speaker 3: fair game. So who who made that decision for us?
Speaker 3: It was already like.
Speaker 1: The official sure and one of the things that now
Speaker 1: that you mention it, it occurs.
Speaker 2: So I've been to forty nine of the fifty states.
Speaker 3: So far, which one is missing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Alaska in February, so that'll be all fifty. Anyway,
Speaker 1: One thing that I've noticed overwhelmingly is that when you
Speaker 1: see like billboards and advertisements and things like that, they
Speaker 1: tend to be in they tend not to be where
Speaker 1: they're wealthy folks, you know what I mean. They are,
Speaker 1: and that's a result of Yeah, that's a result of
Speaker 1: them being engaged in the political process. I'd imagine. I
Speaker 1: never put that together, but it's just something I picked
Speaker 1: up on. Every time we go to a rich part
Speaker 1: of town or place where there's money, you don't see billboards.
Speaker 1: And that's not every time, every everywhere, but you know,
Speaker 1: usually it's something like that. So you you mentioned political
Speaker 1: You mentioned a lot of terms, and I do want
Speaker 1: to cover them all, but this political party gatekeeping, what
Speaker 1: exactly does that mean?
Speaker 3: Gatekeeping is where democracy is unpracticed within the party. Democracy
Speaker 3: based on the constitution allows any individual to run for
Speaker 3: public office as long as if they fit the criteria
Speaker 3: in citizenship and age and so forth. And what I've
Speaker 3: noticed is that if you look at all the presidential elections,
Speaker 3: like Barack Obama or even George Bush, they had to
Speaker 3: be the darling of their party. And how do you
Speaker 3: become a darling within their party is through that process
Speaker 3: within their party. So I'm not just talking about the
Speaker 3: Democratic Party. This happens with the Republicans. And when you
Speaker 3: look at the election in the primary between Hillary and Bernie,
Speaker 3: that's when you saw firsthand how gatekeeping looks like. When
Speaker 3: the party literally was sabotaged their own in the humiliating
Speaker 3: public way that it hurts our, It just hurt everyone.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, that hurt that
Speaker 3: hurt democracy. So when democracy is being attacked, we are
Speaker 3: all being attacked. So I have too in good conscious
Speaker 3: to say that gatekeeping is based on access and funding.
Speaker 3: So if you are a candidate that has an accent
Speaker 3: and you you don't speak with perfect you know, English
Speaker 3: or accent, whatever the case may be, you have a
Speaker 3: lesser chance to be the darling of the party.
Speaker 2: Okay, I could see that happening.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of.
Speaker 1: Gatekeeping that goes on. Well, I understand how that can
Speaker 1: be problematic, absolutely, but this is good enough time for
Speaker 1: us to take a pause for the cause.
Speaker 2: So stick around with coming back with more civics for
Speaker 2: right after this