Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to OKP Daily with me
Speaker 1: your girl, Daniel Moody recording from the home bunker, folks.
Speaker 1: So some global news to start out. First of all,
Speaker 1: anytime that a news story leads with a helicopter crash
Speaker 1: of an elected official in another country or frankly, in
Speaker 1: this country, my eyebrows are always raised. And so apparently
Speaker 1: Iran's president, Ibrahim Rasisi racy excuse me, was killed in
Speaker 1: a helicopter crash that had his helicopter crash against the mountains.
Speaker 1: What is really interesting about this helicopter crash that would
Speaker 1: kill who was going to replace the aging Ali Kamenni
Speaker 1: in Iran? Really fascinating because Raci was presumed to be
Speaker 1: the next leader, moving out of the way a other
Speaker 1: successor who was you know, a family.
Speaker 2: Related like a Nepo baby, if you will.
Speaker 1: And now that this man has been killed, which is
Speaker 1: what I'm going to say, it leaves the door wide
Speaker 1: open for the other person that was in the running
Speaker 1: to be the successor, which is Ali Kamenni's son, Moshtaba,
Speaker 1: who is fifty who people didn't necessarily want his candidacy
Speaker 1: because of what they termed monarchical succession right that it
Speaker 1: shouldn't just go to.
Speaker 2: A family member NEPO baby essentially.
Speaker 1: And so now that the current president of Iran has
Speaker 1: been killed in this helicopter crash, guess who has a
Speaker 1: clear path to succeed his father. I'm just saying they
Speaker 1: said that there were technical difficulties. I'm saying, okay, And folks,
Speaker 1: the reason why I bring this up is because I
Speaker 1: honestly think that more things like this will be happening
Speaker 1: in the coming months, and I just kind of want
Speaker 1: people to start to see the patterns of things that
Speaker 1: are going to be happening. So let me switch gear
Speaker 1: out of the Middle East for the moment and come.
Speaker 2: Stateside to.
Speaker 1: The place where Biden finds himself and Donald Trump finds himself.
Speaker 1: So apparently Donald Trump was in the middle of his
Speaker 1: speech where he completely glitched like Mitch McConnell for thirty
Speaker 1: seconds and just like stopped talking and music was playing,
Speaker 1: and then he finally got back into his thoughts. A
Speaker 1: Twitter account that supports Biden retweeted and said, Glitchen Froze
Speaker 1: clearly unfit for office. I mean, Donald Trump is unfit
Speaker 1: for office in so many ways, but I will say
Speaker 1: that the behavior that he has been exhibiting over the
Speaker 1: last several months are alarming and should be. But of
Speaker 1: course we'd rather focus on Biden's stutter.
Speaker 2: Or you know, him being old, or what have you.
Speaker 1: But we're not also putting the same end energy into
Speaker 1: what our obvious trip ups that Donald Trump has been
Speaker 1: having and should be raising alarms, but do not. Biden
Speaker 1: spoke at Morehouse College over the weekend as a commencement speech.
Speaker 1: Shenny talked about January sixth and drawing people's attention to
Speaker 1: the fact that if January sixth insurrectionists had looked like
Speaker 1: black people, can you imagine what would have happened? We
Speaker 1: all don't have to really imagine. We see what happens
Speaker 1: to unarmed black people on a regular basis, whether they're
Speaker 1: playing on the playground, pulled over in their car, walking
Speaker 1: down the street, standing in their backyard. We know exactly
Speaker 1: what happens and exactly what would have happened. The steps
Speaker 1: of the Capitol Building would have been covered in people's blood,
Speaker 1: nor would they have even gotten that close to the
Speaker 1: Capitol Building.
Speaker 2: So, you know, this commencement.
Speaker 1: Speech, as well as other stops that Biden took over
Speaker 1: the weekend is to gin up support in the Black
Speaker 1: community where he is lagging. He is losing support, and
Speaker 1: that support is dwindling because of his ironclad support for
Speaker 1: genocide in Gaza. And frankly, the American people, whether they
Speaker 1: are Black or latinax, young or old, are looking at
Speaker 1: what is happening in Gaza and looking at this administration
Speaker 1: continuing to send billions of dollars to net Niyaku, who
Speaker 1: continues to embarrass this motherfucker on the Maid stage, and
Speaker 1: Biden just says, yes, sir, can I have another? And
Speaker 1: so these attempts at tough talk and painting pictures that
Speaker 1: black people have long seen and no will it do
Speaker 1: much to bolster his image and appearance in the black community.
Speaker 1: I don't think so unless Joe Biden actually takes some
Speaker 1: real action, and I have yet to see that. But
Speaker 1: what I will continue to say is that if you
Speaker 1: look at the actions that not just taken by Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: but taken by red state governors around the country, whether
Speaker 1: it just Glenn Youngkin in Virginia that vetoed legislation that
Speaker 1: would you know, secure contraception for women and people with
Speaker 1: uterses in the state of Virginia, whether it is you know,
Speaker 1: Greg Abbott pardoning a white supremacist murderer, Daniel Perry, whether
Speaker 1: it is Ron de Santis, you know, giving the green
Speaker 1: light for vehicular homicide as it you know, pretends to
Speaker 1: protesters in the streets, whether it is denying people access
Speaker 1: to IVF in Alabama. We have to be able to
Speaker 1: look at the full picture of what the Republicans are doing,
Speaker 1: as Steve Bannon said, state by state and village by village,
Speaker 1: and understand that if given Kart Blanche over the executive branch,
Speaker 1: that all of these things that we are seeing pop
Speaker 1: up state by state will in fact be nationalized. So
Speaker 1: while I find it difficult to stomach what it is
Speaker 1: that Biden is doing in Gazen, what he is using
Speaker 1: our hard fought for dollars and sending them over to Israel,
Speaker 1: I also know exactly what it is that the Republican
Speaker 1: Party will do if they take control of the White House,
Speaker 1: and what Donald Trump will do in the first one
Speaker 1: hundred days, as outlined in Project twenty twenty five. So
Speaker 1: as I continue to say, my friends, do not play
Speaker 1: with your vote, because Republicans are not playing with your rights,
Speaker 1: they're taking them away one by one. Coming up next
Speaker 1: in my conversation is my interview with Varun Nekoor from
Speaker 1: AAPI Victory Alliance to talk about the importance of AAPI
Speaker 1: History Month and why it is important for us to
Speaker 1: look more closely into this demographic that his organization represents
Speaker 1: and where they are in the electorate. That conversation is
Speaker 1: coming up.
Speaker 2: Next, folks.
Speaker 1: I am very excited to welcome back to wok F
Speaker 1: Daily the executive director of AAPI Victory Alliance, Varunnicor. During
Speaker 1: AAPI Heritage Month, which you know, I got to tell you, Varun,
Speaker 1: it's a month that doesn't get the same amount of
Speaker 1: play as a lot of us, as a lot of
Speaker 1: other you know, it's like Black History Month, as Women's
Speaker 1: History Month, like it just you know, so talk to
Speaker 1: us about the importance of AAPI Heritage Month and what
Speaker 1: you all have been focused on and are focusing on
Speaker 1: at AAPI Victory Alliance.
Speaker 3: It's a milestone. I don't think it was frankly on
Speaker 3: the radar screen as you sort of alluded to of
Speaker 3: most Americans until more recently. And we're obviously honored to
Speaker 3: have this month to sort of celebrate our history, our accomplishments,
Speaker 3: which I think very much lean to. I would say
Speaker 3: the immigrant experience. And you know, I was I was
Speaker 3: asked by someone the other day, in fact, what this
Speaker 3: month meant to me and how sort of ordinary folks
Speaker 3: could celebrate the month or think about the month. And
Speaker 3: I responded by, well, first reflecting on it and then saying,
Speaker 3: you know, I think you know, everyone has an immigrant
Speaker 3: story in this country, whether forced or unforced of immigration,
Speaker 3: and to just reflect on their immigrant experience, and then
Speaker 3: from that, I think you can get connected to how
Speaker 3: the vast majority of APIs today in this country sort
Speaker 3: of live and breathe and work and sort of interface
Speaker 3: in society.
Speaker 1: You know, we know in our conversations that we've had
Speaker 1: that the AAPI community is the fastest growing community in
Speaker 1: the country, made up of so many different countries, so
Speaker 1: many different ethnicities and cultures, and I oftentimes feel that
Speaker 1: one the recognition of marginalized groups matter. But then I
Speaker 1: sometimes think about the lumping in that we do that
Speaker 1: doesn't allow for there to be more distinction between how
Speaker 1: these different cultures and ethnicities and groups fit. And so
Speaker 1: how do you tend to I guess the needs of
Speaker 1: such a vast and diverse community with this umbrella right
Speaker 1: of AAPI, I.
Speaker 3: Think, and that's such a great point, you know. I
Speaker 3: was actually looking just yesterday in fact, at sort of
Speaker 3: all the countries of origin that make up the API population,
Speaker 3: and it is staggering, right. If you look all the
Speaker 3: way from the west, it includes you know, Iran, Afghanistan,
Speaker 3: et cetera. To the east, you know, the Pacific Islands,
Speaker 3: Hawaii to the north, the Mongolia to the south, Indonesia,
Speaker 3: Sri Lanka, and everything in between, right, nations of origin,
Speaker 3: hundreds of languages and dialects. And so I think the
Speaker 3: best the way that we can lift up me as
Speaker 3: I would say a privileged Indian American is to, is
Speaker 3: to lift up those folks that we don't and countries
Speaker 3: of origin that we talk about very often, right, like
Speaker 3: Southeast Asians that have a completely different immigrant experience, being
Speaker 3: largely refugees or folks displaced for more. Right. And then
Speaker 3: you know, Persian Americans and Iranian Americans have their own history.
Speaker 3: We don't see too many Indonesian Americans or Mongolians. But
Speaker 3: I like to talk about it because I think that
Speaker 3: I think one of the things that binds us all
Speaker 3: as people is food, and so by going into restaurants
Speaker 3: and sort of exploring, we get tied to the cultures
Speaker 3: and connect to the people and just really realize not
Speaker 3: only how vast API as a community are, but how
Speaker 3: we can all get maybe a little bit more in
Speaker 3: tune to say, world geography, and how we can get
Speaker 3: better connected as people, even in this country. And so
Speaker 3: I feel, you know, I feel privileged, honestly to be
Speaker 3: part of this larger family. It's like I feel like
Speaker 3: I've got cousin in some place that I don't even
Speaker 3: know it, and it's sort of it warms my heart
Speaker 3: to think that, you know, I didn't create this term.
Speaker 3: I probably wouldn't come up with another term had it
Speaker 3: been me. But I will accept it fully and allow
Speaker 3: myself to sort of explore all these nations and certainly
Speaker 3: get a chance when i'm a little when I have
Speaker 3: time to explore the countries themselves.
Speaker 1: Right right, you know, with such a vast and rich community,
Speaker 1: how do you go about And I know that I
Speaker 1: ask you this, but particularly as we're heading towards, you know,
Speaker 1: the most consequential election, I think of our lifetimes, how
Speaker 1: do you part and parcel out what issues are most
Speaker 1: affecting this very diverse population and how your community kind
Speaker 1: of measures against with what, let's say the larger democratic priorities,
Speaker 1: values and such are for this term.
Speaker 3: It's so important that you're bringing this up because it
Speaker 3: certainly requires research and polling, right, which is done in
Speaker 3: politics every single day. Our community doesn't have the robust
Speaker 3: amount of polling as say mainstream politics. But that being said,
Speaker 3: when we are able to get access to research and
Speaker 3: data on what is moving the AAPI electorate, and frankly,
Speaker 3: we really have to segment it by the ethnicity to
Speaker 3: know because certain ethnicities feel stronger or weaker on issues.
Speaker 3: But I'll give you one example. Gun violence, which is
Speaker 3: one of the key issues that we're working on in
Speaker 3: our community, has risen to the top. Some polls have
Speaker 3: it number one as the number one issue going into
Speaker 3: this election. So think about it for a second. This
Speaker 3: is not an issue that was even in the top
Speaker 3: ten three years ago, four years ago, and now it's
Speaker 3: risen to number one, and we believe we've had a
Speaker 3: little bit of data to back this up, but the
Speaker 3: numbers started to really move in terms of the importance
Speaker 3: of this issue after Uvaldi in Texas two and a
Speaker 3: half years ago, and it was the intersection of historically
Speaker 3: important theme and issue, education and schools right and the
Speaker 3: fact that this was a shooting in an elementary school.
Speaker 3: It really was the I would say that Netsu's point
Speaker 3: for when the numbers started to rise in terms of
Speaker 3: issue of importance, and we've seen similar parallels in the
Speaker 3: Latino community as well. And that's not something you hear about.
Speaker 3: I would say when you if you reading political news
Speaker 3: or you're reading about you know, Biden Trump or the
Speaker 3: fall matchup, is how far this issue has come. Now,
Speaker 3: reproductive freedom is going to be front and center, part
Speaker 3: and parcel like central to this election. And a sleeper issue,
Speaker 3: I believe is it's going to be gun violence. And
Speaker 3: these issues they don't get talked about in an election
Speaker 3: without an impetus, without a push, just like the crime
Speaker 3: narrative is being pushed very hard on the other side
Speaker 3: right now that you know Democrats and the left or
Speaker 3: weak on crime, frankly, they're making that up. But the
Speaker 3: core of the issue for our community is gun violence.
Speaker 3: And if we decide to put some money behind this
Speaker 3: messaging and this narrative, I think that we can win
Speaker 3: on this issue as well. And I believe once again
Speaker 3: that this is a once in a fifty year, once
Speaker 3: in one hundred year opportunity when you have two very
Speaker 3: galvanizing issues like the basic rights that women have had
Speaker 3: in this country for fifty years just taken away, as
Speaker 3: well as gun violence. And I think a lot of
Speaker 3: API's view view gun violence in the frame of crime,
Speaker 3: and so it may not be the winner issue that
Speaker 3: the Republicans are I think, really trying to hit us on.
Speaker 3: They're going to view it in the issue in the
Speaker 3: framework of gun violence, and they're losing on that issue.
Speaker 3: And I like this issue specifically because the Republicans don't
Speaker 3: have a message right now. They don't even have a response.
Speaker 3: They decided that they don't even want to respond at
Speaker 3: least on reproductive's freedoms. They're kind of trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what the magic number of weeks that might be
Speaker 3: palatable to restrict amortionis. Right, it's like pick a dart
Speaker 3: and choose on gun violence. They've chose to unilaterally disarm.
Speaker 3: And I like that political equation.
Speaker 1: From a math perspective, I wonder too as a tains
Speaker 1: to gun violence. I mean, the you know, community was
Speaker 1: visited upon right by a mass shooting. You know, god,
Speaker 1: what was it, maybe three or four years ago at
Speaker 1: this point, And I wonder that since that time, coupled
Speaker 1: with the UVALDI and that being you know, children being targeted,
Speaker 1: you know, has there also been a rise or would
Speaker 1: your polling show in gun ownership like because you know,
Speaker 1: on both sides as violence, you know, escalates when it
Speaker 1: is directed towards a particular community, like the AAPI community.
Speaker 1: Both people want gun reform, right, but then they also
Speaker 1: tend to actually go ahead and purchase guns. So what
Speaker 1: is what does that look like for you? Well, what
Speaker 1: have you seen in your research?
Speaker 3: So we went from being the demographic with the least
Speaker 3: amount of gun ownership now on a per capita basis
Speaker 3: one of the fastest growing communities of guns. And it
Speaker 3: all started, frankly, with this cycle that really started with
Speaker 3: Donald Trump and his spewing of vicious rhetoric and hatred
Speaker 3: that led to sort of the next part of this
Speaker 3: was that it led to mass acts of hate and
Speaker 3: violence all across the nation, and correspondingly, it led to
Speaker 3: the direct marketing by the NRA because they saw their
Speaker 3: gun sales started to Flatten in the latter half of
Speaker 3: the Trump years, and they were looking for new markets.
Speaker 3: They said, hey, in the Asian American community, they've got
Speaker 3: high net worth income, they've got high incomes, they're low ownership.
Speaker 3: And they started marketing in all their magazines and doing
Speaker 3: some advertisements essentially towards the API community. So we responded
Speaker 3: in kind by buying guns now at very high rates.
Speaker 3: And now where we are, and everyone knew this was
Speaker 3: going to happen, that we have some of the highest
Speaker 3: suicide by gun rates in the country. Sixty of all
Speaker 3: the suicides that happened in the APAC community are suicide
Speaker 3: by gun. Right, So we also know that by any measure,
Speaker 3: that when a gun is in the home, that it
Speaker 3: leads to a number of negative consequences intentional homicide, accidental death,
Speaker 3: accidental injury, intimate partner violence, all of that. And so
Speaker 3: this is what it's led to. And it started with
Speaker 3: the vicious rhetoric, and I would say sort of the
Speaker 3: white supremacist frankly, the white supremacist elements of not only
Speaker 3: the NRA, but I would say the gun industry. They
Speaker 3: use this and they capitalize on the sphere, and we
Speaker 3: respond because we think this is the only way we're
Speaker 3: going to be able to protect ourselves and our protect
Speaker 3: our families.
Speaker 1: I mean that, And you're right, as you had opened
Speaker 1: up with saying the vicious cycle, right, because the more
Speaker 1: gun violence that we experience, then the more that people
Speaker 1: are triggered in their mind that, well, there's so much
Speaker 1: gun violence. Now I need a gun because I need
Speaker 1: to protect myself because clearly I'm not protected, right. And
Speaker 1: the more that your community is targeted, then the more
Speaker 1: that you you know, you feel inclined to want to
Speaker 1: go kind of run in that direction, which is really
Speaker 1: terrifying because what we know is that the NRA, you know,
Speaker 1: prides itself off of operating out out of chaos. Right.
Speaker 1: The more chaos and devastation that there is, the more
Speaker 1: that they see sales opportunities as we too. You know,
Speaker 1: you talk about gun violence being a top issue, you
Speaker 1: talk about abortion.
Speaker 2: Where does democracy fall?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: We know that, right, the Biden campaign made democracy the
Speaker 1: center of this campaign. We have to save our freedom,
Speaker 1: save our rights. But some people have said it's two
Speaker 1: up twos, right, what does that actually mean? And so
Speaker 1: when you're looking at the issues that are our most
Speaker 1: top of mind for the folks that you represent, where
Speaker 1: does that fall and how and how did how does
Speaker 1: the messaging around democracy actually hit them?
Speaker 3: Ranks very high, and I think with the right messenger
Speaker 3: and the right message, we can turn out people on
Speaker 3: this issue. And the fact that I think many Asian
Speaker 3: Americans saw January sixth as sort of this call to
Speaker 3: action at a very sort of you know, personal personal
Speaker 3: DNA level, because a lot of the countries that they
Speaker 3: left APIs had left either did not have democracy or
Speaker 3: did not have democracy in the forum that America represented
Speaker 3: and was founded upon. And so when they saw that
Speaker 3: insurrection happened before their very eyes, when they saw these
Speaker 3: frankly traders, these treasonous acts go on, they you know, collectively,
Speaker 3: were impacted. And I think this election will be very
Speaker 3: pivotal on a number of levels. We'll get a chance
Speaker 3: soon to see, you know, how America as a whole,
Speaker 3: as a collective is going to you know, decide to
Speaker 3: vote people in or people out based upon the issues
Speaker 3: of the day. Democracy is very much an undercurrent of that.
Speaker 3: Of course, there's the single issues like gun violence and
Speaker 3: reproductive freedoms that are going to be I would say
Speaker 3: a response if polsters ask people. But the subtext is
Speaker 3: going to be very much like which president or which
Speaker 3: a legislator is going to preserve America or try to
Speaker 3: wreck America or reshape America to their own, say, fascist ideals. Right.
Speaker 3: That's really what this is coming down.
Speaker 1: To, you know, And I think, Wow, you made a
Speaker 1: point that I hadn't thought about, which is that a
Speaker 1: lot of folks inside of the AAPI community come from
Speaker 1: countries that don't have democracy, right. And I think that again,
Speaker 1: a really important voice and messenger right of people who
Speaker 1: can testify firsthand as to what it is like to
Speaker 1: live inside of a country that doesn't give you know,
Speaker 1: women a voice, right, that doesn't recognize LGBTQ people, that
Speaker 1: doesn't you know, certify a vote. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that that is really important to uplift that a community
Speaker 1: of immigrants means coming from countries that were in some
Speaker 1: ways worse off than the United States in terms of
Speaker 1: how their governments function. And don't want to see that
Speaker 1: backslide here.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I wonder too, again, as we are a handful months away,
Speaker 1: if you were to give a directive right to the
Speaker 1: Biden campaign in terms of how they invigorate right, the
Speaker 1: AAPI community, how they engage and inspire the AAPI community
Speaker 1: to come out in robust numbers.
Speaker 2: What would you say?
Speaker 3: I would say, start talking about the issues that really
Speaker 3: matter to the American people outside of just the economy.
Speaker 3: I think there's been way too much emphasis on the
Speaker 3: economy when the data points in other elections prior to
Speaker 3: this coming November has been that, yes, jobs are important,
Speaker 3: the economy is important, Inflation is important. Right, every single
Speaker 3: poll has that as the number one or number two issue.
Speaker 3: But this administration, I believe in my bones, has so
Speaker 3: much accomplishments that they don't talk about. They have moved
Speaker 3: the needle more on gun violence than any administration in
Speaker 3: modern times. I would say, since the assault weapons ban
Speaker 3: in the Clinton administration. But they don't they don't talk
Speaker 3: about it. They need to get out there and spend
Speaker 3: millions of dollars messaging on this because it will move
Speaker 3: the needle. And they talk about climate, but they talk
Speaker 3: about climate in a business frame. You know, they're out
Speaker 3: there with hard, hard hats and shovels. We opened up
Speaker 3: a new microchip plant, or we've you know, set up
Speaker 3: a new solar factory, or uh, you know, windmill and all.
Speaker 3: That's important. People care, but they need to know how
Speaker 3: it's going to affect their daily lives. And I'm not
Speaker 3: sure that connection has been made quite yet. They're getting there,
Speaker 3: they're I think they're doing a much better job than
Speaker 3: they have, but I think they need to be talking
Speaker 3: more about those bread and butter issues, you know that
Speaker 3: folks can connect with, right, I'm not sure they're going
Speaker 3: to connect with you know, Biden necessarily with the visual
Speaker 3: of of him and a hard hat. They're going to
Speaker 3: connect with him like in a Chipotle talking to people,
Speaker 3: talking to line workers and talking to customers, you know,
Speaker 3: about the issues that matter, like how much has the
Speaker 3: price of guacamole gone up? And why has that happened?
Speaker 3: And how what I've done to make it go down
Speaker 3: and stabilized prices. That's I think, you know, where he
Speaker 3: is is his best because you know, Joe Biden is
Speaker 3: very much a retail politician. Yeah, we haven't had a
Speaker 3: retail politician like that in a very long time. It's
Speaker 3: almost been bred out of the system in many respects.
Speaker 3: But he's assault of the earth, regular Joe, and he
Speaker 3: needs to just maybe showed a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, vroom, we'll leave it there today with you,
Speaker 1: but I like that direction and the advices you offer.
Speaker 1: Please tell folks how they can connect with AAPI Victory
Speaker 1: Alliance and stay in touch with the work that you're doing.
Speaker 3: Of course, thank you so much. So we're at API
Speaker 3: Victory Alliance dot com. You'll see a big fat donate
Speaker 3: page and link on that website. We hope you do
Speaker 3: throw a few dollars our way, especially this month, so
Speaker 3: we can get out there and activate voters and make
Speaker 3: sure that we message on the issues that really matter
Speaker 3: and drive the vote and slip elections. Thanks so much again.
Speaker 2: That is it for me today.
Speaker 1: Dear friends on Woke af AS always, power to the
Speaker 1: people and to all the people.
Speaker 2: Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.