Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like to
Speaker 1: welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our
Speaker 1: mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I'm your host, Rams' job.
Speaker 1: He is Rams this job, I am q Ward. You
Speaker 1: are tuned in the Civic Cipher, Yes you are, and
Speaker 1: we have some more stuff for you to stick around
Speaker 1: for per usual. You know, there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: going on in the world of politics, and recently we
Speaker 1: came across social media posts from one of the great
Speaker 1: thinkers and great social media activists of our time, Kasim Rashid,
Speaker 1: and he gave us a I guess a crash course
Speaker 1: in voter suppression. And because we are going into again
Speaker 1: a voting season, it's high time that we did a
Speaker 1: review using his frame of reference. You know, he is
Speaker 1: a lawyer. He hasn't been a guest on this show,
Speaker 1: and for those that follow him on social media, you
Speaker 1: know he's a great a liberal mind of the day.
Speaker 1: And we're also going to spend the second part of
Speaker 1: the show discussing a police shooting, a police killing of
Speaker 1: a woman who was suffering through a mental health crisis.
Speaker 1: A lot of times on this show, you know, people
Speaker 1: will push back and say all these awful things about
Speaker 1: you know, black people not you know, listening to the police,
Speaker 1: and black people being at odds with the police and
Speaker 1: so forth. And we've been, of course trying to make
Speaker 1: a case that policing as it is done is wrong
Speaker 1: and it doesn't necessarily serve the good of you know,
Speaker 1: the people that call the police. Now, granted, there are
Speaker 1: obviously some instances where that does work. But today we're
Speaker 1: going to cite an example of an Asian woman who
Speaker 1: was having a mental health crisis. She lost her life
Speaker 1: at the hands of police, and you will be able
Speaker 1: to see the missteps and the broken process that police
Speaker 1: have to go through. It often costs people that lives.
Speaker 1: But before we get there, let's start off on a
Speaker 1: high with some Ebony excellence.
Speaker 2: Shall we?
Speaker 1: I think we shall.
Speaker 2: This week's Ebeny Excellence sponsored by Actively Black. There is
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Speaker 2: is from Time and Time for Kids reveals the twenty
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Speaker 2: the first place. And quote. To select the twenty twenty
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Speaker 2: leaders who are making admirable contributions in a range of
Speaker 2: fields including social justice, science and business. Editors and writers
Speaker 2: combed through submissions and conducted research to identify standout kids
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I thought that was fantastic that actually showed
Speaker 1: up in our group chat and times honoring him for
Speaker 1: his contributions. And we need to fall in line and
Speaker 1: join the course.
Speaker 2: Science is after name at fifteen is pretty cool there, it.
Speaker 1: Is man, all right. So we've been having some conversations.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that feel like doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what they do. Their vote doesn't count for some people
Speaker 1: that live in deeply read or deeply blue states, and
Speaker 1: they feel the opposite of that. That feeling is based
Speaker 1: somewhat in reality. You know, they should still vote because
Speaker 1: there is a popular vote, and without participating, nothing changes.
Speaker 1: Even if you're just kind of a drop in the sea,
Speaker 1: you still you still matter, right. But I understand some
Speaker 1: people's reluctance to get out and vote because they feel
Speaker 1: like whatever outcomes based on where they live will be
Speaker 1: shaped whether or not they participate. They should still vote
Speaker 1: in local elections, you know, so forth and so on.
Speaker 1: But I would argue that if your vote really didn't matter,
Speaker 1: if it really didn't count, especially for people in swing states,
Speaker 1: especially for black people, that you know black men have
Speaker 1: been saying this. I've heard this quite a bit. You know,
Speaker 1: your vote doesn't really count. I don't know how this
Speaker 1: narrative persists, but it's still around or people that still
Speaker 1: feel this way. If your vote didn't count, then people
Speaker 1: wouldn't be working so hard to suppress it to keep
Speaker 1: you from voting in the first place. Your vote does count.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who you are, even if, again you
Speaker 1: just are one of the numbers in the popular vote category.
Speaker 1: That's a historical record of what the country actually wanted,
Speaker 1: and people can use that record to make a case
Speaker 1: for the following administration. Right, Donald Trump never won the
Speaker 1: popular vote, and that narrative has helped people that are
Speaker 1: more progressive minded show that the American people truly, sincerely
Speaker 1: want something other than what Donald Trump has to offer.
Speaker 1: And there is a scientific, numeric based testament to that
Speaker 1: because of all the people that voted, even in the
Speaker 1: hard read hard blue states, because that popular vote indeed
Speaker 1: shows what the country wants. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: voter suppression initiatives today so that you're aware of how
Speaker 1: they look and so you're aware of that they exist.
Speaker 1: You know, for a long time in this country for
Speaker 1: the folks that don't know black people were not able
Speaker 1: to vote. I remember doctor Westernberg, a contributor to the show,
Speaker 1: told us about a time that she was not able
Speaker 1: to vote. Q of course, famously has shared a story
Speaker 1: about his mother not being able to vote until she
Speaker 1: was when.
Speaker 2: I don't remember the age she was, when she was
Speaker 2: in college and law was passed, but when she became
Speaker 2: of age to vote, it still wasn't legally for women
Speaker 2: to vote yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, black women to vote because black women were
Speaker 1: the last group of people to be able to vote
Speaker 1: in this country. These voter suppression initiatives have been things
Speaker 1: that Black people have fought against since we were granted
Speaker 1: access to the polls. Now, some of them are not
Speaker 1: called the same things that they were. You know, grandfather
Speaker 1: was it the grandfather clauses for taxes or for polls,
Speaker 1: rather saying that you could not vote an election if
Speaker 1: your grandfather didn't vote, meaning that all the newly freed
Speaker 1: slaves their grandfathers were en slaves, so.
Speaker 2: They couldn't you can never vote, as what they're what
Speaker 2: they were trying to right.
Speaker 1: And then you know, obviously with you not voting, your
Speaker 1: grandkids would not be able to vote. Of course, ID laws,
Speaker 1: voter tests, you know, things like this, to our poll tests,
Speaker 1: poll taxes, all these things have been ill you know,
Speaker 1: made illegal here and there. But what happens is, and
Speaker 1: this is almost exclusively a conservative push, they just reinvent
Speaker 1: it in a new way to where it's barely legal. Again.
Speaker 2: You and I spoke about this last week, how things
Speaker 2: like this and the lack of a call to come
Speaker 2: out to vote tend to only happen in conservative states,
Speaker 2: where it should mean something that they're not even asking
Speaker 2: people to vote. It's like they know the more people
Speaker 2: that vote, the less likely they are to remain in power.
Speaker 2: So these examples of voter suppression and the lack of
Speaker 2: there really being anyone insisting you come out to vote
Speaker 2: in the first place is a specifically conservative issue, right.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you brought that up, because that's at
Speaker 1: that point is well made. The more people that vote
Speaker 1: in elections in this country, the more liberal the turnout
Speaker 1: tends to be. The less people that vote, the more
Speaker 1: conservative the turnout to the outcomes tend to be.
Speaker 2: Or it's something last week and states were our last
Speaker 2: president won in that election that he won there were
Speaker 2: states when less than sixty percent of people registered to
Speaker 2: vote actually cast a vote.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And so a lack of voter engagement, a
Speaker 1: lack of voter enthusiasm, I shouldn't say enthusiasm, but a
Speaker 1: lack of voter showing up at the most, lack of
Speaker 1: voter turnout, that's the word I'm looking for, thank you.
Speaker 1: A lack of voter or a decrease in voter turnout
Speaker 1: favors conservative outcomes. And what that is a testament to
Speaker 1: is the fact that conservative people believe that their vote
Speaker 1: will shape outcomes, so cast it. Yeah, and liberal minded
Speaker 1: people they are perhaps a little bit more disconnected from
Speaker 1: the outcomes. And oftentimes liberal minded people will show up
Speaker 1: at the polls because they know that they that the
Speaker 1: conservative people are showing up.
Speaker 2: Do you think they're disconnected from the outcomes or is
Speaker 2: it more of what you said before, like voter apathy,
Speaker 2: My vote doesn't count, maybe I don't go. Yeah, So
Speaker 2: maybe it's that I think the outcomes may be why
Speaker 2: they think their vote doesn't count, Like, hey, I've been
Speaker 2: voting all these years and the outcomes are still not
Speaker 2: in my favor.
Speaker 1: That's that's certainly plausible. And would I would go as
Speaker 1: far as to say that that's that's likely in certain
Speaker 1: certainly a lot of cases, because you know the conversations
Speaker 1: that we're privy to, we hear things like that. But
Speaker 1: the fact is is that there are people who either
Speaker 1: I guess are how would I say this? There are
Speaker 1: people who are liberal minded who feel like everything is
Speaker 1: going to be okay, and they're not aware of the
Speaker 1: conservative push and the conservative strategizing and the conservative organizing
Speaker 1: that takes place. So whether or not they vote, their
Speaker 1: life stays the same and they don't notice the subtle
Speaker 1: changes over the years, and it's going to be fine.
Speaker 1: But if they were to cast a vote, it would
Speaker 1: be for liberal policies and liberal outcomes, right or as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, there are people who feel like, no matter what,
Speaker 1: I'm forgotten, I'm left out, so let me not vote.
Speaker 1: Even though I feel this way. Conservative people don't have
Speaker 1: to ruffle, they don't have to go through any of
Speaker 1: this stuff. There's no back and forth. They're going to
Speaker 1: vote no matter what. And that's why when voter turnout
Speaker 1: is low, conservatives tend to shape the outcomes. When voter
Speaker 1: turnout is high, more liberal minded and more progressive people
Speaker 1: tend to shape the outcomes. So what historically has taken
Speaker 1: place is these initiatives to try to suppress the overall
Speaker 1: vote and in particular votes that would likely be cast
Speaker 1: for liberal progressive candidates. So these are efforts historically, more
Speaker 1: often than not overwhelmingly so by conservative Republicans to disenfranchise
Speaker 1: the vote of people who would otherwise elect again liberal
Speaker 1: or conservative politicians. One of them is forcing black people
Speaker 1: to wait twice as long as white people to vote.
Speaker 1: And this could be intentionally like at a polling place,
Speaker 1: or more likely because that you can get caught up
Speaker 1: in that sort of thing, but more likely, what it
Speaker 1: is is they will place pole locations in white neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: and they'll put like one or two in black neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: so the lines are longer there to discourage people from voting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, less places to vote for higher concentrations of black people,
Speaker 2: or counties that have historical, historically higher percentage of minority
Speaker 2: people that live there, they will give you less places
Speaker 2: to vote, which will lead to you being in line
Speaker 2: much longer exactly.
Speaker 1: So again, these are voter suppression initiatives. They take place,
Speaker 1: and technically speaking, they are legal, but we need to
Speaker 1: be aware of them so that we right now, conservative people,
Speaker 1: they're very well organized, credit where it's due and where
Speaker 1: they are in positions of power, they can stack the
Speaker 1: deck so that the all the American citizens who deserve
Speaker 1: to get out there and vote don't have the same
Speaker 1: equal access. And these are again known as voter suppression initiatives.
Speaker 1: It's very sneaky and very tricky, and of course they'll
Speaker 1: say no, there's more people that turn out here and
Speaker 1: then over there, But historically it has been so because
Speaker 1: of these very things, right, So they'll always have a
Speaker 1: narrative to support it, but the truth of the matter
Speaker 1: is what it is. Next up requiring a new ID
Speaker 1: even after an idea was confirmed at voter registration, So
Speaker 1: once you've registered to vote, now you need another idea.
Speaker 1: And this is just a way to just kind of
Speaker 1: thin the herd a little bit. Another one is banning
Speaker 1: IDs disproportionately used by black voters. So this can be
Speaker 1: so let's say some states you need a driver's license
Speaker 1: and other places you can just have a regular idea
Speaker 1: because black people don't have as many cars or whatever.
Speaker 1: So even though they're both state issued ideas, only the
Speaker 1: driver's license will grant you access to the polls. Again,
Speaker 1: that disenfranchises poor people, which often is overrepresent Black people
Speaker 1: are overrepresented in poor people numbers and so forth. So
Speaker 1: this is another one, as I mentioned before, closing polling
Speaker 1: locations in black neighborhoods. So this will be like black neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: the polls have different hours of operation, and again it's
Speaker 1: just a little bit more difficult. That's the thing that
Speaker 1: technically is legal, and you need a lot of examples
Speaker 1: of these, and like these huge organizations like the NAACP
Speaker 1: or the Equal Justice Initiative or the Urban League or
Speaker 1: whatever to put together a case to go in ensue
Speaker 1: a county or a state or a city or whatever
Speaker 1: that is disenfranchising these voters. But if you on the
Speaker 1: ground are there, you have to be prepared and know
Speaker 1: about this and also be prepared to support people in
Speaker 1: your communities around the country that this show is on
Speaker 1: in obviously big cities around the country, but it's also
Speaker 1: in smaller cities where these things can fly under the
Speaker 1: radar more easily. And our point today is to try
Speaker 1: to let everyone know what to look out for, what
Speaker 1: to be prepared for. So that your voids your votes
Speaker 1: can count. We've discussed on the show racial jerrymandering that
Speaker 1: disproportionately represents white voters over non white voters. Jerrymandering is
Speaker 1: a thing that has happened on both sides of the
Speaker 1: political aisle, but it is overwhelmingly so a tactic used
Speaker 1: by Republicans on the right. Democrats are not blameless. It
Speaker 1: is a political thing that people do. But when Republicans
Speaker 1: do it, black people are disenfranchised, and that is called
Speaker 1: voter suppression. Next up, we're talking about, oh, police targeting
Speaker 1: and charging black people at higher rates, which further disenfranchises them.
Speaker 2: That's another example of this whole system doesn't serve me anyway.
Speaker 2: So I'm not even going to participate here you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, if the police charge you and disenfranchise you,
Speaker 1: let's say you're arrested and you can't make it to
Speaker 1: the polls or you're whatever. That's one thing and that
Speaker 1: I don't imagine that is something that is well established
Speaker 1: in terms of strategy. It could be in smaller cities
Speaker 1: and towns. You know, there's a party, you know, for
Speaker 1: I don't know, a Barack Obama party or a Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris Party, right, and the police come and arrest everybody
Speaker 1: before the polls open, so now they can't vote. Right.
Speaker 1: These are things that I could definitely see happening in
Speaker 1: those little, small, sundown towns or whatever around the country.
Speaker 1: But I think more importantly, and we might actually double
Speaker 1: back on this, when people are arrested, and when you
Speaker 1: look at the entirety of the car sool system and
Speaker 1: people end up in prison with felonies and they can't vote,
Speaker 1: you have not insignificant amount of people in a very
Speaker 1: specific population segment that are permanently disenfranchised from participating in
Speaker 1: the elections. Next up, longer prison sentences for Black Americans,
Speaker 1: blocking them from participating in more elections, prison gerrymandering, or
Speaker 1: black incarcerated people are denied voting but counted for redistricting,
Speaker 1: meaning that it's basically you are It's like the three
Speaker 1: fists compromise all over again. You're three fists of a
Speaker 1: person because you're in prison. Next up, requiring formally incarcerated
Speaker 1: people to pay court fees before voting, meaning that if
Speaker 1: you have like leans or judgments that you need to
Speaker 1: pay off before you're able to vote. You can look
Speaker 1: at the numbers and say, you know what, seventy percent
Speaker 1: of black people would fall under this thirty percent of
Speaker 1: white people. That gets us a positive of you know,
Speaker 1: plus forty or minus forty percent, I guess technically, of
Speaker 1: black people participating in this election, let's do it. And
Speaker 1: then of course they can say no, we did it
Speaker 1: to everyone. But the data shows that it particularly disenfranchises
Speaker 1: black voters more than white requiring people to take off
Speaker 1: work and lose money just to vote.
Speaker 2: And this one is the most obvious right. People who
Speaker 2: have less money and less resources, have less autonomy and
Speaker 2: can less afford to lose their jobs, so they won't
Speaker 2: even take that risk. And you know, pose that close
Speaker 2: at an hour that's far too early for you to
Speaker 2: get off work and then go vote. And if you
Speaker 2: don't have a workplace that honors your civic duty, your
Speaker 2: right to go and vote, they don't. I don't know
Speaker 2: this for sure, but I'm guessing all places of business
Speaker 2: don't have to give you it's the day off or
Speaker 2: the time to go do so. So that's definitely something
Speaker 2: that would stand in the way of you know, those
Speaker 2: who are most affected by growing up and communit that
Speaker 2: are underserved.
Speaker 1: Absolutely another one banning Sunday souls to the polls early voting,
Speaker 1: which targets black voters. This one is kind of near
Speaker 1: and dear to our hearts here because we've covered this before.
Speaker 1: When black people would organize to go and vote on Sundays.
Speaker 1: You know, black people, especially black people that go to church,
Speaker 1: they would organize in the church. Okay, next Sunday, after church,
Speaker 1: we're going to go to the polls. Well, what did
Speaker 1: Georgia do in response to that? Close the polls on Sundays? Right,
Speaker 1: So these are examples and it was specific. It was
Speaker 1: just for that, like right when it was announce then, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's just to disenfranchise black folks running out quote
Speaker 1: unquote voter registration or ballot forms. This is something that
Speaker 1: is you know, there's lots of different ways to disenfranchise
Speaker 1: black the black vote and to create this voter suppression,
Speaker 1: purging voters are requiring constant re registration. This is something
Speaker 1: you know, some people that vote frequently vote every two years,
Speaker 1: and you have a lot of days, seven hundred plus
Speaker 1: days in between voting, and they're now not a life
Speaker 1: that takes place. They now have states where other citizens
Speaker 1: can unregister other citizens from voting exactly, which should sound
Speaker 1: crazy saying, but here we are refusing to accommodate non
Speaker 1: English speaking voters. So this is something that you know,
Speaker 1: there are people who live in this country and don't
Speaker 1: speak the language, and it has always been in that case,
Speaker 1: from Germans, from Irish, from French, Spanish yep, citizens yep.
Speaker 1: And they've come here and not spoken the language, but
Speaker 1: they are still subject to the forces political forces of
Speaker 1: this country. And if they are citizens, they do deserve
Speaker 1: the right to vote. And now that we're talking about
Speaker 1: people who speak Spanish, these people can be easily disenfranchised
Speaker 1: because they don't because non English speakers not accommodated, and historically, UH,
Speaker 1: they tend to be associated with more liberal votings. Denying
Speaker 1: curbside voting for people with disabilities. This is another thing.
Speaker 1: People with disabilities tend to overwhelmingly UH cast their vote
Speaker 1: in a toward toward more liberal candidates. Denying absentee or
Speaker 1: mail in ballot voting, especially for the elderly, military, UH
Speaker 1: and indigen and requiring a home address, disenfranchising around six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand homeless Americans, who again are also subject to
Speaker 1: the forces political forces in this country. Partisan poll workers
Speaker 1: is another thing. How do you avoid that? It's just
Speaker 1: something to be aware of.
Speaker 2: I don't know that partisan partisan poll workers is a
Speaker 2: tricky one because yeah, if we're all about one side
Speaker 2: in this part of town, we ain't too welcome into.
Speaker 1: Those Yeah, and then it may might feel them yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then the last few here inadequate or closed down
Speaker 1: polling locations on Native American lands. That's a big one
Speaker 1: in places like.
Speaker 2: Hundreds of miles between polling locations and Native American exact.
Speaker 1: Territory, changing polling locations without proper advanced notice, limiting public
Speaker 1: transportation on election day, and arbitrary or subjective signature verification requirements.
Speaker 1: And then Cosum goes on to say, I can go on.
Speaker 1: But the point is none of the above is hypothetical.
Speaker 1: All of it is real and happening as we speak.
Speaker 1: Despite it, BIPOC voters are organizing and winning elections. But
Speaker 1: imagine what would happen if these barriers to free and
Speaker 1: fair voting were removed. America would change forever. And this
Speaker 1: has been something that has been stated before that if
Speaker 1: everyone participated in every election, if it was ever a
Speaker 1: national holiday, or if you know, Puerto Rico and you
Speaker 1: DC were granted statehood or whatever. More people participating in
Speaker 1: this process, this country would be shaped in such a
Speaker 1: way to where all of us treat each other better,
Speaker 1: as opposed to some of us get more money and
Speaker 1: blame it on work ethic, as opposed to fortunate circumstances