Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your
Speaker 1: host Ramsay's job. Big shout out to my man q Ward,
Speaker 1: who has the week off. But it is okay because
Speaker 1: we have a special guest who is going to talk
Speaker 1: to us today about some very important things. If you've
Speaker 1: been paying attention to the news, it's or to really anything.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to miss what's going on politically these days.
Speaker 1: And so we will be taking some time to discuss
Speaker 1: midterm elections, and we will also take some time to
Speaker 1: discuss the voter suppression initiatives that we need to be
Speaker 1: mindful for that have been enacted at different places around
Speaker 1: the country. And we have a very special guest in
Speaker 1: the building today to talk to us about both of
Speaker 1: those things, doctor Camilla Westenberg. And I've given you the
Speaker 1: introduction many times, but please just a brief rundown of
Speaker 1: your akala aids for our listeners.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Well, I'm a professor emeritus of Phoenix College.
Speaker 2: I taught there for approximately thirty years in the English department.
Speaker 2: I advised the NAACP the Issue Club. While I was there,
Speaker 2: I taught developmental English African American literature in a class
Speaker 2: that I created rap literature of the oral tradition, and
Speaker 2: I'm involved in a number of organizations within the community
Speaker 2: beyond the Meericle, Maccunti Branch of the NAACP, AKA Top
Speaker 2: Ladies of Distinction, the Links, and the National Council.
Speaker 1: Of Necro Women wonderful and so we are definitely going
Speaker 1: to enjoy today's conversation again. A lot to stick around
Speaker 1: for and hopefully we will give you all the tools
Speaker 1: you need not only to vote yourself, but to get
Speaker 1: your community out and voting as well. But first and
Speaker 1: foremost around here, we like to start off with q's
Speaker 1: favorite segment. We call it Ebony Excellence, and today's ebny
Speaker 1: Excellence is brought to you by Major Threads Athletic Menswear.
Speaker 1: You can find out more at majorthreads dot com. Today
Speaker 1: we are shouting out doctor Karen Harding, who is the
Speaker 1: president of the Americopa County Branch of the NAACP, so
Speaker 1: I will read. The Americopa County Branch of the NAACP
Speaker 1: has continued to incorporate a segment of its get Out
Speaker 1: the Vote outreach to be specifically designed to continue to
Speaker 1: work with the hip hop and spoken word communities of
Speaker 1: the population. Through the incorporation of the Circle to the
Speaker 1: Cipher projects, this provides an expertise in terms of reaching
Speaker 1: young artists and these specific genres and to encourage and
Speaker 1: mentor them to utilize their skills to spread they get
Speaker 1: out the vote message in their artistic formats. Dominant focus
Speaker 1: of the outreach is to highlight issues that may be
Speaker 1: directly impacting the next generation as well as the critical
Speaker 1: issues that will restore democracy. It is felt that it
Speaker 1: is imperative that the country not turned to an aristocracy,
Speaker 1: as is the current momentum. And again, doctor Karen Harding
Speaker 1: is spearheading this effort and among others at the Americopa
Speaker 1: County Branch of the NAACP, and they're really making an impact,
Speaker 1: really getting people excited about sharing information and really getting
Speaker 1: the community galvanized and mobilized in terms of voting. And
Speaker 1: we love to see that. We love to see more
Speaker 1: of it, and this is why we've taken today to
Speaker 1: highlight what we believe is a shining example of Ebony excellence.
Speaker 1: So once again shout out to doctor Karen Harding, the
Speaker 1: President of the Americopa County Branch of the NAACP, and
Speaker 1: all of her supporters at the Americopa County branch of
Speaker 1: the NAACP. Now, midterm elections, Doctor Westenberg, you and I
Speaker 1: have had quite a few conversations about the midterm elections,
Speaker 1: the upcoming midterm elections, will say it that way, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot to account for, a lot to take into,
Speaker 1: you know, consideration as we approach election day, if I'm honest.
Speaker 1: So before we start, you know, you you have so
Speaker 1: much more perspective than me and a lot of our listeners,
Speaker 1: and I love to hear you talk about it. So
Speaker 1: can you share a little bit about how important voting
Speaker 1: was to your elders.
Speaker 2: It was extremely important. It was a privilege, and it
Speaker 2: was something that was not taken lightly by any stress
Speaker 2: of the imagination. But I think in terms of the
Speaker 2: restrictions that were placed on me growing up, and then
Speaker 2: I consider the restrictions that were placed on my elders,
Speaker 2: you can do a comparison and understand what my elders
Speaker 2: went through. Now, I was not born too many moons ago.
Speaker 2: I just had my seventy fifth birthday. But in my
Speaker 2: growing up, oh thank you, but am I growing up?
Speaker 2: As you have heard, I living here amongst you was
Speaker 2: not able to drink from a water fountain, So you
Speaker 2: can imagine what it was like for my mother and
Speaker 2: my father. I could not use the rest room, I
Speaker 2: could not eat at a restaurant. I would have to
Speaker 2: sit in the balcony of the movie theater if we
Speaker 2: were even able to go in, I had to sit
Speaker 2: at the back of the bus. I could not try
Speaker 2: on shoes or hats. There were just so many restrictions
Speaker 2: that were placed on me as an individual. So for
Speaker 2: my mother and my father, it was much much worse.
Speaker 2: They were very fortunate. My mother taught, so she had
Speaker 2: some things that worked for her a little bit better
Speaker 2: than others in the community. But we were poor. We
Speaker 2: were poor people. We did not have a lot of money.
Speaker 2: We did not have privileges to enjoy life the way
Speaker 2: young people or even I enjoy life today. It's completely different.
Speaker 1: So we recognized that, you know, voting, as you say,
Speaker 1: a privilege, and most of the time when people think
Speaker 1: of voting, we think of voting for the president of
Speaker 1: the United States. This happens every four years, right Well,
Speaker 1: this upcoming election is what's known as a midterm election.
Speaker 1: So again for folks who are just being becoming acquainted
Speaker 1: with the political process. Explain what midterm elections are.
Speaker 2: Well, it is during the midterm elections that you have
Speaker 2: the opportunity to vote on a lot many of the
Speaker 2: local public officials and those of the individuals with whom
Speaker 2: you have to be very concerned because they are making
Speaker 2: some the decisions that are germane to your current life
Speaker 2: right in your community. Whether it is the school board,
Speaker 2: which is one that really advocate that people look at
Speaker 2: and make a determination as to who are you electing
Speaker 2: for your school board, for your city council. Each of
Speaker 2: those individuals make a determination as to what is happening
Speaker 2: in your personal environment, whether it's in school, whether it's
Speaker 2: in the streets when I say streets lights, whether it
Speaker 2: has to do with the police system, whether it is
Speaker 2: the water system. May may have said that all of
Speaker 2: those factors are germane to your everyday life and what
Speaker 2: is taking place, and so one should be very very
Speaker 2: concerned about midterm elections. Yes, the presidential election is important,
Speaker 2: and then the next thing is during the midterm elections,
Speaker 2: you're making a determination about who you're going to send
Speaker 2: to Washington, d c. For the to be a part
Speaker 2: of the Senate and the House to make some of
Speaker 2: those larger decisions. Deal with it at two levels, at
Speaker 2: the local for your city, for your county, as well
Speaker 2: as who is going to represent you at the national
Speaker 2: level as well. And so you need to look at
Speaker 2: that ballot, and you need to look at it up
Speaker 2: and down all the way through and not go to
Speaker 2: the governor at the top, but you need to look
Speaker 2: at all aspects of it and do as much research
Speaker 2: and investigation as you can, and also find some reliable
Speaker 2: sources within your community that will have done the research
Speaker 2: that you can trust to give you information about those
Speaker 2: individuals or those propositions for which you should vote. So
Speaker 2: it's really quite crucial.
Speaker 1: You know. It's something that I learned recently. If I'm honest,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm well aware of our history. And obviously
Speaker 1: I've been voting in every election since I was eighteen,
Speaker 1: and and I've been tapped in certainly with our history.
Speaker 1: You know, you are partially to blame for that, being
Speaker 1: my teacher and mentor when I was in college. So
Speaker 1: it's sort of strange to admit this on the radio,
Speaker 1: But I don't think that I became intimately familiar with
Speaker 1: much of the political process until President Obama was elected. I,
Speaker 1: like many folks, thought that well, once President Obama gets
Speaker 1: into office, with the perspective that he has, you know,
Speaker 1: he can you know, change everything, just you know, by
Speaker 1: waiving a magic presidential wand and you know, everything will
Speaker 1: be better on the other side out of this presidency.
Speaker 1: And I realized as I paid attention to the news,
Speaker 1: because he was a very celebrated individual in our circles,
Speaker 1: I realized that a lot of what I was reading was,
Speaker 1: you know, how there was so much opposition to him.
Speaker 1: And then I started to dig a little bit deeper,
Speaker 1: and I realized the source of that opposition was found
Speaker 1: in Congress and in the Senate, you know, primarily in
Speaker 1: the Senate. And you know, there's another branch of the
Speaker 1: government as well, the judiciary branch, which is the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: And that isn't a branch that has too much to
Speaker 1: do with our electoral process, because those folks are nominated
Speaker 1: by the president him or herself. However, for President Obama
Speaker 1: to realize that he had encountered opposition at almost every turn,
Speaker 1: it let me know, Okay, there's more going on here
Speaker 1: than I understood anticipated. And so because of that, I
Speaker 1: recognized that, you know, there's a little bit more as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, and what that was was the people that
Speaker 1: were elected in the midterms helped keep a much of
Speaker 1: I guess Obama's power in check, right, and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's very problematic. And what we've seen is that
Speaker 1: there was a backlash to the election of President Obama
Speaker 1: by conservative podcasts of this country saying, Okay, well, if
Speaker 1: he made it to office, we are going to do
Speaker 1: our best to block his agenda at every turn. So
Speaker 1: let's electors who are who are not along party lines.
Speaker 1: List if he's Obama's Democrat, let's elect Republican senators, let's
Speaker 1: elect Republican congress people, and they will represent our interests
Speaker 1: in DC and hopefully stall or block Obama's agenda. And so,
Speaker 1: in that time in my life, I realized exactly what
Speaker 1: Obama was up against, and I realized that for a
Speaker 1: lot of our listeners, a lot of people who might
Speaker 1: be casually engaged in the political process, it may feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, politics don't speak for you. It doesn't affect
Speaker 1: your day to day life. They're not speaking your language.
Speaker 1: You know, you voted once twice whatever, and you felt
Speaker 1: no change in your day to day, So why bother?
Speaker 1: And I think you said it best doctor Westernberg when
Speaker 1: you said you have to bear in mind that there's
Speaker 1: two battles. There's there's a battle on two fronts. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure exactly how you set it, but basically you
Speaker 1: illustrated that it's twofold. It's not just voting for the president,
Speaker 1: it's also making sure that you bolster the president by
Speaker 1: mid term elections by getting representatives, congress folks and senators
Speaker 1: to d C and as well as local folks in
Speaker 1: your in your immediate vicinity, people that, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: are responsible for municipal operations and so forth. So you know,
Speaker 1: to everyone that has felt that those feelings of like
Speaker 1: being disconnected from outcomes, being disconnected from whatever it was
Speaker 1: that you were hopeful for, whatever it is you thought,
Speaker 1: you know, this happened me too. So I'm not mad
Speaker 1: at you. Just know that there's another card to play,
Speaker 1: and it's midterm elections. So let's lean into this a
Speaker 1: bit more. Let's discuss how the let's discuss what's at
Speaker 1: stake if we don't participate fully in midterm elections.
Speaker 2: Well, this year, probably more than any other year, not probably,
Speaker 2: it's for real, there is a possibility of losing our democracy. Now,
Speaker 2: mind you, as a representative of the NAACP and the
Speaker 2: second right Vice president for Political Action, I must say
Speaker 2: that the NAACP is a non partisan organization. Sure, and
Speaker 2: so I cannot support any particular political candidate according to
Speaker 2: political affiliations. But I certainly can do it or address policy.
Speaker 2: And what is at risk is, above all things, this
Speaker 2: notion of democracy. Whenever you have a cohort of people,
Speaker 2: and I tell all listeners that you need to do
Speaker 2: your research. You need to listen to what the positions
Speaker 2: are of individuals and make sure you understand what the
Speaker 2: positions are of those candidates. But any time you have
Speaker 2: a candidate or an individual who is willing to overturn,
Speaker 2: overturn the votes of the masses are to put in
Speaker 2: position a policy that would allow them to look at
Speaker 2: how the masses voted and if they did not like it,
Speaker 2: to simply overturn it, or to identify electors who are
Speaker 2: not elected electors, then it becomes problematic. Sure, then you
Speaker 2: have individuals who are anti democratic, and it no longer
Speaker 2: this country no longer becomes a country by the people
Speaker 2: for the people, the voice of the people, and so
Speaker 2: above all, losing our democracy in this mid term election
Speaker 2: is the most paramount concern that we have. Now, there
Speaker 2: are another number of other factors that we need to
Speaker 2: look at. Women's rights, abortion is one. You need to
Speaker 2: look at those candidates and see what their their positions are.
Speaker 2: As it relates to abortion. You need to look at
Speaker 2: them and see what their positions are. As it relates
Speaker 2: to gun rights, you need to look and see what
Speaker 2: their positions are. As far as the freedom of LGBTQ
Speaker 2: and choice and marriage is concerned. It's a host of
Speaker 2: things that are right at the core of what this
Speaker 2: particular election is going to impact, absolutely absolutely everything about
Speaker 2: who we are, what we have, what we stand for.
Speaker 2: Our freedoms are at risk, truly, truly at risk. I
Speaker 2: don't know that the masses understand that. And to be
Speaker 2: complacent it's problematic. As I've always said, you better get
Speaker 2: in the game because they are playing the game, and
Speaker 2: this year they're playing at hard. They're playing it very
Speaker 2: hard with some serious hardcore differences from the values and
Speaker 2: the thoughts that the Constitution was built on. And so
Speaker 2: we need to get our act together and look at
Speaker 2: it very very closely, make some decisions and get there
Speaker 2: and vote. That is what is at risk. Your education
Speaker 2: is at risk, your jobs or at risk, your transportation
Speaker 2: is at risk, your health is at risk, your taxes
Speaker 2: are at risk, absolutely everything everything.
Speaker 1: So you know, there's a lot of people who you know,
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that you know, there are people who
Speaker 1: feel disconnected from the political process and the only thing
Speaker 1: that anyone can really point to is inflation or gas
Speaker 1: prices or you know, things along that along those lines, right,
Speaker 1: And I realized that you can't you know, delve into
Speaker 1: this to any great degree because of your position with
Speaker 1: the NAACP having to be a formal capacity nonpartisan. But
Speaker 1: I will do my best to kind of articulate what
Speaker 1: I believe is the case in folks because they feel
Speaker 1: disconnected from many of the outcomes, They feel disconnected from
Speaker 1: their vote, meaning something in their lives. And when the
Speaker 1: only thing that's measurable that is, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, tactile they can see touch field taste, et cetera,
Speaker 1: is gas prices, you know, or you know, things like
Speaker 1: along those lines, they may feel like, well, the current administration,
Speaker 1: under the current administration, prices are higher and under the
Speaker 1: previous administration, prices were lower, and they may not consider
Speaker 1: the move to you know, release you know, simple possession
Speaker 1: crimes for marijuana on the federal level. They may not
Speaker 1: consider the move to attempt to cancel twenty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in student loan debt. They may not take into account
Speaker 1: that the current administration may perhaps be playing the long
Speaker 1: game for everyone's benefit, and they may be hyper focused
Speaker 1: on this short term uncomfortability in terms of the gas prices,
Speaker 1: and so that may cause a lot of folks to
Speaker 1: sway away from you know whatever without dealing with all
Speaker 1: of the realities. And so I love what you said
Speaker 1: about being fully informed, kind of immersing yourself in the
Speaker 1: political process, because for folks that don't know, it's very
Speaker 1: easy to say, well, you know, as bad as it was,
Speaker 1: it didn't affect me, you know, you know, twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty, as bad as it was, as scary
Speaker 1: as it was, I can't point to anything too expensive.
Speaker 1: So you know that that may be just the path
Speaker 1: that we have to take versus you know, bearing in mind, okay,
Speaker 1: we have a planet to say, we have you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things, as you mentioned women's right.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that are on this midterm ballot.
Speaker 1: And I think that the point I'm making is that
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you articulating that folks need to inform themselves,
Speaker 1: folks need to really understand sort of that stake. So
Speaker 1: let me ask you this.
Speaker 2: And one of the things. And remember I said, because
Speaker 2: politics can be overwhelming and confusing, but you are not
Speaker 2: alone in the process of trying to lead through everything.
Speaker 2: So you need to find some resources but in your
Speaker 2: community that you know have the same values and concerns
Speaker 2: that you have to help you in leading through all
Speaker 2: of the information and all of the decisions that have
Speaker 2: to be made. And I think sometimes that's what the
Speaker 2: problem is is it's just overwhelming for people. So don't
Speaker 2: just carry the burden yourself, but look for resources, and
Speaker 2: look for resources that you value as an entity within
Speaker 2: your community. And I guarantee you that there is some
Speaker 2: messaging there that will help you in your decision making process.
Speaker 1: And while we're there, just because I can do this now,
Speaker 1: if you want these resources, if you want to motivate
Speaker 1: the people around you, Let's say you know exactly where
Speaker 1: you stand. Okay, if you want resources to motivate those
Speaker 1: around you, go to NAACP dot org. You can get organized,
Speaker 1: you can organize within your community, you can get folks
Speaker 1: out to the polls to vote. And if you are
Speaker 1: under informed, you can also go to NAACP dot org
Speaker 1: and start there. In terms of your learning process, and
Speaker 1: there's lots of resources, you can't.
Speaker 2: Go wrong exactly. And I would also say you need
Speaker 2: to check out your black press too.
Speaker 1: Absolutely