Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. Welcome to another
Speaker 1: episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship,
Speaker 1: empathy and understanding. I am your host, ramses Ja.
Speaker 2: He is ramses Ja, I am Qward. You are tuned
Speaker 2: in to Civic Cipher, Yes, you are.
Speaker 1: And we want you to stick around because we have
Speaker 1: a special guest in the building. She has been connected
Speaker 1: to us through family ties, and she goes by the
Speaker 1: name of Wendy Amara, who is an activist, a board
Speaker 1: member of Roots and Wings, a content creator group that
Speaker 1: uplifts the stories of immigrants, and she is the host
Speaker 1: of the Yes Muhar Build It podcast and she can
Speaker 1: be found online at Wendyamara dot com. Welcome to the show, Wendy, Thank.
Speaker 3: You, Thank you, ramses thank you Qward. Thank you for
Speaker 3: having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1: Oh, we are excited to talk to you about the
Speaker 1: goings on in Los Angeles. So obviously this is something
Speaker 1: that matters to us and we are just now getting
Speaker 1: to the point where we're able to dedicate a full
Speaker 1: conversation to it, and so we want you to stick
Speaker 1: around because of course there's a lot of things going
Speaker 1: back and forth about what's going on in LA A
Speaker 1: lot of people really don't know what the what is
Speaker 1: out there. They see the images and they kind of
Speaker 1: have some sense of it. But of course, Wendy, being
Speaker 1: a person who's been on the ground and being able
Speaker 1: to kind of work with these communities very closely and
Speaker 1: being a part of these communities as well, is going
Speaker 1: to be able to offer us some insight. And then,
Speaker 1: you know, for the second part of the show, we're
Speaker 1: going to do our best to give you the ally
Speaker 1: and the and the would be ally listening to us,
Speaker 1: the potential talking points that conservatives might have when it
Speaker 1: comes to immigration, and ways that you can push back
Speaker 1: against narratives that are that misrepresent or mischaracterize, you know,
Speaker 1: immigration in this country. So we have a whole lot
Speaker 1: for you to stick around for. But before we get
Speaker 1: into the weeds, it is time is all for some
Speaker 1: ebony excellence, shall we? I think we shall. Today's ebony
Speaker 1: excellence comes from the Black Information Network. I'll read it.
Speaker 1: And we talked about this guy before on the QR code,
Speaker 1: but why not bring him back again? Right? Seattle Police
Speaker 1: Chief Sean Barnes said he expects to go to jail
Speaker 1: for standing up for the First Amendment rights of residents
Speaker 1: and attacks from the Trump administration against other politicians and protesters.
Speaker 1: For KUOW, protests broke out in Seattle and other cities
Speaker 1: across the nation in response to anti ICE demonstrations in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. On Monday, June ninth, three hundred people marched
Speaker 1: to Seattle City Hall to rally against the arrest of
Speaker 1: a union leader during the LA protests. Tuesdays, June and tenths,
Speaker 1: protests in Seattle included a gathering outside Henry M. Jackson
Speaker 1: Federal Building. Protesters chanted anti ICE slogans, and a few
Speaker 1: clashed with police. Trump has responded to protest in LA
Speaker 1: by threatening California Governor Gavin Newsom and activating the National
Speaker 1: Guard and the Marines. During a recent Public Safety Committee meeting,
Speaker 1: Barnes pledged to prioritize the rights of Seattle residents amid
Speaker 1: the Trump administration's response to protest, noting that he expects
Speaker 1: to go to jail over the issue. Quote, I will
Speaker 1: do everything in my power to protect anyone in Seattle
Speaker 1: from anyone who comes to this city with the intention
Speaker 1: to hurt them or inhibit their First Amendment rights. What
Speaker 1: that means is that at some point I will probably
Speaker 1: go to jail and be imprisoned because we have an
Speaker 1: administration that has threatened to jail politicians and has threatened
Speaker 1: to jail a governor. This is what Barnes told council members.
Speaker 1: He goes on to say the federal government's decision to
Speaker 1: bring in the military and I was a marine, is
Speaker 1: not warranted. He also noted that cities like la and
Speaker 1: Seattle have experience with handling large demonstrations and keeping them peaceful,
Speaker 1: and yeah, that's this is like human excellence. But this
Speaker 1: guy happens to also be black, so that's cool, you know,
Speaker 1: but this is what all human beings should be doing
Speaker 1: right now, and he's stepping up to the plate. So
Speaker 1: we had to shut them out. And he's a police
Speaker 1: chief at that, so kudos. All right, So ICE raid
Speaker 1: protests in Los Angeles. First off, tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about yourself, Wendy Amara. We know you of course
Speaker 1: through you know ritzyp who is you know, family and
Speaker 1: of course a dear friend of the show. But you know,
Speaker 1: this is your first time talking to our listeners, So
Speaker 1: give a little bit of background on yourself, just so
Speaker 1: folks know who they're listening to today.
Speaker 3: Sure, thank you so much, so, Wendy Amara. I'm a
Speaker 3: life and business coach, primarily for women of color. I've
Speaker 3: been a coach for eighteen years. I've had a lot
Speaker 3: of experience in the work, but I went to college
Speaker 3: to work in nonprofits. I actually have a master's degree
Speaker 3: in urban planning, and I wanted to do social policy planning.
Speaker 3: So I've always had politics community organizing in my blood.
Speaker 3: I remember protesting Pete Wilson and Prop one eighty seven
Speaker 3: back in the nineteen nineties. I remember those protests. Actually
Speaker 3: got arrested on UCLA's campus for protesting Prop two o
Speaker 3: nine back in the day. So I've been an activist
Speaker 3: for a long time, a community organizer, built my business,
Speaker 3: left the nonprofit world because I was exhausted from working
Speaker 3: so many hours and not getting some good pay, and
Speaker 3: found coaching and figured out that my life was going
Speaker 3: to move in a slightly different direction. I consider myself
Speaker 3: highly privileged in that I have been able to build
Speaker 3: a life for myself and my family where I have
Speaker 3: a lot of choices and options, and I'm very clear
Speaker 3: that I use that privilege to stand up for those
Speaker 3: that don't have a voice that don't have aren't able
Speaker 3: to speak up for themselves, like my immigrant parents who
Speaker 3: came from Guatemala back in the nineteen seventies and were
Speaker 3: able to get amnesty during the Reagan administration. So I'm
Speaker 3: a child of immigrants, I'm first gen. I see a
Speaker 3: lot of immigration issues in our country that have been
Speaker 3: here for a long time, and what's been underneath is
Speaker 3: now just more apparent to everybody. Now it's in our face.
Speaker 3: That's what we're saying right now.
Speaker 2: There's an interesting thing happening when you know, tens of
Speaker 2: thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of people are
Speaker 2: outside protesting. Because all of us have a role to
Speaker 2: play in fights like this, Ramsay, myself and Wendy for
Speaker 2: our listeners. We are broadcasters, journalists, content creators. What role
Speaker 2: do we play right using our tools and our platforms
Speaker 2: to participate in protests. It's not always just about being
Speaker 2: out on the streets, you know. The kind of nature
Speaker 2: of civic cipher came from us realizing that the bullhorn
Speaker 2: only reaches you know, a few hundred people that are
Speaker 2: in the space where you are, and tapping these microphones
Speaker 2: gives us access to a much larger audience. So, in
Speaker 2: your opinion, Wendy, how do we play our part and
Speaker 2: supporting movements like the protests happening in La.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, one of the ways to play our part
Speaker 3: is by sharing the stories, sharing the facts of what
Speaker 3: we're witnessing, what we're seeing happen, and then sharing our stories.
Speaker 3: Because you're absolutely right, the bullhorn will only go as
Speaker 3: far when you're out in the street. But the new
Speaker 3: bullhorn now is social media. So I'm actually part of
Speaker 3: this group called Roots and Wings. It's a group of
Speaker 3: creators that got together. One guy, Jay Gonzalez, went viral
Speaker 3: through one video he did on TikTok that ended up
Speaker 3: getting something like twenty million views. He was talking about
Speaker 3: how he found out his mom, who is an immigrant
Speaker 3: from Mexico, voted for Trump, and then that conversation that
Speaker 3: they had him coming to the realization of that and
Speaker 3: putting that out there. That one TikTok went viral, and
Speaker 3: that's how Roots and Wings was created because somebody else
Speaker 3: reached out to him and said, what are we going
Speaker 3: to do about this? Because my mom also voted for Trump?
Speaker 3: What are we going to do? So a couple people
Speaker 3: got together it became sixty of us. Now we've done
Speaker 3: a couple of videos and the power of being able
Speaker 3: to use storytelling in this new way to not only
Speaker 3: get information out there, but to affect people's emotions. Right
Speaker 3: what do we do with all of these vent up
Speaker 3: hyper emotions we're feeling right now. Everyone's angry, everyone's frustrated,
Speaker 3: everyone's in fear. There's a lot of anxiety in our
Speaker 3: community right now. And as content creators, what we can
Speaker 3: do is actually help people, support people in taking that
Speaker 3: emotion and using it in some way, making some decision
Speaker 3: about Okay, are you going to share what you're thinking?
Speaker 3: Are you going to knock on your neighbor's door. I mean,
Speaker 3: everybody can do something right now. It doesn't have to
Speaker 3: be out there protesting. You can actually be calling your
Speaker 3: council members talking to people about the big bill that's
Speaker 3: going to get passed right that big beautiful bill in July.
Speaker 3: You can be out there just filming ice as they're
Speaker 3: passing by the street. That is important information. We're realizing
Speaker 3: that what we're doing as content creators right now is
Speaker 3: actually reaching more people than what the hotlines that have
Speaker 3: been set up by some of the organizations because one
Speaker 3: post or one reel or one TikTok can reach millions
Speaker 3: of people. So one person in our group actually has
Speaker 3: more power than some of the elected officials who might
Speaker 3: put out a statement and only like three hundred people
Speaker 3: read their statement. Who trusts who? As content creators? People
Speaker 3: trust us, and what do we do with that trust?
Speaker 1: You know? I think that that brings an interesting point
Speaker 1: out because I know that there were people. So we
Speaker 1: had the No King's Day protest. It was all over
Speaker 1: the country, of course, but in Phoenix. I went to
Speaker 1: the one in Phoenix, Arizona, and Q was in LA
Speaker 1: that day, so I know, and Q, you can help
Speaker 1: me out if you had the same experience. But I
Speaker 1: know that there were people who were wanting to go,
Speaker 1: but they were worried that it was going to be
Speaker 1: like LA and they were worried that it was going
Speaker 1: to be a riot. And I'm like, well, where are
Speaker 1: you getting this from? And they're like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: they're calling it a riot. They're saying LA is rioting
Speaker 1: writing writing. I'm like, okay, so where's this coming from?
Speaker 1: And then you get the articles and you and because
Speaker 1: we work in the media space, we're able to see, Okay,
Speaker 1: who wrote this article and we can check you know
Speaker 1: what political bias does this news organization have to it? Right?
Speaker 1: And of course these are right wing media outlets that
Speaker 1: are calling what's going on in LA riots right, and
Speaker 1: that'll scare people from participating. It provides cover for people
Speaker 1: and justification for people who feel like, you know, all
Speaker 1: immigrants should get deported in the most inhumane way possible. Whatever.
Speaker 1: It just says, Okay, well, these are violent people. They
Speaker 1: need to get out of the country, right, So there's
Speaker 1: a ton of things wrong with the narrative if the
Speaker 1: narrative is inaccurate. So I want you to do us
Speaker 1: all a favor here. How would you, a person who's
Speaker 1: been on the ground at these protests, how would you
Speaker 1: classify these protests? Are they protest or are they riots?
Speaker 1: And then tell us why. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was at the No Kings March on Saturday in
Speaker 3: downtown LA, which now has been officially stated as the
Speaker 3: biggest march that we have had in Los Angeles history,
Speaker 3: the most amount of people marching. I would categorize it
Speaker 3: as a march, which is what it was. We marched
Speaker 3: from downtown LA to about four or five miles around peacefully,
Speaker 3: peacefully and dancing in the streets. In fact, I was
Speaker 3: dancing to one of my favorite bands, also Motley, who
Speaker 3: happened to be there. It felt more like a party
Speaker 3: than like any sort of even protest. Of course, there
Speaker 3: were lots of signs, and there was police presence, but
Speaker 3: they were standing on the outside. There was the National Guard,
Speaker 3: which we don't even know why the National Guard is
Speaker 3: in LA. There are no violence happening in the streets
Speaker 3: out in LA. Even the protests and the marches are
Speaker 3: not violent. Now. Of course, there's a few people that
Speaker 3: get violent around five o'clock, eight o'clock. The mayor of
Speaker 3: Los Angeles put in a curfew where we can't be
Speaker 3: in certain parts of downtown LA after eight pm. So
Speaker 3: as it gets closer to the curfew, right, the cops
Speaker 3: show up with the horses, and it becomes more like, okay,
Speaker 3: we're going to start moving the crowd. But during the day,
Speaker 3: completely peaceful. The amount of arrest compared to the amount
Speaker 3: of people that were there is insane, right, there was
Speaker 3: hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets. Over
Speaker 3: this last week. I think there's been fifteen arrests or something.
Speaker 3: Very small in comparison to and yes, there are some
Speaker 3: people that will get violent, but there are not violent
Speaker 3: protests happening. There are no riots happening in Los Angelis.
Speaker 3: The city will not burn down, and the safety of
Speaker 3: our people is not in danger. We are okay, We
Speaker 3: do not need the National Guard. All of that is
Speaker 3: a story that the media has created that I think
Speaker 3: the right philosophy has created that Donald Trump has created
Speaker 3: so that he could send the National Guard, so that
Speaker 3: he could create a war where there is no war.
Speaker 3: He could create violence where there is no violence. There
Speaker 3: just wasn't. Of course, we're going to go out in
Speaker 3: the streets and protest when people are being literally kidnapped.
Speaker 3: That's what the ice raids feel like to us. Imagine
Speaker 3: a three or four trucks show up, these big, huge
Speaker 3: trucks that don't have any sort of identification of police
Speaker 3: or anything. They're just these vans, and then the van
Speaker 3: doors open or the truck doors open, and outcome armed
Speaker 3: men that all they have on is a police vest,
Speaker 3: but there's no identification on them, and they have masks,
Speaker 3: these huge masks. They're dressed in regular clothing. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about jeans and a black t shirt. Okay, they're not
Speaker 3: in a uniform of any sort. And then they just
Speaker 3: grab people and move people.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: They show up at a car wash on a particular
Speaker 3: corner and then just start grabbing people in that car
Speaker 3: wash and putting them into their truck. They're not stopping
Speaker 3: and asking excuse me, sir, what is your name? Where
Speaker 3: were you born? Are you an American citizen? Do you
Speaker 3: have citizenship paperwork or residency paperwork or a green card?
Speaker 3: There is absolutely no communication. There is only grabbing people
Speaker 3: who look illegal, right, what does illegal look like? Look illegal?
Speaker 3: And then putting them in the van. And then these
Speaker 3: people disappear. We're finding out that they're getting moved from
Speaker 3: state to state. So if you were picked up in
Speaker 3: California at a gas station yesterday, you're probably in Texas
Speaker 3: by now at some holding cell somewhere, so that the
Speaker 3: families can't get to them, the attorney, if they do
Speaker 3: have an attorney, can't get to them. And there's a
Speaker 3: certain percentage of them that are here legally, that are
Speaker 3: going through a process of getting legalization, that actually have
Speaker 3: paperwork if they would have been asked. In fact, there's
Speaker 3: been people who literally had their passport in their pocket
Speaker 3: and we're telling the ICE agents, I have my passport
Speaker 3: right now, I just need to go to my pocket
Speaker 3: and get it. And still got picked up. And we
Speaker 3: have documentation of this through videos. We have people taking
Speaker 3: out their cell phones. Here's the good news, guys. The
Speaker 3: good news is everybody and their mother now has a
Speaker 3: cell phone, right and everybody and the mother knows how
Speaker 3: to take video. So everybody, whether you speak English or not,
Speaker 3: has a camera in their hand all the time. Therefore,
Speaker 3: everything's being documented, everything's being videoed. That's how we know
Speaker 3: we're witnessing people being taken. Of course we're going to
Speaker 3: say something as a city. Of course, we're going to
Speaker 3: stand up for our community. These are our parents, these
Speaker 3: are our brothers, sisters, uncles, kids. I mean, ICE is
Speaker 3: showing up at hospitals. Ice is showing up at schools,
Speaker 3: at graduations, at churches on Sunday, everywhere, everywhere. But we
Speaker 3: are not being violent. There is nothing to be afraid of.
Speaker 3: I also got a bunch of texts from people being like, Wendy,
Speaker 3: you're gonna go out to downtown. I'm like, yes, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna be there. And it was beautiful. It was like
Speaker 3: a street party with love and joy and people uniting
Speaker 3: and people hugging. There's a lot of love. It was community,
Speaker 3: community standing up for each other. That's what we've been
Speaker 3: doing here in La.
Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot to say about the other
Speaker 2: ring of communities right now and taking people's skin color
Speaker 2: and the language they speak and making that the criminal offense.
Speaker 2: So it doesn't matter if you have your passport of
Speaker 2: you come through the proper channels to seek you know,
Speaker 2: either asylum or just as an immigrant who you know,
Speaker 2: went through permanent residency and got a green cart and
Speaker 2: then applied to be a citizen. And because we see
Speaker 2: people being arrested at citizen hearings, it's a very intentional
Speaker 2: and very cruel thing to do to someone when you're
Speaker 2: criticizing of not going about it the right way and
Speaker 2: specifically targeting people that are and no one, I won't
Speaker 2: say no one, but a certain group of us intentionally
Speaker 2: ignored the hypocrisy and that approach a lot about narratives
Speaker 2: in the space that we work in and the way
Speaker 2: that the narratives are shaped and then consumed by a
Speaker 2: certain segment of our population, mostly right wing extremist and
Speaker 2: dealing with a very very personal lived experience of this.
Speaker 2: My children are dual citizens. Their mother is from Sonoda, Mexico,
Speaker 2: and my wonderful babies did not get to spend Father's
Speaker 2: Day with their father because I was in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: and forgive me, forbid their mom from bringing them here
Speaker 2: because I noticed that state troopers were replaced with border patrol,
Speaker 2: and having my half Mexican children and their Mexican mother
Speaker 2: come to Los Angeles as it's the target of the
Speaker 2: administration and it's very very cruel detention and deportation practices.
Speaker 2: I just didn't, you know, want to even make that
Speaker 2: a possibility. With what we do and the way we
Speaker 2: know the importance of narrative. What do you think is
Speaker 2: missing from the way the right wing is consuming the
Speaker 2: information surrounding these raids and these protests, and you know
Speaker 2: the way that they're consuming these narratives. What's missing from
Speaker 2: the messaging to maybe get a more human response from
Speaker 2: people who are politically not aligned.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I'll start with the what's missing is the
Speaker 3: idea that immigrants are ruining this country, the idea that
Speaker 3: immigrants are the enemy, right, so's missing is the facts
Speaker 3: that immigrants have built this country or continue to build
Speaker 3: this country. In fact, the Los Angeles economy is based
Speaker 3: on immigrant workers, is based on undocumented workers. Undocumented people
Speaker 3: are doing literally doing the jobs that cannot be filled
Speaker 3: by regular Californians born in the state. The majority of
Speaker 3: people being taken are not criminals. People will say, oh,
Speaker 3: they're criminals because they crossed the border illegally and they're
Speaker 3: here illegal. That technically is a misdemeanor. It's equivalent to
Speaker 3: a speeding ticket. That's what you're saying. You're saying, somebody
Speaker 3: who has done something that's equivalent to a speeding ticket
Speaker 3: deserves to be picked up at their workplace the throne
Speaker 3: in a van and then disappears right ends up going
Speaker 3: back to wherever. Ninety percent of the people who they're
Speaker 3: picking up do not have any other criminal record besides
Speaker 3: being here. And you know it's ironic as they're picking
Speaker 3: them up at workplaces. They're all working and contributing to
Speaker 3: the economy. They're helping the economy, which, by the way,
Speaker 3: they also pay taxes. So what's missing is the real facts.
Speaker 3: What's happened with this administration happened the first time this
Speaker 3: administration came to power is that they have othered the
Speaker 3: immigrant and made the scapegoat of the undocumented people, that
Speaker 3: undocumented people are the reason that so many problems are
Speaker 3: happening in the United States, or the reasons why your
Speaker 3: price of eggs is so expensive, are the reasons why
Speaker 3: gasoline is so expensive. All of that is bs It's
Speaker 3: not based in real facts. So what's missing is the
Speaker 3: truth that immigrants actually contribute to this country.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm not saying we.
Speaker 3: Should have open borders and everybody should just come over.
Speaker 3: There should be a path for citizenship, there should be
Speaker 3: laws changed, policies put in place. But what I am
Speaker 3: saying is that the way the narrative is run right now,
Speaker 3: the way the story is being told right now, is
Speaker 3: that that illegal immigrant that you're staring at right now
Speaker 3: is the reason why you don't have more money in
Speaker 3: your pocket, And that simply is not true. That is
Speaker 3: a one hundred percent lie. Or that that immigrant that
Speaker 3: you're staring at across the street who's selling oranges in
Speaker 3: that corner, that immigrant is a rapist, a killer, a
Speaker 3: part of the cartel, that those are complete atrocities.
Speaker 1: It's not true.
Speaker 3: If they're just straight out lying to people The fact
Speaker 3: is that person who's standing at the corner selling the
Speaker 3: oranges is a hard working human being who probably has
Speaker 3: been here for fifteen twenty years, and during those fifteen
Speaker 3: to twenty years has been contributing through his taxes, through
Speaker 3: his work to this society. In fact, he probably picked
Speaker 3: those oranges or works in the farms during the day
Speaker 3: and then works at night and on the weekends, and
Speaker 3: has been moving his family up. He has nothing to
Speaker 3: do with why your life is the way your life is,
Speaker 3: so we've become the scapegoats. That's the big part of
Speaker 3: what's missing. At the heart of that is looking at Okay,
Speaker 3: so why am I miserable? Why is the price of
Speaker 3: aggs so expensive? Why is everything getting worse and worse
Speaker 3: and worse. Why am I so angry? Those are the
Speaker 3: real questions that we need to be looking at, and
Speaker 3: we need to be looking as Americans in the mirror
Speaker 3: for those answers. When people are upset, it's easy to
Speaker 3: point the finger somewhere. And the people who Trump has
Speaker 3: decided to point the finger to, and the right wing
Speaker 3: conspiracy has decided to point the finger too, is immigrants.
Speaker 3: So what's missing is the truth and compassion, compassion for
Speaker 3: these people, compassion for our people.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for humanizing the immigrants, because that's something
Speaker 1: that is very much missing from conversations. Like these people
Speaker 1: are working, they're taking care of their families, they're elevating
Speaker 1: their families, and I think the more humanized they are,
Speaker 1: the less hotherable they can be. But I don't want to, like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to harp on this, but I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that we cover all of our bases
Speaker 1: right because there are people that are gonna have some
Speaker 1: challenging conversations after listening to us to have this conversation.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna I'm gonna circle back. You know, we
Speaker 1: talked about whether or not these protests were bona fide
Speaker 1: protest or were they riots? And you painted a picture
Speaker 1: a picture that is very similar to the to what
Speaker 1: I experienced out here, and typically it's typical of many
Speaker 1: protests that I've been to. I've never been to a riot.
Speaker 1: The last riots I know about we're in ninety two,
Speaker 1: and I definitely was not outside for that. I was
Speaker 1: a small child. But you know, everything else qualifies as
Speaker 1: a protest. So you can bring your children and friends
Speaker 1: and expect to have a good time and also let
Speaker 1: your voice be heard. But again, there are there's a
Speaker 1: reason that the right is consuming a particular version of
Speaker 1: this is because it exists. There are pictures of way
Speaker 1: Mos on fire, there are videos of protesters throwing rocks
Speaker 1: at police cars, and these things exist over there. Now,
Speaker 1: they're not, to be fair consuming content of police officers
Speaker 1: shooting journalists or you know, taking down protesters and slamming
Speaker 1: them on the ground and batoning them while they're on
Speaker 1: the ground and running over them with horses and whatnot.
Speaker 1: But the fact remains that, you know, this is a
Speaker 1: part of the story. So how do you provide context
Speaker 1: for the fires and the rocks? How do you provide
Speaker 1: context for all of that? Because that's what a lot
Speaker 1: of folks are using to say. Nope, these are riots,
Speaker 1: these are bad people. We need to get them out
Speaker 1: of the country. We have about a minute, so help
Speaker 1: us out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, Yes, there were places where way Moos were
Speaker 3: on fire, but that's what happens after the Lakers win.
Speaker 3: That's what happens after the Dodgers win.
Speaker 1: And go ahead, Well, no, let me say I protests,
Speaker 1: in my estimation, are supposed to be disruptive. If it's
Speaker 1: all peaceful and a kumbayad, then you know, nothing changed.
Speaker 1: But anyway, go ahead, go ahead. After the games, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, after the Lakers win, we see taxis getting burnt.
Speaker 3: Also ubers on fire. Also Yeah. LA is a very
Speaker 3: passionate city. We have a long history of protests. We
Speaker 3: have a long history right the walkouts. We have a
Speaker 3: long history of being out in the streets. And when
Speaker 3: we are super happy, we celebrate by burning things, and
Speaker 3: also when we want to make a statement, we celebrate
Speaker 3: by burning things. So it's part of our upbringing in
Speaker 3: Los Angeles that we stand up for ourselves that we're
Speaker 3: not the city that you mess with. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: a reason we are the city that's being targeted right now,
Speaker 3: right because he hates us, because we didn't vote for
Speaker 3: him at all. We got to keep that into context
Speaker 3: when you have huge amounts of people and then just
Speaker 3: a few people who end up. I think it was
Speaker 3: two waymos, three weaymos. Not that big of a deal.
Speaker 3: Not a riot. There is not a riot happening in
Speaker 3: Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you fantastic. Well, you know, I think
Speaker 1: that this is very important for people to know because
Speaker 1: where you get your information and whether or not that
Speaker 1: information is consistent with the version of truth that you
Speaker 1: want to be true. I think that really matters. But
Speaker 1: you know, there's a group of folks in the middle
Speaker 1: who are genuinely, legitimately curious and a group of people
Speaker 1: who I think really want to convince people that they're
Speaker 1: consuming bad media or their heart is in the wrong place,
Speaker 1: and I think this context really does help out with that.
Speaker 1: So thank you for, like I said, humanizing in the
Speaker 1: immigrant story, and also thank you for giving us perspective
Speaker 1: on what's going on in Los Angeles. Stick around, going
Speaker 1: to be back with a little bit more